First one starts today!

[Cecil]

First Bassmaster Open started today. I always feel like that's the kickoff to the season.

Let's see...Feb, March, April...Yep, it's coommiiinnn!

[Deitz Dittrich]

goof ball, its -10 outside..

[Larson15]

I always consider the Minneapolis boat show to be the halfway point.....This is when the fever starts setting in!

[Wayne Ek]

Cecil, you are the eternal optimist. It was -14 degrees up here this morning D.D. as I sat out trying to get a couple of shots (photos) of otters... dirty rat ba#*%@ never got a good shot.

[thatoneguy]

-10? I had -25 when I woke up. That'll perk up the ol' nips in a hurry. Still, it's good to know that someone, somewhere is fishing a bass tournament

I'm going to get into one of the tourneys on Leech this summer and partake of my first tournament fishing experience (assuming I can find someone crazy enough to fish along side me for a whole day!).

[delmuts]

"goof ball, its -10 outside.."

But the sun is shining!

[Cecil]

And its always 55 degrees in the tackle room!!!

[Timmy D]

28 lbs for the lead - that must have been fun!

[MuskyBug85]

it was a tough bite for most of use today, i am fishing as a co- but the weather has stabilized so i think more bedders will be up tomorrow. we went looking for them this morning and found the one roland martin ended up catching but we fished her for about 2 hours and couldn't get her to go so we left and ended fishing rattletraps over grass in 3-5 fow i got my 3 for my limit of 5lbs 06 oz and a bonus gar around 5 lbs. tomorrows pro says we are making a big run to flip so hopefully he is on some fish that can put me in the race. the weather is really nice down here though we are in the 60's still.

[TR21HP]

Good luck MuskyBug85, hopefully the pro can put you on some good water.

[Deitz Dittrich]

GO BUG GO BUG!!!!

[JP Z]

Good luck to the BUG! Rip some lips for us in MN.

[TonkaBass]

Its shed hunting season Cecil...

[MuskyBug85]

Well that was rough today, my pro could get his fish to go this morning so he spent most of the day running and gunning to limited success. I had one around 3 on a trap boater went to net it and knocked it off, the only other boat i had was a crappie about 2lbs......

[MuskyBug85]

Well Chris Lane put on a show the final day!!! The kid is a stud on florida bass, the wind switched and muddied up the water he was fishing on the last day which left him scrabbling for cleaner water, which he found and proceeded to catch over 28lbs out of....... it was a lot of fun to be on the same water as the big time pros like Lane, Scroggins, Swindle, Martins and the like. I did get in to fish the northern opens as a pro which I am very excited about to only one that makes me nervous is the Detroit River/Erie simply because of how nasty it can get out there.....

[Cecil]

So MB, it's Fishing MN journal time. What did you learn from the first event?

[MuskyBug85]

Well, I learned about some different vegetation types (hydrilla, and Kissimmee grass) which fished a lot like milfoil and really thick reeds. I also have never fished pre-spawn fish so I learned a lot about what they set up on before they move shallow which for me meant shallow weeds just off shallow bedding cover (docks, pads, shallow wood that provided cover from above) and that these fish can be located pretty quickly with a rattle bait or a square billed crankbait which ever you feel the most confident in, and one located you should slow wwwwaaayyyyy down and try and mill that structure piece for more and bigger fish with plastic. Most importantly for me I learned the format and timeline for the Opens which I will be competing in later this year which was my original goal.

[mww24]

how did locating fish compare with locating them up here? easier harder?

[MuskyBug85]

they were pre-spawn so most of the fish that I saw and caught were on weed just outside of spawn water which was fairly speed out, when you found it the weeds where thick but they weren't consistent..... I think finding fish down there is the same as here just scale every thing shallower.