There are many that know the MN lakes (by name) better than I, but a very easy argument would be to look at the infested waters list (http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/invasives/infested_waters.pdf) and find a small lake that either 1) doesn’t have a public access or 2) doesn’t hold money tournament and then ask the question how they got there?
Actually JC was 7th and Billings was 9th, but you were close John. I think all of our brains are mush after 7 days of hard fishing.
So I own a Evinrude, and let me get it out of the way that I’m not pro rude, or anti. It’s a motor, I own it, and who knows if I’ll own another. Depends on the next deal. So I’m not biased here. I’ve owned all of the big 3 and a motor’s a motor to me.
We don’t know the other side of the story… yet. But would you assume that Genmar owes BRP/Evinrude some $? Lots of blue hanging off some of them boats. Now it was stated from the get go that FLW Productions was not part of the Genmar bankruptcy filings, but they are basically the same group right? So put yourself in BRP/Evinrude’s shoes. I owe you $x, and you owe me $x(maybe $x+) and you’re going through bankruptcy and may not have to pay me. Kinda hard to write that check isn’t it?
Not making excuses for BRP/Evinrude, or saying they are in the right for not paying up…. just putting myself in their shoes.
Sorry, just saw this. Not able to fish tonight.
Lord knows it wasn’t me after my showing. Should have asked Brad where I should have went!!!!
I’ve taken Powerbait and put in Plano’s before (and still do on some) and have no issue with melting. However they will lose there stink much quicker. That’s the only issue I’ve had.
What interested me with this is asking about putting others plastics in the Gulp! juice. I think Koto did this with his Jackall stuff at Erie last year, and I imagine it’s something many have done. However, at the sports show yesterday, one of the Berkley guys at the tank said to NOT do this as it will ruin your plastics. They will become very stiff and the color will bleed. Any truth to this, or was this an attempt to push anglers to actually buy more Gulp rather than purchase it once and then re use the “juice” on other non Berkley baits? Don’t plan on doing this myself, but it just peaked my interest.
Some examples of differences in line recovery (inches / turn) in relation to gear ratio. This was collected in 2008, so it could be slightly different in 2009 models.
7.1 ratio reels
Revo’s – 31″
Daiwa Zillion – 31″
Pflueger Summit WLP – 30″
Quantum KVD, Tour, Enery and Code – 29″
Pflueger Summit LP – 28″
Quantum Accurist PT – 25″ (7.0:1)
6.0 to 6.3 ratio reels
Many of these mostly in the 26″ to 28″ line recovery. A few at 24″ and 25″.
5.0 to 5.3 ratio reels
Shimano Calcutta – 24″ (5.0:1)
Browning Citori – 23″ (5.4:1)
Shimano Chronarch – 21″ (5.1:1)
Shimano Calcutta CT50B – 16″ (5.0:1)
Basically this shows you that gear ratio is NOT the only factor in speed of the reel. Spool sizes are another contributing factor, and assumably there are more. An example is the 7.0 ratio Summit LP has 28″ of line recovery, which is basically the same recovery as many 6.2 to 6.4 ratio reels. So even though it’s touted as a high speed reel because of the gear ratio, it’s really not a higher speed reel that what we are normally used to.
Only purpose of this is to shed some light on the above and a reminder for you to keep the line recovery in mind in addition to the gear ratio when you’re looking for diffrent speed reels.
Mossy, to be honest, I don’t have enough on the water experience with a 7.1 ratio in my hand yet to give you my personal opinion. One might be able to pull the fish out well enough with a high ratio reel. On the reverse side, you might also be able to pull it out with a Medium action rod too, but if a MH or H works better, that’s probably what you would use. All comes down to refinement and the best tool for the job I guess. 20 years ago, did they worry about this stuff? Probably not, and still whacked them good.
On the complete reverse side of that, your incredible hulk arms will be less tired after 8 hours of cranking a DT16 / DT20 with a 5.0 reel than with a 6.2 or 7.1. 1000 casts multiplied by more effort to crank that big plug adds up. For me, I think I can slow a 6.2 down slow enough that that is not the issue, but fatigue from cranking harder is the factor, and thus the reason that I have started using a 5.0 atleast with my deep divers.
The good thing is, there is no ONE right answer. Different strokes for difference folks. That’s why I didn’t post and say “You guys are smoking crack”, I just provided that my opinion was that a 6.2 ratio seems like the better option. For me it might be (or maybe not, I’m not even 100% sure), for you it might not.
Let me see if I can grab some inches per turn info to post now.
“Inches return” equates to “gear ratio” which equates to “power”.
I’ll speak to inches returned in more detail in a follow up post when I have more time to pull some examples of existing reels.
Think of a multi speed bicycle in terms of power. We’ll use 10 speed as an example.
In 10th gear (i.e. 5.0 ratio), you are in low gear (the biggest gear). It takes little effort to move the bike forward on an incline (resistence). Same is true for a low gear ratio real. It takes less effort, and is easier to continue to reel even when there is resistence (i.e. fish in the cover, crankbait pulling back, etc.) You’ll go slower (on the bike, or with the reel), but you still have the power to continue peddling / reeling.
In 1st gear (i.e. 7.1 ratio), you are in high gear (the smallest gear). It takes a lot of effort to move the bike forward on an incline (resistence). However when no resitance is present (flat land), you can go faster. Thus you need more power, or the same amount of effort = less power (results) with this higher gear.
In 5th gear (i.e. 6.2 Ratio), you are in a mid gear. It takes a little more effort to move the bike forward on an incline (resistence), but where resitence is not present, you can go faster with the same amount of effort. Same is true for a mid ratio reel.
Make sense?
I guess I disagree on the high speed reel, or atleast maybe I don’t understand. A high speed reel for this application doesn’t seem correct to me. It seems the fish WILL get buried up no matter if you are trying you best to get them out before they do. (Maybe not all, but some / most) When that happens, wouldn’t the high speed reel be detrimental as you would lack power to be able to horse them out? Granted the rod will do that work for you most of the time, but not always. I see many guys going to 5.1 reels for flipping because of the added power, and I’m not sold on that yet. I still believe higher speeds are beneficial for the same reasons you mention above, get them up and going as fast as possible.
So to me, I think for Frog fishing, and flipping in heavy cover, a medium speed reel (6.2) is the right approach. Middle ground between power and speed. Again, I might be missing the point or value here, but that is what my logic tells me.
FYI – I just picked up a President WLP (last years model on clearance) that is 6.2 ratio. I am thinking of using that for my Frog set up. The right ratio (in my mind atleast), please the wide spool for long casts.
On a side note, I picked up a Pflueger Summit WLP in 7.1 ratio last year. I went with the wide spool because the inches returned was 31″, where as the normal spool was 28″ (basically no different than the 6.2 ratios out there). My intent was to use this for a pitching reel where I wasn’t flipping in to heavy cover and didn’t necessarily need the power. I found out the the Wide Spool was NOT friendly in close pitch situations. The line on the spool was constantly crossed over, or more to one side than the other. So I’m looking for a new use for this reel. I have since purchased a new Curado E7 to use for this scenario.
Monte is Jami’s brother.
Well Naturboy, you know what direction I would point you in. You’ve been in my boat. I’m not gonna tell you that a Cat is by far the best boat, even though I believe it is b/c I’m biased. Ranger, Triton, Champ and many other are ALL good boats these days. Yes, each brand will have there own little quirks that you may like or dislike, thus the reason for the opinions. But if someone said “I’ll give you a X” for any of those boats, none of us would say “No I don’t like X boats”.
The reason I prefer BassCat is because the company itself is AMAZING to work with. They are GOOD people. When you own a Cat there slogan is you are “part of the family” and that is what you feel like. That is the reason I own the boat I do. I can call up Rick Pierce and talk to him. Can you do that with Irwin or others? Not likely. You got to the BassCat owners page and there is a BassCat user answering questions? MANY times that person is Rick himself. He is IN TOUCH with those that are actually driving his boats.
On a side note, I did meet Forrest Woods when I was a kid. He came to our farm and bought some cattle. To this day, I don’t know that I’ve met a better person. What a great guy.
Well, here is some “optimism” you can try and believe in. The Avg Daily Temp according to weatherchannel.com for Rochester is 19 degrees Jan 8 – 17. On the 18th it’s 20 degrees and goes up from there.
So, OPTIMISTICALLY thinking, on the 18th, we’re on the uphill slide of winter! 
These folks are absolutely CLASS ACTS to work with. I’ve purchased several items from them, and worked with them on a few issues. Talk about AWESOME customer service, and treating the customer right!
Awesome job Rick!
Sorry Bomber. I’m terrible with names! You definitely deserve some luv! Awesome job!! 52 lbs and not win! Ouch!
It was this last weekend, but out of Wabasha not Lake City. I hope to have the official results from the St Jude folks soon and I will get them posted on the website (www.stjudefishing.com).
From memory (definitely not official).
1st – Don Hanson / Zimmerman – 52#’s and change
2nd – Tom Howland / ? – 52#’s and change (.3 behind)
3rd – Jimmy Johnson / ? – ?
4th – Brent Haimes / Matt Larson – ?
5th – Larouqe / Hall – 46 #’s. (Note same/similar weight to last year when they won)
6th – Matt Pretzer / Jeff Mulholland
Can’t remember beyond that.
Thanks
Chuck
By the way, let me know exactly where they are and I can go “test” out my theory and let you know. 
Whew!!! After reading the subject, and the poster, I was afraid to open in fear of seeing a picture of John sun bathing on his front deck. Luckily I got to keep my breakfast in me.
Maybe as your lure is heading towards them, the fish are thinking.. “Oh no… there’s John…. again!”
So on a serious note, do you think it has to do with there mood has to do with their digestive behavior? I had always heard that in very early spring (after ice out up here) that a fish has a transition period between winter and spring. They are cold blooded so they didn’t move much in winter, or eat much, so there stomach adapted to very little food. Now that it’s warming up, they can’t just start off feedign like crazy, and they “ease” their way in to it. So they are eating few times, and small things right now to get their stomach going again. The fact they they are up “sunning” would seem to indicate they are “warming” up and there metabolism should kick into high gear soon. As opposed to the same situation in the fall when they have been feeding heavily and are moving up to warmer water to feed.
Dunno, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Good luck!
By the way, I hear rumor that Binkwood will be down there as well. If you haven’t talked to him, and want to meet up, give him a call.
Brent takes the lead! He leads the Northern Div by 2 ozs after day 2. It’s a VERY tight race. Really ANY of the guys have a shot to win it, but 6 of the 9 have a VERY good shot. Lets hope Brent holds them off!
Brent is tied for 16th overall and 2nd in the Northern region after day 1. He’s 5 oz behind Dan Fowler from Michigan who won the Regional on Erie.
I tried watching the weigh in online, but it was very broken up. It sounded like Brent had 1 dead fish that cost him 4 ozs.
10-12 leads the event, 9-3 is second. Fowler has 5-4 and Brent has 4-15. Tough conditions and at this point, it’s ANYBODY’s game.
GO BRENT!
Was out last weekend and caught the biggest of my life, 7-6. 45 degree water temps and terrible wind! (Still waiting on pictures)
Hoping to make it out once or twice more this weekend, then that will be it for me as I’m off to see the family (11 hours away) for the next 2 weekends.
Best of luck to both gentleman. Bring it home!
Jesse, so what would the TD require me to have? 24 gallons? 30 gallons? 40 gallons? Who decides if 30 gallons isn’t enough prior to the tournament if the rule only states “1 gallon per pound of fish”?
Eric, if 40 gallons is what is listed by the manufacturer, that might be including the entire space (air space too). Most manufacturers that list the gallon specifications are stating the entire area, not the area below the overflow.
I “think” my 03 PIV has either 27 or 33 gallons, but I’m not 100% sure. I have had just over 38 lbs (19 and 19.25 limits) in my livewell and I can tell you that was WAY to much fish volume.
I guess there is always a good side and a bad side to everything. The bad side to this would be guys that have GOOD livewells in that 30-35 gallon range and risking 2 limits in the boat over that. The good side is it would help police inadequate livewells. I’d be VERY cautious about it, and like Buzz said not sure this is teh way to go.
Like Eric said, it would be hard to enforce. My guess is after a few years the DNR would be bored with it and won’t want to take guys fish out of the boat to weigh them and then do the math on the livewell.
Chuck
First off, what an awesome year, and actually past few years. He’s really positioned himself as THE best angler besides KVD. And to be honest, if he keeps this up, he might have many starting looking at him at the same level as KVD.
In his victory speech, he thanks his sponsors, and made comment that he’s “not one to give shameless sponsor plugs”. That is what sponsors expect I believe, but really, I believe Skeet is doing more for his sponsors by NOT doing that. I know I respect him a lot more for it.
In all the Bassfan articles on 1-5 finishers, each place is finished by a Factor of Success and Performance Edge. Many pro’s take the chance to talk about a specific sponsor, such as “My Triton boat and Mercury outboard were crucial in making those 50 mile runs each day”. So a Ranger with and Evinrude couldn’t have done it? (Maybe not, he he, j/k) But you get my point. Here is an example. This is Reese’s comment from his win on Potomac.
> Main factor in his success – “Patience. In the tournament, I was just fishing thoroughly and trying to capitalize on every bite I could. If you’d asked me before the tournament if I was going to win, I’d have said absolutely not. I’d have bet you $1,000 I wasn’t going to win. For me to win off what I found in practice – it still baffles me. I got fortunate. I got some key bites, and some quality bites, that I didn’t know I could get.”
> Performance edge – “All of my tackle’s critical. It all goes together.”
As a tournament angler, those comments are VERY educational to me. I appreciate how he handles things.
Fluker
I think Jeremy might have made a few too many of those kinds of friends last Wed night up at Leech. He was looking a little green Thur morning. 
Here is the link to the final results.
Note that Chris Jung in 3rd place is 16 years old. He was in 109th place after Day 1. That’s pretty awesome. A 6 lber should does help!!
