Rich's Bassin' Blog

Another Potential World Record Bass Caught?

2009-07-03T14:27:00Z

Yesterday, reports of a potential world record largemouth bass started surfacing based a giant largemouth being caught out of Lake Biwa in Japan. I think we will learn more today, but based on early reports, it actually may be a tie for the record and not a new World Record.

So here are a few pictures that have surfaced, for fun of comparison, I have also posted a picture of Dotty when she was caught but not hooked legally and weighed 25.1lbs.

Guess we will just have to wait as more details unfold....

RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Two Big Bass Tackle Sales this Weekend!

2009-07-03T02:00:00Z

20% off Everything at Bass Tackle Depot this weekend!

Deep discounts and Free Shipping Offer at Secret Weapon Lures!

Enjoy these sales to stock up for your big summer push!

Give this a try, I think you'll dig it!

2009-07-01T02:35:00Z

Here is a little tool that I developed mainly for my own use last spring and shared with a few close fishing buddies last year. I finally decided it was too handy not to share with all of you. Basically, I created a downloadable and printable PDF Tru-Tungsten Size chart that you can adhere to the inside lid of your terminal tackle box. If you are like me, your hook box is a disaster and all your Tru-Tungsten weights are all mixed up, this way you can keep track of what weight you are using and when someone asks you, you can tell them. Or when you get busted off, you can go back and make sure you use the same size that was working.

You can see how handy this can be for my hook and weight box!

Here it is in use, you can see, I also created a Flipping Weight Chart as well.

Click Here to Download TT Weight Chart

Click Here to Download Tru-Tungsten Flipping Weight Chart

Couple things to note, make sure your print settings are set to 100% or No Scaling to get the right size, when it prints there are some inch lines that you can measure, if they don't measure properly, adjust your print setting until they do! Any paper will work, but I think a card stock holds up a little better, I am sure you can find a sheet or two of the cardstock in your office
Then I just use clear box tape to completely cover it and adhere to the inside lid of my hook box. Let me know what you think.

Hope you find this as useful as my buddies and I do!
RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Mississippi River - Bassmasters Weekend Series Tournament #2 - June 28, 2009

2009-06-30T01:41:00Z

Yesterday was my 2nd Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament, I was able to get two days of practice in for this event. It sure would be nice to get some more time so I could expand my water and areas, but there is only so much time. Based on my practice, I had one really strong area that I felt good about and a couple back up areas, plus some stuff that I had fished in that past that I felt could produce a few bites in a pinch.

I drew boat #15 and a heck of a nice co-angler named Sam. We arrived in my starting area and were the only boat there, I shut down a little short and used the trolling motor to get into position and as we approached I saw a surface swirl. All ready with my Yellow Magic Popper in hand, I started firing casts towards the area the fish were boiling and they started biting pretty fast and furious. A mixture of smallies and largemouths were biting, as well as some white bass and a walleye. Once the topwater fizzled I switched to a Fork Craw on a mojo rig and caught my big fish of they day, 3.49lbs. I continued to flip the grass edge with a Game Hawg on a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten weight and 3/0 Youvella OWG hook, boating a few small keeper largemouth.

Since things really slowed down and we made several passes through with no bites, we started running through my backup areas. The next couple spots we had a couple frog blow ups, but no fish. The 3rd area I started flipping my Game Hawg along an eel grass edge and quickly caught a nice chunky largemouth, as I dropped that fish in the livewell we drifted into a bunch of weeds, as I tried to trim the motor up I noticed was really slow and unresponsive, I knew that my starting battery must have been getting very low. Long story short, we lost almost 2 hours trying to get a jump and trying to revive the fish I had as they almost died with out the aerators running for that time. Big Thanks to Paul Strege for helping me get back in the game.

From that point, we made a pass back through my starting area with the motor running with no more fish. Next I hit up a wing dam and another main river rock spots, just got bit off by a northern on the latter. I decided to try an area that I caught some good fish flipping wood in the first tournament, it turned out to be a good decision, as I picked up a really nice keeper on 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jig tipped with a rage chunk and a 3lb largemouth on a baby brush hog, as I used up all my Game Hawgs on some smaller fish prior. It was pretty much the end of the day at that point, so we strapped everything down and headed back to Alma for weigh-in.

Video of me weighing my fish, see my other videos to see interviews with top finishers!

One thing I have noticed is that I have been fishing extremely clean this year and I think a lot of it can be attributed to switching over to the new Youvella hooks for my soft plastic applications.

I was about the 10th angler to weigh and was the leader at the time with 14.21lbs, it did not last very long, but I held on for a solid 8th place finish. It was a nice little pay day with a 78 boat field and it boosted me from 12th to 3rd in the Angler of the Year points. End of July is the 3rd tournament down at Prairie Deu Chien, I have little experience down there, so I need to make some time to practice between now and then. I have a couple club tourneys in July, I may have to forgo practice for those and go fish PDC.

Tight Lines,
RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Quick Weekend Series Tourney Update

2009-06-28T22:12:01Z

Quick mobile blog post from my phone. Had a solid 8th place finish today, caught most of my bag flipping. I weighed 14.32, 16lbs plus to win. Pictures and more details to come. Moved up to 3rd in points for the year so far :)
Pardon the brevity of this message, sent from my BlackBerry

New Tournament Jerseys

2009-06-26T15:17:00Z

Well I finally got around to designing and ordering some new tournament jerseys for this year. After shopping around a bit, I decided to go with Boombah for this year's jerseys, they are quite competitive when it comes to pricing. Here is where we landed based on digitial mock ups.

Here are a few shots from my phone camera of the actual jerseys, from design to getting shirts was less then 2 weeks.

And a closer detail of the front

I already wore one during a 90 degree day with no wind for practice, very comfortable, should be great for this weekend's Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament on the river!

RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

More Mad Maxx Pictures and Info

2009-06-25T18:24:00Z

While I patiently wait for my BassPro.com order to come in with my new frogs, i have come across some more images of the new Mad Maxx frog by Tru-Tungsten, thought I would share them with y'all.

Also, check out this face shot of the Mad Maxx TwitPic from FLW_Magazine

See another review from FLW Mag!If anyone else, had got their hand on them already, give us a shout to let everyone know what you think of them!

Mississippi River - Pool 4 Practice

2009-06-24T16:32:00Z

This past Saturday I had a window to get some fishing in, so I decided to get down to Pool 4 to start practicing for my next Bassamaster Weekend Series tourney. Overall practice was hit and miss, found some fish in area that I practiced in for previous tournament, but its a long ways from Alma where we are launching from.

Chunky bass that fell fer a Game Hawg creature bait on 3/16oz TT Weight

Most of the other areas were hit and miss, but found one nice batch of fish relating to some grass, that was the bright spot of the day other then some ealry flipping and swim jig fish. Other then that, it was an awesome weather day on the river and Lake Pepin, made it easy to get around other then the boat traffic.

I did catch some nice fish on a new bait that i just tried. KVD Perfect Plastics Game Hawg seems like a really nice bait, its like a Baby Brush How, but just a little bigger and some fine ribbing, very soft and scent built in. I would reccomend in trying a bag, I think you will like them.

I will get to practice just one more time, the day before the tournament. Hopefully my best area will hold and I can expand on it.

RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

TRU-TUNGSTEN INTRODUCES MAD MAXX HOLLOW BODY FROG

2009-06-22T16:29:00Z

TRU-TUNGSTEN INTRODUCES MAD MAXX HOLLOW BODY FROG

Tru-Tungsten is proud to announce the release of our newest fishing lure, the Mad Maxx Hollow body frog. Designed by Mike Iaconelli, Marty Stone and Greg Hackney. Mad Maxx features the MiHatchii super sharp, super strong custom hook; 3D eyes, tungsten rattles, a unique pro drain hole that is scientifically designed that allows accumulated water to escape. Also, design into the body is a unique keel that allows it to glide along the surface like the real thing. This design makes walking the dog almost effortless.

Mad Maxx is available in seven original colors - Gremlin, Sweet Revenge, Swamp Monster, Rotten Pumpkin, Hydrilla, Bluegrass and Grapes of Wrath.

The Mad Maxx can be purchased exclusively at both Bass Pro Shops or BassPro.com. I already odered mine, get yours before they run out!!!

All About Bass - Episode 1 - Part 4 "The Weigh-In"

2009-06-19T14:07:00Z

The Inaugural episode (webisode) is a 20lb Minnesota Bass Opener Challenge on a small south metro lake. I invite my buddy Josh Douglas to help me catch 20lbs in 7 hours of tournament style fishing. You may remember I blogged about my Bass Opener outing here. There are 4 segments to this first episode, here is a link to the previous segments. Embedded below is Segment 4 - "The Weigh-in".

More webisodes will be coming soon, so check back to the blog often. Or better yet, consider signing up with Email or RSS subscription so you never miss an episode! Email subscription can be found on the upper left corner of this page in the side bar.

You can also find these videos by searching YouTube or checking out MN Sun Newspapers.

RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Last Weekend Club Tournament Recaps

2009-06-18T12:26:00Z

This past weekend, I had two Gopher Bassmasters club tournaments on Big & LIttle Green Lakes on Saturday, and Sunday we fished the Chisago/Lindstrom chain. I was able to briefly practice the weekend before on Green.

My partner Art & I started in a little shallow water pocket that had lots of pads, wood & other grass. We were both able to get a limit from this area by a little after 8am. I caught 2 of my better sized fish on a frog and on Kizew Gill Super K swim jig, the rest of the limit was filled with a tube & a weightless Green Pumpkin Ring Fry. Art caught all 5 of his fish on a 8" Green Pumpkin Fork Worm on a 1/8oz texas rig. The rest of the day, we pecked around docks, bluegill beds and other shallow cover, where I was able to cull 3 times, twice on the Ring Fry and once on a 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig. My final weight was 14.32lbs with a big fish of 3.82lbs. It was good enough for 2nd place. Art had around 7lbs and that put him in 6th out of the 28 anglers. Final standings here.

Green Lake Largemouth

Sunday brought Chisago & Lindstrom, which is an excellent bass fishery. Because of catch & release regulations, this tournament would be a paper/measurement tournament. My partner Steve had a chance to briefly practice, we quickly discovered the two areas he found were places I had previously fished and intended to fish during the tournament. After catching a few small keepers on our first weedline in Chisago, we moved and the 2nd spot produced nothing. We decided to try a shallow stretch where I had caught several of my bigger fish 2 years ago in a club tournament. I was able to quickly get a limit and Steve got two more fish all on Ring Fry's and other soft plastics; but i was only able to get one good fish at 17". We jumped across the bay to look for more of the same, I saw one nice fish cruising and saw another on a bed. I caught that fish which was almost 16" pretty quickly on a drop shot.

Steve and I made a decision to go deep in hopes of finding some bigger fish, that is where we went wrong. We never got on anything substantial, we both struggled to get one more keeper each. Although the tourney was won deep, with 20.1lbs, we could not locate the fish in the short time of the tournament afternoon. Turns out we should have stayed shallow, as most of the rest of the field recorded very solid catches 15-18lbs doing what we did early. My final weight was 12.84lbs, which is good on many lakes, is not good on Chisago, finished 11th. It bothers me that i left a shallow bite and missed out on it, that is usually my deal. Oh well, lesson learned. It's good to learn these lessons in club tournaments, instead of money tournaments

Saturday I will be fishing Pool 4 for my next weekend series tournament...
RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Mississippi River Rumble Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

2009-06-15T18:13:59Z

Congratulations to Rob Busse of Farmington, MN; he was the highest scoring member of my Bassin' Blog group for ESPN Fantasy Fishing at the Mississippi River Rumble event. It was nice to see someone new win an event.

Here are Rob's comments on his winning line-up:
"KVD is the obvious choice, especially when you’re not much of a bass fisherman like me and he’s the only name you recognize. The rest of the line-up is pure luck. I know a lot of people change their line-up every week to go with local guys and while that makes sense, I don’t want to be like everybody else. I also heard a number of times that it was not smart to keep Elton Luce on my team (and it certainly wasn’t for the prior tournaments), but I stuck with him. I guess this proves the saying that “every blind squirrel does eventually find a nut”. "

Rob's Fantasy Picks:
KVD
Elton Luce
Kevin Short
Ike
Alton Jones

For Rob's efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching those finicky Lake Dubay bass for his annual fishing excursion over the 4th of July!!

Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Kentucky Lake Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

2009-06-12T20:19:00Z

Congratulations to Jason Mayer from IN, he was the highest scoring member of my Bassin' Blog group for ESPN Fantasy Fishing at the Kentucky Lake event. He is our first threepeat winner on the Bass side!!! Somebody needs to start winning prizes other then Jason & Brad.

Jason said it was the same line-up he used for the past two tourneys, but he would be changing it up for this Mississippi river tournament.

For Jason's efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching those tough Indiana bass!!

Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

All About Bass - Episode 1 - Part 3 of 4

2009-06-11T21:15:21Z

The Inaugural episode (webisode) is a 20lb Minnesota Bass Opener Challenge on a small south metro lake. I invite my buddy Josh Douglas to help me catch 20lbs in 7 hours of tournament style fishing. You may remember I blogged about my Bass Opener outing here. There are 4 segments to this first episode, here is a link to the first 2 segments. Embedded below is Segment 3.

Segment 4 will be coming soon, so check back to the blog often. Or better yet, consider signing up with Email or RSS subscription so you never miss an episode! Email subscription can be found on the upper left corner of this page in the side bar.

If you are looking for Ring Frys, find them here!

You can also find these videos by searching YouTube or checking out MN Sun Newspapers.

RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Green Lake Practice Report

2009-06-10T21:50:00Z

This is my first attempt at a mobile blog post, so it will be short. Art and I got on the lake around 8am, started shallow caught some decent fish on soft plastics & swim jigs. We then hit some mid-depth areas & found another pod of decent fish. From there it got super slow, hope things are better this weekend.

Tight lines,
Rich

Setting a FLW Fantasy Fishing Lineup for Kentucky Lake

2009-06-10T16:00:00Z

Kentucky Lake is in a big time upward cycle right now and kicking out a ton of fish and some real big ones. Both big smallies & largemouth could likely factor in during this event.

Fishery Details:
Type of water: Kentucky - Tennessee River (TVA) impoundment,
Barkley - Cumberland River impoundment
Surface area: 160,000 acres for Kentucky, 58,000 acres for Barkley
Shoreline: 2,064 miles for Kentucky, 1,004 for Barkley
Average depth: 20 feet for Kentucky, 12 feet for Barkley
Max depth: Approximately 60 feet on both lakes
Primary structure/cover: rock, grass, bushes, lay-downs, points, off-shore ledges, brush
Species: largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass
Length minimum: 15" for largemouths, 18" for smallmouths, 12" Spotted bass

All indications is that this tournament will be a full on ledge bite.

Here are my other anglers to watch:
Dan Moorehead
Jim Moynagh
George Geane, Jr.

Basically I am sticking with the strategy to keep littering my lineup with anglers that are hot right now and have past experience and lots of wins & top 10's this week.

Finally, my FLW fantasy fishing picks:

Kentucky/Barkley Lake Roster		Tour Stats
	Selected Anglers	Events	Earnings	Missed Cuts	Avg Finish	Top 3	Top 10's	Top 25's	Wins
1	TERRY BOLTON	84	$ 422,100	77	65	2	7	25	0
2	ANDY MORGAN	90	$ 747,854	75	48	3	13	31	1
3	DAVID DUDLEY	88	$ 1,348,100	71	43	7	16	35	2
4	DAVID FRITTS	79	$ 836,548	64	69	7	14	21	5
5	BRENT EHRLER	31	$ 789,000	26	47	1	5	13	1
6	RAMIE COLSON JR	29	$ 143,000	26	87	0	2	7	0
7	DAVID YOUNG	34	$ 84,200	33	81	1	1	4	0
8	MICHAEL BENNETT	32	$ 1,401,850	26	52	3	6	13	2
9	STETSON BLAYLOCK	34	$ 302,975	28	48	3	6	12	2
10	SHINICHI FUKAE	38	$ 645,650	27	47	2	10	17	2

It's not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Sign up today!

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Bass Fishing Today
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Setting an ESPN Fantasy Fishing Line-up for Mississippi River - Fort Madison

2009-06-09T15:38:00Z

The Mississippi River is one of the great bass fisheries in this country, but this particular section (Fort Madison) I think is under a little bit of hard times from last year's flooding. This time of year, fish should be really starting to gang up in pads and eel grass edges, but from the sounds of it, not much of it has grown back from last summer. So if you can find some good stretches, they could be loaded, but also very crowded. A strong wood flipping bite could play as well. Either way, its nice to see the Elites visit the upper midwest for a change, should be a very exciting tournament, they will catch plenty of fish. Look for Swimming Jigs to be a big player here.

I am making some fairly serious changes this week to try to make some big moves, Alton Jones had to go, he was just too safe.

Here are a few guys that I think would be solid fantasy fishing picks that are not on my team. Chris Lane, Tommy Biffle, Iaconelli and Jami Fralick. The breakdown on my team is as follows:
KVD - He catches them every where, probably have a solid spinnerbait pattern going.
Matt Herren - For the money probably on my roster until the bitter end, should have a solid finish, strong shallow water angler.
Skeet Reese - To good to cut loose, should catch plenty of bass slinging Lucky Crafts around rocks & wood.
Dean Rojas- Come on Kermit, don't let me down. Hoping the bass will eat a frog even if there is no grass.
Bill Lowen- C'mon wood flipping bite, that is Lowen's deal!

So here are my Fort Madison picks, two signifigant changes from KY Lake:

Rich'sRoster
Angler 1	Angler 2	Angler 3	Angler 4	Angler 5

Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI	Skeet Reese Auburn, CA	Dean Rojas Lake Havasu City, AZ	Bill Lowen North Bend, OH	Matthew Herren Trussville, AL
MKT: $24.9 (+0.4) LKD: $24.5	MKT: $24.2 (+0.4) LKD: $23.8	MKT: $21.1 LKD: $21.1	MKT: $17.3 LKD: $17.3	MKT: $14.0 (+0.9) LKD: $13.1

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Bass Fishing Today
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Beaver Lake Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

2009-06-05T18:06:00Z

Congratulations to Tricia Heinecke from New Richmond, WI; she was the highest scoring member of my Bassin' Blog group for FLW Fantasy Fishing.

Brief email interview with Tricia and this is what she had to say on her strategy:
"My husband & I have Players Advantage. My husband made list of fishermen and my 5 year old son helped to pick his mommy's team! Wish I could have had a couple exactas for a really big prize!! "

For Tricia's efforts, he has won a 5/16oz Threadfin Shad Secret Weapon Lure Sidearm Spinnerbait and will get a 30% off promo code to order anything he wants in the Secret Weapon Armory!

I am sure Tricia & her family will catch plenty of bass with this great spinnerbait! Thanks to Secret Weapon Lures for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Sign up today!

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Presenting "All About Bass" - An Online Bass Fishing Show

2009-06-03T13:44:00Z

If you have been reading this blog and paying attention, I have been hinting & eluding to the possibility of some new video content. Well here it is! "All About Bass" will be an online bass fishing show that I will be working on, this blog will be one of many places you will be able to view it.

The Inaugural episode (webisode) is a 20lb Minnesota Bass Opener Challenge on a small south metro lake. I invite my buddy Josh Douglas to help me catch 20lbs in 7 hours of touranment style fishing. You may remember I blogged about my Bass Opener outing here. There are 4 segments to this first episode, posted below are the first 2 segments.

UPDATED JUNE 12
Part 3 Added for your Viewing Convience:

So what do you think? We learned a ton from this first shoot, we already have ideas to improve the audio and other things. I would appreciate comments after you have watched. Segment 4 will be coming soon, so check back to the blog often. Or better yet, consider signing up with Email or RSS subscription so you never miss an episode!

UPDATED JUNE 19
Part 4 - "The Weigh-In" Added for your Viewing Convience:

If you are looking for Ring Frys, find them here!

You can also find these videos by searching YouTube or checking out MN Sun Newspapers.

RichLindgren.com
Rich's Bassin' Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Setting an ESPN Fantasy Fishing Line-up for Kentucky Lake

2009-06-02T18:25:00Z

Kentucky Lake is one of the great bass fisheries in this country. This time of year, fish should be really starting to stack up on ledges. Sounds like water levels have dropped, so flipping bushes probably won't play much, but you never know.

By the way, you need to get it in by tomorrow 8am central, this tournament actually starts on a Wednesday and ends on Saturday to allow travel time to Iowa next week.

The next 3 events Kentucky Lake, Mississippi River, & Lake Oneida are all vastly different fisheries, so trying to set your lineup to fit all 3 may be a bit of a challenge.

Here are a few guys that I think would be solid fantasy fishing picks that are not on my team. Kelly Jordan, Kevin Wirth, Edwin Evers & Timmy Horton. The breakdown on my team is as follows:
KVD - With a 3rd & a 1st last two June events on KY Lake, he is a lock.
Matt Herren - For the money probably on my roster until the bitter end, should have a solid finish, hopefully he does not get caught chasing shallow fish and misses the ledge bite.
Skeet Reese - To good to cut loose, should catch plenty of bass slinging Lucky Crafts on Ledges
Alton Jones- Hot hand & should have solid finishes all 3 events.
Jami Fralick- Hopefully Jami can repeat last summer's Kentucky success both on Elite Series and Open tourney, I am hoping he can produce on the Mississippi river as well, but he is for sure gone before Oneida.

So here are my Guntersville picks, just one change from Smith Mountain:

Rich's Roster
Angler 1	Angler 2	Angler 3	Angler 4	Angler 5

Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI	Skeet Reese Auburn, CA	Alton Jones Waco, TX	Jami Fralick Martin, SD	Matthew Herren Trussville, AL
MKT: $24.7 (+0.2) LKD: $24.5	MKT: $24.0 (+0.2) LKD: $23.8	MKT: $21.8 (+0.2) LKD: $21.6	MKT: $15.8 LKD: $15.8	MKT: $13.8 (+0.7) LKD: $13.1