The Fish-N-Fool year in review

[Fish-N-Fool]

Hi all, I know it's been a while since I posted and that's mainly cuss I been out fishing, but partly that my computer died and I just got a new one. My fishing year is over, so I'd like to tell all of you how my year went for me and my baits.
First off I'm so happy to say I landed my first ever Muskie!!!
It wasn't a monster but a nice one at 37 1/2" and about 12 to 13#'s.



I joined the local Muskie club and got it fishing in my first ever Muskie tournament with them. I had 3 fish on the day and all hit a bait I painted myself. It was a 168mm S-Waver that I painted up in this perch pattern. Cool looking bait I think!!!



This has turned into one of my favorite baits. as you will see.


The one above was the first one that hit and I landed it. The second fish was smaller, and it hit just as I lifted my Perch S-Waver out of the water. So I had about a 32" fish on about 16" of line going nuts. lol It ended badly.
If my fishing partner for the day would have been a little quicker with the net we could have landed it easy, but it took him about 2 minutes to get the net. By that time the fish was gone, I should have thumbed my spool release and got the fish out there I could fight it though, so I have to take some of the blame.
Fish # 3 on the day was the biggest (about 40" to 42" and 18 to 20+lbs.) and again it hit my Perch S-waver right at the side of the boat. Although it hit like a run away freight train and about broke my rod in half, I somehow managed to miss it on the hook set. [cursing] [confused] If I had landed either of these fish I would have won the Tournament!! oh well, I get em next year.

My other big fish moment was Pike fishing this spring. Fishing this same bait I got this nice 15# fish. Not my biggest ever but it was my second biggest.



And as you can see it was quite a fatty and put up a heck of a battle. Got some other nice pike this year as well.




Got this one on a S-waver also but the 120MM trout color


Got this one on one of my Sink-N-Fool baits.


A Basstrix Swimbait fish

I had a great year for bass as well. This spring I tore up the Large Mouth at the local lakes. Here is a few of the fish I got. I got all these on baits I make, most of them hit a Sink-N-Fool but i got some on my Mouse bait and a few smaller fish on a new Kick-N-Frog bait that I didn't have any pictures of.




Nice 4lb. Sink-N-Fool fish


Nice one on a "Hotlips" crank in perch by Lurejensen.


Monster bass on my Floating Mouse bait


Three toads all on Sink-N-Fools


2 monsters and a couple other nice ones all on Sink-N-Fools


Another toad with a 6" Watermelon Red Sink-N-Fool hanging out of it's mouth.


My Biggest fish of the year at 8 LBs. That's a 6" Chartreuse pepper Sink-N-Fool it ate.


A couple toads both caught on Pearl White Sink-N-Fools this spring.


Got a couple monsters fishing a full moon in the middle of the nite on Sink-N-Fools. This one went about 5 pounds.


Another huge fish with a big belly, (about 6lbs) I got on a Sink-N-Fool that same nite. I shot this in candlelight mode so the flash would not go off. It made for a Cool shot with the moon in the background.


Got this wacky riggin a 6" Green Shad Sink-N-Fool.

I got some nice Small mouth this year also.


I got most all of these drop shot-tin a 5" Chartreuse pepper Sink-N-Fool like in the last Smally pixs , but this fish I got on a Rebel Craw med-diver crankbait.

I fished a lot this spring with no partner so had to take the pixs myself,













Last is some of the nicer fish that my fishing partners got this year out of my boat.


My buddy Mark with a monster he got on a Blank N Blue 6" Sink-N-Fool


Chuck with a nice Smallie


Mikey with a 3 lbs Smallie we got in Nov.


Mikey again with another monster LM on a 6" Watermelon Red Sink-N-Fool, she went 6.0 lbs.


Got my buddy David on his first ever pike and on a fly too.


PDXfisher with a nice little pike he got on a fly as well.


My other buddy Mark with a toad he got on a 6" Sink-N-Fool

As far as Fish-N-Fool lures I had some cool thing happen this year as well. We ran the first Fish-N-Fool Lures online tournament here at WL.com and it turned out to be a huge success. Tnx to all that fished in this and congrats to all the winners.
I got to meet and chat with Jimmy Houston for about 3 hours and he got to use some of my baits to catch Small mouth up on Lake Pend Oreille. That was pretty cool! He took some promo shots of him and my baits. He really like them too. I heard he got some nice ones on them, but I didn't get to fish with him while he was here.





I had a great show this year


and got to chat with Stan Fagerstrom a legend in bass fishing who I shared my booth with for 2 days. Heck of a nice guy!!!!



Sales are up about 300% this year tnx to Pete at the General Store in Spokane Wa. He has sold a ton of baits!! I'm looking forward to it doing another 300% increase next year.

I plan to be a regular poster here again this winter so look for more great tips and info from me.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

Nice pictures.

[bassinbob]

Great pics of some nice fish.

[WatterBoy]

Great pics and recap, F-N-F. Looks like you had an awesome year!

[keithdog]

Dang man, 2011 was a great year for you. Congrats on your first musky and all. I've caught my share of pike, but never a musky. Those are some real good looking fish in those pics. And chumming with Jimmy Houston, that pretty cool! Congrats on the great year.