Hey! If championships count in the early 1900’s, than I think every Minnesotan would be proud to remind WI of the U of M’s 6 NCAA football championships: 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940, 1941, 1960!!!

Matt, Congrats!!!

Nice profile picture, Danny. Was that a keeper???!!! J/K. Lets hope the local boys tear ’em up!

Paul

For largemouth, the most accurate I have seen is length^2 x girth / 1200. That works only if you get a girth measurement…

For smallmouth, length^3 / 1800. The “bass” formula (length^3/1600) tends to over-estimate actual smallie weights, especially outside the spawn, and also for “river” smallies.

JC,

Let me first say that I highly respect your angling abilities and insight into some of the subtleties of river bass angling. I do disagree, however, with your take on Lefebre. I fished with Dave on the final day of the EverStart in 2001. I can personally attest that he exemplifies a touring professional. I fished out of the back of the boat and pretty much got smoked until he caught his 5th fish. He did, however, stop many times during competition and showed me what he was using, told me how he was presenting, and asked me how he could improve my chances at catching fish. He took time out of his tournament to make it enjoyable for me. I just would not jump to the conclusion, or listen to someone that was frustrated on a given day, that he’s a terrible boater to draw. Some co-anglers have a tough day on the water, blame the boater for their problems, and subsequently miss the opportunity to learn something new. I’ve been there, done that myself… I normally don’t post on this forum, but I hate to see someone get a bad rap that doesn’t deserve it.

Hoosier, I would suggest that you first and foremost fish to your strengths. Don’t get caught up in what a pro is doing. The EverStart is formidable competition, however, I have drawn my share of boaters that did not know what they are doing. If you get time to prefish, try to find a pattern that works for you. If you can find a couple, you will most likely have the chance to fish it during competition. Then, try to find spots close to the ramp. There’s always cases where a boat breaks down, or you have that extra 15 minutes at the end of the day. Good Luck!

Paul

Count me in…

Yeah Slop Bass,
I wasn’t thinking when I originally replied to the message, and addressed it to you. I would agree that unless you have about an 20-footer or a “cadillac” of a flat bottom, then the carpet kit wouldn’t interest you…

I just called my buddy and he said that he has not ordered the carpet kit yet. It comes in the basic carpet colors and would cover a boat up to 20′.

Hi DanWi,

A buddy of mine has a certificate for a boat carpet kit that he won at the KFAN tournament in Lake City this past May. I believe he is still trying to sell it. If you want, send me an email at [email protected] and I can get a hold of him. From what I’ve heard you can save some bucks by doing it yourself. Remove the carpet that you have now and use those individual pieces for a template to cut the new ones…

Good Luck.

Hi Everyone,

I thought I’d make a post and let all of you hear what happened at the
EverStart. I am currently the leading co-angler for the EverStart
tournament. A protest was filed against my boat towards the end of the
tournament for not having the kill switch hooked up when we were waiting to
lock-through at L$D #3. The protester claimed that the pro had the
combustion engine running when he walked to the front to fix his trolling
motor. This was claimed to have occurred with a little more than an hour
left in the tournament.

At that time, and for that matter at any other time during the day, I never
observed my pro partner EVER walking around the boat when the engine was
running. The frustrating part for me is when they ask me if I saw the kill
switch attached, I cannot say for sure. But, I can say that I never saw
him walking around the boat without it attached when the engine was
running. In a bass boat, when the driver sits down, the kill switch is
hidden from view of the person sitting next to the driver. Another thing
that complicates matters is that my partner attaches the kill switch to a
loop on his sandal rather than the actual life vest, so it is not clearly
visible to other boats if he stands up (that is from what I learned after
the protest was filed, a fairly common practice, and legal according to the
rules since they state that it has to be attached to the driver’s body.)

I agree with people that say that we can’t make exceptions for rules
violations, even if it would DQ me as a co-angler. It is the co-anglers’
responsibility to assure that safety is observed at all times. The ultimate
purpose of rules of boat operation is to assure the safety of the
contestants, not to DQ contestants. I have participated in numerous
tournaments where if I or someone else sees someone that doesn’t have a
life vest on when they should, I will immediately say something. That way,
people won’t get hurt if someone made a mistake. Whether you protest that
angler later is up to you. This situation would be cut-and-dry if the
person filing the protest would have come right up to us and pointed it
out. Then they could see for sure if the motor was running, kill switch
attached, and if it were our fault. At that point we could hook-up the kill
switch for the rest of the day. Instead, that person would rather file a
protest (which I know is not true) just to move up a place in the
standings, subsequently jeopardizing the safety of both the pro and
co-angler for the rest of the tournament. I believe that all contestants
should look out for the well-being of each other at tournaments.

I was told we may have to take a polygraph test this week. I have not
heard when it will happen, or if the person filing the protest would have
to as well. I just hope the right decision is made soon.

Paul Strege
[email protected]

Hi Jig N Pig,

I can dig up some of the old Bassmaster and Bassin’ Times articles on the Red River if you like. Just send me a message with your mailing address to [email protected] and I can mail them to you when I get a chance.

Hi Jig N Pig.

I’ve never fished the Red River myself, however, I have fished with Michael Iaconnelli on several occassions who won the Federation Championship on that same body of water 3-4 years ago. He won that event by targeting LMB in stumps 3-5′ of water, vertical jigging. His best area was an oxbow lake that was connected to the river with the high water. I imagine you should do well down there since the river down there is much like the Mississippi up here in flooded conditions. Check some of your old issues of Bassin Times or Bassmaster magazine for specifics on what they used in that Federation Championship.

Also, the FLW made it down there last year, and during the EverStart in LaCrosse I had a room next to Bill Chapman (he finished top-5 in that event). Bill Chapman, like Mike Iaconnelli, found fish in an oxbow lake that had been land-locked for the previous 3 years. He said that he was having 40-50 fish days. The strings weren’t all that big, but the population and quality of fish was decent enough to carry him into the finals. He used a combination of jigs and spinnerbaits.

Sorry I can’t give you any first-hand advise on where exactly to go or what to use, but if you apply your river experiences from up here down south, you should do just fine. As with any river as we all know, it usually is feast or famine.

Good Luck!

Carp Chaser

I grew up on that section of river. I got my river experience fishing those “other” fish at a young age. My parents have a cabin on the MN side just north of the dam. Fishing from the dock, I’ve caught Quillback Carpsuckers, Sturgeon (both lake and shovelnose), Carp, Redhorse, Catfish, etc. Lots of species! The sturgeon, for whatever reason, have all been caught at my fishing spot within a two-week period each year. (Right around the 4th of July weekend). Nothing “big” for sturgeon – 15lbs for the biggest. My buddy released a shovelnose that was pushing 8 lbs this spring just south of Dam #3 on the Miss. We released the fish knowing it was huge for a shovelnose, but not knowing what the state record was. Let me know if I can help out.