We are proud to announce that we are now dealers of Stanley Jigs, Kalin's Soft Plastics, and soon to be dealers of VMC Hook company! Stanley Jigs is best known for the Stanley Ribbit and Baby Ribbit frogs, as well as their killer Double-Take hook they designed with Mustad for the ultimate frog hook. We use their products to build our Dunkin' Frog, so the dealership allows us to lower our prices a few dollars on the Dunkin' Frog in the future. Kalin's sizmic series is incredible, and the sizmic grub/shad are the ONLY tails that we recommend using on our Lovertail 2. The Kalin's 3.8" Sizmic Grub is perfect on our bass sized Lovertail 2, the 4.8" Sizmic Shad belongs on our musky version. The action is incredible and imitates forage so well. The nice thing about being a Kalin's dealer, we also get dealership bulk prices on Acme, Kastmaster, Uncle Josh, and many other fine products. Kalin's makes great jigs for tube anglers and also for our Baby Squid Bait. VMC Hooks are amazing in both treble form as well as the HD weighted swimbait hooks and Flippin' Hooks that were designed by our hero, Mike Iaconelli. It will be great to get access as a dealer to these hooks. More information to come on the VMC dealership, but I can quote prices immediately for any Stanley or Kalin's requests. 

James Gang Fishing Company CEO, Lure Designer, and tournament angler, Alex Piontek, plans on taking his Lovertail 2 Musky Waaker out to the weeds and do some filming this week. We are not trying to catch any fish, just trying to capture the beauty of his lure design running through the weeds and lily pads. A bonus musky or big bass wouldn't upset us however. We plan to throw our Dunkin Frog on video as well, and the lake we are headed to is full of frogs for natural food, so you never know what may happen. The weather looks like a good day to film, clear, sunny skies. Also, some James Gang lure tip videos will be coming out very shortly, advice on how to fish our Lovertail 2, our Bass Jerker, our Dunkin Frog, and our Baby Squid Bait, So we hope to post something cool on YouTube. Also a few more bait shops in NW Wisconsin should be placing orders very soon, we will announce these locations when their lures are shipped. Be sure to email us your pictures of fish caught on our lures at 6lbsmallmouth@gmail.com!!

It was a great turnout for our first ever James Gang Bass Invitational on Red Cedar Lake, WI on May 27, 2017. 15 Anglers competed in boats ranging from 200 horsepower deck boats to 14 foot aluminum boats to kayaks. The 15 anglers competed in a Major League Fishing event, in which the winner would take home $300 cash, and the angler who landed the heaviest bass of the day would win a $75 "DAILY LUNKER" Big Bass bonus. The list of anglers ranged from amateurs, FLW BFL anglers, CWBA Opens anglers, and to contestants of state and national championships in the KBF Kayak Bass Fishing series. The date picked for this event was based on the typical average water temps and fishing conditions for this time of the year being about prime for the easiest catching of the year for this chain of lakes. But about 6 days before the beginning of the tournament, the area received a very cold rainfall and tornado activity that plummeted water temperatures. This post-poned the smallmouth bass spawn and really created a funk for the largemouth bass that were staging and trying to prepare making their beds. What was a highly-anticipated scoretracker-lighting beatdown, full of top-water action and high-numbers of fish catches on power fishing techniques, turned into very slow reaction-bite presentation tournament, many closed-mouth topwater misses, and an absolute negative feeding pattern for both the power fisherman, as well as the finesse anglers.

Anglers were up hours before the start time of 6:30 am, to make the long road trip and prepare their equipment and launch at the Waldo Carlson County Park on Red Cedar Lake. The 5 kayak anglers chose to launch at Hemlock Lake, and use their kayak advantages to their fullest with the ability to navigate very shallow water and attack the lily pads and spawning flats with their favorite pre-spawn tactics. The aluminum boat anglers launched at the Red Cedar Lake county park (Waldo Carlson) and spent their day focusing on Red Cedar and Balsam Lakes.

STEVE PIONTEK rigging his fishing equipment on the eve of the James Gang Bass Invitational

​ALEX PIONTEK headed to the boat with his Mike Iaconelli "IKE DUDE" rod, in high hopes of winning his first adult tournament

As in all Major League Fishing tournaments, the anglers are very anxious to see who scores first, who gets momentum, and who gets behind in a hurry. In this event, we all had a gut feeling that we would all light it up fast with the 2 day warming trend possibly turning the bite around, or all struggle due to the low water temps. But only on his FIFTH cast, Steve Piontek was the first angler to register on the Scoretracker. His firetiger spinnerbait landed him a 1 lb 10 oz largemouth bass, and he would sit alone on the Scoretracker for quite sometime. Alex Piontek, Steve's 8 year old grandson and CEO of James Gang Fishing Company, felt that his "Papa Steve" had the tournament in the bag already, and quickly became nervous that the $300 prize would be out of his own reach. We had to explain to the little tournament angler that in MLF formats, the tournament can be won or lost in minutes, and no weight is safe enough until the end of the day.

The Scoretracker Live standings remained still for quite a while, With Mat leading Steve by a small amount. The scores and sizes were low, so in this day it appeared at any point, a giant bass of 4+ pounds could totally take the tournament over. The smaller 1-2 pound fish were seeming to be the only ones willing to bite on occasion. The 3-4 lb largemouth were making themselves VERY present in the clear shallows, circling in defense of their future bedding areas. We went through many sight-fishing finesse techniques, with 100% failure on about 30+ bass sightings on Balsam Lake. Becoming frustrated we quit on the big largemouths and decided to pursue skinny smallmouths on the James Gang Bass Jerker on gravel and hanging near laydowns. Shortly after working the shoreline, Steve felt a solid bite on his firetiger spinner once again. I threw a cast right where his fish was with my Ghost Minnow Bass Jerker and hooked up with a fighter. I was extremely excited to finally land a fish - a 1 lb 1 oz beauty - but unfortunately this black crappie was not eligible in the tournament. Measuring 12" even on the bump board, it tied my personal best crappie and was something to laugh about. I then checked the score tracker and found that Dan Weideman put his clear-water experience to use and boated a bass at 1 pounds 7 ounces. He was on the hunt and not backing down. Shortly after he landed a beautiful smallmouth bass out of Red Cedar, weighing in at 2 pounds 10 ounces. If you look at scoretracker it shows 3 fish at a smaller average, his 2 fish totaled 4 lbs 1 oz, but he thought Doc and he were fishing in Europe and were measuring and taking pictures in kilograms. We took their numbers at lunch and converted them into real weights and found that Dan had taken the weight lead, as well as the big bass lead shortly before halftime.

Late in period 1 , I managed to boat two legal smallmouths, 1 crappie. and 2 pike on my Bass Jerker suspending jerkbait. To my surprise, the smallmouths were on their beds and spawning, which in typical years on this chain would have been weeks ago. I decided to start period 2 with the jerkbait. I got on a fast spree of fish, and boated 4 smallmouths in about 10 minutes, of which 2 were legal for the tournament. I shot up the leaderboard and overtook Dan Weideman, and even though I did not feel like I was safe on the leaderboard at all, I was fully committed now as I had landed 9 fish in a short time on my favorite presentation. I felt like the chance was there to now pull away from the field and catch fish at a very fast pace as I usually do when the jerk bait bite was on. But after my 10 minute flurry, time kept ticking away fast and the bites just were completely non-existant. I kept checking the scoretracker live nervously, and to my surprise everytime I remained the leader for hours. As time was winding down and the bites never came back, I had to scrap my confidence lure. Even though Scoretracker live showed me winning with little time left, I knew the kayak boys had poor reception and at any point they could light it up with heavy Hemlock Largemouth and destroy me with one fish. And even at my lead, ANYONE IN THE FIELD could over take me with only one to two quality fish in a row. I put the jerkbait rod away, even though I was in the lead, and we called an audible. We headed back into the area that was loaded with big largemouth bass, knowing the only way I would hold everyone off was to land a big one or two to seal the deal. Alex threw on a Stanley Baby Ribbit, dipped the feet in chartreuse dye, and on his first cast had a nice 1.5 lb or more largemouth on for about a second and a half. He paused, then set the hook well like a frog guy is supposed to do (he has caught many on the KVD Sexy Frog at 6 years old) but the bass managed to throw the lure and ruin Alex's day.I then threw on the James Gang Fishing DUNKIN' FROG, red buzzer, same color body Alex was using with dyed feet. I got a 2 hits right away that didnt hook up, both appearing to be under-sized largemouth that wouldn't register anyway. I then switched to the trusty finesse worm, and in the last hour, all I managed was 2 small pike. I ran out of time, and refused to check Scoretracker Live the last hour in fear. As we idled through the no wake channel, I checked to see that Chang Lor overtook me, and I had not yet seen what the other kayak boys had done to me yet. When we met up at the awards ceremony at Waldo Carlson County Park, Jaz Duncan registered two nice smallmouth in the closing minutes. He figured his pattern out right when time ran out and was about to give us a beatdown. He finished the day with the heaviest average fish. Kevin Martinek was disgusted as the bass were smashing his topwater with closed mouths and he only managed to get 2 of them in the boat. He figured he had around 18-20 fish nail his lures, and almost all of them did not hit it to feed. If they would have, Kevin would have owned this tournament with his #1 confidence lure. Small Craft Outfitters Guide and KBF tournament angler Tyler Theide managed to put together a pattern in the closing minutes as well, registering a 1 lb largemouth and catching multiple under-sized ones as well. TouFue Moua headed out after he lost a 4  pound and a 2 pound bass, in which the 4 pound class fish was a guaranteed victory and a big bass of the day. Mat Eichinger managed 3 more fish in the second half and ended up with the highest number of fish for the event. 

When the event was over, the anglers got together at Waldo Carlson County Park and held their awards presentation. James Gang Fishing Company CEO and Lead Lure Designer ALEX PIONTEK joined MAT EICHINGER in presentation the awards and the prize drawings. CHANG LOR won the $300 first prize, as well as the $75 DAILY LUNKER Award. JAZ DUNCAN won a $50 James Gang Fishing Company Tackle Kit. MAT EICHINGER won a James Gang Fishing Company Dunkin; Frog. The winner of the JB FISH SAUCE Stick and Marinade kits was STEVE PIONTEK. The winner of the HANG OUTDOORS painted crankbait kit was JAZ DUNCAN, and the drawing grand prize winner of the SMALL CRAFT OUTFITTERS guided kayak trip was KEVIN ROGALSKI. We celebrated with more plates of venison, took a group photo, handed out the prizes and awards, talked a little fishing as the kids played in the playground, and then we all hit the road after an exhausting day of non-stop casting. Thanks so much to all the anglers for your great attitudes and sportsmanship to each other. Also we appreciate the honesty and integrity shown from all in our scoring system.

A special thanks goes to HANG OUTDOORS and JB's FISH SAUCE. Please check them out on Facebook. They both make outstanding products!

A VERY SPECIAL thank you goes to SMALL CRAFT OUTFITTERS Guide Service. To book a trip with Kayak Guides TYLER THEIDE and 2017 James Gang Bass Invitational Winner CHANG LOR, visit their website at www.smallcraftoutfitters.com or call 507-400-FISH (3474) These guys are experienced tournament anglers and will get you in premium Feel Free Kayaks on great bodies of water at peak fishing times.

If you are interested in competing in this tournament in 2018, contact Tournament Director Mat Eichinger at guitar_mat@yahoo.com or contact Jesse at 6lbsmallmouth@gmail.com for more information. Enjoy the following pictures and send us your fish catch pictures on James Gang Fishing lures!!!!

James Gang Fishing proudly supports THE IKE FOUNDATION and FISHERS OF KIDS ANGLERS ACADEMY. Support kids in the outdoors! For more information check out www.theikefoundation.org and www.gofundme.com/fishersofkidsanglersacademy.

We are super excited that the Wisconsin game fish season has finally arrived! Our boys from the Elk Mound high school had a fantastic day in their first ever tournament. Galen and Cole took 6th place out of 35 teams, just a few ounces shy of 4th. Blaze and James rocked it as well with a very respectable day finishing 16th. And I am looking forward to the other Elk Mound boys getting revenge at their next tournament and lighting up the scales with heavy bass.

As usual, my beautiful wife, Angela, snuck out on the opening day of fishing and hit up her secret trout streams. Like usual, she had a fantastic morning of fishing. She managed to put 12 trout in the landing net. She had to cross a creek so a camera phone wasn't an option, so she was not able to photo her biggest fish of the day in her secret spot - a giant 18" Brook Trout! She had to throw most of her fish back due to the slot limit regulations. She took some pictures of her smaller fish that she caught early on. I was so proud to hear that she gave her bag limit of beautiful delicious brook trout to a elderly trout angler who wasn't able to land any fish on the opener, and really struggled getting around the banks with his age. She made his day and I suggest when you guys see some older, hard-core anglers struggling with their day, maybe offer to help them out or give them a few fish to make them go home with a huge smile.

We worked hard getting our old 1976 Evinrude back in running condition. We had an issue with the starter, and the lower unit seals. After removing the lower unit, and pulling the inner bearing out with its oil retainers, the lower unit became leak-free and water free! Also the new starter seemed to work fantastic on Lake Menomin where we had the Crawfish Bandit General Lee Lund full throttle the Thursday before opener. We took it out the following week and ran into some fuel pressure issues and will be replacing the fuel pump in the following week, hoping we will be back on the water hammering smallmouth bass in no time. I did manage to get out on Lake Chetac while some buddies were preparing for their CWBA Tournament, and with only 20 minutes before we had to leave, I hooked into a beautiful female smallmouth. She weighed in at 3 lbs 10 oz, and was 17.75" on the bump board. She was a gorgeous fish with beautiful tiger stripes in clear water. I was proud to let her go after some nice pictures so someone else can battle her in the future.

Lazy Monk Brewery in Eau Claire held a Spring Market May 13th, and was kind enough to invite Alex down to run a stand selling his lures. They were looking for local vendors and wanted to showcase spring themed items.  Alex did well at the show and we were very happy with our total sales. Thanks for everyone that checked us out! It was fun to explain our lures and help the customers choose color options based on certain water clarity conditions.

And our final update, our good buddies Doc and Zim went on an opening day adventure. Zim got into a few nice largemouth bass on our Flappin' Jig in Bull Bluegill color. Doc was ready to become quite impatient watching Zim get strikes while he didn't get any. He had a Flappin' Jig on as well and stuck with it until 11 am. Right before they called it quits, Doc Gilles hooked into a hog, a girthy, fat-headed slob of a bass in our "secret lake" in NW Wisconsin. When he got it in the boat, it measured 18" on the bump board, but the girth and weight for its length was ridiculous. Congrats Doc and Good Buddy Zim on another successful day on the water!! I managed to sneak out and catch one smallmouth on Old Abe lake Friday on one of Randy Henderson's Lethal Baits Poison colored tubes in garlic scent. Kevin Martinek hooked into a few with his favorite topwater lures and his best fish of the day was a really thick 14.5" smallmouth bass. The small pike were active, and Kevin had quite a few strikes from some really nice pike that hit his lures poorly and weren't able to hook up. The day improved as the water temp rose, in the morning the bite was very very slow and discouraging. Here are a few pics from Doc, Kevin, and I. Good luck fishing and send us your pics to 6lbsmallmouth@gmail.com!!!

With the off-limit game fish season still upon us in Wisconsin, our only options for bass fishing remains in the Mississippi River and the feeding rivers up to their last dam. Our General Lee boat motor is currently torn apart with bad seals and starting issues, so I contacted James Gang Pro-Staffer & FLW BFL angler Jaz Duncan to fish out of the back of his boat on Pool 6 of the Mississippi River and experiment with my first ever bass trip in April. I was very nervous being that I have no experience in cold-water spring conditions, but Mother Nature decided to create a very unique situation, a very warm thunderstorm with heavy rain arrived when our trip came up. We cancelled and uncancelled within the first two hours of our planned departure time, and found a small window of 2.5 hours to drive around scouting and throwing a few casts in attempts to find a river bass. Our warm rain shot the water temperature up very quickly, and we were sitting at a 50 degree water temp when we launched. This combined with slightly higher water levels pushed the small bass into the sloughs very shallow and tight to shore. We messed around with a few small pike on our Flappin Jig and small bass on a small spinnerbait. We eventually gave up and searched for tournament quality legal keepers down river. We made a run to the Wabasha Dam, fishing heavy current along a rip rap boulder shore line. We were hoping for big smallmouths there, but only had one fish hooked up - a small pike on a Baby Squid Bait. We were running short on time, and Jaz wanted to hit the rip rap near the main river channel, in which I was opposed being that I felt they would need much warmer water to get aggressive enough to battle currents to feed. We gave his shoreline a try, and hooked into 4 more bass, three of them the right quality we were looking for. Jaz landed about a 2 lb smallmouth, I landed a 2-12 largemouth and a 2-2 largemouth, both on the Baby Squid Bait (white/chartreuse.) I believe a full day trip would have resulted in a killer day of fish if we could run a pattern with our lure choices and cover/structure that we found.

The following day, Small Craft Outfitters guides Tyler Theide and Chang Lor decided to get out on the Chippewa River backwaters with their kayaks and compete in the KBF tournament. Their reports were that they had experimented with a few lures, the bites were strange, but the combination of our Lovertail 2 and some Power Team soft plastics, soaked in JB FISH SAUCE, seemed to be the ultimate pattern for their day. They landed a high number of largemouth bass, propelling Tyler to the WI KBF lead for April, and putting Chang in second place. These guys really understand their favorite fishing spots and seem to put a successful pattern together on most days. Check out www.smallcraftoutfitters.com and cxfishing on Facebook, and book a trip if you would like to get into the most intense form of bass fishing available. Nothing gets you in the secret spots better and nothing gets you closer to the wild than a kayak. Also check out JBs Fish Sauce and maybe you can use scents to increase your hook-ups when the fish aren't fully committed to bite. These guys know how to have fun!! Check out the slob Tyler landed on the YouTube video below:

Our Dunkin Frog has sold out again, contact us at 6lbsmallmouth@gmail.com for orders. I will order buzz blades in bulk for May and get them out to customers before the hot topwater bite arrives around late May. This lure is $12 each via PayPal plus shipping, or $13 each on our website via Stripe. I know this lure will produce big time, the action is incredible and the bass will go crazy over it. We offer the smaller baby ribbit version for all bass, and a larger version for giant bass, pike, and muskies. Both sizes are the same price. We use very spendy Stanley Double Take Mustad Ultra Point weighted double frog hooks and Stanley Ribbit bodies. This setup will prevent rolling, is perfect for hook location, and will reduce lost strikes that usually happen with hollow body frogs. Both sizes are available in natural green and watermelon colors, and a full white color.

And the best part of spring fishing...............accidental Lake Sturgeon landings!!!!!!

CHECK OUT THIS 8 1/2" BABY DINOSAUR I caught on a nightcrawler in the Chippewa River!!

We had a fantastic time at the 2017 Wisconsin Sport Show in Eau Claire, WI. We thank all of you that checked out our lures and hope that you hammer some bass, pike, and musky this year on them! We need to give a special thanks to Kevin Rogalski and Kevin Martinek for all the help in running our booth. Both of these guys volunteered to help us setup, run, and tear down this booth all weekend. Our teardown was literally minutes thanks to all of their help. Also it was nice to have trusted friends run the booth while I grabbed lunch. Also we would like to thank Doc Gilles, Jaz Duncan, Mat Eichinger, Good Buddy Zim for help spreading the word and supporting Alex and his fishing lure company. Word-of-mouth has probably been 75% of our sales last year. Without people showing others the lures, we would have shut it down due to taxes, licenses, insurance premiums, website fees, etc. We felt like the show was a success because it felt like every bass angler that looked at our lures was blown away by our unique weedless designs, and ended up purchasing at least 1 or sometimes up to 5 of our lures. It felt great to impress these people and answer all their questions about conditions, presentations, water clarity situations to use which lure and/or color correctly to get bit. The last thing I wanted to mention, it was awesome to FINALLY meet our first Pro-Staffer, TYLER THEIDE, in person! Tyler has been extremely supportive of us from the beginning and will help spread the word with us as he starts his new Kayak Guide Service adventures in 2017. Check him out at www.smallcraftoutfitters.com and maybe book a trip with him. I know for a fact this guy has some special spots with GIANTS. I mean 6.5 lb largemouth in Wisconsin? Are you kidding me? How about his buddy Chang Lor with a 45" pike? Unreal! These guys are good and will get you on the fish safely with very high quality equipment.

In 2017, we picked up several new bait shops to begin carrying our lures. We are so excited that we are now shipping lures to Hogans Bait & Tackle in Dana Point, CA, Ross's Sport shop in Phillips, WI, and Oemig's Sport Shop in Stanley, WI. We have a few more shops committed to sell our lures in NW Wisconsin but will announce them when the initial order is placed. Bite Me Bait & Sport in Mondovi, WI still has our Lovertail 2 spinners in stock as well. Ladysmith, WI, Hayward, WI, and Turtle Lake, WI will be ordering within the next few months.

Our plans for 2017 is to work on some better underwater footage of our lures in action in clear water, as well as produce a Buzz Frog that will be weighted correctly to prevent rolling of the lure. The Buzz size we plan to use will be smaller than any other one on the market and the frog we chose to try out is a smaller version that most. When we get it correct, it will be available to purchase online, on eBay, and hopefully in stores this summer. Our kids big bass contest will end December 2017, and a young dude in Arkansas has taken the lead with an 8 lb bass he caught from shore at a local park. All children 10 and under are eligible. Please send your pictures to 6lbsmallmouth@gmail.com or to our Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/jamesgangfish. 

Have a great spring and we will be working on lures, doing some boat maintenance, planning a small, invite-only MLF Bass tournament, and waiting for the May opener in Wisconsin!!!

Just when we thought our fishing season was over, the midwest gets a strange period of extremely warm weather for over a week in late October & early November. By this point, most of us are in the tree stand, thinking the peak of the chase phases of the rut is starting to rock and roll. After burning a vacation and seeing almost no deer all week, my good buddy Kevin and I decided to take out his boat one last time during the crazy warm weather on November 3rd. The weather had been stable at around 15 degrees above average, and the water temps were around 48-52 degrees - more typical for about the 2nd-3rd week of OCTOBER. We headed up to Rusk County in search of some Smallmouth Bass in their mid-fall transition, as they were working their way to their wintering holes. We brought our ice fishing flashers out, just in case the bass were super deep in their winter holes and a vertical ultra finesse presentation or drop shotting would be the only way to get them. We started shallow with top water lures, Lovertail 2s, and other fast moving lures. It was very clear that the shallow wood cover areas had been deserted, but we were marking tons of fish on our flashers in really deep water. We had no wind and a comfortable current that felt like a slow drift or troll, and we switched to deep water tactics that I learned on my guided trip from Dale Stroschein and Wacky Walleye Guide Service. I thought I snagged a small branch, I had felt the weirdest feeling ever on my Rick Clunn S-Glass rod, and here I reeled up about a 14" smallmouth to the boat. I was shocked, but also thought the bites would be rare and didn't get overly excited. When we finished our pass while staying on a consistent depth contour, I hooked into a very girthy bass that weighed 3 lbs 12 oz. I was pumped. I caught both of these lures on a soft plastic 4.8" swimbait that I hand poured in my driveway. I bit off about 1" of the lure to shorten it, dipped the tail in blood red garlic dye, and stuck it on a 1 oz VMC Mike Iaconelli Swim Jig head I bought on clearance at Fleet Farm a few years ago. As we started pass #3, I immediately stuck another smallmouth, and then Kevin decided it was time to go deep water as well. He changed it up though, he put on our James Gang Flappin' Jig, let the lure sink to the bottom in the deepest water in the lake, then retrieve it in a strange zig zag presentation that caused the jig to vibrate just above the bottom of the lake. He got into a really awesome fighter, and when he boated his bass, we were stunned. On the scale pretty much a 4 pounder (3 lbs 14 oz) with a ridiculous girth was hanging. We measured him at ONLY 16.5", this bass had a girth of SIXTEEN INCHES!!!! A super freak of nature with a giant gut!!! Not long after that fish was released, I caught a slightly longer 16.66" smallmouth that weighed in at 3 lb 13 oz, approaching a 16" girth as well. I was catching a few here and there, I believe only 2 weren't the 14" legal length minimum, a great average size and all of them fattened up for winter. I ended up with 7 bass at the boat, and later in the day Kevin hooked a MONSTER right under the boat. He peeled drag like crazy after a giant hook set but somehow worked his way off after a few seconds. My gut says 17-20" fish and by far the heaviest of the day. Not soon after a pike or musky hammered the Flappin Jig, broke his line, and ended his run. Amazing how much better I understand fish movement in the fall after a day in the boat with Dale Stroschein, and amazing how the weather timed out so perfectly to give us a great bite on a weather day that can't be beat. No wind, temp around 64 degrees, no other boats on the lake, and one of my most successful trips I ever had. The fish fought hard, all of them jumped, and they were fun to find on our ice fishing flashers, too. A great "BONUS" day to end the fishing season, but I hope the cold November weather rolls in fast and gets the chase phase of the deer rut to full speed so I can harvest a mature buck with my new bow that I have been practicing so much with. Enjoy the pics, the sun was really cooperating with us on some great color shots of these gorgeous smallmouths on my cheap phone camera. We intend on building a lot of Flappin' Jigs, Bass Jerkers, and Lovertail 2's for the WI Spring Sport Show in March. We had great results on them all year and we think that our first sport show will be a success!!!! This will be our last fishing report of 2016. Stay tuned for our short ice fishing season, the WI SPORT SHOW is coming fast and we will be focused on making lures once New Years Day arrives. We are off to the tree stands for the rest of the fall.

Well, the fall fishing season ended up being only a few outings, after some issues arose with our 40 year old outboard. We have had starting issues throughout the year, and found some lower unit seal / o-ring issues. The boat only got out a few trips and had to be winterized early. Before the Crawfish Bandit was put to hibernation, my wife took me out on a fishing date/competition. She beat my little 1 l b bass that I landed with a neat musky approaching 30" in early fall. Both fish were caught on the James Gang Flappin' Jig in "Baby Gill" color. After the boat was put away, I attempted to shore fish a few times under some local dams, throwing the Musky Lovertail, and did hook about a 3 foot fish that unfortunately threw the lure when I reeled him all the way to the rock undercut that I was standing on. Apparently, you do have to set the hook on muskies, too. The one positive that kept me from going crazy about putting the boat away early was that I had a fishing trip scheduled with Mat Eichinger and Dale Stroschein of Wacky Walleye Guide Service. We were fishing out of Sturgeon Bay, WI in the middle of fall when the water temps were cooling down for a while, in search of some big smallmouths during a season that I am VERY inexperienced in, and honestly have ZERO confidence or success in. Dale taught Mat and I some sweet techniques near his home and by the end of the day we boated 7 very solid smallmouth, lost 4 more, which two of them could have been absolute monsters. Because of Dale's guidance, I landed a 5-5 (the BIGGEST bass of my life,) a 5-1, a 4-14, and a 3-12. I believe the fish I lost was near 3 pounds, may have been 2+, he looked nice as I lost him just out of netting range. Mat and Dale both had pigs on that were not budging during the hooksets but unfortunately got off on both of them. It would have been a ridiculous day if those two hogs were landed as well, we are talking an AVERAGE weight of 4+ pounds would have been very possible. My gut says that both of those fish were as big if not bigger than my top two of the day. Dale had landed two over 6 pounds (legit on a scale 6-3, 6-2) just one day earlier, maybe Mat or Dale had a run in with one of those ridiculous 6 pound class fish. If not, they HAD to be at least 4-5+ the way they just pulled on them guys. Dale's home water is a very special place, and was ranked as the #1 bass lake for a reason by BASSMASTER MAGAZINE. If you are interested in catching the fish of a lifetime, or maybe MULTIPLE fish of a lifetime like Dale guided me into doing today, check out their website and book a trip in 2017. Dale has decades of experience guiding on his home water, and competed professionally for 15 years in the pro walleye level. This guy is the best of the best in the guide industry, and is so fun to joke with in the boat between bites. Good luck fishing to you die hards that will have their boat out in Oct and Nov!!!! Enjoy our pics and check out Wacky Walleye!!

First of all, Gerald Swindle, if you read this, I wanna give you a HUGE "congrats" on your 2nd AOY title in 12 years. Anyone that is a sports fan with half a brain would realize that his trophy he took home is the HARDEST trophy to win in all of professional sports. After he qualified to even compete, he then payed GIANT entry fees for 20 years just to gamble his money hoping his talents, his knowledge, and his decision-making while battling nature during changing weather fronts was going to be enough to defeat ALL 108 of the world's top bass anglers. Lost fish, boat troubles, fishing pressure, flooding, drought, wind, rain, snow, none of these excuses matter. You have no team, unlike football, you don't have ONLY 31 competitors, unlike football. Its you against everyone, and they want to destroy your hopes, even if off the water they respect you and are your friend. What a crazy way to feed your family and pay bills. But G Man is one of the best fisherman ever, with a great wife that fully supports him. Team Swindle won it all in front of us and it was an absolutely awesome moment to sit in the front row next to his parents as Gerald cried his eyes out when accepting his trophy. He is a great role model, has great family values and morals, and it has been awesome to meet and talk with guy on multiple occasions. I hope my goofy shirt I made to wear in front of him Saturday made his day. He was very greatful that we made a Lovertail 2 for him and seemed impressed. We talked several minutes as I explained the design and intention of the lure Alex designed, and we hope he gives it a whirl this fall on Lake Guntersville. 

Brandon Palaniuk & Aaron Martens - Thanks for the video intro for the Alex Fishing Show! It was great to see you guys again. Brandon you are super cool and I was really impressed that you knew my little dude without me having to even say anything. Throw the crap out of that Lovertail and have fun!!! Aaron you are a goofball and we are hoping to take you fishing in the General Lee boat someday.

Then there is Mister MIKE IACONELLI. It was awesome to hang out with that whack job for quite a while Saturday afternoon. I am super grateful that the IKE FOUNDATION is sponsoring Alex's tournament fishing next year with a huge logo on a jersey. Mike and his awesome wife Becky started an awesome charity that everyone into fishing should check out. They take used rod donations, and distribute them to inner city children, and teach them to get into positive outdoor hobbies, to stay out of trouble and live a positive life. Mike and Becky are fantastic people, and anyone that can't stand the guy off the water has probably never met him. He is a very good person, especially around kids, and treats everyone like a long-time buddy. We laughed and joked a while at his truck Saturday as he loaded our donated rods, and like always was awesome to Alex. Its crazy how in a sport like this you can meet and get to know these sports heroes in person, and that they are so down-to-earth and not fake. Check out https://theikefoundation.org and donate to paypal or rods in person at a BASS Elite event or Northern Opens when Mike is around. He was very genuine, sincere, and grateful, and he really appreciated our donation. This guy is for real. All the crazy crap he does on ESPN is just him having fun and showing his passion. He is super excited to win, and super mad when he loses. And to an angler at home, I would think many people find his ridiculousness pretty entertaining, good or bad. The last thing we discussed was a sponsorship request. I expected a "No" being a business with liabilities attached to the things that people say and do, but Mike said that he would "ABSOLUTELY' love to sponsor Alex's tournament fishing career. Not only that, he told me that he is going to email me a higher resolution logo for the Ike Foundation to use on the jersey. He gave us his permission to use it on anything, our fishing shows, etc. What an awesome thing for him to do for my little boy.

AL & RON LINDNER - When we found out Mille Lacs, MN was hosting the BASS AOY Championship, I thought maybe the Lindner clan would possibly attend at some point. I made 2 extra Lovertail 2 lures Friday night just in case we would run into Ron or Al Lindner on the grounds. We set our chairs down in the front row, next to the BASS RESERVED/FAMILY chairs, and here Ron Lindner was seated just one row behind us!!! It was an honor to meet him. The 82-year old legend drew a lot of attention. After the media was done talking to him, we approached him, shook hands, and introduced Alex to him. Ron was extremely polite and when we showed him Alex's Lovertail 2 lure, he was very excited. He said 2x that he "WILL CATCH A WALLEYE ON IT!" He gave me his phone to take pictures with Alex and said that it was awesome he designed such a nice lure at 7 years old. He also said James and Al were on the grounds and we would be able to find them as well. We found Al not much longer, had a great conversation with him about his lure designs and sales in Chicago in his high school years, and he absolutely LOVED the lure. The Bull Bluegill color really got his attention. He said that Alex has a huge head start on him and that we could use the Angling Edge logo on his tournament jersey in 2017. We are so thankful for our heroes to be so giving in such a unique and AWESOME way. Al and Ron were people that I looked up to since I first got cable TV as a child and started watching In Fisherman. I never imagined meeting them in person, and to have conversations with them and have them be impressed by my son's designs at that young of an age is just incredible to me.  AL and RON, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Not long after, we found James Lindner and talked Mille Lacs topwater fishing. He gave me all kinds of great tips and I found out he is good buddies with Dale Stroschein as well. We discussed our upcoming fishing adventure with Dale, but the weigh in began and the magic of Gerald Swindle's Championship, Brent Erhler's 6 lb 10 oz smallmouth in our face, and the Amazing Fiedermans ridiculous weigh in weights were fast approaching. What an incredible time that I will never forget. It will be crazy looking back on this weekend as an 8 year old boy filmed videos with Kevin VanDam and the others, picked up sponsorships by the biggest names in the fishing world, and delivered his lure design to 5 huge people in this sport. The weather was so perfect at the campground, there were no bugs, and one howling coyote under the full moon at 3 am. My half of the entire trip for me including the FREE admission, gas expenses, and tent site rates with electric was only $30!!! Try and beat that NBA, NFL, MLB fans!!!! What a weekend. Watch for Alex as he sat front row on the big day, filmed at least 10+ times be ESPN2. Air date in mid October!!

​Once again another fun trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan fishing on Bays de Noc near Escanaba. We stayed at Lindberg's Cove Resort, near Gladstone, MI for the 2nd time in 3 years. We love that place! The prices are great for cabin rentals, the cabins are right on the waterfront, they include free docks, and a free private boat ramp. There are a lot of northern pike that can be caught right off his docks, and just out from his resorts are some great spots for walleye and smallmouth fishing.

This was our 3rd year in a row vacationing out here, and we get a small amount of fishing in each year as well. I have learned a lot every single trip, and probably learned the most last year, even though it was my least productive trip. Trying to understand Great Lakes bass fishing in clear water is so different than fishing stained reservoirs with laydowns all over the place and heavy vegetation like we have around Western Wisconsin. I think a huge reason why I love this place so much is that I can use my favorite way to fish out there and catch some good ones - JERKBAITS!!!
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Instead of going with our James Gang Fishing lures, I chose to go with the KVD DEEP JERKBAIT for this trip. Our jerkbait is only designed 5-7 ft, and with 25 ft water clarity, I felt better running a little deeper. Last year I ran our 4" Bass Jerker and did land a 3 lb beauty at the Gladstone Lighthouse, but I had schools of trophies following it and not committing to hammering the bait. I think it ran a little too high for them to feel safe in that clear water. The year before I ran a Rapala X Rap DEEP #10 (we did not start making Bass jerkers until 2015.) I landed a 16.75" smallmouth and a 21" smallmouth in 2 casts that year. The KVD DEEP was supposed to get down 11 ft.

I tested out my new lure, and on the 3rd cast I landed a very nice 9 lb Pike on Little Bay de Noc in horrible waves. There was a small craft advisory out so I had to be super cautious as always on that big water. The 16' Lund Big Lakes did very well in nasty 2-3 foot waves. I tried a little trolling with the KVD DEEP and no doubt about it that it went at least 11' down with great action. Not as good as the bass jerker and smaller jerkbaits, but very impressive for its size and diving ability. I landed an average Pike on a troll near Hwy 2 weed line between Gladstone and Escanaba. When I fished near the Wells town shipwreck, I landed another small pike. To my disappointment, the first pike bent the crap out of the factory hooks, and the 2nd one actually busted a hook completely off! Later a secret hole (I found last year) north of Kipling hooked me what felt like a pretty nice smallmouth in the waves, but my battle ended at the boat. It dove under the bow and threw the jerkbait. I found a pile of them there on the bottom tight to some cover 25 ft down but drop shots failed and boat control was impossible. I then ran back to my starting point where I had the pike and I had a 1-2 lb smallmouth swipe at my jerkbait 3 times in clear water at the side of the boat, missing on all 3 snaps of the lure. As it was getting dark, I threw a LOVERTAIL 2 in Smokey Shad, and a pike drilled it as I was lifting it out of the water. The jerk bit the tail off and the action sucked so I had to replace the Kalins Sizmic Grub to make it look awesome gain for the next day. Night time came and I had to head back and charge my troller after the brutal abuse my boat and body took during the horrible waves I dealt with. If you are wondering why I would go, well it seems like they prefer to bite in that crap and HATE calm water out there.

Pike caught trolling a KVD Deep Jerkbait

The next day, I had to run around town while waiting for my batteries to charge. The winds were pretty calm, so I made to run to Garden Bay on Big Bay de Noc to battle the really big water. It was not bad at all, I couldnt go 100% throttle but I was running around 75% while keeping the prop in the water. Much better than having the prop out of the water constantly at 5 mph like the previous day. I went right to my fast dropping ledge spots from 2014, and there were 2 boats on my waypoints. I continued south fishing my butt off with jerkbaits on fast dropping ledges with no luck at all. The water clarity was down to only 15 ft this time. The other boats didnt reel any in, and I worked that ledge north for FIVE hours on the KVD Deep, drop shots, tubes, spinners, deep diving cranks, with NO follows and no sighted fish at all!! I gave up on smallmouth and went to the mouth of the river near Garden in 6 ft of water in very dark water with some weeds. I was bumming that my boy was at school and not with me and saw his BABY SQUID BAIT in my tackle box. I thought, now is the time to try it on a nice pike out here. First cast I felt a hit. Next cast another hit, I slow rolled the blade and WHAM! fish on!!! A sub-legal smallmouth. I was pumped. Next cast, another one in the boat. 3rd cast another one in the boat! The dock owner, and 2 others were watching me catch bass after bass trying to guess the lure. I was laughing since my little boy's invention totally saved this outing from disaster. 7 smallmouths landed in 5 minutes!!

I made a second pass around that hot dock and had zero action. I tried some weedless inline spinners with no luck either. I then decided to go north to Ansell Point and Kate's Bay where the underwater deep point comes in near the boulder ledge. I thought if they were holding shallower, maybe our BASS JERKER would be the way to go. I didnt have my custom painted "BLOODY CISCO" ones with, all I had was one in factory-painted GHOST SHAD, which I never tried but figured may work great in clear water like Lake Michigan. After just a few casts, the jerkbait gets pounded, and again, and again. I marked my way points, worked north and it died right off. I looked at my chartplotter and saw the contour that I liked and tried to duplicate it for a pattern. I then fired up the old 1976 Evinrude and hammered on it about a half mile to the next similar looking contour. 3 casts in a row, 3 more smallmouths, plus a few lost during the retrieve during acrobatic jumps on the surface. Once again it died off when the contour straightened and I continued my pattern a mile north again. Then it was lights out. Bite after bite, a few lost a few landed, and as the sun started setting, the fish finally got better sized. a 2 lb 2 oz was boated then a crazy explosion by a 17-18" 3+ lb smallmouth caught on video. He did it again and jumped several times, as I was netting him he made a huge leap, shook his head and tossed the lure. It was possibly the toughest fighting smallmouth of my life, he blew away my 21" I caught there 2 years ago. The drag was screaming on my spinning reel. I would have released him anyway, and I got one just like it last year so it didn't bother me much to loose him. The battle was incredible. Right after him I landed another fun one not quite legal. It shut right down about 30 minutes before darkness and I packed up and hauled booty across Garden Bay to get to the WRX and load up with some daylight left. The drive back was just gorgeous. The Hiawatha Forest is full of thick pines and wildlife, and the sunset was one of the best I ever seen. I truly felt like I was on vacation listening to that old Evinrude scream across Lake Michigan with so much scenery after I landed 17 smallmouth in one hour after the worst 5 hours of fishing I ever had. The store bought lures were useless that day, and our BABY SQUID and BASS JERKER not only saved the day, it turned it into my best day for smallmouth fishing action in 2.5 years. I had to adjust a lot from 2014, and it shows that you can't get stuck with the same presentations and locations over and over. You have to learn fish movement and get on them with the lures that they wanna hit or react to.

Less clarity pushed them shallower , but they still would not go shallow enough to be seen. They were on ledges that dropped into 14 ft not 30 ft and in very dark 6 ft water with poor clarity. They were clearly near sparse weed growth in all my successful spots too, 2014 there were no weeds around where I found them. Every trip is a huge learning experience and I am so happy I figured it out in the final hour. What a feeling having your son's invention totally save your fishing trip. I did not want to go home skunked on smallmouth for both days of fishing!!! And one thing I was really impressed with - our VMC red trebles did not bend or break after battling about 22 smallmouths that fought very hard, just lost some paint on them. And the feather dressing I tied on was still holding together. I am sure KVD changes out every hook on his own lures for a tournament. Probably to triple-grip Mustad Elites.