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Daily Blog Archive August 4th to August 25th, 2008

August 25, 2008

The Olympics are over so I hope to get to bed before 2:00 am and be able to get up and work on a blog entry more regularly.

Don fished the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation State Championship up on Lake Charlevoix this past weekend and was close but no cigar.

The State Championship is not a money tournament, but a chance to make a 12 person team that represents Michigan in the Northern Regional. The money you pay for the Championship entry fee goes to fund the Michigan Team, paying for team shirts, etc. and traveling expenses. The State Team fishes against 8 northern tier states in the Regional. The winning state wins a bass boat for their State Federation. There is also prize money for each team depending on their order of finish. The person who finishes first on each state team moves on to fish in the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation National Championship. At the National Championship, you don't need to win the tournament to move on to the Bassmaster Classic, you have to beat the other eight anglers in your region. The six regional winners moves on to fish in the Bassmaster Classic.

As you probably know, if you're a blog reader, Don Fowler, my traveling partner from Cadillac, represented Michigan in the National Championship last year. I rode down with him and we fished our way down to Lake Toho in Florida. The pictures and blog for that trip are archived above. Just click on the "A year of Archived Blog Entries," and you can access the day to day account of that adventure.

This year's State Champion weighed in about 33 lbs. and beat the second place angler by about 10 lbs. according to Don. The B.A.S.S. State Federation should have the results up on their site soon.

I was checking out a local tournament site The Shoreline Bass Tour because they were fishing Hamlin Lake, and that is my last lake for the Tear Drop Bass Tournament Trail. I thought they were fishing the day before the Tear Drop Tournament on the 30th, but I found out that they fished this past Saturday the 23rd. The team of Rick and Aaron Mast were the point leaders again this year going in to their last tournament. They had a pretty comfortable lead for the AOY race. I hope they did well, and maybe Rick will shoot me an email soon telling me how they did so I can give y'all a report. I know there was at least one Tear Drop team in that event, so I'll be anxious to hear how everyone did.

Don and I are heading over to Trenton, MI on Wednesday in order to put in a couple of days of prefishing for the BFL Michigan Division tournament next Saturday out of Elizabeth Park. We'll be checking out Erie, because Don seems pretty confident about his St. Clair spots. We may also spend some time in the river just in case the lake blows up. I'll be doing a BFL write up when we get back. I'm not sure if I'm going to take the laptop with me or not, to use for daily blog updates.

With both the Elite and FLW Tour for 2008 over, there isn't much happening on the various websites. There was one article that caught my eye on Bass Fan about Mark Davis and his battle with weight. Most of us, at one time or another, have confronted that issue, and as you age your weight and longevity are linked directly. Quality of life issues also enter into the picture when you start looking at weight as well. So, maybe reading about Mark's Story may inspire you to make some changes.

That's it for today and the parting shot comes from Albert Einstein. He once said, "Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." As an outdoorsman, I know there is a lot of truth in that statement. Take care and make sure you set aside some time to enjoy your day.

August 22, 2008

I got a million things going today, so I am going to have to make this a brief entry today.

Don got his draw last night and was anxious to get on the water today. He's going to be trying to get on Grand Traverse Bay, but they're going to have some weather in the area that might prevent it. Sometimes the tournament committee restricts the anglers to Charlevoix if the Bay whips up. When I looked at the radar this morning, it did look like a few cells were going to be moving through the area, but it looked like the brunt of things just may miss them. They're going to have southwest winds at about 15 mph, and that can be workable if that's all the stronger they get. I'll give him a call tonight, and get a report on this year's B.A.S.S. State Championship Day 1.

The FLW Outdoors Site has made some major revisions. I cruised it this morning, and after a few little problems, I was able to find my way around. I made a post in their forums site and watched one of their On Demand Videos . There are some things on the site that look like there still playing with, and I'm sure it will take a little time to work all the bugs out. All new sites, and especially the big ones like this with so many features, take time to get kinks worked out.

I watched a Tommy Sanders interview today on Bassmaster.com and he talked with KVD about KVD. It's the first of a several part series. Use the link just above and you can take a look at it.

Also on the Bassmaster site, there are a couple of new entries by the Smallmouth Guru . I love fishing smallies and will read whatever I can find on the subject and the "Guru's info. has always been very good.

As I said, this is going to be a quickie and so it is. The parting shot today is some of my favorite stuff trivia. Here's some more Olympic Trivia.

The distance in all archery events in the Olympics is 70 meters. In 1912 Jim Thorpe won the decathlon and the pentathlon. After it was found he played semi-pro football his medals were taken away. In 1982 they were reinstated and replicas given to his family. Jesse Owens, who competed in the 1936 Games real name was James Cleveland Owens. Friends and family called him J.C. until a teacher misheard and began calling him Jesse and the nickname stuck. In the 1952 games, Emil Zatopek of then Czechoslovakia won gold in the 5,000 M, the 10,000 M, and the marathon. He is the only man to do this and to top it off, it was the first time he ever tried running the marathon. Wow! I ran the Chicago Marathon after a year of training and consider it was a long, long, run. Very gratifying though, in terms of personal accomplishments. Well, that's it for today. Take care and make sure you don't let the day slip away without doing something you like to do.

August 21, 2008

Good morning! I have been busy doing pretty much nothing. I have been working around the house a tad, picked some blueberries for the freezer, and messed around with some tackle.

During the last BFL I vowed to get better organized, so I can maximize my time on the water. Fishing from the back of the boat means that whatever you need has to fit in a carry on bag. That being the case, you really must pare down and try to anticipate your needs in terms of baits and terminal tackle. I'm on a mission to get this right and come up with "The" bag.

I see KVD has a new tackle system put out by Plano . I like the looks and functionality of the bag. I have not yet seen a price which determines how much I really like it.

I didn't talk directly to Don yesterday about how his prefishing for the B.A.S.S. State Tournament up on Charlevoix is going. He did leave me a voicemail saying he caught a 6-2 lb. smallie. He also said the fishing has been tough. The State Tournament starts with a dinner tonight. It has always been a very good feast. After the dinner, they draw for partners. Typically there are three flights, and if the weather is good, I would think there would be a good number of boats heading out into Grand Traverse Bay. There are those who do know where the big ones are in Charlevoix and some monsters do come out of that lake. We'll have to wait and see who catches what and where come Friday and Saturday.

I sent out a birthday card yesterday to Mr. Ray Scott, who turns 75 years old on Sunday.

As you may or may not know, Don and I got to spend some time fishing with Ray and Don Corkran this past April. I have long admired what Ray has done for the angling community, and I believe he has been the impetus for most of what has developed in that area. Johnny Morris from Bass Pro Shops, Forrest Woods, and many of the other greats have gotten their starts because of Ray's dream of starting a "Bass Angling Society." If you ever get the chance to read his book Bass Boss , do so. It's a very good read.

Even though I have not been blogging the last couple of days, I have been spending my usual too many hours on the computer cruising the bass fishing sites. One article that I read discussed a product made by River2Sea . The article talked about River2Sea's innovative new design for slip sinkers used in Texas and Carolina Rigs.

Another article I read, and may put to use in one of my upcoming tournaments, concerns "Frog Fishing." Dean Rojas is famous for relying on his "Kermit" bait and has used it to perfection in winning a recent BASS event on Oneida Lake. Here's Dean's A Man and His Frog article.

Lastly today, I have one other article for you and it deals with bugs. There are a wide variety of "bug baits" or what many may call "creature baits." Here's a very in depth article from FLW on "Bug Baits ."

The parting shot for today is going to be some more trivia concerning the Olympics. The first U.S. woman to win an Olympic gold did so in 1900 in the sport of golf. "Tarzan," Johnny Weissmuller, was the first person to swim 100 meters in under a minute in 1922. For twenty years from 1900 to 1920, tug of war was an Olympic sport. The last Olympic gold medals made of pure gold were awarded in 1912. Today's gold medals are sterling silver covered with a thin coat of pure gold. The five Olympic rings represent the five major regions of the world Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceana. The colors were chosen because at least one of the colors appears on the flag of every country of the world.

That's it for today. Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

August 18th, 2008

Michael Bennett wins the Forest Wood Cup. Wow! What a thrill for anyone to accomplish such a feat let alone a twenty-three year old. To top it off his girlfriend, that travels with him, is in fifth place overall in the FLW Fantasy Fishing Contest and has a shot at the $1,000,000 top prize. Wouldn't that be something if she too won. She's almost guaranteed to win some pretty nice prizes as it is. She has Michael picked second and picked Jay Yelas as a top ten finisher so who knows? She just might go all the way.

They are going to announce the winner in a major production down in South Carolina on the same stage as they had the Forest Wood Cup. They are catering lunch to the first 4,000 attendees and giving a rod and reel to the first 1,000 that show up. The presentation, I would assume, will be on FLW Live at noon on Thursday.

If you didn't watch the video coverage online yesterday here is a link to Bass Fans Cup Coverage , and the FLW Cup Coverage , and to the Bass Zone Wide Open Video .

Meanwhile back in the real world things are moving along. The B.A.S.S. Federation Nation State Championship is up on Lake Charlevoix this coming weekend. Dandy Don went up Sunday to camp for the week and prefish for the event. We'll once again try and get him to take a few pictures, but I wouldn't bet on it.

The B.A.S.S. Federation Nation State Championship is fished yearly. If you are interested in fishing it you have to become a B.A.S.S. member and pay the state membership as well. All total it's about $40. You get several magazines and other perks when joining. You then have to get a few other guys to form a team. I think all you need is 8. You may be able to fish it without forming a team, but I'm not quite sure on that rule, for it has changed some in the last couple years. You do have to have an equal number of boaters and nonboaters. It is a draw tournament in that regard and boaters fish against nonboaters. I do know a number of guys who have fished as a nonboater and have made the team. My buddy Ron Hicks came in third overall in the event from the back seat. Don won the Northern Regional in 07 from the back seat.

The top 12 anglers in the State Tournament make the State Team and move on to fish the Northern Regional. There are eight states who send teams to the Regional and the top finisher from each state moves on to the National Championship. At the National Championship, you fish against the other anglers in your region. The top angler in each region goes to the Bassmaster Classic.

They just finished fishing this year's regional last week on Lake Winnebago , in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This year's Michigan Champion is Kent Miller from Byron, Michigan. Kent had a three total of 14 fish that weighed 29-07 lbs.

Many of the Michigan B.A.S.S. guys are anxious to make the state team this year in particular, because next year the Northern Regional is going to be on Lake St. Clair. That should give the Michigan anglers a real advantage.

If you make the state team, the Federation covers your expenses at the Regional. If you win the Regional you also get a stipend that covers your expenses at the Nationals. At least that's what happen when Don won. Going to the Nationals is an awesome experience. They really treat you like kings. I rode down last November with Don and even though I wasn't fishing, it was a trip of a lifetime. You can read my account of the adventure, and see the pictures from the event, by clicking the archive link at the top of this page. Once you do look for the National Adventure link.

Just to get the juices flowing, and maybe get some guys together for next year's State Championship, here are some pictures from some of the past events including the Don's Northern Divisional win.

State Championhip on Charlevoix

State Championship on the Saginaw River 2006

Me and What Could Have Been at Saginaw

Ron Hicks and Nate Wellman

Nate Qualified and Fished in the Forrest Wood Cup This Year

Northern Regional Winners 2007

Don Winning the Northern Regional in 2007

That's it for today and I'll keep you posted as to Don's prefishing progress and how he does in the State Championship this weekend.

The parting shot today is going to be some Olympic trivia. As trivial as trivia is, I still find it interesting. For instance, pigeon shooting with live pigeons was an event in the 1900 games. In the first Olympics, Silver medals were awarded to the winners and bronze was awarded for second. During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the parade of athletes is always led by the Greek team. The other teams file in in alphabetical order (using the language of the host country). The last team is always the hosting country.

Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

August 17th, 2008

Watching the FLW Fort Loudon-Tellico Lakes show on FSN this morning. I didn't get home in time yesterday to watch the Forrest Wood Cup online. I left early Saturday and went down to D&R Sports Center with Don to get a new trolling motor put on his Cat. He brought his wife down to GR and he met my wife and I at Arnie's for breakfast. The girls went shopping in town, and Don and I headed south.

Miles and Randy at D&R were very helpful and got Don hooked up with a new MotorGuide. I also dropped off some DVDs and Seth Burrill's patented new planer board for Randy to look at. Hopefully, he will like what he sees and start stocking them at D&R.

The DVDs are great. I have talked up the drop shotting instructional video numerous times. Seth also has a great knot tying DVD and a third DVD set that he has put together his personal strategy for patterning big fish.

The planer board he has out has a one of a kind design that allows you to fight the fish without having to take the planer board off. Check out Seth's site at anglers-experience.com . He has a ton of information available besides the products he offers. You can also subscribe to his AX Video Gallery . I am signed up and often visit to watch his instructional videos and catch reruns of his Anglers Experience TV show which air on the Sportsman Channel .

Well, today is the last day of the Forrest Wood Cup. Michael Bennett has 16-1 lbs. and remains in the lead using his "junk" fishing pattern. That puts Bennett about 3 lbs. ahead of second place Dave LeFebre who has 13-04 lbs. Here's a link to the Day 3 Standings and the link to the Day 3 Cup Write Up .

I always like checking out Bass Zone's Live Video Cup Interview . They're short, but give you a good flavor for what's going on.

You can watch the final weigh-in today at 5:00 pm on FLW Live .

I was reading on Bass Fan about an angler that was out on Lake Murray dogging Mark Rose during Day 3 of the Cup. This guy was not only crowding Rose, but fishing very close to him as he seemingly tried to go 1:1 with him. Doing this while Rose is fishing for the $1,000,000?? What's this guy thinking? It's too bad that someone's ultimate day on the water can be impacted so negatively by someone who has some "fantasy" adventure on his mind. Here's the article from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette that details the debacle.

I visited a Southern Michigan site today that T. Cook frequents and enjoyed perusing their offerings. Some nice pictures, interesting forum discussion, and if you're fishing that corner of southwest Michigan it certainly would be worth your while to check them out. Here's the link to Southwest Michigan Bass .

My buddy John is down at his place on Lake Erie, just east of Port Clinton, and he's continuing to hammer the walleye. I talked to him today, and he said he was catching them on Rattle Tots in 19 feet of water. They have been catching a lot of nice eaters this year.

The parting shot for today is deals with the Olympics, but as many specific quotes do, it has much to say about many daily situations. The quote comes from a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin. He said, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well." Take care and make sure you take some time to enjoy your day.

August 15th, 2008

Well the super daddy of bass tournaments, the Forest Wood Cup, has the first couple days in the book and the top ten anglers are set to face off in the two day final. All weights are reset to zero for the last two days so it literally is anybody's game.

A West Coast young gun, Michael Bennett, led the pack after day 2 with 27-02 lbs. Here's a link that covers the Cup to date and gives you a run down on the top ten anglers.

One of the most interesting things for me with the Cup has been a chance to cheer for some "hometown" guys. Nate Wellman fished his first Cup, and although he didn't make the top ten, the accomplishment is monumental. Nate was a student of mine in sixth grade. and it's certainly a pleasure to see him doing so well.

Then there is Josh Clark, another Michigan angler that I've had the pleasure of chatting with on the Greatlakesbass.com forum. Josh, who ended up fishing with Nate on the second day, had a rough tournament, but again getting there was an amazing feat. I know first hand the frustration and disappointment he most certainly felt. When I was at the B.A.S.S. National Championship last November I got to ride three days with the contenders. As each day went by, and their dreams slipped away you could almost feel the oppressive weight of the overall frustration oozing out of them. You have your dream chance and when it falls like grains of sands between your fingers it's very very tough. It's hard for them to find comfort in the fact that getting to the pinnacle in and of itself is a huge accomplishment. With time, hopefully they will realize and cherish what they have done rather than weigh themselves down with what might have been.

Another big tournament was underway and in fact finished today. The B.A.S.S. Northern Regional, the event my buddy and traveling partner Don Fowler won going wire to wire on Erie out of Vermillion, Ohio, finished today. Another angler went wire to wire again this year to capture the title. Brad Wall from Ohio won the event on Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago with a three day total of 44 lbs. and 14 ounces. You can use this link to access the article on the event. You can get the overall result on the eight state teams which includes Michigan's team at this Bassmaster Federation Nation Site . Here is the link to the Photo Gallery where you can see some pictures of a few of the Michigan team.

Michigan's Champion Kent Miller from Byron, will represent the state in this years National competition where hopefully he will qualify for the Bassmaster Classic.

I see Kent is from Byron, Michigan. I don't know where that is, but I wonder if they didn't make a mistake in listing the town because Byron Center, MI is just a few miles from my house.

When I went down to last year's National B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Championship I got to meet and hang out with an angler that I saw today during the weigh-in at the Forest Wood Cup, Ron Fabiszak . Ron qualified for the Cup as a coangler. Last year he battled Don and came in second place in the Northern Divisional and was Indiana's Champion at the Nationals.

If you have the time you can watch the last two days of the Forest Wood Cup starting at 5:00 pm Saturday and Sunday.

I finished the Tear Drop Green Lake article a day or so ago and it's up on the website. You can access it by clicking the "2008 Articles" button on the main page.

I talked to Dennis Cook, the Tear Drop Tournament Director yesterday, and he is asking anyone who sold an ad for the Tear Drop flier to please collect the ad money and have it in before the Hamlin Lake Tournament.

I've been enjoying the Olympics and actually finding it taking up my blogging time. I plan on getting up tomorrow at 10:00 am to watch the "Redeem Team. Some time tomorrow, I'm suppose to meet Dandy Don and we're heading down to D&R Sports Center to check out trolling motors. Don's took a dump, and he has to decide whether to get it fixed or buy a new one.

Well it's late already so that's it for today's blog. The parting shot for this Friday comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt and seemed apropo with the Olympics in Beijing. He said, "The Chinese have a story based on three or four thousand years of civilization. Two Chinese coolies were arguing heatedly in the midst of a crowd. A stranger expressed surprise that no blows were being struck. His Chinese friend replied, 'The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.'" Take care and make sure you take time and enjoy a good part of your day.

August 13th, 2008

Made the drive up to the cabin yesterday to do some work with my buddy Rick Skinner. Drove all the way north and the cheapest gas I saw was in Fountain, Michigan. How can a little station, in a very small town, be able to sell gas several cents cheaper than the big chains in the big city?!?

There hasn't been much on the internet except the speculation about who might win the $2,000,000 Forest Wood Cup. Bass Fan is the site that has the most information on the subject. Here is their link that discusses the latest speculation on the FLW Cup .

The anglers will start the competition tomorrow and you can watch the coverage starting at 5:00 pm on FLW Live .

As I've said before, one of my former students, Josh VanderWeide , just won $100,000 in the last FLW Walleye Tour event this year, and Nate Wellman another one of my students is competing in the Forrest Wood Cup. Good luck Nate, and congratulations Josh!

I hope that you filled out your Fantasy Fishing team for the Cup. Today is the last day to do that. Points for the Cup are tripled, so why not fill out a roster and give it a shot.

One of the new teams in the Tear Drop tournaments this year is the father son team of Fred and Jeff Brauneck of Manistee. Jeff emailed me the other day to let me know that I misspelled my boater's last name in my recent BFL article on St. Clair. I apologize Kevin, and I corrected it in the the blog entries and the BFL write up.

Another thing Jeff told me about was the source to the parting shot that is the caption at the end of my emails, etc. It goes, "Not in the clamor of the crowded streets, nor in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but within oneself is victory and defeat." I remember picking this up from a old running log book I had. I use to put in a lot of mileage and ran quite a few 10 Ks, 25 Ks, and I ran the Chicago Marathon. I also did several triathlons. I could never remember though the author of the quote. Like all things real and imaginary, if you want to get information on something just Google it. Jeff did that and found the quote. It comes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Thanks Jeff.

An internet buddy, Blake, put up a link today that he found that has an article concerning KVD's Angler of the Year appearances. The Van Dam family drove from Oneida Lake to Syracuse, New York to tour the ESPN Campus there. Winning the AOY title four times ought to bring him a lot of very deserved accolades.

My young friend Ross broke his thumb in high school football practice a couple days ago. He's having surgery tomorrow, so keep him in your prayers. I want to wish him a fast recovery. He wants to heal up so he may be able to play in the last three football games of the season.

Ross has been emailing me to talk about our next Tear Drop event on Hamlin Lake in Ludington. We have talked about several things and about how important preparation is. I ran across this article on Bass Edge that talks about "Establishing a Game Plan" . It's a good article and there's something in it for all of us.

My goal tomorrow is to get the Green Lake article done. I don't have a lot of extra material for that tournament so hopefully I'll get it finished and up on the net.

The parting shot for the day comes from the site the Jeff Brauneck found my favorite quote on. I thought this quote was a good one, especially with the Olympics in full swim. There is no source given for the quote. "A man left the old world to come to America. After some years, the man returned home disenchanted. "What's wrong?" asked his friends. Weren't the streets of America paved with gold bricks?" "Yes they were," answers the returnee, "but no one told me you had to bend over to pick them up." You can have your dreams, but all goals require a good deal of hard work. Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

August 12th, 2008

Trying to get all the jobs caught up after being gone for a few days over to the sunrise side of the state. I have to proof read the St. Clair BFL article one more time or two, but it is up and can be accessed on the main page.

I found out yesterday, after they finally got the results posted to the net that I came in 24th place. That finish did two things for me. First, it won me $130 and secondly moved me up in the standings to 19th place overall. The top forty boaters and nonboaters move on to the Cherokee, TN Regional where the boater can win a truck and a boat and the nonboater can win a new Ranger. You could, if you got real lucky move on all the way to the $2,000.000 Forest Wood Cup. I would like to say that my finish was due to the generosity of the boater I drew. He shared his baits that were hot and put us in spots to catch fish. He was very personable as well which made for a very enjoyable day. I even knocked off one of his fish at the net and he never broke a sweat over it. In the long run the fish wouldn't have made much of a difference because he caught several more of the same class, but I still felt pretty bad. To date, his Ranger Z21 has been the nicest riding boat I've been in. Here's a picture of Kevin waiting to hammer another smallie.

Kevin Scheibelhut in the Bow of his Ranger Z21

The BFL's are certainly fun to fish and give you a real taste of what it's like fishing the big east side waters of St. Clair and Erie. It gets expensive, mainly because of the cost of gas. Don and I shared gas expenses and including what I gave my boater on tournament day I spent $265. It cost me $81 for my half of the room and throw in another $50 or so for food, and another $60 worth of line and bait and you end up with a tidy sum.

I did cut a check this tournament. I ended up in 24th which was the last money spot and should get a check in the mail for $130. All of that and more will have to go toward buying Don a new windshield for his boat. While returning from netting one of his fish, I lost my balance in the waves and fell against his windshield and broke it. Oh well, it's only money.

Make sure you fill out your roster for this weeks Forrest Wood Cup . You have until tomorrow.

I'm running late this morning. I have to run up to the cabin for the day and work. I'm suppose to meet my buddy Richard Skinner up there at 10:30 so I'm cutting this short today. I don't have time to find a good parting shot so I'll just use my favorite quote of all time. I don't know who to give credit to because I don't know the source. It's just one of those that I recall, but can't remember where I first heard it. Hear it is, "Not in the clamor of the crowded streets, nor in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but within oneself lives victory and defeat." Take care and make sure you take some time out of your work day to sit in the sunshine.

August 10th, 2008

Hey! Back from the trip to the East Side of the state over to St. Clair for the Michigan BFL. Practice went fair, the tournament was not spectacular result wise for me, but the best I've done so far. I had a great day on the water despite some pretty rough conditions.

I took my computer down with me, but forgot the little gizmo that I use to plug my photo data card in to, to transfer pictures from the camera to the computer. Not being able to enter pictures, bummed me out and so I didn't make any new blog entries. We were really busy any way, and it would have made might the nights that much shorter than they already were.

We got out early Thursday and fished the lake and didn't get back to the motel until 10:30 pm. We were over in Mitchell's Bay which is the southeast end of the lake, probably 18 miles from where we launched and late in the day a huge storm blew across. We had to run for cover. We did a pretty good job racing down the storm front to try and get around the storm, but we got caught in the initial rain and wind. When the lightning began to punctuate the ride with regularity, we pointed it to shore and happened across Pier Park. The park is just south of the St. Clair Yacht Club on the West shore up a ways from the Detroit River mouth.

We lucked out pulling in there. We saw the sea walls and sailboat masts, and we knew we could get out of the wind there. We gathered it was some kind of marina, but it turned out to be a Grosse Pt. Farms City Park. We were directed to a mooring spot and told that the snack bar still was cooking. That was good news. Safe harbor and hot food! We got out and had a cheeseburger and hot dog while we waited out the storm. Although the sky was black it really didn't rain that much more, so we decided after about an hour to head back north to the ramp.

We couldn't resist stopping though at an old spot along a sea wall that has always been good for a bunch of fish. We fished the sea wall down and caught at least two more limits of fish including a good 3 lb. plus smallie and largemouth.

By the time we hit the channel that leads in to Metropolitan Park, it was dark. It takes about 15 minutes to idle into the ramp, and by then it was really dark. We didn't tear them up by St. Clair standards on Thursday, but we caught probably thirty to forty keepers. A couple were right around that four pound mark for our biggest two. Here's a picture of Don holding one of the big ones and a picture of him prefishing with the storm clouds moving in.

Don with a nice St. Clair Smallie

A St. Clair Storm Brewing

When you're on that big water you get a good look at the weather coming at you, but when you're catching fish you sometimes stay a little longer than you should.

We prefished the second day in the St. Clair River. We decided not to make the run by boat, but rather trailer it to Marine City and put it in there. There's also a ramp in Algonac, and in Algonac there is a State Park. If you're interested in going over to St. Clair that's a camping option. The Algonac State Park is right on the St. Clair River. Here's a picture of us at the ramp in Marine City and a shot out on the river.

Marine City Boat Ramp

Fishing the St. Clair River

We stayed at the Baymont at exit 232 on 94. We booked it on Hotwire, and it cost us $160 for three nights. It's located at 13 Mile and Little Mack Rd. It's 8 miles from Metro Park. Metro Park though charges $8 to put in, so you may want to go just a few miles north of there to the Harley Ensign ramp. There was no charge up at Marine City even though there is a State of Michigan booth there.

In the river, we visited several spots and caught some nice fish, but there were no numbers. The quality of fish was fair, but we didn't get the real big fish that find their way into the river toward the end of summer.

I'll save the tournament day story for the BFL write up. I plan on writing that as soon as I can. I still have to do the Green Lake article as well. Lots of work to do.

The big story outside of our big adventure weekend was the B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year race. It went down to the last event on Oneida and it was a two man race between Todd Faircloth and Kevin Van Dam. Day 1 the two were close, just ounces separated them, and KVD was ahead by just a few places. Day 2 Faircloth could only manage 6-6 lbs. and KVD weighed in a little over 13 lbs. and making the Top 50. That was it for Faircloth, giving KVD his fourth AOY Toyota Tundra A $200,000 victory.

Dean Rojas is in the lead on Oneida going in to the last day which is today. He has about a three and a half pound lead. The final weigh-in coverage will start today at 7:30 pm on Bassmaster Live . The next "Biggie" coming up very soon, like next week August 14-17th, is the $1,000,000 Forrest Wood Cup. Here is a Cup Preview . Don't forget to fill out your Fantasy Fishing angler list for this last event.

The parting shot today comes from Patrick McManus and he said, " Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into philosophers. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle on a philosophers salary." Take care and make sure you take some time to enjoy your day. A lot of good Olympic coverage on today.

August 5th, 2008

As you have probably already noticed I have archived July's blog entries. You can go back and retrieve any of the blog entries using the links above.

I told myself today that I would try and get the Green Lake article done before I did a blog entry, but I changed my mind. I got up this morning and have spent the last two hours on the net cruising and have found some interesting stuff. I also have an announcement concerning your drive to Wilson Hill Park, the launch site of the next Tear Drop event on Hamlin Lake in Ludington.

You may have read about the storm they had in the Ludington/Manistee area earlier this summer. It was a dandy and blew down trees and washed out a number of roads, one of which is Jebavy Rd. The county has a limited budget and is doing what it can to repair them, but several are still out. In talking with Dennis Cook, the Tear Drop Director, he says you have to take Beaune Road, off of Angling Rd. Take that all the way to Ehlers Rd. and turn left. Take that back to Jebavy and turn right.

I did some venting on the greatlakesbass.com website talking about my woes from the Green Lake tournament and how I broke off on two keepers that would have given us a limit. I broke off on line that was only a few weeks old. Line that I had spooled prior to prefishing the Lake Erie BFL event out of Sandusky. Don had trouble at that event with some bad line as well. and he was feeling it could have been caused by the heat and sun exposure. I wasn't too sure that was the case till I had the same thing on Green. It wasn't just the rod I was using, but after I started looking at my other rods on the deck, every one of the five I had out had line that was no good. The only rod that I had left with good line was spooled with Fireline Crystal, so I tied three feet of leader on it and used it. I caught our last fish a 3-14 largemouth and no break offs.

I use to respool before every tournament religiously. This year, however, I have tried to pinch some pennies now that gas is changing my fishing habits. I'm going to have to consider going back to that and being much more careful with the rods I leave on the deck.

I did some checking on the FLW site today, and read the article on the Sandusky BFL that we fished. I guess I've just been looking at the BFL's as a big adventure and didn't realize that if you finish in the top 40 you can move on to bigger and more lucrative things. I'm 25th overall, so if I can catch some St. Clair fish who knows what could happen. I do know that I'm off to buy some new line. I'm thinking about some Gamma fluorocarbon.

I have used some Gamma and today I read another article on Kota's Lake Erie win, and he's a proponent of Gamma 7 lb. fluorocarbon especially for drop shotting. Here's an article on Kota from Bass Fan that talks about how he went out with a purpose on Erie. He wanted to go places and try things that others wouldn't. He gambled on fishing suspended fish and ended up catching his bigger fish that way. He said he caught 15 fish around five pounds the last day! If you want to read the Kota Scored on Breakthrough Technique article, just use this hot link.

After I read the Bass Fan article, I went to Kota's website and found that he has a page where all the "Japan Tackle" that he uses is listed. Under each bait there is a hot link to a short video that shows him fishing and talking about that bait. Here's the Ninja Tackle Box link .

Time for me to move on to other projects today. Before I do though, if Jeff or Fred Brauneck are reading this, I haven't gotten your picture yet of your big smallie off of Green Lake. You many want to try and send it to my dshinebassman@yahoo.com email.

The parting shot today is one that I think I have used before. In any case, I like it. It's a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with you old nonsense." I wonder if Ralph has ever broke off two keepers because of bad line? I going to forget about it though and never mention it again today. Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

August 4th, 2008

August already, man this summer is ticking away fast. I left Thursday and headed up to the cabin in hopes of doing some prefishing for yesterday's Tear Drop Green Lake event. My partner, Ron, was hoping to get out of work so we could go up to Green. He got tied up with work and couldn't go so I had to decide if I should make the long drive or not. I figured I would and even though it was getting late in the day I pointed the truck north. On the way, I thought I'd try and hook up with CJ, an old buddy I hadn't seen in a while. CJ is another of those crazy outdoor guys that is either fishing or hunting when he can. He is one of those Traverse City area sticks that is tough to beat whenever you're on smallie water.

I didn't have CJ's telephone number with me so I called home and had my wife email him in hopes he would read it and give me a call and call, and he did. We met at Green and had a good time for about 3 hours plying the lakes depths.

Before CJ got to the lake, I spent about 20 minutes in front of the launch doing a little drop shotting which I've never tried on Green. The lake is known for its abundance of smelt, and I felt with the "Dog Days" of summer upon us that those big Green Lake smallies would be deep preying on those smelt.

My first drop I felt a tap and set the hook on a redeye. I'd had hopes of it being a good smallie. Right after that CJ hollered from the dock, so I put the drop shot away and went to pick him up. We hit a number of regular spots and caught a bunch of small fish, but nothing that was of any size. It was good to see CJ again and hopefully, we'll be able to get together for some more fishing in the near future. He's going up to Canada at the end of August on a bear hunt with his long bow. Maybe he'll email me some pictures for the blog. He sent me some pictures early last winter of a buffalo he shot with his long bow. Knowing CJ, I would bet I get some pictures of a big black bear for the September blog.

The tournament at Green was a continuing saga of what could have been for me this year. I broke off on two keepers right at the boat. I had just put new line on my reels a week earlier and did not suspect the line could be bad. After breaking the first fish off, I checked the guides and they appeared fine. I didn't check the line knowing it was recently changed. I should have, rookie and careless mistake, because shortly thereafter I hooked and played another keeper to the boat and lost it when the line broke again. Checking the line this time, I found it to be junk. Not only was the line on that pole no good I checked three other rods on the deck and they were all junk too. I'm wondering if the heat that they have been exposed to on our Erie trip and subsequently during this tournament could have caused it to go bad?

The winners on Green, Teeter and Vohlwinkle, caught 19 lbs. on a scorching hot summer day with no wind and bluebird skies. Word has it they were drop shotting deep. They may have been jigging "Silver Buddies." In any case, they did very well considering the time of year.

The big bass of the tournament was a 6-1 smallie that must have been almost 24 inches long, a big fish!

My buddies Rick Skinner and Craig Stumbrie won the Bass Anglers United tournament that ran simultaneously with the Tear Drop. If you paid the Tear Drop and BAU entries you could win money in both tournaments and be eligible to fish in the BAU end of season classic for a boat. Here's a picture of Rick and Craig with their fish and BAU plaques.

Craig Stumbrie and Rick Sinner Sr.

Rick and Craig with their BAU Plaques

Don and I are going to head over to Lake St. Clair Wednesday in advance of the Lake St. Clair BFL which is next Saturday. Hopefully we'll catch a bunch of smallies. I'm always excited about that possibility whenever we get over to the East side. I hope the fish are as hot on St. Clair as they were for the B.A.S.S. Elite anglers on Lake Erie the past four days.

The Empire Chase Tournament out of Buffalo was won by Kota Kiriyama from Japan. It was his first win at the Elite Level. The event seesawed up and down starting with Matt Reed leading day 1 and Iaconelli coming back for the day 2 lead. Kota came on strong to lead day 3 and capped it off with a four day total of 93 lbs. and 6 ozs! Now that's a lot of smallies. Here's the article from Bass Zone on Kota's win. Here are the still shots from Bassmaster.com , and the final day Bass Zone video interview.

You got to admire Kota's tenacity and his bold move leaving Japan. He fishes the Elite Series sleeping in his pickup camper. An austere existence, but his latest payday may afford him the chance to move on up to a motorhome.

My plans were to get the Green Lake article done today, but it's now 11:28 pm, and I have been plunking around trying to get this blog entry done since 7:30 this morning. It looks like it will have to get done tomorrow. The standings for Green Lake, and for the year to date, are up and can be accessed under the "Rules and Info." button on the main page.

The parting shot for today is going to be a link to NBC's Olympic coverage . Take care and make sure you set aside some time to enjoy your day.