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Wednesday
Nov072012

Deer season is here!  

Since I got back from Texas a few weeks ago I have been chasing whitetail deer around in Sunset Country!  The deer numbers are getting a little better but at still not where they were at five or six years ago.  Hopefully we get another good winter and things will really be starting to look up.  There are a lot of smaller 2 and 3 year old bucks out there and really good numbers of fawns from this past spring, which is great news!  Here are a few deer that I have caught on my trail cams and a couple of nice ten pointers that my friends Scott Bonnema and Dave Hartig harvested.  

Dave Hartig with his heavy 10 pointer

Scott Bonnema with his nice buck

This is a really nice deer that I have had pictures of for the past three years.  I even have the sheds from this guy from 2010.  

This is the biggest buck I have ever had on camera that actually has a drop tine...I have had pictures of this deer for the past three or four years as well.  It's a nice one!  

For more pictures, check out the Trail Cam Gallery and the Hunting Gallery

 

Wednesday
Oct242012

Rayburn FLW Tour and Lake Fork

The last FLW Tour Open of 2012 took place a couple of weeks ago at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas.  I had a little bit of a tougher time at this event but managed to squeak in and cash a check so I was happy with that.  Rayburn was a tough with only three days of practice, it is a huge lake with a lot of options for catching fish.  I ended up getting most of my fish shallow during the event.  We caught a couple big fish deep on the first day of practice but were unable to replicate that throughout the rest of our time there.  

I had a week off before the Rayburn tournament so my fiance August came down to Texas and we spent the week fishing at Lake Fork, one of the most famous big bass fisheries in the World.  We had a great time there and caught a few big fish.  The lake was pretty treacherous to run around on because there are stumps EVERYWHERE, it's crazy!  

Here are some photos from the past few weeks.  

This was a good one that we caught during practice (my buddy Jamie Bruce from Kenora was down with me and fished the tournament as a co-angler).  

Here is Jamie with a big fish he caught during practice, around 6 pounds.  

Here is Jamie on-stage at his first FLW Outdoors tournament.  He ended up with a 34th place finish, which was great!  

One of the highlights of the event was getting the chance to chat with the legendary Rick Clunn before the blast-off on day one.  This was very cool!  He ended up beating me by one ounce in the tournament!  Great guy!    

Here is a big one from Lake Fork - 8 pounds.  

Overall the trip was great!  I was gone from home for about a month to fish the FLW events at Wheeler and Rayburn, but it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot!  

Just tonight I sent in my registration to fish the 2013 FLW Tour...can't wait to get the season started in February at Lake Okeechobee!  

 

Wednesday
Oct102012

Wheeler Lake FLW Tour Open

I have been gone from home for exactly a month today!  Tomorrow is the start of the final FLW Tour Open of the year at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas.  I'm having a great time but I'll be happy to get on the road home when this event is done.  Here is a report from the Wheeler Lake tournament back in September.  
I had a decent tournament and ended up with a 33rd place finish, which I was pretty happy with.  It was tough fishing and stout field.  I got a check, so all good!  

My buddy Mike Reid from came down to Wheeler with me a fished the tournament as a co-angler.  He ended up getting a 30th place and a check as well.  We had a good time!  The week went by pretty quick.  

Wheeler has some smallmouths in it...not a ton, but there are some good ones.  This 4-11 fish was the biggest one that I caught there and I was very fortunate to catch it on day two of the tournament.  It saved the day for me!  

I caught all of my fish at this event on one bait - a 3/4 oz Rapala Rippin' Rap.  I threw it on a Shimano Crucial 7'11" medium action crankbait rod, a 7.0:1 Shimano Curado reel and 12 lb Sufix fluorocarbon.  I literally wore the nose off a couple of these baits...they were a hot bait there.  

Here is Mike with a couple of white bass...they are loaded in Wheeler and when you find them schooling you will catch two at a time on your crankbait.  They are very aggressive!  

I did get one big fish in practice off a dock...this one was on a 1/4 oz  Northland Jungle Jig (white) that I was pitching around the docks.  There are a ton of shad in this lake so that was my reason for throwing a white jig.  

August and I spent last week at Lake Fork in Texas and caught a few big bass.  I'll post some photos from there next week, as well as photos and a report from Rayburn.  

Saturday
Sep152012

Bassin' For Bucks 

Mike Reid and I fished the Sioux Narrows Bassin' For Bucks tournament last week on Lake of the Woods.  This was the 16th year for this top-notch tournament.  Mike and I have fished together every year, since we were 16 years old!  It's always a fun one for us and this year was no exception - we had a blast!  

We ended up with a solid 3rd place finish with a three-day weight of 52.94 pounds.  We were about a pound behind the champions, our friends Alex Keszler and Wayne Wagner of Winnipeg.  

We targeted largemouths throughout the event and had two really good days but had a tough time getting the big fish on day three.  The first two days we had overcast, cold, windy weather that really seemed to get the largemouths fired up.  On day three it got sunny and calm and it just seemed to kill our bite.  We were catching our fish on rocks mainly and it seems like when the sun comes out these fish move back to the weeds and we were just not able to catch the same quality.  Still, it was a great weekend.  

This was a big fish from practice, over 5 pounds.  I caught it on a Northland Dip-Stick rigged on a 5/0 Gamakatsu Wide-Gap Worm Hook.  G. Loomis makes a great rod for fishing these Senko-style baits...a 7'1" medium heavy rod that has a lot of backbone to pull this fish out of cover.  

Mike with a 5 pound plus fish that he caught in practice on a 1/2 oz flipping jig.  

Tournament champions Alex Keszler and Wayne Wagner.  They targeted smallmouths during this event and their consistency paid off.  They never had any of their catches under 17 pounds.  Congratulations guys!   

1st 48 Alex Keszler Wayne Wagner 18.45 18.42 17.02 53.89 SM 3.56 4.37 0.00 7.93 LM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
2nd 78 Bryan Gustafson Darrin Bohonis 19.58 17.28 16.89 53.75 SM 3.86 0.00 4.38 8.24 LM 3.93 0.00 0.00 3.93
3rd 43 Jeff Gustafson Mike Reid 18.25 19.42 15.27 52.94 SM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 LM 0.00 5.29 0.00 5.29
4th 44 Matt Rydberg Brian McNanney 20.09 15.88 16.28 52.25 SM 0.00 0.00 4.43 4.43 LM 4.60 0.00 0.00 4.60
5th 26 Josh Peacock Kris Soderman 17.84 14.37 18.78 50.99 SM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 LM 4.30 0.00 4.11 8.41
6th 108 Bill Senter Brian Durham 15.73 15.52 19.21 50.46 SM 0.00 0.00 4.82 4.82 LM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
7th 1 Darryl Galusha Gord Adams 19.50 18.76 11.22 49.48 SM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 LM 5.14 5.50 0.00 10.64
8th 11 Hiram Archibald Joe Pritchett 15.88 17.43 15.94 49.25 SM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 LM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
9th 45 Ted Stewner Louise Stewner 16.63 16.73 15.83 49.19 SM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 LM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
10th 61 Genvie Grafham Terry Grafham 15.38 17.90 15.58 48.86 SM 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 LM 0.00 4.44 5.15 9.59
Friday
Aug312012

Detroit River FLW Tour Open

Last week I fished in the second of four FLW Tour Opens that I'm doing this year at the Detroit River.  This is a great venue for a big tournament because its such a large system of water with Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair as well as the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers.  

I ended up having an okay tournament since I was lucky enough to slide into 49th place and earn a check.  I had a tough first day, only catching 12-10, landing in 107th place.  I fished St. Clair the first day and spent most of my day in one area and they just seemed to have moved and I couldn't get on them again.  I had a big area all to myself and there were plenty of good fish around it in the practice.  

On day two I went to Lake Erie and had a great day, landing 21-4, so I was able to make a good jump up the leader board.  

These fish were part of my 21-4 stringer on day two of the tournament

On-stage on day two with the big bag.  I caught most of my fish during the week on three different baits - crankbaits (Rapala DT 10's and DT 14's) as well as drop-shot rigs (Northland Impulse Jigging Leeches, X-Zone Slammers) and tubes.  

My Dad was down for the week with me to practice and help out so that was fun.  Here he is with a big one during practice.  

This is a really fun place to fish, provided the wind doesn't blow to hard!  We were lucky throughout the week that we were there that we didn't really have any bad weather days...I stuck around for a few days after the tournament and got on some big fish like this 5 pound smallouth.  

We don't catch these at Lake of the Woods!  This is a drum...they are absolutely thick on Lake Erie...my Dad caught about 50 of them during one of the days we practiced out there!  

There are two more FLW Tour Opens left this year, one at Wheeler Lake, Alabama and one at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas.  The top five in points qualify for next year's Forrest Wood Cup.  After two tournaments I'm sitting in 9th, so I'm hangin' in there!