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Archived Blog From June 1 through June 28th, 2008

A Year of Archived Blog Entries - May 07 through May of 08

June 28, 2008

Good morning! The Tear Drop guys are on the water up in Cadillac today with the annual Tear Drop Tournament Trail Host Tournament. The Tear Drop each year sells ads in a flyer for $100 and $200. The $200 ad buyers are considered "Hosts" and are treated to a half day tournament where they fish with a Tear Drop angler against the other hosts for a chance to win their $200. After the half day tournament, all the anglers are treated to a lunch that the Tear Drop Trail provides. This year it will be at the new "Da Dawg House" on M115 just north of Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell, right across the street from the water park.

The Host Tournament has been a very popular aspect of the Trail Flyer. If you haven't seen a copy of the flyer there is one scanned in to the computer for you to click on and view on the main page.

Hopefully someone will be taking some pictures and writing up something I can put on the site.

I typically fish the host tournament, but because of gas prices, I've had to make some decisions as to what and where I fish. It would have been a $100 bill to run from Grand Rapids to Cadillac and back plus boat gas. With the Manistee tournament a week a way I'm going to have to save my gas money for a prefishing trip up there. I also just spent $75 on a Canadian Seasonal License that I bought from Lakeside Tackle today.

Lakeside Tackle is over on Lake St. Clair, and you can order a Canadian License over the phone or online from them. They will pick it up for you and then mail it to you. The upcoming BFL in Sandusky may result in you drawing a partner that wants to fish in Canadian waters, and if you don't have a license, you would have to do a lot of sitting if you end up there.

When we fish the St. Clair BFL you will also need a Canadian license and maybe a Walpole Island license as well. Walpole Island is a Native American Reservation and the waters around it are governed by the tribe which requires a separate license. You can get your Walpole license from Lakeside Tackle as well. It takes at least a week to get your licenses, so make sure you plan ahead.

Kevin Wirth is leading, as he has all week, in the B.A.S.S. Elite tournament down on Old Hickory in Tennessee. The top twelve are fishing right as I type. At around 3:00 pm ET, you can watch the live weigh-in .

Make sure you also take a minute to watch the Bass Zone "Wide Open" interview for Day Three on Old Hickory.

I just finished a short break in typing the blog to watch a video report from Old Hickory that Keith Allan, KVD, and Mark Zona did on ESPN. ESPN is doing some same day video segments that you can access with your computer. During the interview, they showed Randy Howell starting the day by catching a five pounder, which immediately put him within ounces of the leader Kevin Wirth.

Randy caught the big fish swimming a Jig X through the grass. It's a rather unique jig and you can check it out using the link provided.

Don't forget to check the live weigh-in link up above to see how this final day shakes out at 3:00 pm ET.

Last night I went to watch the West Michigan Off Road Racing event number 3 at the Hudsonville Fairgrounds. I'm not much of a gear head, but I started going to watch the events to videotape them for a young friend, Mike Dozeman, who does all my mechanical work on my vehicles. He, his brother Steve and his buddy Rob Brown all have cars they race. A fishing acquaintance of mine, Harvey Slager, has two boys who run cars, and his wife races in the Powder Puff event too.

The races are quite exciting. Each heat has about 7-9 cars that line up abreast, and when the green flag goes down they race for one of the two lanes that make up the dirt track oval. Around the oval, there are jumps and a section that requires drivers to either make an inside or outside move before the east end turn. There is a lot of noise, mud slung up in to the stands, and a lot of banging that goes on. Even though they water the track to keep the speeds down, there are a number of roll overs. It's a very entertaining evening. So if you're in the area and want some fun on a Saturday night head out to the races. The next race is on July 12 in Hudsonville.

Time to go and run some errands. The parting shot for today comes from Dick Vermeil. "If you don't invest very much, then defeat doesn't hurt very much and winning is not very exciting." Take care and enjoy your day!

June 26, 2008

Well it's almost another good morning greeting as I start this blog entry with just three minutes left in the day.

I worked to get the Crystal Lake article done today, and it's up in the "2008 Articles" section on the home page.

The Elite anglers finished Day One of the Old Hickory tournament down in Hendersonville, TN which is just a stones throw northeast of Nashville.

Kevin Wirth is leading the tournament and KVD who is leading in the AOY points race finished 63rd. He's going to have to crank it up if he wants to finish off the competition and win his fourth AOY title.

Here are the links for the Current Standings and the ESPN Photo Gallery . I can't leave the coverage of the Hendersonville tourney without including Harold Allen's and Mark Jefferys,' Wide Open video commentary.

I talked with Dandy Don today and he's getting up early tomorrow to head up to fish some bedded smallies on Grand Traverse Bay with Scott Lakey. I plan on giving him a call while he's on the water. I doubt that he took a camera with him, but I'll ask him to find a willing tourist with a digital that might snap a few pictures for us.

When I was up fishing on Crystal, I was having problems with my new 520C Lowrance shutting off whenever I started the big motor. I asked around on greatlakesbass.com and as usual got a lot of good help.

Seems the common diagnosis was that my starting battery must be getting just old enough that when the big motor starts it creates enough of a drain to shut down the electronics. I got the same info from Grayson and Bill down at the Outdoorsmen Pro Shop in Jenison.

Grayson recommended that I go into my Lowrance menu, and then in to the map overlay section, turn on an option to view the current voltage. I didn't know that was an available option.

The Outdoorsmen carries Deka batteries and they have a starting battery with plenty of cold cranking amps that I'm going to buy and stick in the boat. I'll test everything out up on Manistee when I go up to prefish early next week.

As I said, it's already quite late and actually in to Friday by an hour and fifteen minutes so I'm off to bed.

The parting shot for today comes from one of the greats in baseball, Tommy Lasorda. He once said, "The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination." Take care and make sure you reserve some time to enjoy your day.

June 25, 2008

Good morning! I just put up the standings information under the "Rules and Info." button on the home page. Dennis was under the gun at work trying to get water on and off his golf course up in Ludington. Dennis went to MSU's Turf Management School and took his expertise with him to Lincoln Hills Golf Course . With all the damage in the area he's had to work long hours to get things back up and running.

If you have been following the weather news, you know that Mason County and that whole corridor up north got hit with 10-12 inches of rain, hail, and high winds. Dennis' course has not had the water working till just yesterday and to keep those greens and fairways in top condition during the summer you need those sprinklers running.

The B.A.S.S. Elite Series Pros are going to be on the water again starting tomorrow. They will be fishing Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee. Here's ESPN's preview article for Old Hickory .

You can watch the live weigh-ins Thursday through Saturday at 3:00 pm ET and on Sunday starting at 3:30 pm ET.

Just took a break and went out to the mailbox and found a package from my buddy John Baker. He's staying at his cabin in Colorado for a couple of weeks and he must have stopped at a Bass Pro Shop because he sent me a very nice hat from BPS. Thanks JB!

When I was doing some preblog surfing today I noticed that the lure company called Sebile just won a Euro Award for best new hard bait. When I was down in Alabama, I got to look one over. It was the model with the clear sides and the red fluid in it. As the lure moves the red fluid can be seen undulating inside the body of the bait. It was very different and certainly the most unique bait I've seen in a while.

Another article that I read was one on deep cranking. If you have been watching many of the pro events, deep cranking has been a consistent winning pattern used by a number of the pros. I plan to start trying it more this year in my prefishing outings.

A story from the last FLW event down at Ft. Loudoun caught my eye because it got into the details of a productive pattern that helped Scott Martin win some money. Here's link to the "Martin's Retrieve Connected with Key Smallmouth" article.

Hopefully, I'll have some time tonight to start working on the Crystal Lake tournament article. Remember the latest standings are already up for Crystal.

The parting shot for the day is going to be some more of those strange and weird facts. I don't know why, but I find them interesting. A mole can dig a tunnel 300 ft. in one night. I hate moles! Did you know that a hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons of water a day? Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there. Here's something to try. No square piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times. Humans beginning at age 30 begin to shrink in size. Month's that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th. Nine pennies weigh exactly one ounce. Oak trees don't produce acorns until they are at least fifty years old. The bubbles in Guinness beer sink to the bottom unlike all other beers. No one knows why. The launching device used to assist planes taking off an aircraft carrier can throw a pickup over a mile.

That's it for today, so take care and make sure you set aside some time to enjoy your day.

June 23, 2008

Tear Drop Tournament Trail Crystal Lake Weigh-in

Yesterday, we fished Crystal Lake up in Beulah, MI which is about 25 miles west of Traverse City. It was a hog fest as usual. My partner Ron and I caught a ton of fish, but just couldn't find the big ones we needed. We weighed about fifteen and a half pounds, but that put us no where near the front.

Sometimes nice is not good enough.

Wes Herndon and Brian Macdonell, from Traverse City won the event with over 23 lbs. They had a dandy 5-12 smallie for big bass. You had to have 19+ pounds to make the top five.

I ran my GPS coordinates from Thursday and there were fish on 33 of the 37 waypoints. But, as I said, none of them held big females.

We caught every fish we saw. One or two were fussy and took a while to entice, but they eventually succumbed to our presentations.

We caught a bunch of fish, and typically if you are regularly culling two and a half pounders you're having a good day. The winners though were culling four pounders. Here's a picture of Brian's big bass.

Brian Macdonell's Crystal Lake Big Bass Winner

I waited up last night for Dennis to send me the standings link, but he may have pooped out last night and didn't get a chance to enter the stats onto his computer. I'm sure he'll send them to me some time today or tomorrow. I'll paste the link in when he sends it and I'll have the Crystal article up in a day or two with all the pictures.

The FLW Tour anglers finished up their Fort Loudoun-Tellico TN tournament yesterday. David Dudley came back from about a five pound deficit to take home the $125,000 of cash and Ranger boat incentives. Here is the article from the FLW site on the final day . Here is the link to the complete standings .

I can't wrap the Ft. Loudoun event up without posting Bass Zone's final day Wide Open Interview . I'll also put Bass Zones Photo Gallery link here if you care to take a look.

I've been up here at the Na-Tah-Ka for far too long today. I did a little tutoring on how to put together an iMovie, and it's time to head back to the cabin pretty quick. I did read an article last night from Berkley about their new hollow belly series. Their new tube looks pretty good. Here's the "Hollow Bellies" link.

I spent a few minutes typing up a "Hard Luck" story for a contest on Bass Fan. It was kind of fun. Any time you have the opportunity to tell a few fish tales with extra embellishments you have to go for it. You may want to give it a shot yourself and see if you can win the $250. If I win I'll post my story.

The parting shot today is more weird but kind of interesting useless knowledge. Did you know that the four kings in a deck of cards represents a great king from history? The King of Spades is King David, Hearts is Charlemagne, Clubs is Alexander the Great, and the King of Diamonds is Julius Caesar. If you were to spell out numbers how far would you have to go until you spell a number with an A in it? One thousand.

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

June 21, 2008

Well it's down to the final ten in the Fort Loudoun-Tellico FLW Tour event. I checked the top 50 to see which of the Michigan guys made the $10,000 cut, and low and behold Art Ferguson moved all the way to fourth and gets to fish today for some real big money. Nate Wellman won $10,500 and has made around 30K with the FLW this year. Tony D. slipped out of the top 50 boating only three fish on Day 2. Kim Stricker stayed in the top 50 and garnered some more cash for his fishing coffer. Here is the list of where everybody finished .

I like how the FLW tournament articles have the links at the top of the page so you can access all the tournament info right from one page. If you just want to read the Day 2 Ft. Loudoun article , however, you can use this hyperlink.

As I said yesterday, my FLW Fantasy Fishing team is not doing so well. I have only one angler in the top 10 and that's Andy Morgan. Go Andy!

I took a couple of pictures while I was at Crystal Lake up in Beulah on Thursday. The lake is one of the most beautiful you're going to find. The coloration of the water is spectacular. The ramp on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired. You access it, just a short block off the downtown area. The ramp drops off sharply, and if you don't back down at an angle you trailer bottoms out. Another negative is that if there is much of a west wind you'll take a bunch of water over the back while trying to load. There is only parking for about 6 or 7 boats along the lake on the road. The over flow parking is behind the downtown stores.

Looking from downtown out toward the ramp at Crystal.

The water colors on Crystal are spectacular!

Before I head back to the cabin today I want to be sure to put up Bass Zone's Wide Open report on Day 2 of the FLW Tour event. I'll also put up their Photo Gallery as well.

Don't forget, if you are indoors today and want to watch the live weigh-in and you're an FLW member, you can log in at FLW Live .

Time for me to get outside and do some weed wacking and then retie rods for tomorrow. The parting shot today comes from an email I received recently. It's a quote from Albert Einstein. He once said "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." With that cheery piece of info. take care and make sure you set aside time to enjoy your day.

June 20, 2008

I'm back at the Na-Tah-Ka cranking the blog out. I drank coffee with Ruth, Beth, Charlie, Craig and the gang and when they all left I retreated to the back corner and plugged in the laptop to suck up Larry's wifi.

I prefished Crystal Lake up in Beulah yesterday and spent 13 hours on the water GPSing spots. The fish seem to still be in transition from spawn to post spawn. The cold weather still has lake temperatures in the high 50s low 60s.

When the fish are in this mode it could be anybody's tournament. Right place right time is always the determiner, but when the fish are in a spawning mood it is even more critical for sacking a big bag. You need to cover lots of water and who knows who will stumble upon the right fish on the right bed. We'll see what shakes out on Sunday.

Sunday they're calling for rain in the afternoon and if the sight fishing conditions are good it should take a pretty good weight to make the top five.

The FLW pros started fishing yesterday down at Fort Loudoun-Tellico. The live weigh-in will be at 3:00 pm today. Scott Martin is leading after day 1 and it looks like the jig bite is on, although from this report it looks like they're hitting everything but the kitchen sink. Here's the scoop from the FLW Day 1 contest.

When I checked the overall results I was happy to see a bunch of familiar names. My ex sixth grade student Nate Wellman is in 18th, Art Ferguson is in 19th, Kim Stricker is in 43rd, and our buddy Tony DeFilippo is in 49th. If it ended today these Michigan guys would all cash at least a $10,000 check. Let's hope they all move up and make even a little more prize money.

I talked to Hoogie yesterday while I was fishing, and he was filling me in as he watched the live weigh-in. He was doing very well with four of his Fantasy Fishing anglers in the top ten. After looking at the results page, I didn't fare too well. I think I'm going to have to go back to gut feel instead of trying to research each angler's history. When you put this many top flight anglers in one big basket it's really tough trying to predict who is going to catch em big.

I was noticing that the 2009 FLW Tour Schedule was just announced. I see where Guntersville is going to be fished in February and that looks like it might be a good time for me to go down and visit my sister and brother-in-laws. They're not far from a bunch of outstanding Alabama fisheries.

I have never attended one of the FLW Tour events, and I'd like to go down and experience it first hand. I'm too poor to consider fishing it, even as a coangler.

If you're like me you have been to some graduation parties this month. I was reading on Bass Fan about a scholarship program that Costa Del Mar is offering. High school grads need to apply for anything and everything to help defray the sky rocketing cost of a college education. If you know a grad that is going into some kind of environmental field have them check out this scholarship offering. I know I'm going to be emailing Marty Williams up in Cadillac. He called me the other day to ask for a recommendation for the Michigan B.A.S.S. Federation's Scholarship program. Marty is majoring in a field that will hopefully land him in a DNR type job. He should definitely have the type of credentials that Costa Del Mar is looking for.

Before I head back to the cabin to mow grass I thought I would put up the link to the Smallmouth Guru . He gives you his take on fishing thermoclines. I also missed his previous installment where he talks about how impoundments age and change over time. If you like to fish smallies, and who doesn't, then you have been following the Smallmouth Guru's blog. Some good stuff.

The parting shot on this beautiful day comes from the "I bet you didn't know that file." The first day of summer starts today at 8:00 pm, but most of you knew that. What you didn't know is that a rat can last longer without water than a camel can, and chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying. Celery has negative calories. You burn more calories chewing celery that celery has in it. One more useless fact, unless you're a poet, is that there aren't any words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, silver, and purple. Maybe that's why "Roses are red and violets are blue." Enough strange and semi useless info for now. Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

June 18, 2008

It's kind of the lull between the storm and maybe that's a bad axiom with all that's been happening weather wise. I just meant to say that there is not much happening on the pro bass fishing scene today. The Elite Trail is on a short break and today is a day off for the FLW pros before they start fishing Fort Loudoun-Tellico tomorrow.

I did do some surfing today of various sites and found a pretty good article discussing what to do in that in between period when the fish are moving up and off the beds. Here's the article that's up on the Bass Edge site.

Remember Bass Edge has a TV series and does a podcast that you can subscribe to for free that will download into you iTunes library automatically if you click on it in the iTunes podcast store. Bass Edge has some informative and informational shows and I listen to them and Bass Feed regularly.

Maybe I should take a minute and go through the steps to find and sign up for these free fishing podcasts. A podcast is a online "radio show." They last in length from about 20 minutes to an hour. You can find several that are bass fishing specific, and you can find them on most any other topic you can think of from cooking to comedy.

To get a podcast first go to iTunes . If you don't have it, it's a free Apple download. You don't have to have a Mac to access it.

Once you have downloaded it or have migrated to it on your computer, make sure you are at the iTunes Store. At the iTune Store there will be a top row of pictures and just below them at the left edge it will say "iTunes Store." Right below that will be a list of offerings, Music, Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos, Audiobooks, Podcasts.... click on Podcasts. The page will change, but it will look very similar to the opening page. You will be able to puruse a variety of podcast topics and check out all the free offerings.

To get to the bass fishing podcasts, you are going to want to go to the top right hand corner of the page where there is a little slot that has "Search iTunes Store" under it. Type in your query which will probably be "bass fishing" and click on it. It will come up with a list of things pertaining to bass fishing, not just podcasts.

Scroll through the list and if it's a podcast it will say "Subscribe" in the price column. There will also be songs and maybe videos that will have a price attached. Songs, for instance, will cost 99 cents. No price, no charge to subscribe.

If you have been following these directions you will notice that Bass Edge is the first program listed. You can hit subscribe, and it will download all the shows to date. It doesn't take up much memory so don't worry about downloading them all. If you want to look at the individual shows, and select them one at a time, just click on the little gray circle with the arrow in it. That should change your screen to show you all the individual programs. Once you do subscribe they will download automatically to your iTunes library.

Whenever you are in iTunes there will be a far left column that shows what's on your computer. If you have podcasts downloaded there will be a "Podcast" listing you can select. When you do all of your downloaded podcasts will appear. You can then do a variety of things with them from listening to them to deleting them.

You can listen to the podcasts as you sit at your computer, or they will download to your iPod or MP3 player, or you can also make a playlist and burn them on to a CD so that you can listen to in your truck, etc. If you have a FM transmitter that you can buy for your iPod, you can listen to anything on your iPod over your car's FM radio by plugging the unit into your cigarette lighter.

If you have problems connecting or following my directions just give me an email, and I'll be happy to help you get your podcasts.

Bass Fan has another article up detailing the patterns used on Kentucky/Barkley . I like these articles because they really talk about specifics, and they give you some insight to the strategies the pros employ.

I'm about to pack up and head north to the cabin. A day late and a dollar short as they say, but you gotta take care of the home front sometimes and this was one of those times. The weather didn't look all that promising any way for prefishing today.

Dandy Don is taking off today as well to fish the NBAA opener on St. Clair.

Speaking of St. Clair I met one of Don's buddies, Kendall Ulsh up at the Burt/Mullett BFL. Kendall is a builder most days and on those other days he guides on St. Clair. Here is a link to his website if you ever get a hankering to go catch a gazillion Spring smallies . You can reach Kendall at 269-217-1327.

The parting shot today is from an unknown source and it's one I've used before, but I like it. "The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope." Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

June 17, 2008

Today I spent some time selecting my money team for the FLW Fantasy Fishing League . The FLW pros had their last practice day today. Tomorrow they have their meeting and will begin fishing at Fort Loudoun - Tellico Thursday.

Fort Loudoun is southwest of Knoxville,Tennessee. It's a river impoundment. The last time the FLW pros fished it they were focussing on prespawn and spawning fish. This year it looks to be a more structure fishing event. You can watched the weigh-ins at 3:00 pm on Thursday and Friday. Weigh-ins move an hour later to 4:00 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

The FLW site has their introductory piece out on Fort Loudoun. Here's the link to that piece.

Another pretty good article on that site is one they have on dock fishing with swimbaits .

The FLW Fantasy Fishing League has been a hit this year, and the money involved has really captured a lot of attention for the FLW Tour. However, KVD's run this year with B.A.S.S. keeps the cameras focussed on that trail. I am still amazed at how he is able to find fish like he does. Bass Fan has an article that gives some insight to Kevin's practice and tournament strategy. It's a good read.

I had planned to head up to Crystal to prefish tomorrow, but the weather doesn't look like it would make the trip worth while. I'm hoping Thursday works out better.

Don and I have been continuing to talk about our next BFL event down at Sandusky, Ohio. Gulp minnows by the bucket will be hitting the water in that event.

Gulp products have been out now for a few years. They're an interesting line of baits that takes the new technology and puts it to use to catch more fish. Here's an article from Berkley explaining what Gulp is all about.

The Celtics literally walked away with the title tonight. They came out playing with a vengeance and L.A. never recovered. Congratulations to Boston.

The parting shot tonight comes from one of college basketball's great coaches, John Wooden. Coach Wooden once said, "Don't let what your cannot do interfere with what you can do." Fish your strengths is what it sounds like to me. Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

June 16, 2008

Well KVD does it again, and again, and again. He's a machine that just keeps winning big tournaments against the best of the best. He just seems to have the knack for finding fish that are going to sack up big at weigh-in. He does it despite the fact he has more boats following him than are in most local tournaments. I don't know how he can locate fish like he does, but I sure would like to take some lessons from him.

Timmy Horton made a run at KVD and almost became the spoiler. I know Horton and Van Dam are good buds and often share information.

Kevin went in with almost a 7 lb. lead over the second place Rick Klunn. Klunn didn't have a great day and fell down a few places. The man's a class act though and to be fishing at that level and be 62 years old says a lot for the man.

Here is the final day story from ESPN.

Yesterday I put up the link to the ESPN photo gallery and today here's the Bass Zone Pictures Picks from Kentucky/Barkley. Here is also the final day Wide Open video interview.

I hope that you are taking advantage of the B.A.S.S. 40th Anniversary Gear up Giveaway . There are a lot of nice prizes and one or more of them just could be yours. That grand prize Toyota Tundra wrapped boat sure would look nice tied to my dock. Each day when log in you can also register for the "Fish with the Pro" contest as well. The registration for that contest comes up at the same site just further down the page, so be sure to look for it.

Ken, in Belding, sent me some more photographs of his chain saw carvings of some of the fish he's done. He says his carvings sell almost as fast as he makes them so he didn't have many to take pictures of. If you're interested in having him carve you something, email me here and I'll relay the specifics to Ken and he can get a hold of you. He also does glass etchings and can air brush effects on his wood carvings if you like.

Now that's a big bass!

Very unique!

Another whopper of a job!

Just a reminder for those who are playing FLW Fantasy Fishing, that the Fort Loudin -Tellico Lakes roster needs to be made before the event starts on Thursday.

Tuesday night the Celtics have another chance to end the Lakers season. The series has been brutal and both teams aren't afraid of contact. If the Celtics can get out of the first quarter without being behind by 20 points, the Lakers may be on an early flight back to L.A.

I'm hoping to head up to the cabin Tuesday and check it for storm damage. I hope I don't have to chainsaw my way in. They had a doozy of a storm that devastated Mason County.

After I check out the cabin, I plan to head up to Beulah to prefish for the next Tear Drop event which is coming up this Sunday. There still should be some bedded smallies to locate with a waxing gibbous at 98%. That's lunartic talk for, yep we have a full moon. Should be 100% by Thursday. I would think it just may bring up another wave of spawners. Just in case though, I would think that a good post spawn back up plan would be in order.

Once the smallies take off on their summer pattern Crystal fishes pretty tough. Sure wish I had a Humminbird side imaging sonar unit. It would make looking for some unsuspecting places much easier.

The parting sot of the day comes from one of America's great inventors, Thomas Edison. He said, "Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose." Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

June 15, 2008

If you have been following the Bluegrass Brawl on Kentucky Lake, you know the B.A.S.S. Elite Series anglers are looking at two bass fishing legends KVD and Rick Clunn sitting one and two. KVD has led since Day 1 and takes about a six pound lead into today's final top 12 action.

Clunn has had a two year dry spell on the Elite Trail, and he has announced that he's more than likely fishing for second place today.

KVD has been bringing in 20 pound stingers every day of the tournament, despite a lot of local pressure on Kentucky and Barkley Lakes. He is certainly fishing very confidently and has been reported as saying he has a number of spots that he has yet to fish. So, as far a fish management goes, he seems to have no worries.

The ESPN Bassmaster site does a great job in covering the Elite Series events. Their stories and pictures are always top notch. Here is their latest coverage of the latest coverage of the Bluegrass Brawl . You may also want to check out the standings going into the last day. You can't miss logging into the photo gallery . They have some great shots of the action. Lastly, if you are interested in getting the news fresh off the wire you can use this link to watch the live weigh-in at 6:00 pm today.

To get a short video look at what's going on on Kentucky/Barkley Lakes Bass Zones "Wide Open" is always fun and informative. They didn't have yesterday's video report up yet, but here is their Friday the 13th video.

Besides the Elite Action, the other big story of late has been the weather. Up around the Ludington to Cadillac M55 corridor they received over 10 inches of rain in a 5-6 hour period.

My cabin is right up there where all the weather occurred, and I have not been able to get up there to check on things yet. If there had been major damage I think I would have gotten a call. I'm hoping no news is good news. I would bet my dock is floating by now though.

I have talked to several people who live in the area and they say that the report that the Hamlin Lake dam may fail is erroneous. A number of boats though broke loose during the storm and floated up and were clogging the dam and had to be removed with some chains and a bulldozer. The State Parks in Ludington and Cadillac are closed because of flooding. The Lincoln River is way over its banks and roads throughout the area are closed due to washouts and or trees down. It was a doozy of a storm.

Here is a link to the Ludington Daily News if you're interested in checking out the pictures and news from the area.

I haven't had much opportunity to try out the new swimbaits so far this summer. I have several types and brands, but most look awfully big for the ponds we fish here in Michigan. Maybe I'm fishing too small, but True Tungsten just came out with a 4 inch bluegill swimbait that looks like something I should be trying.

There are times that those summertime bass are looking for that bigger meal and are gobbling up those small bluegills. I have been fishing on the dock with my granddaughter several times where we have taken a small bluegill she has caught and tossed it under the pontoon boat and caught a nice bass.

Time to hit the road today, and since it's Father's Day, I thought I had better have the parting shot focus on this Hallmark day. Clarence Kelland said, "My father never told me how to live; he simply lived, and let me watch him do it." Have a happy Father's Day!

June 12, 2008

Unbelievable! KVD is just coming off a second place finish on Wheeler where he led and eventually lost by a measly 8 oz., and today after day one of the Bluegrass Brawl down on Kentucky Lake, he's in the lead with 24+ pounds. How does he do it? The best anglers in the world and he consistently is at the top of the heap. They don't have the tournament repots out yet, but here is the top twelve standings from Bassfan.

Hold the press. I've been watching the Celtics and Lakers game and when I got back to the blog at half time the article about KVD leading at Kentucky Lake was on ESPN's site.

Here is the photo page for the first day of the Brawl.

Bass Zone's Wide Open Day 1 is still not up at 11:15, but they do have their Kentucky Lake Preview up for viewing .

Don't forget you can watch the weighin live online at 6:00 pm . This past weekend in the Burt/Mullett BFL I lost a big fish that has haunted me ever since. I've fished enough to know that they don't all get in the boat. However, I also know that you seldom win or finish well when you loose fish. Attitude determines focus and you really have to suck it up when you loose a big one. It can really crumble you otherwise. Here is an interesting article that deals with the mental side of tournament fishing. It's called "Do You Have a Winning Attitude." .

I don't know if you have the same issue with loading FLW site articles. They take a long time to load. They must have server issues.

The Celtics just beat the Lakers coming back from 24 points down! They never led until 4 minutes left in the game. What a come back! They can win it all on Father's Day. I'm rooting for the Celtics. I've never been too impressed during the Kobe era.

I was checking out Craig's List the other day, and I saw some wood carvings that a guy from Belding did. I thought they were way cool. Here are some pictures of his work.

Very cool bass carving!

This one was airbrushed. Very unique!

Another Wooden Largemouth

A Salmon on a driftwood base. Wow!

If you're interested in one of these fish, or have an idea for any type of carving, I'm going to be posting contact details very soon. The artist is local and can carve just about anything you have a picture of. I'm also going to be getting some other pictures. The ones in this posting are okay except the lighting wasn't good for the salmon which must be seen in better lighting to really appreciated it. Email me for details and or prices.

Time for the parting shot of the day. I was and am an American Idol watcher. Truth be told I'm a shower singer and listen to a lot of music. Genre's don't matter much to me. If I like it, I like it. I'm pretty eclectic in my music taste. One song I've taken to is one done by this year's American Idol winner David Cook. It's called "Dream Big" and a stanza from that song will be the parting shot for today. "I see it everyday, We settled for safe and lose ourselves along the way, But, if you don't dream big what's the use of dreaming, If you don't have faith there's nothing worth believing, It takes one look to make the stars worth reaching for, So reach out for something more." If you would like to hear the song you can use this link to a piece of video off You Tube from the American Idol show.

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

June 11, 2008

I'm not going to start out complaining tonight. It was sounding pretty whiny there for a while. I got some sleep last night and feel much better today. I had hoped to start working on cleaning up the Basscat today, but got sidetracked with some lawn projects and had to go get a haircut at Paul "The Barbarian's."

Got an email from T. Cook today. He took a sixth place on the nonboater side at the Burt and Mullett BFL. Great job!

I first met Tim when Dan Kimmel from Great Lakes Bass had his Spring Open on Lake St. Clair. Tim and I drove over together. Later that same year he came up and spent the night with his partner Herman at my cabin before fishing and winning a Bass Anglers United tournament on Lake Cadillac and Mitchell. Here's a picture of Tim and Herman from that BAU tournament.

Tim on the left, Herman on the Right.

You may have noticed that on the BAU schedule page that the Tear Drop Tournament Trail is now affiliated with BAU. Two of the Tear Drop Tournaments, Green Lake and Portage Lake will be double headers. If you choose to, you can pay two entry fees and fish two tournaments on the same day on the same lake with two separate pay outs. If you place in the top half of the BAU side of the tournament for both tournaments you will qualify for their fish off where a boat will be awarded to the first place team. Check out the BAU site for more details.

I was checking the net tonight and saw where the "Smallmouth Guru" has another entry in his ongoing blog. The blog entry talks about how the price of gas is affecting his approach to fishing. It wasn't particularly informative, but it was interesting and many of us may be using his approach to fishing local waters.

With KVD coming in second down on the Tennessee River backwaters better known as Lake Wheeler, he is now in second place in the AOY race. Todd Faircloth is in first and last year's winner, Skeet Reese is in third. If I were Faircloth I would be sharpening my hooks and looking for a big rabbit's foot. Here is an article on the AOY race .

Jeremy Starks won the Lake Wheeler event. Yesterday I linked the article that talked about his win and how he squeaked it out by just 8 ounces over KVD. Here's an article that talks about how Starks found his fish and proceeded to manage them over the four days. I was particularly interested in this article because my brother and sister-in-law live down in Alabama just minutes from Wheeler. I hope to get down there this fall and do some fishing once my tournament schedule is finished. Here's the "How Starks Did It" article from Bass Fan.

Another article that caught my eye was one that Boyd Duckett did. I saw Boyd down at D&R Sports , and I was very impressed by how focussed he seemed to be and how dedicated to the sport he was.

Boyd Duckett, my young friend Ross and his friend Eric.

Boyd has written an article on early summer fishing and if Duckett writes it, I'm reading it and taking it to heart. Listening to him this spring has made me a believer in what he has to say. Here's his "Duckett Talks Early Summer" piece he did for ESPN.

Time for me to call it quits for the night. Here's the parting shot. With the NBA basketball finals taking place I thought it would be appropriate to have the parting shot of the day be a quote from one of the all time great b-ball players, Kareem Abdu-Jabbar. This quote reminded me of one particular Laker player. "One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team." Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

June 10, 2008

I am definitely getting old. I'm just beat at the end of the day and tonight I'm having trouble keeping the eyelids propped open. I guess it would help to go to bed at night. The last two nights I've been up till two in the morning, and I had to get up this morning at 6:00 am to take the boat over to have Ted at TLC Marine look at the old Cat. He put in a new livewell pump that has been giving me trouble, but as luck would have it, my dang engine light wouldn't come on like it has been. Ted seems to think though that its the alarm gauge itself that is faulty. I'm going to have to have him order the part for me and put it in soon. What's that definition of a boat? Oh yea, "A hole in the water into which you throw money."

At 3:00 pm today, I went over to Kentwood High School to watch the girls softball State Quarterfinal softball game my high school alma mater,Rogers High School, was engaged in against a team from Niles High School.

Man, what a game. Best game I've watched in a while. It was a back and forth never give up battle. These ladies can play some ball. The pitcher from Niles is reputed to be the best in the state. Rogers has a very good pitcher as well and have a very offensively talented team.

The game went extra innings and Rogers was down to its last out, and the batter had two strikes when she hit a double. The next batter bunted a ball hard past the pulled in infield and the ball rolled all the way to the outfield scoring the winning run from second. I have to say it again, what a game! Rogers now plays in Battle Creek Friday in the State Semi Final game at 1:00 pm.

I got several emails today and one was from Ross P. He sent me a copy of a report he did on bass fishing after reading Ray Scott's Bass Boss . He did a great job! I'll have to ask him if it would be okay to put it on the blog.

I also got a call today from Rick Mast. He, as I have mentioned before, fishes almost every day! He fished the Shoreline event Saturday up on Cadillac and Mitchell where he and his partner had an atypical mediocre day. He and his nephew Aaron have been the points champions two years in a row in that tournament group, so finishing in the middle of the pack didn't set well.

Rick fished Sunday in a 1:1 NBAA tournament on White Lake and he won that event. I've got to get these guys to email me some pictures. Great job though Rick!

I got a call tonight from Seth Burrill out in Washington State. I don't know if you saw on the news tonight, but they got snow out in Washington today. Seth says the weather and the fishing has been crazy.

I got to communicating with Seth after my buddy John Baker traveled out to Seattle and attended a walleye meeting with a buddy of his out there. At that meeting John bought a copy of Seth's drop shotting DVD and brought it back to Michigan. With drop shotting legalized here in Michigan last year, I was really curious about the technique. I was very impressed by Seth's instructional video. I highly recommend it. Seth now has two other DVDs out: Knot Tying Secrets Revealed, and Secrets to Locating Big Fish Revealed. Seth also has a unique planer board he has developed and is selling. He has asked me if I would rep these products here in Michigan so I told him I'd give it a try.

Seth also has his online video library available for a yearly subscription fee. I've been using it and you can't beat it for the price. Plus, if you refer someone and they subscribe, Seth will send you $5.00. Here's the link .

It was a busy day of email contacts primarily because I am closing out my .Mac account and that means I'll not be using that particular email box. I will still have my two Yahoo accounts.

One more contact that I enjoyed getting today was from Jim Kientz, Ray Scott's Executive Director at Ray Scott Outdoors Inc. Jim told me about his recent Canadian trip. He said the weather really played havoc with their fishing. Numbers of fish were way down, but he did sent me two pictures of a couple of dandies that he caught.

One of those big Canadian toothy critters.

Jim Kientz with a nice Canadian Smallmouth

Speaking of Ray Scott Outdoors, I ran across an article that Ray did recently about his son Wilson's pond that he is building on his soon to be home site. I got a chance to meet Wilson when we were down at Ray's. Ray had him put on chef's garb and passed him off for a while as his personal chef. He did cook us some delicious steaks for dinner and Ray cooked up a specialty of his that was excellent, kolarobe greens. Here is a shot of us watching a military plane flying over Ray's house getting refueled. That's Ray on the far left, then Jim Kientz, Don Corkran, Don Fowler, and Wilson Scott.

Chef Wilson Scott along with the Pintlala Gang

While cruising the net I see where Berkley is coming out with a smaller version of their hollow belly swim bait. I can't say that I have given them much of a try. Maybe later on this summer.

With summer almost officially here there are many an angler out chunking and winding. When you're in the boat with the buddies it pays to focus on the task at hand or should I just say, that its all fun and games until someone gets hurt as evidenced by this hook in your face video.

Can you believe that KVD just about banked another win in the Elite Series. The B.A.S.S. guys were down on Lake Wheeler in Decatur, Alabama this past Thursday through Sunday. KVD was leading it going in to the last day but got nudged out by a newbie. Here's a short video link from Bass Zone's, Day 4 Wheeler "Wide Open" interview.

ESPN's Wheeler Championship article gives you a pretty good overview of how Starks came back to win over KVD by the slimmest of margins, a measly 8 ounces.

Well, it's midnight and the Lakers just beat the Celtics, and it's time for me to hit the hay. The parting shot today comes from Ray Scott. In his book The Bass Boss there is this quote. "You can't discover new oceans unless you have he courage to lose sight of the shore." Take care and make sure you schedule some time to enjoy the day.

June 9, 2008

A week off! That's the longest dry spell for the blog since I started a year ago. Oh well, I couldn't help it. I was up at Aloha State Park on the shores of Mullett lake prefishing for the first Michigan BFL tournament of the season. Dandy Don and I left Monday and drove up to Aloha and got there after midnight.

Tuesday, Don had a side job to finish in Cheboygan and we spent most of the day in town. We were able to get out on Mullett for about 4-5 hours before dark.

We didn't spot many beds in the north end of Mullett and covered a bunch of shoreline before we started to find and mark some shiny spots around midlake. We tried not to stick many fish hoping that either the male or the female would be there tournament day.

Wednesday, we had to make another trip for one of Don's side jobs and again got back in time to fish another 4-5 hours on Mullet. We found a few more beds on this trip, but it's tough to spot beds when the sun angle is low.

On Friday, we trailered the boat to the ramp at Burt Lake State Park. We stopped at a Marina on the Indian River first though because Don wanted to put in and check the marinas for beds as we motored up to Burt. However, they wanted $15 to launch and with a State Park sticker it's free to unload the boat at Burt, so it was an easy choice to launch there.

We did walk around the docks at the marina and saw at least 5 fish on beds. Two were pretty good largemouths.

Thursday ended up being a cloudy, rainy, lightning filled day. Very tough for spotting deeper beds, but we spent 10 hours on the water.

We found nesting fish as shallow as a foot and a half and found a few out in 10-12 feet of water. We also found a few beds on Burt that had fry. The majority of the fish, in my opinion were, yet to spawn.

I just got through posting the article I did on the BFL Burt and Mullet Lake tournament. You can access it through the button on the home page.

I got home midafternoon today. The storms Sunday dissuaded me from hooking the boat up and heading home. I have to drop the boat off tomorrow morning at 7:00 am at TLC Marine in Marne.

Ted is the mechanic there and I have dealt with him before and was quite impressed. The Vawter boys also take their boat there and they are pretty good mechanics themselves, so I am following their lead and taking the Basscat to Ted. I'm hoping he can tell me why my engine light is staying on. I hope for my monthly finances sake that it's a simple fix.

I did some web cruising for the blog and found a number of links that are worthy of a read. It's already 12:21 am, and I have to get up at six to get the boat in on time so I'm hustling to get some blog info in.

The first short piece I found was a link on getting better gas mileage .

Before I forget, have you been remembering to log in each day to B.A.S.S. 40th Anniversary Gear Up Give Away . Lots of prizes and somebody's got to win.

Well, what to do? I guess I'm going to hang it up for this evening. I'll be on tomorrow and get the rest of the articles I found posted.

The parting shot of the day comes from the thirteenth century Friar, Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of animals, birds, and the environment. He once said to "Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible." Take care and make some time to enjoy your day.

June 2, 2008

Hey, good morning! It's a Monday and the start of another great looking week. Some rain in the forecast, but it looks drier north than it does in southern Michigan.

As I said yesterday, I'm heading up north to put the camper in the bed of the truck and packing my tackle so that I can head over to Dandy Don's so we can go further north to prefish for the Burt and Mullet BFL. I failed to mention yesterday that Swaffer's Toyota is sponsoring us, and I wouldn't want to miss an opportunity to thank them and give them some recognition.

I have bought two vehicles from Chris and I have been more than happy with how I was treated and taken care of. If you're in the market to lease or buy a vehicle make sure you look them up. They are in Cadillac and Clare, but I live in the Grand Rapids area and it was worth the drive to deal with them.

During our prefishing trip Don and I are going to be using the state parks at both Burt and Mullet. They have a state park on each lake. We'll probably stay at Burt the first couple of days then go over to Aloha on Mullet where the tournament is going out of. With the cost of gas it's nice to cut expenses by being able to use the pick up camper and stay at the state park for $26 a night. If you're thinking about using a state park here is their park reservation page .

Yesterday I told you about the Bassmaster.com 40th Anniversary Gear Give Away. I gave you the link to the page. You need to go and register and get a name and password squared away. Once you do you can enter the contest daily. You can also enter the Toyota Fish with the Pros contest. When I checked it out it already had me registered through the Anniversary page and all I had to do was click the appropriate box to be included in that drawing as well. Somebody has to win so you might as well enter. Here is the 40th Anniversary Gear Give Away link one more time.

When I was doing a little surfing of the net there was an article on fishing the frog by Dean Rojas. I have my lakes where I give this technique a try, and I do catch fish on it. It's a pretty exciting way to fish because the strikes are explosive. I've tried them at night a couple of times and have really had some good action. I just don't fish much at night.

This week starting Thursday, June 5th the Bassmaster Elite anglers will be in Alabama down on Lake Wheeler. I wish this event came at a different time on the calendar because Wheeler is just a few minutes from my brother and sister-in-laws place in Athens, Alabama. I would love to ride down and take in the hoopla of a B.A.S.S. Elite Series Event. Don and I fished Wheeler last Halloween. We were on our way to Florida and stopped at Paula and Charlie's and spent a couple of days with them. Here's a picture of Dandy Don with one of probably 30 bass we caught on Wheeler, up in the Elk River, throwing chrome rattletraps. We never caught a hog, but had a bunch of two pounders.

Don down on Lake Wheeler in Alabama.

Hopefully this week we'll find a wifi spot near Burt and Mullet that I can run off to to upload the blog a couple of times. If not make sure you check out the Elite anglers down on Wheeler Thursday. They should have the streaming video on at around 4:00 pm.

One last item before I wrap it up for the day is that at Bassmaster.com you can log on to their podcast page . A podcast is a fairly new computer term that simply refers to a radio type show that you can listen to or in some cases watch. The shows usually range in time from twenty minutes to an hour. The ones on Bassmaster.com obviously are all fishing related, but if you go to iTunes.com you can access podcasts on just about any subject that you can think of, and they are all FREE. You can download them to you iPod, iPhone, MP3 player, or to your computer desktop, and or in most cases, you can just click on the offering and listen to it.

If you download a podcast to your desktop, and you don't have an iPod, etc., you can drag it on a CD, burn it, and then play it in your car or truck. I probably have 70 to 100 hours of podcasts that are on my iPod. Most podcasts come as a magazine subscription would. You sign up for whatever you are interested in and then when a new episode comes out it will automatically download to your computer. If you're like me, I leave my iPod connected to my computer so that every time I turn the computer on it updates the iPod with any new downloads. Works great!

Time for the parting shot of the day. This quote and or lesson comes from Darshil Shah in India, "Apologizing does not mean that your are wrong and the other is right. It only means that you value the relationship much more than personal ego." Been there, done that, and he makes a very good point. Take care and make sure you take time to enjoy your day.

June 1, 2008

Happy anniversary! It has been one year since I started the blog. I took all twelve previous months and archived them like I normally do for each month. If you click on the link above you'll be able to get any of the blogs from the last 12 months.

It's time to get registered for the 40th Anniversary Gear Give Away on Bassmaster.com. After you register, you can log on daily to win a variety of prizes that they are giving away during the month of June. I already signed up and have my entry in for today. Make sure you take advantage of the freebies.

I'm planning to go up north with Dandy Don Monday night. We're going to take the camper up to Burt and Mullet and prefish ahead of the first Michigan BFL. We've been talking about maps, baits, line, etc. One of the things that caught my eye on the net that pertained to our discussion was an article on some new line innovations from Berkley . The new 100% Fluorocarbon Spiderwire Ultracast looks like something I need to try and find. I go back and forth with fluorocarbon. Full reels of the springy stuff often ends up in a twisted mess. Most often I prefer to fish it as a leader. It's much cheaper that way. I don't think I miss much doing so. In fact, the swivel seems to act as an attractant. I've often seen fish peck at it.

I am going to be taking the laptop on the road as Don and I travel North, but I don't know if I'll have much opportunity to access the net. We'll be gone from Tuesday through Saturday.

I found another article on the net that was pretty good. It was a piece on FLWoutdoors.com that talked about fishing the whole water column. They talked about strategies that various anglers have when they approach a body of water. Some start at the top and then work there way down. Others fish their strengths, but use their knowledge of season, weather, and water clarity to adapt their presentations for each day and during each day of their fishing. It's an interesting article.

Just an F.Y.I. the first Tear Drop tournament article for 2008 is up on the main page. If you haven't check it out please do. The standings are also up under the "Rules and Info." button. As the tournaments progress, you'll see an overall standings and an individual lake standings for each tournament.

The next Tear Drop event is on Crystal Lake in Beulah. If you read the articles from the last few years, you will certainly note that Crystal has been a big sack event. Being there later in June may bring the weights down some because it will be at the tail end of the spawn.

For those fishing Crystal, be prepared for the ramp located almost right downtown. The ramp is steep and your trailer usually drags so try to back in at an angle and it's somewhat better. You are also limited in terms of parking. There is some room along the street, but on tournament day you may end up parking a couple of blocks away behind the downtown stores where they have a large parking lot.

Time for me to go so that makes it time for the parting shot. I know here in Michigan the summer season seems to fly by. Make sure you take time to save time by managing the time you do have. Get that calendar out and put things down in writing. You are much more apt to get those trips in and jobs done if you have them managed on paper. Here's a quote from Dr. Seuss which underscores the need for time management. "How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?"

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