Welcome to our world…..
We are not fishing for 12 inch fish.
We have preditors.
We have small lakes.
And we have two northern boys in 1 and 2. Ike and KVD.
The question is would you rather see them fish like we do and fail or go to a fish farm and kick butt..
Welcome to our world.
Hope you see the value in the challange.
Come on back. Soon.
We had a club tournament back on May 22nd. First place was 16 pounds and not one was over 4 pounds (do the math/cookie cutters); so to say that there aren’t a lot of big fish in there is a lie. We had one guy show up who never fished the lake before and came in with over 12 pounds without any practice. I had 3 fish for over 10 pounds and came in 3rd. I think these guys must be really be hitting the post-spawn blues bad. I know these guys can skip docks can’t they? Kenny Snow (Baitcaster) told me back in October that whoever can figure out the largemouth will have a good shot at this thing. It looks like he might have been right on if Iaconelli continues his mixed bag approach. I still would have liked to see these guys on the river or something like the Chetek Chain. Hopefully this doesn’t leave a bad taste in the mouths of BASS and they’ll come back and fish some better water.
May 22nd through May 31st had the smallies being extremely active in the shallows. That appeared to be the major spawn time. The big crappies were on the beds and done spawning in 5 days by May 31st due to bad weather conditions. Nice weather after that didn’t appear to have them coming back in.
That’s two and a half weeks ago. The smallmouth should be ready to bite.
I fish the lake often, as I live across a county highway, from
the lake. During the first two days of the tournament,
I kept an eye on where the pros where fishing, and
where they were not. They are not on the better smallies.
I talked to a guy last night, that watched pros fish past
his place all day, and he walked down to his dock, and
promptly caught a 22″ smallmouth. The main basin
smallies are not even being touched. Which surprises
me since these guys fish places like Erie, and Ontario.
They should be fishing edges of the main basin, and
spending time getting in sync with the pods of 4 to 5 lb
smallies that hunt there. It looks like in this tournament
they only needed 2 good bites a day, of this class of
fish, and they would be fishing the hole course on
Little Lake Wissota, in the final 12.
When I heard all of the whining, I thought, “Shut up
and fish”. But I do agree that there were better choices,
to showcase bass fishing in Wisconsin.
By the way Brad, there were a couple of nice bags, in
that club tournament, this year on Wissota. Regretably,
I was not able to fish it. And regretably, I won’t be at
Long Lake this Sunday, either. I guess after two years
of First Place finishs there, I will have to give up the title
without a fight(grin). As soon as this house building madness
ends, I WILL BE BACK. It looks like I will be through this
mess by mid August.
Big Bass Bane
House building
BBB I had a friend who built a house a few years back. He was given a book ” so your thinking about building a house”
Chapter one was one statement ” don’t do it”
Chapter two was one statement ” did’nt you read chapter one you big dummy” 
Hope you get your life back soon.
Bro’,
I didn’t read the book 
I should have read the book 
But with all of the Atta Boy points I am scoring with
“Her Highness”, I figure I will not get one peep out
of her when I do get back to tournament fishing.
And the fact that I paid particular attention to getting
this house near 100% maintenance free, should help
keep the “Honey-Do” list short…At least that is the plan.
Big Bass Bane
I think the biggest thing, maybe someone mentioned it above, but, the biggest thing is the economic infastructure to support the tournament. They are going to want a location that has enough hotels, returaunts, etc. for the families of the pros and personal that follow this tournament around. With that in mind, there are only a few lakes that are big enough and close enought to cities that can support that kind of tournament.
Thus, they would have to fish the Mississippi, Madison Chain, or the Bay? They have been to the Mississippi twice prior to this. I would have though Madison would have tried to get something like this in again since the outdoor games. Mendota, Menona and Wabesa there is over 10K acres there and I believe you can lock between the three.
Not to say Wissota is a bad lake, there are plenty of fish there, but the infistructure is one of the main things I think they look at when selecting a body of water. I think they made a great choice. Like someone else mentioned, we will find out who the pros really are. I have yet to read any comments from VanDam after he wont the thing, but I am sure the comments changed a little bit from the first few days.
tolden
Well I was an observer in this tournament – Wednesday with KVD – Thursday with Larry Nixon. I was 100% impressed with what I saw. It was so cool sitting down for breakfast on Wednesday morning at The View and have Rick Clunn come over and ask if he could sit by me – we hardly talked fishing – we talked kids and life and a little about the river but it was then that I realized these gentlemen are as human as us.
I learned alot in 2 days of sitting in a boat with these guys – I learned that I don’t think I am too far off track in ability to fish – in the midwest we are blessed with alot of people that can fish and fish well – hundreds I am willing to bet that could compete at that level.
I learned that I do not have the guts, willpower or business sense to take the chances these guys did to make it. They have my utmost respect to not completely crack.
I thought alot about the biggest names and the big deal that is made out of them making a million dollars in 20 years of fishing professionally – well guess what, I have made over a million dollars in the last 20 years and someone paid my bealth insurance – do the math – $50,000 a year for the best of the best – it takes sponsors, hence business sense.
Bash them for whining if you wish but respect them for the chance they took.
hey kize…did u hafta pay to be an observer????
Now if Kizew could just dance he would have a new boat 
I went down Thursday and it was a pretty good time. Listening to all the moaning and groaning about the fish got a little tiresome. Most of the pros that did poorly were gone after the weigh in but quite a few stuck around for autographs and such. I think Iaconelli stood around till about 9:00 just shooting the breeze, signing autographs, and hitting on some ladie’s daughter over her cell phone. That guy does a great job marketing himself whether you like his style or not.
One more thing, Gerald Swindle has a hot wife
Yes pitbull it was a $300.00 entry fee for the observers – walked away from registration on Tuesday night with over $100.00 worth of stuff that all observers got, plus you get Bassmaster’s University this winter for free and a 2 in 50 chance to win a Triton.
Top that with a couple days on the water absorbing – it works!
I tell you what Brad, I already signed up for dancing lessons!!! You know from a trivia side of it, there was a Bassmaster’s Classic won with only 15 lbs 2 ounces of fish in 3 days of fishing – I don’t believe it was the toughest ever tounament on Lake Wissota.
How did things go with the culling permit?
What did the DNR types do?
Is the small catch going to effect the results????????? 
Dan there was only 2 or 3 limits brought in – I think 2 by Iconelli was it – he caught 8 or 9 keepers day one and 7 I believe on day 2. That will not be squat for data for the culling survey.
A buddy (Motley) went up for pre-fishing and talked with a bunch of the pros… when discussing it with KVD, this is what he had to say…
(Sorry, BC, just had to do this… 
)
Well, RG is going to be out for awhile…so any Jerkin’ Lips members that had made fishing “appointments” with him in the next few weeks may as well reschedule. He’ll have a hard time fishing with his eyes swelled shut. 
Reel Guy that is just too funny. 
Hey B.C. just go in and mess up his garage. That should keep him busy for the rest of the year. 
that was cold 
ne body know if those guys had to fish out of tritons? kvd has nitro plastered all over himself but i noticed all of the boats there were tritons
The boats are provided, and are tritons….
IMO, they should be fishing out of their own Rigs…
Quote:
The boats are provided, and are tritons….
IMO, they should be fishing out of their own Rigs…
No way! I say put them all in 17′ War Eagles and let them go to town.
The first 2 days they fish out of their own and the last two days which are the televised days they get the wrapped Tritons. Talk about punishment for making the cut.
I’m thinking about getting a new boat, anyone know where I can get a good price on a new Bass Cat 
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