Tlauz

It definitely does not have the same feel. I have enjoyed getting to know some of the new anglers on the Elite tour. I am getting some new favorites to cheer for. I like to think that having the BPT/MLF and BASS Elites gives me more fishing to watch so I view that as a win. I think both tours will eventually have a good mix of stars. There will be some who don't do well on BPT tour that will return and new stars will eventually be made on both tours. I will say that I am less interested watching people I am not familiar with.

Go to Major League Fishing website. Click the link on top (MLF 101). It gives a really good description of events along with graphs to make it easier to understand. Remember the BPT and MLF events are not the same. You can live stream the BPT events and watch them as they are happening. The MLF cup events are taped and played at a later date.

I love how unpredictable the format is. When Thrift was ahead by 10 pounds in the 3rd period JT and Marty were talking and wondering if anyone could make a run and challenge him. Wheeler proceeds to go on an unbelievable run and win going away. I have re-watched (numerous times) the MLF Cup event where Van Dam was down by around 27 pounds in the first period and ended up winning going away. I love watching everyones reaction as the score tracker keeps going off. This was a great derby.

This has been a fantastic tourney so far!!!

I have a Cabelas 15 minutes away. I always try to load up when I find a sale (clearance bins). Since the merger with BPS they carry a lot more bass tackle. Since 95% of the people in this area fish for walleye, the selection does not really match the market. Last year it was KVD jerkbaits for $1.88 and Zman plastic worms for $.99

Every year lots of 5 inch plastic worms and wacky hooks. I love throwing spinnerbaits when the wind blows. Went through about 10 this year. A few bite offs, a handful just broke due to catching a lot of fish and a few got mangled by toothy critters. Lost quite a few swim jigs, but had stocked up previously so I don't need more. I have already reloaded with about a dozen spinnerbaits. Will buy worms and wacky hooks and be ready.

Growing up I fished for walleye,pike and perch. My dad was a catch it cook it angler. I did not start bass fishing until I was an adult. I spent a decade chasing muskies and now target bass almost exclusively. No matter the species, I have always viewed the best fisherman (regardless of species) as the ones that can find fish. I still think this! Most anglers with pretty good skills can catch fish once they find them. The really good anglers can find fish on the days when it seems like they have all disappeared. I never payed close attention to tournament angling in the past until I started watching the MLF cup events. I really enjoy these. Because of this, I also started paying closer attention to BASS tournaments. On both tours, I think the top guys are the guys that find fish more consistently than others.

I used to use the T-1 exclusively. Loved them. I have tried the S-1 and they are like every other spinnerbait as far as durability. I now use War Eagle spinnerbaits.

It seems the majority of anglers haven't let where they fish affect any friendships. I've seen many BASS, MLF and FLW guys on youtube, twitter ...... supporting each other and fun fishing with each other. It seems fans are bothered a lot more than the anglers. Just saw that Ott Defoe will be at Brandon Card's high school and college events. It seems like there are way more good guys out there than not. It's all fishing. Relax and enjoy.

I hardly think 2 anglers leaving is a sign of trouble. I stated earlier I expect a lot of anglers to return to BASS eventually. This will bring new blood into the BPT as well. Good for both. Saying that this shows MLF didn't take off I think is wrong. There are definitely people who do not like the format and are still bitter that the big stars left, but MLF's TV ratings have been very good. This is the most important thing. I don't believe changes that BASS made that are good for anglers would have been made if not for the BPT tour. I think having 2 successful tours is good for everyone. What MLF has done in a short amount of time is amazing. Disliking Boyd or the format is different than saying it has not been successful.

I would expect around 25% or more will eventually return. (That still means a large chunk left). I think some will miss the 5 fish limit and others just can't compete. I think people who hate the BPT don't realize what a great opportunity it created for others. There were people who fished the Elites this year who may never have if all the top pros hadn't left. BASS will create some new stars and some will return. BPT will do well also. It seems like a huge win for fans. I will continue to watch both. It actually works out well for both BPT and BASS. BPT gets to add add Thrift and Dudley and BASS gains a little star power.

Fished last Sunday, Thursday and Friday. The first pic is my deck on Saturday the day before I went fishing. Snow was less the farther east I drove. Temp was 35 with 14 mph winds. Except for a Rainy River spring trip I once took, it was the coldest I have ever been fishing. I fished for 4 hours and caught 8 small largemouth. This Thursday I had pretty good weather. Wind was still blowing 12-15 and water temp was 47. My plan was to slow down and fish deeper, but I hate doing that when it is windy. I went to the best weed beds and slow rolled a War Eagle Spinnerbait with Berkley Powerbait 5 inch paddle tail over the top and also along a rock bar. Most of the time I was fishing in less than 10 feet of water. Didn't catch many, but caught some nice ones. Biggest four were 19.5, 19, 18 and 17. I caught 10 fish in 6.5 hours. I got one really nice pike and 2 small largemouth and the rest were smallmouth. Friday went and tried to do the same thing. Wind was 20mph steady. I fished for 2 hours without a bite and was getting blown all over. Went to the smaller lake that is connected hoping to be able to get out of wind but the wind direction made it hard. Found one small stretch where I could throw white swim jig with paddle tail trailer in shallow weeds and caught two nice largemouth. Biggest 19. I tried to replicate in other areas, but the wind made it almost impossible. After I went and dropped off boat to be winterized and stored. Good luck to those who are still going strong .

UGLY Looking forecast. Wednesday Night Rain. Low around 34. Breezy, with a north wind 20 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Thursday Rain before 10am, then rain and snow. High near 37. Breezy, with a north wind 23 to 28 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between three quarters and one inch possible. Thursday Night Rain and snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain before 2am, then snow, possibly mixed with rain between 2am and 3am, then freezing rain, possibly mixed with snow after 3am. Patchy blowing snow between 11pm and 3am. Low around 31. Blustery, with a north wind 24 to 26 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Friday Snow, possibly mixed with freezing rain before 7am, then snow between 7am and 4pm, then snow, possibly mixed with rain after 4pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Patchy blowing snow. High near 34. Windy, with a north wind 26 to 31 mph, with gusts as high as 43 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Friday Night Snow, possibly mixed with rain, becoming all snow after 8pm. The snow could be heavy at times. Areas of blowing snow. Low around 31. Windy, with a north northwest wind around 31 mph, with gusts as high as 44 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Saturday Rain and snow likely before 2pm, then snow likely between 2pm and 4pm, then rain and snow likely after 4pm. Areas of blowing snow before 10am. Cloudy, with a high near 35. Windy, with a north northwest wind 24 to 31 mph, with gusts as high as 44 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Saturday Night Rain likely, possibly mixed with snow before 7pm, then a chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 31. Blustery, with a northwest wind 16 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

I fished for 4 hours today. Water temp was 50-52. The wind was blowing 15 mph with 25 mph gusts. Rained off and on throughout the day. Caught 8 bass and one nice pike. I caught a few on a swim jig but I had a hard time keeping bow out of line with the wind. Threw a 1/2 oz spinnerbait most of the day and caught most of my fish on it. Did catch 2 nice smallmouth. If the year wasn't ending soon, I wouldn't have gone out in this weather. I am going next weekend (forecast looks terrible. Wind, rain, snow, highs in 30's). After that I am going on the 18th and then dropping the boat off for winter storage. The last two falls have been terrible weather, I really miss nice falls.

Fished Saturday for about 5 hours. Everything that worked last weekend didn't this trip. Water temp was 61. Had frost the night before. Tried crank bait and spinnerbait but they didn't seem to want to chase. Ended up catching most of my fish on a 3/8 oz. white swim jig with a white grub trailer. Had to throw it in reeds. Not thick reeds but clumps of reeds with spots of open water in between. I would cast past reeds and slowly bring it through thickest part. Most bites happened when it got to thick part of reeds. Not all reeds were good. The best ones had thicker cabbage out in front of reeds. Ended up catching around 20 bass and a few pike. Nothing big.

Got out today for 4 hours. Water was 4-5 degrees warmer than it was last Sunday (66 today). It was cloudy and breezy. I only threw two baits all day. 1/2 oz. War Eagle spinnerbait and DT 3. Today was probably the best bite I have had all year. I burned spinnerbait over weeds in less than 10 feet of water and bass were crushing it. Only negative was that I lost the two biggest fish I had on (one smallmouth and one largemouth). If I would have gotten them in the boat, the day would have been fantastic.

Caught this little guy last weekend. Looks like he was lucky to get away.

45-46. Had to mark it on side of boat then measure so not an exact measurement. A couple weeks ago I was catching a lot of fish on a BX brat over weeds. Lately spinnerbait and swim-jig have been the best producers. Spinnerbait I have been running over the top of large cabbage beds. On my lake in the fall, find cabbage and find fish. Largemouth have been in the middle of weed beds. I have caught some good smallmouth on edges. Smallmouth seem to be cruising along weed edges where it drops off. Swim-jig I parallel weed edge one pass then throw in deeper into weeds on next pass. I fish two connected lakes. Small shallow lake seems to get better when water gets colder. . Water tends to cool off faster up north. It seems like everything happens a couple weeks earlier here when compared to most reports I read on here.

Fishing has been good when the wind blows. Both smallmouth and largemouth have been relating to thickest weeds and weed edges. Rocks have been a bust. Water temps 60-62 last Saturday and Sunday. Caught this one Sunday on white spinnerbait. Hit at the boat with about 2 feet of line out.

Jason Mitchell Outdoors has a couple episodes of him bass fishing small lakes in Walker area on youtube. He doesn't give specific names of lakes but gives great info. I think most of the small lakes in the area will have bass.

Fished Bemidji area last week and got out a few hours in the Alexandria area Sunday/Monday. Caught fish on weed edges. Last week I was out and found nothing but small fish. Better mix this week. Still caught a lot of small fish, but did manage some really nice fish too. Popper/ Choppo started to work as did a shallow running crankbait. Wacky weighted and non-weighted still produced the most fish. Took kids out on small lake in Alex area and had them throw wacky worms to weed edges. Caught 15-20 bass in less than 2 hours. Almost all in the 15 inch range. I caught this little guy on a Choppo and didn't realize he wasn't even hooked. When he bit, I set the hook and he flew 15 feet and was basically lassoed.

I have a few of their reels and rods. I like their rods more than the reels. They have some pretty good BOGO sales. I have two creature casting rods and one Akylos. For the money the are decent rods.

I fished parts of Wednesday - Sunday on 3 different lakes north of Bemidji. Water was 10 degrees colder than it was last time I was out. Ranged from 63-65. The days I fished for smallmouth, they seemed to have moved to the first deeper water near where they spawned (still less than 10 feet on this lake). I never tried really deep because I don't like to fish deep and I am not very good at it. I still saw some fish roaming really shallow but none locked on beds. Wind really blew a couple of the days and that made it difficult. Fished for largemouth and they seemed to be in the developing weeds and not as much in the reeds unless there were weeds right by the reeds. The weeds are starting to fill in and I caught the best fish in 5-10 feet paralleling the weed edge with a crank bait.. Best bait for smallmouth was still weightless wacky worm. Also caught some on spinnerbait. Have had no luck with topwater yet. Largemouth were caught on swim jig, texas rigged worm and KVD 2.5 crank bait. Had some great periods and some slow periods. Weather was warm Wed-Friday then turned cold. Best smallmouth were 19 and 19.5. Best largemouth were 18 and 19. Tried a new lake for largemouth that has large thick cabbage beds. All the bass I caught were built really well, but lake also has an abundance of 12-16 inch pike that hit everything. Think I will return and try throwing a frog later in the summer. Forecast for this week looks cool and rainy up here.

Fished Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, mornings and late afternoons and a little bit Saturday. Water temps around 73 every day. Smallmouth still on or near beds. Saw the same fish on the same spots I saw last Sunday. Fishing wasn't great, but not bad. I had to work hard for them. I caught quite a few nice smallmouth between 15-19 inches. Majority of the fish came in 4 feet of water or less by rocks or reeds. Fished wacky worm when I could, the wind made it hard at times. Switched to a pink worm and the fish bit that much better. I also went down sandy shorelines and hit any cover or logs I could. Caught nothing but small largemouth bass. Found a few nice largemouths in reeds, but I have struggled to find them consistently. The wind really blew a few of the days, and I threw a spinnerbait when it became to tough to throw the worm. Saturday the wind was 20 mph +. I struggled to get bites on spinnerbait and tried slowing down with a swim jig. This worked much better, and I wish I would have done more of it on previous days. I fished a small flat with reeds that was out of the wind on Saturday with kids and had really good luck with worms again.

It has been a long time, but here is my report. I put 10 lb on 3 spinning reels. So far I have only used it fishing weightless wacky worms. I really like it. It casts well and it seems to stretch less than regular mono. I would buy it again.