Rich's Bassin' Blog

Fishing Last Weekend

Rich Lindgren — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:53:13 GMT

Well this past weekend I got out on one of my favorite south metro lakes to do some fun fishing. I quickly found some of the larger bass keying in on bluegill beds. This is an often overlooked pattern and at the same time one of my favorite ways to target post spawn largemouth bass. You can hear more about Bluegills beds and post-spawn fishing very soon on a Podcast I did with John Haynes and Bass Fishing the Midwest. I actually won a tournament on Chisago & Lindstrom Lakes last year on the bedding bluegill pattern.

I caught most of my nicer this past weekend in 1-4ft of water on frogs and a Deps BuzzJet in a Bluegill pattern. You cannot complain catching 3-4lbs bass on topwater. The frog fish were fun, but the strikes that the Buzzjet drew were some of the most ferocious I can remember. I think it does such a great job of imitating a wounded bluegill, the big bass cannot resist hunting it down and destroying it, its pretty wild!!!

The buzzjet has a very unique and loud action on the surface, kind of a topwater slash wakebait. Below is a picture of one of the many bass caught on the Deps Buzzjet this weekend. This was one of the smaller ones.

Also, this weekend, I have sorted though some of my extra gear and have listed it here on eBay! Check out my listings. I have some Sonar & GPS units, Lowrance accessories, Sebile Magic Swimmer, Lucky Craft, more swimbaits & jigs.

Tight Lines & Good fishing!
Rich
RichLindgren.com
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Green Lake - Club Tournament #4 - June 22, 2008

Rich Lindgren — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:04:08 GMT

You may have noticed there was no Club Tournament #3, I skipped Lake Koronis to spend the day with my wife on our 5th Wedding Anniversary. So on to Green Lake....

When we arrived at the launch, that was my first look at Green Lake, no time to pre-fish and no prior history. Always makes for an interesting tournament. I did do a little research and talked to a few guys in the club to get an idea of what stage the smallmouth were in, as they are the predominant species and how most tournaments are won on this lake. My partner Frank did get out one day on the lake, scouted out a few things but it was terribly windy that day.

We started on one of the main lake reefs in the middle of the wide open lake, the wind was already coming across pretty good. Frank and I both started with assorted reaction baits, topwater, Ima Flit Jerkbait, etc. Nothing doing on the reaction baits. I then switched to dragging a Fork Craw on a Petey Rig, and was pretty quickly rewarded with a nice 2lb plus smallmouth. We continued to work that area with soft plastic presentations and got no more bites.

We then both agreed to move to the calm side and look for some boulders or bedding smallies. We looked at Frank's GPS map and picked a likely area based on contours. I pretty quickly found an isolated bed with a nice smallmouth on it. It only took a single pitch with a Green Pumpkin Mizmo Tube to put a near 3lb smallie in the well. Shortly after that I was rewarded with my big smallie of the day on a Bluegill Reaction Innovation Vixen topwater. Things were looking good, as it was still in the 7am hour. We tried to get some more topwater fish, but that did not pan out.

We then poked around in a little cut, where Frank was able to get 3 small largies on a jig and I was able to get 2 largemouth on a Mizmo Tube, one weighing 3.3lbs. So that rounded out my limit, but the one largemouth was still pretty small. We tried a few more things in that area, then went searching for more beds. I then culled 2 more times with smallies off beds, both on Tubes rigged texas rigged with Tru-Tungsten 3/16oz weight, 6mm Force Bead & Smart Peg.

We kept fishing hard the rest of the day, I caught some more smallies on the Fork Craw and a nice largemouth on a 5" BassTrix, but nothing that upgraded my limit. Frank caught several more largemouth, but they were all short. We really had all out fish before 10am. We fished hard the rest of they day, but it did not work out.

Me with two nice fish and Sport Smith tallying my weight in the background
At the end of the day, i weighed 13.9lbs, but due to a livewell pump issue, I lost two fish, and set me back to 13.4lbs for 2nd place. I also had big fish, with a 3.5lb smallmouth. Cannot complain for first time on the lake. I am anxious to get back there and chase smallies again when the opportunity presents itself.

Looking forward to doing some fishing on local lakes around the 4th, maybe Marion & Minnetonka
Rich
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More new IMA Baits

Rich Lindgren — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:11:43 GMT

Welcome! To the ima EMAILER ~ June 2008 Issue
The IMA EMAILER brings you news from IMA pro staff members Bill Smith, Fred Roumbanis, Michael Murphy and other Ima pro staffers across the USA and worldwide.

Good News! This month's emailer is about two brand new ima hardbaits!

Fred Roumbanis Wins First Place in Bassmaster Elite on Lake Murray!

Congratulations to ima pro Fred Roumbanis on his $101,000 win in mid-May at Lake Murray. Fred won the Bassmaster Elite Series event out of Columbia, S.C. For more information, visit Fred's home page at: www.swimbaitfred.com.

ima Intros New Surface Skimmer and Vibrating Rock N Vibe

Determined to bring their lure expertise and originality to the U.S. lure market, ima Japan has developed two new bass baits to be presented to the U.S. wholesale and retail tackle-buying community & the fishing media at ICAST, the sportfishing industry's annual trade show in Las Vegas, NV in mid-July.

First is the Rock N Vibe, a new vibrating lipless crankbait.
The other is a new top water walking type bait called the ima Skimmer.
Both were worked on in Japan throughout the past 2 years. Both are very unique in there own ways.
Both baits will retail for $15.99.

About ima Japan

Established in 1998, ima Japan is one of the most prestigious hard plastic lure manufacturers, for both fresh & saltwater lures, in Japan.

ima’s lure designers possess degrees at top Japanese universities in marine science or engineering degrees specializing in CAD systems. This coupled with being experienced fishermen enables ima to move from a concept - to a prototype - to a perfected lure at record speeds with the utilization of CNC machines. This does not mean they rush the job. It means they can rapidly evolve, creatively explore and fine-tune a lure concept by making infinite changes to any dimension or feature whatsoever, and have a computer-machined version of the changes ready to field test within minutes. It tends to take traditional lure manufacturers weeks or months to produce modifications that ima can make in a moment. That means many other lures only undergo a fraction of the testing and design refinement that ima does. ima's unique ability for rapid, iterative design, development & testing brings out the best in every bait produced by ima. It's not just the computerized machinery, but the advanced understanding of lures & fish that ima's designers possess.

"Now, consider that the new Rock N Vibe & new Skimmer were in ima's intense prototyping phase undergoing analysis & testing for two years, and it's no wonder why ima holds the reputation for having the finest hard baits for both fresh & salt water in Japan," says Matt Paino, CEO of Optimum Bait Company in Temecula, CA who handles all of ima Japan’s marketing & distribution throughout North America.

"Anglers in Japan expect to see only the best from ima, and US anglers are starting to hold these same lofty expectations of ima too," says Matt. He refers to the satisfaction US anglers are already enjoying with ima's initial product releases from 2007 - the incredible Roumba wakebait, Flit jerkbait & Shaker flat-sided crank. Those three were painstakingly designed & tested by ima engineers in collaboration with B.A.S.S. Elite & FLW touring pros Fred Roumbanis, Michael Murphy & Bill Smith.

Based on ima's initial success in 2007, Paino expects the new Rock N Vibe and Skimmer to enjoy rapid & widespread acceptance by shopkeepers, anglers & of course, bass everywhere in 2008.

"We waited to promote these exciting new lures until we had a good handle on the production. These are ready to go from ICAST straight into stores and right onto the ends of avid anglers' lines," says Matt.

"A growing group of sophisticated bass anglers out there (and this is not just in the US but also in Europe), are realizing that by simply tying on a lure like one from ima, they are gaining an equipment advantage, almost leapfrogging over other anglers," believes Paino. "We see guys who will finish better in tournaments simply because of using ima lures. They'll be first to tell you they're not necessarily the better anglers, but by using ima lures, they acknowledge they are boosting their chances to catch better fish & finish higher."

Introducing the new ima Skimmer

The Skimmer has a slim profile body & skims the surface gracefully.
"It is surprising how ima was able to create such a wide walk the dog type action with such a slim profile bait," exclaims Matt. "It swims very gracefully across the surface."

Slim Shape Appeal

Thin is always in! The ima Skimmer is unique among hard plastic topwater stickbaits in that only the ima Skimmer has the slender body shape of a 5" soft plastic stickbait. This slim profile has proven to be one of the most appealing bass lure shapes ever. There's a whole lot to be said simply for this slender profile & silhouette, & the ima Skimmer is really the only topwater hardbait that has it now.

All the Skimmer's counterparts, other surface walking baits tend to be wide and bulky, and that causes them to waddle and slog sluggishly around. Most of the others walk side-to-side and progress across the surface with a slow heavy pace. They plod across the top, with their wider bodies causing lots of water resistance. They push a lot of water and rely heavily on the splashing, thrashing & surface confusion they cause to provoke strikes.

The Skimmer differs from other baits due to its thin body. It knifes across the surface, dancing, skating & swimming strongly like a svelte Olympic swimmer in top condition. It has a lively, light action.
Yes, the Skimmer can certainly cause chaotic, splashy action on top. If that's what you & the fish want from it, you've got it.

In addition, you may also want to simply get a strong, rhythmic side-to-side swimming motion going, where the Skimmer uses its entire body length to swim, sculling across the top with authority.

Think of the Skimmer as a soft stickbait on steroids, one that casts like an arrow, even into a stiff breeze, and cruises the surface like an explosive missile.

The Skimmer's built with a body movement unlike no other. This movement is a skating, dancing, wriggling thing. When done right, it practically comes alive, and that's an action to concentrate on making - the movement and motion of the Skimmer's slender swimming body versus the splash and confusion of traditional stickbaits. It's the strong swimming movement, not the splashing around, that's key to the Skimmer's slim shape appeal.

Bringing Out the Best Action

Since the Skimmer is thinner, its action is cleaner and crisper than bulkier baits. Make no mistake, a lot of hand-to-eye coordination is always required with any member of this class of surface-walking lures. There's an art to pulling these puppets to life on the end of your string. As always, practice makes perfect.

The way to work the rod will vary a little depending on the angle you cast it relative to the wind and based on the surface condition (smooth, rippled, choppy and so on). You need to vary the rod movement under different conditions based on what your eye sees in terms of lure action. In terms of where to keep your eyes, watch the head and eyes of the Skimmer.

Tune out the surface disturbance it's making. Don't even look at that. Focus in on the bait's body movements, and you're going to use what you see it doing in order to coordinate and adjust your hand movements with the rod. There's a certain sweet spot with the Skimmer that you'll recognize when you see it. The side-to-side movement suddenly isn't mechanical any more. It becomes more of a gasp or a flop or a jump to each side, and there's a certain slo-mo 'hang time' that seems to occur that visually lasts longer than it really is. Difficult to describe in writing, but you'll recognize it when you see it on the water.

Wild Boiling Action

The tail-weighting is another key to the Skimmer's appeal.

If you've seen mating dragonflies in early summer and the female dipping the tip of its tail depositing egg after egg under the surface, locked in synchronous flight with the male, the graceful tail action of the Skimmer is not unlike that.

Another way to think of the stir caused by the Skimmer's tail action is to compare it to one of those flat wood paint stirrer sticks they give you with a gallon of wall paint - the tail has the same stirring effect on the surface of the water.

A large part of the Skimmer's action is caused on the ending note of each zig or zag as the tail-weighted back end of the ima Skimmer dips and stirs the water causing a large boil to swell up behind it.

Each time the Skimmer glides to the side, the final action is the weighted tail deeply stirring the surface, causing a large, concentric ring or boil like a bass coming to the surface, swirling at it.

So every time that the Skimmer zigs or zags left or right, the final movement is the weighted tail stirs the surface into a widening boil, and the Skimmer slips out barely ahead of the boil, just like a desperate baitfish narrowly escaping a bass's lunge.

Competitive Feeding Signals Call Bass in From Afar

The Skimmer's action then becomes a non-stop series of ever-widening boils emanating behind it. It's like having a school of surface-feeding bass on the scene, all taking their best shot, boiling the surface behind the ima Skimmer's tail.

If there's ever anything that gets a non-committal bass to bite, it is other bass feeding in front of it - and that's the competitive feeding cue that the Skimmer's tail-stirring movement sends out to every bass within range of sensing the surface-feeding boils trailing out behind the Skimmer.

Stir Bass Into a Frenzy of Instant Excitement

Each wide and sudden boil stirring the surface is an instinctive and universal signal of competitive feeding action that calls bass in from far and wide to take advantage of the feeding frenzy that's going on behind the Skimmer.

Why Not Stir Up a Surface Feeding Frenzy on Every Cast?

With ima's new Skimmer. It's 4-1/2 inches long and weighs 3/8 oz with two sticky-sharp premium #4 Owner trebles.

ima's New Rock N Vibe Lipless Crankbait

In Japan, what bass fishing means to an angler and to a lure manufacturer is a little different than here.

There is a stronger awareness of precisely how each and every manufacturer and model of Japanese bait measures against all others.

In one Japanese fishing magazine in particular, Lure Magazine, the highly-educated readers vote on lure rankings. There are endless pages that rank all models of crankbaits, all models of topwaters, soft baits and so on. Then there are pages that rank all models of baits for this lake or that river, etc. In this regard, Japanese anglers are much more aware of the many baits, the distinctions between manufacturers and models of them.

Japanese anglers are more aware and bestow more honor on their lure designers too. In the case of ima's new Rock N Vibe, it is the creation of Japanese lure designer, Hide Iimura. The individuals who conceive each new Japanese lure design are famous for it. They're held in high regard as true artists. After all, the goal of all art is to imitate or reflect some facet of life, and isn't that just what a lure is? An imitation that reflects life so well, it is mistaken for it.

It is not uncommon for a devout Japanese bass angler to have a sacred kind of fishing corner in his house. It is just a small space where his rods, reels, lures, tackle bag, fishing vest or jacket, hat and other accessories are prepared and laid out in this special corner in a noble manner when he is not using them. His corner may contain photos, a lucky charm or other special fishing object like that. In this way, no matter what else goes on in his life, his fishing corner remains tranquil and always ready. One look at it brings back the many memories his fishing corner holds of fish and friends past... and it harbors his wishes of fishes yet to come in his future.

Lures, of course, are an important part of this. After all, it is only the lure that the fish dreams to bite. The fish hasn't any interest whatsoever in the rod, reel, line, fishing vest, patches, hat, tackle bag, boat, motor, trailer, electronics or tow rig. All necessary? Surely. Yet the fish dreams of the lure alone, and the fish honors the manufacturer who made it and honors the angler who presents this lure to the fish in the manner that is fitting for the fish to bite it.

The moment when the fish is lured and played...when the hook's hold is removed from his lip...when the man has an astonishingly fine fish in his hand. He respects it, thanks it for making the dream his reality, and returns it carefully back to its life.

It's then that the man and the fish have both been set free. Time and life's troubles do not exist at that moment. It is the moment that fishing means. It is the moment that lives forever - never to be forgotten, not to be excused, confused or compromised - in the angler's sacred corner he sets aside within his fishing mind.

That is the moment when the folks at ima hope to make all your fishing dreams come true! It's what they work for, strive to reach for in their perfection of lures worthy of you, to make the fish of your dreams become your reality.

ima's latest offering for you in the pursuit of your dreams is the Rock N Vibe lipless vibrating crankbait.

Before tying the Rock N Vibe on your line, cup it carefully in the palm of your hand and shake it. You'll hear and feel a vibrancy not found in other lipless cranks. It's almost the noise and feel of something alive in your hand, such as a cicada or other noise-making insect.

The Rock N Vibe does not make an excessively loud noise, but it is a more natural or vibrant noise than many other rattling cranks. In addition to noise, the Rock N Vibe generates a high vibration that feels like a buzz between your fingers.

Next, tie it to your rod, hook it securely onto a rod guide foot, and put that rod inside your car or truck with you on your way down to the lake. As you motor down the bumpy highway, listen to the rumbling noise made by the rapidly-vibrating Rock N Vibe on the rod in the vehicle with you. It's more like a constant, low rumble than a rattle. More of a shivering or quivering sound all abuzz like some sort of insect or something alive.

As you cast the Rock N Vibe, you'll notice that rumble and buzz manifest itself in the rod tip in a way that no other crankbait does. It's not the way you feel a wide or tight wiggle with other crankbaits, but it's a sort of bouncy, buzzy, vibrancy in the rod tip.

One look at the Rock N Vibe as it nears boatside, and you'll see that same vibrant quality in the bait's action. One way to describe the action is to say there's a lot of side and belly movement in the swimming behavior of the Rock N Vibe that's not found in other lipless cranks.

The sides and belly seem to wiggle and flicker like there's no tomorrow, and the detailed color patterns simply dance and play like alive. It has a rather realistic baitfish swimming movement and action compared to the more mechanical and artificial actions of many other lipless cranks. It's a work of art, imitating life.

When paused, the Rock N Vibe falls straight and true. It is a true countdown lure since it won't tangle the line as it falls. Most all lipless cranks sink, but many spin or foul the line as they do, so they're really not useful for counting down to deeper depths. That's the last thing you want - a lipless crank that fouls itself when it falls or is paused, ruining cast after cast. The Rock N Vibe won't do that. It falls perfectly true when paused or on the sink, making it useful to countdown to various depths.

This doesn't mean the Rock N Vibe will never tangle. When popped sharply on a lift-and-fall or jigged erratically using a yoyo presentation, any bait will occasionally tangle. It's just the nature of such techniques. However, the Rock N Vibe's ability not to tangle on a typical stop-and-go or jerk-and-pause approach is a key design feature since fish often hit on such pauses or change-ups in the action.

Plus the Rock N Vibe will stay down at the depth it was counted down to. Most other lipless cranks won't do that. Even if you can count them down without fouling themselves, many lipless cranks tend to rise up higher like kites once the retrieve is started, not staying at the desired depth like the Rock N Vibe will for you.

Feeling reckless? Try 'worming' the Rock N Vibe along bottom in deeper water as if you'd fish a worm or jig. Don't flatter it by treating it in any special way. Totally disregard that you even have a lipless crankbait tied on, just hop and drop it the same way you'd work a worm or jig! The perfect, controlled sinking behavior of the Rock N Vibe is ideally suited for 'worming' it this way in deep water.

The fact you can worm it hits upon another valuable feature of the Rock N Vibe. You can use it at any retrieve speed. This bait can be fished at any speed from painstakingly slow to blazingly fast and all speeds in between. So whether the bass just want to lazily suck it in or aggressively chase it down, the Rock N Vibe will match the mood.

The Rock N Vibe is as much at home on medium spinning gear as on baitcasting, and it casts like a rocket on either outfit.

ima's new Rock N Vibe is compact at only 2-1/2 inches long yet weighs a full 1/2 oz and sports two oversized premium Owner trebles that fish just can't miss.

Give it a try and you'll see why the pudgy little Rock N Vibe has that watchful eye and worrisome look on its face, because some big bully of a bass is constantly chasing after it!

The Green Curado Returns

Rich Lindgren — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:46:28 GMT

If you have been paying attention lately, you know that Shimano has been giving some good deals on their current Curados & Citicas, either via rebate or store sales. When a manufacturer does this, they are usually trying to clear inventory, thus the introduction of a new model or models to replace the existing.

Well the first glimpses of the newly revamped Shimano Curado & Citica are here!!!!! The new line will be the Curado E and Citica E's.

Pictures by TackleTour.com
Couple things you will notice right away, they are going back to the muted Green finish of the Curado Bantam that was so popular with many bass anglers and many of us still have several of these, as they were proven workhorses. The profile is a bit smaller to compete with the Abu Revos that have entered the market in the last couple years. Even better news, the price point of the Curado E is thought to be $179.99 vs. the Curado D currently at $199.99

Looks like these reals will launch in a burner (7.0:1) and a 5.0:1 to start and the Citica E will have the 6.2:1. See a complete breakdown of this new real and the Citica E here @ TackleTour.com!!!

So start saving your pennies, not sure when the launch date is but ICAST is right around the corner and they should be available shortly after that!!! I think this is a reel I will be ordering right away, the look of the Curado D's never really excited me, but something about this one has me fired up again. I have been a Curado guy since the old Red Curados that most guys never knew existed.

The Red Curado was a great reel as well, but it had evolved a bit from its early design

Rich
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Great YouTube Videos from LuckyCraft & ProStaff

Rich Lindgren — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:59:22 GMT

Surfing around the web today and stumbled onto a boat load of really good short interviews with all the Lucky Craft BASS & FLW Tour Pros. Skeet Reese, Casey Ashly, Takahiro Omori, Anthony Gagliardi, Marty Stone, Kelly Jordan, Brent Ehler.....
Here is where you can find them all, on the FishLuckyCraft YouTube Channel

And here are a couple that I thought were interesting to get you started:

Hope you enjoy digging into these as much I have!!! Also, welcome to the newest email subscribers, we are up to #72!!! Also, do not forget you can easily subscribe via RSS as well!!

Rich
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Lake O'dowd Gopher Bassmasters Jr. Tournament - June 15, 2008

Rich Lindgren — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:32:38 GMT

We had our first Jr Gopher Bassmaster Club event on O'dowd in Shakopee this past Sunday. I was available to be a boat captain, and I always like to fish these when I can. This tournament, we had one adult club member acting as captain and a jr. angler to form teams. It was a shared 5 bass limit, but the catch was, that the adult angler could only weigh a maximum of 2 bass. I drew Cody Sieben who is a very accomplished youth bass angler, he has 2 state titles to his credit along with many other wins and high finishes.

I had been on the lake once before earlier this spring, so we started near one of the island working topwater, I started with a Vixen and Cody a buzz frog. Nothing happening, we try some adjacent vegetation and pads, one little dink on a ring fry. We then moved to a small section of pads and I catch a solid 2lb fish on a floating frog and Cody gets a good one keeper on a green pumpkin jig. We continue working shallow vegetation, trees, & docks. Caught a couple shorts and missed a few decent bites. We thought about trying some deeper weed edges, but being unfamiliar with the lake, we decided to stick with the frog.

Not long after we went to the other side of the lake and the frog bite started to pick up. Cody & I each caught small keepers on frogs and then I jacked a very nice bass to cull out my smaller keeper. I then had Cody step to the front of the boat and I ran the trolling motor while standing behind him. It did not do me much good to pick of fish in front of him, because he still needed that 3rd fish. So picked up my flipping stick and dropped a craw into the milfoil pockets while he worked the frog. With about 15 minutes to go, Cody slammed the frog into a really nice bass and after a good fight he boated a 3lb plus fish. We had time for a few more casts and we headed to the landing.

Our 5 fish total was 11.4lbs, which was 1.5lbs better then the next team. My big fish was 3.6lbs and Cody's weighed 3.2lbs. Not too bad considering one of Cody's was just a squeaker and would not have weighed a pound. Had a good day, most of the kids caught fish. Can't wait to do it again!!!!

Rich
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First look: 4" Tru-Tungsten Tru-Life Swimbait

Rich Lindgren — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:05:00 GMT

First look: 4" Tru-Life 6/13/2008 - BassFan Dock Talk

Tru-Tungsten made quite a splash last year when it debuted its Tru-Life swimbait at the industry's ICAST tradeshow. Logically, the line is set to expand, and the company has released a sneak peek of its new 4-inch Tru-Life swimbait.

It'll be available in two models – wakebait/slow-sink and slow-sink/fast-sink – and six colors. Pictured to right is baby bass. Sink-rate can be adjusted by adding tungsten balls. Should be a dynamite bait for catching those medium size tournament quality bass, as well as the big ones!!!

Winneconne Bassmasters Weekend Series - June 14, 2008

Rich Lindgren — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:02:48 GMT

I was going to write a preview blog entry for this event on Thursday or Friday last week, but never got around to it. My buddy Ryan & I decided to fish this Bassmaster Weekend Series event on the Winneconne/Winnebago chain to help learn this system as we had never been there before. So we drove over on Friday afternoon to make the pairings meeting. I was paired with Justin Newkirk from the Milwaukee area. We were boat #6 & he told me we were fishing Bago and chasing Smallies, which I was pretty excited about. Ryan drew boat #22 and he was headed up the Wolf River.

It took us nearly an hour to get to our first area. I started chucking reaction baits, Vixen, RedEye Shad, & Spinnerbait across this rocky gravel & grass flat without a bite. I then switched to dragging soft plastics with a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten sinker, about 15 minutes later I caught my first Smallmouth. I caught quite a few smallies on this setup and then Justin finally caught his first on a small football jig with Chompers Skirted Grub. We stayed out on the flat until around 10-11am, we then fished our way back up the river and towards the weigh-in Winneconne. I was able to get one really nice largemouth flipping a 3/8oz Fall Craw Tru-Tungsten Jig to finish my bag on the way back to Winneconne.

Justin ended up with only 2 smallies & 1 Largemouth, he ended up dumping his bag, I am guessing he had about 5.5-6lbs. My 3 fish limit weighed 6.61lbs and was good enough for 5th place. My big fish was a 2.3lb smallmouth. I was pretty excited to get a check on a system I had never seen before we launched on Saturday morning. It was also my first Weekend Series tourney as a non-boater, hard to get used to fishing out of the back of a boat after being in front so many times. Kind of cool that makes 10 out of 13 Weekend Series events that I cashed a check in!!

Sorry no pictures It was a long drive back to Lakeville. Had a Gopher Bassmasters Jr. Tourney on Sunday on Lake O'dowd on Sunday, I will have pictures from then

Rich
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Must see bass fishing video

Rich Lindgren — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:58:50 GMT

Kind of a bonus blog entry today, I usually do not do more then one entry per day, but this was too good. Things you will learn/see in this video:
Instructional info on catching schooling bass
Early glance at Prototype Lipless crankbait from Ima Lure
Bill Smith hooking Michael Murphy in face with said Lipless crank
The entire removal process

It is a little graphic, but very educational. Not sure if I am more impressed with Murphy on his calmness and toughness during hook removal process or how he finished his cast with the jerkbait even with hook in face. Bill Smith had to feel a little dumb hooking his Ima ProStaff teammate on camera.

This actually happend to my in my very first club bass tourney at age 14, fishing with my uncle, I took a Zara Spook right under my chin about 10 minutes into the day. Pretty much the same drill, push hook through, cut the barb off and back it out. Slap a band-aid on it and finished the tourney, only weighed two fish though.

Share with your buddys,
Rich
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Le Homme Dieu Chain - Bassmasters Weekend Series Tournament #1 - June 7th, 2008

Rich Lindgren — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:30:10 GMT

I was able to get out fishing on Friday before the tournament to get some practice in and put together a pattern. I did not get on the water until 10am and the weather was brutal at best. Sustained winds at 20-25mph with gusts up to 39mph, that mixed in with plenty of rain. I started out by covering water, targeting mostly flats with a swim jig, SWL Spinnerbait, Sebile Flatt Shad and an Ima Shaker. That water temp was around 59-60 degrees. The more I fished, the more confident I was, that most of the fish were still pre-spawn.

The spinnerbait and swim jig yielded the most bites early on, they were keepers but nothing great. I checked a few docks here and there with my trusty 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jig and got some bites, some felt decent, I did not set on those fish. Most of my deep areas were too tough to fish in the wind and there was not the usual weed growth present as in past years, probably due to a late ice out.

I was able to fish one inside turn and get a few good bites and caught probably my biggest fish of practice on a 6" Aaron's Magic RoboWorm on a drop shot. Spent a lot of time scouting old areas with my graph and looking for weed growth. Got off the lake around 3:30pm to get my tackle & rods ready for tomorrow.

I drew boat #26 out of 51 pro anglers. My partner was Steve Broom, very nice guy! As I approached the area I wanted to start in, there was a boat already there, so I went to another area. I started in some old reeds with a swim jig, nothing happening. I then switched between my jig & a spinnerbait and caught a couple keepers. As the stretch of reeds dwindled, I flipped the adjacent docks and boated a few more keepers. The last dock in that stretch gave up a 16.5" largemouth on the jig. That was my 4th keeper, but was the first fish that I was excited about. We then worked the adjacent flat and weedline with reaction baits and we both boated a couple keepers. I tried to slow down on a coontail point and get some large fish with soft plastics, but it was a no go.

We then went to the area where I wanted to start, over another patch of old reeds, I got one on a spinnerbait. I then tried the adjacent docks and got two fish over 17" on the jig. The second fish reminded me how important good sunglasses can be. As I reeled my jig back to the boat, I saw a bass trailing my jig, so I dropped my rod tip, she sucked it in and the 3.5lb fish was in the boat. My JKruz Riptides definitely deserve the assist on that fish.

We then tried one more deep area, caught some keepers, but nothing I could upgrade with. I then decided to focus on docks in Le Homme Dieu and Darling for the rest of the day. Overall I am sure I caught more then 30 keeper bass, almost all of them on a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig with either a watermelon or green pumpkin chunk. I culled several times, but never did get anymore real good fish.

My partner weighed 3 fish for just under 4lbs and my 5 went 12.16lbs. It was good enough for 8th place and a decent check to start the year. My only regret was spending as much time fishing deep as I did, my better bites came early and I think if I would have fished more docks early, I could have gotten one more 3lb plus bite and improved my catch significantly.

On another note, I boated 3 fish over 17" to help fill out my limit for the BP Bass Derby, little online tourney I am participating in, check it out!!! You can probably join in, unless you are scared???

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

Looking ahead to Le Homme Dieu

Rich Lindgren — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:00:39 GMT

Well my work travels for the week are over, finally back in town, spent some time getting my gear together, need to spend some more time tomorrow before I will be tournament ready. I leave tomorrow morning to drive up to Alexandria to get my one day of practice in before my first Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament on Saturday.

My main goal tomorrow is to establish what the fish are doing. Bases on what I have read on reports and water temps from the chain, I believe there will be fish in all 3 stages during our tourney. Although, my sneaking suspicion is that most of the fish will still be pre-spawn, but we'll find out tomorrow. My secondary goal is to attempt to establish some areas or a pattern where I can get a few good fish in the boat. One or two 3lb plus fish on this lake can make all the difference in the world and limits are bound to be plentiful.

We are having quite a bit of rain and turbulent weather leading into this event, which could make it a little tougher but the Le Homme Dieu chain always spits out loads of keeper bass, the trick is always breaking the 10lb barrier and anything in the teens will almost assure you a top 5 finish and have you in contention for the $5k first place prize.

One thing is for sure, I really want to put an emphasis in fishing for a win this year, so my plan is to roll the dice a little bit more early in the Weekend Series events and worry about getting limits in the afternoon this year. Guess we will see how that works out! I also intend to give a swimbait a try in each event this year. Also I am going to try some big worms along with more jig fishing.

Well check back Sunday or Monday to see the results of my Friday practice and how the tournament goes.

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

Good Read on Tungsten and Bass Fishing

Rich Lindgren — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:14:00 GMT

Tungsten Weights:
Are They Worth The Extra Cost?
Story By Margie Anderson

Who could ever have imagined that anglers would be paying more than $5 for a single worm weight? Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
“You have to keep in mind that if something puts otherwise impossible fish in the boat for you, the check you cash after a tournament makes it well worth the few bucks you spent at the tackle shop,” says professional bass fisherman Gary Dobyns. “Tungsten weights opened up the whole world of punching to us. Bass school up under thick, dense mats of weeds when the sun is high, and it is almost impossible to get anything but a tungsten weight through those mats. The lead you’d have to use would be as big as your finger, and a lot of times it really turned the fish off.”

In fact, that very dilemma is what led to the first tungsten weights. Sam Aversa was a pro bass fisherman who wasn’t content to simply flip the edges of impenetrable weedbeds. He wanted in there. His company, Penetrater Weights, was one of the first to come out with tungsten weights. Tungsten is much harder and denser than lead, and the slick finish he puts on them adds to the ease of penetration.
There are different grades of tungsten. Dobyns explains that tungsten is actually a powder that is compressed into different forms.

Mixing the tungsten with other metals like tin, nickel and copper will lower the price of the weights but will increase their size. Tungsten is by far the densest element you can buy for less than precious-metal prices. It is actually as dense as gold, but it’s harder and about 100 times cheaper. Not only is a tungsten weight smaller than lead, it’s so much harder that it doesn’t get hung up as much.
“The hardness of the tungsten also makes it more sensitive,” Dobyns says. “It transmits vibrations up your line better. I know it sounds gimmicky, but it’s true.”

Punching
When you’re punching a tungsten-weighted plastic worm through a massive tangle of weeds or debris, getting the lure down there isn’t your only problem. Once you get bit, you’ve got to pull a wildly thrashing bass out of there, and it isn’t going to want to come along peacefully. Dobyns uses 65-pound test line and a hook that is made specifically for punching. A good, stout flipping stick is a must because you’re going to need a lot of power to haul a big bass out of cover that thick.
Punching isn’t limited to matted weeds or lily pads. Big floating rafts of debris get washed into Western reservoirs during spring when the snows melt, and getting through those is every bit as difficult as punching through the weeds that will grow later in the year. In summer, the water is cooler under there, and the fish also like the shade.

The Insert Debate
Dobyns prefers to use Tru-Tungsten weights, which have a powder coating that wears like the tungsten itself. Since the coating is so hard and slick, there is no need for inserts.
Aversa’s Penetrater Weights don’t have inserts either. He says you can order them with inserts, but he doesn’t like them.
“It’s not a question of if an insert will fall out, but when,” Aversa says.
According to Aversa, there isn’t a glue that will penetrate the pores on tungsten, so nothing really holds well. Liners sometimes push out when you peg the weight, and a Teflon liner is particularly hard to glue in. So when he gets an order for weights with liners, Aversa doesn’t use Teflon but a special industrial glue.
These inserts are designed to protect fishing line from burrs on the weight.
“I think they kind of defeat the purpose of the tungsten,” Aversa says. “Since they are between the line and the tungsten, they tend to dull the transmission of the vibrations.”
Dobyns adds that if an insert cracks, it frays your line.
Arizona tournament angler Gary Key doesn’t understand the controversy about inserts. He’s used tungsten weights extensively and has never had an insert fall out.
“I suppose if you really banged one around the rocks it might eventually fall out, but so far it hasn’t happened to me,” he says.
Key claims that the inserts in the weights he uses are so thin and tight to the metal that they make absolutely no difference in the sensation you get from the tungsten.
As for inserts popping out when you peg a weight, Key doesn’t worry about that either. He uses bobber stoppers to keep his weights in place, so nothing gets pushed through the weight except the line itself.

Tungsten Down Deep
Key fell in love with tungsten before he ever even saw a mat of weeds. Fishing the deep, clear reservoirs of Arizona doesn’t offer much opportunity for punching, but it definitely calls for finesse.
“Tungsten weights cost a lot more than lead, but I think they’re worth the extra couple of bucks,” Key says. “First of all, they’re so hard that they really telegraph what’s down there. When I’m pre-fishing, they let me know when something is a rock or a stump or just plain mud. With a tungsten weight on fluorocarbon or braid, I can read the date on a dime.”
Key favors a long, skinny drop-shot weight that hardly ever gets hung up. He also uses larger tungsten weights for Carolina rigs. However, the tungsten Key really loves is the nail weight. He puts these tiny weights in wacky-rigged Senkos and just slays the bass.
“You can pitch these to trees and docks, but the real secret is that they are absolutely dynamite on deep-water humps and ledges,” Key says.
Without the little tungsten nail weights, it would take forever to get a Senko down there. Key likes to weight just one end of the Senko to make it wobble and dive.
Wes McCracken is another tournament angler who has found that tungsten is worth the money. A Texas rig is one of his favorites for fishing submerged trees, and he often fishes a very small Texas rig on spinning gear. He uses 12-pound test fluorocarbon and a 1⁄4-ounce or even smaller bullet sinker. For these lightweight worm rigs, McCracken uses a medium-heavy spinning rod with a fast tip and plenty of backbone. He can cast a 3⁄16-ounce sinker much better with this rig than with a baitcaster.
“It’s crucial to pick the right weight,” insists McCracken. “Sometimes one will outfish the other, even if the difference is really small. It changes the rate of fall. If you get bit on the fall, you know you’re using the right weight.”
Likewise, if you’re using the wrong weight, you’ll get slapped a lot but not bit. Sometimes even the type of weight can make a big difference.
“Jennifer and I were both fishing identical setups, but I was using tungsten and she wasn’t,” McCracken recalls. “I was getting bit way more often than she was. I hate to have to fish tungsten because it is so expensive, but if that’s what it takes, you have to do it.”

Tungsten — Not Just For Weights
The density and hardness of tungsten make it ideal for other bait applications as well. For instance, lure manufacturers have begun offering swimbaits that incorporate tungsten. Some of these lures have chamber and peg systems that allow you to quickly adjust the placement and number of tungsten balls in the lure so you can control the running depth and even the action of the lure.
Hand-poured worms with tungsten powder poured right into them are also available. This makes rigging much easier and makes the worms fall true.
Tungsten spinnerbaits have become common in the lure industry over the last few years.
When it comes to jig fishing, tungsten jigs have an obvious benefit — they can be flipped into tight quarters.

Not-So-Heavy Metals
Another benefit of tungsten is that it’s non-toxic. These days, that’s a big deal. Many states have already banned lead or are considering banning it because lead sinkers can end up in birds and kill them.
If using a non-toxic weight is your major concern, there are other, cheaper alternatives. Non-lead sinkers such as brass, bismuth and steel are available. While they are not as dense as tungsten, they have other benefits. They may be bigger than the same weight in lead, but the hardness of these metals means less line wear. Lead is so soft that it can deform, making sharp edges right where your line enters the weight.
The only downside to tungsten is the price. Its density and hardness make it an ideal element for weights, and to tournament pros and avid amateur anglers, the benefits are well worth the price.
Story By Margie Anderson

ima Shaker

Rich Lindgren — Fri, 30 May 2008 10:43:21 GMT

Welcome! To the ima EMAILER ~ May 2008 Issue
The IMA EMAILER brings you news from IMA pro staff members Bill Smith, Fred Roumbanis, Michael Murphy and other Ima pro staffers across the USA and worldwide.

Good News! This month's emailer is all about the ima Shaker crankbait.

Designer Bill Smith Debuts Long-Awaited ima Shaker Crankbait

Hello. It is BASSMASTER Elite Angler Bill Smith here and I am proud to say that I designed the ima Shaker for you. It is a small, flat-sided, shallow-diving crankbait with a thin computer board lip. At 2-3/4 inches long, the Shaker weighs 3/8 oz and runs 3 to 5 feet deep. With its internal weight transfer system, the Shaker let's one reach unprecedented casting distances with a crankbait of this kind.

I designed the ima Shaker to improve upon and replace the flat-sided balsa crankbaits that are regional favorites in my section of the country, the southeast USA. I grew up fishing balsa crankbaits for over twenty years, and I know them well. I know what are balsa's merits as well as balsa's weaknesses.

Since the Shaker is the latest improvement upon and replacement for balsa, I feel it is appropriate to first share a few words with you about the Shaker's predecessors - balsa crankbaits. So first, here is a bit of the interesting history of balsa cranks...

A Little Background on Balsa Crankbaits

Originally, going back over forty years, the Big O is one of the first milestones. The original Big O they say was whittled by hand out of balsa wood by Fred Young of Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the late 1960's - and they say that is the start of balsa crankbaits for bass in the USA. Mr. Young was not the only one whittling balsa crankbaits in the region 40 years ago, but the Big O is the one to achieve some sort of national fame and lasting historical significance. It really only did that because it was reproduced in hard plastic during the early 1970's by Cotton Cordell and quickly sold by the millions. But my point is that as far back as 40 years ago, hand-carved balsa crankbaits were popular and prized baits across the south even then.

Other early and legendary names in balsa crankbaits include Jim Bagley, Lee Sisson and certainly Rapala. As I understand it, these were on the scene since the early to mid-1970's. Today, these names still have national and worldwide recognition. When it comes to balsa crankbaits, many bass anglers may be familiar with those names.

What's not so well-known outside the region is the ongoing refinement of locally hand-crafted balsa crankbaits by lure builders across the region and states of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and parts thereabouts. This is all considered balsa crankbait country.

Especially within the last twenty years or so (since the mid-1980's), many of the locally-produced balsa crankbaits used across this region have been refined to a fine art. This is woodworking and furniture-manufacturing country, where whittling's a pastime and a handful of guys here have the modern toolshops and wherewithal to produce high quality balsa crankbaits.

There was an old gentlemen from whom I remember my Dad would buy hand-crafted wood topwater lures. This fellow worked in a furniture factory, and made lures in his spare time. This old gentleman did not even fish, but he paid close attention to the constant feedback from the anglers who were his customers, like my Dad. He'd make the changes they suggested to him, thereby improving his topwater products. Both the anglers and the artisan took a sense of pride from this. Over time, he gained quite a local reputation and following for well-made, fish-catching topwater baits. Now take someone with that woodworking skill and love, with a little tool shop, who takes pride in their work and also likes to fish, and that's what's been happening for the past twenty years in this part of the country with regionally-produced balsa crankbaits.

You can think of what's going on here as being similar to what's gone on with swimbaits on the west coast. For the longest time, swimbaits were a local phenomena, designed, developed, locally-made and used on the west coast as an effective way to catch the bass there. Of course, we see today that swimbaits work everywhere, not just California.

Likewise, balsa crankbaits made in and used across the southeast, have been local favorites for the longest time.

But as we've found with swimbaits, these balsa crankbaits (and now the ima Shaker) will also work everywhere, not just in the local region, but everywhere across the USA.

As a Bassmaster Elite Series pro, including all the places I've traveled, all the water I've fished across the country, 95% of the places I've been from coast to coast and border to border, these balsa crankbaits (and now the ima Shaker) have worked for me.

And I can tell you that there isn't a Bassmaster Elite pro who I know who doesn't have a box full of flat-sided, hand-made custom balsa crankbaits on his boat, ready to use at every event across the country. These are baits that are hard to get, that have taken years for many of the pros to amass the boxfuls they've got. Every pro has them and knows that at any time or any place, flat-sided balsa crankbaits can prove effective.

Introducing the ima Shaker

Now that I've gotten you interested to try balsa crankbaits, let me tell you that the new ima Shaker is an improvement upon and replacement for a certain kind of balsa bait - the flat-sided crankbait.

The flat-sided balsa bait gained a following in the Tennessee/Alabama market years ago. It's real strong on the Tennessee River chain, and also on Ohio River system, where they seriously refined the trend of the smaller flat-sided baits to imitate smaller shad so prevalent there. Over time, this flat-sided crank spread throughout the southeast market.

The ima Shaker is the very latest flat-sided crank that matches this most common smaller size of shad.

The Shaker has a very lifelike baitfish appearance. With the flat sides, the Shaker imitates more of a shad than the typical fat, bulbous, round-bodied crankbait. The flat-sided Shaker looks like a shad and has a more realistic profile. Yet it still has the characteristic wide wobble of a balsa bait.

However, the ima Shaker is not balsa. The Shaker is a new injection-molded hard plastic bait with a computer board lip. The Shaker is designed to have all the merits but none of the weaknesses of balsa.

Some of the big disadvantages of balsa crankbaits versus the ima Shaker are:

Good Quality Balsa Crankbaits	Ima Shaker
They can't take but one good hit on a rock or a log or the diving bill may loosen from the surrounding softer balsa lip slot.	The main factor is durability, the lip stays in. The lip slot is molded (not hand-cut) with a very tight tolerance that helps fortify and secure the computer board lip within the surrounding, tightly-fitting hard plastic.
The line tie eye and hook hangers are screwed-in, slots for lips and belly weights are drilled and then glued by hand, not always perfectly.	The component parts, hangers, eyes, weighting system and lip are precisely fitted into injected-molded bodies, with little to no possibility of being off.
The hook hangers or front line tie eye can loosen up under a little too much pressure or pull right out of balsa.	The hook hanger and line tie are molded in "figure-eight" stainless wire. Not likely to ever pull out under normal fishing conditions.
A balsa body will often break toward the thinner tail section, especially if a fish is hooked on the tail treble only.	The hard plastic body is not likely to ever break under normal fishing conditions.
Balsa is a light wood and especially with the flat sides, hard to cast. It often waffles in the air like a potato chip, falling all too short, causing nasty line snarls or backlashes.	The Shaker features an internal weight transfer system allowing the bait to fly incredibly far distances on the cast with greater accuracy and line control.
No two are ever quite the same, due to the natural inconsistencies of each piece of wood, plus the line tie, hangers, belly weights, lips are not always consistent. For any 12 balsa baits, you tend to find 2-3 are truly good and will catch most of your fish. Another 6-8 may only ever be average catchers, and 2-3 may never work well.	ima has eliminated this problem of inconsistent baits. Every Shaker will run true straight out of the package. The buoyancy rate and action will be the same each time. We took a long time to get the ima Shaker perfect, based on decades of experience using balsa. We made the prototype Shaker the best we could - and precision injection-molding makes it consistent for every single bait.
The good ones are hand-made and always hard to get. Often you have to be a pro or know the lure builder to have any chance. If you place an order today, the waiting list may take from one to two years for some.	The ima Shaker is readily available now at fine tackle shops across North America. Anyone can get the Shaker, a lure similar to the hard-to-get flat-sided balsa cranks that most of the top pros have a boxful.
Because they are so fragile and hard-to-get, most anglers avoid using their best balsa cranks in heavy cover, the very places that fish favor most.	The ima Shaker can be fished through all difficult cover - around docks, rocks, stumps - that would utterly destroy a balsa crankbait. The bodies won't break or chip and loose chunks (like balsa does) when they flare off of wood or a rock.
Good quality balsa cranks are expensive.	The Shaker costs less than good hand-made balsa crankbaits. The Shaker is a GREAT BUY when you think that you are spending more for a hand-made balsa bait that you don't know will run true and balsa has the potential of getting destroyed quickly.

As you can see above, the Shaker is designed to imitate a balsa bait, and improve on it. The advantages of the Shaker over balsa are many - more durable, lasts longer and with its internal weight transfer system, is easier and more accurate to cast than balsa.

Because a flat-sided balsa crank is such a poor casting lure, a lot of time you can only use one with 6-8 pound spinning gear to have any hope of casting a decent distance. Even then, you are probably talking about a 40 foot cast with a balsa crank on light line spinning gear versus a 60 foot cast with the ima Shaker on 10-15 pound baitcasting gear. That heavier grade of baitcasting gear could pull a balsa crank apart like it was cotton candy - if you could even cast a balsa bait on such gear (you really can't).

So you're comparing 60 feet with the Shaker on a 10-15 pound baitcaster versus 40 feet for balsa on 6-8 lb spinning gear.

That's 20 feet longer that the Shaker is in the water, attracting fish, on every cast. That's significant and equates to more fish caught due to the Shaker staying longer in the strike zone.

So not only is the Shaker more durable, able to withstand the force of heavier tackle, but also casts much further (and accurately) and can be fished in dense cover that fish love.

Color Patterns

The hard-plastic injection-molded nature of the ima Shaker is a radical new departure from balsa crankbaits - but the finishes and color patterns are not.

The ima Shaker finishes make them look like they're balsa cranks. When painted and finished, it's hard to tell at first whether the Shaker is plastic or wood.

We've tried to stay true to the well-known regional color patterns used on hand-made balsa cranks across the southeast, plus we've stayed with the unique names used for these regional color patterns.

The guys in the southeast who throw balsa cranks will be familiar with these names and colors. They are derived from favorite colors of parochial balsa baits - like the color Plemmons is one of the most famous. That has been around for ages, and everyone in the region knows what color it is just from the name - Plemmons.

Besides Plemmons, Coach Dog and Dolphin are probably the three most famous colors in the region.

Another unique color is named Hortin as well as Chartreuse Hortin. These are names that have never changed for ages. We felt a need to make the names and colors of the ima Shaker very familiar to the guys in the southeast in balsa bait country. At the same time, it's going to be a little education or learning experience for anglers in other parts of the country. But don't worry, you will get familiar with these colors quickly. When you catch a few fish on them, they'll become your favorites too.

Another color is Lime Coach Dog. If you don't know what coach dog refers to, it is a Dalmatian. They were trained in days of yore to run alongside and accompany carriages or coaches on the road. So the Coach Dog lure color has Dalmatian spots all over it.

One thing that Lime Coach Dog, Matte Bluegill and Coach Dog (shown above) have in common is that they are early spring time colors. I feel why they work best then is that they really imitate bluegill that are the prevalent forage up shallow then. I could never figure out any rhyme nor reason why, but Coach Dog always seems to work better when the bass first come up shallow in the spring whereas Lime Coach Dog tends to hold up and lasts a little longer through the latter part of spring. Matte bluegill is always effective as long as small bluegill abound.

Plemmons and Rootbeer (shown above). These are two solid shad colors. They excel whenever there are lots of shad around. Now, root beer always seems to work fished right in the thick of the shad. You may wonder about that, because it does not resemble a shad color. In its case, you don't try to match the hatch. You try to stick out from the rest, and bass hone right in on it.

Some of the other colors - Black Chartreuse for instance, are old familiar standbys. A few of the colors, such as White Shad and Alabama Shad, are simply solid, universal shad colors. Don't leave home without them.

We talked about color choices above being based on certain seasons or prevalent baitfish. Color choice can also be based on water clarity:

Clear water. Matte Bluegill, Hortin and Rootbeer are reliable.
Dirty water. Try Dolphin, Black Chartreuse and Coach Dog. There is a little bit of rattle sound which helps. Fish pick up on that little noise, plus the crankbait's vibration can call them in from a decent distance in dirty water.
Stained water. The most productive water color, better than either clear or dirty water. For shallow-running flat-sided crankbaits, I always like to have some stain. A wide variety of colors will work in stained water depending on the season, the prevalent bait and other factors.

Plemmons is probably the favorite color of many because Plemmons works in any water color. So always give Plemmons a try.

Where and When to Use the ima Shaker

The ima Shaker is a shallow diver, running 3 to 5 feet deep.

Therefore, where and when it works best is in shallow water, no more than eight feet deep.

Simply, where you have bass in a water depth of five foot (less than 8 foot), that's the strike zone within which the Shaker is going to work.

Spring and Fall. Bass are most often up in shallow water in the spring and fall. So the Shaker will work anywhere there's shallow water during spring and fall. Especially in stained or muddy water, fish like to stay up shallow for a longer part of the season.
Summer. Once you get into the summer season, you need to dissect your lake or reservoir into the main lake body versus the side creeks, the upper river arms or tributary type areas.

In the main lake body or big basin type areas, bass tend to move off the banks and they occupy deeper water beyond the effective range of a shallow-diving crankbait in summer.

However, there are always some bass shallow all through the summer, especially if you go up into a river arm, the back end of a creek, an inflow end of a reservoir, or anywhere with a current situation, you can produce shallow bass on the Shaker throughout the summer.

On reservoirs where water is routinely drawn to generate electricity or for whatever purpose they pull water, bass tend to move from deep havens to nearby shallow areas for the duration that moving water flows through those shallows. So even the main lake, when they pull water during the summer months, can have shallow bass willing to belt the Shaker at those times.
Winter. As in summer, many bass tend to pull into deeper areas off the banks in winter, and in the colder months of the year, bass tend to want a tight-wobbling crankbait anyway. The Shaker is more wide-wobbling.

For those who live up north in smallmouth country or wherever one bass species is more prevalent, you'll be glad to know the Shaker appeals equally to all three species of bass, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass.

The swimming action of the ima Shaker is very unique. It took a lot of time until I got the action perfect. With all that's written above, there's just no way I can truly describe how well this crankbait wiggles through the water. You really need to get one and go watch it swim to believe it. Once you see that, you'll want to use the Shaker all the time.

You can really hit rocks, stumps, shallow structure and not get hung up. Usually, when a crankbait has a real wide wobble, the hooks swing out from side to side and grab everything - but that's not the case with the ima Shaker. You can go right through tree tops, stump fields and rock jumbles, and unless the bait gets wedged, just give a little slack, and it's going to float up and over most anything down there.

Okay, here's one last good tip for when and where to use the Shaker that I'll tell you and then say goodbye. One thing I do a little different when shad are up on the surface away from the bank, over relatively deep water, the wide wobble of the Shaker swimming through the shad schools will break up the shad, cause the shad to flush, and that can provoke a strike. This little trick can work when bass are present, but not very aggressive on topwater lures. The fact that the Shaker's a few feet under the surface, and busting up the shad schools as it comes through them can be effective.

Thank You! For Reading the ima EMAILER

Ima's a big name in Japan where Ima is known for its hardbaits. Ima is now making it's debut in the U.S. market.
U.S. bass pros Bill Smith, Michael Murphy and Fred Roumbanis have helped IMA design new hardbaits for the USA.
We'll send you stories and tips from Fred, Bill and Michael every month.

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MN Bass Opener Big Bag Challenge!!!

Rich Lindgren — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:28:30 GMT

Here is the deal, my buddy Josh Douglas decided to do some fun fishing on Memorial Day, not practicing for a tournament, just going out and trying to really whack'em!!! But being the competitors that we are, we had to spice it up a little. We decided we would make it a team tournament, US vs. the Bass!!!

We picked a South Metro lake, calculated a loft goal, set that as our mark. Two guys, 6 hours, the goal....
Best 5 Bass = 20lbs. I told you, we had lofty goals!!! They sound familiar if you watched the episode of World's Greatest Fishing Show where Zona and KVD set a 20lb goal on Lake St. Clair in the fall. Nobody said we were original.. LOL!!! Neither one of us would claim to be as talented as Kevin VanDam, but the antics that happen in our boats are not much different then you see on Mark Zona's show.

We decided to fish out of Josh's boat, we got to the landing and were fishing by about 8am. We started the day shallow, working inside week lines and pad clumps with weightless soft plastics. We quickly started getting bit, but the first few were the wrong size. Keepers but not the kind of fish that add up to 20lbs. A few more boat lengths down the bank, Josh gets a big fish on, but is snaps his fluorocarbon leader. The fish stayed there and we could see it. It was a real toad, we tried to get her to bite again, but nothing doing. In the next little cut, I had a pretty good fish hooked up on a 4" Green Pumpkin Ring Fry, but sure enough I dumped here too. We continued to work the same patterns in similar areas and got a pretty quick limit, but it only weighed around 7lbs, time to start culling!!!

Pic of 4" Green Pumpkin Ring Fry

Finally about an hour later I get the first nice fish in the boat, a definite 3lbs plus on the Ring Fry. From that point on, things slowly got better, we started putting better fish in the boat. Even though things were getting better, we both missed some more nice fish, that definitely could have helped our bag. At about noon, I got our biggest fish yet, it was a 4lb 7oz beauty. She took the Ring Fry as well, she was hanging on a stump in about 3ft of water. A beautiful fish, big head & healthy, but clearly spawned out. A week earlier and she was an easy 5 and she will be a 5lb fish later this summer when she starts putting the feed bag on. That fish gave us about 18lbs. We decided to head back to work that big fish from early this morning. We made long casts to the area, no bites, we got just close enough to see she was still there, but she was not having anything to do with us, we also saw one just as big about 20yds down the bank and neither one would humor us.

We then moved out to the main lake to work some smaller pockets and some rocky humps and shoals. I broke out my Tru-Tungsten Bluegill swimbait as I knew we needed a big bite to push us to our goal. No takes, but I was really impressed with the action. You will hear more about that bait this summer!!!! Josh then tried my TT Swimbait, so I picked up my Ima Shaker in Matte Bluegill and started working the rocks & weed clumps. I quickly boated a nice 2lb plus fish and then got a 3lb'r up to the boat on the Shaker, both nice fish, but not increasing our total. But I was impressed with the Shaker's action and its quick return on investment

Pics of bigger fish

We finished up working some docks, wood & milfoil with Jigs and other baits, couple more fish, but no bigguns
We ended the day with 5 fish 18lbs 4oz, overall we must have caught around 30 bass, and had several more bites and saw other big fish cruising. Once again, it was frustrating too see so many big bass with my sunglasses but so many not in a catchable mood. I think all or all but one of our big 5 came on the Ring Fry, one may have been on a weightless tube. Had we not set the goal, we would have called the day a huge success, but we really wanted to get there, but still a great time. We both could have fished cleaner and we both believe we had the bites to meet our goal. I think you will see some more challenges like this in the future

I am sure you will see Josh post his summary of our trip on his Blog soon as well! Also welcome email subscriber #71!!!

Rich
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