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!

Hot Rod Baits~QuantumPT~Optimum Baits~Vexilar~The Iowa Sportsman~State Farm Insurance~Bill's Pizza in Independence

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.

Hot Rod Baits Bass Series Stop #3

This past Saturday was the third and final stop of the Hot Rod Baits Bass Series at 12-Mile Lake near Creston, Iowa.  12-Mile lake is a 635-acre lake that was created by flooding a valley around Afton, Iowa.  It is a typical Central Iowa man-made lake, a lot of standing trees, rock piles, roadbeds, brushpiles and plenty of deeper water, the maximum at this lake being just over 40 feet.  The water quality is always pretty good at this lake, which has allowed the bass population to flourish.  The lake did not disappoint, and my partner Brian Bowles and myself had a great time figuring out these bass.
Friday was a long day on the water, covering as much water as possible.  Shallow, deep, weeds, wood we gave it all a good look with a variety of baits.  We ended the day with about a dozen Quantum Rods/Reels on the deck of the boat, we threw everything at them!

We decided to bet our tournament finish on two areas that we found during the Friday practice day.  We felt pretty confident we could get a limit of 6 bass, but really didn't know if they would weigh 12 pounds or 15 pounds at the end of the day.  The day was a great one to fish, light winds, temps ranging from 55-80, a great day on the lake for August.  We were able to capitalize on the two main areas quickly that morning, and were culling fish within the first two hours of the tournament.  We continued to work the areas over and expanded our casts in those areas.  We were feeling pretty good and there were only 4 rods/reels on the deck at this time.  We were going to finish the day throwing and dragging craw baits.  Color didn't seem to matter on this day, as we caught fish on every color we tried.  The highlight of the tournament was when Brian went back to back with 3.50 pounders.  He set the hook on the second fish before I had the first fish tagged and in the livewell, it was awesome and we had things going our way.  We continued to work over our areas, our baits were working and we were going to really focus in on the technique.  On the way back to the weigh-in we always seem to talk about what we did and how we think we might end up, a top 5 was our goal coming into this event, and we figured that we did enough to achieve that.  It was time to get the weigh-in started and see just how much our best 6 keepers weighed.  We ended up with 16.68# and ended up in 4th place.  We were pleased with our efforts and our finish.  The prize money was a nice bonus to a great weekend of fishing.

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!

Hot Rod Baits~QuantumPT~Optimum Baits~Vexilar~The Iowa Sportsman~State Farm Insurance~Bill's Pizza in Independence

Fishing Hacks You Should Know

I have been fishing for over 25 years, and many of those being a student of the game.  I have read countless articles in various magazines, watched A LOT of fishing shows, and fished with dozens and dozens of anglers from around the state.  Each and every time I fish, my goal is to learn something about this great sport.  Whether it be about tackle, fish locations or even a helpful tip.  I recently was published in the August edition of The Iowa Sportsman Magazine with an article that highlights "Hacks Every Angler Should Know".  Here are three tips from that article, to read about all 15 of them, get your hands on the latest edition of  The Iowa Sportsman Magazine.  You can subscribe for 3 years for under $30 (36 issues), a fantastic value.

#1- No matter what kind of reel you have, it was designed to have a certain amount of line on it.  The spool should be full at all times.  An easy way to save time and money is to line your spool with cheap 15# line until it it is half full.  Then take a marker and color 3 feet of that line.  From here tie on your choice of line and fill ‘er up!  When you start to see your marker color, it’s time to get some more line on your reel.

#2- Crankbaits are awesome baits, however they are a nightmare to keep in a tackle box.  To help with this common problem, get the disposable hair bands that girls use to tie up their hair.  Wrap these small bands around the treble hooks a few times, it will keep them together and keep your baits more organized.  

Wrapping the small rubber bands around the
 hooks will keep them more organized.  You will
also find that you can fit more baits into your tackle boxes.

#3- Rusty hooks are useless, and won’t catch as many fish.  Grab a bunch of toothpicks and break them in small pieces to place in your tackle box along with your hooks.  The wood will help absorb the moisture and keep your hooks fresh.

Just a few little tricks I have picked up over the years, hope they help you be more successful, and save some money too!