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2011 Season Recap
Blog 1/8/2012
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2011 Final Recap |
In the month of September I only had one tournament on the books and that was
the Team Great Outdoors TOC. After August, I knew this tournament wasn’t going
to happen and it didn’t. Once again I did not find this out from the tournament
director, but rather I found out through Classic Bass.
While we are on that subject, an update to Team Great Outdoors. On December 30 I
went to my PO Box as I usually do each morning and there was an envelope from
TGO. Inside was a $1500 check. I immediately went to my bank and had them verify
with the issuing bank that the check was good. I did this because at the
Minnetonka event in June, an angler got a refund, went to the bank and the check
was no good. This check was good. I was delighted. I hadn’t heard anything from
Mark Tipler since the middle of August and had no idea this was coming. I sent
Mark an e-mail letting him know I received the check and thanked him. Chapter
closed!
In terms of what would I have done different in 2011? I fished a Northland
Dipstick quite a bit. I caught a lot of fish and I hooked a lot of really nice
fish. My problem was getting some of those fish into the boat. Looking at it in
a simple way, it wasn’t that I couldn’t find fish or get them to bite; it was
either the hook set or the hook itself. In some ways I don’t need to drastically
change.
With that said, I do have to become more versatile. I rely too much on too few
baits. Primarily the Northland Dipstick, which this year is improved with the
Impulse version, a buzzbait, a jig and a spinnerbait early in the year. I love
throwing crankbaits, but I catch too many pike on them and so I tend to stay
away from them, but I need to change that. I use to throw a craw tube a lot, but
as my fish catching went down with that, so did the use. My goal is to work with
those baits this year.
As far as the Dipstick/Impulse set up is concerned. I’m going to try a different
hook and maybe heavier line, especially around docks. I used fluorocarbon for a
while last year, but that didn’t seem to help matters. I also was told by a
former PWT guy that has fished with me that it’s not that I don’t set the hook
hard enough; it might be I set it too hard on those big fish. That is also
something I’m going to experiment with.
All in all I think it was a successful season. It certainly would have been more
fun had I not had to deal with the TGO fiasco. I fished 3 charity events helping
raise money for Minnesota Teen Challenge as well as Confidence Learning Center.
I took third place against a very tough field on Gull Lake and had some near
misses where I could say I was on the fish, but just didn’t execute properly
along with some bad luck, but that’s fishing.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read my blogs throughout the year. I
have many reasons for writing these blogs, but most importantly I hope to
entertain and inform the reader.
Good luck with your fishing in 2012 and I look forward to continuing these
blogs. Any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at
lakesareasubway@tds.net.
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August 2011 |
My schedule for August was pretty light as we had our summer family vacation
this month. The one event I was signed up for was the Team Great Outdoors event
on the Whitefish Chain on August 13. I had a strong suspicion that this event
would also be cancelled which would leave me with no tournaments to fish. I
really like the Whitefish Chain and saw Fishers of Men had a tournament on the
chain on August 6th. I read the rules and realized I could fish without a
partner for this tournament as the limit was 5 fish. Because of that rule, I
didn’t have to scramble to find a partner on short notice and I signed up.
I pre-fished a couple of days and really struggled to come up with good fish. A
lot of 12” to 14” fish no matter what I did and no matter where I was. On
tournament day I drew one of the last boats out. My first spot there were 2
other boats in the area and I watched Brad and Princessa catch fish after fish
on topwater baits. It didn’t look like they were getting really good fish, but
they were catching ‘em. I came up with a fish or two, but nothing big. I won’t
go through the entire day as I have posted that on a previous blog, but in the
end I had a chance to cash another check, but lost 2 really good fish around
2:00. Some might read these blogs and think I’m either making this stuff up for
nearly every tournament or I have some bad luck or I’m just bad getting big fish
into the boat. I can tell you its bad luck and a little bit of I’m just not
getting those big fish in the boat.
The weigh in was at the Trout Lake Camp and it was 2:30. Could have made it
back, but I had around 11 pounds and knew I was out of the money. I called the
tournament director and told him I would not be weighing in. As I got to the
ramp, there was another tournament boat there and I thought to myself, I guess
I’m not the only one who had a tough day. These guys had a different kind of
tough day, a motor break down. After loading my boat, I drove one of them over
to the Trout Lake ramp to get their vehicle and trailer so they could load their
boat. Congratulations to Kenneth Paulsen and Steven Letnes for winning the
tournament.
I still have not heard from Mark Tipler at Team Great Outdoors regarding the
refunds or the upcoming tournament on Whitefish. He would not return repeated
phone calls or e-mails. Early in the week, I received an e-mail from Loren
Davidson that Mark Tipler sent him stating the tournament was cancelled. Once
again thanks to Loren for letting me know. I continued to call and e-mail Mark
Tipler without any results. I’m now out $1500 in entry fees and another $300 he
promised me for a total of $1800.
After speaking with people I know in law enforcement, they all agreed that I
should contact the police. I contacted a police department where Tipler’s last
residence could be found. At first, they weren’t too interested in this case,
but after they did some follow up, they became interested. Coincidentally,
within a couple of days of me contacting the police and Mark giving the police a
different story than he last gave me, an e-mail pops up from Mark Tipler. Here
is a copy of that e-mail dated August 15, 2011:
“I am very, very sorry for the unreasonable delay in getting you your refund.
This has not been done intentionally. Getting you your refund is a priority. The
refund will be sent out as soon as possible.
Again, we are very sorry for the delay and any inconvenience.
--
Mark Tipler
Executive Director
Tips Outdoors Foundation
Team Great Outdoors
P.O. Box 13579
Saint Paul, MN 55113
Professional Angler, NPAA #124, www.npaa.net
Email: mtipler@tipsoutdoors.org
Phone: 651-779-8216
Update: As of December 12th, 2011 Mark Tipler still has not responded to e-mails
or phone calls and I don’t have any money from him.
The city sent the case to the county attorney. In early September I spoke with
the Ramsey county attorney and he said there wasn’t anything he could do even
with the evidence I had sent them including cancelled checks, a copy of the
entry form as well as correspondence. Reading between the lines, I’m convinced
they didn’t want to take the time to chase a guy for fraud with an amount of
$1500. I don’t use the word fraud loosely; this particular city told me it was
felony fraud. Had others come forward, I’m convinced they would have pursued the
case. The answers the county attorney gave me, leads me to this conclusion.
During this time I tried to contact others who might also be out money and I did
get one response and he said he was also out $1500. I gave him the information
on who to contact, but according to the county attorney, that person didn’t
contact him.
Where it stands as of December 12th is I’m out $1500 and a promise of an
additional $300. Where I go from here, I’ll leave that to myself for the time
being.
In late August our summer family vacation took us to Big Cedar Lodge on Table
Rock Lake. As many know this is close to Branson, Missouri. We chose this
location not because of fishing, but it looked like there were many things to do
as a family. After being there a day or so and checking out the marina, I had to
go fishing. I booked a morning trip with a guide and my son Michael went with
me. We got to our first spot and we were in 90 feet of water throwing top water
baits. I had never fished like this before. 90 feet throwing topwaters? Sure
enough the fish were biting. We caught several bass in the 4 hours we were out
and it was a blast. If you want to go to Table Rock, I highly recommend Big
Cedar Lodge. The marina is outstanding and the accommodations are excellent. The
guide told me that in April, the smallmouth fishing is world class. I wish I
could make it down there this April, but it’s not in the cards for me in 2012.
In my next blog, I will wrap up the year with an update on Mark Tipler and Team
Great Outdoors and also talk about things I might have done differently and why
I’m loosing those big fish and what I might do differently in 2012 to get them
in the boat.
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July 2011 |
The first event in July was the second event for the Team Great Outdoors Series.
I was so looking forward to this event because it was on Lake Vermilion, my
favorite place to go and fish. If you have never been there, it’s a must. I call
it Canada with hazard markers. What a beautiful place. Michelle decided to make
the trip and pre-fish with me. The tournament was on a Saturday and we arrived
late Wednesday morning. Fished a few areas Wednesday and did o.k. Stayed at
Fortune Bay Casino and upon checking in I asked where the tournament meeting was
and if there was a discount for staying. The gal offered me a discount and said
she wasn’t sure about the meeting place.
Thursday had some storms roll in. We fished a couple of areas looking for
smallmouth. I’m not the best smallmouth fisherman and it is an area I need to
improve on. Caught a few, but nothing to go off of. As I dock my boat, I notice
a couple of bass boats at the docks and figured everyone else is staying
somewhere cheaper than the casino. The weather forecast for Friday was for 85,
sunny and calm winds. Even if I don’t get something going, what a beautiful day
to enjoy this lake. Wake up at 6:30 a.m. and was thinking maybe the TGO website
will have the information on where the meeting is. I checked the Team Great
Outdoors facebook web site. There it is, dated July 2nd, 6 days ago the
Vermilion tournament is cancelled. My blood is boiling as I never received any
notice whatsoever. No phone calls, no e-mails, nothing. I did not have Mark
Tipler's phone number, so I sent him an e-mail through Facebook expressing my
dissatisfaction and that’s putting it politely. Michelle and I decide, heck we
are already here, it’s a gorgeous day, let’s make the best of it. We grab some
breakfast and head out to do some fishing. I decided to fish all of my
tournament spots and see what I come up with. I would have had about 15 pounds
on 5 fish. I caught 31 fish from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. It was a really fun day of
catching fish. Around 11:00 a.m. I missed a call on my cell, it was Mark Tipler.
He left me a 2 minute message apologizing and explaining that e-mails were sent
out, but for some reason I wasn’t on the list. He offered to pay my expenses. I
was pretty happy about that and thought what a stand up guy Mr. Tipler is. I had
only met him once and that was at the first tournament on Minnetonka.
Went home Saturday morning and I was disappointed there wasn’t a tournament, but
kept thinking about the positives. I spent 3 days with my wife doing what I love
to do, fishing on my favorite lake and Mark Tipler was going to reimburse my
expenses. Talked to Mark on Monday and he agreed to pay $300 of my expenses. He
was heading to Vegas for the I Class show and said he’d send the refund and the
$300 when he got back.
My next tournament was the Excel Bass singles series on Gull Lake. I didn’t have
much time to pre-fish as the only day I was able to get out was on Tuesday.
Wednesday through Saturday I was involved in the Northern Photo Shoot for the
2012 Skeeter boats catalog and print marketing campaign. What a blast that was.
It was alot of trailering boats, running boats and sometimes just standing
around and waiting for the weather to clear. I want to thank Steve Soukup
(Skeeter Regional Sales manager) and Darin Coats from Skeeter Boats in Kilgore,
Texas. Met some local Skeeter walleye guys and got to see a guy who I get a kick
out of and enjoy being around, Terry Spaeth. The photographers were a blast and
great guys. A big thanks to Robert Glover of Robert Glover photography and his
sidekick Paul Griffin. These guys know how to take pictures. Very impressive!
Tournament day was upon me and the forecast was for heat index warnings. Got to
the ramp and it was pretty foggy. Made it to the main part of the lake on the
way to Ernie’s on Gull, and it was even foggier. The decision was made to delay
the start. At about 7:20, a few of us suggested this fog isn’t going to lift and
we should just go with a 40 mph speed limit and lights on. Back before GPS, I
think everyone would have been fishing in front of Ernie’s because you just
couldn’t see. I finally made it to my first spot. I was trying to just get some
fish in the boat and then head to where my plan was to fish all day and sit
there. If I caught zero fish, then so be it, but I wanted to try this area for
an entire day.
The first spot I caught a small fish and then a pretty good one, just under 3
pounds. I heard a boat coming but because I couldn’t see, I had no idea if it
was a tournament boat or not. I packed up quickly and raced to my spot. I fished
one lure all day long, a Northland Dipstick. By the way, Northland has
discontinued that bait and are replacing it with similar bait called Impulse. I
had around 14 pounds in the boat by 1:00. I knew I needed one more good fish to
win it. Twice I had a fish hooked that might have put me over the top, but as
the story goes for the year, I’m losing fish on this set up. Catching the heck
out of them, but then to see them and lose them is frustrating. More on that in
the final blog for the season. I finished the day with 14.24 pounds and finished
3rd. A very good day indeed! I had a game plan, stuck to it and it worked out.
Next up is the Team Great Outdoors event on Gull Lake. I’m pretty excited about
this with the recent finish I just had. A week before the tournament I get an
e-mail from Loren Davidson forwarded to me that Mark Tipler sent Loren.
Tournament is cancelled. I didn’t hear from Mark Tipler about the tournament
being cancelled but he had the time to e-mail Loren. Thank goodness Loren sent
me that e-mail as I called off the pre-fishing and saved myself the time and
money this time around. I called Mark Tipler and did not get a return phone
call. I e-mailed him and received no response. My blood is boiling again. I
still don’t have my money from the Vermilion tournament. Last I talked to Mark
Tipler was about 10 days before the Gull event was scheduled. He said he had a
credit card number stolen and all of the money was siphoned out of the account
and he had no money to pay the anglers back. He said he’d do whatever it takes
to get the anglers their refunds including selling his boat. I continued to call
Mark Tipler about every other day with still no return phone calls. After a week
or so of doing this, it was suggested to me to go to the cops. My thought was
Mark seems like a nice guy and I feel bad about his credit card situation and so
I didn’t call law enforcement at that time. Total Mark Tipler and Team Great
Outdoors owe me to this point: $1300.
August is up next. Only one tournament in August, but I’ll have more on Team
Great Outdoors and a few tips for fishing Table Rock Lake in Missouri.
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June 2011 Part II |
Next up was the Camp Confidence Fishing Classic. This is a 100% charity event.
My wife Michelle and I have been involved in this event since 2007. Each year
our Subway in Nisswa donates all of the box lunches for the participants. It has
ranged from 180 to 285 box lunches that we need to make the night before. My
partner for the tournament was Michelle. We really struggled throughout most of
the morning. Michelle was throwing a Northland Dipstick up against the bank and
catching small fish. She was outfishing me and it wasn’t close. We had 2 in the
boat at 10:00. Went to some docks and I lost a keeper. Fished a flat with a
spinnerbait and caught a keeper. Still nothing big. It’s about 12:00 now and we
need to find some bigger fish. Went to a spot on a spot and there she was, a 4
pounder. Caught on you guessed it, a Northland Dipstick on a Northland 3/16 oz.
Lipstick hook. Michelle did an awesome job netting the fish. We caught another
keeper shortly after that and we had 3 fish for right around 7 pounds. Time was
running out. Tried some docks that might hold some big fish, but nothing doing.
We headed back to Maddens thinking things didn’t go so well, but we had a great
time and most importantly Michelle caught more fish than I. We weighed just
under 7 pounds. As we watched the weights come in and posted, it was looking
better than expected. We ended up tying for 3rd place with Team Skeeter member
Brian Hansen’s team. Congratulations to LeRoy Ras’s team on winning the bass
portion of the tournament.
The final event of June was the old Skeeter tournament which is now called the
Camp Confidence Bass Classic with a portion of the entry fee’s going to Camp
Confidence. In 2010 the tournament was cancelled and I worked hard with Jeff
Olson and Sarah Sellnow from Camp Confidence to get this tournament back up and
running. It took a great deal of effort on everyone’s part to get this off the
ground again. We were struggling to get enough entries to make the tournament
happen. About 2 weeks before the tournament, we put up a guarantee of $5,000 to
the winning team so long as we had 17 boats. The entries starting coming in and
we ended up with 20 boats.
As for the tournament itself, I fished with Perry Alfords. First day was on
Whitefish with a boat draw of #18. Our starting spot was an area that I didn’t
think anyone would be at. Low and behold we get there and Eric Kielb and Dave
Hartig were close to where I boated a real nice smallie a few days ago. I
decided to not bump them and started back further hoping they would leave and we
would work our way there. As I’m setting the trolling motor down, I see Dean
Capra and his partner Jim Severson motoring that way and I’m thinking no way.
Sure enough they drop the trolling motor right near the spot. Now I’m boxed out
of there. We caught a couple of small keepers where we started and we watched
Capra lose what looked to be a really good fish. We did see them boat a few.
Kielb and Hartig juice up the trolling motor and go by Capra and Severson. I
move closer now without making it look like I want to fish there. Dean and Jim
didn’t move. After poking around and us catching zippo, Capra packs up and
moves. I figure what the heck, might as well see if we can get lucky and fish
that spot. No fish left. We head to the smaller lakes where Perry and I have
caught some good largemouth. We caught very few fish and nothing real big. Day 1
we weighed 8 fish for a total of 14.13 pounds and we were sitting in 12th place,
but 11 pounds out of first place.
Day 2 is Gull Lake where from time to time, I can bring in some good bags. We
were boat #3. Chad Ingvalson and Levi Christianson were several boats behind us
and before we launched, he said he was going to catch me. I throw it down and we
are doing 75 mph. I keep looking back and, as Chad calls it, the Green Hornet is
moving up on us. Before long, they blow by us. I think Chad said they were doing
85 mph in the Green Hornet, which is a Stroker boat with a 225 Mercury racing
engine. I’m usually passing people, but not this day.
Throughout the day we struggled no matter what we tried. At 1:30 we still only
had 7 fish. It was very windy and I was very frustrated. We fished everything
that had worked for us. My only thought was we can’t go in with just 7 fish; we
have to at least get 8, so we decide its dock time. We knew we had zero chance
of cashing a check; we just needed to bring in a limit at least. We try some
docks I’ve never fished before. I figure why not as nothing else was really
working. Our first dock we approach, this young man comes walking out on the
dock and starts stomping his feet on the dock. I think, well this is how the day
is going. We skip a few under and I felt something one time. I looked at Perry
and quietly said I’m going to get one. Now the young man sits down and starts
kicking his feet in the water. Before I casted, I said what are you doing? He
said, don’t fish these docks, go fish other ones. He told me there are no fish
here anyway. I skipped the Northland Dipstick about 8 feet to his left and bam,
fish on. We got the fish in the boat and he said what’s that, a sunfish? I’m
thinking a 1.5 pound sunfish is a pretty big sunny. I told him it was a bass and
thanked him for waking the fish up. He then said now get out of there and I
replied no problem, thanks again. Little did I know these people owned quite a
bit of land and the next dock down was also theirs. Here he comes again stomping
on the dock telling us the same old thing. Then his Dad joins the party and
starts yelling at me. After listening to his ranting, I said sir if you have a
problem with what we are doing, call the sheriff. We left. We had our 8 fish and
at least could go in with a limit. We move to the next dock and all of a sudden
I hear something. I look to my right and a rock hits the water within a foot of
my boat. I looked back at the Dad and kid and see them walking away. Perry saw a
portion of it too and without question said that was a rock. They must have
launched it with a sling shot. We fished a few more docks, caught some fish and
culled out some fish. It was just one of those days where not much went right.
We weighed in 13.75 pounds for the day and finished 15th for the tournament.
Congratulations to Brandon Cizek and Andy Walls for finishing first and
receiving a check for $5,000.
Next up will be July which has some interesting stories as well, some good, some
not so good.
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June 2011 Part I |
Before the tournament season even started, I worked with Camp Confidence to get
the “old Skeeter” tournament back up and running again. I was involved in some
aspect of getting this going again every month from January all the way up to
the tournament day. We got it off the ground again and hope to make it bigger
and better in 2012.
My first event was the Minnesota Teen Challenge event on Gull Lake. I try to
fish a couple of charity tournaments each year and this one fit the calendar and
it was close to home. I fish some charity tournaments because it’s a way I can
give back. My son Michael fished with me that day and although we weren’t
fishing for money, we had a few goals. One of them was to win the bass division.
Second, was to fish with no pressure and just have fun and third was for my son
to catch some fish. As the morning went along and no big fish in the boat, I
quickly changed the order of our goals. We dropped winning the bass division to
third. We had our limit in the boat by 10:30 or so, but Michael had not yet
boated a fish. I saw a dock that I had a very good hunch there would be fish
there. Big ones or small ones, it didn’t matter. We spent about 30 minutes
around this dock and Michael ended up boating 2 fish. We weighed in with around
8 pounds. The highlight of the day for me was getting to spend the day with my
son and watching him catch some fish, seeing my wife’s pretty smile as we
approached Cragun's for the weigh in and getting to stand on stage with our son.
My next event was the Team Great Outdoors Series on Lake Minnetonka. I hadn’t
fished Minnetonka much and knew this would be a very tough challenge for me
going against guys who have basically lived on the lake. At the meeting the
night before, it was announced there were only 14 pro’s fishing the event. I was
shocked because this was the only series I found in Minnesota where they were
paying back 100% of the entry fees. I was introduced to my partner Troy Jutting
who is the head hockey coach at Minnesota State University. Troy was a great guy
to fish with and talk with. Seems like a really down to earth guy! My plan was
to fish the areas that I had caught some nice fish during practice and then move
to an area that might just produce some kicker fish. We did boat some fish,
including on my first cast of the day a 3 pounder. When we had 5 fish in the
boat, I knew I didn’t have enough to win or even cash a check. It was off to get
some kicker fish. As I’m driving to the spot, I see the eventual winner Andy
Young throwing what looked to be a 3 pound fish back in the water. After seeing
that I’m thinking I’m really in trouble. We get to the next area and we caught a
couple of fish, but nothing that helped. I saw some docks in some skinny water
and thought, why not. I casted to the dock throwing a Northland Dipstick. Bang,
big fish. I set the hook and next to a pole, the fish comes flying out of the
water. She barely missed hitting her head on the dock. I kept the line tight,
but it didn’t matter, this 5 pound gal spit the hook. I immediately went to my
knees as I kept seeing the replay in my head of this fish getting off. I got my
head back together quickly and threw a jig in there. Nothing doing. I figured
that was my chance at a shot of some cash. I moved to the other side and first
cast again, bang, another big fish. This gal did not fly up, instead she swam
right to a pole and proceeded to wrap my line around it like a fast paced merry
go round. I could see the fish, it was about a 4 pounder. I stepped on the
trolling motor to get closer while keeping the line tight. Troy came up front
with the net and said don’t get off. No more than a second later, the line
snapped and she was gone. Had I boated those 2 fish, I would have finished
second and cashed a $2500 check. I certainly had my chance. I finished 13th.
June Part II will be coming soon.
Bill Mathis
Classic Bass Field Staff
Member Team Skeeter
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