Daily Blog

Daily Blog Archive July 1 through July 31, 2007

July 31 , 2007

Good Morning! Started talking yesterday about KVD and mentioned D&R Sports Center and I didn't put in the hot link. I would guess most people in this area know that D&R is owned by Kevin's brother Randy Van Dam. Randy is a pretty darn good angler as well and has the state record smallmouth for I believe it's Ohio. I have visited KVD's web site in the past, but had to check it out today and found that it has been nicely updated. It's a good looking and informative web site.

His wife Sherry runs the business end of things for Kevin, and by the looks of things she is right on the ball. She even writes for the web site. I visited his online store and now I'm going to have to get one of his new logo hats. Can't be a member of the fan club without a hat. I hope he wins another Angler of the Year award. Skeet Reese, who has the lead by twenty points at the moment, has got to be antsy with someone like Kevin stalking him. It's like being in the final pairing with Tiger Woods. You just know he's going to make a charge.

While I was at his site I joined his forum. Looks like another source for some good info. While I was reading one of the forum posts I saw one that ended with a by line I thought was good, "Bass would be bigger if anglers had longer arms." Reminds me of the quote, "You know how to tell if an angler is lying? Watch their lips. If they're moving they're lying." Another forum post by KVD himself involved what to do when smallmouth are following your bait in but not getting aggressive and hitting it. Here's what KVD had to say, "In clear water, smallmouth are notorious for following baits. Usually, I can trigger them into striking by speeding up my retrieve and giving the lure erratic twitches. Most of the time when they follow a lure it's because they're getting too good a look at it. Speed it up and make it more erratic and you'll get more strikes." Check out KVD's site, I think you'll like it.

If you're a Fall turkey hunter you have until August 1 to apply for a Fall license. It costs you $4 to apply . You have until August 15 to apply for your doe license.

With the Forest Wood Cup coming up in a couple days, I thought I would start the build up by linking the angler profiles for the Michigan guys that will be fishing. Here is Kevin Long's .

Definitely coming into the "Dog Days" of summer. The heat is suppose to build these next two days and then fall off a little for the weekend. I am going to try and take off tonight and get the boat and be on Hamlin tomorrow morning and Thursday morning. Hope to try some drop shotting and then maybe go deep and do some jigging and then maybe go out to where the walleye guys normally sit and drag some tubes Erie style. We'll see what happens.

Last month I cut the blog and archived the month with a hot link up above. I'll be doing that again sometime today. Everything for the past two months is there. You just have to click on the archived link. Take care and remember fishing would be better if fisherman had longer arms!

July 30 , 2007

Howdy, a slow day yesterday. Worked around the house and cleaned out the cars which needed a good going over. Watched the FLW coverage of the recent Potomac River event. They do a good job getting coverage of anglers. The camera they fit on the bill of the anglers cap provides some unique angles. They ended the coverage with one more day of fishing to go. Next Sunday, they will finish it up with the final day of fishing and the weighin. You can look up the winner if you like, or just tune in next Sunday.

Later in the day I thought I'd better check on the B.A.S.S. Elite Series and saw where Peter T. (Thliveros) eaked out a victory in New York at Lake Oneida at the Bassmaster Memorial. The last two days the tournament moved to Lake Onondaga , where they fished a six hole course. Peter T's win was a back to back victory in the Memorial. His number one bait was a super fluke. If you want to read more you can click on this ESPN link.

These B.A.S.S. Majors don't count for Angler of the Year points. At this time Skeet Reese leads the Kalamazoo Kid Kevin Van Dam by 20 points. I have always been a Van Dam fan and have had the opportunity to hear him speak at seminars a number of times and was lucky enough to have lunch with him, his twin boys, and Mike Auten a couple of years ago at The Parlour . Not to change the subject, but if you get within 50 miles and you want the best and biggest sundae you're ever going to eat stop there. It's just a stones throw from D & R Sports, which if you fish, you know where I'm talking about. It's just east of D & R and west of Meijers next to Mc Donalds. If you go, whatever you get, have them add some of their peanut butter sauce!!

Back to KVD, he's a phenomenal athlete. To have the number of wins and accomplishments fishing at that elite level is truly amazing. Jerry McKinnis wrote an article about how he feels KVD is probably the most under rated athlete in all of the different sports combined. I got to agree with Jerry.

Hey, it's a Monday and there's only 4 more days till the weekend. Have a great day!

July 29 , 2007

Good morning! I was up late making ice to prepare for the humidity and 94 degree weather forecasted for Wednesday of this coming week. Should be an interesting weather pattern to confound the heck out of your attempt at patterning fish. I see that they are calling for clouds and rain on Sunday, the day of the Hamlin tournament. I think when I go up to prefish again I'm going to give the drop shot rig a work out and see what I can catch on it. On the greatlakesbass.com site, there is a long thread on drop shotting St. Clair with two and a half inch tubes. If you get a chance check it out. Wayne Carpenter from combat-bassfishing.com has a wealth of information that he shares on the site. Wayne sells some great bass baits that you can look at on his ebay store I have a bunch of Wayne's stuff including his books on Lake St. Clair.

While I was googling Wayne's Extreme site, I found another site that has a wealth of information on bass fishing. I read a couple of the articles and they look good. It's Extreme Bass Lures .

I bumped around on a number of sites today and googled others and ran across Art Ferguson's site. Art is one of five Michigan anglers that will be competing August 2 in the $2,000,000 Forest Wood Cup. He along with Kevin Long, and Kevin Vida on the pro side, and Trevor Jancasz, and Tom Trombly on the coangler side will be down on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas trying to fulfill a dream and fill up a bank account. I'll be following the tournament and try and keep you up to date.

Remember with the hot weather upon us to make sure you take care of those fish you put in your livewell. Here are some tips I pilfered from an article that I can't remember where to credit, but oh well here they are: "If the water is below 75 degrees, pump in fresh water continuously (not timed)
If the water is above 75 degrees, fill the livewell in a open lake area with good water quality. Then run the aerator pump continuously to keep the water oxygenated. Recirculate rather than pump in hot lake water. Use ice to cool the water and slow the metabolism of the fish. A frozen half gallon jug will cool a 15 gallon livewell about 10 degrees for three hours.
Also, add 1/3 cup of non iodized salt for every five gallons. This helps the bass maintain electrolyte balance and reduces stress. Rejuvenated or Catch & Release can be used as directed instead of salt.
After three hours, drain half of the livewell water and refill with fresh water. This removes toxins such as carbon dioxide and ammonia. Then add half the amount of ice and salt. Or, if your livewells are separate you can fill up the other livewell not being used, put in the proper amount of ice and salt and move the fish over to the fresh water.
During the summer months I always have my livewell ready before blast off because when the first fish is caught I don't want that fish laying in the bottom of a dry livewell and then having to prepare the water with ice and salt. Also, when a fish is hooked deep and bleeding, I get the fish in the treated water as soon as possible and the fish is usually just fine. Treating the water with ice and salt also helps the fish that are caught deep that have swollen air bladders. These fish will float upside down for awhile or sometimes until weigh in but when they are released they swim off just fine."

Some good tips. The last one, however, dealing with fish caught deep gets into that "fizzing" controversy that was discussed a few days ago. We'll have to keep our eye on that thread.

Well the FLW is on FSN at 11:00 so I have a few minutes before it airs. Enjoy the day! Look for the positives and try to back burner the negatives. Doesn't do you any good to dwell on them anyway. I always find that any kind of plan that you have to over come an obstacle will help you move forward and feel much better whatever the problem is. Believe me, I've had experience!

July 28 , 2007

I planned on driving up to the cabin today to get my boat and poles ready for the Hamlin tournament, which until today, I thought was tomorrow. Got locked into a tournament every two weeks and just assumed that Hamlin was tomorrow. Called the Vawter Boys today to see if they were coming up to spend the night at the cabin and they said no. By the way Brent said it, I thought something was funny. I then asked about fishing Hamlin tomorrow, and he said that it was next week on the fifth. Checked the computer, and I'll be darn. Oh well, got two days of prefishing in a week early. That can never hurt. I do have a doctor's appointment next week on Thursday so that complicates the schedule a bit, but I should be able to eak a couple more prefishing days out.

Was perusing the FLW site and saw that the $2,000,000 Forest Wood Cup is set for August 2-5 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The event will invite 81 pros and 81 coanglers from a variety of qualifying circuits: 2007 FLW Series, 2007 Wal-Mart FLW Tour, 2007 BFL All American, 2007 TBF National Championship, 2006 Stren. The top prize in the event is a cool $1,000,000. George Cochran won it last year and took home $500,000, but this year the pot was sweetened. Last year the event was on Lake Hamilton , and this year it's on Lake Ouachita , Arkansas. According to what I read Lake Hamilton, at 7,500 acres, is a numbers lake, with Lake Ouachita at 48,000 acres being a big bass lake. Ouachita doesn't have the traffic that Hamilton has. Hamilton is near Hot Springs and is a cottage, cottage, cottage lake. Ouachita hardly has a place, except for marinas on it. It will be interesting to see how the anglers narrow things down with so much water. TV coverage of the event will be on FSN September 23 and 30. One last note about the Cup is that the Best Damn Sport Show Ever will be taping live on the Chevy stage just before the day 3 weigh in. Should be fun to watch. The article didn't say when the segment would be aired. The show comes on at night at 10:30 on FSN. Should be a fun one to watch.

Getting hungry, and now that I have another week up on Hamlin, I thought I would put up Barnharts link that shows a aerial picture of the place. If you are up prefishing it makes a great stop for lunch, and I know my way around a lunch.

I guess it's time to get going, although already today I got my hair cut and the oil changed on the wife's car. Time for one more project. Have a great day!

July 26 , 2007

I was back at Hamlin again today. Took over another guide with me. My granddaughter went. She's a real trooper. Got up at the crack of dawn. Stayed awake on the 45 minute drive over and was in to the fishing despite having a bad arm. Looks like she has a dislocated elbow. She has an appointment at the specialists for them to decide what they are going to do with it. She got some boat driving lessons, which she seem to really enjoy. I wanted her to be able to start the boat and know how to put it in gear. Hanging around with gramps, she needs to be knowledgeable about how to do things when we are out and about.

You Go Girl

Another Vanna White

We didn't have a stellar day again today. Caught some keepers and had a limit, but no big fish. It was windier that it had been yesterday which always means the lower lake will be tougher to fish. We got there around 7:30 and fished until 12:30 and then went to Barnhart's again for lunch. They do have a good burger basket. I would highly recommend it if you're out on the lake and want to get a bite to eat. It's located between Pete's Bayou and the Wilson Hill launch. It's just a hand full of cottages west of the Wilson Hill Park launch on the south shore.

Was cruising again on Dan Kimmel's greatlakesbass.com fishing forum, and the talk is still focussed on fizzing bass. If you have ever caught bass out of deep water, you know that their fish bladders over inflate in a case like the bends when you bring them up from about 20 feet or deeper. If you release them right away, they can go back down and readjust. If you put them in your live well to take to a weighin, they can't keep themselves upright because of the over inflated swim bladder. You can "fizz" the bass, release the air in the bladder, by puncturing it with an 18 gauge 1 1/2 inch hypodermic needle. Of course you need to be sure of exactly where to insert the needle, and you also have to be sure not to release too much air. If you scroll down on the fizzing thread you will see a pretty thorough piece that Dan put up. Here are also some sites with info: Ultimate Bass fizzing article and diagram , Michiganbass.net , Alternative Deep Release Method from Outdoor Life .

I am going to sign off now, so I can get to work and finish, finally, the host tournament article. It should be up in an hour or so. Have a good day!

July 25 , 2007

Went over to Hamlin today to do some prefishing. Had a guide along with me, Matt Hoogerhyde. Matt has fished Hamlin as much as anyone around and he's mighty good company. We stayed in Upper Hamlin for some topwater early. We caught several fish and two that would keep. One went about two and a half pounds. We then fished the shoreline drop and some docks. The action was pretty slow. We picked up a keeper here and there. The Hamlin fish are always chunks and bulldog hard. We then went down in Lower Hamlin and fished weedlines. We caught and lost a number of fish and had probably three more keepers. Matt caught a nice two and a half or three pounder. We fished on down Lower Hamlin without much action. We went back up into Upper Hamlin and went and got some food at the restaurant just east of Pete's Bayou. Matt had the fish basket which he said was very good. I had the hamburger basket and it was very good as well. There were people next to us who got pizza and that looked mighty tasty. You can dock your boat right outside the restaurant. They have gas there too. After eating, we went back out on Upper Hamlin and on Matt's first cast he caught a nice keeper. We only made one drift down a weedbed and decided it was time to hit the road.

Hoogy Hooks Up

The weather today was almost ideal fishing weather. It was partly sunny and almost dead calm in the early hours. Around 9:00 a little breeze stirred a ripple out of the lake. The wind picked up a little more by noon, but you could still drift without trying to brake with the trolling motor. After I got back to the cabin, it clouded up and by about 7:30 we had rain. Not much, but enough to make it plenty sticky.

My sister , her kids, and my mom were all up at my brother-in-laws cabin on vacation. They all went up to Skinner Park last Monday night because gramma wanted to slake her bingo addiction. A lady won a cover all satellite bingo there for $130,000!!!! Playing bingo!! That's some serious cash. Maybe we could get some satellite bass tournament action.

I've been driving around almost every night and have been seeing a lot of deer. I don't recall seeing this many deer up here in years. We've been seeing some nice bucks in velvet that are beginning to fork and look like they should have some good head gear come fall.

Saw an eagle and five mink the other day here at the cottage. Saw an eagle on Hamlin today as well. I think I have seen an eagle on each of the Tear Drop lakes we've fished this year. Maybe that's why they've come off the endangered species list.

Big Bass Lake also has a nesting pair of loons. They had two chicks this year and we hear them daily and see them almost every day out fishing. All four of them are usually together.

Tuesday we went to Leroy to The Eyes Have It . Nice little shop, and it had a good selection of hooks. I was looking specifically for jig heads. I really didn't have time to shop, but I found some long shanked eighth oz. jig heads that I really liked. Plan to get back there soon.

It's getting late and I'm getting up to take my granddaughter fishing with me on Hamlin. She's really excited. She went to bed early to be sure she can wake up at 5:30 am to go fishing. We'll have fun. Have a good day!

July 23 , 2007

Good Morning! We fished the "Host Tournament" up on Duck Lake in Interlochen yesterday. I'll be writing an article, which I hope to get going on later today. Any who I got up at 4:30 am to make the hour drive up to Interlochen. I always go up through Brethren, Kaleva, and Thompsonville on 669. Sunday was one of those great Michigan Northwest Corner days. The sky was a deep azure blue and the sun was building heat. There was little to no wind. Most boats ran to the point across from the ramp and several moved around to the back side of Duck. I fished with Dick Wilson from MC Sports . MC Sports has been a long time sponsor of the Tear Drop and Dick has fished and won the Host Tournament several times. Dick and I started off the point and caught two just keeper smallmouth throwing plastic. We then moved over to the area in front of the music camp. No luck there. We then moved across the lake and just north of the ski boat slalom course and fished that drop down. Again we couldn't connect. Next we went back to the point and frothed the water where we caught the two smallmouth earlier. While we were there we saw Josh and his host, Dave Leusby of Powell's Grocery in Tustin, fishing shallow. As we fished and watched them, I told Dick that they were approaching an area I always have like and, in fact, earlier in the morning Dick and I fish. While watching, talking and fishing we see Josh hook up and fight a fish through a series of jumps that are characteristic of a crazy smallmouth battle. We took the cue and moved across the lake and started fishing shallow structure. The first spot we stopped I hooked up and then Dick caught two, the bigger one getting off right at the net. That gave us four. We kept at it moving one more time to catch our fifth limit fish. Would it be enough to win, well you will have to stay tuned for the rest of the story when the article gets finished.

2007 Host Tournament

I googled up ESPN to see how Mike Iaconelli did in the ESPYS race. Well, he lost out to the guy who ran 50 marathons in 50 days. I still like Mike. He's become a loud personality, but that's all part of the TV hype and the need for personalities even in the bass fishing world.

Need to make an apology here. I met Lee Whipple's girlfriend at our first tournament and then forgot her name. It's no excuse, but I am terrible remembering names. My friend John remembers them all and I am always in awe of people like that. Any way, Heidi Bosley and Lee Whipple stopped by the cabin Saturday. They had been prefishing Big Bass. Lee said he had been over prefishing Hamlin as well. Said from 2 to 5 in the afternoon that he and his fishing buddy E.B. boated probably 20 bass the best five going over 20 lbs. That's scary. I plan to go over to Hamlin at least two days this week. Hope I can find the fish like Lee has.

We have been spending evenings over at my brother-in-law's cabin the past few days. They have had about 50 people up for their annual raft trip down the Manistee. It's been fun throwing horse shoes, sitting around the fire, and watching all the goings on. My niece was proposed to on the trip and will now be planning a Fall wedding.

Got to go. Take care and have a great day!

July 21 , 2007

If I was still teaching I'd be entering panic mode about now. The school supplies are filling the aisles of the big box stores signaling the end of the summer hiatus for teachers and students alike. However, I'm not teaching so it's now just an observance, a summer time line marker that no longer sends me brooding.

Spent the last two days at my sister's cabin with a bunch of her crew that are getting together for an annual tubing trip down the Big Manistee. So, if you're doing any trout fishing or floating the river today for some of it's great smallmouth fishing,you may get the serenity of your trip interrupted by 50 tubers nosily drifting down the river from Tippy Dam to High Bridge. The group includes my 70+ year old mother so please no profanity if they enter your space.

I was doing some reading about the VHS problem that continues to plague Michigan waters. I remember the first time this winter when I heard about the problem. They hadn't yet confirmed it's presence in Lake Huron and were calculating the time it may take to get around to Lake Michigan. They forecasted it would take a year or two. Well, it's already made it into Lake Michigan, into inland lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin, and it's only been a matter of a few months. We all need to do a better job whenever we fish water connected to the Great Lakes so as not to bring it inland. That means we wash out bilges with hot tap water using a third of a cup of bleach for every 5 gallons of water. It's not too hard. Just get a five gallon bucket. Fill it up in your shower. Add the bleach, and pour it in your livewell and bilge areas. Here's an article that talks about the problem VHS is causing for state fish hatcheries

I have been reading more about Steve Clapper's $200,000 recent wire to wire win in the Detroit River FLW event. Here's a quote from one of the articles concerning when they will air the TV coverage of the event. "Coverage of the tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 as part of the "FLW Outdoors" television program. "FLW Outdoors" airs Sunday mornings at 11:00 Eastern time."

In the reading I have done from the FLW site, it appears that Clapper, from Lima Ohio, fished dirty water in areas he new to be good locations with a drop shot rig. Now, if you have ever fished Erie, and it has been my meager experience, that you try and run to clear water avoiding dirty water stirred when the wind is out of the east. Clapper seems to have gone against the conventional wisdom and scored big with it. Here is a link to an FLW Outdoors article that talks about a live chat that will be held with Clapper on July 23 at 3:00 pm Eastern time. The article says that you can log on now and submit questions that will hopefully be selected to be answered by Steve. You'll be able to log on to their "Reel Chat" and follow the conversation in the chat room. Sounds like it would be interesting and probably contain some good tips on how his drop shotting scored big for him. I'm going to try and remember to log on. That's 3:00 on July 23, which is this Monday.

Check out the "Overall Standings" from the Detroit River Event and you will see way up at the top an ex Tear Drop competitor Tony DeFilippo in 14th place. He took home $15,000 beating out some very high octane pros. Great job Tony!!! Way to represent the "Great Northwest Corner" here in Michigan. Tony is from Lake Ann, and he hasn't been a regular Tear Drop competitor, but has filled in with guys who needed a super sub a few times over the years. He has had his boats advertised on the Tear Drop For Sale page several times.

It does one good to look at a standings sheet like this some times because when it doesn't go your way in a tournament, it can be very lonely at the bottom. Even guys like Luke Clausen have bad tournaments as evidenced by his almost dead last finish.

Here is another Clapper article , that gives you some Idea of what he and several other of the top guys were doing on Erie and St. Clair. They called it the Detroit River event, but you can bet that their weren't too many of the top contenders staying in the river. Although the St. Clair River really heats up in late August and that's where you will find a bunch of tournament anglers heading that time of year.

As I was doing some of my usual cruising I came across a site that claimed free fishing ring tones for your cell phone. I know all kinds of people have their favorite song or TV characters voice programmed in for their cell phone ring. Fishing ring tones, however, are new to me. I haven't investigated them yet, but will likely have to give them a try because my phone still sounds like a traditional phone when it rings. That's if it rings. Up north here the service is very iffy. Here's the link to one of the sites that offers free fishing ring tones.

Time to get off the computer. My son out in Lake Tahoe sent me some pictures and with the dial up here it takes about an hour to get four pictures so I'm going to start the download and go set in the hot tub and read. Have to wait for the grass to dry yet before I can mow it. Take care and maybe I'll see you up on Duck tomorrow morning. It's a pretty morning here. The suns out, and the lake is like glass.

July 20 , 2007

Just a quick blurb to say the Cadillac article is up on the site. This slow dial up connection is a killer. I have worked on the article for six hours!!!! Mainly waiting for searches and uploads. Remember, if you are thinking about going up to Duck for the Host Tournament to give Dennis a call at 231-690-2605. July 18 , 2007

I'm up at the cabin this morning with the granddaughter, wife and mother-in-law. The weather continues to be humid with a threat of rain. The granddaughter got up early with a fever. Must have picked up a bug some place. I never like it when little ones are sick.

I have been mulling over what to do in terms of fishing this week. Should I go up to Duck Lake or make a prefishing trip to Hamlin . I do intend to spend several days next week on Hamlin, but Hamlin is such a good lake that it is one of my favorites to fish any ole time.

Hamlin will be a key lake for many Tear Drop teams as they try and position themselves to make the Classic. Hamlin is key because the last lake is Big Bass Lake near Irons. Big Bass Lake is a small 280 acre lake that has been a great little bass lake. However, it has been diagnosed with largemouth bass virus, LMBV. Over the past several years the bigger bass started to look sick. Large heads with skinny bodies. The weights in our tournaments dropped significantly. The number of keeper bass plummeted to the point where we decided we couldn't realistically hold a tournament on it. This year's event on Big Bass will give us a look at how the lake is recovering. If you're interested in reading the DNR's report of the fish sampling they did and the diagnostic work to confirm the virus check out the article under the Big Bass Lake Association minutes button on the main page.

Knowing first hand what the LMBV can do to a lake makes me very concerned about spreading the information on this virus and the new virulent VHS virus. Viral hemorrhagic septicemia , VHS, has been causing quite a stir in Michigan and it's neighboring states as well as Canada. The state has enacted emergency rules to help prevent it's spread. As anglers we need to be evangelical in our dissemination of info to those who have boats and trailer them between lakes. There is a button on the main page containing information on VHS. The hot link above will take you to the MDNR page with their VHS information.

Well, I was going to chat about Steve Clapper's FLW win on the Detroit River, but being up at the cabin means one sloooowww connection and adding links and doing some quick spell checks and searches takes a bunch of time and I think I'm going to call it quits for today. Still working on the Cadillac article. Maybe I'll have it up by tomorrow morning.

Have a great day! The sun is out here and the sky is blue and the fish are jumping.

July 17 , 2007

Good morning! A muggy start today with rain forecasted almost every day this week.

This coming Sunday is the Tear Drop "Host Tournament." The Tear Drop Tournament Trail sells ads in a flyer for $100 and $200. (They also have major sponsor ads if any one is interested.) The $200 ads are referred to as host ads. The Tear Drop has a 5 hour tournament up on Duck Lake for all the hosts. The winning host gets their $200 back. Each host fishes with a Tear Drop angler in their boat. Afterwards, they all go out for a great brunch at the Hofbrau in Interlochen. The winners of the host tournament get their picture on the front of the Tear Drop flyer. It's a good time on one of my favorite lakes in one of my favorite areas. If you are a Tear Drop angler, and are going to go up to Duck, make sure you get a hold of Dennis. His email address is turfy@verizon.net

Well if you wanted to apply for an elk permit you missed the boat. However, on the 15th of July the doe permit application process started. You can check all the hunting time tables for permits by clicking the MDNR link here.

I know one of the Vawter boys, Bryan got a bear permit for this year. I don't know of any other hunting friend that got one. I do know that the Vawter boys have also bought one of Ron Hicks hunts down in Pike County, Illinois for whitetail. Ron has made several trips down there to scout and hang stands, and has been seeing some great deer. Here is an example of one of the big Pike County bucks.

Pike County, Illinois Buck

If you're interested in a hunt you need to get a hold of Ron at 231-250-0197.

Before I started the blog entry today, I uploaded the pictures that Matt Kaiser gave to me Sunday at the Cadillac tournament. He was kind enough to help out and take some pictures when I forgot my camera at Manistee. So if you go to 2007 Articles on the main page, and click on Manistee, and scroll down you will see the new pictures. I don't really like the way they fit without scrolling in the window and may do some resizing, but for now they'll have to do.

I said yesterday that I would give you some tease material from the Cadillac tournament. Well, how about 18 lbs. of largemouth in a July tournament on Cadillac and Mitchell. That's right almost 18 pounds. That's a weight that will most likely get you money in a spawn tournament! The winner is not a Tear Drop rookie, but is a rookie team. The bait of choice, well ... you're going to have to wait for the article, which I'm working on. The other good news from Cadillac is that after a lousy prefishing expedition Ron and I got it together and caught almost 13 pounds for second place! That will definitely help us with the Classic point standings and give us a shot at making the $5,000 Tear Drop Classic this September.

The FLW Detroit River event was last week. I didn't get to go down, but next year they are coming back and I'm going to make a point to go down for the show. Steve Clapper, a Michigan angler, lead wire to wire and won the $200,000 first place check. Here's a Bass Fan article from day 1. Tomorrow, we'll talk about Clapper's win and see how our ex Tear Drop competitor Tony DeFilippo from Traverse City did.

Hey, have a good day!

July 16 , 2007

Didn't intend to take a week's hiatus, but it turned out that way. The wife and I took the pickup camper and the boat to stay a week a Mitchell State Park in Cadillac. Planned to prefish for the Tear Drop event that was held there yesterday. I thought that there would be a wireless connection some place to get online with. There were a couple of places aside from pulling in a hotel parking lot and piggy backing there. Shay's in Cadillac is a coffee house that has very good beverages food and gelato. There is also wi fi available at the public library.

We stayed the first two nights on the Clam Canal which connects Lake Mitchell and Lake Cadillac.

Clam Canal Looking Toward Lake Cadillac

Coming Out of The Clam Into Mitchell

Coming in to the canal from either end you need to be careful not to bottom out. It is no wake through the canal. As you are about to enter Lake Mitchell you go under the bridge. Make sure as you enter the lake you bear left. Be very careful because by the breakwall there, you will find some very big rocks. I should say you don't want to find the rocks there. I would also recommend that you motor down past the swimming area before you head west down the lake. Don't try to take the corner until you are mid lake if you're going north.

The next two nights we had to move to the other side of the park. I actually liked the spot, 107 better. It's a pull through and larger than most lots. It did cost a whole $2 more, but it was worth it. They do have a cabin for rent at the park which is right on Lake Cadillac. Great view. They will have a second cabin ready this fall that will have two bedrooms and a sitting room. It will come equipped with a fridge, microwave, etc.

The last night we stayed at Hemlock Park, a US Forest Service campground. The campground is just a few miles west of Cadillac. Turn right off M55 at Thirsty's, a gas station that many know of because they use to have a caged bear out in front. Hemlock park has large campsites with a crescent of asphalt, large enough to park your boat and camper and truck. There is also a shallow ramp to Lake Mitchell at the campground. Didn't try to use it so I don't know if I could get the bass boat in there. We liked our last night spot very much.

We enjoyed eating at the House of Hunan, Shays, Lakeside Charlies, Laura Lee's and had a great $3.99 breakfast at the 13th St. Market. We also ate pizza with the Fowlers at the state park. Don had it delivered from G&D Pizza. The park rangers won't let them deliver to your site. You have to have the delivery person call you once they reach the main entrance.

We weren't very lucky weather wise during our stay. We had a good time, but I only got a couple hours one night and one day of prefishing in. In those 11 hours I caught only one legal bass. The winds all week were of the hurricane variety. The rain and cold didn't help either.

I ended up not being able to check out the chatter on Great Lakes Bass. I did try and catch up today by reading the current and the old posts. One post in particular caught my attention. It was for a tool called a "D-Barb" It resembles a pair of side cutters that I carry when I cut hooks so that I can remove them from deeply hooked fish. I have talked about before how I feel it is not good to leave a hook in a fish. I have a pair of long handle side cutters that I reach down the gullet with and cut the barb off so the hook can be more easily remove without injuring the fish further. This tool is magnetized so when you cut the barb it sticks to the magnet and you get all of the hook out. Take a look at it. It's something I will be buying.

Well tomorrow I will be back with the blog and give you a sneak peak at how the tournament went Sunday. I did take pictures and Matt Kaiser gave me a memory stick of pictures from Manistee which I will be adding to that article. Have a good day!

July 9 , 2007

Short entry today because we're packing to head up to Mitchell State Park to camp for several days. Hoping the weather cooperates so I can get some prefishing in for the upcoming Tear Drop event this coming Sunday.

Finally gave up on the finding anyone who had the Basstrix tubes. I even went on Craig's List and then selected California and went to the list in Sacramento. I thought that out in swimbait USA territory that someone may know of a place to get them. I left a post to see if anyone would reply. Nothing yet.

Remember that the FLW will be on the Detroit River this week. Here is a newspaper article about the event. Here's another article that quotes our good buddy Kim Stricker who will be fishing the event. Another Michigan angler familiar to many of us Tear Drop vets is Tony DeFilippo of Lake Ann up near Traverse. Tony has been fishing a number of the FLW events, but I don't know if he will be fishing this one. He most likely will be. He has fished that water in a number of tournaments and would be competitive.

As I said, I did a lot of looking for the Basstrix tubes and I found a number of interesting sites. Here is a site that is on Great Lakes Bass , that looks like a good one. It's called Mike's RX Baits

Yesterday I went to Dick's Sporting Goods in Rivertown Mall. They have a bunch of stuff on clearance. One bargain I found was fishing shorts. You know, the type that are made of the fast drying material, have sewn in briefs,with lots of pockets. They retailed at $24, but with the clearance they were going for $6.50. I bought four pair and am going back today to get Don three pair. Good buy and I have a pair on right now and they are very comfortable and cool in this heat we're experiencing.

Well, got to get busy if I'm going to be on the water on Mitchell and Cadillac tomorrow at daylight. Have a good day. Stay cool.

July 8 , 2007

Hey, it looks like it's going to be a hot one today. Still better than snow. Yesterday I was talking about Pro's Soft Bait Glue and if you decide to try some be sure you get a plastic bottle with a brush that they have on the site. Well worth the little bit extra.

Just finished watching the men's final at Wimbledon. Federer wins five in a row. Tremendous accomplishment!! Five in a row, at the level of competition that they compete in, is almost impossible to believe can happen. I remember watching Bjorn Borg gather his five in a row. I use to play a lot of tennis. Loved playing on clay, but never had the opportunity to play on grass. Nadal, Federer's finals competitor, played something like 6 days in a row because of rain. You're talking matches that go all out for over 3 hours. A tremendous amount of physical exertion. Nadal reminded me of Mike Iaconelli. "Never give up," kept running through my mind as I watched the five set match.

Just checked to see if you could still vote for Mike in "Best Outdoor Athlete" category on ESPN's ESPYS site. I thought, when I checked and provided the link a few days ago, it said you could vote until July 17th. I thought wrong. The voting is closed.

I cruised the site a bit and saw where Tammy Richardson from the WBT was the ESPYS Angler of the Year for 2006. If you have a gal in your life, either your wife, girlfriend, daughter, or granddaughter it's time to get them into the sport. Here is a web site that they may want to look at called Women Anglers Online Magazine.

Just spent a bunch of time playing with Google Earth. It gives you a satellite view of any spot you punch in. Not great resolution at most of the personal addresses you punch in, but it does give you some very unique perspectives. You have to download the software though. It is free, but it takes a minute. Here's a link for it if you're interested. Google Earth

Watch your bobber, as Don always says, and have a good day!

7,7, 2007

Suppose to be a lucky day today. Every day above ground you could chalk off to a good piece of luck. Got up early to watch ESPN2 at 9:00. Pitiful when you call 9:00 early. Fishing was preempted by NASCAR coverage. So I didn't get any fishing fix today.

Ran and did some errands and also made reservations at Mitchell State Park to prefish a few days next week. Did some surfing on the net to see if I could find any of those paddle tail tubes. Found some 6 inch from a place in California, but I'm thinking six inchers are too big for the fishing we do here. Those clear water lakes out west are swim bait territory although they say that swim baits are said to be the next big selling bait to come along. Maybe this paddle tail tube is just the start. It's sold out wherever you go and they are getting top dollar on eBay.

I did find some interesting baits while I was looking for the paddle tail. Take a look at these tube style baits from Land Big Fish . I like the ribs. I think all those ribs give the bait a ton more surface area to exude scent from. They also trap air bubbles and give it a slower fall.

Whatever you're fishing, when it comes to soft plastics, you usually go through a bunch of baits because, as the name implies, it's soft. I have run across a glue that helps repair those baits and seems to have a number of qualities that super glues don't. Check out Pro's Soft Bait Glue . Have a great day and buy a lottery ticket on this luckiest of lucky days.

July 5, 2007

Howdy, well I actually got some work done today after starting off the day having coffee at the Na-Tah-Ka. Rick and Craig were there. Talked to Craig a bit about his boat he bought from an old Tear Drop angler Dan McKellar. Dan bought a Nitro from Don Fowler and now it's Craig's.

It's too early to start talking politics, but in listening to some people talking I was surprised again when they were saying that Barack Obama was of middle eastern descent. I know Obama sounds like he may be, but actually he is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white lady from a small Kansas town. His father left when he was two and his mother raised him. He spent most of his young life in Hawaii. He did spend several years in Jakarta, Indonesia when his mother remarried. His mom died in the late 90s from cancer. Oh well, enough with presidential candidate trivia.

Don called today and said he heard on TV 9 & 10 that they caught a couple of guys stashing fish in a fishing tournament. They came and arrested them and charged them with a felony. Sounds just about right. That's pretty low and guys like that need to get the negative tv time and the vacation in a county jail for a while.

Jacked the boat up and checked the hot wheel that I had the other day. There was no wobble in it that might indicate bad bearings. Greased all the bearing buddies and took the boat for a spin around the block. Everything stayed cool, calm, and even though slightly neglected it appears to be ready to travel. Need to get Ron to give me a walk through on repacking the bearings before long.

Still waiting for Matt K. to get me the Manistee pictures. Guess I'll just have to go with the two the Vawter boys sent.

Rick was asking me this morning about the hunts that Ron is selling down in Polk County, Illinois. Sounds like he might be interested. Last year Rick drew two moose permits. He filled the one in Maine with a nice bull. Ron has been down to southern Illinois hanging stands and earlier in the spring they went down and found some big shed racks. Should be an interesting Fall. The Vawter boys bought a hunt and are heading down there. They are hunting and fishing fools. Great young men too! I have known them since they were toddlers. Couldn't ask for nicer guys.

Mentioned Topozone yesterday. Still have to get on that site and check it out further. You can also get maps from the MDNR site. You can also get door to lake directions if you need them on the state's site.

I kind of hate to put this next site on because the bait looks like it would be a fish catching son of a gun. I was getting some "Lessons from Larry" and I followed the link to find a Basstrix Paddle-tail tubes . Tell me you can look at that bait and can say that it is not a gooooood loooking bait. Good thing they make credit cards. Will they get here in time for Cadillac and Mitchell. We'll see.

July 4, 2007

".... and the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there...." The Fourth of July" holiday is especially poignant with our troops involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. God bless them and be with them and their families in their time of need. Two of my students that I got involved with in a little fishing group six years ago left for boot camp in San Diego June second or maybe it was the third. All of us, I'm sure have close ties to someone now, that either has been there, or is there, or is going there. Let's hope our world leaders can do something to end the violence and bring all the world's people closer together so we can live in peace.

Worked for a considerable time today on the Manistee article. Have the lion's share of it done. Waiting to see if Matt K. will be sending me the pictures he took Sunday. Brent Vawter sent me two he took. Got them linked in and uploaded. I am also waiting to hear from Dennis. I've been bugging him to death. Hoping to get the phone numbers of the guys that finished in the top five at Manistee. I would like to give them a call to see if they have any stories or sponsor info they would like in the article. I know most anglers are pretty tight lipped, but I would think they could give us some generalities. I did talk to Ricky S. Jr. and he had a funny story about his partner John. He also said he really wacked them Sunday. After getting a limit, and culling some fish, they headed back toward the ramp with about a half hour to go. They pulled in to shore and Ricky said he was swimming a tube and caught another limit. John had to start culling after he caught the first one and then Ricky caught them so fast and furious that they were flopping around in the bottom of the boat till John put his jacket over them.

I found another good web site today as I was surfing to find some info to go along with the article. Topozone is a map site that looks really useful. I haven't had much of a chance to peruse it. I set up the link so it opens on the Michigan counties that you then choose and are offered a multitude of maps from that includes land areas and lakes.

I also was checking out greatlakesbass.com and saw a truck for sale by "The Dude." He also had the truck, an F-150, on Michigan Sportman.com .

A couple of friends I met on GLB asked me to fish today. Cy was going to White Lake. I have never fished White and would like to very much to check it out. Clare in Traverse City also emailed me late in the day yesterday about fishing a tournament up on Green today. I would have really liked to have fished the Green Lake tourney with Clare however, I had to stay off the internet because we were expecting an important family call. So, not having his phone number, I couldn't get a hold of him to let him know one way or the other. Was also still messing with my boat, last night, trying to determine if I fried a bearing. The advice I got on that was to jack the trailer up and see if there was any wobble in the wheel when you grabbed it and gave it a push or pull. None noticed so I greased the bearing buddies, which were all quite low, and will be taking it for a short drive around the block to see if that wheel heats. up.

Well have fun at the fireworks and look for the Manistee article soon.

July 3, 2007

Kind of cloudy with occasional sprinkles so far today. Did make it up to the Na-Tah-Ka today for coffee. The Skinner boys were up there. Rick had a question about the point standings for the Classic. He was wondering why there was more than a point difference between he and Fowler and Block. The reason being that when you blank you drop back more than the one point that separates the places for first on down. Blanking on a lake does put the bite on you.

Ricky told me a pretty funny story about his partner John on tournament day, but I think I'll save that one for the Manistee article. Ricky shared a little about their day on Manistee Sunday. He said that their fish came primarily on tubes Sunday. We caught fish on tubes as well, but did catch two keepers on spinnerbaits. I didn't catch a fish though on topwater. After blasting off we stopped down lake just off a rocky point to throw a sammy and a chugger. Ron and I both threw topwater without any rise at all. We threw it in two more spots before putting it down and going to the soft plastics. Should have given those early topwater spots a shot with the tubes before we left. Sometimes, no most times, it's tough to decide how long to stay before you're off to check your next spot. In the morning, it's particularly tough because you know you have a couple hour window where the action should be at its best and you certainly don't want it slipping away because you're running too much.

Been getting some pointers on what to do about my hot wheel. When I got back from Manistee, my right rear wheel was very hot. In talking with Dennis, he said it could be a sticky brake or the wheel bearing. He gave me some beginner instruction on how to change a wheel bearing. I am mechanically challenged and am quite intimidated by the whole process. However, I do know that one of the biggest problems with most projects is just making the decision to "just do it." I think I'll start with greasing up the bearing buddy and then going for a short drive and see if it appears to be a sticky brake or the bearings. In any case, I need to check the bearings. I haven't ever repacked them since I have owned the boat.

The Vawter boys emailed me to ask about the off limits period for the Classic. I wasn't sure how Dennis was wanting to handle it so I got an email off to him and will let you know what he had to say about it. Well I'll jump back up to this spot because as I was finishing the blog Dennis emailed me back already and this is what he had to say about the Classic off limits. "The lake will close at midnight the Sunday before the Classic." He went on to say that some of the Traverse City Tear Drop guys have a Classic from another tourney group up there on Green that weekend before. So, if you're up there prefishing Green, be prepared for some company.

If you're a hunter make sure you check out the MDNR site

to apply for your elk license. You have until July 15. If your after a Fall turkey application you have until August 1. Antlerless deer license applications go on sale for $4.00 starting July 15. Mentioned Dennis up above and have been meaning to put a link up on Lincoln Hills in Ludington where Dennis is the Superintendent. I'm not much of a golfer, but a number of Tear Drop guys are and they say that Lincoln Hills is a spectacular course so if your in to mashies and niblicks get out to Lincoln Hills and if you do look up Dennis the Menace. If your interested in old brassies or cleeks you may want to take this quiz.

If you haven't noticed yet the overall standings are up on the web site. There it is again. Is it web site or web site. One of these days I'll have to check. It's so much work to google it. Dennis had sent me the overall as part of an old link All I had to do was change the name on it Sunday night. I didn't realize that was what it was so I thought he hadn't sent it. My mistake.

Remember to try and get those ad payments in as soon as possible, and if you haven't gotten you insurance copies in yet, it may get nasty. We'll have to send out the enforcer.

Have a good day and check your bearing buddies.

July 2, 2007

Well it's been one of those days on the computer. I don't want to tell you how long it has taken me to get this page reformatted and uploaded and working. Some html demon, a little detail that I must have been missing, has had me running in computer circles almost all day. Everything seems to work now, and quite frankly, I don't know why.

Got up with the intention of going to the Na-Tah-Ka today for coffee with the locals, but got on the computer to check and see if Dennis had sent me the cumulative results from after Manistee yet, and that's all it took. It's now 4:30, and I didn't even go for coffee. I did take a couple of breaks. One of them was for a visit with my good buddy Matt. He stopped by to talk about Manistee. I gave him the low down and we chatted for while. He's a good kid, ( Anyone under 30 is a kid, right? ) and I always enjoy our conversations.

I thought we'd win some money yesterday. We ended up catching a limit, in fact, we were able to cull three fish. The first two culls were 14 inchers that probably only added a few ounces. The last cull was my only keeper of the day, but it was our second biggest fish, a nice two and a half pound smallie. Caught it on a spinnerbait that I tossed right up on shore near some chunk rock and concrete. Two turns of the handle and he was on. I was happy to help out my fish catching partner, Ron, a little. After all, I had knocked two of his fish off netting and wasn't much help catching keepers most of the day. I have been struggling during tournaments. I will say that the fish we caught were fish in my two best spots that I had found prefishing. So, at least I contributed in that way.

We almost didn't get to fish at all. We stopped tournament morning at Wesco on our way to the ramp to top off one of my tanks. I had a problem on Thursday, and I knew that the fuel was drawing from the right tank all right, but I wasn't sure if the valve in the switch was working to allow gas to flow from the left tank. At the station I inserted my card as Ron grabbed the pump handle, but the card wasn't reading. We messed with it, and I reinserted my card, but it still didn't read. Ron pumped in the fuel and then went in the Wesco. I stayed outside to talk to Brad one of the "Vawter Boys." He was filling in for Brian today. Brent was inside Wesco as well. A long story short, I thought Ron paid, but all he did was buy a Coke. He thought my card read and that I had put in on the charge card. So we drove off without paying. Don's partner Steve is a Manistee Sheriff's Deputy. He got a call, because he's their Marine Officer, about a truck drive off pulling a bass boat. He gave us a bunch of grief, but then called Wesco to tell them we'd be back in later to pay our gas bill. Criminals for a day we were.

I will probably begin the Manistee Tournament article tonight. I'm dragging my feet some because I had a senior moment Sunday morning at 4:30 am and didn't throw the cameras in the truck and left them home. I talked to several guys at the tournament and a couple of them took some digital pictures and they said they'd email them to me. I hope one of them got a picture of Chris Mieras' 5lb. 2 oz. largemouth that was big bass for the day. The Manistee results are on the web page and I assume that Dennis will be sending me the overall standings soon. Last time it took a while and people got a little randy about it. Click on the "Rules and Info." button, and you'll get a peak at how everyone did there.

Got to run up to Dublin General Store to get some bearing grease. When I got home from the tournament yesterday, I noticed one of the wheels on the trailer was quite hot. Checked the bearing buddy and it was quite low. Ron says that it probably didn't get hot enough to ruin the bearings because if it had the grease would have melted out of the hub and it hadn't. Hope it's okay.

Guess the great weather we've been having is about to change. It's starting to cloud up here at the lake. It's been nice though. Warm enough during the day, but cool enough to have the hot tub feel good in the morning!