The extraction of the vehicle was over 10 grand. And the vehicle itself is a total loss, not to mention all of the fishing equipment he lost.

St. Croix Legend Extremes and Shimano reels. You can do no better.

This is an e-mail I got from my friend Vern.

I’m not sure if this link will work but on Monday my brother Joel went down to Point no Point on the Mississippi to do some ice fishing. He unknowingly drove toward the channel and it went from 18 inches of ice to 3 inches. Within seconds his 2007 dodge pickup sunk into 24 ft of water. I’m still a little shaken by just how close he came to losing his life. I’m just so grateful he was spared. we spent the morning today watching the recovery, it looks like his insurance is saying they will cover all the costs. The recovery today is likely over $10,000. They had a dive team, two divers and 10 guys from the towing company setting up the equipment and pulling the truck out.

Link

We will have to limit this event to 39 anglers.

John,
I truly enjoyed your seminar!! Thank You for the solid information on wing dam fishing. You have helped me understand what I have been missing with my style of wing dam fishing. When is the next seminar?? I’ll be there.
Ken Snow

oops i forgot the big fish… 6.2 pounds

Dean, I say the winning weight will be 19.59 pounds.

There is a book called Keeping Bass Alive that will give all the information you will need to conduct a proper weigh-in. This book was written by Hal Schramm and Gene Gilliand. These guys are very respected in the fisheries community.
Also get to know your local DNR fish manager. You will need to comply to the Minnesota DNR requirements on your permits.

You can probably get BASS to send you the book for free. Just fire them an e-mail

http://www.wisconsinbassnation.com/WisconsinBassFederationNation/forums/1584/ShowPost.aspx

I know they won at Prarie DuChein, and at Yankton, and Ohio. I’m not sure where the other one was.
Congradulations guys!!
Tell us about your new Triton Boat. And give us a report on how you think BASS is doing since the split.
I know I have fished on two state teams, and we never had the chance to fish for a new boat. So it seems like the money is better anyway. And did I hear that Daddy BASS Ray Scott was there. That had to be cool!!
Talk to us Brovarney….

Ahhh, my lungs have just been cooled with fresh air. You are absolutely correct Brian. The issue here is the precedence this will set for all user groups. That’s whay I said earlier this discussion is out of of control.
I can see it now. Because of the added fishing pressure on the river during the walleye spawn, you will now have to purchase a permit to help the DNR recoup the added costs of selling fishing licences to out of state anglers fishing out of Evert’s Resort. Go ahead and laugh, but this is the road we are embarking on now.

Lets not go down the road of using a natural resource for private gain. I’m sure Mr. Holst has put a few bucks in his pocket guiding on the river. We all profit from some sort of natural resource.
I believe those fish are here for us to have fun with, whether we choose to harvest or release. Our number one goal should be working together to maintain good fish populations for future generations. We can not afford to lose any fisherman, be it a perch jerker, or tourney angler. Both Minnesota, and Wisconsin have missed a great opportunity to work with tournament organizers on reducing user conflicts. I believe there is room for all of us. We might have to change a little. But there’s plenty of water and plenty of fish for everyone.
A while back in this post someone had said most of thier bad experiences on the water have come from tournament anglers. Well I’ll be honest with you all of my bad experiences have come from guides, landowners, and pontooners, and the occasional clueless game wardens. The only difference is I don’t pick up the phone and whine to the DNR everytime I have a run in.
This whole discussion is out of control. The fact is, and I said fact, 80% of the general angling public could careless about tournaments. The other 20% are split between those who fish tournaments and those who urine and moan about them. And we aren’t going to change anyones thinking in those camps.
My advice to you guys in Minnesota, is track every dime you give to the DNR regarding tournaments. Because if you let them get away with this, every single user group in the state will soon have some sort of tax to pay the DNR. I hope Irwin Jacobs will get his lawyers on this one, and sue those crooks in the DNR!!

BassKing,
Currently there is not a fee for the restocking permit. But given the fact that everyone who releases a fish after it has been reduced to their daily is breaking the law. I would guess the fees will soon be coming. This will add thousands of hours in paper work to the WDNR. And this will effect most of the fisherman in Wisconsin. If you go out for a mess of bluegills and only catch a few, under this law it would be illegal to release those fish without a permit. The WDNR is out of control and needs to be stopped!! Common sense is totally gone in this organization.

In response to my e-mail to Randy Stark {chief law enforcement officer to the DNR} I recieved a call from a DNR warden supervisor today in reference to this incident in Stourgeon Bay. His name was Chris Groth.
Warden Groth informed me there is statute regarding the restocking of fish back into the water from which they came. He said the DNR is currently discussing how they will enforce this law. But utimately it’s looking like every bass club tournament will have to file for a restocking permit from the DNR. So how long will it take them before we have to pay a fee for restocking??

He said the department will have an official response soon regarding this issue.
_________________

How do you file for a permit you do not need??

BD,
You are right, it’s not even my complaint. But what got me thinking here is those guys told me about their encounter with the CO’s before I ever said anything about what I saw.
Now I did call the WDNR today and let them know what I saw and what the two guys told me. My guess is you will not see this kind of behavior from them in the future. There was no harm done and the case is closed.

I was not checked by these wardens. Like I said earlier I really didn’t think anything of it when they ran on plane thru all of those boats. What made me think about it was when we ran into the two guys from Janesville who said they were so close that they clipped a fishing line. Now maybe they were running to a call. If so, my bad for being critical of their action.
I do agree our CO’s have a very difficult job to do. And I do appreciate them protecting our resource.
I think we can let this thread burn out now.
Bait Caster

Wow!! Brovarney, you have done it again. The new colors are awesome. Thanks for staying ahead of the game.

Sweet!!

I was able to spend some time on Lake Mendota last summer and I found it odd that Menona and Wabesa were packed with fisherman, and there seemed to be very few on Mendota. Why do we have a 10,000 acre lake in this state designated for elite trophy fisherman? I’m sure it is very convenient for the many millionaires who live around the lake. Number one they have big fish for their family friends and clients to catch. Number two, because of the regulations there is very little fishing going on. At least not as much as the other lakes on the chain. If we can get the lake regulations changed, it would give the area 10,000 more acres and relieve some of the pressure on the other lakes. It’s high time the Governor finally has good middle class hardworking tax payers fishing on his private lake!! Trophy management on Wisconsin’s Lakes and Rivers is wrong. It doesn’t work in most cases and it caters to the rich and powerful. There are some cases where trophy management is needed to control rusty crayfish, and to protect vulnerable populations such as Chewamegan Bay. But we do not need trophy regs on Mendota, Delavan, and many other fisheries in the state. I would challenge all of you who want our lakes back to submit proposals at the upcoming spring hearings on April 16th. If there is enough interest I will write a sample resolution for you and post it on this site. Tight Lines!! Bait Caster

BASS FEDERATION NATION MEMBERSHIP NEW’S FLASH

BASS has announced a Nation Giveaway “B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Membership Drive”.

All nation states are divided into 2 Divisions. Division 1 is States with memberships of 400 or more; Division 2 is states with 399 members or less, of which the WBFN is listed.

B.A.S.S. listed and classified all Nation states and placed them in a division based on their membership at the end of 2006. The membership drive competition period is from January 15, 2007 through April 15, 2007, and will determine a grand prize award winner in each Division. Division 1 winner will be eligible to win a 2007 Toyota Tundra truck based on a member Number increase.
Division 2 (Wisconsin) will be eligible to win a fully rigged Triton Boat and Mercury Motor based on a member Percentage increase.

B.A.S.S. founder, Ray Scott, will award each of the Division winning states with a personal appearance at the official Federation Nation event chosen by B.A.S.S.

The WBFN will have an additional membership drive award that will be decided by the Club Reps at our next Reps meeting. For more details please attend the 9:00 AM, January 28, 2007, Reps Meeting at the Sky Club in Plover, WI. Your club Reps will also bring details back to each respective Wisconsin BASS Federation Nation Club.

Thank You,

David Snyder
President-Wisconsin BASS Federation Nation
419 Michael Ct
Onalaska, WI 54650
(608) 783-3005
[email protected]

Okay,
Did anyone get a chance to see Midwest Outdoors on Saturday? If you did you would have seen the WBFN Team Champion Mike Mattis bass fishing on pool 4.
I would also like to wish Mike the very best at the upcoming Federation Nation Championship!! It would not surprise me at all if he goes on to the Bassmasters Classic. The dude can fish!!
If any of you are up for some free beer, swing over to Warners Dock in New Richmond this Friday, and Saturday. Larry Nixon will be there with the FLW show trailer doing seminars. Warner’s Dock will have all the latest and greatest Stratos Boats and Evinrude motors on display.
Now we have some stuff to talk about Greg…
See ya Saturday,
Snowman

We really have to get serious about these anti fisherman/tournament haters who are responsible for driving BASS and FLW out of this state.
At the Elite 50 in Chippewa Falls last year there were over 14,000 spectators at the weigh-ins. There was also over a 2,000,000.00 dollar impact to the local community.I can’t imagine what the economic impact of the Stren was in LaCrosse this year.
Public hearings are soon coming regarding tournament fishing. If you fish, you need to get out to these meetings. You can find the date and times on the DNR web site.
Let’s get this silly culling law changed, and kick these anti fisherman out of office.
Bait Caster,

Let’s not forget Kevin Fasbind, and Mike McQuitty who also qualified too.

Congatulations to all you!!

I would encourage everyone to get over to Door County waters and go fishing..

I thought this was a really fun tournament even though I bombed. It was fun to fish a draw tournament again, I haven’t done that in the last few years. My partner Brian Johnson from Chetek was a great guy!! The shared weight thing wasn’t good for him as he whipped me out of the back of the boat. I think BASS should eliminate that rule next year.
Other than that Roy Bragg and his crew did a wonderful job. Wally at the Pickle Factory was great too!!

Bomber,
Let’s take the flat and do some pre-fishing next week.

The fishing regs on Green Bay seem to be working very well. The balance of game fish populations are very stable. It doesn’t make any sense to me to change these regulations based on speculation. The DNR has highly skilled fish managers to give us the biological facts of our waters. When we have a system like Green Bay let’s leave it alone.
I truly believe that those who would like to see more regulations on bass in Green Bay want it to get rid of tournament fishing on the bay. I just wish these folks would let us know what they are really trying to accomplish when they support these new proposed bass regs on Green Bay.
So to all of you anti-tournament folks out there… You Lose..

Slop,
You can call 715-634-9658. That is the DNR office in Hayward. Ask for Dave Neuswanger, he is the regional team fisheries supervisor for that area. He will verify evertthing you have read. And tell the WDNR supports this action.

Tyee,
The DNR has had a practice of not issuing tournament permits on any opener. As you know June 17th is the bass opener in northern Wisconsin. Our zone one federation permit application was denied for Nelson Lake a few years back. Now we probably could have said screw you DNR we’re fishin anyway and got away with it. But we try and work with the DNR {unlike they try and work with us}. You see there are some folks who deem us as nothing more than a special interest group. Funny thing is they bend over backwards for any lake association.
Well dude, I’ve had enough!!
There are other solutions here. Tyee, you tell me it’s right to use a catch and kill tournament as a fund raiser.
You know it’s wrong man…
BC

P.S. Should we organize a yearly catch and kill walleye tournament on Nelson Lake???

You got it Bill. God Bless