Fishing update

Hey there everyone. Here's a quick update:

I have a new favorite popper. A Duo Realis Popper 64. This thing is awesome! You can walk the dog with ease and it just seems to get bit. I have it in Ghost Gill and Funky Gill. Ghost Gill is by far my favorite color.

I have been using a black 1/4 ounce Cavitron buzzbait lately. This is a good lure to throw first thing in the morning. It does scare me to death when it gets bit though.

I've found a couple new lakes to fish that are pretty close to where I stay.

 Waboose Lake is up in the Paul Bunyan Forest. It's total natural and offers some stunning views. The fish there are very healthy and more than willing to cooperate.

Duck Lake is a small lake just minutes away from my place and it is very populated which means there are docks galore to fish. My biggest fish so far was a 4 pounder. The bass on Duck seemed to be pissed. The 1 pounders fight like 5 pounders.

I pulled the boat out last weekend and fished Duck and Island. I did enjoy the relaxed fishing from the boat with the wife. I guess I'll keep the boat for awhile.

Well it finally happened. I buried a treble hook in my finger so bad that I had to go the the local emergency room to get it removed. No idea what happened. I was landing a bass, he shook, and the next thing I know that sharp Gamy was buried in my digit.

Fishing season so far

Hello everyone out there in the blog world!! I want to give everyone an update on the fishing season for me so far. Random thoughts are imminent....

I love fishing out of a kayak. I have a Wavewalk 500 and it's a joy to use. I bought my wife a cheap Kayak from Menards so she can join me. My new boat has sat a lot lately and here are some reasons:

1. It's just easier to load up the yak and put it in the water. No worries about battery life.
2. When it's windy, boat position can be difficult. Yak positioning is a bit easier.
3. I don't have to bring my truck to the lake to load and unload. I can put the yak on top of my wife's Subaru. Yes, the great folks at the resort where I park my RV allow me to use their truck but then I am restricted to one lake.
4. I really like the ability to go to one of the many lakes in the area. The lake where I stay does have some bigger bass but it seems they are few and far between.

All this has got me wondering if I should just sell my boat. My wife tells me to be patient. One day we will have a vehicle that can tow the boat and is easy on gas. I'm sure she's right but every time I look over at my boat, I feel silly for making monthly payments on something I don't use all that often.

Lately I've been fishing the same way most mornings. I start with top water lures. More specifically a Strike King Sexy Dawg in blue gill and a popper (numerous brands). I also throw a Stanley Ribbit frog on occasion. Then once the top water bite is done, I'll go to the spots where I'm pretty sure there are fish and I toss around a drop shot for the last hour or two. I use a VMC spinshot hook and a Zoom trick worm in some form of green pumpkin or watermelon. The weight is dependent on the conditions but I go as light as I can.

I usually bring 3 rods on the yak.

• A Daiwa Lexa 100 (7:1:1) matched with an old 6 ft medium Quantum rod spooled with 10 lb mono that I got years ago with a cheap bait cast combo. I use this rod for poppers. The rod is pretty parabolic and seems to allow me to get the treble hooks set without ripping the popper out of the fish's mouth.
• A BPS Pro Qualifier (6:4:1) matched with a 6ft 8 in (approx) St. Croix Triumph MH rod spooled with 12 lb mono. I use this combo for walking baits and as a utility rod of sorts after the top water bite is done.
• The third rod depends on what I plan to do that day but lately it's been my drop shot rod and reel. This is a Cabelas brand spin cast reel and a Scheels brand MH rod spooled with 12 lb fluorocarbon. 

Some other items that I've added to the gear this year include:

• A small mouth spreader for the occasional Northern
• A clicker like they use at events to count people. This works great for counting fish. I attached it to my PFD 
• A small plastic container I use to carry pliers, braid scissors, used plastics etc. I used Velcro to affix it to the saddle  in my yak.
• I did buy a Lowrance Elite 4X HDI fish finder to the bow of my boat. It's a nice little color fish finder and I installed it myself. I like the down scan imaging feature for sure.

The season so far has been pretty awesome. The spawn featured some 30-40 fish mornings and the post spawn was pretty ridiculous as well. One day my son, his friend and I probably caught over 200 fish one morning during the post spawn. The bass were stacked up in a couple locations and were very hungry. Now we are in the basic summer pattern up north here and most mornings I'm averaging 15 fish or so and the evenings I would say I average about 6-8 fish. Some days are better than others but as long as I go to waters that hold fish, I get bit. My biggest bass of the year has been 5 lbs. I have caught probably a dozen or so fish over the 4 lb mark. That's pretty good for this area.

One thing that has been interesting is using the  lures I've made myself. I started out using several lures I made and did catch fish on them. But since then I've been opting to purchase lures and use them. Why am I doing that? Well, the fish around here in the clear water I fish seem to want a top water lure that is translucent and blue gill or a shadow minnow pattern is key. I just don't have any lures that fit the bill. Also the popper bite has been focused on a smaller profile lure than what I made last winter. I will take these things into consideration next winter when I get back to building lures!

That's all for now. Tight lines everyone!

We are 4 weeks from the Bass opener in MN! It's time for final preparations. Here's a list of what I need to do in the next 4 weeks:

Get the boat out of storage
Put the batteries in the boat
Re-install the trolling motor
Make sure all items that I took out of the boat are put back
Vacuum the carpet
Generally clean the boat
Purchase and install a spare trailer tire (I forgot to buy one last year)
Put the new decals on the boat
Get all my tackle ready and put it on the boat to include new rods and reels
Build a holder for all my Plano 3700 boxes (11 is the current count)
Take down the Kayak out of stoarage
Clean up the Kayak
Figure out how to mount the back up oar
Attach a harness to the main oar
Make sure to attach the rod holder before I bring it to the lake
Build a couple more shallow crank baits
Go to Cabelas to buy some more soft plastic trailers (mostly beaver or crayfish types)

I don't think I'm missing anything but who knows! Hopefully this list may help you in your preparations.

Today I have a question. Are the benefits of living in North Dakota worth dealing with the weather?

Here are the benefits as I see them:

The economy is sound and insulated from the severe ups and downs of the rest of the country for the most part.

The crime rate is low. I'm not sure if there is a safer place in the US to live

Here are some facts about the weather:

On 3/31/2014 a blizzard dumped 18 inches of snow on the Grand Forks area. 

Today, 4/3/2014 I woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground.

It's been snowing all morning.

I can't tell you how many days in a row I wore long underwear this winter. It's been freaking cold!

Now, when you consider why I'm posing this question, understand that my number one priority is getting on the water  to fish for bass. 

Let's say I lived in Florida. I can do that, this is a free country. I could sell my snow blower, snow shovel, snow shoes, insulated coveralls etc and just move to Florida. No one would stop me.

Anyway, let's say I lived in Florida. I would have been fishing back in February. Heck I could fish all year long. I know crime would be higher there, and I'd have to worry about silly hurricanes but I wouldn't have to move snow and wear long underwear all the time.

OK this rant is complete. Thanks!

I know it's been a long long time since I made an entry here. I am going to try and keep up better this year. Well, here it is 8 weeks to the MN bass opener. We just experienced a blizzard yesterday and it doesn't seem like I'll be on the water in 8 short weeks. So what have I been doing all winter? I've been making bass lures. Yes, I decided that I didn't want to waste all my time playing games on my iPad or staring aimlessly at the TV so I scoured the internet and got started. 

My only goal was to create a top water popper that I could use to catch a bass. I did that soon enough and graduated to a bunch of other ideas. So here are a couple pictures of the lures I've created. I'll post more later on how I created these in a future post.

I just realized that with the weather around here and the flooding, by the time I can get back to Round Bay Resort, I may not be able to get across the river! I'm not one to complain too much but come on Mother Nature, I have to catch some Bass over here!!!!!!

Getting supplies for the upcoming season...
Top water frogs with special dual hooks, creature baits, hooks and bullet weights.






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