Lake Champlain Recap

First of all I have to say sorry for taking so long to post this. I am in the process of moving back down near Philly where I came from, so I have not been home all week. The Empire Division Super Tournament on Lake Champlain was last weekend, and I was right, it was going to be a good one. Unfortunately, just not a good one for me.

I spent almost a week in Plattsburgh NY for this tournament, practicing with a good buddy of mine, Nathan Knapp, as well as the HardKore Fisherman himself, Mr. Sean McLoughlin. Other then the nasty wind and few fish catches, practice went pretty good. After all, I didn’t die, my beautiful girlfriend Amanda was nice enough to spend a week in a tent with me for support, and…well lets just leave it at that. Needless to say, I was praying to draw a boater who was on fish, because we weren’t.

At the meeting on Friday night, I get paired with Jerry Chromey. Jerry is a very nice guy with a very big boat to withstand the nasty wind that Lake Champlain is known for but he was defiantly not on fish. Luckily for us, my good friend Jason Knapp gave me a spot to check if I drew a boater who was not on fish. So I was feeling pretty good for Saturday morning.

Like many times before in tournaments on Lake Champlain in September, the wind was blowing bad from the South, and our tournament director decided it was best for our safety to call off day one and just fish a full field on Sunday. I was still pumped up and ready to catch 3-pound smallmouth. Someone forgot to tell the smallies to get pumped though.

When we finally got to our spot Sunday morning we realized we were going to have some company. We had to share the spot with about 5 or 6 other boats. Not to worry though, because this is a huge spot with tons of fish…or so I am told. It didn’t take me long to put fish in the boat. It didn’t even take me long to get a 5 fish limit. But that 5 fish limit was only about 5 pounds. No good. I kept fishing hard and tried my best to not let the small fish let me down, but 1-pound fish don’t excite me too much.

At the end of the day, I caught probably 4 limits, out fished my boater 20 to 1, but my drop shot rig still only brought 7 pounds and 1 ounce to the scales. 28th place might not sound to bad, but when there were only 66 boats in the event, it’s not good at all. I ended up finishing 14th in points. Could have been a lot worse, but I did want a top 10 in points, and I did not get that.

I do have to give a congrats to Nate Knapp though. He got his first top ten finish in this event, finishing 3rd. And the only bit of bragging I can still do is let you all know that I beat my buddy Sean McLoughlin. Just don’t look at the points standings…I may have fell behind Sean in that one.

JymSu Soft Plastics Review

I was first introduced to JymSu products by a boater I drew last year on the Potomac River in Maryland. After asking about JymSu products, my boater gave me a few packs of lures to take home with me and try them for myself. It didn’t take me to long to run out of these lures. Since then, much like the fish that get near JymSu Bass Baits, I have been hooked on them.

JymSu offers a 100 percent guarantee or your money back, as well as free shipping to all customers that order from their website. With offers like that, they are hard to turn down. I, along with everyone else who fishes JymSu products, have been catching anywhere from 3-8 fish on just 1 lure! Most of the competitor’s lures are lucky if the first fish doesn’t rip the plastic into pieces. 3-8 fish on just one bait means even more savings to the customers. I use less lures and catch more fish, it’s amazing. And it is not just me having great success with JymSu. Last year, Elite Series pro Britt Myers won $40,000 flipping the famous JymSu Sweet Susie. This year, anglers have won over $100,000 fishing JymSu products, and the year is far from over. And JymSu’s New Swimbaits are one of the best on the market. They flat out catch fish everywhere.

I am currently sitting at 15th in the points standings out of 160 others this year in the Empire Division of BFL’s, and this is because of JymSu. Every tournament I fished this year I fished and caught fish on JymSu products. From fishing a JymSu 3” Sweet Susie on a shaky head on Lake Champlain, to drop shotting a JymSu 4” Finesse Worm on 1000 Islands, to fishing JymSu’s 5” Stik wacky rigged at both Lake Chautauqua and Oneida Lake. But, I haven’t only been fishing JymSu lures in tournament. I have spent over 40 days this year fun fishing by now, and the majority of them have been spent fishing JymSu lures.

Last week I decided to fish a small pond by my house called Sunfish Pond to boost my confidence for Oneida Lake. After I launched the boat, I decided to see how good I could do by using nothing but JymSu lures. So I had my rods rigged with a JymSu Sweet Susie on a flipping stick, a JymSu Gator Frog on another bait caster, a Texas rigged 5” JymSu Stik on my last baitcaster, a wacky rigged 5” JymSu Stik on a spinning rod, and one of my favorite set ups, a shaky head with a 7’ JymSu Trik-Worm. A lot of this pond is fishing grass and stumps, so I was more then ready for them.

While I was tying up my rods, I was talking to some other locals that fish the lake regularly, and they were saying the low water and heat has been making the fishing pretty tough. I wasn’t too worried though, because I have a lot of confidence in my set ups. And I proved to myself right away that I should be. I caught about a 2 pounder on my first cast with the Gator Frog. And the day just kept being that good. I caught fish after fish all afternoon with just them 5 set ups. I only spent about 4 hours fishing, and ended up boating over 18 fish, with my best five weighing in around 13-15 pounds. Not to bad for a lake that others believed to be “turned off”. And this day on the water was exactly the confidence boost I needed going to Oneida Lake.

So please don’t be afraid to try out JymSu products. As I said before, they offer free shipping, and 100 percent money back if you do not like the product. So what is there to lose? I can’t think of a thing. All I see is more to gain, and more fish in your live wells. Just log onto http://www.jymsubassbaits.com/ now, look over their products, place an order, and tell Mr. and Mrs. Langston that John Cook sent you.

-John

Lake Oneida, NY Recap

This BFL marked my first trip to Lake Oneida, and I hope first impressions don’t hurt my relationship with this lake. I spent the Friday before the tournament pre-fishing with my buddy Nathan Knapp, and man was it tough out there. We ended the day with me only catching only one bass, about a 14-inch smallie…not going to win any tournament with that. And after talking to many guys that I knew that also spent the day fishing, I knew I was in for a tough tournament on Saturday.

I ended up being paired with Toyota of Clifton Park and PumpX pro, Glen Babineau. Speaking with Glen before the tournament, he seemed ready to catch some good smallies on a hump he found in the middle of the lake. I love catching small mouths, so I was pumped. But, as always in tournaments, the fish were just not on when we got to them. We fished the spot for about an hour and knew we needed to make a change. After checking out a few spots Glen had, we finally came onto a big weed bed in about 6-10 feet of water. It took some time, but Glen finally put one in the boat. It didn’t take me to long to put my first fish in the boat, a 14-inch large mouth on a Green-Pumpkin 5" JymSu Stik. SWEET!!! I got a fish, so I get points for the tournament and don’t come in empty handed to the scales being watched by my girlfriend Amanda, Mom, and Aunt Tina who all made the trip to see me weigh in. About a half an hour I caught another large mouth on the JymSu Stik, this one about 3.5 pounds. This is starting to look good for me. I ended up getting two more large mouths doing the same thing, both being about a pound and a half.

Coming to the scales I felt good. It was my hope to get 8 pounds, thinking that should get me into check range. I knew I had about 8, so I was pumped. Little did I know the lake seemed to turn on for everyone. I ended up weighing in at 8 pounds and 8 ounces, which was only good enough for 35th place, which moved me from 16th in points to 15th. I guess I cannot complain too much. I didn’t zero, I had some fun on the water, I got to enjoy the tournament with family, and best of all, I went fishing. I also moved to a little better place in points. But I would be lying if I said I was happy with how I did. It ended up taking over 14 pounds to win on the co-angler side, and over 11 pounds to get a check.

So now I am getting ready for Lake Champlain in a few weeks. Lake Champlain is, and probably always will be my favorite lake, and I am so pumped for this tournament. It is the Empire Division’s Super tournament, and it will be a good one.

-John Cook

Welcome to HipHopFishing.com. My name is John Cook. I am a tournament bass angler from Monroeton, Pennsylvania. This is my first of many posts that will be found on this site. As time goes on, you will be able to read about and learn many things in the fishing and tournament-fishing world. I will be writing everything from tips and techniques to product reviews. From tournament results to tournament format changes. Currently I am about half way through my 2008 tournament season. I am fishing this year as a co-angler in FLW’s BFL (bass fishing league) in the Empire Division. I am currently 16th in points out of 141 co-anglers that fished this year. We have fished 3 tournaments this year so far (Lake Champlain, NY, where I finished 20th, 1000 Islands, NY, where I came in 64th, and Lake Chautauqua, NY, where I finished 23rd). The Empire Division still has 2 regular season tournaments to go, Lake Oneida, NY, on August 30th, and our 2-day super tournament on Lake Champlain, NY from September 20th to the 21st. Then, the top 40 in points on both the boater and co-angler move onto the Regional event at Albemarle Sound, in Elizabeth City, NC. So please feel free to come back to HipHopFishing.com at anytime to see how the rest of my season is going, as well as to read up on the different products I use and review, and maybe even learn something new.
- John Cook