BASS REPORT: Junior takes shot at $500,000 payday at Forrest Wood Cup
NEW July 26, 2010 / 6:30 p.m

ATLANTA - Barely 10 days away from competing for a $500,000 payday, Ron Hobbs, Jr. is most excited about signing a liability waiver.

A half-million dollars and bass-fishing immortality can wait. Right now, Junior wants to talk about Blackhawk helicopters.

"Dude, I had to sign a waiver in case I make the top 6 and get to ride in a Blackhawk helicopter - how cool is that?!?" Hobbs says the week before departing for Atlanta and Lake Lanier, where 78 of the FLW's top anglers will compete for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup and the biggest paycheck in professional bass fishing. "I just want to make the top six so I can fly in a helicopter."

8CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT RON HOBBS' PREPARATION for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup on Georgia's Lake Lanier.

GUEST BLOG: Kramer spends some time with West Coast bass basics
UPDATED June 23, 2010 / 11:40 a.m.

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. - "Do you know the best single tail grub ever made? That’s an easy question. The best grub is the one they’re biting."

So says George Kramer. Or, as I like to call him "The Sage of Lake Elsinore". I've had the pleasure of working with George for going on 13 years now, first with F&H News and these days with California Sportsman. If you're a West Coast basser - be you from Electric City or Lake Havasu City - you've benefitted from George's writing sometime, somewhere.

8CHECK OUT GEORGE KRAMER'S "GRUB-OLOGY 101" and the review of a new tool in the West Coast basser's arsenal, the Kalin 4-inch grub.

BASS REPORT: Clear Lake bite goes swimbaitingly for winner Velvick
POSTED March 23, 2010 / 2:10 p.m.

LAKEPORT, Calif. - On Day Two of the 2010 Golden State Shootout last week, BASS emcee Keith Alan glanced at the deck of California pro Jared Lintner's boat as it headed out onto Clear Lake's big-bass grounds.

"Look at the size of the swimbaits on that deck," Alan barked into the microphone. "Jared Lintner, are you kidding me?"

Lintner just smiled a little and kept driving.

8READ THE REST OF MY BASSMASTER.COM FEATURE STORY on the Clear Lake swimbait bite, and how Byron Velvick turned his big-bait talents into a $100,000 paycheck.

BASS REPORT: Velvick outlasts field in Clear Lake, claims first Elite victory
POSTED March 22, 2010 / 6:10 a.m.

LAKEPORT, Calif. - Once all was said and done, the 2010 Golden State Shootout was Byron Velvick's to win or lose. And on a fishery where he introduced the bass masses to the most West Coast of bass baits, swimbait master Velvick chunked, chunked and chunked some more en route to a wire-to-wire victory.

For Velvick, it was perhaps the sweetest victory in a career that's taken him from top, to bottom and everywhere in between.

8CHECK OUT THE BASSMASTER/ESPN OUTDOORS TEAM'S coverage of Byron Velvick and his victory in the second stop in the 2010 Elite Series in Clear Lake, and stay tuned later today for my exclusive feature on Velvick's swimbait technque, and the bait's influence on the Elite tour. You can keep track of it all on Bassmaster.com.

BASS REPORT: Field of 12 pursues NWWC guest Byron Velvick in Clear Lake
POSTED March 21, 2010 / 10:10 a.m.

LAKEPORT, Calif. - Day Four of the 2010 Golden State Shootout has come down to this: It's the last lap of a race that appears to be running on three different tracks.

On one track is Byron Velvick, who has led this tournament since virtually the first hour, building a three-day total of 75 pounds, 8 ounces by steadfastly throwing swimbait after swimbait after swimbait across a broad, shallow, grassy flat. On another track are Bill Lowen (69-9) and Guy Eaker (68-4), who have tag-teamed a shallow, grassy slough for three days with jigs, lipless crankbaits, swim jigs and chatterbaits.

And finally, there are Randy Howell, Bradley Roy, Terry Butcher, Jared Lintner and the rest of an 11-man pursuit team chasing Velvick as he looks to claim his first Elite Series victory on a fishery where he already owns a BASS record.

8CHECK OUT THE REST OF MY DAY-FOUR BLAST-OFF REPORT as Wild Country guest Byron Velvick tries to hold off the rest of the Final 12 at the second stop in the 2010 Elite Series in Clear Lake. You can keep track of it all on Bassmaster.com, and check back often for updates here at NW Wild Country and at WaFish.com s I file my final reports from tournament HQ.

-JS

NWWC VIDEO WALL: Team F24 begins bass pursuit with Long Long attack
POSTED March 21, 2010 / 11:10 a.m.

TACOMA - When I named Glen & Gami Bayer two of the founding members of the NW Wild Country Crash Test Crew last year, the first few items I got in their hands included a grab-bag of bass goodies from my friends at Booyah! Team F24 has a bass itch, and they have it bad.

Check out the video to the right, the latest in a growing list of videos by the husband-and-wife fishing team who has become such a cornerstone of the chat forum over at Gamefishin.com. Since I'm down in Clear Lake covering the Elite Series this week, this comes along at just the right time.

Keep 'em coming, F24!

-JS

BASS REPORT: Golden State Shootout field in search of "the big bite"
POSTED March 19, 2010 / 12:10 p.m.

LAKEPORT, Calif. - His last walk across the weigh-in stage at the TroKar Duel in the Delta in Stockton last week gave California native Byron Velvick time to crack a joke about his anticipation of the Golden State Shootout on Clear Lake: "I'm going to go to Clear Lake, sit on the shore and meditate," Velvick said after weighing in just three fish for 8 pounds, 12 ounces and an 82nd-place finish on the Delta.

Turns out that whatever form of tai-chi or yoga Velvick practices works on Clear Lake. For one day anyway.

Leaving the Liberty Park dock in 33-degree temperatures this morning for Day Two of the Golden State Shootout, Velvick is the leader of "Swimbait Nation," with 29 pounds, one good-sized largemouth ahead of fellow Californian Jared Lintner (23-4), Randy Howell (23-3), Bill Lowen (22-14) and Guy Eaker (21-14).

Velvick's kicker fish, a 10-11, is exactly what the 93 Elite pros are hunting for today.

"I didn't get a big bite yesterday, and I have to figure out how to change that," said Florida pro Shaw Grigsby, who weighed in five fish that averaged a hair better than 3 pounds on Thursday. "First thing I'm going to do early today is try to catch a big fish on a swimbait."

8READ THE REST OF MY DAY TWO BLAST-OFF REPORT as the Elite Series Golden State Shootout continues on a rapidly warming Clear Lake. You can keep track of it all on Bassmaster.com, and check back often for updates as NW Wild Country as I file exclusive reports from tournament HQ.

-JS

BASS REPORT: Elite Series anglers open tomorrow on "sleeping giant"
POSTED March 17, 2010 / 6:00 p.m.

LAKEPORT, Calif. - The Bassmaster Elite Series is tickling the nose of a sleeping giant.

After two practice sessions Monday and Tuesday that Bassmaster Classic champion Kevin VanDam described as “so brutal I can’t believe it,” most of the 93 anglers leaving the Willow Point Park launch on Clear Lake, Ca., Wednesday for the final day of practice for the 2010 Golden State Shootout sound like they’ve been snake-bitten. It’s been that tough.

“I think most of us would rather be back on the Delta,” Denny Brauer joked Tuesday after practice. “I’ve thrown that swimbait 1,000 miles and don’t have a thing to show for it.”

Or, as VanDam put it: “It can’t get any tougher than this.”

Oh, but how quickly that could change.

8READ THE REST OF MY CLEAR LAKE ELITE SERIES PREVIEW as the country's best bass anglers tackle one of the West Coast's best laregmouth fishery. Keep track of it all on Bassmaster.com, and check back often for updates as NW Wild Country as I file exclusive reports from the Golden State Shootout.

-JS

BASS REPORT: Elite Series road warriors tackle practice at Delta Duel
POSTED March 9, 2010 / 6:00 a.m.

STOCKTON, Calif. - The last bits of confetti had barely been cleared off the 2010 Bassmaster Classic trophy before Kevin VanDam was on the road, boat in tow, for a 3-day marathon behind the wheel.

Distance from his home in Kalamazoo, Mich., to Stockton, Calif., site of the 2010 TroKar™ Duel in the Delta, the first stop in the 2010 Bassmaster Elite Series: Just over 2,300 miles.

There are similar stories for Greg Hackney (2,245 miles from his home in Gonzalez, La.), and the majority of the Southern- and Eastern-based field fishing the first stop in the 2010 Elite Series.

8READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON DAY 1 PRACTICE over at Bassmaster.com, and check back often for updates as NW Wild Country host Joel Shangle checks in from the Delta.

BASS REPORT: Pasco's Don Hogue blogs on the 2010 Bassmaster Classic
POSTED Feb. 28, 2010 / 9:55 a.m.

FROM WAFISH.COM - A blog on my classic experience won't do it justice, but then again I'm not sure what would or could.

In short, it was the single greatest fishing experience of my life. Really, beyond what words can express. So let me just try to recap as best I can what went down. This will probably be long, but trust me, if I were to write about everything, I could fill a book.

8CHECK OUT DON HOGUE'S CLASSIC BLOG HERE and find out what it's like for a kid from Tri-Cities to compete on bass fishing's biggest stage.

WILDCAST HIGHLIGHT: King Kevin spends some time around the Wild Fire
UPDATED Feb. 28, 2010 / 9:45 a.m.

SEATTLE - "We have Kevin from Kalamazoo on the phone now. Kevin from Kalamazoo ... have you caught any fish lately?"

Kevin from Kalamazoo's response: "Heh, heh, heh. Well, not in the last week or so, but , last week was pretty good for me."

Indeed it was. To the tune of $500,000.

You might know Kevin better by his initials: K-V-D. As in Kevin VanDam, the newly crowned 2010 Bassmaster Classic champion, and the most successful bass fisherman in history. KVD took time away from his uber-frenetic schedule this Saturday to check in (live from Manhatten!) with the Wild Country crew.

8HEAR THE REST OF OUR CONVERSATION WITH KVD and find out how a kid from the Steelhead Latitudes of Michigan became the greatest bass fisherman of all time.

BASS TRENDS: Day 1 finds Hogue in contention for big fish at 2010 Classic
POSTED Feb. 19, 2009 / 7:45 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Faithful followers of the Bassmaster Classic on ESPN Outdoors - great blogging, by the way, by my boys back there - might've been surprised to see two photos atop the leader board from Lay Lake: Kevin Van Dam. Don Hogue.

Don WHO?

H-O-G-U-E. As in, Don Hogue from Tri-Cities, the Pacific Northwest's proud representative at the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing.

Hogue finished the day in 28th place in this fishery south of Birmingham, Alabama, but for the majority of the day, he owned the big fish award for Day 1.

Hogue weighed in two fish for 7-1, but his big fish was a fat 6-01, which held big-fish honors until Mike Iaconelli weighed in a 6-10 at the end of the day to nudge Hogue out of big-fish honors.

Still, for the humble history teacher and high-school football coach from Tri-Cities, sharing the same web page with KVD for most of the day is reward enough.

LIVE FROM BIRMINGHAM: We'll be hooking up with the G-Man, Gary Stiles of NW Bass, who's LIVE back in Birmingham!!!!! You want local flavor in the world's biggest bass-fishing event? You got it. Tune in at 6:30 a.m tomorrow as we chat with Stiles about the Evergreen State's proud representation at the biggest fishing event on the planet.

-JS

nTUNE IN LIVE, 6-8 a.m. PST on SPORTSRADIO 950 KJR!

nCATCH IT STREAMING ONLINE at www.950kjr.com!

nDOWNLOAD THE PODCAST at our ON DEMAND CENTER!

ASK THE EXPERTS: Clausen serves up fall-transition advice, tips
NEW Oct. 24, 2009 / 3:10 p.m

SEATTLE - Our Northwest Wild Country listeners are very familiar with Million Dollar Club member "Coolhand" Luke Clausen, and his exploits on the big-time national bass tours. Clausen - a former Forrest Wood Cup and Bassmaster Classic winner - served up exclusive advice on how to pick apart a new fishery when he joined our "Ask The Experts" panel this Saturday.

8CLICK HERE for the "Ask The Experts" podcast

BASS REPORT FLASH: FLW won't be back to Columbia River in 2010
NEW Aug. 1, 2009 / 6:30 p.m. EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - It’s been part of the Pacific Northwest bass-fishing gossip hotline since FLW Outdoors packed their bags and left Umatilla in late June following the WalMart FLW Series National Guard Western Division event on the Columbia River.

It’s no longer gossip: FLW won’t be back to the Pacific Northwest in 2010.

“For next year, we probably won’t be back to the Columbia River,” FLW Outdoors’ Charlie Evans confirmed today before the Day 3 weigh-in at the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup in Pittsburgh, Penn. “That said, we have every intention of returning to the Northwest. We love it up there. The people treated us great, and the fishing is, of course, phenomenal. It’s just a reaction to the economic conditions of our country.”

8CLICK HERE to read the rest of our exclusive Bass Report news flash.

BASS REPORT: Largemouth hotshots Salewske, Curtis lead FWC on Day 3
NEW Aug. 1, 2009 / 8:30 p.m. EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - Ironic, isn’t it, that the two anglers sitting at the top of the leader board heading into the final day of the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup are largemouth anglers from Southern California and Texas?

Check that: the true irony is that the fishery they’re competing on – the Three Rivers of Pittsburgh, PA – is almost exclusively a smallmouth fishery that prompted one angler to say “I doubt there’s seven largemouth in that whole system.”

But like it or not, smallie fans, when the guys sitting in places 3 through 10 blast off tomorrow for the penultimate day of the $2 million FWC, they’ll be chasing Alpine, California’s Rusty Salewske and Trinity, Texas’ David Curtis, a pair of lifelong largemouth anglers from two of the sport’s green-fish Meccas.

8CLICK HERE to read the complete story from Day 3 of the Forrest Wood Cup.

WILD BLOG: Goldston finds himself living the angler's dream at FWC
NEW Aug. 1, 2009 / 10:30 a.m. EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - “Starstruck” might be a strong word, but as Tommie Goldston stands on the floor of Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Penn., site of the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup, that’s the only word the Gardnerville, NV angler can come up with.

“Absolutely starstruck,” Goldston repeats. “I can’t believe I’m here, I can’t believe I’m doing what I’m doing … I just can’t believe any of this.”

“This”, for those of you who don’t follow professional bass fishing, is the World Series, Tour de France and US Open of the fishing world, all rolled into one dazzling display of lights, smoke, sound, and Jumbotron video. A total prize pool of $2 million is on the line. Thousands of people from western Pennsylvania – and, for that matter, throughout the country – will file into the same arena where the Stanley Cup currently resides, where, on Saturday and Sunday, they’ll boisterously cheer the weighing of fish.

And Goldston, a quiet, unassuming roofing contractor from west-central Nevada, will be right in the middle of it all, alongside the mega-superstars of the bass-fishing world.

8CLICK HERE to read about Tommie Goldston's road to the Cup, and his awe-inspiring encounters with two legends of the sport.

BASS REPORT: Hackney takes a chance, vaults into top spot at FWC Day 2
NEW July 31, 2009 / 9:35 p.m EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn - Finally, after two days of competition and four days of practice, the Three Rivers of Pittsburgh showed us a glimpse of what lies beneath her rain-muddied waters.

Louisiana pro Greg Hackney put in an early-morning run that would make some Columbia River anglers proud, locking way, way, way up the Allegheny River on Day 2 of the Forrest Wood Cup in search of a bag of smallmouth that would pull him out of 36th place and into the Top 10.

Mission accomplished, and then some.

8CLICK HERE to read the full NWWC report on Day 2 at the Forrest Wood Cup.

BASS REPORT: Live from Mellon Arena: Meyers surges to the top
NEW July 31, 2009 / 5:35 p.m EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - Your 5:35 update:

Meyer hanging in
California's Cody Meyer is still hanging in first with 13-10 total as more anglers weigh in. Meyer fished drop-shots and Jackall jerkbaits today.

Nixon falls back
Larry Nixon didn't find the fish like he did yesterday, weighing in 4 fish for 3-9. He currently sits in second.

"I’m scared, but that (weight) could make it," Nixon said. "I sure want to fish tomorrow. The way the current swirls here, the further you are from the bank the worse you are. I never got a bite for 2 hours, locked up into that Pittsburgh pool, hit 7-8 spots before I caught a fish. Smallmouth don’t like cloudy days as much as largemouth. They’re down deep, it’s hard for them to see."

-JS

BASS REPORT: Live from Mellon Arena: "The Lefebre Gang" out in force
NEW July 31, 2009 / 5:30 p.m EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - Good afternoon, everybody. Coming at you right now from Mellon Arena, where Day 2 weigh-in for the Forrest Wood Cup begins in about 20 minutes.

Here are a few quick casts as we get ready for the anglers to start hitting the stage:

The Lefebre Gang is out in force
A good portion of the first two rows behind me on press row at Mellon Arena is occupied by “The Lefebre Gang”, all wearing their bright yellow and red Keebler t-shirts in support of Day 1 leader Dave Lefebre. Lefebre’s wife, Ann, and daughter Macy, are in the seats directly behind me, and their pride in the Union City, PA angler’s accomplishments shows in the smiles and nervous-excited conversations going on between family members.

“We’re all just so proud of him,” Ann said. “It was so hard for him to qualify through the tour, he’s just really happy to be here.”

Exceptionally nice, sweet people. Little Macy is well armed with her favorite blanket, a sippy cup, and a sign that says “Hail Hail, the Lefebre Gang’s All Here”.

I’ll post a photo of them shortly.

Houston says "50 anglers are still in this thing"
Bass-fishing icon Jimmy Houston swears that most of the field of 77 is still in the competition. Even the guys sitting near the bottom with 2 pounds.

"Probably about 50 or 60 of these guys still have a chance at that $1 million," Houston just told the crowd here at Mellon. "Some of those guys down in 50th can go out and catch 8 or 9 pounds today, they'll have a chance."

Any 3 Doors Down fans here?
The video for "Citizen Soldiers" by 3 Doors Down is playing on the five gigantic Jumbotron screens here in the arena, behind the main stage. Lights are out, volume is cranked. I dig 3 Doors Down anyway, but in this particular setting - the National Guard is about to present the flag for the National Anthem - it gives a guy chills. Pretty cool.

Anglers lining up now
The first group of anglers are at the holding tanks behind the stage. More in a bit.

-JS

BASS REPORT: Day 2 at the FWC: notes and quotes from the Three Rivers
NEW July 31, 2009 / 12:45 p.m. PST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - You want to talk about a home-field advantage?

That's exactly what 76 anglers are battling today as Day 2 of the Forrest Wood Cup winds down toward the 5 p.m. EST weigh-in (you can catch it all live at FLW Live). That 77th angler in the field - Day 1 leader Dave Lefebre - is out there on the Ohio River, fishing waters that he knows as well as his own living room.

Lefebre hails from nearby Union City, Penn., which is roughly 2 hours away. He's fished the Three Rivers area since he was a kid, and, as he continues his assault on the smallies below a certain un-named dam on the Ohio, the rest of the field knows that - even if that spot dries up for Lefebre - he has dozens upon hundreds of others to draw from.

"(Lefebre) has more spots on these rivers to fish than any other guy out there," said Jimmy Houston. "It's going to be hard for the rest of these guys to overcome that."

Covering the Cup: Northwest Wild Country will be on-site at Mellon Arena from first cast to final weigh-in as 77 professional anglers compete for the $1 million paycheck and the title as FLW's Big Dawg. TUNE IN to Sportradio 950 KJR for updates on Thursday and Friday, and join us live from the Cup on Saturday and Sunday.

BASS REPORT: Lefebre beats muddy water to lead FWC Day 1; Ike hovers
NEW July 30, 2009 / 8:30 p.m EST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - Surprise surprise. And, as it turns out, no surprise at all.

Changing conditions dominated the day today on the Three Rivers of Pittsburgh as the 77 professional anglers competing in the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup blasted off into the muddy waters of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers in pursuit of bass fishing's biggest tournament payout.

Once they got to their spots? Surprise, surprise.

But the leader after Day 1? No surprise there.

Almost to a man, the FLW's best anglers were sent into full-on scramble mode early this morning when they arrived at their first spots of the day to find that heavy rains early in the week had turned many fishable spots to mud. It brought a whole new favorite catch-phrase to the weigh-in stage at Mellon Arena Thursday afternoon.

8CLICK HERE to read the full NWWC report on Day 1 at the Forrest Wood Cup.

BASS REPORT: Ehrler: "I've slept better this week than in a long time."
NEW July 27, 2009 / 7:30 p.m PST

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - What do you do when you’re 2 days away from the biggest bass tournament of your life and it feels like there are no bass within two time zones of the spots you’ve been fishing?

If you’re Brent Ehrler, you sleep like a baby.

Day 3 of practice for the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup on the Three Rivers of Pittsburgh finds the Redlands, CA pro scraping and clawing and scratching his head, trying to find bass – ANY bass – in the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where the richest professional bass tournament in the world will kick off competition on Thursday.

Ehrler, like most of the 77 pros preparing to compete in the Cup, has found the bite to be difficult bordering on non-existent in three full practice days.

8CLICK HERE to follow Ehrler through Day 3 of practice is the Forrest Wood Cup prepares to kick off on Thursday in Pittsburgh.

BASS REPORT: Clausen weighs in on Three Rivers fishery for 2009 FWC
NEW July 25, 2009 / 7:30 p.m

PITTSBURGH, Penn. - Here's the definition of a championship tournament: put 77 of the best anglers in the world on one of the most challenging fisheries in the country, and let them slug it out.

For Spokane's Luke Clausen, that's what it all comes down to on Thursday when the Forrest Wood Cup gets underway.

Clausen was matter-of-fact in the days leading up to practice week at the 2009 Cup on the Three Rivers of Pittsburgh, Penn. The former Banks Lake behemoth - who cashed a check for $500,000 when he won the Cup as a rookie in 2004 - says that the fishing on the Three Rivers is among the most difficult he and the 76 other pros will tackle the entire season.

That's what a $1 million tournament should be, though, right?

8CLICK HERE as our exclusive coverage of the '09 Forrest Wood Cup kicks off.

BASS REPORT: Russell takes home winner's check at Umatilla FLW
NEW June 27, 2009 / 10:05 p.m

UMATILLA, Ore. - Fair warning: If Neil Russell ever challenges you to a friendly bass-fishing wager on the Columbia River, just hand him your wallet.

The Nampa, Idaho-based Ranger pro added $105,000 to his bank account Saturday afternoon after weighing 10 pounds, 09 ounces of smallmouth in the final day of the WalMart FLW Series Western Division tournament in Umatilla, Ore. Russell’s five-fish limit pushed him to 47-10 overall for the tournament, just ahead of Oregon’s Cody King (47-05) for the championship of the richest bass event ever held in Oregon.

Cashing checks on the Columbia is becoming old hat for Russell: he finished third in both 2007 and 2008 at the Western Division events held in Tri-Cities, bringing his FLW Series earnings to $165,558 in the three events held on the big Oregon/Washington border river.

"Yeah, I guess I should maybe look for a few more tournaments to fish (on the Columbia)," Russell joked.

Russell's roadbed: Russell fished downriver from the Umatilla launch throughout the tournament, opting for precious hours of fishing time while several of the field’s toughest competitors – including locals Ron Mace (3rd overall with 36-07) and Ron Hobbs, Jr. (6th with 44-09) – swung for the fences with time-burning, 75- to 100-mile one-way runs upriver to the Hanford Reach, in search of 4- and 5-pound bedding fish. Russell's money spot turned out to be a shallow roadbed he'd discovered during a fall Federation tournament, a spot on the Washington side across from Irrigon that the rest of the field didn't seem to have on their radars.

"There's an old roadbed that runs alongside a big mud flat that doesn't show on the Navionics," Russell said. "I don't think anybody else knew it was in there. I never say anybody fish it the entire tournament."

His first spot on Day 1, roughly 10-11 miled further downriver near Crow Butte, didn't pan out quite like he thought it would, and, as the tournament wore on, Russell spent more and more time working his 1/8-mile roadbed, cycling through a surprising number of 2 1/2- to 3-pound fish.

"After I fished down by Crow Butte the first day and didn't find the quality of fish I wanted, I ended up fishing that roadbed more and more each day," Russell said. "I didn't know that spot was as strong as it ended up being."

Russell bagged a pair of 3-pounders off the roadbed on Day 1, added a couple more 3-pounders on Day 2 and Day 3, and hung onto his Day 3 lead with just enough 2- to 2 1/2-pounders in the final.

"I didn't realize I was going to find big ones in there every day," he said. "I felt like I could go catch fish, but I didn't realize how many good bass there were in there."

Matching the hatch: Russell's two go-to baits were a Dry Creek Old Ugly tube and 3 1/2-inch Kamakazee Treat bluegill-pattern swimbait.

"I think they were seeing that swimbait as salmon smolt," he said. "I saw one bass spit up a salmon smolt and noticed another smolt that was injured. I think I was matching the hatch. I was getting them to eat it really well - usually they'll just pop a swimbait, but these fish were really eating it.

King almost rules: King weighed in the heaviest bag of the day at 13-03, but it wasn’t quite enough to hold onto the lead as Russell, the last angler to weigh in his fish, squeaked past the eastern Oregon pro by a scant 5 ounces. King stayed below McNary Dam the first three days of the tournament, but on Saturday locked through McNary into some familiar territory around Casey’s Pond that he’s fished since he was 5 years old.

King hooked four smallies on Super Flukes and one kicker largemouth on a Lake Fork Craw Tube.

“I caught my largemouth in a backwater area in about 45 minutes and then spot-hopped my way back to the dam,” King said. “I caught my last smallmouth and did one last cull right before I got back down to the dam. Everything worked out just about like I wanted it to today. The fish were just a little smaller than I expected.”

Mace makes the run: Ron Mace exercised his gas card as much as his casting arm this week, running his 21-foot Skeeter upwards of 200 miles round-trip per day up into the upper end of Hanford Reach, where he fished 4-inch Sniper Snubs over bedding fish.

Lippincott mixes things up: Just before departing on Saturday’s final blast-off, Spokane’s Marc Lippincott told a Northwest Wild Country live audience that he hadn’t really found a consistent go-to pattern or location, and planned to play it safe throughout the day.  Lippincott stayed true to his word, weighing in 10-13, catching most of his final-day fish on spinnerbaits.

Caporuscio’s Columbia Point cruise: Southern Californian Joseph Caporuscio spent his fourth day in a row Saturday working the water inside the Columbia Point Marina in Kennewick, which is where the last two FLW Western Division tournaments have been held.

Hobbs falls one short: Hobbs’ pre-blast-off attitude was the exact opposite of Lippincott’s. When asked if he planned to play it safe Saturday as well, Hobbs chuckled and told the NWWC audience: “You guys know me. I’m not going to play it safe. I’m going up there to catch BIG ones.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the last fish he needed to fill a five-fish limit out of the Reach, the third day in a row he weighed in a short bag of smallies.

“I saw 4- and 5-pounders all day up there, but I just couldn’t get them to bite,” Hobbs said. “I weighed in three fish on Thursday, four fish Friday and four fish again today. Any one of those days if I catch one more fish, I probably win it.”
-JS

FINAL RESULTS
Neil Russell 47-10
Cody King 47-05
Ron Mace 46-07
Marc Lippincott 45-07
Joseph Caporuscio 45-06
Hobbs Jr. 44-09
Ken Wick 44-04
Cody Meyer 38-14
Randy McAbee Jr. 36-10

BASS REPORT: Russell vaults into lead as FLW heads into battle royale
NEW June 26, 2009 / 9:05 p.m

UMATILLA, Ore. - From runaway to photo finish.

If we’ve learned anything the past 48 hours at the WalMart FLW Series Western Division tournament in Umatilla, it’s the following: 1). The Columbia River doesn’t give a damn area code you come from, and; 2). Almost every single angler fishing Saturday’s final round is a threat to walk away with a $100,000 first-place check.

Nampa, Idaho angler Neil Russell dropped 14 pounds,13 ounces of smallmouth onto the scales at Umatilla Marina Thursday afternoon – the second-heaviest bag of the tournament so far - to bring his three-day total to 37-01, pushing him up six places and into the lead heading into the final day of the largest professional bass-fishing competition ever held in the Beaver State.

“This thing is going to be a drag-race,” Jeff Priester of Nixon’s Marine cracked early Friday afternoon, before the weigh-in had even started.

Little did Priester know how accurate that statement would turn out to be.

Heading into the last day of competition, seven of the 10 anglers in the finals are within 3-07 of each other. SoCal wild card Joseph Caporuscio of Cota de Caza, who stuck with the same small stretch of Columbia Point water for a third day in a row, weighed in enough smallies (10-14) to keep him within a breath of the lead at 36-08.  The “Nixon’s Marine All-Star Team” of Ron Hobbs, Jr., (35-15), Ron Mace (35-11), Marc Lippincott (34-10) and Cody King (34-02) – along with 2008 Western Division Angler of the Year Ken Wick - complete a Top 7 that are all within a kicker fish of the championship.

The big battle: Day 4 shapes up a like an old-time WWF battle royale.

After three days of gusty weather, the middle Columbia Basin should see little to no wind, flat-glass water, and 90-degree sunshine, which means hundreds of miles of wide-open access from the upper end of Hanford Reach to the lower end of Blalock Canyon below Arlington. For Hobbs, Mace, Lippincott and King – all of whom have been reserving some of their best big-fish spots for the final – it’ll be a matter of capitalizing on bites, especially on the kind of 4-plus-pound kicker fish that might spell the difference between $100,000 for first place, and $32,000 for second.

“I’m just trying to catch big, gigantic ones,” joked Hobbs, who’s final-day water is the same water Ron Mace will likely fish. “I’m seeing some big, big fish. I saw 20 pounds today on one brush pile. I guess it’s a matter of getting them to bite.”

King, who’s spent the first three days fishing below McNary Dam, will make his first lock-through upriver into water around Tri-Cities that he’s been fishing since he was 5 years old.

“The wind will determine how I fish, but I’m going to try to catch largemouth first,” said King, who caught hist first four fish (smallmouth) Thursday on spinnerbaits before dropping a jig onto a 5-plus-pound largemouth to finish the day. “I have a few spots with some big fish I saw in practice that I haven’t fished yet, and I have a memory bank of fish I’ve caught in the past. I’ll try a topwater and a fluke if the water is slick, but I’m going to spend some time flippin’ for largemouth.”

Saturday on NWWC: Tune in tomorrow morning from 6 to 6:30 as the NWWC crew checks in LIVE with the finalists for Oregon's richest bass purse ever. We'l connect with Nixon's Marine owner Jeff Priester pre-blast off, and get on the water with one of the finalists as they prepare to blast off in pursuit of a six figure paycheck!

Continued coverage: Log on to FLW Live at 2:30 p.m. PST Saturday for the live weigh-in, and stay tuned to the NWWC Bass Report for exclusive coverage of the final day of the Columbia River FLW Series tournament.

-JS

BASS REPORT: Hobbs leads Northwest charge at Umatilla FLW event
NEW June 25, 2009 / 9:00 p.m

UMATILLA, Ore. - Casual observers of the top 5 professional anglers after Day 2 of the WalMart FLW Series National Guard Western Division event on the Columbia River might think they'd mistakenly stumbled into a Northwest Bass Challenge Circuit tournament.

Northwest Bass regulars Ron Hobbs, Jr. of Orting, Ron Mace of Kennewick and Spokan’s Marc Lippincott settled into three of the top 5 spots Thursday afternoon in Umatilla as the Columbia River gave the 85 competing boats a taste of how cantankerous the old girl can be. After a gentle first day of angler-friendly breezes, the Columbia Gorge’s westerly wind-siphon brought 30-mile-per-hour gusts, kidney-jarring chop and 3-foot rollers into play, sending the field into full-on scramble mode to find quality fish in areas most of them hadn’t pre-fished at all.

“Oh, man, the wind blew a lot this morning,” said Lippincott, who, instead of chancing a long, tooth-rattling upriver run, fished downriver from Umatilla in areas he hadn’t even looked at since the 2008 season. “The wind kept people from getting where they wanted to go today. You couldn’t really got downriver toward Arlington today, but I knew it’d be a huge gamble to try to run upriver. I really wanted to go up there, but, man, it would’ve been tough to go up there and not catch a limit.”

Caution paid off for Lippincott, who caught 10-11 on Rat-L-Traps, spinnerbaits and occasional plastics to settle into fourth place, well within striking distance of Hobbs and Coto de Caza’s Joseph Caporuscio, who enter Day 3 locked in a first-placed tie at 25-10.

Locked out: Perhaps more than anyone, Hobbs served as a prime example of the capriciousness of the Columbia River’s ever-changing currents, water levels and dam schedule. After weighing in a whopping 17-11 on Day 1 for a 3-15 lead, Hobbs got hung up below McNary Dam waiting for a barge to lock through in the morning, and ended up losing 45 minutes of his already-limited fishing time at Hanford Reach. With less than two hours to fish and the Reach’s smallies hunkered down in lockjaw mode, every bite counted … and two of those bites didn’t connect.

“I missed about a 2 ½-pounder and caught a 16 ¾-inch largemouth that had a couple of 5-pound chasers,” said Hobbs, who weighed in three fish for 7-15, the 31st-heaviest bag of the day. “I saw a ton of fish today, I just couldn’t get them to bite.”

Big mover Mace: The day’s big mover was Tri-Cities’ Ron Mace, who vaulted from 11th place on Day 1 to third overall (25-00), with the heaviest bag of the day. Mace weighed in 12-14 after putting in one of the longest runs of the tournament, nearly 100 miles upriver.  

Cali representin’: Overshadowed by the Local Yokel Hit Squad’s success, Southern Californian Joseph Caporuscio hung tough with 11-14 pounds Thursday to deadlock with Hobbs for first place at 25-10. Caporuscio, who’s only previous experience on the Columbia River was the week’s practice sessions, has stuck to the same area near Tri-Cities, where he’s steadily bagged 2- to 2 ½-pounders throughout the day.

Laying back down: The National Weather Service calls for calm winds again Friday, with occasional gusts to 15 miles per hour. That’ll bring the pressure back upriver, according to Hobbs, who plans on making the same run to the three spots he’s fished the first two days.

“A lot of those boats couldn’t make it upriver today, but they’ll be back up there tomorrow,” he said.

Continued coverage: Log on to FLW Live at 2:30 p.m. PST for the live weigh-in, and stay tuned to the NWWC Bass Report for exclusive coverage of Day 3 of the Columbia River FLW Series tournament.

Saturday on NWWC: Tune in Saturday as the NWWC crew checks in LIVE from Umatilla with final-day coverage of the richest tournament ever held in Oregon.

-JS

BASS REPORT: Hobbs cruises to 4-pound lead in FLW Day 1 at Umatilla
NEW June 24, 2009 / 10:00 p.m

UMATILLA, Ore. - If you compete in a big-dollar bass tournament in the Pacific Northwest, you WILL eventually have to deal with Ron Hobbs, Jr.

That’s been a fact of life for the past 10 years for Washington anglers competing on the Northwest Bass and American Bass Association circuits. And, for the next three days, it’s the reality for 84 pros competing for a $100,000 pay check at the National Guard WalMart FLW Series event in Umatilla, Ore.

Hobbs, who many local bassers consider the most talented young angler in the Pacific Northwest, weighed in 17 pounds, 11 ounces Wednesday to lead Day 1 of the FLW event on the sprawling Columbia River by nearly 4 pounds.

“I actually kinda wigged out a little,” Hobbs joked. “I caught a bunch of fish in about a half hour and wigged out: ‘We gotta go, we gotta go!’ There was so much more I wanted to fish, but I was thinking to myself ‘I have two hours to get back through the locks, I have to get gas, oh man, what am I gonna do?’. I think I only fished about two hours.”

Hobbs ran upriver 75 miles from the Umatilla launch to the Hanford Reach, fishing water close to Spokane’s Marc Lippincott (3rd with 13-11), Kennewick’s Ron Mace (11th with 12-02) and Gene Batey from Pasco (20th with 10-06). Hobbs caught almost all of his fish sight-fishing witha 4-inch Sniper Snub drop-shot in shallow water (6 feet or less), eventually weighing in four smallmouth and a 4.8-pound largemouth kicker.

“I just threw whatever I had in my hand,” Hobbs said. “I’d see a fish and throw to it. I caught seven fish total today: five on a Snub, two on a Senko.”   

Hobbs’ 3 ½-pound average was a major departure from the rest of the 85-main field, all of whom scratched and scraped to find big fish in a Columbia River fishery where fish are fresh off the spawn and scattered. The first six anglers trailing Hobbs averaged just over 2 ½ pounds per fish, and only 21 of the 85 competing pros managed to crack the 10-pound mark as the field divided into the upriver water of the Wallula Pool and above, and downstream to Paterson and Crow Butte.

Top 5: Columbia River first-timer Joseph Caporuscio of Cota de Caza, Calif. Weighed in 13-12 for second place, followed by Lippincott (13-11), Cody King (13-08) and Cody Meyer and Star, Idaho hotshot Ken Wick (13-05). Full results available HERE at FLW Outdoors.

Day 2: The Columbia River’s famously gnarly winds didn’t come into play in Day 1, but they could play a bigger role on Day 2, when the National Weather Service calls for sustained winds 14 to 20 miles per hour, with gusts up to 30.

“Man, there are so many different things (that will determine) where I go tomorrow,” Hobbs said. “I’m going to try to start up (in the Reach), but I don’t want to go any further than I went today. The wind lengthens your run by a long time: instead of running 75 mph, you can only go 35. It changes everything.”

Continued coverage: Log on to FLW Live at 2:30 p.m. PST for the live weigh-in, and stay tuned to the NWWC Bass Report for exclusive coverage of Day 2 of the Columbia River FLW Series tournament.

Saturday on NWWC: Tune in Saturday as the NWWC crew checks in LIVE from Umatilla with some of the best pro anglers on the West Coast.

-JS/NWWC

8C. PUGET SOUND DOCK TALK: Easy target zones on Lake Washington and Lake Sammamish this week: docks. "Some of the fish are still spawning on Lake Washington," says G-Loomis pro Ron Hobbs, Jr. "They're just on the docks everywhere, period. On Sammamish, especially, you can go to just about any dock and find fish. They're shallow: 10-12 feet up to 5 feet. It'll change about mid-July, when they'll start transitioning toward deeper water, but right now, they're all over the docks." BAIT TRENDS: Drop-shot rigs are the shizzle this week: 1/8-ounce, with Sniper Snubs and similar small drop-shot baits. "You don't need to get fancy," Hobbs says. "A 1/8-ounce drop-shot with any snub bait will work." OTHER OPTIONS: Spinnerbaits, topwaters. "Spooks and other walking baits, poppers," Hobbs suggests. "I prefer walking baits because you can cover more water. They're eating a ton of young-of-the-year perch, so, white is good for topwater and spinnerbaits. I don't fish smaller than 1/2-ounce spinnerbaits. There's really no need to fish anything smaller."		8COLUMBIA BASIN POST-SPAWNERS: One of the most challenging bass-fishing times in the calender over the next 2-3 weeks in the Columbia Basin, according to multi-time Northwest Bass/ABA/Bass West Angler of the Year Paul Hall. "It's gonna be flat tough on places like Potholes - total post-spawn, a lot of rats," Hall says. "First off, I'm going to try to find some residual spawners, because there are still some around. In general, I'd go after areas that have spawned earlier. I'd target fish that have been through the spawn and have started to recover." BAIT TRENDS: Post-spawn potpourri of baits, including crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, Senkos and similar fat-profile plastics. "I'd go 1/4-ounce Hot Lips, 3/8- to 1/2-ounce spinnerbaits, and black/blue jigs," Hall advises. HOT SOURCE: Mar Don Resort		8N. PUGET SOUND PRE-SUMMER LULL: Take a lot of rods rigged for multiple techinques the next two weeks in the North Sound. "It's a time where there are still a few fish spawning, but the majority are going into a post-spawn lull where they're recuperating," says Tag Watson, the North Sound's most recognized trophy hunter. "The early summer bite hasn't kcked on yet." BAIT TRENDS: "Kitchen sink" fishing at its finest: bring everything from finesse plastics to slashbaits to topwaters, because they'll all work in the right conditions. "I like to junk fish this time of year," Watson says. "Ill take a lot of rods out, with no pre-conceived ideas about where the fish are going to be. You could try to sight fish a little still, maybe see some up on beds. You get a little cloud cover, you could try some reaction baits or a little topwater. This time of year, I'm going to start throwing a lot of frogs, some buzzbaits, maybe some wake baits. I'm just basically fishing the conditions." LOAD UP ON: Lucky Craft Gunfish, Zara Spooks, Lucky Craft Sammys, 5- to 7-inch KGM TW swimbaits (a bait that Watson developed with KGM Plastics), Triple Trout 7-inch swimbaits, 3:16 Real Deal swimbaits.

BASS REPORT: Cougs take title at Oroville FLW College Fishing tourney
NEW May 18, 2009 / 5:20 p.m

Seems like a long ways to travel to find a Hot Bite, but for the Road Cougs of Washington State, Oroville, California was E-X-A-C-T-L-Y as far as they needed to go to find the hottest bite of the weekend.

Competing in only their second event in the FLW National Guard College Fishing qualifier on Lake Oroville, the Washington State team of Ryan Bernsen (Burbank) and Kyle Wright (Pasco) bagged 10 pounds, 9 ounces of spotted bass to earn the $10,000 check for first place in the FLW's new collegiate bass-fishing circuit.

8 CLICK HERE for the official results, and check the NW Wild Country Bass Report later this week for the full story.

BASS FLASH: Solo angler Gimmell bags 22.48 to take Lake WA title
NEW May 18, 2009 / 8:00 a.m

RENTON, Wash - Partner off the water thanks to his sister's wedding? No problem.

Fishing a lake that's clear across the lake from home? No problem.

High sun, a potentially explosive day of personal-watercraft traffic on the Seattle metro area's biggest lake, and a field of 92 other teams?

No problem ... if you're a young man named Andy Gimmell of Spokane.

Fishing as a solo angler in the two-man-team format of the Northwest Bass Lake Washington qualifier Saturday on Lake Washington, Gimmell weighed in 22.48 pounds of largemouth to squeeeeeak by multi-time Angler of the Year Paul Hall and Jared Turner (22.38 pounds) in one of the largest single-day tournaments ever held on Seattle's massive metro lake.

8 CLICK HERE to read the full story.

BASS FLASH: Echternkamp, Kromm bag $13,500 at Nixon's Moses event
NEW May 3, 2009 / 4:00 p.m

MOSES LAKE, Wash. - Pulling a 180 midway through a race doesn’t seem like a good idea, but for Aaron Echternkamp and David Kromm, a final-lap change of direction translated into a $13,500 payday.

Ditching their Day 1 largemouth spots mid-morning and focusing on offshore smallmouth for most of the day, Echternkamp and Kromm cashed the winners’ check this afternoon at the Nixon’s Marine Moses Lake Invitational in Moses Lake, Wash., weighing in 19.59 pounds of smallies to ease past the other 9 teams competing in Day 2 of Washington's richest spring bass tournament.

“We hit a couple of shorelines today that I thought would still be good for largies, but we only got two largemouth that were 2 pounds,” Echternkamp said. “There was one little section that I saved from the first day that I thought would still be on, but after that we pulled off and went to this one little offshore spot that I was pretty confident would have some smallmouth.”

Turns out that Echternkamp’s confidence was valid: on the first three casts, he and Kromm boated a 4-pounder followed by a 3-pounder and another 4, all on jerkbaits.

“We caught, like, 15 fish on that one spot,” Echternkamp said.

The smallmouth binge was maybe not as surprising as the stinginess of the largemouth bite throughout the two-day event. The second-place team of Mark Diaz and James Hollingshead weighed in 17.04 pounds of largemouth, but, almost to a man, teams had to work all day to fill their five-fish limits with bucketmouths.

“A lot of those guys, the fish they weighed in today were all the bites they got all day,” said Jeff Priester of Nixon’s Marine, the sponsor of the event.

The largemouth shutdown may have been best represented by Roy Van Slyke and Rob Jacobs, who weighed in the heaviest bag on Day 1 with 25.26 pounds but only caught two fish during the finals. Granted, they were big fish - they weighed in 12.66 pounds - but the largemouth fishery on Moses seems to be showing signs of its burgeoning popularity.

"Yeah, I think it's been fished out a little," said Echternkamp, a Moses Lake resident.

Cash breakdown: Echternkamp and Kromm won $10,000 for first place, and also collected $2,500 in Triton Gold money for fishing out of a Triton, and $1,000 in Nixon's Advantage money.

8 CLICK HERE for a complete list of results, including a breakdown of how all 70 boats fared in the two-day event.

8 CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast of our interview with Aaron Echternkamp the week after the Moses Lake event.

BASS FLASH: Top 10 teams back out on Moses Lake for Nixon's Invitational
NEW May 3, 2009 / 10:00 a.m

MOSES LAKE, Wash. - Sixty other teams have packed up and gone home. But for the 10 teams who made the final cut at the Nixon's Marine Moses Lake Open, six hours of Sunday bass fishing could translate into a payday between $10,000 and $18,000.

Eastside anglers Roy Van Slyke and Marc Jacobs weighed the heaviest five-fish limit in yesterday's qualifying round, finishing with 25.26 pounds, but they had to maximize every bite they got on a day when the eastern Washington spring cranked up the wind and threw a series of showers at the 70-boat field.

"Van Slyke and Jacobs got six bites all day," said tournament organizer Gary Stiles. "Nobody's out there catching 30, 40, 50 fish a day. They're getting good bites, but not many of them."

Weights zero out today, so the final 10 teams are all on even ground as the 1 p.m. cutoff approaches.

Prize Pool: The final 10 teams are competing for a minimum cash prize of $10,000, but eight of the final 10 are running either Triton or Skeeter boats, a handful are running Mercury motors, and several are fishing out of boats purchased at Nixon's Marine. If all of those conditions line up for the winning team, the grand prize raises to as much as $18,000.

"There's definitely some boat and motor money available to a lot of these guys," Stiles said.

CHECK BACK HERE LATER TODAY for the final results, and firsthand info from the top teams.

Nixon's Marine Day 1 Top 10
Roy Van Slyke & Mark Jacobs - 25.26
Jim Hollingshead & Mark Diaz - 22.72
Curtis Kimbell & Steve Loreng - 20.10
Aaron Echternkamp & David Kromm - 19.54
Ray Lehrman & Don Hogue - 19.12
Ron Hobbs, Jr. & Mike Wolsky - 19.10
Paul Hall & Jared Turner - 18.86
Howard Summers & Bill Smith - 18.58
Mark Shugdinis & Tony LoFranco - 18.22
Ryan Brown & Bill Brown - 18.04

BASS REPORT: 126 teams blast off for Northwest Bass opener
NEW April 12, 2009 / 6:00 p.m.

COULEE CITY, Ore. - With a record 126 teams blasting out of the Coulee Playland launch this weekend, the West Coast's fastest-growing tournament circuit served notice that bass fishing is a bull market in the Pacific Northwest.

Banks Lake was in a productive mode, too, with over 845 pounds of fish weighed in, and a $4,300 payday for the winning team.

8 CLICK HERE for the final results, and check back to the Bass Report tomorrow for an exclusive rundown of the first event in the 2009 NW Bass circuit.

BASS REPORT: NW Bass kicks off 2009 season at Banks Lake
NEW April 6, 2009 / 8:40 a.m.

COULEE CITY, Ore. - Signs of spring: daffodils are blooming and 250-horsepower motors are throwing rooster-tails behind fiberglas bass rockets.

The 2009 bass-tournament season is about to blast off (literally!) in Coulee City this coming weekend, when over 100 teams take to Banks Lake for the first event of the Northwest Bass circuit.

8 CLICK HERE for information on the Northwest's biggest bass circuit

WILD BLOG: Sight fishing from an anti-sight-fisherman's perspective
UPDATED April, 2009

He’s the anti-sight-fisherman. The Bizarro of the West Coast shallow-water fishing world.

While the rest of the Washington, Oregon and northern California bass mafia titters with glee in anticipation of the oncoming shallow-water sight bite, $2 Milllion Man Gary Dobyns groans when I tell him that I’m going to make him talk about sight fishing.

“Dude,” Dobyns rumbles, “I’m the world’s worst sight fisherman. Don’t make me talk about sight fishing. Seriously. I don’t have the patience for it. I go out there, see a fish on a bed, make one cast, and if it doesn’t bite, I’m done. It drives me freakin’ crazy to think that there could be another fish somewhere down the bank that wants to bite.”

Who am I to argue with a man who’s cashed over $2 million in tournament winnings in his career and won 39 bass boats to boot?

Dobyns is easily one of the most successful tournament fisherman in the history of the sport, and a guy whose attacking, go-for-broke style drastically changed the style of tournament fishing on the West Coast. Back in the 1980s, when Dobyns’ tournament rampage began, the tournament mindset was this: fish for as many bites as possible, catch 30 fish in a day, and cull like a sonofabitch.

Then along came Dobyns, with a bold, attacking style that better suited a big-game hunter than a bass fisherman. While the rest of the tournament fields plinked and plunked for 2-pounders, Dobyns ripped, cranked and slashed for five or six fish a day … and they were inevitably BIG fish. If the 5- and 6-pounders weren’t biting in Slough A, Dobyns yanked up the trolling motor and roared off to Slough B.

So maybe sight-fishing isn’t Big G’s cup of tea.

8 CLICK HERE to see how Dobyns tackles shallow-water fish.

SHOW REVIEW: Skeet on the Classic: "I'm finally earning the respect ..."
NEW Feb. 28, 2009 / 5:30 p.m.

SEATTLE, Wash. - You could hear it in Skeet Reese's voice the second he answered his first question on his Feb. 28 visit to the Northwest Wild Country: pride mixed with wonder, with a little bit of exhaustion thrown in.

Such is the life of the new Bassmaster Classic champion.

X CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast of our exclusive interview with the new king of bass fishing

WILD BLOG: Reese's Classic win just another sign of changing tides
NEW Feb. 24, 3009 / 10:30 a.m.

SHREVEPORT, La. - To even the most disinterested Pacific Northwest salmon junkie, Skeet Reese's recent victory in the 39th Bassmaster Classic was a thing of beauty.

Among a field of 51 competitors that leaned heavily toward the "Bass States" (88 percent of the 2009 field hails from east of the Rockies) the outspoken Californian became the second West Coast angler to win the Super Bowl of bass fishing in four years, duplicating Luke Clausen's 2006 Classic title run.

It's part of a tide change that's slowly - but undeniably - changing the face of professional bass fishing. After 30-plus years of Southern dominance, that tide is flowing hard to the West.

"It was about time ...": "Seeing how we’ve had 39 of these things, I’d say it was about time someone out there started making a showing ..."

8 CLICK HERE as I lay out the argument that the professional bass-fishing tide has shifted.

WILDCAST HIGHLIGHT: Iaconelli does City Limits Fishing, Seattle style
NEW Feb. 7, 2009 / 1:30 p.m.

SEATTLE, Wash. - We don't see too many funnel clouds rising from Puget Sound. As luck would have it, that was one of the weather anomolies that greeted Mike Iaconelli and the City Limits Fishing film crew when he fished Elliott Bay and Lake Washington late last summer.

Ike told the story this morning on Northwest Wild Country.

CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast.

-JS

PODCAST HIGHLIGHT: Jimmy Houston joins the Wild Country crew
Aug. 9, 2008

We knew that Jimmy Houston was our kinda dude when he asked us to pull out the binoculars to spy on the boats fishing for salmon out our back window in Elliott Bay.

Listen HERE as we talk to a bass-fishing legend.

WILD BLOG: Bassin' best in the West? No ... best IS the West
Summer Archive, 2008

I have a running joke with Steve Bowman, managing editor of ESPN Outdoors’ website. Every now and then, I’ll cruise through the standings of the latest BASS Elite Series tournament, take note of a handful of names on the leader board, and give Big Steve a call back in Arkansas.

It usually goes something like this:

Bowman (deep Razorback drawl): “This is Steve.”

Shangle (no drawl): “Steve, Shangle here. You notice the Elite standings?”

Bowman: “Yessir, I did …” (Steve’s Southern politeness forces him to say “Yessir” instead of “Yeah, dumbass, I’m the guy who POSTED the standings. It's what I do for a living, remember?”)

Shangle: “Looks like the West Coast guys are going pretty good, huh?”

Bowman: “Shangle, don’t start this crap again …” (Steve loves when I call!)

8 CLICK HERE for the rest of the conversation.

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