Northbound - The Invasion Begins

Well.  Very early (ludicrously, perhaps) Thursday morning, when most sane people will still be asleep, my Dad, Uncle, and I will be headed north.  Way north.  No, even farther north than that.

We're headed up to a place that is some 35 miles (k/m??) northeast of Ear Falls, Canada.  We'll be flying out of a lodge based on Confederation Lake to another lake called Perrigo Lake.  The goal is to chase toothy critters (yes toothy critters, because they don't grow bass that far north) around a lake with near zero pressure - pretty nice considering the traffic I'm used to on Bald Eagle Lake here in the cities. 

Am I excited?  Yup.  Drawback:  The only way to get to this lake is by seaplane.  After seeing dozens on Bald Eagle, it's still not my first choice for my first flight, but hey, it'll work.

Reports coming next week - sometime. 

Of Bluegills and Basses. 063012 Report.

I took a couple of close friends out fishing this past weekend for a morning of chasing bluegills, well, they were chasing gills and I was chasing bass but often times the two go hand in hand.  They were on live bait rigs which presented a challenge for me because, as my friends noted, I have a mild case of fishing ADHD.  That is, I'm always on the move, trying different things. An outside perspective of my routine was humorously refreshing.

Well, more often than not a hook and worm does not get along with throwing a swim jig with the trolling motor on high so I was forced to slow down.  Way down.  Slow enough that I'm sure I could swim faster while pulling the boat.  Thankfully the wind and water was calm enough too allow for that without the boat being pushed around too much (I do not recommend, for the purposes of bassin', a boat with a windshield).

However, here's the payoff:  Once we got into an area where we were finding the gills, I was catching missing fish.  The thought occurred to me as I wondered, how many good quality fish am I cruising over and never even presenting to because I'm fishing through an area too quickly?  The answer is probably a lot more than I care to admit because I'm usually thinking about getting to my milk run area where I always catch fish.  The lesson for me here is to take some time and get to know some of the other areas, docks are fun, but there's a lot more on a lake than what meets the eye.

As far as missing fish, I did land a few but lost or didn't connect with at least twice as many - some small and some pretty decent fish.  In any case, here is evidence of a morning well spent with friends:

The New Abu Garcia Revo

I had my first experience with one of Abu Garcia's Revo reels shortly after they came out.  My cousin's husband, who works for Pure Fishing, brought a couple of demos out to South Dakota when we were there for their son's wedding.  We spent 20-30 minutes up by the hotel casting chunks of lead, staring at the Missouri River wishing that we were on the water instead of wearing suits and tuxes.  Within a year, I had got my first Revo STX.

In the time since then, it's become my go to reel for just about everything.  It casts as far today as it did the day I took it out of the box and is every bit as smooth.  I can cast little 1/8oz Beetle Spins on up to heavier 1oz cranks.

Now I hear that Abu Garcia is rebooting it's lineup of Revo reels and I'm excited!  Here's a promo vid for those who haven't seen it yet:



I'm looking forward to this fall when I can get my hands on the new STX.  Until then, the old models are on sale for a pretty decent price cut and I'm thinking I'll have to pick one or two up. 

June '11 to Now.

Like I said in my last "I'm still here post", I haven't had many opportunities to wet a line.  There's been a lot of change since the end of June.  I moved from Cambridge back down to the cities at the beginning of July, which is ok.  But it kind of bites because for some reason or another, the building manager at my apartment won't let me store my boat in the parking lot...  (This problem was solved by buying a place in Blaine.  Boat is happy.)  I also started taking classes at Century last fall and that has been an interestingly nostalgic experience. 

Now that I've got a couple of my bad excuses out of the way, and, as if there was any doubt, I could go on all day with excuses, I am a student after all, I did make it out a few times since June.

Instead of typing up five pages of stuff, I've decided that I'm going to do a pictorial highlight type deal. 

Florence.

3.5lbs  Caught under a dock on a All Terrain Tackle swim jig.

The Rum.

Caught in a current seam on a Smallie Sweet Beaver  on a shaky head.

Bald Eagle.

 The Bite Was Not On.

 

After this, I made one trip up north with a friend to chase some smallies like I did last winter but had zero luck. 

I'm hoping to make it out more this year than last, but we'll see how things go.  I've got a future fishergirl on the way and I have a feeling that between baby and school, a lot of my time will be gone.  In any case, I will do my best to post more often.

Bass Opener. A Brief Report.

I made it out on Saturday on Bald Eagle with my Dad and brother-in-law (Tom).  I have to say, the wind made things interesting as my Dad and I decided to fish the docks on the wind blown side for a little while before Tom showed up. 

I had tied on a Northstar Custom Jigs Swimjig (bluegill color - naturally since the bluegills are up spawning right now) on one rod and a 1/4oz Beetle Spin on the other and wound up throwing the Beetle Spin the entire time.  We did ok on the windy side of the lake, I caught a few small bass, a crappie, and two nice pike.  Tom called a half hour or so after Dad and I dropped the trolling motor so we went back to the other end of the lake to pick him up.

We decided to switch gears a little bit and fish a couple of the many reed islands the lake has.  I stuck with my Beetle Spin, Dad with a spinner bait, and Tom was throwing a  T-rigged Ring Fry.  We managed a few small bass and another crappie, but nothing really impressive.  By this time we knew that their was a rain storm coming so we started trolling back to the dock.

Now, you always read and hear about fishing a small cut in a weedline, so I threw into one and felt my bait deflect off of a reed.  BAM.  I knew from the hit that it was better than the other fish we had caught that morning.  The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, so here you go:

3lbs 3oz, not awesome by tourney standards but good enough to bring a smile to my face.  We made one more pass by this patch of reeds and then the light and thunder show started.  We fired up the big motor and high tailed it to the dock. 

Unfortunately, we didn't make it back out that afternoon, but I have the week off and the boat is still in the water so there is time to find more big ones. 

Hopefully you all had a productive bass opener outing as well.

MN Bass Expo

I know that this weekend is the Northwest Sportshow here in Minneapolis, but it seems that there's a new show in town that caters to the basser crowd. 

April 20th-22nd at the National Sports Center in Blaine will be the site of the first annual MN Bass Expo. 

I think it's a pretty cool idea as it will let me focus on my main fishing passion and take my mind off of all that toothy critter tackle! 

It looks like there are quite a few vendors slated to be there, though I notice a few big names that are missing, namely anyone owned by Johnson Outdoors.  It's odd to me that Humminbird wouldn't be there since bass fishing is becoming ever more dependent on electronics for consistent success and it's a good time to display their new technology to a niche crowd.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to stop by their booth tomorrow at the NW Sportshow to see what's new.

The cool thing is that I see a lot of local tackle makers signed up to, so it should be great to meet some of the people behind my favorite baits!

Whole Lotta Workin' Going On...

Good grief it's been a long time since I've done anything with this.  A lot has been going on since the JulyAugust timeframe.  I haven't had a whole lot of time to fish, or do much of anything else for that matter, although I did make it out a time or two.  I have been living (fishing) vicariously through other bloggers and bassers. 

I will make a catch up post soon.