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 [email protected] or contact Jesse at [email protected] 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 [email protected]!!!