Well 2013 is going out with a blast!  Blast of cold air that is.  Looks like it got pretty nippy last night.  Happy New Year everyone!   Tight lines for all in 2014!

Well, the 2012-2013 tournament season is over for me.  The 2013-2014 season is right around the corner.  And what an end it was.  My Partner and I qualified for the Total Bass Addicts 2 day Championship at Roosevelt Lake.  Got up to the lake 2 days early for time to pre-fish and get ready.  My pre-fish didn't go as well as I had hoped but I have a lot of time on Roosevelt Lake so I was confident my partner and I would do well.

Knowing the bite was tough and having drawn boat 20 we knew we might have to go to Plan B for our first Stop.  Much to my surprise our first spot was open the taking.  Having a nice fish come unbuttoned on the way to the boat started our day off.......  But, soon we had two fish in the livewell.  Maybe things were looking better.... 

Well we fished the area and trolled around through a few neighboring coves and beat a lot of water.  About 9:15 a.m. we decided to make a move to another location.  That's when things got interesting.  I fired up the main motor and let it warm for a minute and took off!  I just love fast hold shots...and my Legend Boat is very fast out of the hole.  Having come to plain, several seconds later I heard a loud noise and came to a stop...then a very bad noise of a main motor running rough.  Bad thoughts!!! What the heck just happened.....wondering what just broke.....first I trimmed the motor up to see if the lower was broke...it all seemed to be there, no holes or cracks.. then we pulled the cowling off and I laid over the motor to see if I could find some sign of trouble.  OMG!  The motor shot one of the plugs clean out of the plug hole and there it was dangling from the plug wire.  WOW! what the * just happened!

While my partner kept fishing I attempted to reinstall the plug in the head.  Being Mr. organized, and having cleaned up my gear I forgot to put my tools back in the boat.  What now?  I did not want to run the motor with a loose plug and either blow it out again or run the cylinder to lean so I figured I had only one choice and that was to troll back to the dock and try to find someone who had a plug wrench. 

You can't make this stuff up....  Off we went with the trolling motor on high and my partner says. 'well at least we have a really good trolling battery!'  I responded.... and not a minute later the trolling motor shut down.  Now what?  Well we finally got some power back after finding a circuit breaker blown.....but we only bad 12 volts of power going to the 36 volt trolling motor.  So as you can imagine with the dial on high we were moving at turtle speed and we were still a mile away from the dock.  And!! its 105 degrees, humid and very sunny with almost no breeze.... brutal!

Well a long story short...we made it back.  We found a plug wrench and installed the plug...but my main battery was quite low and the trolling motor battery had been drained....cause unknown.  Not knowing if there was any internal damage to the big motor and in need of battery recharging...we weighed our 3 fish...oh and yes, as we were trolling back, my partner caught another fish as I was on the phone getting help...yep I netted it with my phone in one hand and the net in the other!  We were done... 4 hours into day one of a two day championship..... 

So far, no known damage other than pride.  So far all is well...trolling motor, battery and main motor all survived and boat will see the water this week for a test run.  And hey...we got a prize for the least amount of fish weighed on day one!  Who would have thunk!

Thanks to my Bride and all of my sponsors for your support and the opportunity to use and promote the best products available in the water!

Thanks Kevin for your hours of unconditional support over the phone!  You are a great guy, sponsor and friend!

Thanks Chris...was a great season bud!

Another tournament season in the books. Well, almost.  Just finished the Total Bass Addicts Summer night series tournaments.  Had a great time caught a lot of quality fish and finished the last tournament with a 6th place finish with a 20.71lb bag and a 5.05 big fish!  Qualified for the championship in September....looking forward to a great tourney!

Some great news this week for the 2013-2014 season... Joining IROD fishing poles and Picasso Lures Pro Staffs.  These are great products and I look forward to promoting and using them this coming season.

If you want quality lures and out of the park rods, please check them out!

www.irodfishing.com

 www.picassooutdoors.com

I am proud to announce my affiliation with two companies.  Lithium Pros - Lithium Batteries. http://lithiumpros.com/ and Danny Rogers of Stealth 1Charging  http://www.stealth1charging.com/ .

Lithium Pros:  http://lithiumpros.com
Kevin Bennett and his crew and the Lithium Batteries are top notch!  By far one of the most impressive products I have ever used.  I started looking at the option of using lithium batteries a few years ago when they were making their way into professional bass fishing.  After watching a few lithium battery companies and reading reports from some of the top Pros in the country I was convinced that changing to lithium was a smart move.  Researching once more I decided that Lithium Pros was the product I wanted to use and be involved with.

Reeling forward....  After recently installed my 36V Lithium Pros battery to power my MotorGuide Digital 109 trolling motor I can say that this battery is just amazing!  Having removed 3 Group 27 batteries weighing approximately 60lbs each and installing 1 Lithium Pros battery weighing slightly under 29lbs and just slightly bigger that 1 Group 27 battery.  It even fits into the same battery tray! Can you see where I'm going here?...just the weight saving alone is astronomical! A whopping 151lbs! GONE!

Having coming from a drag racing background...for those of you who understand horsepower vs. weight...in the racing world that is means added performance, faster times, faster WOT speeds and added fuel economy.  If you think that all....in bass fishing there are even more added benefits. But then add, faster charging cycle times, longer battery charge life, superior reliability and in a bass boat.....faster hole shots....and I do mean faster; increased WOT speeds, better trolling motor performance with increased time on the water with no worries after being on the water working the trolling motor hard all day of running out of power. And yes there is a charging system change you may have to make..

 Stealth 1 Charging System:   http://www.stealth1charging.com/
 Unless you have a of Stealth 1 Charging system as I do but then there is just a small upgrade required and you are good to go. I needed to make a charging system upgrade more than a year ago to my Legend bass boat.  My boat sponsor, Legend Boats, put me in contact with Danny Rogers of Stealth 1 Charging.  After doing some research again and talking with Stealth 1, I purchased and installed a Stealth 1 charging system.  Friends, this is not your run of the mill charging system.  This is the real deal!

At first I have to say I was intimidated by the system.  It does not fit the stereotype picture of a black box charging system.  There are 2 boxes, one DC and one AC and then optional features like an emergency switch that can pull 12v from your trolling motor batteries should your main battery go down. Of course...I can't see that happening using a Lithium Pros battery for your main motor cranking battery.  If you have spent enough time on the water....we have all sat down and turned the key and felt the panic of no main motor start with minutes to go to weigh-in!  Fear no more with the turn of a switch!

Well having an aviation electronics background as well I jumped in and installed the system. After the install was all said and done....it was an easy installation. 

Stealth 1 has been working with Lithium Pros for a few years and has developed a compatible upgrade to the Stealth 1 that complements the Lithium Pros battery charging requirements.

If you are looking for optimal performance and reliable products among all the other benefits I urge you to give these two companies a call.  You can't go wrong.........

Just absolutely mind blowing performance!

Thanks for reading my post!

 

Tight lines..

   

2013

2013 is here, the world didn't end and holiday fun is over. Now its time to get back in gear and focus on the remainder of the tournament season.  With lots of local tourneys scheduled and the EverStart Western Division tournament at Roosevelt Lake in late February, its time to start preparing.  Time to get on the computer, pull out the maps and previous years notes and results, dig in hook up the boat and hit the water.  But first...don't forget to inspect and preform whatever maintenance is needed on the boat, motor, trailer and tires to ensure all are road and lake safe and ready!

Sound familiar?  Some events might be months away like the FLW EverStart and some may say that its to early... and whatever pattern/bite I might find now won't be there two months from now.  Well, while there is some truth to that statement, having not fished the Roosevelt Lake, or any lake for that matter in the last few months its time to start locating fish and following their movements over then next few months to monitor any changes they make.  However, I have found that, in some cases the fish don't always, at least all of the fish, make as much change as many anglers believe.  And just by spending time on the water can provide valuable information about their activities and how to plan your strategy for tournament day.

One of the biggest problems I see is anglers getting wrapped around the axle with what everyone is doing on the water and some who wait until the day before to pre-fish for a tournament.  While having some insight to what others are using for lures, etc., it doesn't mean it will work for you right out of the box.  We all have go to lures.  Why, because they work for us.  We have established a confidence in them for locating and catching fish.  Stick with them!  Getting into that wrapped up in the dock talk will almost always produce less than expected results, specially on tournament day.  On tournament day, stick to your plan, and blow all of the dock talk out of your head!

Remember, time of the year, weather and water conditions, just to mention a few variables, do play heavily in to the formula but, bass are predators and are creatures of habit thus making them highly predictable no matter where you're fishing. I have caught countless fish up shallow when all the typical signs tell me to fish deeper secondary areas and, just the opposite at other times. 

Time on the water is key!

Good Luck in 2013 and tight lines!

Fred