punch

I'm happy all these guys are putting out such quality content for FREE. I applaud all of them for spending their time and money doing it. When I was 15 (35 now) and first started fishing the only way I learned anything about fishing was from magazines and watching LIVE fishing shows. Someitmes you could pick up tips from guys at sporting goods stores, but they didn't know anything beyond the basics. Having access to all this information would have been life changing back then. The deep well of instructional videos on youtube is such a great tool that really can make people better anglers almost instantly. I find myself watching a lot of videos for fishing techniques and species that I know I'll never ACTUALLY fish simply because I can.

I've been throwing a lot of topwater the last few years. In MN we have a lot of milfoil filled lakes and topwater is a great way to fish the dense shallow milfoil without getting hung up. My go-to's are the chug bug, x-rap prop, spook (and other walking baits like the Arashi), and the ole caviltron. Chug bug produces the most for me (with the x-rap pop a close 2nd). Bass haaaate that thing.

I was able to snag a Shimano 2500FD for 21 bucks and Stufix 832 briad for 11 bucks a spool. The hardbait selection this year wasn't as good as last year I also cleaned out one MN Twin Cities dicks location of their $4 packages of Senkos. Sorry! Only two colors were discounted.

My largest fish this past summer was on a X-rap Pop. I'm normally a big Chug Bug zealot, but I decided to toss the X-Rap pop a bunch more this summer and it did just as well as the ole chug bug.

Lews SS Tourny Pro is an amazing reel. I have a few of them and they are awesome.

Maybe they are not doing the sale this year..

Cabelas has the $119 lews tournament pro's... but only in left hand.

Seems like a very good time to stock up on them at 100 or less. Maybe they were too popular at their current price point and are eating sales of the other rods? These rods are pretty fantastic for sub 100 sale prices. I dare you to find something nice for less than a hundo.

Ooh thanks for the heads up on the Tatula sale at BPS. I grabbed the 7'2 Heavy that I missed out on with the Cabelas sale.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/quantum-174-exo-pt-casting-reel/1262229.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3D129750%252Band%252B129755%26x%3D10%26y%3D6%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%252BProducts&Ntt=129750+and+129755 EXO PT reels are up for $99

http://www.cabelas.com/product/quantum-174-exo-pt-casting-reel/1262229.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3Fform_state%3DsearchForm%26N%3D0%26fsch%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3D129750%252Band%252B129755%26x%3D10%26y%3D6%26WTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%252BProducts&Ntt=129750+and+129755 EXO PT reels are up for $99

Pflueger all day for under $100. Really any of their reels are great. It's the only spinning reel brand I buy anymore because of the bang you get for the buck.

d**n, those sold out fast.

Glad you guys could grab a few. I snagged the 7'6" H flippin stick and the 7'1" MH. Basically a 2 for 1.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/bargain-cave/fishing/rods%7C/pc/105591780/c/105740280/sc/105742080/daiwa-tatula-casting-rod/1911839.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Frods%2F_%2FN-1102769%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_105742080%3FWTz_l%3DHeader%253BSearch-All%252BProducts Figured you guys might want to snap this deal up while it's up ($80!). They had the flipping stick up for $80 but it sold out quick. Free shipping on orders over $50 too. Crazy good deal IMHO.

What baits were you using and where were you fishing them? I've been out a couple times in the last few days and have had a real hard time finding fish. Been getting a lot of pike.

I went out yesterday. I tossed the kitchen sink at fish shallow.. spinners, wake bait, popper, t rigged craw. Nothing. Then i went to the deeper flats and tossed a football jig, t rigged craw, and bounced a lipless crank along the bottom. Nothing (I saw fish on the finder). I hit a couple 14' to 8' foot shelves along vegetation and started nailing them with the ole crankbait. DT4 in bluegill as usual (Still had it tied on from Friday). I would run the crank deep to shallow and get hits right along the ridges. I put 3 fish in the boat doing this then had to go in. In the last few days I've ONLY caught bass on crankbaits in 6 to 12 feet of water. Which is weird because just a week ago I was hammering them real shallow. I think the weather and the wind has blown them back down deeper a bit.

Ugh don't even get me started on Milfoil spraying. It drives me nuts! My favorite bass haunt was sidelined this summer by milfoil chemicals. The bite was amazing spring and early summer.. then they sprayed. Now it's really hard to find active fish. It's half as productive as it was this time last year. The good news is the MN DNR slashed the amount of money it will give out next year on milfoil management. If cities want to combat invasive species they will have to pay for it out of their own pockets to a greater degree. This hopefully means much less spraying. I really question how effective spraying for milfoil is in the long term. I'd love to see some statistics that proves it's worth what it does to the bass fishing. On a fishing note, I hit Lake George in St Francis tonight and did pretty well tossing old faithful.. a Rapala DT4. Caught some good fish (bass and pike) in 6-10 feet of water along deep water edges. My dad caught a nice 3-4lber right as the sun went down. If you don't have a couple DT4s in your crankbait arsenal in Minnesota you're nuts. It's been my most productive crankbait by a mile the last few years. It out fishes every squarebill I have. It's the perfect bait for those 6-12' weedlines (which all of our lakes have). It's a heck of a trolling bait too.

There's lost of us Minnesotans on Bass Resource! If you're looking for lake recommendations I'd suggest giving us a general area of the state where you're interested in fishing. Are you local or are you traveling? We have a LOT of great bass lakes in MN so if you could help narrow it down then I'm sure we could help you out. We also have a thread going in the central bass section of the forum, like Dtree11 mentioned.

Lews Tournament Pro's rule! For 130 bucks you're not going to find much better. They were good deals for 199 when they came out. I have a couple of them and they are a pleasure to use. Smooth and drama free. I hope the price on these keep dropping so i can start snagging them for under 100.

So I'd like to get out and do some fall smallmouth fishing, does anyone have some twin cities metro area lake recommendations? There has to be some decent smallmouth action that isn't on a river in the metro. Smally fishing is a big hole in my bass game.

I've pulled several +5LBers out of Crooked this year, infact I got one yesterday. I know a guy that got a 6LBer out of Coon this summer also. Keep hunting!

I've been out a few times in the last couple days in the north metro. The fish seem to have moved up into shallow cover and seem to be hanging out there for most of the day. I've had no luck fishing dropoffs or weed lines. I've had lots of luck fishing right in and around any bunched up, shallow cover like weeds and pads. They are IN the thick stuff, not around it. I've had lots of topwater explosions right on the edge of the vegetation in just 3-5 feet of water. Frogs and poppers have gotten me some nice bites. A weedless wacky senko has been doing well also. I've should be punching the thick stuff with T rigs and jiggs but I always try topwater first and it's been working. Really target that thick shallow vegitation right now, you might find some big boys. I caught a nice 5.3LBer in about 3 feet of water on a x-rap popper on Saturday. I've been ripping spinnerbaits (as per usual once the temp dips) and I've just been having pike hit them. I've had no action on squarebills at all. Temps seem to be in the mid-low 60s. The bite has been much better in the last week. Should just keep picking up until the snow fliys.

The lakes I fish I never see anyone ever throwing poppers anymore. I catch all my biggest fish late in the day on the popper (and early AM). It's always productive and it doesn't matter part of the season it is. The plus side is that it's nice to be the only one doing it. I've been a popper tosser since I was 16 and I've never lost confidence in it.

A few yeah, I cycle between Crooked, George, and Coon mostly. I'm going to hit crooked tonight.