LOOKING to get back out there...

UPDATED (photo) 3:30 p.m.–I was sure I’d be on the lake this morning so I put all the broken eggs in one basket. As you can guess, sometimes there just isn’t enough ingredients to make an egg roll.

One thing I can tell you, the list of potential Top 40 candidates is starting to shrink. There are about 62 names on it as of today and the official release is set for Monday, Nov. 7 here.

There will also be a “hard copy” available at this year’s Bass-A-Thon (more…)

DIAMOND VALLEY algae bloom this week...

Okay, so the more correct term might be algal bloom, but the fact is, put enough nutrients in the water, fire up the daytime temperatures, and sit back and watch the phytoplankton start to grow.

Got a look at that a couple of days ago in the form of the attached photo from James “Jimmy” Emmett of Wildomar as he was over fishing Diamond Valley Lake. This photo was taken in the center of the lake over 100 feet or more of water, pointing up the fact that when the conditions are right, these things go off, be it Lake Cachuma or Casitas or even a natural basin such as Lake Elsinore.

Fertility is the key. (more…)

File this under news (make that bad news), but at least it’s something you ought to know about. In a release in Boatingindustry.com, today (Oct. 25), the Deptartment of Energy has announced the results of testing that show what we already suspect: Ethanol, specifically E15, will damage your engine. (more…)

What? What, what, what, what, what, whaaaat!

Had a little recent trauma on the home front (someone’s pit bulls loose in my yard) and it kind of knocked me out of my writer mode. So please humor me and see if you can identify some things about this photo. But no, I’m not going to ask you what brand of boat it is.

And here are some clues. Note the algae growth, stained water and flooded green cover. Also, the angler has some blood red fishing rods. Curious.

But how about answering the following: (more…)

UPDATED, 9:45 a.m., 10-23–Of course, you’re out fishing this weekend so you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. But long-time pro Paul Elias is putting the hammer down on the Lake Guntersville field (click here) with sacks everyone predicted were impossible.

His method? Not big flutter spoons, deep cranks or jigs. Instead, he’s after them with a set-up reminiscent of a (more…)

Sometimes you just have to feature a commercial. But after spending several days on the water with Sunline pro Dean Rojas, it made it even more evident to me why Dean and the rest of the pro staff are so confident these days. They don’t worry about their line. (more…)

RECOGNIZE any of those rigs?

Word has escaped that the treasure that was to have been the printed documentary ”program” on western bass tournaments (put on hold with the death of former WBFA and WON Bass director Harvey Naslund) will soon become available to the public, by way of WesternBass.com.

The limited-edition collectors’ item features 60 pages on ”glossy” paper and chronicles the roots of the tournament game we enjoy today.

Contributors include Bill Rice, Larry Viviano, (more…)

AL LINDNER to be inducted into IGFA Hall of Fame, Oct. 25...

For a more recent generation, Al Lindner has been a musky, catfish, walleye and smallmouth kind of guy on TV (In-Fisherman, first and now Angling Edge). But in fact, he is a former Bassmaster Classic qualifier, former lure manufacturer (the Lindy Tail) and before KVD, he was the first from the upper Midwest to crack the Southern lock on the tournament scene.

It might surprise some that despite those awkard sunglasses removing moments on television, (more…)

LAKE MEAD is an excellent tournament venue...

Watching the trail of fishermen head east from California or west from Arizona, it could be said that temperatures of less than 100 degrees don’t hurt. After all, some 230 or so fishermen made their way to the Colorado River for both team and pro-am events this past weekend.

If you were to project similar conditions for the 2012 U.S. Open (now moved to September from July), the numbers suggest you could have a pretty strong base field before you go north of Bakersfield or tap any of the national pros from Texas and beyond. (more…)

We all remember when Skeet Reese was hot as a sidewalk in Death Valley and his endorsement of the surgically sharpened Trokar hooks was all the buzz. Well now, with Reese getting ever smaller in the rear-view mirrors of the top Elites, it might be affecting some of the products he endorses.

Anyway, that’s one guess of why Trokar is surgically trimming its prices. (more…)