Berkley 10" Original Powerbait Worm

I have a few favorite lures for bass fishing. Each year I add several favorites to my arsenol. Last year was no different. I started to realize what a difference larger baits have in catching larger bass while I was on my trip to Kentucky lake. During a rainy day there we traveled to Nashville and ended up in the bass pro shop. I picked up some Berkley Powerbait Original 10" Power Worms in the red shad color.

The next day I was trying them out. I was off a secondary point where I saw a ton of bass surfacing. I started out catching them on top water but the bite was still slow so I started using a spinner bait. The bite picked up. Then I tied on one of the Power Worms. On the first cast I had a bass on. The rest of my time spent on that point was a blast. I wore out almost the whole pack of worms catching bass, and I was using each worm until it fell off the hook since I only had the one pack. I had it Texas rigged with a 3/8 oz black bullet weight and would drag it on the bottom for a bit then lift the rod tip. As the worm came off the bottom the bass would hit it almost every time. The bass were mostly 13-14 inches which gives me a lot of hope for catching 12"+ bass here.

I tried the worm out in several parts of the lake and continued to have success with it even in spots where my other go to baits were not working.

I know these have been around for a long time but I hadn't ever tried them because I thought they were made for huge fish. With a 12" length limit around here and a lot of the bass being just around that size I didn't want to miss an opportunity to fill my limit. Now I realize that I may have missed that opportunity by not giving them a try.

Lack of motivation this weekend

I am having a little difficulty getting over my lack of motivation over the weekend. I had a few things that needed to be done and all I did was sit in front of the t.v. on the computer most of the weekend. It could just be the winter wearing on me. I always get more active in the spring.

I did run my full tilt account from 60.00 to over 200.00 Friday night but busted on Saturday when greed overtook and I tried to get to 250.00 in order to cash out for some fishing fund money.

Saturday my wife and I went to our church to donate blood. She had scheduled us for the middle of the day so pretty much shot Saturday besides that. It took about 3 hours for both of us to give blood while 1 watched the kids.

Mizike and I had talked about fishing on Sunday, but we both stayed up real late Saturday night and slept in on Sunday. He had a date that afternoon with his fiance so we stayed home.

We both got onto farm town in facebook and had fun with that last night. Today I am wondering why I never got around to clearing anything off that increasing list of things that need to be done. It was nice relaxing but that list gets out of control really fast.

Hopefully this evening I will get a membership at a gym. I think getting in better physical shape will help me stay motivated in other aspects of my life.

Short Sunday Trip

Our plans for this weekend changed Friday evening as work was ending. The person that told us he was going to take us ice fishing ended up saying that he was not going to go. He had called ODNR to check on the ice thickness and they said that it would not be safe.

I had been getting reports that it was 10 inches thick the week before. I am definately not an ice expert though and have fallen through the ice before so I took ODNR's word and decided to do something else.

Saturday I went to Gander Mountain to see if they had any good lures in the discount bins. They had strike kings lures on sale for 2.00 each, so I bought about 20.00 worth. I got 2 series 6, 2 series 5, a series 1, a red eye shad and a diamond shad along with 2 bags of strike king finesse worms.

Sunday Mizike and I decided to fish under the damn at Alumn Creek. We started driving up there and were about 10 minutes away when we decided to go to the Deer Creek dam on the opposit side of the city.

I had reasoned that with all the water they let out in the fall dropping the lake to winter pool they probably released a lot of fish that would be stacked up under the dam.

When we arrived it was about 40 degrees and raining. We fished for about an hour. Several others had been there for a while and nobody was having any luck. We decided to go to the main lake and look for some of our lures we had lost last year since the water is down 20 feet or more. We walked several miles of shoreline and found tons of hooks, sinkers and swivels. We also found a few in-line spinners, a spinner bait, buzzbait, red eye shad, another lipless crankbait, a hot-n-tot older version, and several bobbers.

By walking the shoreline we got a good closeup look at the structure in the lake. There is some awesome structure along the riverbed but a lot of the bottom is mud and flat. The area I had fished a lot last year had rock running out in the water quite a ways and was neer the river bed. Another spot near the boat ramp that I thought looked good was shallow and flat, the only rock it had was right on the shoreline.

I think it will be a good idea to spend some time fishing the riverbed this season as it holds most of the structure on the back half of the lake.

I am going to try to make it out one more time this winter and get some pictures or video of where the structure is. I might even try to GPS the better structures.

Ice Fishing this Sunday

Mizike and I will be hitting the frozen water on Sunday. I spoke to a guy at work and he said he knows where to go on Indian lake to find saugeye ice fishing. I asked him if he wanted to go fishing this weekend and he said Sunday would be a good day for him.

It's time to get bundled up and sit on a bucket over a hole and try to catch some fish for eating. I used to ice fish a lot in Kansas in high school and got pretty decent on my home lake catching crappie. I haven't pulled a saugeye from the ice though.

It will be nice to make it out fishing again. I can't wait until I get the boat out again though.

Winter Saugeye Trip

With the snow coming down outside it makes me want to be fishing now more than ever. I had been dreading this winter and the long stretch of not being able to make it out fishing.

I did make it out the weekend before Christmas to try some Saugeye fishing in a river running out of Hoover lake. There is a little pool that I heard had produced a few years back this time of year. I was bored and couldn't handle being in the house any longer so Mizike, Gene and I decided to give it a try.

We got out of the house late around 2. By the time we stopped by Gene's house and waited on him forever to gather all of his supplies we made it to the river about 3:30. Only a couple of hours of daylight left.

We had 2 pairs of hip waders so I waded to an island and took mine off and Gene waded them back to Mizike so he could get out to the island then I got them back and waded to the middle of the stream.

I used a green twist tail on a 1/4 oz. head and cast and drug it along the bottom back to me. After a bunch of casts I tried a white twist tail still with no luck. The water was down a little and it had been a while since they would have let a lot of water out of the dam. I think there were not that many fish in the pool.

It started to snow while we were out there and the view down there was pretty awesome. I could see the guys were starting to get a little ancy so I said at least I usually snag something outta here when I fish this spot. A couple casts later Gene said I got something and his pole was doubled over.

He got the fish to him and lifted it out of the water. He had snagged a carp in the dorsal fin. It had been so long since we had caught any fish Mizike and I were pretty jealous. We started ripping out lures through the water where Gene had released the carp.

It was getting late and I had to take my kids to see Santa so we got ready to leave. I waded over to shore and acted like I was going to leave Mizike stranded on the island. He yelled out "I knew you were going to do that." I took off my waders and slid them down the bank to Gene so he could wade them back across. We were joking about dunking the waders so Mizike would have to get wet anyway but that would have been really mean.

Gene started across the little stretch of water between the island and shore and went to throw the waders the rest of the way. The wader caught the only branch around and landed in the water. Mizike complained the whole way home about his wet frost bitten foot. It wasn't really frost bitten but I'm sure it was cold from the temperature of that water and then the air on the hike back to the car.

It was good to get out even for just a little bit. I am thinking that after this snow melts and they let some water out of Hoover lake the fishing in that spot will really be hot. I might have to sneak back and give it a try if the conditions are right. Ice fishing is probably in the near future as well as Indian lake is getting snowmobile traffic already. I heard a report that a couple guys made it out for 3 hours the other day and both limited out on saugeye.

Back Home Trip with Crazy Happenings

I had a good trip back to Kansas to visit my family over Christmas and New Years. We left Columbus knowing that bad weather would be moving into the area before we made it there. They had been calling for up to 12 inches of snow and 40+ mile an hour winds on the day before Christmas Eve. I had tried to take off work a day early but something happened and I could not take off.

We got out of the house about noon on the 23rd and in good weather conditions would make it to my wife's parents house at 3:30 in the morning Christmas Eve. The whole way I was considering what I would do if I hit the storm. That high of winds with snow could drift you in quickly and the motels would fill up quick if they shut down the interstate. I decided I would turn around and try to get back out of it I ran into it.

About half way through Missouri we hit torrential downpours and raindrops that sounded like they were denting the car. There was even lightning that lit up the whole sky line. The temperatures were holding at 52 so I knew we were going to get close to home before we hit the bad weather.

As we crossed Kansas City the temperature dropped from 52 on one side to 38 on the other. We drove through thick fog and I was wondering when we would be getting into the snow. I kept driving and about 15 miles from our destination we finally hit blowing snow. It was covering the roads fast. The last 15 miles we were busting snowdrifts to make it in to her parents house. Got there just in time at 3:30 in the morning.

I slept for a few hours and got up about 10:00 to head in to my Grandmothers. We started down the road 6 hours after we had just came in and not even a quarter of the mile into the drive hit a snowdrift that seemed to lift and slide the van across the top until we lost momentum and it settled part way down into a 4 foot deep snowdrift. We were high centered and mega stuck.

I walked back and got a shovel and started digging. After quite a while and making pretty good ground my wife called her dad to come pull us out with his new Chevy 1500. I was kinda relieved but even with his monster 4 wheel drive he still barely got us pulled from the drifts.

I started backing the rest of the way to the house and backed into another drift in front of the driveway. I was able to rock out of it and decided to hit it harder to try to get into the driveway and out of the road. I hit it the second time with quite a bit of speed. It caught one tire and rifled the front of the van in 180 degrees facing us in opposite direction but partially in the ditch.

Her dad was shaking his head and starting to get in the pickup to come pull us out again. I wasn't having that so I told my wife to get in and gun it and I would push. I gave it my He-Man and out we went. We decided to try another direction that might be a little more clear to get to town.

There were some decent sized snowdrifts that way as well but nothing the mimi van couldn't handle. Besides the busted bumper we got and the inside wheel well cover getting torn up as we busted through a good one. I guess the van is just meant to be busted up. A coyote, a deer, a groundhog, somebody keying the heck out of it and now a snowdrift. I'm not turning this one into insurance, it is getting a little embarrassing calling them all the time.

I guess I have to call them about a chip in the windshield that happened later in the trip. I will mention that later in the post.

The highways were sorta clear with a ton of snow blowing across them. We had a good time at Grandma's the next couple of days. I stayed up late with my uncle Christmas Eve night drinking some beers and reminiscing.

The day after Christmas we had my wifes family Christmas party then we headed to my parents for the next week.

The weather there was nice and my dad and I were out quite a bit firing off rounds out of guns. I had brought home a side by side 12 guage for him and he had just gotten a glock 40 cal. They got their workout as we target practiced and shot blue rock. I also scoped in my .22 rifle to where it would center a target at 50 yards.

I was hoping to do some pheasant hunting but didn't want to pay 72.00 for 2 days of hunting at the end of the year. I also didn't want to chance getting caught without a liscence. I've never been checked but the time I risk it is the time I would.

We opened up presents at Mom and Dad's. I got a nice Kansas State Wallet, and a Bass Pro Shops Crankin Stick 7'M with a Rick Clunn Signature Series Low-Profile Baitcast Reel. It is definately the nicest rod and reel setup I have ever gotten. I can't wait to try it out on the water.

On the way back to Ohio I wasn't even an hour from my parents when I came upon a car doing 30 MPH on a 55 MPH road. I started to pass and saw a hand sling something out the window and crack! I look where it hit and the windshield is starred. I finished passing them and got furious. I wanted to do something but I had my 2 boys in the car and started thinking that if they would do something like that what else would they do? I kept driving and they sped up and got right on my bumper.

This lasted about 20 minutes until a car started coming up from behind them. They slowed way down again. I saw the car start to pass them in the rear view and wondered if they would do the same thing. I started to go over a hill but saw the car that was passing swerve off in front of them and both were heading toward the ditch. It wasn't that fast as both cars were going slow.

I kept going as I thought the one car had swerved to cut the car behind off and figured they would be fighting by the time I got turned around. I made it a little ways down the road and see a police car flying the opposit direction to where that all took place. Then I saw an ambulance and another police car. I wonder if somebody got shot or if whatever the car threw had went through the windshield and caused both to wreck.

I drove the rest of the 20 hours wondering what happened and what could have happened if I would have lost my cool and tried to stop the car myself. I also wondered why this crazy crap always happens to me.