2020: MY FISHING YEAR IN REVIEW

 

Good Lord 2020 has been a whirlwind. 

From the dark clouds of Covid pandemic, to the unprecedented hurricane season, to the closures of stores, restaurants and social distancing, there wasn't a lot good to say about the year.  A dark cloud hung over everything and it seemed like it would never disappear.

Friends and family, teammates and co-workers... we all knew/know someone who has lost someone this year or at the very least was sick with Covid.    

When a person stops to think about how everything-society and culture- changed and what we''ve lost, not only is it sobering, its downright depressing.

It was with this thought in mind I started thinking about my year in particular.  Instead of focusing on negatives, I  wanted to highlight the positive aspects of the life I lead now.   It most certainly had its ups and downs, but the ups outweighed the setbacks as my life has finally begun to truly follow the path I've tried forcing it along for decades.  

I would be remiss if I first didn't bring to the forefront, the very person who made all of this possible in every sense of the word...a very loving and supportive drop dead gorgeous wife who allows me the freedom to fish every day I wanted to and there was no way I couldn't have had a year like this year without her understanding and support.  She is amazing and while I tell her this everyday, I don't think she realizes how much I really mean it.

I don't think she necessarily approves of my fishing all the time, but she certainly has no qualms about eating any of the fish I bring home.  I have made a standing offer of taking her along on any trip I go on, but she doesn't care to fish, just eat them.    Additionally, she is not a huge fan of any trip I go on where it takes 4 hours or more just to get to with the exception being to Pactola.

So is it a win-win situation?  Maybe, but I will say I do miss her an awful lot while I am away.   She's damn near perfect....just that pesky not liking fishing part...

Anyway...lets get to the core of this post.

So for some statistics.  I kept track of a lot of things this year once I got going.  Played around with the idea of keeping track of a lot more items, but eventually narrowed it down to these.  

I was going to post what seemed to me to be "peak or optimal hours" on the waters I fished but decided I really didn't want any more people down there fishing during "happy time" lol... so here goes...

2020 stats

• Fished 187 days in a row
• Fished 257 total days
• Average trip Time: 2.41 hours (Trips/hours=average trip time)
• Total hours -700+ hours
• Totaled 290 trips
• Average Fish per trip 7.067137  (2000/290)
• Average Fish per day:  7.782            (2000/257)
• Miles Traveled. 3000+
• Used 2 miles of monofilament to spool and respool my rods (11 330 yd spools)
• Roughly 2000+ fish caught
  
• 15 different species of freshwater gamefish

As a result of those stats, the following result statistics came into focus:

•  41 Master Angler/Proud Angler Fish  Catch and Release-(Nebraska or South Dakota)
• 14 master Angler Rainbow Trout (20+") -Pactola
• 1 Chinook (31" )                                      -Oahe
• 7 White Bass (17-18"")                            -Lake Sharpe
• 2 Smallmouth Bass (20")                         -Oahe
• 1 Northern Pike (38")                               -Oahe
• 2 White Crappie (16")                              -Skyview
• 13 Largemouth Bass (20-21 5/8")            -Skyview
• 1 Saugeye (26")                                        -Gavins Point tailrace
  
  

So whats this all mean?  It means persistence pays off.  I'm in no way anywhere close to being a "pro" in any sense of the word.  I know at least a dozen or more guys that could fish circles around me on any given day...I'm just persistent to the point of being ridiculous.   I just wore the fish down into mercy biting my baits.

All kidding aside, lets look at all this from a numbers standpoint. The stat I am most proud of:  The Master Angler catch

I came up with a nice way of figuring out an average between MA catches.  Days total fished /MA=255/41=6.22 trips per each MA fish.  Thats just an average.  

In real life, things didn't work out that way.  I found big fish at least a few times a month but I can guarantee you it was not every six trips.  And when I did find them, the trend was that I caught more than one...in effect it boosted those numbers up quickly.  

Sidenote:  All but 4 of those MA fish were taken from the shoreline.  Absolute fact! And the Largemouth and Crappie MA's came out of the aforementioned city lake.
 
I came close a bunch of other times throughout the year.  And for this I kept track of fish that were within 2 inches of a catch and release MA.  

• Near Miss MA/PA-Catch and Released (Fish within a 2" margin for a C&R MA)
• 32 Largemouth 19-19 7/8 inches                   -Skyview
• 42 Largemouth 18-19"                            -Skyview
• 1 channel catfish 28"                                -Skyview

75 fish that were just short of MA status. All released to grow more over the year.  All out of one lake.  Albeit a lake I spent about 90% of my available time fishing because it was incredibly close.  

Looking over those stats, I'm  happy.  Ecstatic.  Those numbers are freaking incredible.  Its been the best year I have ever had fishing.  And its already got me thinking how to up my game and numbers for 2021.

I did change a few things up, made an effort to master a few new techniques, but the key to all this was simply tenacity.  In my way of thinking, more time on the water meant more opportunities to put my bait/lure in front of more fish, thus increasing the big fish count considerably.  Was there skill involved?  Probably a little.  I would attribute that aspect of all this more to knowing what to throw when and where, understanding what type of water I am fishing and where to start looking.

But there is some more info I am willing to divulge, primarily, the top five lures I used to catch fish all year.

#1  BERKLEY GULP  MINNOWS AND VARIOUS JIGHEAD SIZES

So this came as an absolute surprise to me but numbers don't lie.  The simple combo of threading a Gulp minnow onto a plain round ball head jig scored over 50% of my fish for the year and managed to accomplish this in only 4 months.

To be clear, there was no clear cut retrieve that out produced any others over the long term.  There were also no clear cut  locations or time periods that outproduced others. Indeed, as the season progressed it became painfully obvious the fish wanted variety.  Also, fish in every body of water I visited found this combo tempting.  I caught a ton of fish on this no matter where I went.  

The combo also produced 5 of the Master Angler Largemouth Bass and over 2/3 of my largemouth 18-20".  Impressive enough for me to make sure I had a rod rigged and ready to go each time I hit the water.  Impressive enough to make damn sure I will have a rod rigged up  with this and ready for 2021.

This marked the first year I seriously made an effort to include this technique in a meaningful way in my arsenal.  Don't make the mistake of thinking its simple jig fishing.  Nothing about fishing it the way I did this year was easy.  It was down in the trenches  eating mud brutal, but it was obviously worth it. 

#2 BERKLEY FLICKER SHAD

2020 is the year that will go down for me as the year I finally became a firm die-hard believer in the magic of the Flicker shad.  

This bait was a prime producer over the course of the year but fizzled out midseason with the availability of forage.  That said, I caught some seriously big fish on these lures.  This lure was responsible for my personal best walleye, which I popped out of Chamberlain SD. 

Their hunting action was nearly unmatched by all but one lure.

Retrieve speeds obviously varied per water temperature and color selections and preferences changed almost daily, but once the fish locked in on it, this bait was exceptional.  So much so, I have purchased about 50 of them over the course of 2020.  Bigger channel catfish pounded the hell out of this bait, smashing at least 4 into total un-usability.

I will say this.  I really questioned the way it ran through the water when I first started to use them.  Seemed too erratic, but that shad profile being what it is,  is a huge dinner bell for a lot of fish and as a result, popped me quite a few walleye this year.

#3 STORM HOT-N-TOT

Absolutely one of my favorite crankbaits.  This is the one lure I made reference to in the Flicker Shad portion.  I caught some absolute pigs on this bait. The way it hunts in the water is more aggressive than the Flicker shad and it offers a chunkier yet similar sized shad profile.  You can really feel it thump on a steady retrieve and its a proven (4 years straight) producer.

There were certain colors that worked best for the lakes I fished, but water clarity was ultimately the deciding factor.  Natural colors dominated this year for me with the bait.  

I used this from shore, from the kayak, from the boat....I cast it, trolled with it and drifted with it...it performed exceptionally well a good chunk of the year, with the exception of the Summer and Summer peak periods. I do not go anywhere anytime without having at least 1-2 of these baits with me.

#4 JOINTED RAPALA

The Venerable Rapala #11 or #13.  Quite possibly the epitome of jointed lures, its action often duplicated but never matched.

 Honestly it put more bass in my hand than all the other lures except the Berkley Gulp Minnow.  Slayed a few bigger Channel catfish on them this year too, including a 28 incher, A 26" and a 25".  

The only downside I had with this was its success rate was sporadic throughout the course of the season and seemed to be successful on only 2 of the bodies of water I frequent.  

The jointed Rapala has been around for a very long time, and the reason for its longevity is that it works.  If it didn't you wouldn't see it on the store shelves.  Another must have lure when ever and where ever I go.

#5 JOINTED SHAD RAP

Another lure from Rapala that gave me some big fish sporadically throughout the year.  With it I did manage to catch a lot of 18-21inch walleye, but there was no consistency to its success.  It was feast or famine, due in large part to the nature of flatland/lowland reservoir walleye

The shallow version definitely outperformed its deeper brother for me and it only seemed to be a twilight lure, meaning almost all the fish I caught with it were in that magic time between sunset and full darkness.  

In years past, this lure has been exceptional for me.  2020 saw it as performing well enough to get into the top 5, but not nearly as productive in situation it should have exceled in.  Now whether that come down to my color choices is a topic for further discussion.  

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• MISTER TWISTER SASSY GRUBS IN PEARL COLORS
• NED RIGS
• BOGSTALKER GRUBS (CUSTOM COLOR FOR 1 LAKE)
• SENKOS
• SALMO HORNETS
• MOXIES
• HUSKY JERKS
• RATTLING ROGUES
  
  

Starting next year, I am thinking I might start keeping lengths  and possibly weights on everything I catch.  Should also keep track of color patterns, lure types, water temps etc to see if I can get some more definitive patterns to emerge.  

It ought to be a more interesting year, as I plan on trying to cut down the shore fishing and get more boat fishing in, especially during the colder parts of the year from October to first ice.  

Looking ahead, you will  see me expanding my range and fishing different lakes and different classifications of reservoirs and water bodies.  You will also see me targeting new species and hopefully being successful at it.  And along those journeys, I will strive to detail how and what I did, and why I chose to do it.

I'll be putting more emphasis on techniques I've chose to ignore in the past like bottom bouncing, dipsy diving, etc.  The reason is that since I have ignored them, I need to now learn how to use them to ascertain their potential application to the bodies of waters I do fish.  Or that they are boat-centric and I am still getting the hang of fishing with my Tracker I've affectionately named "The Mistress" or "High Plains Drifter."

There will also be a sharper focus on some aspects of live bait fishing even though I am not a big live bait fan.  Hate trying to keep bait alive or lugging it around with me when I'm shore fishing.  Total pain in the ass.  But with focus upon total improvement comes sacrifice. Like the old saying goes...No pain no gain.

From the blog standpoint, I want to begin to incorporate a bunch of new items, but only as time allows.  My overall goal is to help people catch more fish or at the very least, inspire them to get off the couch and catch spend more time outdoors. Suggestions could be helpful and much appreciated.

One thing I have always embraced was that life is or at least should be, about adventure. The level of adventure can and should vary depending on finances, health and/ or passion for the sport.  Every outing should be looked upon as a blessing and cherished as a memory.  A simple outing can turn into the adventure of a lifetime.  That's the beautiful thing about the outdoors and on the water.  You never know what the day is going to bring

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and the fish afraid.

.

THE HONEST TRUTH ABOUT PAINTING YOUR OWN CRANKS

 

For me, one of the highlights of any fishing trip is stepping into a local tackle shop and browsing their selection of lures.  Gets me absolutely giddy with excitement.  Been that way with me since the moment I first stepped into one at the ripe young age of 5. 

Not going to lie.  I was definitely hooked.  The colors and shapes, hell even the packaging...more tempting than a kid in a candy store for me.  I step foot in a new one, odds are high Im coming out with a sack full of stuff. For me and my bank account, they are infinitely more dangerous than strip clubs..

A few years later after that first trip into a bait shop, I started coming across fishing shows on Saturday morning TV.  Mostly Bill Dance or Roland Martin, but occasionally I'd run across Jimmy Houston, Babe Winkelman, Tony Dean....the list of legends and masters could go on...

One of the things that I always paid attention to were the lures they were using.  Most of the time, there were crankbaits involved.  Cotton Cordell, Rebel, Rapala, Rat-l-Trap, Lucky Strike, etc etc.  Sometimes the colors were outrageous, especially during that dark era  of fervent adherence to the gospel of the Color-C-Lector.  Like looking through fashion magazines that came out in the 1970's...shudder

Somehow, during these brief edited glimpses of professional fishermen's lives and adventures to lakes and waterways I knew I knew I'd never see, I developed an obsessive fondness for fishing lures of all types, but mostly crankbaits. I had unwittingly become a Bait Junky...

I tried a few times to carve my own, tried rattle canning paint jobs and other ill advised methods to get something to honestly catch fish.  Other than trout flies and an early version of the little known mayfly rig for walleye, I had no success with my lure creations.  I remember trying to weld plastic worms together with a bic lighter.  Nothing like burnt fingers and  plastisol patches on my clothes.  Had a hard time explaining to my mother why I ruined another pair of pants....

So here we are, a couple  of decades later and in the interim, I succeeded in learning how to make inline spinners, walleye spinners.  Felt like it was time to focus on crankbaits.  Thought it would be easier than making the other types of lures....

Let me tell you, I was wrong.  Dead wrong.  Painting them is easy enough once you get the hang of the airbrush.  Sealing them isn't that bad either.  Its getting them to run even remotely close to the lures they are supposed to be replicating that is my main issue.

Take for instance the Megabass Vision 100 Knocks offs.  The real Vision 100 and its siblings are typically 25.00 bucks apiece.  Its no wonder that a whole slew of vendors from across the globe chose to get in on that action with their visually similar yet infinitely inferior knock offs.  And I will be the first to admit that  I was struck by the allure of getting my hands on about a hundred of them and painting away to my hearts content.

Enter reality and the old proverbial axiom of getting what you pay for comes to mind.  

I could paint them strikingly similar to the Ito paint jobs, seal them very well, but compared to the real thing, they not only feel different when retrieved, they definitely do not respond remotely close to the real thing. Ergo, the success rate with these baits is smaller than with the exquisite engineering of the original.  Getting them to run as close as possible to the original bait is often a long game of try it and see.  

This alone is the main premise as to why I have refused to sell any of the baits I paint.  I cannot possibly guarantee any of those lures will catch fish like the original.  Money is hard to come by for a lot of folks and I'll be damned if I "con" it out of them simply by presenting a lure that looks like the original.  I don't have it in me to do that to people.  

Make no mistake.  I've had enough people ask me to paint lures for them that I could have probably bought a bigger boat.  But integrity has to come into the question.  I wouldn't want some joker selling me a knockoff that performs poorly.  

My only option then from this point forward is to paint the real thing.  I won't be buying those baits to use as blanks unless its for my own personal stash.  If I did, the price of these baits would be ridiculously high.  Better to have someone bring me the exact baits they want painted and then go from there.  Should keep the prices reasonable.

I do give some people lures I have painted.  A lot of the lures I do paint have caught me some pretty nice fish.  But my personal confidence in the final product always needs to be addressed.  If I send or give people baits, its because I feel they will work and that I have already caught fish using the same blank or paint scheme.

So why do I keep painting these blanks if they don't work quite like they should.  

Thats the sticking point right there.

You see, I have had some success with some blanks I have come across.  The Flicker shad blanks, some of the Shad Rap blanks, some topwaters and a select few others.  I don't want to sound like I am bashing on the vendors/producers of these blanks.  Some make much better products than others.  Just like anything else. You have to buy them and try them to figure out what you got, where you buy or don't buy from.  

One also has to look at purchases from vendors like this as warm-ups and a way of honing your painting skills.  It takes the sting out of having hundreds of blanks of questionable quality you may have bought on faith.

Paint them, slap on the right hardware, make alterations like adding suspend-dots, or different hook sizes to make the lures you paint run the way you want.  Its a slow laborious process but the patience and persistence in getting it right will make you glad you took the time.

In closing, I want to say a few words on sealants or finishes and I need to be clear about this.  No lure sealant is going to be anywhere as close to being as lightweight as factory finishes, unless you have the facilities to use automotive grade sealants.  If you do, you are fortunate because that alone will boost the price of those painted baits considerably, due to product cost and cleanup costs.

For the rest of us, there are other options....KBS, Diamond Kote, cement sealer etc.  I personally use Alumilite UV (100 bucks for a 2 pound can) and warm it up before I dip the lures and let it drip off for no less than 10 minutes.  Then after that, I apply the drip stick, put them in the UV box and let them cure for 20 minutes.  

The goal with all of this effort before they go into the UV box  is to get the sealant as thin as possible to add the least amount of weight to the bait.  By striving to do this, you end up with livelier artificials that run much better than a bait with too much sealant on it.

Another thing you should consider before picking up this hobby.  Cost in equipment and supplies add up.  You need a good airbrush, a nice selection of paints, blanks, a spray pot, UV lights and Box, possibly a lure turner,  small heaters or a heat gun to help set the paint, cleaning fluid, q-tips, an airbrush holder, a paint box, lights, forceps, tapes, hooks, split rings, split ring pliers etc etc.  You see where I am going with this.  Painting cranks is and becomes a huge investment in time and materials. Don't make the mistake in thinking you'll start small.  It balloons much quicker than you imagine.

Will I stop doing it?  Doubtful, if only to keep pushing my painting skills as far as they can go.  If I am going to be painting original baits rather than knock-offs, better to use the knock offs for practice runs.

It is a fun and relaxing hobby, but I've seen far too many people get into it without realizing how much it actually costs to do it.  Everything seems cheap, but it isn't.  But for those that do decide to try it out and spend the cash, I will be doing some tutorials in the future on painting crankbaits so visit often.  You never know when I am going to put those articles out.

Until then...

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and the fish afraid.

 

BOGSTALKING AND THE FORGOTTEN ART OF HIGHLY MOBILE ANGLING

If anything this year has shown me as a shoreline angler, it is the absolute need for mobility.  When the fishing slows down, its time to move.   But a lot of people don't get it...they'll sit in the same place for hours and wait...and wait....and wait...

Not me...There are only so many hours in a day and life is too short to waste time waiting for fish to come to me to bite. No sir. 

 If I find myself in that situation, its s time to kick it up a notch and bring the heat..

Call it spot hopping, puddle jumping, or a bayou boogie .., for me its always been Bogstalking .

The overall premise of Bogstalking is all about searching for active fish, pinning down their location and searching for anymore active fish in the area before moving on once they stop hitting your presentations. No need to waste much time trying to coax neutral or inactive fish into biting.  

This also isn't about trophy fishing or lunker hunting, although you will find over time Bogstalking that you will run into far more bigger fish than you would have sitting and waiting for them to come to you.

It isn't just a warm water technique.  I use it year round albeit it, aggressive in terms of fish behavior is a relative term that changes throughout the day and season.  

Throughout my travels, I've come across a few anglers who have adopted this angling lifestyle on their own terms and are extremely successful at it.  

I have mentioned my friend Sheridan a few times in the past and for good reason.   He has taken Bogstalking  to a whole new level; stalking the shorelines almost every day of the year, he has become an apex predator of sorts along the shores of Lake Sharpe and Oahe, catching limits of fish, primarily walleye,  in all manner of ungodly extremes of weather and temperatures.  He has raised Bogstalking to an art form, taking it even further than I have ever been able to. He has set the bar high and relays his success through social media.

I used Bogstalking just last week on a night trip to the Missouri River below Gavins Point dam.  I knew from past experience up there this time of year can be feast or famine if you are fishing from shore.  

This trip around proved no different.  But this time I had prepared and done my homework and went up early to get started combing the shoreline.  I opted for what I've been hearing in some recent fishing reports, a barometer of true activity from guys who are out almost every day along the entirety of the Missouri River system.  I fished areas normally not highly pressured and eventually found my active fish...all the result of Bogstalking. It took hours to comb the shoreline but when I found them it was in a very non-descript little eddy off the main current.  A spot I normally might have walked by.

One point I really want to immediately clarify about Bogstalking is that for an angler, looking for aggressive and active fish doesn't necessarily translate into fast aggressive retrieves.  Sometimes just slowing down beyond the norm can be the ticket.  A jig can be fished slowly and yet as aggressively as any jerkbait and sometimes draw in more fish and provoke them to strike.

Bogstalking is also about finding new spots, holes or areas that are bypassed by others simply because they don't look fishy enough or don't raise the proverbial "stop and fish this spot" signs.

Key point to always remember...Our eyes aren't especially suited to see any real depth into stained water (-the norm where I typically fish) so while we might think we have a general idea of what lies below, often we are are being mislead about our ability to read water or what think we are seeing.   Our minds direct us to move on and "ignore".

Keep in mind that spots do change from one year to the next for all manner of reasons. The fish will always adapt.   Someone may plant a few brush piles in the area, the primary weed type may change, the weeds may thin out...there are a host of spot changing events.   The hot spot last year, may or may not be as hot the following year.  Stalking and actively fishing from the shorelines helps identify these little nuances and allows you to make adjustments.

Walking long lengths of shoreline necessitates packing light and only taking what is necessary.  This is key to a more enjoyable experience.  Why lug a huge tackle box around a lake if there is no need to do so?  Especially when the bulk of your fishing is going to probably going to be you using a select few lures.

I typically use my Cabelas club bag as a pro tempore stalking bag.  Its big enough to accommodate a few trays of lures, a stringer, forceps, clippers and a few cans of soda.  All that will only weigh a few pounds if that.  Packed correctly, there is hardly any weight to it at all and I am geared up to walk miles with little to no discomfort.

But what to take for lures?  That is the rub right there isn't it?

Part of knowing what to take is to do your due diligence on seasonal factors affecting the water your fishing.  Water temps, cover, structure, available forage, looking over topo maps for key areas, prevailing weather patterns, water body type etc etc...you get the idea.  

But for those of who aren't quite grasping what I am implying, here is an example...

I am currently moving towards more removable Plano trays and organizing and labelling them by the standard Calendar developed by In-Fisherman and by species type.  

I base the selections filling those trays on water temp, fish type obviously, and the areas I will be looking for or fishing.  When I decide to hit the lake and fish for walleye or bass, its often just a simple matter of  taking a few  trays out of the bag and adding new ones.  You might think this all sounds like overkill but I am  telling you, organizing your tackle this way eliminates a lot of unnecessary baggage, headache and/or mystery.  It is worth the effort.  

The more you know, the better you can prepare and hone down what you are going to take with you.  And as I have stated in a previous article, (Failing to Plan is Planning to fail), the better you plan, the better your success rates will be in general.

There are other challenges you will come across.  

No matter how well you plan, you will come across areas where you will wish you had brought something else that might help you fish the area better.  That is normal and something you need to make note of for your next trip out.  

You might also come across areas of rip rap which tend to be a little hard to maneuver through, especially in the dark.  The last thing you want is to try and wind your way through that maze of sharp shifting stone while trying to maintain your balance with a tackle box that weighs more than a toddler. Try that and you will likely get hurt. A light source is definitely a must.  I prefer headlamps rther than lanterns or flashlights but do what works best for you.

You will likely come across areas that might not necessarily be holding a lot of fish now, but through your past angling experiences, you'll recognize might be the best place to fish in a few days, weeks or months.  You will come across areas that hold a lot more fish than you suspected and yet will be overlooked.  Time and experience will guide you if you let them.

If you aren't actively stalking the shorelines at least several times a season, you aren't maximizing your opportunities to pop fish, learning or discovering  seasonal habits or taking advantage of adding more spots to your go to list.  

We as anglers tend to get stuck in certain ruts and go to the same spots over and over and over...regardless of times of year.

Dont get me wrong. Some bodies of water don't necessarily have a lot of options available for shoreline fishing.  This is when the little things you find on your spotting trips during the day can translate into bigger and more fish at night. 

Every lake has community holes, like I have mentioned above.  Fish do adjust to the level of angling pressure in many ways.   Getting away from the crowds, even just a little bit or fishing off hours can put more fish on your stringer. 

Observation, continual fishing education, time on the water and awareness are the four cornerstones of sustained success.  Proper gear, thinking outside the box, and a sense of adventure through Bogstalking can and will help pave the way to greater opportunities than you imagined.

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and the fish afraid...

EULOCA RECHARGEABLE CREE XPG2 R5 LED SPOTLIGHT

 

Back in March of this year, I was in the market for a combo spotlight/lantern that was reasonably powerful, extremely light-weight, waterproof and long lasting.

So like everyone else on the planet, I started doing some looking for it on amazon.  Took me about 3 days to narrow down my search to 2 different units.  Since I couldn't really decide on either so I ordered both.

This unit was the one that won out in head to head use.

For starters the CREE XPG2 R5 LED was right on target in the lightweight requirement.  Weighing in at 0.95 pounds, its the lightest lantern/spotlight I have ever used.  

Its like it is not even there its that lightweight.

But don't let its lightweight stature fool you.  This little guy packs some punch.  It has a max brightness of 650 lumen, 6000k daylight white brightness and provides that brightness over a beam of 1640 ft.  Definitely bright enough to aid in whatever you might be doing in the dark but not blindingly bright.  There is also a switch to where you can use a 300 lumen setting to conserve your battery power.  

Part of me was initially skeptical of its lightweight because in order to help achieve that light weight, cheaper plastics are often used.  And cheap plastic often equates to broken equipment and as an outdoorsman, broken equipment is the last thing I want or need anytime, home or the water.  

I've always been an adherent of the adage, "if you take care of your equipment, your equipment will take care of you".  

I knew that I'd be putting this lantern/spotlight through its paces over the course of this year and can honestly attest to its resilience after nearly 9 months of use, its held up amazingly well.  

Which brings me squarely to the next part of this review.  

Its long lastingness.  I've only had to charge this unit twice in 9 months.  

Really.  Granted, the time actually spent using it

amounts to mere minutes of use each day, that is still a pretty decent length of time to go between recharges.  My understanding of this unit was that it was manufactured for people living in hurricane prone areas and for use when the power goes out.

The searchlight has a built in 2600mAh 18650 battery which you can charge by USB port, with a supplied USB cable, a variety of different  ways as portrayed in the graphic to the right.

The battery also serves as power bank for your smart phone of other mobile device in the event of an emergency.  

There are 4 blue LED's on the back of the unit that indicate the power levels when the unit is turned on.  When the last indicator is left alight, its time to recharge the unit.  That simple

So far, it has seemed to me that the charging process is actually pretty quick.  Usually only takes an hour or so to charge the battery via USB connections through my computer, so while I am doing my blog articles, I can charge it and have it ready for evening use.

The next aspect of my requirements for a spotlight/lantern were it needed to be waterproof. 

 I cannot say I have actually had this unit completely submerged, but I can say I have had it in use during heavy rainstorms out on the lake and its performed like a champ.  No issues whatsoever.

The only real cons  or issues I have with this unit is that its almost too lightweight.  A good stiff wind can and will blow it across the ground or dock/pier.  

I quickly found out that I needed to keep it close to or attached to something heavier to prevent it from blowing around.  

I have used the supplied strap and and secured it to my tackleboxes via a d-Ring or an S-ring if the wind is howling.  

Is this a piece of equipment I would recommend?

Absolutely. So far, its proven to me that it is up to the tasks I put to it and has not yet failed in delivering or meeting my expectations.  If I lost this for any reason, I would get another to replace it without batting an eye.

Is it the best on the market?  Couldn't say and would not go so far as to claim that it was.  But it does what I need it to do at a reasonable cost without me having to worry about its reliability....So definitely get one for your vehicles, your boat, you garage etc... well worth the cash

You can BUY IT HERE.  And no I don't get any kickbacks other than the satisfaction of being able to recommend a product that I believe in.  

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REVENGE OF THE BOGSTALKER or "HARD TELLING NOT KNOWING"

So Sunday night I celebrated fishing 180 days straight by going to the local lake and getting blanked.  Not just blanked, but ugly blanked.  

Normally, I can say with all honestly I at least had a strike on whatever I was using at the time, but that night, the lake literally gave me the middle finger.  Two hours into the trip, there was not a bite to be had and even the obnoxious family of muskrats were conspicuously absent.  

It was an ill omen from the start, but I stayed at it anyway for another hour before finally resigning myself to the fact it was not in the cards for me.

Part of me wanted to admit that the recent warming trend the last week has no doubt sent the walleye and bass scattering, as it is the beginning of December, its a flatland lake and its a well known fact that such circumstances in lakes will result in fish behavior and patterns getting thrown way out of whack.  

The other part of me said that's all fine and good, but it was my timing that was lousy.  And I will admit to that readily. The last few weeks have seen the walleye population begin their trek to the deeper haunts of the lake and only coming in shallow to feed in the late afternoon.  Prime time was long past but the old adage states that fish are always biting somewhere and its our job as anglers to make sure we're there on time.  Early bird gets the worm type of thing.

I didn't go out until about eleven o'clock hoping to ambush one of the bigger walleyes I know are in the lake.  Since it would also be classified loosely as a metro lake, the fish have adapted over the years to feeding when there is least amount of angling pressure...night time. walleyes tend to feed more in low light conditions like dusk and the bigger fish in these types of lakes, I've found over the years, tend to come in even later than that.  Throw into the mix that typically this body of water is stained to murky, night bites for most people don't usually happen.  

I knew it was going to be a long shot but I have caught bigger (for me) walleye in cold water periods on this lake around midnight this year so it wasn't altogether that hair brained of an idea.  

I had originally planned on that outing to be the last day of the streak I had been cultivating since June 9th.  I wanted to go out in style and bring a few fish home for the wife.  She has been on a tear here lately, plowing through the fish in the freezer like a bear fattening up for winter.  A few more fish in the deep freeze wouldn't hurt.  Would save me some time in the shop painting cranks, pouring soft plastics, and tying various assortments of rigs for all manner of freshwater gamefish.  Like always, life stuck a stick in my spokes.

I had no intention on going out on that note, letting my streak die with a zero and a whimper.

Enter Plan B;  or as I like to call it, the Last Chance at Redemption. Or as everyone else refers to it as Gavins Point Dam.  

Gavins Point Dam is the last of the great Missouri River dams just west of Yankton, it is also probably the one that gets hammered on the hardest all year, especially when the walleye bite is on.   Its relative proximity to 4 sizable population centers all within an hours drive makes it a popular destination.  Given its size, when the run is on, its not uncommon to see up to 50 boats milling around below the gates on any given day and the shoreline full of anglers nearly elbow to elbow.  

Its not and never has been what I would call a high percentage big fish spot for me. 

When it came to walleyes and sauger fishing below the dam, I've only caught a few over 20" there,  my share of keepers but  way too many below limit size.  The population is there but after 2 decades of fishing for them from shore mostly, I had given up on ever popping a really nice one out of there. 

But this trip wasn't really about popping a big walleye.  It was about getting a few keepers with some heft I could take home to momma, since the local lake hadn't been kicking any keepers out for me for a while.

So I load up the Squatch 2.0 (my 2017 candy apple red Silverado) and make the hour long drive just after sunset.  On the way up, I'm mentally going over my game plan, what presentations I will probably use based on where I am going to start and alternate options...I want to be as prepared as I can be because I have no idea what to expect.  

I finally arrived at 7:15 p.m. under the shroud of increasing darkness and a clear star filled sky and am greeted by a sight I am not used to seeing.

There is no one there.  Literally no one.  No bank fishermen, no boats.  No cars lining the parking areas along the bank, no lanterns shining like beacons across the river.  All I could hear was the gentle lapping of water along the shoreline and the whisper of a west wind through the naked trees.

My first thought is "Crap.  How bad does a bite have to be to keep everyone but me home?"  Fall is usually one of the best times of year to catch walleye and sauger

That thought burrowed its way deeper into my head as I dug my rods and tackle bag out of the truck and turned my headlamp on to try to find an easy path through the rip rap along the shoreline.  Where I anticipated the waterline to be and where it actually met the shore was a matter of feet.  

"Looks like I wasted some gas" I thought to myself.  Drawdowns are not unusual in the fall.  Fairly typical actually.  I hadn't however, seen a drawdown of this magnitude for a very long time.  But given the drawdown, the warmer weather pattern prevailing across the region and lack of any general info from my "recon network" regarding the status of the bite, any optimism I had was quickly fading.

As I approached the waters edge to make my first cast, the water erupted in an explosive burst.  An entire swathe about 20 yards long by about 15 yards wide were churned to a froth by the school of invasive Asian Carp that had taken offense to my encroachment.  They bolted towards the safety of deeper water, leaving the water to churn angrily in their wake

Nothing like alerting any other fish to my presence.  I fumed.  This could be tougher than I had anticipated.  

I fished fruitlessly for an hour and a half, casting jerkbaits, minnow baits,  bladebaits and paddle tails, pitching jigs, tossing Lindy rigs...moved to a new spot and repeated the whole process.  Same story here as it was back at the local lake.  Nada.  I was starting to get the feeling the whole trip was going to go down in flames.

While I am normally as stubborn as an old mule, over the years I have practiced and preached the key concepts of mobility to search for active or semi-neutral fish.  I knew I had to move to a different location.  The bite wasn't  going to happen where I was at that time and by now it was a little after nine. 

I trekked back to the truck, loaded up my gear, cracked open a cold coke and headed across the river to the north shoreline.  Looked at the thermometer in the Squatch while I was making the trip across the dam.  The current temp was 37 degrees.

I drove along the north side of the river, stopping occasionally to look at the way the current flowed.  The moon was nowhere to be seen but there was enough ambient light from the streetlights and dam to cast a pale blanket of luminescence across the surface.  I knew what I was looking for but was terribly unsure at this this point that I was going to find it.  

About 20 minutes later, I spied a small area I thought might work.  With the reduced flows and the cold water period in full swing, I felt it was a high percentage area to find some walleye.  

The only real caveat to this line of thought was this was the first year I had ever seriously fished for walleye, so while I felt my decision was a step in the right direction,  I didn't have the time on the water nor the experience to accurately judge. Time and techniques would tell.  Or as a co-worker so eloquently stated one day in the break room, "Hard Telling not knowing".

I unloaded my gear again, consisting of my 7' Fenwick HMX paired with a Mitchell 308 Pro spooled with 10lb Trilene XL, a Cabelas Club Bag I use as a  makeshift Tackle bag, all lightly packed with the barest of essentials.  Some jerkbaits, jigs, soft plastics, hooks weights, a few long minnow baits, bladebaits and paddletails.  Mobility and simplicity...Nothing crazy and as light as I can make it.  That makes a world of difference when trying to play mountain goat and walk through and on the uneven shoreline rip rap.

I made my way down to the waters edge, unhooked the jerkbait from my rod eyelet, flipped the the bail, and let it fly into the darkness of the night.

A muffled splash and the gentle tug of the current filled the rod tip up with tension.  Halfway through a slow retrieve filled with twitches and pauses, I felt it.  A light tic, akin to hard plastic brushing against river rock as it tumbles through the current.  

My instincts kicked in and I swept the rod tip and set the hook.  Instantly the rod doubled over and I felt the sluggish weight of a decent fish tug.  She stripped the line from my Mitchell for about 10 seconds, then proceeded to do the tell tale head shake of a bigger fish. I lowered my rod tip as it felt whatever it might be was coming up towards the surface.  I kept constant pressure on her and let her run when she wanted and when she tired, I started finessing her in.  

As I started gaining ground on the fish, I still couldn't tell what it was.  I figured as in times past, I had inadvertently snagged either a small paddlefish or an Asian carp.  The fight the fish was putting up was lackluster at best, no doubt a result of the cold water temps.   As I turned my headlamp on, the unmistakable glow of an eye became readily visible in the 13000 lumens beam.

It was definitely a saugeye and it was a pretty nice one at that.  

I would love to tell you there were a few more powerful surges and runs quick enough to peel the line off my protesting reel so quickly I worried about the drag failing, but that wasn't the case at all.  There was one short lived burst towards freedom and then she gave up.  About a minute later, I had her beached on the shoreline, jerkbait fully engulfed almost to her gullet and tangled in her bleeding gills, which quickly explained her willingness to give up so quickly.

It was only after I dug the hooks out of her gills , put her on a stringer and got her back into the water to see if she would make it that I noticed she had pretty much bled out.    I had every intention of releasing that fish back into the river, but fate wasn't having any of that.  So while I managed to finally pop a nice fish, the sad part of it was I couldn't set her free and realistically expect her to survive.

All in all, I was very glad I took the chance to head up north and try my hand at winter walleye and sauger fishing in rivers.  As has been relayed to me through other "recon" sources the past few days,  there have been a lot of fish taken this size and bigger below the dam so far the last two months.  Me posting this picture to my facebook account kind of let the worm out of the container.  

The fish are there.  Just don't expect a lot of rapid or long lasting action.  Its a crap shoot fishing from shore on any given day, at any given hour.  But from now  until spring, the walleyes will be making their way upriver to stage for spawning.  If you want a good shot at some really nice fish, dust your gear off and get your butts out there.

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and those fish afraid...

BOGSTALKER