DATE: 13 Dec 2008, 4:32 pm / MOOD: Other

OK, so even though this one comes in just shy of the $200 mark the Gander Mountain Guide Series TecH2O Rain Gear is worth every penny.

As I mentioned in the my previous post, I have a long history in specialty outdoor retail and during that time I have sold and owned many brands of high-end, waterproof/breathable raingear - I mean stuff like Arc'Teryx and Patagonia.

Many companies would like you to think that building tough, waterproof/breathable rain gear is in akin to cold fusion and it is reflected in their pricing. The Guide Series TecH2O is every bit as good as those high-dollar brands at a fraction of the cost - $198 for the bibs and parka. My Gander Mountain Guide Series TecH2O is warm, comfortable, fits well, and (as you would expect) is 100% waterproof and breathable. If you or the angler on your list is in need of new raingear, Gander Mountain Guide Series TecH2O Rain Gear is a real no-brainer. For more great bass fishing information visit www.HardkoreFishing.com

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DATE: 08 Dec 2008, 4:55 pm / MOOD: Other

Some of you might know that I have a long history in the outdoor industry - more specifically in specialty outdoor retail. Now when I say 'long history' I mean, I remember when Patagonia introduced the Synchilla Fleece....yeah. Anyway, one of the trends in specialty outdoor retail is moving away from synthetic base layers (insulated underwear) to either wool or a wool blend. Without going into all of the details, I will just say that wool base layers are awesome because they are soft against your skin, they move moisture very well, and they don't retain odors - the opposite of how synthetic base layers perform....until now.

Under Armour Cold Gear is the best synthetic base layer I have ever worn. The two-layer brushed fabric used in the UA Cold Gear traps heat while it move moisture away from your skin, keeping you warm and dry. The compression fit makes it extremely comfortable while the finished exterior of the fabric allows it to slide under other garments without getting tangled or hung-up. And if you have had a bad experience with synthetic base layers retaining odors, don't worry - Under Armour Cold Gear doesn't stink.

I wear my UA Cold Gear under my jersey throughout the tournament season and then right into hunting season. This stuff is outstanding and will make a great gift for any angler on your holiday list. You can read about more great gear for bass fishing at www.HardkoreFishing.com


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DATE: 03 Dec 2008, 5:37 am / MOOD: Other

Here is another great product from RMR Industries - KVD Line and Lure Conditioner. I started using Line and Lure this past summer because I, like many anglers, was having troubles with memory in my fluorocarbon lines, so I thought what the heck - I'll give it a try. Not only did it make my fluorocarbon line much more manageable and flexible, it actually increased my casting control and distance. I know these are pretty big claims, but I'm telling you - it really works.

And if those benefits aren't enough to keep you smiling, KVD Line and Lure Conditioner has no petroleum distillates so it won't feel greasy or slippery, is non-toxic, and is environmentally friendly. This is one really outstanding product that I will never leave the ramp without. Here is a video of Kevin VanDam explaining just how his Line and Lure conditioner works, as well as a testimonial from Dean Rojas.

Suggested Retail: $8.95
Where to Buy: cleverinnovations.com

For more great bass fishing information visit HardkoreFishing.com

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DATE: 14 Oct 2008, 7:21 pm / MOOD: Other

Well, the fall bite is on and the fishing has been spectacular. I have been fishing some smaller inland lakes instead of burning gallons of gas out on Lake Champlain and it has been a lot of fun. It is nice to just get out and fun fish instead of worrying about putting five good fish in the box.

The water temperature has been in the high 50's and although the bass haven't quite begun to move out of their summertime haunts yet, they are beginning to get on the feed and the jig bite has been pretty good.

I spent both weekend days pitching a 1/2 ounce Vertical Lures Jig X with a Lachase Baits Chunk trailer in the scattered, deeper grass on outside grass lines. The bass seemed to be suspended or just above the bottom and most of them would eat the jig on the fall. One thing about a jig bite is sometimes you never feel the bite, especially when the water is cool and the fish are a little lethargic. This gives the bass a leg-up and they can sometimes spit the jig out before you have a chance to set the hook. Before I get to my point and finish the rest of the story I need to tell you another story:

Back in July at Lake Oneida I met Matt Wilson (a.k.a. The Principal) from TAC: The Angling Center. Matt and I talked for quite a while, swapped fishing stories, and gave each other samples of our favorite baits to try. Among the products that Matt gave me were a couple of bottles of CB's Hawg Sauce. Now I will be the first to tell you that I have always thought scents were kind of a waste of time and money, but hey, they were free so I thought I might as well give then a try - what do I have to lose? When I got home I gave it a try. I would fish for a while without a bite (in an area where I know there were fish), then I would add the CB's Hawg Sauce to my bait and shortly after I would get a bite? Coincidence, right? Well, I wanted to think so. However, after three months of experimentation I can honestly say that this stuff really works - and that means something coming from someone who didn't want it to work. OK, now back to the story:

So like I said, I was piching a Vertical Lures Jig X in scattered, deep grass. I was also using a LaChase Baits Chunk trailer and had that covered in CB's Sweet and Sassy Crawfish Gel. I caught lots of fish in the two-three pound range and a couple of nice kicker fish that were around four-plus pounds - the majority of them ate it on the fall. What was really interesting to me was all the fish had the jigs way back in their mouths, I mean choking on it, but I only felt a couple of bites and saw my line jump one or twice. My only explaination for this is that I have come up with the killer jig combination - Vertical Lures Jig X, hand-poured chunks, and CB's Hawg Sauce. Aside from the Jig X being an awesome weedless jig, I think the hand-poured chunks added to the appeal of the jig, making it look like a real craw. And when they got it in their mouth, the Hawg Sauce convinced them that they had a real tasty treat so they held onto the jig long enough for me to drive the hook home.

Anyway, It has been really fun getting out on small, inland lakes and whackin' some fish with my friends without the worries of a weigh-in at the end of the day. I hope the weather continues to cooperate and gives me a few more spectacular fall fishing days. I am not quite read to winterize the boat and I want to catch a few more fish on my killer fall combination.

Read more of my fishing stories and fishing tips at www.hardkorefishing.com


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DATE: 25 Sep 2008, 5:23 am / MOOD: Other

Lake Champlain is an awesome place to fish in September, but when the weather turns bad it can be a monster where high winds and big waves are the norm. The final tournament of the regular BFL season was last weekend on Lake Champlain. This was supposed to be a two-day super tournament, but as usual, it turned into a one day tournament as the first day was cancelled due to 25 mile per hour winds and 6-8 foot waves.

I began preparing for this tournament last Thursday. I borrowed a buddy's boat and ran up into the islands for my first day of practice. I was hoping to find some good smallies using the many rocky flats that are in the area. I began the day fishing 12-14 feet deep, but just wasn't getting bit. After a few hours of hammering around with the trolling motor on high I caught a 3 pound smallie in about 10 feet of water on a LaChase Baits 3.5" Chase N Tube. Now I was getting some where. I continued to fish the flats a little shallower trading between the Chase N Tube and dropshotting a Zipper Worm 3.75" Drop Shot Shaker and connected with three more fish in about 45 minutes: two 3 pound largemouths and a 2.5 pound smallie added to the days count. There were obviously some decent fish in this area so I left to check another spot. I pulled up onto a point that lead to a flat and immediately caught a 4 pound largemouth on the Pearl Sparkle Drop Shot Shaker. I should have left right then and there, but I wanted to catch one or two more fish to make sure it wasn't a fluke. the next cast with the drop shot produced an ornery 4.5 pound smallmouth. Long story short, 17.5 pounds on the first day of practice was more than I expected and needless to say, I was excited.

Friday morning I took the ferry over to Plattsburg, New York to meet my buddy John "Hip-Hop" Cook for another day of practice. It was about 37 degrees and pretty windy when we left the ramp and hammered up the lake. I wanted to fish some main lake shoals, but the wind proved to be too much so we had to try and hide. We puttered around and spent more time trying to hide from the wind than catching fish so we decided to give in and found an area where we could drift with the wind and burn crankbaits and spinnerbaits. We picked up a few fish here and there, lost some tackle to a few voracious gators (ask John about his "lucky" balsa crankbait), and generally had fun fishing. A little further down we began fishing the piling of a bridge and got onto a pretty good crankbait bite. I was throwing a Bomber 6A in Rootbeer/Chartruese and they were absolutely crushing it. I caught quite a few fish with one good one that was about 4 pounds. I felt good about the bites at the bridge because, although I knew there would be a lot of guys fishing it, I was pretty sure no one had discovered the crankbait bite - and I had it dialed. The run back to the ramp was big and rough with 5 and 6 foot rollers trying to break over the deck, but we finally made it and felt good about tournament day.

So, like I mentioned above, Saturday was cancelled due to high wind and big waves, so I just hung around the campground all day and caught up on some much needed R and R.

Sunday morning I woke to a cold north wind and spitting rain. I met my partner, Keith Barlow, at the ramp, launched his Ranger Z20, and headed for boat check. We were boat 36 and blasted off shortly after 6:30AM. As we came around Cumberland Head and headed north, we began to get pounded, and I mean pounded hard, by 3 foot waves going five different directions. the beating was almost intollerable. We finally pulled up on a flat where Keith had found some good fish in practice. We fished for about an hour without a bite when Keith finally connected with a nice largemouth.....in 17 feet of water? I wasn't too suprised since I had caught a couple of largies real deep during practice. A little while later I finally caught a keeper smallmouth on the Pearl Sparkle Drop Shot Shaker. About 20 minutes later my dropshot loaded and a monster smallmouth rolled on the surface and it was on! When I finally got it in the boat I was happy to put a 4.5 pound smallmouth in the box. After not getting another bite for a while we packed up and headed for the bridge where I caught my crankbait fish on Friday.

When we pulled up to the bridge there were already six boats there, but they were all dropshotting and fishing Senkos. Keith tossed a crankbait and brought it back down by the bridge piling and immediately put a 3 pounder in the boat. A couple of pilings down the bridge Keith's rod loaded and another 3+ pound largemouth was in the boat. It was a little discouraging to see him put those fish in his livewell, but it was also very encouraging to see that my practice paid off....sort of. We did not get another bite for the rest of the day and I ended up only bringing two fish to the scales for 5 pounds 5 ounces and finished in 40th place.

Although I finished 13th in the points which qualified me for the regional in North Carolina I have decided not to go. I am going to stay home, do some duck hunting, and hang out with the family for a while....until next season. Visit www.hardkorefishing.com for more.

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DATE: 03 Sep 2008, 8:08 pm / MOOD: Other

Lake Oneida - man, this was another tough tournament for me. It was not a struggle like Chautauqua, but tough in the sense that I had a painful practice and I had to work for all of my bites.




I practiced Firday with my buddy Bill McKelvey Jr. and the weather was awful. As we headed west across the lake we battled 3 and 4 footers most of the way - only taking a few over the sides of the boat. Despite our best efforts, the wind and waves won and spent a lot of our practice time hiding on the upwind side of the lake. To add insult to injury, we were not getting any bites. At the end of the day I did catch a smallmouth that was about 1 1/2 pounds, but that was it.



My partner for the tournament was Henry Stone who said he had some fish and was confident that we would both catch limits. I guess I learned a little from my experience on Chautauqua and was able to pinpoint and eliminate the negatives that gave me so much trouble during that tournament. So despite my less than encouraging practice day, I felt pretty good about catching a limit.



From blast-off we only ran a couple of miles west where we pulled up on a small, main lake shoal. the water was slick calm and it was raining lightly. There was also a hatch of some extremely small aquatic insects. Now rain I can handle, but these insects were about to drive me insane. All I could do was put my head down, fish, and try to ignore them - easier said than done: They were in my face, on my neck, buzzing in my ears, behind my glasses, and pretty mych everywhere else - it couldn't have been worse. then I put a nice 2.8 pound smallie in the box that I caught on a JDC Baits Gibroni and forgot about the bugs for a moment. Boats came and went as we continued to run laps on the shoal and pick fish off the shoal. I kept switching between a texas-rigged JDC Baits Gibroni and dropshotting a LaChase Baits Ribbed Morsel and slowly put five in the box.



As we headed to weigh-in I thought I had a pretty good bag, but despite everyone having a tough practice the weights were right where they should have been. My five fish only weight 8 pounds 10 ounces which was good enough for a 33rd place finish, but not what I was hoping for. The good news was I beat my good buddy John Cook by two ounces and didn't fall in the points.



The final regular season tournament is back on Champlain and I am really loking forward to this one. It is a two-day tournament and Hopefully I can make the cut. I have a couple of areas where, if the fish are on them and my partner will go to them, it will be lights-out - we both will have the opportunity to bring in 16-18 pound bags.

www.hardkorefishing.com



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DATE: 19 Aug 2008, 4:59 am / MOOD: Other

It has been a couple of weeks since I received my order from JDC Baits. Among the baits that I was really excited to fish (aside from the BLR Bomber) was the RocKraw which has a reputation for being a real fish catcher. I got the RocKraw in two colors: Junebug and Choco Gold.

For my first trip to the lake with these baits I decided I was going to flip some matted milfoil. I rigged a Choco Gold RocKraw with a 1/2 ounce Tungsten weight and started flipping and pitching into the pockets. The fish flat-out ate it up. I caught three good fish within the first ten minutes. To make sure they just weren't on, I grabbed another flipping rod rigged the same way, but with a creature bait. Nothing - I couldn't buy a bite. I promptly put that rod in the locker and continued on with the RocKraw. I ended up catching a couple more decent fish and ended the evening with a nice 4 pounder that absolutely smashed the Kraw on the fall.

Since then I have fished the RocKraw as a jig trailer, carolina rigged, on a jig head, even weightless skipping docks and have caught fish every time. The JDC Baits RocKraw has become one of my favorite baits. There are a couple of features that really make the RocKraw stand out: The detail, the fall and the defensive posture. The detail of the this bait is pretty astounding; it looks just like a real crayfish - pretty cool and obviously convincing to the fish . Second is the fall. If you have ever been to the bait shop and checked out the crayfish tank you have seen these little buggers throw their claws towards the surface and head to the bottom like a rocket - the RocKraw looks identical on the fall. Lastly is the awesome defensive posture of this bait - I think the picture speaks for itself.

If you would like to see more of the great baits that JDC Baits offers, here is a quick link to get you there.

Go to www.HardkoreFishing.com to see the pictures of this awesome bait and get the links.



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DATE: 18 Jul 2008, 2:31 pm / MOOD: Other

The Elite Series will officially be "Elite" in 2009 when they remove the co-angler from the tour. I am not sure how I feel about this, but I can tell you that it is going to cause quite a bit of debate and send a ripple through the industry. I hope we will not see a trickle-down effect and have the co-angler removed from the FLW Tour and Series.

I was really suprised at how many Elite anglers were rejoycing B.A.S.S.'s decision, but I guess I can see their point - when a co-angler puts a fish in the box that is one more that the elite angler will not catch the following day. And if you get a co-angler who can fish (like Gander Mountain Pro-staffer, Dave Ottman, who won the co-angler on Lake Erie last year) that could make the difference between caching a check and going home empty-handed.

However, I think this format really humanizes the Elite Series anglers and has keep them out of the "untouchable"catagory and more like regular guys who can really fish. Peter Thliveros makes a really good point saying that the co-anglers are the guys who "perpetuate the myth" of may of the top guys and if the stories don't get out, pretty soon "everybody knows you, but they don't know you."

There is a link to the complete story on my website: www.hardkorefishing.com



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DATE: 14 Jul 2008, 7:38 pm / MOOD: Other

Since my last post was about making the switch to Sufix Performance Braid, I thought I would keep with the trend and tell you about the other change I made - Vicious Fluorocarbon.

I have been using fluorocarbon line for everything from dropshotting to flipping for a while (except for my topwater rods where I still use monofilament), but this season I switched all of my rods over to Vicious. The reason I made the change is because you simply cannot beat the sensitivity, abrasion resistance, or impact and handling characteristics of Vicious Fluorocarbon.

With Vicious Fluorocarbon I can feel the lightest dropshot bites or slam a jig home with a flipping stick and not have to worry about getting them out of the cover. Add to that great handling characteristics and almost no memory, even on a spinning rod, and you have one awesome fluorocarbon! And you cannot beat the price - $10.99 for a 250 yard spool of 15# line.

There have been a lot of advances in fluorocarbon lines over the last few years and Vicious Fishing is leading the way. So, if you have been reluctant to spool-up with fluorocarbon because of the bad press it has received in the past, you should not hesitate to try a spool of Vicious Fluorocarbon- this is the best fluorocarbon line out there...seriously. And if fluorocarbon just isn't your thing, Vicious also makes a copolymer line called Vicious Ultimate - check it out.

visit my website at www.hardkorefishing.com

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DATE: 14 Jul 2008, 7:37 pm / MOOD: Other

I really enjoy going to the 1000 Islands. The place is beautiful, the water is extremely clear and the fishing can be outstanding. Friday I practiced with a buddy about a 15 minute run up the river from French Creek Marina. It was nice to get out on the water, but the fishing was a little disappointing. I threw topwaters, tubes, stickbaits, jigs, and even dropshotted. In the end I manage five fish, but they were all "rats".

For tournament day I drew-out with John "Sarge" Hahn (more about John later). John said he had fish, all largemouths, but we would have to pick and poke through them to come up with a decent bag - fair enough; it could be worse.

After the Nation Anthem and our boat number was called we hammered up the St. Lawrence River in John's Ranger 520VX and pulled up on a relatively shallow, tapering point covered in grass. I began throwing a Texas-rigged Yum Dinger in Green Pumpkin Neon. On my second cast I put a keeper in the box. A few casts later - another keeper. In the first hour of fishing I had a limit in the box and began to cull shortly after that. I don't know if John was being nice or just in guide mode, but he left the area wide open for me. After I put on a quick clinic from the back deck he tightened-up and put on his game face. He never back-boated me, but I could always tell when we were getting to a high percentage area.

Throughout the day, we fished a number of spots through Lake of the Isles, Alexandria Bay and back down to Clayton, all the while catching fish and picking through our livewells. Right before leaving to check-in I made one last cast with a Texas-rigged Tube X and boated a good smallie to cull out my last 'rat' of a largemouth - awesome.

I probably caught three limits and culled at least 6 times during the day - we just didn't get the big bites we needed. I did have a real nice largemouth jump off first thing in the morning. I don't think it would have put me in the money, but it would have helped a lot. At the end of the day I managed an 8lb 3oz bag and a 33rd place finish which moved me up to 21st in the points, so all in all it was pretty good.

John "Sarge" Hahn has a guide service in the 1000 Islands and also builds custom bucktail jigs. If you are looking for a great day of fishing on a beautiful body of water give him a call - you will not be disappointed.

Sarge Tackle
John "Sarge" Hahn
607-797-9138
e-mail: jhahn001@stny.rr.com

visit my website at www.hardkorefishing.com

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