Bass World Sports Season Finale

This past Saturday was the finale of a year-long season on the Mississippi River.  Bass World Sports is a tournament organization based in Missouri and holds tournaments all over the Midwest.  This year I had the opportunity to fish three of these events with my long time friend, Kevin Christensen.  He is the definition of a "river rat" and has taught me so much in the past couple of decades.  We have had some great days of fishing in the past, and some I' have tried to forget.  This past Saturday is one that neither one of us will forget anytime soon.


The tournament previous to this one we placed 5th, and left a bad taste in both of our mouths.  Preparation is so important with catching bass and we decided we needed a different plan.  We both took a day off of work on Friday and put in a full day of practice.  We covered a lot of water in Pool 9 throwing a lot of different baits at the bass to see just where they were living.  We found several areas where the bass were feeding and we felt comfortable with our plan.

Saturday morning came and we locked up to Pool 9 from Harpers Ferry which was the plan for over half the boats in the tournament.  Our first area along the main channel gave us two keepers for the livewell and we were off to the our next area.  A side slough with plenty of current was our next stop and we finished out our 5-bass limit quickly.  While the first two fish came on an Optimum Baits frog and a Wig's Jig.  The second area was all about pitching Hot Rod Baits Tubes and Wig's Jigs on the QuantumPT flippin' rods and reels.  We continued the rest of day pitching jigs and tubes to weeds and wood to upgrade up until the last few moments of fishable time.  We headed back to Pool 10 feeling good about what we had accomplished and were eager for the weigh-in to see how we compared to our competition.

We ended up weighing 16.93#, good enough for first place, a weekend we will not soon forget.  Proper preparation, time on the water and finding the quality of fish to put us towards to the top is a feeling that never gets old!

Prepping the High School Bass Club

This past week I gathered the Indee Bass Club together for some seminars on Wednesday night.  Fellow team coach, Keith Donnelly was there to assist with the seminars as well.  21 students from the Junior and Senior High showed up to learn all about rods and reels, casting, flipping, and pitching techniques, as well as fine tuning baitcasting reels.  I have a feeling if these kids pay attention in school as well as they did this night, they will all be "A" students.

Since starting this club I have noticed the hunger in many of these kids, something that I had when I was a teenager as well.  It is my pleasure and honor to help these kids out and look forward to their next adventure later this month, a partner bass tournament on our home waters of the Wapsipinicon River.

If you are a student or have a student interested please check out the club Facebook page or website.

Thanks to all my supporters and their great products, please click their link on the right side of the website to see their various products and services!

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Mississippi River- Bass World Sports Tournament

Hard to beat the River Minnow
from Hot Rod Baits

Yesterday, Kevin Christensen and I entered the Labor Day Weekend Bass World Sports tournament out of Harpers Ferry, Iowa.  As usual Pool 9 tempted us from previous successes, so we locked once again in this event.  The day started out on an area that a friend and I did very well on the previous week.  We caught numerous 2.50# fish and a couple at the 3# mark, all within an area the size of a house.  Deep water, weeds near by, plenty of baitfish, and of course current were all present, so the bass had to stick around for a while...WRONG.  Not one keeper off this "magical" area, so off to explore other areas.  We kept our heads high and fished hard all day long in the lower part of Pool 9 where we spent most of the day.  We bounced around to all the bass hangouts, points, drop-offs, weeds, current, slack water, which all seemed to hold bass.  We couldn't really put our finger on a particular pattern for the fish as we picked them up in all locations.  We continued to upgrade ounces at a time pitching Wig's Jigs and Hot Rod Baits tubes.  We both use only QuantumPT flippin' rods and reels for this job.  High speed reels were important today as some bass were tucked in the thickest of laydown logs, you only have a split second to get the bass coming your way before they snag you up.  It was a good day of fishing and we knew we had around 14#, which is a good day anytime on the Mighty Miss'.  This day it was good enough to place 5th our of about 20 boats, however we were a few ounces away from bringing home some cash.  Maybe next time that "magical" area will yield some quality fish an bump us up in the to 3!  Until then, I will be on the search for that net magical place on the Mississippi River.