I read on the Outdoor Blogger Network that 5.11 Tactical is holding an adventure contest. Yes, the page says the deadline was Jan 9, but OBN assures me I have until Friday morning, Jan 13.

The main rule says, “We want to hear about your outdoor adventures – this can be anything related to your experiences in the outdoors.” I don’t have an idea for a new post (as I haven’t done anything outdoors for about 4 months), so I’m going to submit one of my posts that has already been published. Most of my blog entries are (obviously) about my fishing adventures, but I’m looking for a post that is more unique. I narrowed it down to one of these:

• MNFlyAngler – a bass angler out of his comfort zone
• Lumberjacking, Almost skunking, and Ridiculousness – several unusual adventures in one day
• Another Almost Fish for MNAngler, Jr. – a story about my son and the fish he almost caught – who doesn’t like a story about kids?
• Wacky Worm-irific! – typical fishing story, but with some surprises
• Why It’s Safe to Use a Heater When Ice Fishing – ok, not really an outdoor adventure, but interesting nonetheless

Which one do you think I should submit? Or, is there another post of mine that you found more memorable?

Thanx for your help!

Last May, I wrote an open letter to BassProShops asking them to open a store in Minnesota. In my idyllic mind, I saw my post collecting thousands of signatures (i.e. comments) to start a grass roots effort that ultimately brought BassProShops to Minnesota.

Well, that didn’t happen.

Frankly, I was surprised there wasn’t more interest. But, no matter.

Yesterday, Macy’s Inc. announced they would be closing the Bloomingdale’s store at the Mall of America. The store anchored the Southeast corner of the Mall since it’s opening in 1992.

The Mall says it will be splitting the space into shops for five new retailers. They will also be renovating some basement space adding 60,000 square feet of retail area.

It sounds like they already have deals in place for the spaces. It would have been a perfect opportunity for BassProShops. But from the sounds of it, we’ll still have to wait for the Mall’s expansion plans to move forward before seeing BassProShops in the state.

I’m not holding my breath.

Happy New Year!

I haven’t had all that much time to think about what I want to accomplish this year fishing-wise. The Lego League season and holiday season has kept my mind too occupied. So I’m going to cheat a little. Because I did so poorly in my goals from 2011, I’m going to carry them over. But I’m also going to make a couple of adjustments because of my new job.

• Fish at least once a month during open water bass season
• Float tube at least four times during open water season
• Find a float tube buddy
• Catch a bass on 4 different plastic lures (color doesn’t count)
• Catch a bass on 6 different lures (plastic lures count)
• Catch my limit of walleye on Lake Mille Lacs or the Gunflint Trail Secret Lake
• Fish 3 new bodies of water
• Return to Colorado to fish with my brother
• Fish with a fellow blogger
• Catch a keeper ice Walleye or ice Northern
• Qualify for Master Angler in Minnesota

I wrote in my last post that I accomplished none of my 2011 goals. As I re-read them more carefully for inclusion in this post, I think I may have accomplished two of them–the two having to do with catching bass on different lures. I’m not sure of the numbers, but the point of those goals was to try new lures and new presentations. I had a lot of success with worms in different presentations last year, so even if the numbers weren’t quite there, I would consider my ultimate goal accomplished.

I’m also adjusting my blog goals from 2011:

• Issue 2 Avid Angler Challenges
• Review 2 products
• Write a How To
• Increase 2011 traffic by 20%

We’ll see how these play out given my new job, but I hope to write more than just my adventures.

I hope 2012 brings you and yours much happiness, prosperity, and full live wells. Happy new year!

If you were to judge my year simply on the goals at the beginning of the year, you would say that it was a dismal failure. I accomplished none of my fishing goals, only one of my blogging goals–barely (doubled blog traffic, accomplished yesterday), and only one of my online presence goals (1000 Twitter followers). I’m lucky to have established enough momentum in 2010 that I accomplished those two goals.

This year, life got in the way. I got a new job in July and have been having so much fun in it that fishing took a backseat. That coupled with my overcommittment to Lego League basically took away a quarter of my fishing season. I didn’t touch a fishing rod from late August to late December. I missed the best fishing time of year!

Still, I have no regrets. The job move was the best in my life, affording opportunities I could have only dreamed of. And I’ve had a ton of fun volunteering as a coach, mentor, and tournament director for Lego League.

My posts have been few and far between in the second half of the year and I can’t help but wonder how much more traffic I would have gotten had I kept up. I also feel bad for not keeping up with my fellow bloggers. They are an amazing community and am constantly amazed by their support.

I’m still mulling over my goals for 2012. They likely won’t be as ambitious as 2011, although I didn’t think my 2011 goals were all that ambitious at the time I wrote them.

I appreciate all of you coming by even though I’ve been absent of late. I apologize that I haven’t given you a lot of material to read since August. I hope to still keep writing, but probably not at the rate I had been. This blog was a bit of an escape for me when my previous employment wasn’t keeping me well enough entertained. It was filling a void. And while the void is no longer there, I still love to fish and still yearn for the tug on the line. So I’ll definitely be back with stories in 2012. Just not as many.

Thanx for sticking with me. Thanx for reading. And have a Happy and safe New Year!

Yes, after four months of not touching a rod (except to put them away for the winter), I actually got out and baited a hook. Vince was in town for Christmas and we hit the ice the day after the holiday.

It was a bit of a risk because it’s been unseasonably warm so far this winter. We’ve had multitudes of day above freezing and many of the larger lakes have thin ice, and even open water. Check out the story about the ice anglers that ended up on a large ice raft to see what I mean.

Vince and I hit a local lake that had a bunch of other ice anglers on it, so we were comfortable that it had safe ice. It turned out to be 5-6″. Quite thin for this time of year. You could hear the ice cracking at times.

  

The thing that really kept us on our toes, though, was the wind. It took us twice as long as normal to set up Vince’s shelter and we had to stake down two sides to keep the wind from pushing them in. You can see in one of the pics below how the wind was bowing the pipe supports. The last pic shows how much our shelter stakes struggled to keep our shelter down.

 

We wouldn’t have gone out at all except this was Vince’s last day in town and he had driven all his ice fishing gear up from Boulder. He wasn’t going to be denied.

We got on the ice at about 10am and all was quiet (fishing-wise) for about an hour and a half. Vince’s fish finder was showing very little signs of life. There were some fish on the bottom and we could entice them up a few feet, but they weren’t interested in the minnows, maggots, or spikes we were presenting.

At about 11:00, I had realized I needed some pictures, so I stepped outside. The wind had seemed to pick up since we got there. It must have been going 30-40 MPH because I could hold my hands out and pretend I was wind sailing. The lack of snow left allowed my boots to double as skates. I couldn’t help but laugh at my inability to get around.

At about 11:30, blips finally started to show up on the graph. First a couple, then more, and then even more. The graph was almost solid color between 6 and 12 feet. Vince started to get some ticks. So did I. But none of them would take the bait. Vince had stuck with maggots the whole time, and I had given up on minnows and switched to spikes. But the fish would have nothing of it.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, I managed to hook one. And what I pulled out surprised both of us.

It was a shiner! We were fishing for bait! I didn’t even know that was possible.

A few minutes later, Vince pulled up a small perch.

That was promising–for a moment. Vince’s next 3 fish were shiners. He got one more small perch before finishing with another shiner. The four fish I was able to land were all shiners. Ten fish and only two perch in the bunch. Not bad numbers-wise, but not the species we had hoped for.

We packed up a little before 1:00 and gave our leftover minnows to a group nearby. The outing was fun–and entertaining, but disappointing. Still, I can’t complain about bonding time with family.

Thanx, bro.

So if you are anything like me, you’re getting tired of checking in on a fishing blog written by someone that doesn’t fish. I know my brother is a bit too busy lately to hit the water, so since I get out a tad more often than he does, I thought I would guest blog for him so there was something new to read.

It’s full on fall weather here in Boulder and I know there aren’t too many bass catching days left in this year. So, on a balmy 50 deg. Tues afternoon, my buddy Terbo and I decided to go fishing. We grabbed our float tubes and headed to one of our favorite lakes. Once we arrived, the weather had already changed to a cool, overcast sky that threatened rain in a few hours. But prepared for the worst, we geared up and started the trek to the lake.

As always, we stopped a few feet short of the shore to fish the float tube put-in. There is a fallen limb that juts from shore to about twelve feet out. Terbo got the first cast with a small jig head and plastic worm. With no luck for him, it was my turn. I cast out a texas rigged Zoom super speed craw. As the craw fell next to the branch, I felt that familiar tick and pull. I took up the slack and set the hook on a small 13 incher. Not skunked! The day was looking good.

We put in and let the wind take us down the West side of the lake. I hugged the shore and fished with the craw while Terbo was a bit farther out fishing deeper water. Not five minutes in, Terbo brought in his first bass, a 15in largie. Being fall and impatient, I switched to a spinnerbait on my baitcaster. But I went fish dead for a stretch.

Now on the South side of the lake, I switched back and forth between plastic craw and spinnerbait to no avail. This was as much to warm up my non casting hand as just trying different looks. Casting close to shore, under trees, around fallen trees and even into deeper water brought no fish up. I then switched to a black and red jig with black Netbait paca chunk trailer. A few casts in, I pulled up my second fish of the day, another largemouth bass.

After another lull, and switching of many lures and colors, I found myself in a favorite Northeast corner. By now it had started to drizzle and I felt the fish were starting to stir. My concentration was broken by Terbo screaming far off in the middle of the lake. He had been searching for crappie and had apparently nabbed his first. After watching him wave his arms around for a bit, I went back to my corner. I was now just tossing a spinnerbait, hoping the rain was turning the bite on. And it was. Once I started slowing the lure down a bit, I went on a tear. Fish after fish mashed the spinner. Before I knew it, I was in double digits and had missed five or six more.

 

Between all my fun, I looked behind me to see Terbo heading for shore. I then finally realized how cold I was. So I pointed myself in that direction and fished my way back, landing four more on the way in. Near shore, we asked how each other did. Terbo ended up with three crappie and a bass. With a called last cast, I hucked my spinnerbait as far as I could and slowly rolled it back in. Best last cast ever, I nailed my 15th of the day in front of my bud (not that I would ever rub it in like that).

Looks like we had a good last day, cuz this is what that light drizzle turned into. Open water fishing is coming to a close here and I’m looking forward to some winter midge fishing for trout on the rivers and of course some ice fishing on those mountain lakes. I hope to get back to Minnesota to do some icing with my brother and friends. And now that I gave my brother the secret weapon (spring bobber) he can keep up with me. Hopefully we’ll both get into muskie and walleye this year. And more importantly, maybe he’ll have something to write about.

Now all the companies I mentioned, send me free stuff.

I’ve been so crazy busy, I haven’t been able to keep up with my RSS feed and all the great outdoor bloggers. The number to the right should be a lot higher, but Google automagically drops posts over 30 days old. As a result of my lack of attention to RSS, I missed the one year anniversary celebration at the Outdoor Blogger Network and therefore, missed all the great giveaways they had. Woe is me.

“Crazy” not only describes my busy life, but my mental state as well. That’s the only explanation as to why I’ve committed so much to Lego League this year. I’m coaching not just one, but two teams, am the organizer for the local elementary school, am the Tournament Director of one of the local regional tournaments, and may also be a referee at another.

So the only fishing I’ve been able to do is to try to coach my teams to grab these guys:

I’m getting reports that the fish are biting, so maybe I can squeeze in some quality time with the water in the next few weeks, but I’m not holding my breath.

I have a bunch of posts half written and haven’t been able to get back to finish them. With Lego League ramping up, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to wrap them up.

But I didn’t want to leave you all in the lurch, so I lifted this video from a fellow blogger. I need one of these:

If you recognize who I stole it from, shhhh. Don’t tell him.

Brenda and my cousin left our reunion to meet up with some friends on the East coast, so on this outing it was me, Vince, my dad, and one of my other cousins, Julie. Julie’s mom came along for the ride so she could take pictures (of scenery).

Vince had his own gear, but the rest of us rented fly rods, waders, and boots. All of the equipment was high end so I was surprised the total cost was only $35/day. We didn’t even have to put down a deposit. After Vince picked out some flies, we stopped to pick up fishing licenses for my dad and Julie and we were on our way.

After bajaing through some rough dirt roads, we stopped at an overlook above the lower Deschutes River. After admiring the scenery (and taking some pictures), we noticed a trail going down a hill. It lead to a clearing and access to the river. We decided to start there. We went back to the car, grabbed our gear, and Vince helped us get set up.

Vince then took us to the river and gave us a quick lesson in fly casting. I got caught once in a tree and once in a bush. Dad landed a pine cone in the river. Julie managed to avoid getting snagged. After a few minutes of practicing, we felt we were ready to go.

All of us went back to the clearing to put on our waders and we trotted through some tall grass downstream from where we were practicing. Julie was furthest upstream, then Vince, my dad, and me. The tall grass ended abruptly in the river and when you got to the edge, you could see why. Just passed the grass, there was a good 2-3 foot drop. I was careful not to get too close to the edge.

I did my imitation of a fly fisherman using a Parachute Adams fly. Vince told us that the key is to pick a target and cast upstream of it so that the fly floats downstream through your target area. My fly disappeared under the water several times and it took me a few times to realize that that was caused by the line and not by a fish.

As I stood there casting, I began to think of the time as more practicing fly casting than actually fishing. I was having trouble straightening my leader and tippet as they hit the water (they were curling and looping at the end). I knew I’d be in trouble if I got a strike. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as the case may be), that wasn’t an issue.

I didn’t see much structure, the water was pretty deep, and the water was moving pretty fast. I would have been surprised if anything hit my fly in the middle of the river where I was casting. Vince later ended up next to me and I saw him casting to the middle of the river so maybe my efforts weren’t totally wasted. Later, I even noticed some logs and branches under the water.

We all tried for about an hour with Vince being the only one seeing any activity in the water. We then decided to pack up and head to the Fall River.

We found a spot where there was a small waterfall. Julie stayed upstream of the waterfall while my dad, Vince, and I went downstream. I first tried fishing just passed the fall’s rapids, but the sun was on its way down and I couldn’t see where my fly was landing so I decided to go further downstream.

I settled on a spot where there was some branches in the water near the opposite shore. I made my way into the river and started casting at the branches. I saw some activity and got excited when I thought my fly was being attacked. In truth, the fish were hitting real critters ahead of my fly.

Vince walked by and gave me some tips about setting the hook. He said I shouldn’t set the hook like I would for a bass. I should pull the line with my left hand while raising the rod tip. I did get some hits, but when I tried the technique, I ended up pulling line out of the reel instead of straightening the line to the fly. Oops.

  

I spent the next hour or so trying to hook one of those little buggers hiding under the fallen branch. I missed several hits. My fly was getting waterlogged and going under the instant it hit the water. I blew on it to try to get it to float better with mixed results.

Eventually, we had to leave and when we got back upstream, we found that Julie had caught a little guy. Vince got two.

This was my first ever experience fly fishing. I can see the draw. The setting is peaceful and beautiful, and the fishing is challenging. It’s exciting when the fish hit and I can only imagine the excitement when a big one hits.

I enjoyed the challenge of fly casting. But the “match the hatch” aspect would drive me crazy. In bass fishing, you have to figure out what the fish are eating, but it’s isn’t as much of a precision art as it seems to be with trout. I admire you fly anglers. I wouldn’t have your patience. I would, however, like to try it again some day. Maybe I’ll be fortunate enough to fish with one of the master fly angler bloggers (e.g. Troutrageous, the Outdooress, Lunker Hunt, the River Damsel) in the future. In the meantime, I’ll stick with chasing bass and keep myself from feeling like a fish out of water.

The problem was, I’m a bass fisherman. And a lake bass fisherman at that. And the only thing around us was rivers. So I had to buck up and pretend I was something I am not: a trout fisherman.

I had packed a spinning rod in the hopes of getting to some sort of bass haven, but in our first available day of getting out, we only had about three hours. The closest bass haven was 30-40 minutes away, so going out there wasn’t going to be worth it. Instead, we hit a nearby stretch of the Deschutes River.

While my family is originally from Hong Kong, many of my relatives have settled in the States. But I still have some cousins in Hong Kong and one of them routinely travels to our U.S.-located reunions. This time, he brought his girlfriend and she was interested in trying fishing.

The four of us went to a fly fishing shop in Sunriver and my cousin’s girlfriend, Brenda, rented a spinning reel. Granted, we were going river fishing, but we figured it would be easier for her to learn on spinning gear than fly gear on her first time out. This also allowed me to do most of the teaching so Vince could concentrate on using his fly gear. We picked up a couple of Rooster Tails (a few for me and a few for her) along with the rental and headed out to the river.

Given our unfamiliarity with the area, it took us a while to find a spot to start fishing in. When we finally did, we got our stuff together and walked to the shore. Instantly, we were mobbed by mosquitoes. I had about 5 on me within seconds. The little buggers were equal opportunity feeders because Brenda was attacked as well. Since we hadn’t so much as seen a mosquito before this point of our trip, we didn’t even think to bring bug spray.

I taught Brenda the basics and she was casting in no time. We did our best to concentrate on fishing, but the mosquitoes were doing a very good job of distracting us. A few times, I had to walk away from shore, letting Brenda get munched (it wasn’t my place to save her). I think I did more mosquito-avoiding than actual fishing.

  

Eventually, we couldn’t stand it anymore so Brenda and I walked to a boat landing a little ways upstream. Vince hung around our initial area. We found a fallen log in the river a little downstream from the boat launch where there were lots of fish feeding. But the Rooster Tails were pretty ineffective (as I expected they would be). Vince was seeing feeding fish as well, but wasn’t faring any better.

After about an hour of being eaten alive, we decided pack up and drive to a part of the river near where we were staying. It was more in the open, so the bugs weren’t nearly as bad. Brenda and I concentrated more by a bridge while Vince went further down the path and concentrated on a fallen tree by shore. He eventually figured out what they were feeding on and landed a couple of little brownies.

  

That was the only action of the night. I failed miserably at being a trout angler, so I wasn’t nearly Troutrageous. More like Troutminimus. But it was really a half-assed attempt. Later in the week, it would be a full-assed attempt.