Tournament Fishing Club

Here is the website for the fishing club i am in. Bunch of great guys!

kbcnewyork.blogspot.com

Wake Bait that Indiana Smallmouth Alliance guys love.

Here is the wake bait I was telling you that everybody seems to love. I guess they are built really well and last a whole long time. Negative is definitely the price.

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Lucky_Craft_LC_Wake_Crankbaits/descpage-LCLCW.html

Texposing a tube

Here is a step by step guide to texposing a tube. This technique is especially valuable when fishing near dense cover or weeds. Due to the nature of the setup you can't get any more weedless a rig for a tube. I would recommend rigging this with as wide a gap hook as you can find. Weight should be between 1/8oz for quickly fishing the shallows up to 1/4 oz when fishing 15-20 FOW (Feet of water). Also you really need to use 4" tubes for this rig to work properly. A lot of bass tubes I come across in the big box store are 3 1/2" and make for difficult rigging and seem to result in a decreased hook up ratio.

Beware most of the takes on this rig are very subtle and occur on the initial fall. If you feel any change in weight set the hook!! Always keep a tight line.  Photos and text in the images sourced from the Indiana Smallmouth Alliance general board.















Good luck Joel and Frank!!! Wish I could be there!

Kickin Bass Club

SO my wife is pretty awesome. We worked a little bit this morning and then had some free time so i asked if she wanted to go golfing. I was going later in the day so she suggested going fishing instead. I was surprised and excited. It was already turning out to be a sweet day. We loaded up and headed to Lebanon reservoir. Approaching the lake i noticed that there was no one on it but as i turned around the corner and boom! like 15 bass boats and 15 trucks. It was a stinking tournament. they were just about to start the weight in. I talked to the guy about the club and he told me i could join and fish the tournaments. Great DAY!!!

For the love of jigs

I love fishing jigs. I dont know what is it about jigs that makes me love it so much. It could be the enormous fishing. The ability to smack it up against any structure. The sensation of hook setting and feeling like you have a log on the end of your line. It could also be the combination of all. I took my wife out in the boat last night and it was hard fishing. I only caught one but it was almost 4 pound and was 19 inches long. I threw my black and blue jig against the concrete spillway and let it fall to the bottom. Two breathing jigs and I felt a tic on the end. I gave it a second. Drew my line tight and it was to the right 5 feet. Game on! Didnt take long to get it in but it was a hard fought catch being the only one that night and I worked my jig for a good hour.

Mudd...Snakes...Stinging Thistles...and Smallies!

So I was able to get fishing twice over the last few days in search of some Smallies!! Being unfamiliar with the area I just drove around and looked for any place with public access to the White river. The first park I tried had a special receptacle for disposing of mono-filament line near the parking lot so I knew that water must be nearby. Unfortunately I apparently selected the wrong path and wound up hiking through a narrow little used path for what felt like forever until I finally reached some water. Unfortunately it was a stank overflow portion of the river which stunk like poop and was infested with mosquitoes. Not interested in getting eaten alive by bugs I quickly tried to move down the overflow area and over to the main system of the river. Unfortunately as I began my voyage through the thick brush I came across some thistles which immediately made my legs feel like they were on fire. After just a few moments the intense burning and itching sensation drove me to quickly hike all the way back to car and abandon fishing at this location. Not wanting to give up so easily I continued my quest for an accessible portion of the river and was rewarded by finding a nice biking trail that ran parallel to the river. At this point it was mid afternoon with an oppressive sun and temps in the 90's and I had little expectation of landing any fish. I began my hunt with a baby bass original rattletrap and began fan casting the river. After a few dozen casts I noticed a downed tree upstream that was only a few yards out of my casting radius. Once within casting range it only took a few casts to finally bump into a log and BAM fish on!!!!

It was not a biggie by any means but I so much missed the hard fight of these bronzebacks. A few casts later and off of the same submerged tree I landed this guy.

I continued working my way up the river and took a few casts everytime I found a clearing big enough to cast out of. Unfortunately most of the clearings did not occur in prime waters. After receiving no more hits on the rattletrap I decided I would try to throw an itsy bitsy tube (1.5") in a baby bass color on a small jig. I cast behind a submerged tree limb and wound of landing this guy after a very nice fight on my ultralight setup.

This morning I again hit the White but in a different spot and was greeted by a large water snake and some young ducklings. There was very little fish activity at the surface and my baby bass superfluke didn't seem to be drawing any interest. Finally after nearly an hour of no hits I flipped my fluke under an overhanging tree near a rocky shore line and had a smallie short strike the bait. I quickly picked up my ultralight and flipped the itsy bitsy tube into the area and sure enough I landed a very nice smallie in the 1.5lb range. Unfortunately due to the difficult and unstable footing I had when I landed her I was unable to snap any photos. I then proceeded to land three more, but very small Smallmouths from the same pool and then even managed a 7" White crappie and about an 8" Largemouth that was round like a football.

Unfortunately the wadable water at this location was minimal and so I called it a day. Man do I wish I owned a Kayak!!!

Pain Like No Other

Today was probably the most incredible worst day ever. I lost not one but two of the biggest fish i have ever  had on my line...

First Fish...Today was incredible windy and i wasn't sure i was going to even venture out but i though i could find a sheltered part of the lake. I texted Nole, who is a missionary kid who loves to fish, to see if he wanted to go out with me. We fished a few brush piles and stumps and landed about 6 that were about a pond...we started to make our way up the bank and i put the boat about 30 feet out while i casted to the edge of the weed bed. I through a miss cast and as i slowly brought it in out of no where a giant engulfed it. I was stunned for a split second and i ended up putting a half hook set. The fish was so big its movements we slow.  As i applied pressure to the fish it slipped out of its mouth. On my line for 10 seconds i watched as it disappeared back to the bed from once it came. I was almost in tears as Nole probably thought i was crazy for my reaction towards losing the biggest fish on my life.

Second Fish.... as we moved up the bank we reached two more downed trees where i have landed monsters before. I was using a chatter bait but i noticed that fish were hitting the surface. I put my KVD frog on my spare pole and on the third case i put the frog on the bank. I hopped it on to the moss pad in the water and slowly worked it to the boat. Passing a branch of the tree exposed out of the water i managed to somehow work it perfect as it bounced of the tree. I rested it 6 inches passed the branch and clear out of the water this 5+ pounder engulf the frog as it flew through the air. I wasn't going to be a chump this time. I laid one of the best hook sets i have ever made. It was solid. I repeated, "please stay one" for the next minutes as i tried to guide the fish to the boat. 1,2,3 jumps as i tried to keep the fish down. On the third jump i saw that the fish totally engulf the frog and the hook set was deep in its mouth. It slowed the fight after the last jump and swam to the left and then all of a sudden the lure came out. The pain shot into my head as i sat there shaking for the next 5 minutes trying to understand how i could lose two monsters in the span of 30 minutes.

Day ended with about 15 fish in the boat and total excitement and exhilaration with the amazing fish that God has created.

Testing Rattle Trap

This is probably one of the top versatile rattle traps I have used before. Its work-ability is high end. I was able to bounce off rocks easily with little to no hangup. I loved how fast I got to the bottom as well. I was able to cast closer to target.

Change your trebles!!

So I just came across an article that says KVD changes his lures trebles multiple times a day when he is tournament fishing to ensure that he catches as many fish as possible. When I read this I thought he must be lying to get me to buy and use more of his KVD line of hooks but then I watched this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFz_Yc8wICE

He points out the importance of changing out the hooks to ensure a higher success rate of initial hooksets and  demonstrates a far easier and less frustrating method of changing out the trebles. Spoiler alert... he can change out both trebles in less than 20 seconds... Now if only I could get him to start recycling his used trebles to me!!!

Getting Back On My Horse

Well for the first month that the ice was off the lakes I somehow managed to lose more lures than fish landed. Probably one of the most difficult and frustrating beginnings to the season that I have ever had. I finally got my boat out in the water and that's when I regained my touch for catching this amazing game fish. As of now i think I am pretty close to breaking even with lost lures and landed fish. After this cold front passes through I will be able to launch the boat again and continue to land monsters. Even though I have only caught about 15 fish, I have landed a few monsters. This picture being of the most recent weighing in at 4 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches long.

The story of this fish:
I recently raffled of a full day fishing trip that went for 60 dollars to a family of missionaries from New Zealand. The are trout fishing people and want to get into catching monster bass. The dad is pretty experience. The oldest boy is skilled but still needs a ton of practice and learning of new techniques. I took them to my secret spot where two years ago I caught my 6 pound 2 ouncer. We fish a few minutes and as i gave him my spots I fished around him to figure out what they were hitting. I through a black and blue chatter bait on the edge of a brush pile and as the bait hit the water a 19 incher smashed it. I had the kid come and fish the brush pile and the ones near it. Nothing was doing. We then move around the cove and i gave him the tree that i have caught many on before. Nothing doing again. to this point he has lost one of my spinner baits. I throw on another brush pile and land this biggie. I then take the lure of my pole and put it on his. 4 casts later he loses it, haha. we stayed another hour and he lost 2 more spinner baits. I realized that fishing that lake from the shore i need to bring crap lure and understand that to catch big ones i will lose at least two.

I bought 3 flies last night for bass. On the next calm day i will be trying to bring in a few bass on my fly reel. I hope to have a good story for you all.

Fishing Equip

So this is not a fish post but I had to be very patient to land this gear. I waited about a month for this to finally come but its totally worth it.. I can now catch fish anytime and anywhere with this pocket pen size fishing combo. I have tried it out on my cat and it works great. I will be sure to post the first catch on this gem.

Hello Sunshine!!!

Hello Sunshine!!!

Weather this year is nutts... Yesterday the temp hovered a few degrees above freezing all day, but today was another story as temps soared into the upper 60s by late afternoon. As a result I just had to get out and do some fishing. However, with the wacky weather of late I have no idea what pattern the bass are in these days and decided to stick close to home. I began by spending about two hours fishing a large pond that had been infested by zebra mussels and as a result if incredibly weedy year around and very clear. Upon reaching my destination I found that the lake was getting pounded by the wind and everyone and their mother was out attempting to enjoy the warm weather. I began by fishing the wind battered shoreline hoping that the bass would be feeding. However, the wind was so strong my casting was severely limited and couldn't draw a strike. I then fished an adjacent river which is known to have smallmouth in it but couldn't muster so much as a follow there either. Not wanting to call it a day without catching a fish went home, regrouped, and decided to hit some nearby retaining ponds. I thought that because of the recent heavy rains the fish might be stacked up around the pipes. However, upon arrival I tossed a shallow crayfish crank, swimbait, and even threw some homemade crappy dough on a hook and bobber all to no avail. Out of desperation I went to a bait that worked for me last season in tough conditions. A purple with silver specks 3" grub on a roadrunner 1/8oz jig.

Sure enough on my first cast I pulled this feisty little 14" largemouth from in front of the pipe.

On my next three casts I proceeded to catch two more fish of comparable size.

Then the bite went dead and I decided it was time to hop to the next pond. Upon arriving I noticed that there was very little flow coming through the pipe, but I decided to give it a go anyways. A few casts in and I land a nice 12 incher, then a couple later a small but fat as heck 7 incher. A few later I landed my biggest of the day which was a healthy 15" with a belly. I then proceeded to catch two more right around 12" but in the middle of all this a fish slammed my little grub and when I set the hook and felt the fight I knew instantly this was no bass. As I drew him closer I realized it was a beautiful crappie. Later I missed what felt like another very nice crappie and had a few other nudges. All in all it was a very successful trip and sure helped to rebuild what was my waning confidence. Attached is a photo of the grub I caught everything on. I worked it very slowly with very slight twitches of the rod and, other than the crappie, the bass very gently picked up the lure and did not move. Other than the slightly heavier weight at the end of the line there were no other noticeable signs of a hit. In all I caught 8 largemouth in a little less than 2hrs.

Whatchya think about the new layout????

So I messed around with the site for a bit tonight. Think I'm going to call it a night. Still have some things to tweak and wanna make things look more crisp, but what do you think so far? Color scheme ok? Are fonts easily readable? 

I also need to fix the love....serve....fish text. Trying to figure out how to make that box have editable text separate from the rest of the objects. 

What do you think of the Live Life....Seek Adventure part and the Love...Serve...Fish motto? 

Big Bass Dreams!!!

Came across this on a local fishing board I always use and just had to share it with you! The bass these guys are catching is mind blowing!!! ENJOY!!

http://bigbassdreams.com/standard/big-bass-dreams-turn-big-bass-reality/

Few photos from last week (April 4th and 5th)

So here are a few photos from last weekend. All caught in stained muddy water with muddy bottom in 2-5 ft of water running swimjig inches off the bottom and just quick enough to maintain action. Occasional pauses drew strikes as well.

Fish Record

Fuller - First Fish of the Season

Caught my first bass of the season out of small drainage pond in backyard of in-laws house. Ice out occurred two weeks previously and warm front conditions in the mid 50's. Caught on 1/4 oz white booyah swim jig with Big Hammer white minnow 3.5" trailer attached. Estimated 1.75lb 16"

Fowler - First of the Season

Caught it on a gold and black spinner right off a submerged stump