Fishery Details:Type of water: natural lake - 6th largest in US behind the great lakes
Surface area: 271,000 acres
Shoreline: 587 miles
Average depth: 64 feet
Max depth: approximately 400 feet
Primary structure/cover: rocks, grass, flats, drops, docks
Species: largemouth, smallmouth
Length minimum: 12 inches for all species
Should be lots of patterns, frogs and flipping milfoil to deep rock reefs for smallies.Here are my other anglers to watch:Dion HibdonJim MoynaghDave LefebreBasically I am sticking with the strategy to keep littering my lineup with anglers that are hot right now and have past experience and lots of wins & top 10’s this week.  Plus a little more local flare with Pete Gluszek this time around.Finally, my FLW fantasy fishing picks:

It’s not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.Sign up today! Best regards, The CommissionerRichLindgren.com Bass Fishing TodayRich’s Bassin’ Forum
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Here are Rob’s comments on his winning line-up:
“KVD is the obvious choice, especially when you’re not much of a bass fisherman like me and he’s the only name you recognize.  The rest of the line-up is pure luck.  I know a lot of people change their line-up every week to go with local guys and while that makes sense, I don’t want to be like everybody else.   I also heard a number of times that it was not smart to keep Elton Luce on my team (and it certainly wasn’t for the prior tournaments), but I stuck with him.  I guess this proves the saying that “every blind squirrel does eventually find a nut”. ”

Rob’s Fantasy Picks:
KVD
Elton Luce
Kevin Short
Ike
Alton Jones

For Rob’s efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching those finicky Lake Dubay bass for his annual fishing excursion over the 4th of July!!

Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Posted by Rich Lindgren at 6/15/2009 12:13 PM
Categories: Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner
Tags: fantasy bass fishing BASS

All indications is that this tournament will be a full on ledge bite.

Here are my other anglers to watch:
Dan Moorehead
Jim Moynagh
George Geane, Jr.

Basically I am sticking with the strategy to keep littering my lineup with anglers that are hot right now and have past experience and lots of wins & top 10’s this week.

Finally, my FLW fantasy fishing picks:

I am making some fairly serious changes this week to try to make some big moves, Alton Jones had to go, he was just too safe.

Here are a few guys that I think would be solid fantasy fishing picks that are not on my team.  Chris Lane, Tommy Biffle, Iaconelli and Jami Fralick.  The breakdown on my team is as follows:
KVD - He catches them every where, probably have a solid spinnerbait pattern going.
Matt Herren - For the money probably on my roster until the bitter end, should have a solid finish, strong shallow water angler.
Skeet Reese - To good to cut loose, should catch plenty of bass slinging Lucky Crafts around rocks & wood.
Dean Rojas- Come on Kermit, don’t let me down.  Hoping the bass will eat a frog even if there is no grass.
Bill Lowen- C’mon wood flipping bite, that is Lowen’s deal!

So here are my Fort Madison picks, two signifigant changes from KY Lake:

Rich’sRoster
Angler 1	Angler 2	Angler 3	Angler 4	Angler 5
Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI	Skeet Reese Auburn, CA	Dean Rojas Lake Havasu City, AZ	Bill Lowen North Bend, OH	Matthew Herren Trussville, AL
MKT: $24.9 (+0.4) LKD: $24.5	MKT: $24.2 (+0.4) LKD: $23.8	MKT: $21.1 LKD: $21.1	MKT: $17.3 LKD: $17.3	MKT: $14.0 (+0.9) LKD: $13.1

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Bass Fishing Today
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

The organization’s initials are taken from Forrest L. Wood, founder of Ranger Boats and developer of the Ranger bass-fishing boat. The top bass tournament on the FLW Tour, the Forrest Wood Cup, is also named for Wood; the tournament was the first to offer a $1 million prize for the winner, in 2007.

The FLW Tour was created by businessman Irwin L. Jacobs, owner of Genmar, the world’s largest manufacturer of recreational boats (including Ranger, Wood’s former company). Jacobs bought a small fishing-tournament promotion company based in Gilbertsville, Kentucky, and renamed the company’s tour as the FLW Tour. Jacobs’ plan was to turn the tour into the object of major media coverage, with larger cash prizes, a television-friendly competition format, and sponsorships from well-known corporations outside of the fishing industry. Jacobs promptly signed the biffest company of them all — Wal-Mart, which became the title sponsor for the FLW Tour, the first such sponsorship in the giant retailer’s history.

FLW Outdoors expanded beyond bass fishing, with a new tour for walleye fishing created in 2001, for kingfish and redfish in 2005 and for striped bass in 2006. All of these tours have a hierarchy somewhat similar to the farm system in Major League Baseball, with lower-level tours that allow anglers to qualify for the top-level series.[1]

Coverage of the FLW Tour is seen on Fox Sports Net. The FLW bass tours compete with those operated by the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS), which is owned by FSN competitor ESPN.

Where are the Fish. You have to go where the fish are, not where you want them to be. You also have to go when the fish are there, not when you want them to be there. For any kind of Bass fishing, early morning is usually the best. Early in the season they may feed throughout the day, but as the season progresses and the sun gets higher in the sky you won’t find them feeding during the day unless there is tide and a lot of bait or a weather pattern to entice them into activity. You may find them holding on structure and be able to catch them but its pretty certain that there is something in the way of food down there to keep them interested. If the fish are holding on structure, you have to present your offering over that structure, if you are off by 50′ there is no joy. If you are trolling and mark and catch fish, turn around and keep going over the spot until you stop catching. Don’t go trolling away unless your damn sure there is something better to head to. And don’t spend too much time trolling around a spot and not catching.

Tides and currents. Bass are ambush predators and a current will provide them with the opportunnity to lay in wait for a small creature to be swept past their position so they can gobble it up. It is the current generated by the tides you need to pay atention to. An example of this would be the Block Island North reef. The currents there provide areas which bass like to use as ambush points, and some of these are places to troll wireline.

Trolling Speed. Never troll at the same speed all the time if it isn’t working. Often fish will follow your offering and are waiting for that trigger that tells them that their prey has detected them. Speed up, slow down, change speeds, speed up during your turns. You will be surprised how many times you hook up fish immediately or very soon after a speed change. Sometimes only going at a particular slow speed works, or a particularly fast speed. The most important thing to do is pay attention to what is going on when you hook up. You need to notice if it is always during a speed change, only when you go fast, only when you go very slow, etc. If you speed up and turn, and the inside line picks up a fish, you may not have enough line out since the inside line will usually go deeper, the outside line shallower.
Current can be used to control your speed. If you want to go very slow, troll directly into the current. There is one area I fish trolling to the same spot and slowing down as the boat gets near it, going into the current. At times we are barely moving forward, and when I reach the spot on my GPS one or both rods will go down with fish on (tide is very important in this case.) There are times when you will catch most of your fish only trolling in one direction in relation to the current. Pay attention to what is happening when you hook up.

Trolling Depth. This is extremely important. Your depth finder can mark a million fish below 30′ but if your trolled rig is only 20′ deep you will end up being very frustrated and catching very few fish. Your offering must be presented in the “strike zone”, which is the area close enough that the fish will be interested in hitting your lure. This strike zone can be very large when fish are feeding aggressively, or very small if they are “turned off”.
If you see fish smashing bait on the surface, try letting out a small amount of wireline and troll around the feeding fish, not through the middle of them. So many fisherman shut down the fishing very quickly by trolling through the middle of breaking fish. It is the most idiotic thing they can do. You need to have the lure down near the bottom if you are targeting Bass that aren’t feeding aggressively near the surface. If you are in water under 30′ deep, it is only necessary to be within 5′ of the bottom unless the fish are very sluggish. In deeper water. light penetration becomes an issue and it is necessary to get as close to the bottom as you can without dragging.
The rule of thumb is to let out 10 feet of wire for every 1′ of depth. This is varied by boat speed and the weight of your lure. Naturally, going slower will cause the rig to go deeper and faste will cause it to run shallower. Remember, if you aren’t dragging bottom once in a while, you’re trolling too shallow.

Matching the Hatch. You need to troll an offering which is representative of what the fish are feeding on. If there are hordes of sand eels then you shouldn’t be trolling 6″ soft plastic shads. Bass most often eat bunker, sand eels, and squid. Lures that represent these species are ones you should have available to you. If you catch a keeper, open up its stomach and see what it has been feeding on.

Sport Fishing. This is supposed to be a sport. Keeping the boat in gear and continuing to troll after you have hooked up a fish is winching, not fishing. I have seen so many bass skipping across the surface of the water as they are being reeled up, it’s absolutely ridiculous. You should be fighting the fish and not the boat. Where is the fun in that? So the advice is take the boat out of gear after you hook up.

By following the guideleines presented here the reward will be more success for your fishing trips. The last and most important piece of advice when your not catching is this: remember to ask yourself: “what do I need to change?” Are you going too fast, using the wrong rig, trolling too shallow, etc. Watch what other people are doing, it may give you a clue. Catch ‘em up!

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
Chris Bell has fished Rhode Island waters for many years. Before that he was a modelmaker, writer and PC support tech.   He now guides Rhode Island charter fishing trips from Jerusalem and in the winter writes on various aspects of fishing for stripers, flounder, and other species and fishing techniques.

1. Knowing the location of your trip, is it a lake, a river, or the ocean. This will help you to choose what equipment you will need, so you don’t take equipment for fishing in the ocean if you are on a lake, or river, or vice versa.

2. Knowing what your fishing for. If you are fishing in fresh waters, bass and trout, in the ocean, well you name it, you can catch anything from a shark to a squid, that’s what makes fishing in the ocean so exciting.

3. Bait, this is the most important thing, without it you won’t catch anything. Location is also important for what bait to use. If you fish in lakes and rivers, you can use worms, lures, flies, shiners. In the ocean well you can write a book on all the bait you can use, just make sure you bring plenty of bait, because if you run out, so is your trip.

4. Make sure you have plenty of equipment, like poles, hooks, weights, bobbers, line, and of course all this stuff needs to go into a fishing box. You will also need a fish chain, or bucket to put the catch of the day, you can also use a net when you catch a fish, but you don’t really need one, it’s optional.

5. Bring food and an emergency kit. You should always bring a small cooler, with water, or drinks, and sandwiches, trail mix, ect. Trust me you will get hungry, and many fishing spots don’t have stores right next door, so it’s wise to be prepared especially if you are with kids, they are always hungry. It is also wise to bring an emergency kit, this will include, band-aids, ointment, cell phone, and bug spray is always a good idea, because like food, there is no store next door.

When I go fishing I use this list to help me prepare for my trip, I have two types of gear, one is for fresh water, like lakes and rivers, and another for deep sea. If you follow this list hopefully it will help you be more prepared and safe, because fishing is a lot of fun when your one step ahead. With the economy the way it is, fishing is a good way to have fun and not spend a lot of money doing it. So take your family and enjoy the outdoors, it helps families get closer.

If you are interested in blogging or providing a weekly column, please email john -at- fantasysportsgroup.com