Well look at that. Bader needs to be starting everyday.

I wade streams and rivers in the spring trout fishing down in the driftless or southern MN. Also beat the banks fairly regularly for walleye and catfish. Always fun and usually a good bite.

I don’t own any live imaging, but I can tell you from watching guys I know that do have it, it’s not as easy as the pros make it look to master. That being said, the panfish and muskie are the fish that need to be protected from FFS. Banning the tech isn’t going to change anything. Lower limits statewide and you won’t have so many fish being kept by guys that can pluck them from schools on live imaging.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>slough wrote:</div>
But, the division should be pretty bad again so who knows.

You do realize that three out of the final four teams standing in the American League were from the central last year, right?

The white sox were clearly pitiful and the Twins piled up a lot of wins against them. I wouldn’t count on that happening again.

They were all in the playoffs because they got 20 extra wins each from beating the White Sox. Didn’t make any of them good teams. Also, the Sox are going to be the worst team in the league again.

They are what we thought they are!

I found a smaller lake in WI that looks similar to a reservoir style lake with a lot of creek arm jutting out from the main lake. I’m gonna check that out soon and see if the bass act like I think they will and stack up in those creek arms once it starts warming up.

And of course it turns back to winter when I bring the boat back home…..

Bearcat89 wrote:

Whats your go to early cold water <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass tactics ?

Self admittedly, I suck early spring. We’ve never been able to fish it until WI went to C and R before the season opened so I just don’t have much time on the water in that stage of the year. I struggle when fish aren’t on shallow cover or there aren’t weed beds/weedlines to fish. So early spring is tough for me. However I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching on early coldwater spring bass, and Ive found the common areas of focus are main lake points and covering water. Once you find them they are usually schooled up until they start moving up shallower. But basically the consensus was they stay deeper near points that are close to spawning grounds, then move to secondary points shallower, then the spawning grounds.

So that will be my focus, using chatterbaits, jerkbaits, lipless cranks, blade baits, and paddletails and underspins to cover water, until they start moving up. We’ll see if it works.

Love the big deal they made about changing their hitting approach and the way they are taking batting practice this season forcing them to hit the ball the other way. It’s obviously not translating into the games because they still flail away at anything that isn’t a fastball.

Alcala about to blow it like usual…..

I’ll take the blame for this one. Picking up my boat today and every year I do, it snows after I bring it home…..

Well Pablo continued his awfulness from spring training, but the new guys did pretty well.

gim wrote:

I don’t get to eat it very often but I find saltwater fish to be much more flavorful than freshwater fish. Freshwater fish is very bland by comparison. I would never eat another freshwater fish again if I lived near saltwater.

Because they are constantly being brined……

It’s a cult market really. People collect them like sought after baseball cards. There are websites and facebook groups dedicated to just collecting and selling them. Don’t really get it but hey, if it helps keep the bass fishing industry healthy, have at it.

I’m all for people keeping some bass, but like any species hope that selective harvesting would be practiced. I know that’s not 100% realistic, but I think if people kept more 2lb bass our size structure in most lakes would improve quite a bit.

All for it.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Ok, maybe that’s the same as the one I have. I have a dark bluegill color and a clear bone color. It’s the 3D glide swimmer, I think the name is.

The amount of larger crappies that get side hooked on that bait is pretty crazy. I bet he’s pulled in a dozen or more that seem to just be side swiping the bait and get hooked.

That’s interesting. Maybe just checking it out and then get snagged?

Ok, maybe that’s the same as the one I have. I have a dark bluegill color and a clear bone color. It’s the 3D glide swimmer, I think the name is.

Riverrat wrote:

I always think “man that’s a great lure to lose to a pike”. Watching the action on some of those baits is entertaining though.

Yeah that and muskie have always worried me about these. But I think I’m gonna give them a shot this year. They sure do seem to get that bigger class of fish when they do get bit.

They are already getting hurt. I think they’ll be able to compete, it will come down to how many of them get hurt, and we all know what that answer is going to be.

I can tell you that this kid can out fish a lot of those guys even if he didn’t have FFS. He is a true stick and he was won just about everything on his way up. He wasn’t fishing FFS until a few years ago like the rest of these guys.

Yep. Every Classic winner basically gets locked up with sponsorships for everything on their boat and in their rod and tackle boxes. At a higher level. You also go on tour touting all those sponsors in between tournaments. Its probably a grind but they say the sponsorship money and having the lifelong title of “Classic Winner” earns you checks for the rest of your career.

That video reminds me that Pete Maina has squirrel launchers made out of clay pigeon launchers. He had them as a perch next to his feeders and had a string going back to his deck door and he’d launch those suckers into the tree line behind his house. It was hilarious. He made several videos about it on his facebook page and they even took his page down for a minute because of it.

Absolutely hilarious.

He did it. The Classic champion is a Minnesotan! And what a story too!

Pellet gun. Not my favorite, but even relocating the squirrels doesn’t work. They come back. My wife’s grandpa tested this by trapping 3 gray squirrels and painted their tails green. He drove a half hour away and released them. A week later he had two of the three squirrels with green tails back on his feeders.

Matt Moen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TH wrote:</div>
Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed watching them for a while on a rainy, snowy MN day when I’m stuck inside. While I’m not personally a fan of cold water immersion, they looked to be having fun.

I saw someone swimming in Lake Nokomis today. I know the cold water immersion is supposed to be very good for you but that looked miserable.

Cold plunges are amazing. You feel incredible afterwards. I’m actually looking at a tank so I can do them at home.

Sorry, back to the thread…..

That’s going to be pretty big deal. High Schoolers are already moving towards bass because there’s actual high school bass fishing teams and tournaments. This is going to push the needle even more.

The first thing I throw every spring is a jerbait. You can work it slow enough to be really good in cold weather and then just working it faster as the temps warm up. Prespawn bass that are roaming the first weedline, waiting to move up to the spawning grounds absolutely crush it.

My two biggest largemouth have been on a jerk. Largies love it also.

gim wrote:

You aren’t going to convince me that hauling <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass during their spawning season to a destination an hour or more away after being in a live well for hours on end is not detrimental. It’s just not possible. Sure, <em class=”ido-tag-em”>BASS is the gold standard for live weigh in formats, but we can do better, and we should. What’s more important here, the health of the fish, or posing on stage with it for a crowd?

There are ways around this.

And just for the record I agree there are a lot of items more shameful in life. Clearly. But that is not what this thread is about.

Just an FYI, most <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye tournaments nowadays are CPR format. If the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye crowd can do it, anyone can.

Money talks Gim. You should know that. They pretty much drives the fishing market so they are going to do what brings in the most money. Especially when it’s getting PEOPLE TO COME TO TOURNAMENTS to see sponsor products.

I won’t even open up the cheating aspect of CWR tournaments.

Gim I’m with you on jerkbaiting. It’s awesome.

Bearcat, yeah it’s definitely a good one. Im picking the boat up this Saturday and I’m gonna start invading WI shortly after.