Mn Bass Federation Seminars

It's that time of year again. Waiting for the cold and snow to go away. On January 16th the Mn BASS Federation is presenting free Bass fishing seminars before the meeting. January's speakers will be Randy Wilcox and Jeff Gilmer, they will be talking about Lamiglas Rods who just became a Federation Sponsor. Then at 10:15 Rapala Pro Mark Fisher will be talking Lake Minnetonka. Minnetonka is the site of the 2010 MNBFN State TOC. What a way to spend a Saturday morning talking fishing. The Fed meeting will then start at noon. The seminars will be held at the Medina Entertainment Center just west of Plymouth on Hwy. 55. Hope to see some of you there.

Fall Fishing

The fall fishing has been spotty this year. After a really cold and rainy October November has been really nice. I have had the chance to get out a few times for a few hours at a time and done well each time. The above photo is from 2 weeks ago on short trip with Brian and Evan. I caught this one on a Leena Lures spinnerbait that really has been the go to bait this fall. On Sunday I hit a small local lake for smallmouth bass. I usually try and hit it a few times in the fall. I launched the boat and saw the water temp was still 43-45 degrees. I started throwing the Finesse jig as that usually gets them turned on. But not a bite. I then picked up a tube and on the first cast had one break me off. Retied real quick and got bit again. This time a 15" smallie came aboard and it was on. I caught close to 20 fish over the next 2 1/2 hours. The biggest was 18 1/2". Not a bad way to finish the year. I brought the boat home and winterized it as it was such a nice day. Better than when I usually do it in the cold and snow. So my year is complete unless I can find someone that has not put their boat away and wants to take me fishing. Now the task will be to get the boat cleaned out and start going through and organizing tackle for next year. I will post through the winter on new lures and fishing products that catch my eye. I do know Outkast has two new color swim jigs that are coming out in December. I will put them up when I get a few. Have a great winter season. The Bass opener is only 6 months away.........

Double Discount

I just want to pass this along. If you use the code johnp at www.outkasttackle.com Between now and Oct. 31st you will receive an additional 10% discount for a total of 20%. Its a great way to stock up for next year and save a few bucks.

GHB-Green Lake (Chisago)

Saturday was our last GHB tournament of the year. The top 4 anglers were all within 4 lbs of each other so there was some drama to be had. The weather was terrible to say the least. Windy, cold and rain made it to tougher to say on the game. I had pre fished twice and had nothing going. My partner for the day Steve W had made a few trips out as well. He had a set of docks that had produced each time he was out. We decided to stop there first and hit them. Being boat 2 we thought it was ours. But boat 1 headed for them and beat us to the spot. I then headed for the area where I had my best fish in practice. The bad thing it was in the wind. I was throwing a Sweet Beaver on a Money Jig looking for rocks that were scattered. After about an hour of working the area I finally got number 1 in the boat. Over the next hour and a half I caught 3 more for the well. The rain had quit but the wind still was howling. We ran to a few other spots without any takers. We finally decided to kill the day at our starting area. At the weigh in I weighed 4 fish for 7.55 pounds good for second place. With 16 guys fishing we managed only 19 keepers. Congrats to Pat P for winning the tournament with 3 fish for 9.74 and taking Big Bass honors with a 4.21 largemouth. Pat also clinched the Angler of the Year title. Way to go Pat. I jumped 1 spot to finish 3rd for the year. See the tournament results here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/tourny7.htm and the AOY results here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/results.htm It was a good year and we had a lot of fun fishing. Now I will have to get out a do some fall fishing before the lakes ice up for the winter.

Great Customer Service

I just want to post on some great customer service I received this week. My Pro Mariner on board charger quit working 2 weeks ago. I ran through the test procedures in the manual to no avail and called the service center for my options. The guy told me to box it up and send it in for them to look at. Yesterday when I got home there was a box by the door. I saw it was from Pro Mariner and was surprised because I had not heard from them. I opened it and found a brand new charger to my surprise it was an better model than I had. Considering it was 4 years old they went above and beyond what I had expected. So thanks to Pro Mariner for some great customer service. If you are in need of a new on board charger take a look at the Tournament Series chargers. If you should ever need it their customer service is second to none.

FOM-Horseshoe Chain

Steve and I went into this tournament with very little confidence. We had prefished twice with little success. We drew boat number 9 at the Friday meeting so our wait would be short. We had one spot that had shown some promise so that was our starting spot. We fished the deep break without a bite so we moved into the docks and Steve got us on the board. I followed with 2 more. We made the decision to fish docks the rest of the day. We finally got a limit around 9 o'clock. We then worked docks and culled up to 9.31 pounds which was good for 21st place. We ended the year 5th in the overall standings. Our 2009 FOM season was good as we improved 5 spots in the standings. With the regional tournament in Alabama our season has come to an end. We can now start to look forward to 2010 and see what we can do to improve on the lakes that gave us fits this year. I will post a season review over the next few weeks.

Lake Waconia-GHB

Sunday morning we were back on the lake at Lake Waconia. I was fishing alone today as my draw was out of town. I had been out a week ago and found a few spots that I wanted hit so I made a plan and hoped to stick with it. I was boat 2 out so I hoped I could out run a few guys to my starting spot. Well that did not happen and I had to revise my plan already. I started throwing a buzz bait over the shallow weeds on big flat. With no action I headed in to a few docks that had produced in the past. I threw a stick worm in the first boat lift and got bite as soon as it hit the water. Then nothing must not have got a good hook set. I had drifted down past the docks so I threw in behind under the walkway and got bit. Number 1 for the day in the well. I caught 6 fish on my next 7 casts. All keepers so I had my limit and culled twice and it was not even 7:00 o'clock yet. I worked down the run of docks with no more action. I had a spot with some cabbage and coon tail at the end of the run that I caught 2 on a tube. I was able to cull with 1 of them. With that I was off to hit two areas I found last week. As I pulled up I had the area to myself and it did not take long for the fish to cooperate. I pulled a 3 pounder and 2 more that were able upgrade my limit. I moved the 200 yards to the other spot and got fish there to. I was down to beaming as they were all about the same size. After working that for an hour or so I moved the 200yards back to the other side. After about 10 casts I felt the thump and set into something that just wouldn't move. My first thought was musky as last week I had a huge 45-50" fish in the same area. But as I got it out of the weeds I saw that it was a big bass. A quick one handed net job a 5.16 pound bass went in the box. My limit was starting to look good. I switched up my lure selection for awhile from a tube craw to a tube. But got nothing that would help. Back to the other spot. 2 quick ones from there with 1 going in the box. Things seemed to have slowed down. So I left to try a few other spots I had fished in the past. I caught a few but nothing that would help. So I made the call to go back to those two spots and kill the day. I was able to cull up 2 more times but by just the slightest of margins. It was finally time to head in for weigh in. I weighed in 15.10 which was enough for 1st place and my big fish was 5.16 was Big Bass. Full results here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/tourny6.htm It was a great on the water. I caught alot of fish and the weather was great. We have 1 GHB tournament left on October 3rd on Green Lake. It should be dandy. The top 4 anglers are within 4 pounds of each other and with the throw out it could be any ones game.