Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Bass University Coming to Kissimmee Nov 6th and 7th


The Bass University is a 2-day class/seminar put on by Bassin' Magazine for advanced anglers looking to go to the next level of fishing. This years hosts will be Mike Iaconelli and Pete Gluszek and the classes will be taught by 6 of the top pro anglers! This season's first stop will be in Kissimmee on November 6th and 7th at the Westgate Vacation Villas and Town Center and will be the only stop in Florida. Unfortunately, it's the same weekend as the Xtreme Classic on Lake Seminole so I won't be able to attend but I would recommend getting to Kissimmee for this seminar if you have the weekend free! Here is the skinny:
Location:
Westgate Vacation Villa's and Town Center
2770 Old Lake Wilson Rd.
Kissimmee, Fl 34743
407-396-8523
Special room rates available from $59-$135
Price:
Adults $225
Kids 16 and under $175
Students, Fed. Nation, TBF members $200
Get more info and register at www.thebassuniversity.com

Monday, September 6, 2010

Snook Season to Remain Closed by FWC

The FWC met for 3 days in Pennsicola this past week and one of the topics on the agenda was whether or not snook season should remain closed and if so for how long. Their decision for Gulf waters was to keep the season closed for the next year! This also includes Everglades Park and Monroe County waters. The season will open for harvest on September 1st, 2011. Anglers may still target snook but they must not keep or posess one until the season reopens. The FWC decided on the Atlantic side to open the season this year from Sept. 17th-Dec. 15th then close the season until Sept. 1st of next year. This is due to the unusually harsh winter of prolonged sub-freezing temps. in Florida.

Here is a link to a recap of the 3-day meeting: http://www.myfwc.com/NEWSROOM/10/statewide/News_10_X_PostCommSept.htm

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Florida Sportsman Fishing and Boat Show


The dates are all set for the 2010 Florida Sportsman Fishing and Boat Show in Tampa. It will take place September 25th and 26th at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall. The event goes 10am-5pm on Saturday and 10am-4pm Sunday. The weekend will include seminars from the best anglers in the area, deminstrations, tons of tackle on sale, and demo boats you wish you had! Admission is $8 for adults and free for children 12 and under with an adult. Click the link below to got to Florida Sportsman's site and a $2 off coupon to the show.




Other Florida show:

West Palm Beach

September 11-12, 2010

South Florida Fairgrounds

Friday, August 6, 2010

Snook Season Will Remain Closed


The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission will extend the closure of snook season to Sept 16th as the snook population tries to recover from a record cold winter. It is still legal to catch snook during the closure but an angler may not harvest or possess a snook. The FWC will reassess how the population is progressing later in the season and may close it further upon review. You can read more on this subject at: www.snookfoundation.org

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Win an Airrus Rod at Bounty Fishing

There will be a new Bounty Fishing bass tournament for the Southern region from Aug 8th through Aug 15th. The first place winner will receive $250 plus an Airrus Rod! To sign up, click the link below and sign up for free. The cost to enter the tournament is then $7 a day or you can fish all 7 days for $19. The angler with the longest bass at the end of the week wins! The contest also pays out the next 9 places as well.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Cheating scandal at U.S. Open rocks bass-fishing community

This is a pretty crazy story coming out of California! A California tournament angler by the name of Mike Hart was caught cheating in a WON Open Tournament in California by placing lead sinkers in the belly of the fish that he caught to increase the weight and thus his placement in the standings and ultimately his earnings. People ask me all the time if people cheat in bass tournaments and I always tell them that we are a pretty tight knit group and that very little goes on because if you get caught your never going to be able to fish another tournament again! This guy will have a hard time not getting noticed in any tournament he trys to fish! He is subsequently banned for life from all WON Bass Tournaments and WON has stated to be pressing charges against Hart.

Here is the article from Pete Thomas of Grindtv.com:

Cheating scandal at U.S. Open rocks bass-fishing community

Monday, July 12, 2010

FOR SALE: Nitro 170 TF Rick Clunn Edit. 17ft



I am selling my 1996 Nitro 170 TF Rick Clunn Edition bass boat. It has a 115hp engine by Tracker Marine (Mercury). $5500-OBO Here are some other features:

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report July 5th, 2010

After spending the 4th of July gorging on my buddy Kevins famous smoked ribs, watching my friend Jay nearly blow his hand off a dozen times, and drinking more than my share of Red Stripes it was time to relax, recover and do some bass fishing!
I took friends Kevin and Chris out on Lake Tarpon on the Nitro 929 Monday to see if we could hammer some bass after all the rain we've had. Should be a lot of run-off coming into Tarpon including from our main target Brooker Creek. Kevin was talking about a possible 100 bass day as the conditions seemed perfect with overcast skies and slightly lower temps than we've seen in the past few days.
The day started in front of Chris's house fishing his yearling infested (one-year old bass) man-made pond in his development. I was loading up the boat when I heard a Rat-L-Trap whiz through the air smacking something solid followed by an "OWW!" The first catch of the day would be Chris as he buried the barb of a rat-l-trap in his ankle. After a half-hour of digging around we finely got the barb turned around and snapped off. A little peroxide and a band-aid and we were on our way to Lake Tarpon!
After launching out of Chesnut at about 11:30, we started at Brooker Creek. There was a nice flow coming out but to our surprise there was very little action. We tried in the mouth and out in the surrounding flats but could only pick-up one small one. After an hour or so of working the creek we decided to head down the outflow canal towards the damn and see how that was flowing. We made a few stops and picked off a few schoolies along the way. When we got to the damn, the water was really flowing through but again the action was very slow and we came away from the damn with no bites. We worked back up the canal picking off a few more along the banks on our way back to Brooker Creek. We finished up at Brooker catching a couple more as the action picked up a little bit. Kevin caught a decent fish on a chug bug and I picked up a 17" fish on a junebug Bitters Sling. Overall, the total count was only 11 bass, just 89 short of 100!
Air temps: upper 80's
Water temps: 81 (76 inside Brooker Creek)
Overcast and Humid

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Lake Tarpon Xtreme Series Tournament 6/19

This past Saturday's Xtreme tournament on Lake Tarpon was a carbon copy of the past 4 tournaments for my partner and I as we had close to 10 pounds good enough for about 5th place out of 12 boats. We just can't get anything over 3lbs this year but we aren't the only ones! Limits are not so hard to come by but if you can reel in a 4 to 5 lb'er it seems you are set for 1st or 2nd. 1st place was again about 14 lbs with big bass in the 5 lb range. Gone are those 17-20lb stringers it used to take to place on Tarpon and where are those 8-9 lb big bass that used to come in every tournament? I'm not sure if it's the cold winter and hot spring or over-spraying of pesticide or cutting of the hydrilla fields or overfishing but the size is definately down on Lake Tarpon. The numbers are definately still there as my partner and I have been catching 20-30 bass each tournament. This past Saturday, we got most of our fish on the East side of the lake in about 8 feet on the outside edge of a grass line on texas rigged plastics. Don't think the color mattered as we used several different colors and got bites on most of them. The water temps were 88-89 degrees around most of the lake although we found an area that was around 85 degrees but with no fish:)

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report 5/25 Tuesday Night Tournament

I had a rare Tuesday night off of work so Kevin and I decided to fish the weekly Tuesday night tournament and try our luck with lakes best. We started off getting on a few fish in the northwest end but couldn't get anything over 12 inches so we moved across to the northeast side to fish some docks but nothing doing there either pitching Bitters Baits and chunking rattletraps. With an hour gone from the 3 1/2 hour tournament we decided to head south to our money spot where we picked up one keeper pushing 2 lbs. With about a half hour left and darkness settled in we decided to take a quick jab at one last spot and we hit paydirt! Unfortunately, we only had about 10 minutes to try and get a limit before we had to race back to the northend of the lake! I nailed a quick keeper on chug bug as they were popping everywhere in front of us! A couple minutes later I got another strike in the pitch darkness on a chugbug, this time she was giving me a good fight so I knew it was a decent fish! Trying to net a nice fish in total darkness can be a little tricky but Kevin scooped her up like a pro on got her in the boat. She went 18 inches and over 3lbs but it wouldn't be enough as we ran out of time and had to get back to the ramp for the weigh-in. We rolled in 4 minutes late so we decided not to weigh-in our 3 fish but would have had around 6 pounds. Around 14 pounds won the tournament with big bass about 4 and half pounds. Temp was a balmy 80-85 degrees with water temps around 87.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report 5/15- Xtreme Series

We fished the 5th tournament in the Xtreme Bass Series out of Lake Tarpon this past weekend. We had a good tournament catching around 25-30 fish for the 3rd straight tournament but again it seems the big mama's are hard to find out there! We had our limit with a total of 10.40 lbs taking 5th place out of 11 boats. 14+ lbs won the tournament as it seems that has been the magic number every tournament out there this year! Big fish was again around 5lbs. We caught most of our fish later in the day fishing docks with Bitters Baits Slings and Kimani Senkos. I caught fish on Bitters junebug, blue w/ black tail, and rootbeer candy. I also threw black/ red flake, blueberry, and watermelon seed with no success. We caught a couple nice keepers in the morning on chugbugs but overall the topwater bite was a little slow. The worm bite for us was non-existant although the winners worked worms all day. The pattern for most of the teams was work fast until you find the fish and when you find them you have to hammer them because they are really schooled up in little pods. The air temp was low 70's in the morning and warming up to 90 in the afternoon. Winds were light in the morning but picking up quickly to 10-15 mph with gusts to 20 mph out of the southeast and turning into sw later in the day.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report 5/8

We fished the 4th annual Charity Bass Tournament for Breast Cancer yesterday on Lake Tarpon. We caught 25-30 fish all day and brought a 5 -fish limit to the scales weighing 9lbs with a 3lb kicker. We finished in the middle of the field of 16 boats with the top three spots paying out. First place weighed in around 14 pounds with the next two spots in the 12-13 pound range. We caught most of our fish on Bitters Slings with a few caught on topwater chug bugs and a few on texas rigged junebug worms. Air temps were pushing 90 degrees as was the water temp as it was 85-86 degrees in most areas. Wind was heavy at 10-20 mph with gust up to 25 mph. Seems like the fish are in a post spawn pattern and with the temps where they are, they will probably be moving into their summer hide-outs shortly!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Sea Trout Tournament by Bounty Fishing

BountyFishing's tournament of the week for April 26th-May 2nd is for Sea Trout so make sure you sign up and get hunting for some gator trout! Bounty Fishing is free to sign up and the tournaments run for 1 week each paying out the top 10 spots. The tournaments cost $19 for the whole week or $7 if you are just planning to fish one day. You compete against anyone around the country that can fish for that particular species. We have a huge advantage here in the bay area because we have some monster trout! Make sure you click on the link below and get signed up!





Monday, April 19, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report 4/17/2010-Xtreme Bass Tournament

Finally, we got some active fish as we fished our 3rd Xtreme Bass Series Tournament on Lake Tarpon this past weekend. The weather conditions were perfect on Saturday for a healthy bite and the bass did not dissapoint! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a kicker in the boat but we caught over 30 fish on the day with a 9-lb limit. The top three spots were around 14, 12, and 11 pounds respectively with big bass about 4.5 pounds.
We started the day on the East side of the lake using topwater and texas rigged junebug culprits mostly. They were hitting topwater for about the first 45 minutes but the action on top died off and we started getting bit on the T-rigs dragged through the grass and reeds. We were able to get one keeper (14 inch) on top water and one on a worm before moving in and getting two keepers off of docks with a Junebug Bitters sling. After several hours, we decided to move on in pursuit of some larger fish. We hit the mid-lake area on the West side and were able to find a little better quality but still no kicker. We got a few in the two pound range under docks and another two pounder in the grass on a lipless bait to fill out our limit at around 9-lbs. Overall, the weather was great and the fishing was excellent! Oh ya,and the new Nitro 929 ran like a dream!! Kev and I had a great time on the water and thats what it's all about!

Water temp:74-75 degrees
Air temp: 70-85 degrees
Partly cloudy, pre-front conditions
wind: calm in the morning,SSW 5-10 w/ gusts to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Bounty Fishing Bass Tournament

BountyFishing.com is having a largemouth bass fishing tournament for the Southern region of the United States from April 19th-25th. The tournament is $19 for the week or $7 for any one individual day. It pays the top 10 spots with first place paying $225! Click on the link below, it is free to join and create a member page. You simply sign up at the site then follow the instructions to enter your fish into the contest! I am having fun with it although I have not won any cash yet! I am registered as Nowski so stop by my page if you sign up!







Sunday, March 21, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report 3/20/10 -Xtreme Series

We fished our second Lake Tarpon Xtreme Series Tournament of the year yesterday and again we had trouble locating keepers. We caught about 10 fish all day with 2 keepers (14in) weighing 3.14 lbs. The winners had over 12 pounds and there were several nice limits caught on a beautiful day with bluebird skies! Air temps started at about 50 degrees and warmed up fast to over 75 degrees. The water temps ranged from 60 to 66 degrees. The wind started calm in the morning but kicked up pretty good and was at least 10-15 mph most of the day shifting several times. We got both keepers on Bitter Slings, one on junebug and one on watermelon. We had no luck on lipless baits or texas rigged worms. Hopefully our normal money spots on Lake Tarpon will start producing with a warmer April!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Lake Tarpon Report 2/20/10 -Xtreme Series

Feels good to back fishing Lake Tarpon on a regular basis again as my bassin' partner Kevin and I have decided to fish the Xtreme Bass Series Lake Tarpon Division after taking a year off. Unfortunately the fishing was slow for us as we couldn't seem to get any bites until the afternoon hours. We tried fishing canals and the mouths of canals early but couldn't find any fish as the water temps lingered around 55 degrees until the sun came out around 11:00am. The warmest I saw the water temp was 59 degrees and the air temps ranged from the high 40's to the high 60's later in the day. We only caught about 6 or 7 fish all day with 2 keepers for 3.60 pounds. We got one keeper on a rapala and a 2-1/2 pounder on a Bitter's Sling. I saw quite a few anglers fishing traps but I don't know how they did. Winning team had 13.10lbs with big fish weighing 5.55lbs. Second place had 10.58lbs. There were a total of 9 teams with 3 teams catching their 5-fish limit. Hopefully, with a little warmer weather we can get some more teams out there in the upcoming tournaments!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

North Tampa Bass Club-Lake Tarpon Tournament

Well it was a struggle all day for me and my co-angler Eamon as we couldn't seem to muster up very many bites as we threw everything imaginable in countless spots! We started at the mouth of Salmon Bay (Anderson Park) throwing traps but couldn't get a hit. They must of turned on or moved in sometime after we left because rumor has it anglers from the Tarpon Toms Trail were slaying them there later in the afternoon. We headed south to the Cobbs Landing area where it was a little calmer and also where I got a few bites on Thursday but nothing doing today as I threw flukes, senkos, and texas rigged worms. Surface activity was non-existent as it was for the whole day. We then bounced around to John Chesnut area, south cove, mid-lake bar area, and several canals on the East side of the lake with still no fish. I had one hit under a dock but broke my line on the set. Very disappointing to work so hard for a bite only to have it break off! I missed a couple of other small hits through out the day as did my co-angler before heading back North to Salmon Bay for the last hour of the tournament to try and work some rattle trap magic! Unfortunately, my trolling batteries died on me so we had to do a couple of drifts ripping our traps through the hydrilla. I was able to get one 8 incher at 2:40 to save me from being skunked and then at 2:50 I nailed a 15 oz keeper to get me on the board! Thanks to Eamon for persuading me not to call it a day after the trolling motor went down! The winner was John McAllister with somewhere around 6 pounds caught on several different baits. Big bass was around 3lbs. The winners of the Tarpon Toms Trail had around 13 pounds with big bass around 4 pounds. Overall the weather turned out to be decent with no lightning and temps from 60-70 degrees all day although we did get rained soaked the second half of the day and the wind was howling! Water temps were between 62-64 degrees.

Lake Tarpon Tournament pre-fish 1/28

I got out and pre-fished Thursday for my Saturday tournament on Lake Tarpon and I was able to stick a couple keepers but overall the bite was slow. Water temp was between 64-66 degrees and the air temp was around 70 degrees and the water level was very high. Got on the water about 11am starting in the sandy point area with no success. Hydrilla was much thinner in that area than normal as is the norm around the lake these days with the all the spraying. Moved across to the Cobbs Landing area and was able to get a few keeper bites but couldn't land them which is fine since I was pre-fishing. I missed 2 on a junebug trick-worm and 1 on a green pumpkin fluke. I moved around flipping senkos and flukes with no success except for a small keeper sized bass on a black/blue senko in the canal north of Dolly Bay. Overall, I couldn't establish much of a pattern bite I was encouraged to get a couple nice bites after the cold weather. We shall see what happens on Saturday!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

It's official! Largemouth bass record tied!

The International Game Fish Association announced yesterday that the 22 lb 4oz largemouth bass caught by Manabu Kurita in Japan last September has indeed tied the world largemouth bass record held by George Perry since 1932. The catch has been controversial as it was originally reported that the bass was caught in a no fishing zone in Lake Biwa. I am not sure if they found this to be true or not or whether it would effect the record if it was true.
In order for a fish to be declared the "world record" the IGFA must inspect the fish, usually cutting it open to make sure it's weight was not altered.

The AP release can be found here:
Largemouth bass certified a world record





Thursday, January 7, 2010

North Tampa Bass Club

North Tampa Bass Club is looking for new members for the 2010 season. We take both boaters and non-boaters but it is best if you sign up as a boater/non boater tandem. Points are all individual but anglers are allowed to fish with whomever they wish. Membership fee is $20 and tournaments are $30 with an additional $5 big bass pot. We fish a 10 tournament season with points for angler of the year given in each tournament based on finishing order. We fish lakes all over the state including Crooked, Kissimmee, Toho, Rousseau, Tarpon, ect. If you are interested, you can click here to get more info on signing up.