Website Wednesday: BassBlaster Newsletter

It’s not really a website, it’s a newsletter, but since signing up for the BassBlaster Newsletter I have found myself looking forward to finding it in my inbox each day.

Brought to you by the bass-crazy Jay Kumar, BassBlaster brings you the coolest stories and picture from around the world of bass fishing. You’ll find all sorts of neat information that you probably would not hear about otherwise.

Check out the archives to see what you’ve been missing, then sign up and get your own copy delivered to your inbox!

A Visit To The Bass Pro Shops 2011 Lake Simcoe Open

This past Saturday, October the 22nd, was the 2011 version of the Bass Pro Shops Lake Simcoe Open in Orillia, Ontario.

I have to admit it – this was my first ever visit to a bass tournament! I have watched many tournaments online but never actually been present at one. I decided to change that on Saturday and attend the weigh-in at Couchiching Beach Park.

Two minutes after getting out of the car I turned to Darrell with a crazy grin on my face and said, “Look at all the eye candy!”. Of course, the eye candy I was referring to was in the form of beautiful boats! Never before had I seen so many nice boats. Bass boats always excite me.

We missed the first few teams weighing in – largely because our eyes were wandering over the boats still on the water and those now on their trailers. After finding a spot in the crowd we quickly realized how tough a tournament it had been. Many conversations within hearing range focused on how hard it was to come by bites.  Most teams sure didn’t have to worry about culling.

I was intrigued to hear the discussions and watch as fish were brought in. I never get to spend time around that many other anglers and I was eager to learn everything I could. And a strange thing started to happen to me – I felt my competitive spirit, missing for a few years now, starting to return. In the span of an hour that afternoon I went from thinking tournaments would never really be my thing, to thinking we need to buy a bass boat and I need to get my butt entered in some tournaments! I want to be testing my skill and my luck against other anglers. I left Orillia determined to do everything in my power to make that happen.

One of my favorite moments from the weigh-in was seeing the team of Bill Gray and Rob Gray bring their one lone bass to the scale for a total weight on 1.2lbs. It was a riot seeing that little guy held up and I thought it was a very sporting gesture to at least come to the scales with whatever was caught.

Of course, at the end of the day it’s all about winning the $20,000 first prize and that honor went to Wayne and Gail Misselbrook, the last team to weigh-in, for their 5-bass limit of 28.5lbs. Congratulations!

Gail and Wayne Misselbrook

The top 5 teams were:

1. Wayne Misselbrook & Gail Misselbrook – 28.5
2. Scott Murison & Paul Hecking – 28.2
3. Mat Belzil & Jay Clay – 27.4
4. Robert Formosa & Jayson Saliba – 26.65
5. Alex Campbell & Todd Currie – 26.45

A complete list of results can be found here.

Thanksgiving Fishing At Puslinch Lake

This past Thanksgiving weekend provided some spectacular warm and sunny weather. There was no better way to take advantage of such weather than to pack up the boat and head out on the water.

Our destination of choice was Puslinch Lake in Puslinch, Ontario. Since we hadn’t made it out on the water in two weeks we were eager for a bite, and Puslinch has lots of little toothy critters always willing to oblige. Besides the pike there are largemouth bass, a small population of smallmouth bass, crappie and walleye.

This is one of the best tow vehicles I've ever seen at a launch...

All about spinnerbaits…

We launched on Sunday morning with the sun shining and the water temp at 64F. A quick tour around the lake got the motor warmed up and we settled first into a bay containing a large amount of lily pads (surprising given the time of the year). With the amount of weed still in good condition we started with topwaters and spinnerbaits. Without any action we left the bay and started casting along the shoreline. A rocky point near weeds seemed prime for a fish but again, nothing.

I decided to change it up and tie on a new Strike King spinnerbait I had won for a gear review from OBN. The 3/8oz spinnerbait with a painted blade and a bit more color than the white one I had been throwing seemed to be the ticket. On my 4th cast I felt a thud, set the hook, and pulled in a decent little pike.

The first pike of the day. The only pic was on him in the net because getting the hooks out required some time and we didn't want him out of the water any longer than necessary.

I can’t say the fishing was fast – we went some time between bites. But to be out on the water, enjoying the sunshine and catching some fish, was just incredible. We eventually established a pattern as we picked up a few more pike and some largemouth bass. With the exception of two bass I snagged with a drop-shot off a swim platform, the fish came out of the weeds in about 6-8 feet of water, next to the deep lake basin. The one spinnerbait reigned supreme and it was fortunate we had two of them so both Darrell and I could toss it.

One of the bass Darrell snagged on the spinnerbait

While we had an amazing day on Sunday there was one scary moment when we were running between two islands. There was a marker to indicate the rock shoal extended far out from the island. What we didn’t realize was that the shoal extended the entire width between the two islands. The sound of the motor popping up after hitting the rock is not something I want to hear again.

All about the crankbait…

Holiday Monday morning dawned as beautiful as  the day before, and despite the fact we had a turkey dinner to get to, the lake lured us back for the afternoon. Instead of picking up with our pattern from the previous day, the increased temperature (the water temp was now 66F) had us heading back to the bay and tossing frogs. There is little I like doing more than frog fishing, and having little bass smashing at my frog was great fun. The bite, however, wasn’t really there, so we moved off to recreate our pattern from Sunday.

This time the spinnerbaits were catching nothing but weeds. Since I’m not a patient angler it wasn’t long before the spinnerbait was put down and a new Strike King square bill crankbait was tied on. It took me a few casts to get the feel of running it just above the weeds, but then I felt a pump and reeled in a pike.

One of the pike caught on the crankbait

A few casts later and I finally reeled in a Puslinch Lake crappie! We had tried to target them the day before with no luck and now I had one on the crankbait.

A pretty nice crappie

Again, our day turned out to be about one lure. No matter what we threw, the only lure provoking a bite was the crankbait.

The hot lure on Monday

A few hours later, and after I lost another fish, we decided to be responsible people and pack it in so we were only an hour late for Thanksgiving dinner. I could have stayed out there a lot longer. There really is nothing like a beautiful day on the water and catching fish, especially when the fish are coming in fairly steady.

The boat, waiting to be packed up. The boat has had much more use since we bought it than it ever did with it's previous owner

The lake at sunset...

It’s always a surprise how therapeutic time on the water actually is. Getting out for two days and catching fish just seemed to make everything better. Puslinch Lake proved to be an excellent destination and we weren’t the only ones who thought so. Many people were out on the lake, taking advantage of the last gasp of incredible weather. I hope everyone was able to enjoy their holiday weekend as much as I did!

Island Lake Close Encounter

This past Sunday Darrell and I once again headed to Island Lake in search of bass and crappie. However, after a couple of hours on the water and no bites, we were starting to get frustrated. The fish finder was marking lots of suspending fish in the deepest part of the lake, but try as we might, nothing was interested.

As we moved off in search of ledges with greener weeds, Darrell started throwing a chartreuse chatterbait. I was focusing on my line when I heard, “I’ve got one!”. I didn’t need the yell to know that he had one, as Darrell’s hook-set is quite obvious – the whole boat moves. The rod got a good bend and soon enough I netted a little pike.

The wonderful fish that got the skunk out of the boat!

That pike seemed to set us on course for close encounters of the toothy kind!

Trolling back towards the parking lot I began to feel a little down. I really wanted to catch a fish. I needed to catch a fish. If I go too long without catching a fish I start to take it personally. Do I really not have the slightest clue what I’m doing? Did I scare all the fish away? Silly, yes, but sometimes it can’t be helped. So it was with great happiness that I finally felt a hit on my white chatterbait. I missed that fish but I felt like I was back in the game and I was ready for more!

And then it happened… All of a sudden it felt like my lure hit a brick wall. The rod almost jumped out of my hands and I knew this was the big girl of Island Lake. Yet, no sooner had I hit that brick wall than the line went slack. I reeled in my line only to find that the fluorocarbon leader had been sliced right through and my chatterbait was gone. I had a few choice words for that fish after she stole my lure, but the adrenaline was rushing and I was exhilarated with my close encounter!

Since trolling seemed to be working well I asked Darrell to take another circle and see what we could find. I tied on a white spinnerbait, adding a trailer to make it look like my chatterbait had, and tossed my line out. It didn’t take long before I had another solid hit. Only this time, I set the hook, started reeling, and my reel fell off the rod! I was juggling the reel, the rod and the line as Darrell was telling me to get my reel fastened back on the rod. By the time I did that the fish was gone.

After making sure the reel was secure, I took a couple of casts and finally reeled in a small pike. My catch for the day stood at one fish but the adrenaline rush of those misses just made my day.

I can’t wait until the next visit to Island Lake. Next time I’ll bring the wire leaders!

A Wilder Day

When some very windy weather ended our plans of fishing in Owen Sound on Sunday, Darrell promised to take me to a little lake he knew that would be sheltered from the wind and provide us, he hoped, with some excellent bass action.

South of Durham, Ontario we turned off of Highway 6 and after enough turns to have me completely confused, we arrived at Wilder Lake. There’s only one spot where you can see the lake from the road and if you weren’t looking for it, you would never know such a beautiful little lake existed.

Having a small boat quickly showed its benefits when we reached the end of the road and had to drag everything over to the lake. I have to say that I’m quite glad Darrell insisted we buy a 12-footer instead of a 14-footer!

Our little boat! I can't believe we didn't buy one before (oh yeah, no money to buy one!). Having three bench seats comes in handy - we use the middle one as a workbench.

The water in Wilder Lake is crystal clear and finding structure proved to be a little difficult at first – there was nothing in the water! I was amazed at the different hues of green throughout the lake as the depth ranged from 2-feet to 20-feet. After spending at least an hour coming up empty, and not a single fish registering on our new Humminbird PiranhaMAX 160 PT fish finder, I was getting a little discouraged. Darrell decided it was time to try fishing the docks and, as I always do when getting discouraged, I started tossing out a small jig. All of a sudden there were rock bass everywhere, trying to beat each other to my jig and Darrell’s drop-shot.  You have to admire rock bass, they have quite the fighting spirit.

All those little chunkers willingly biting our lures sure improved my spirits, but I had been promised big bass and I was still hoping to find one. We eventually came across a submerged logged and it didn’t take long for Darrell’s drop-shot to prove irresistible.

The first good fish of the day came on the drop-shot just off a log - the only piece of structure in the area.

We had gone awhile without marking a fish on the new fish finder and I was starting to think we’d just bought an expensive paperweight. It certainly isn’t a top-end fish finder but I’d hoped it would be somewhat useful. Then Darrell played with the sensitivity and boom – fish being marked on the screen. It actually proved to be fairly accurate and helped me land a nice bass. All-in-all it looks like it might have been a good purchase!

The fish finder. We chose the portable one in hopes that it will be useful for ice fishing. It's easy to use, seems fairly accurate, and the portability is a bonus.

We moved on to deeper water and located a few nice fish while both using a drop-shot. The drop-shot was a dynamite technique on this lake – nothing else seemed to interest the bass. Natural-colored baits were the trick, the water is too clear for anything else. Both the deep hole and the dock by the golf course proved to be the best areas to find big fish and good numbers. With both largemouth and smallmouth bass there are lots of fish to be caught.

The best one I managed to get to the boat. I had a big smallie on but she shook the hook and left me cursing.

Darrell's best bass of the day.

Ending up at Wilder Lake proved to be a stroke of luck. We had a nice day of fishing, fairly protected from the wind, and got a good chance to test the boat out. The boat and the motor are proving themselves to have been a great purchase. After sitting for over a year it seems that the motor was in need of the one good run we put it through on Belwood Lake – now it starts first pull every time and idles like a champ.

A great day of fishing in a beautiful, quiet setting…you couldn’t ask for more!

 

Don’t Forget To Check The Knot, Especially On Vacation

With the first half of our vacation drifting into the memory banks, Darrell turned the truck towards Killarney and our last stop, Tyson Lake.

While Sturgeon Bay is full of campsites and cottages, there are relatively few cottages at Tyson Lake and the feeling of being in the wilderness cannot be avoided. At Tyson, and its adjoining lake, Spoon Lake, it is quite normal to spend an entire day on the water without seeing anyone. And that is how we spent the last two days of our vacation – seeing only a handful of people and boats, having much of that wild beauty to ourselves.

Rock faces and trees - the predominant sight up north. My pictures fail to do the scenery justice as it was absolutely breathtaking.

The launch at Tyson is actually quite nice and easy to use. The main problem is that the parking lot is not big enough to turn around in if there are other vehicles parked there. It was easy to tell first-timers from those that had launched there before by the tight spots they got themselves into.

Once again we used drop-shotting as our go-to technique. On Tyson it worked well close to shore to land us some decent smallies during the day. The numbers weren’t there and neither were the trophy fish, but with such a relaxing setting it was hard to be upset.

The night bite proved to be best as the smallies hit frequently on top water lures. Again I used my Rapala DT Fat 1 and boated quite a few smallmouth. I don’t do much night fishing and found it difficult to remove trebles with limited light without hooking myself!

I think we finally managed to make Jack tired. He insisted on crawling into Darrell's lap and refused to get back down.

We ran through the narrow and obstacle-ridden channel that joins Tyson to Spoon and spent some time fishing there. In Tyson we targeted smallies but in Spoon it was all about largemouth bass.

Look at all the wonderful weeds and slop! Prime location for largies.

Again, Scum Frogs ruled the day and the fish had fun teasing us before finally biting. It took some work and we had to get through a lot of small fish, but we finally caught a few decent ones.

There is something about the air up that way – it’s so much cleaner and refreshing, with just the right scents mixed in to make me want to bottle it up and bring it home. It’s no wonder that sleep comes easily after spending the day enjoying the beauty of the wilderness and inhaling that air. Eventually you drift into a world where only you exist, almost like it’s a separate planet. It really is amazing up there.

Of course, our trip would not have been complete without another ‘mishap’ and this caused us to reconsider moving on to another lake. We pulled into a bay to anchor and have some lunch. Darrell lifted up the anchor and was about to toss it over when the knot came undone and the anchor fell to the bottom of the lake. *sigh* Now we had to spend more money on the way home to pick up another anchor. But more than that, the incident left us feeling a little snake-bit. On this trip we had already enountered:

• a bent-up boat trailer,
• a broken fishing rod,
• a burnt up bilge pump,
• and now we had lost an anchor.

Our original plans called for moving on to a more remote lake with a difficult launch but after the latest incident we felt something more dire may happen if we tried that launch. Images of a sinking boat and a very stuck truck came to mind and we both agreed that we did not need to tempt fate. We spent a little more time at Tyson before packing up for the drive home.

An early morning on Spoon

Our last morning enjoying both Tyson and Spoon. It was a beautiful way to end our vacation.

It was an amazing trip and only strengthened my desire to move north. I know it’s a longer winter but to be surrounded by something this special would make it all worthwhile.  And despite all the mishaps I can’t help but think our week away was perfect – I got to spend it with my family, in the boat, catching fish, in a beautiful setting.  I could not have asked for more.

 

Sturgeon Bay Delights – The Fish And The Sights

As I mentioned in my last post, day two of our vacation began with pouring rain. We spent the morning at our campsite in Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park and did our best to stay dry, a very difficult task considering that Jack had gotten soaked between the tent and the truck and, like any good dog, felt the need to share the dampness with Darrell and I.

Darrell's pike from day one. I was eager to get back on the water and catch one for myself.

When the rain slowed to a drizzle we packed up camp and headed for the boat – with all fourteen fishing rods and an uncounted number of tackle boxes. I think the other campers wondered about the sheer amount of equipment we took with us, but most of them were fellow anglers and understood our reasons.

The launch at Sturgeon Bay. While our boat took on a fair bit of water during the morning rains, Darrell was quick to run the bilge pump and empty it out. Other boats weren't so lucky. One boat in particular had quite a tilt to it for the next day as it waited for its owner to remove over 6 inches of water.

Out on the water once more I was all ready to find another musky. Watching Darrell reel his musky in the day before made me even more anxious to hook into one of those monsters and I started the day tossing big lures on my heavy rod. Of course, they’re not called ‘the fish of a thousand casts’ for nothing and I didn’t so much as get a follow.

Fellow anglers know what happens then – you spend time targeting a fish only to have absolutely no luck finding one. You start to feel a little blue and wonder why the heck you can’t catch anything. I started to let it get me down – as down as a person can get when out on Georgian Bay on a beautiful day with spectacular surroundings and great company. I needed a change and got out the bass gear.

We pulled into a sheltered bay with slop patches around the edges and started casting scum frogs. Since our regular go-to color wasn’t getting a bite Darrell switched it up and tossed out a black frog with some yellow in the tail…fish on!

A bucket-mouth pulled from the slop.

The first largemouth I had managed to land on the Rapala DT Fat 1 - I love that lure! I used it to fish the edges of the slop.

It wasn’t a strong bite but landing a few largemouth made for a great afternoon. There was plenty of activity in that slop but we couldn’t key on exactly what was causing the ruckus. We counted at least four different species of fish in there.

Sturgeon Bay takes you into the Pointe-Au-Baril inlet, which leads you out into the open water of Georgian Bay. It’s absolutely breathtaking out there. And rocky…very, very rocky. There are islands everywhere – some big enough to host a few cottages, some big enough for a bird to take a rest and little else. Be careful where you drive your boat because there are rock shoals everywhere – one minute you are over 40 feet of water, the next it’s only 3 feet of water.

And the sights! Aside from the wonderful fishing, incredible cottages and awesome boats to drool over, there is no shortage of places to visit and observe.

This boiler belonged to a ship seeking refuge from a storm. It ran onto one of the many rock shoals in the area. There is excellent smallie fishing in the area though, thanks to that very rock shoal (and the additional structure). We caught quite a few smallies on the drop-shot here.

This barrel is on the site of the original barrel that welcomed sailors and signified 'a safe passage through turbulent waters.'

The lighthouse, with the barrel just visible on the point in the background.

At the Hole in the Wall. Big expanse of water on either side, one little opening through the rocks.

Going through the Hole in the Wall.

Of course, the main attraction was the fishing and we certainly had our share of fun in that respect. The smallmouth bass were wonderful little performers, leaping in the air and then diving deep, only to leap out of the water once more. Drop-shotting was the most productive technique, especially with Gulp minnows on the hook. Crankbaits around rocky points also proved quite effective.

One of Darrell's catches. Notice Jack in the background, keeping an eye on the fish. He loves to be in on the action when we're bringing in a fish.

Not the biggest one I've caught, but every single fish is a thrill!

Not everything went as smoothly as we had hoped. On our way back to the dock for a quick break, we both noticed a burning smell. It wasn’t a pleasant, campfire burning smell, it was more of an electrical and plastic burning smell. It was a few moments before Darrell realized the smell was coming from the bilge pump. I had left the boat for a moment and returned to find Darrell’s feet up in the air as he wrestled to get the connectors loose and free the bilge pump before the whole boat went up in flames. It was fortunate he got it out so quickly. When he dunked it in the lake it was pretty obvious the inside of the pump was on fire! *sigh* First stop the next morning was to a marina for a new bilge pump.

Leaving Sturgeon Bay after a morning of fishing on day three was surprisingly sad. I was really going to miss the bathrooms – real plumbing and soap for me to wash my hands! Such luxury I am not used to when camping!

But more so, I was going to miss the water and the fish living within it. All I could do was promise myself we would return at some point. Then I climbed into the truck and we hit the road once more, heading further north for the next lake.

Sitting In The Rain

Thanks to a tremendous amount of rain, I am currently sitting in the truck in an attempt to sit on something more comfortable than the ground inside the very damp tent. And since I actually have reception on my phone out this way, why not write a blog post?

Our first day of vacation yesterday, did not start exactly as planned. While hoping to leave the house by 6AM, the boat and our housesitter were still MIA at 5! Darrell is the organized sort when it comes to fishing trips and was hoping to have the boat back on Monday – to give it a once over and have it ready for to go. Instead, he picked it up at 6:30 Tuesday morning and we crossed our fingers.

Finally on the road, I could not help but get excited. It’s been a long year since our last vacation and I was ready to leave everything behind and get busy fishing! With Jack (our dog) sleeping between us in truck, we cranked the music and headed north.

It was only a few short hours before we reached our destination at Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park. After a quick tour of the open campsites we selected a location, setup camp and launched the boat.

It was while launching the boat that we realized something was seriously wrong with the boat trailer. The inside treads in both tires are almost bald. Further investigation revealed the axle has a huge bend in it. *sigh* Guess Darrell was right to want the boat back early.

Leaving that behind we decided to rig the rods while having lunch and drive them back to the boat. When you take as many rods as we do, walking them to the boat is not an option. It was when we arrived back at the boat that I was greeted with a horrific sight – something had fallen on my G. Loomis GLX drop-shot rod and broke the tip off! *sigh* I had really been looking forward to using that on this trip.

With the day starting to feel like it was jinxed we climbed into the boat and set off. I got a nice tour of an absolutely beautiful area – Sturgeon Bay and further out into Georgian Bay are stunning – before we settled down to start casting.

We had decided to come here to fish because both of us were hopeful to catch our first musky. We had bought some heavier gear and lures before leaving and spent a long time tossing them to no avail before giving our slightly tired arms a break and switching over to bass gear.

It was while drop-shotting off a rock point that Darrell landed the first fish – a beautiful 4lb pike. It was more than a little angry and proceeded to splash the boat as I kept the net in the water for a minute.

After getting rid to the skunk we managed to come across a nice school of crazy smallies. I’ve caught a lot of smallies but these things were even more torpedo-like than normal. What a blast. The drop-shot was nailing them.

After crossing the ‘highway’, which is what this waterway often resembles, we drifted into a channel between two islands and found another school of smallies that were eager to smash the drop-shot and crankbaits. Already having had an awesome day of fishing, we drifted into the little bay behind the islands and there we had our greatest moment.

Still tossing for smallies, Darrell was reeling in a chartreuse and white Booyah bait and as he pulled it into the boat there was an explosion of water followed by the yell, ‘I’ve got a musky!’ I threw my rod down and ran for the nets. Darrell played in the absolutely beautiful 6lb musky and I got it into the smaller of our two nets. Then as Darrell turned to get the pliers, the musky jumped, got out of the net, shook the hook, and was gone. I felt awful for not getting Darrell a picture with that fish!

However, we were both on a high after that fish, and although we had to pack it in for the night (both Jack and I were wanting dinner), we had an incredible day.

Despite the rain that has been falling since nine last night, we have decided to spend another night here before moving on, in hopes of landing another musky, and this time snapping a picture.

Island Lake Hawgs

Last weekend, to reward ourselves after a day of building new fencing for the horses, we decided to head to Island Lake Conservation Area in Orangeville to hunt for some bass.

This was my first trip to Island Lake in the summer and I was pleased to find a nice boat launch and reasonable admittance fees. While we took our own boat, many people chose to rent one of the conservation area’s many aluminum boats and canoes. Since there are no gas motors allowed we made sure to throw an electric motor on the back to help the trolling motor pull us around.

The sun was already inching high in the sky as we launched and there were many other people on the lake taking advantage of the beautiful weather.

Cody got the first bite of the day when he pulled in a hungry little sunfish that wanted his white mini-king, and as we moved along it was more of the same. No big bites, just a few sunfish and rock bass. I had been promised big fish and I was getting impatient.

A couple of hours passed and we threw a variety of different baits with little luck. I finally decided to tie on the go-to bait – a Rapala Husky Jerk in Tennessee Shad. Jerk, jerk, jerk…wham! Before I knew it I was reeling in a decent largemouth. It wasn’t a hawg but it made the day much happier all of a sudden. After releasing my first bass of the day I took a couple more casts and then again…wham!…another nice bass.

I was thrilled to finally have caught some bass and was in a much better state of mind when I once again tossed out my lure and hooked a tiny pike.

My little pike that Darrell had to unhook.

We eventually drifted out of this productive area into one that looked like it had to be a hawg factory. There were underwater stumps everywhere and promising looking weed patches. Talk about structure!

We all took turns tossing small jigs in amongst the stumps and ended up with a rock bass bonanza.

A nice rock bass double-header for Cody and Darrell.

It was great fun yet, still not what I was looking for. But then we moved on to the weed patches and lily pads over by the shore and I decided to tie on my absolute favorite lure – a Scum Frog.

There are a lot of frogs available on the market, but in my opinion you just can’t beat a Scum Frog. The bass love them and my wallet appreciates them. My biggest bass have all come on a Scum Frog.

I decided to take a long cast and worked the frog back to the boat slowly. I was just looking at the frog when there was a splash of water and my frog disappeared. Woohoo!!! Anyone who spends time tossing a frog understands the adrenaline rushing through my system at that moment. I set the hook as hard as I could and started reeling. He put up a great fight before ending up in the net.

My hawg for the day, and he sure wasn't the biggest one in there!

I let this guy go and two casts later another bass decided my frog looked tasty. He was smaller than the first but another great fight. After releasing him I really had to concentrate on slowing down my retrieve…the adrenaline was running!

We moved along the shoreline, I took the boat into spots so that I could cast exactly where I wanted, I’ll admit I wasn’t really thinking about whether or not it meant Darrell or Cody got a good cast

Both Darrell and I managed to lose even bigger fish. I had one just sip up the frog and the moment he felt the hooks, dived for the weeds. I couldn’t make any ground and eventually this monster got off. I was definitely cursing for a few minutes!

In the end we had a fantastic day. The only blip was the 3 canoes that managed to run into the boat because the people in them had no idea what they were doing. I’m all for people getting out and trying new things, but how hard is it to figure out that sitting still and shrieking will not steer your canoe?

I got over that momentary frustration by remembering the incredible fish we caught that day. I can’t wait to go back and get some more!

Website Wednesday – Bass Parade

To be honest, I’m amazed it took me until now to feature Bass Parade on Website Wednesday. I guess there are two reasons for that: 1 – I have mentioned Bass Parade previously when they were awesome enough to give me a G. Loomis rod and 2 – I can’t believe anyone into fishing hasn’t already found this blog!

Bass Parade is the place to go for all things bass fishing…but whatever type of fishing you enjoy, you will find something of interest on this site.

From news items to tournament recaps and great opinion posts, there is always something worth reading. Plus, the blog is updated frequently which means you can go back almost every day and find something new.

Some great recent posts include: Locals Want Great Lakes Cut Off – a look at the Asian carp threat; The Need For Speed – speed of reeling compared to how fast a bass moves; and Are Bass Pros Athletes.

Check it out now at www.bassparade.com.