2013 Grandt Rods Fishing Reports Contest

[djkimmel]

Grandt Rods 2013 Fishing Reports Contest

From Saturday, April 27, 2013 until September 30, 2013, GreatLakesBass.com is running a fishing report contest. Entry into the contest is simple and free. All you have to do is post helpful and interesting fishing reports under any of the Bass Fishing Reports sections to win.

A panel of myself and independent judges will pick the overall winner based on the total number of fishing reports posted by member, the quality of the fishing reports - details, pictures, lures, techniques, etc. and the total number of views the fishing reports receive on the forum - so tell people where to look for your reports - the more that read them, the better your chances to win!¹

This means that you won't necessarily be out of the running if your reports are less numerous than someone else. More detailed reports are scored higher - pictures, video(?) and the popularity of your reports also affect the final decision.

The winner will be announced and received a NEW 7' Grandt Rods C10 Graphite Casting Rod - the same high quality, light, sensitive, Made in the USA, lifetime warranty graphite rod I love to use for Great Lakes and bigwater spinnerbaits, and similar techniques!

The runner up in the Fishing Reports Contest will win a new WaveSpin Reel of their choice!

Other prizes may be added to this list depending upon sponsor advertiser and member partipation!

Who will be the 2013 GreatLakesBass.com Grandt Rods Fishing Reports Champion?!?

The 2012 GreatLakesBass.com Grandt Rods Fishing Report Champion will be announced and awarded at the May 11, 2013 MadWags Memorial Members Tournament on Lake St. Clair!


¹ Views will be measured by the number of total unique viewers.

[Mojo]

so who won ?

[djkimmel]

Good question. Now that I remembered to get the WaveSpin Reel contest winner picked and the new and final 2013 contest started I need to finish adding up the scores to this contest. A lot more to add up and score but I will announce it ASAP!

[YpsiBass]

so who won ?

Always looking for a new rod, this guy...

[Waterfoul]

Not sure I like this contest Dan.  I see this as a great way for guys to get new spots without having to go find them for themselves. 

[Mojo]

Not sure I like this contest Dan.  I see this as a great way for guys to get new spots without having to go find them for themselves. 

A good author can write a story with enough detail that its entralls and teaches you, lets you draw lessons and parallels through its poetry .... but general enough that you can imagine that story happening right in your backyard, neighborhood, city or country.

Same goes for fishing reports ......

[Waterfoul]

Not sure I like this contest Dan.  I see this as a great way for guys to get new spots without having to go find them for themselves. 

A good author can write a story with enough detail that its entralls and teaches you, lets you draw lessons and parallels through its poetry .... but general enough that you can imagine that story happening right in your backyard, neighborhood, city or country.

Same goes for fishing reports ......

Perhaps you can there Longfellow.  :-)  But you put a picture up with any kind of background of a lake within 100 miles of my house and I'll tell you right where you are!!  LOL!!

[djkimmel]

Not sure I like this contest Dan.  I see this as a great way for guys to get new spots without having to go find them for themselves.  

Okay. You've said your opinion. Let me share mine.

This is the title of this website: Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum - Your Great Lakes and Michigan Online Bass Fishing and Tournament Community.

I want to stress two words right now - Your and Community.

If I had created GreatLakesBass.com for one person then one opinion would be all I need, but it would have been much simpler and more clear to have had the title say Mike's Great Lakes and Michigan Online Bass Fishing and Tournament Community or Dan's Great Lakes and Michigan Online Bass Fishing and Tournament Community.

But I didn't do that because the Your I included in the title was addressed to EVERYONE. I didn't mean that word to apply ONLY to persons who already know everything there is to know about fishing and therefore doesn't need any answers, help or spots. I mean the word Your to literally be addressed to everyone and anyone who finds this website whether they started fishing 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago.

If someone started fishing today, whether they were 5 or 35 they have no spots or much of anyone except what they can learn through different means the same way I, YOU and everyone else I know learned. I DEFINITELY intended GreatLakesBass.com to be a place where they can come to learn some of those things.

That leads to Community - a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common; a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. I have never understood why anglers and hunters, boaters, heck... even just humans - don't get along more often online and with each other out in the world than we do.

We are all in this thing together. We bass anglers definitely have more in common than in difference. I created this website as a place where we could practice more community and less 'you're not from around here.' If I leave this Earth having moved people 1% more towards Community and away from 'you're not from around here' I will feel like I've accomplished something in my life.

Since I love fishing and the outdoors, I decided a long time ago that maybe I could help the world be a better place in my own small way by getting more persons to go fishing. Every angler has to start learning somewhere. I want GreatLakesBass.com to be that place. I also want it to be a place where ANY angler at any spot along the learning path can still find Community.

I don't think it is possible to know everything about fishing (or anything else), and find anyone who thinks they are done learning is usually someone who is not fun to be around for more than a minute or two, so I happen to think that ANY angler of any level of experience can get something from this website, and I put as much effort as I can into making that be true.

Saying all that, I obviously need to consider the needs of anglers of every level of experience, but with my desire to make the world a better place through fishing, I want to make sure this website is particularly welcoming to new and inexperienced anglers. I remember what it felt like when I first got started - full of questions, and not knowing where and how to find the answers. I keep that in my mind at all times.

To me, that means no judgment, and no allowing an atmosphere anything remotely like the 'good ole boys' club that I bet most of us have felt we didn't belong to at one or many times in our lives. GreatLakesBass.com is Your Community meaning exactly what it should mean - if you are reading this, regardless of who you are, who you know, what you know, GreatLakesBass.com is Your Community. If you want it to be. I write pretty much everything I do on here remembering that anyone in the world can read it. I'm always writing things addressed to everyone, not just one person.

As far as fishing reports being 'a great way for guys to get new spots without having to go find them for themselves' yes - EXACTLY! Except I would like to point out that not ALL anglers (or even members and visitors to GreatLakesBass.com) are guys. Many are women and young ladies. I want them to come here, learn and be part of the Community too!

As Mojo intelligently pointed out, it is real easy to be a part of this Community without giving away all your 'secrets' in writing OR in pictures. I say THANK YOU to all of those of you who share very detailed information because obviously that is VERY popular. I also say thank you to any of you who participate at all. Because that is what a Community is about - sharing. You all help make it worth sticking around or not.

All Communities need some rules and guidelines, and that is where I come in. A guideline I want to be clear about right now is about expectations. A Community needs fairness. That means that any of us should not expect another member to be any more forthcoming than you are. Please keep that in mind as you think about what you expect to get out of this website. In addition, every one of us has things to share so I don't buy comments about how someone doesn't know enough to share anything when I explain that everyone needs to give AND take to have a community. I say this fairly often for this reason - I have learned at least 1 thing from every single person I have ever fished with regardless of their level of experience.

This Community needs EVERYONE to participate in whatever way they can; NO ONE to judge another; NO talk about people getting something for nothing; and please make an effort to remember all we have in common more often than what we don't have in common. It should be easy.

[djkimmel]

Part of what I don't like, particularly about tournament anglers, is this talk about peoples' 'spots' (even worse 'peoples' lakes'). I have met almost NO ONE who found all 'their' spots on their own. We ALL had help from other people or other sources. It doesn't matter to me if the help came from a friend, someone you saw fishing somewhere or from reading something or watching a video on a fishing website.

Part of fairness is not pretending that anyone else's efforts to learn more about fishing are somehow different than your efforts. I see no difference unless it is someone who literally follows a leader of a tournament to spot so they can fish it that day or the next. Yes, a few people do that and it isn't right, but I have had some anglers who are considered really, really good anglers tell me 'sure, if they see someone whack fish somewhere, they aren't going to pretend they don't have that knowledge.' They will fish the spot or area. Just later. Whatever their own personal value system is seems to determine if it is tomorrow, next week or next year.

Some of you will think that is still wrong, and I won't argue with you. What I will say is this - what is definitely wrong in my opinion is if you're one of those people who thinks it's okay when you do it but WRONG when someone ELSE does it.

I can't tell you how often I have had anglers tell me about some terrible thing someone did to them only to see that same person do that terrible thing to someone else, but somehow it is 'okay' when they did it... No. That doesn't work. There's one set of rules. And it is the same for everyone.

I have had a few people quit posting fishing reports on here because they didn't want to help 'other' people fish 'their' lake or 'their' spot. I have heard disappointing things like 'there's already too many people fishing my lake' or 'I don't want to help the meathunters catch more bass.' NO ONE owns a lake or a spot. NO ONE. And one of the biggest reasons I put so much time into GreatLakesBass.com in the first place is to GET MORE PEOPLE INTO FISHING!!!

If you care about fishing and our natural resources, you need to care that we are selling less fishing licenses and having fewer people get into the outdoors in Michigan. It is that way in other states too. Hunters, anglers and other user fees are the majority by far of the money that goes to protect and care for our natural resources in Michigan. It is too important to all of us to not do something on this website about that so, yes, I will promote things that I believe increase overall participation and Community.

So, my opinion is clearly that trying to promote more fishing reports is good because people like fishing reports. But you should also have picked up on the fairness part. I have to ask all of you to give as much as you take with all of you meaning the 'veterans AND the less experienced anglers.

It's not real surprising to see many new members first post be a question. That's pretty common all over the Internet. It would be nice if you could run a community forum that only attracted 'experts' who gave out tons of great information expecting nothing in return, wouldn't it. There's one way to do that consistently and that is to charge everyone a fee, and pay the experts to be here. The problem is, most people think the Internet is free so you don't see a lot of that.

Barring the budget to pay a bunch of money to 'experts' to be here to answer everyone's questions I need ALL of you to be 'experts.' If you remember, I said earlier I have learned something from everyone I've fished with. I need to remind all of you that the fairness I'm talking about along with having the same set of rules for everyone means that if you are someone who does not participate please do not expect to get much in return. This is a simple concept.

I get asked privately multiple times a week for spots and information consistently. There are many reasons for that. I get it. But it defeats the purpose of having a Community if people won't use it. So I do often refer people back to posting their questions publicly. Partly, I can't keep up with all the questions all of the time. I have websites to build and maintain, and eventually I would like to fish a little more again like all many of you!

Also, I live by what I believe as much as possible. If someone sends me an email wanting detailed information about a lake and they aren't even a member of my website... a simple prioritization of my time makes those replies low on my list. GreatLakesBass.com is important to me for many reasons, including some stated here, so it is a high priority in my fishing todo list. There are times I can't get to answering these questions, and if I know the answer is already on this website, or they will get the answer if they just post and ask I will often refer them here.

Because I am in the information business, I will sometimes answer them privately depending upon the question(s) and how long it will take to provide a good answer(s), with added increase in priority if I think it may get more people joining this website and/or out fishing more often. Sometimes, I just know I can't get to all of them though so I do refer them here.

If the person asking private information is a member, I look at or ask how much they have participated. Frankly again, if someone never participates on the website, it's pretty hard for me to justify taking time away from the website (or whatever website I'm working on at the time) to answer private questions when I could accomplish more by providing that information to everyone publicly, or maybe the information is already available if someone just takes the time to search first (SOMETHING YOU SEE SO MANY PEOPLE COMPLAIN ABOUT ON FORUMS ACROSS THE INTERNET!!).

Now, if you're 'shy' or something else is keeping you from posting, okay. I will try to break you of that because it's not ideal but I do give people the benefit of the doubt if they tell me they visit, and read every day, stuff like that (besides... us computer nerds can look up stuff like that - fyi ). I am somewhat disappointed to think how many times I have provided private information to people asking for a fishing report, maybe some pictures in return afterwards only to never hear from them again... what we call a 'negative outcome.'

Even worse, some of them call me the next year and ask me a whole bunch of questions all over again!!! I used to give people 2, 3, maybe more chances in the past. But, I don't have that time anymore to keep providing detailed answers privately to people who don't join, or never participate. That's what I built the forum for! So you could all be each others' resources.

Now, if I can't get someone to post on the forum, and I have the time to give some answers privately, I do the best I can depending upon available time and the good of the sport. BUT, if they don't join, don't GIVE back in some way... that's the end of the private answers. I've had some people get mad at me over that but hey, it's my way of telling all of you that I understand some of the issues with not wanting to share your hard-won knowledge all the time. Be fair. If you want to receive, don't be surprised you need to give. The less people take the time to give on here the harder it is to keep this website growing. It is simple, simple, simple. No one wants a community full of takers.

I will fully disclose here in the open that I also give out information in proportion to the amount of participation the person asking me has given. Again simple - if you are an active member who gives a lot to this website, I will give a lot to you including in private whenever I can, though again, we all benefit more when the information is shared publicly with everyone whenever possible. If you're someone who hasn't posted in a year, your last login time is March 2010 and you email me asking for lots of information privately, even saying 'I'll start participating afterwards, honest...' well... I've never bought that bridge in Brooklyn. I've occasionally 'bought' a dollar's worth of snake oil... but that's about it.

It's the same pretty much for everyone on this website. If you give a lot, odds are way more likely you will like being a part of this Community. If you only take all the time, you probably will be less satisfied... and there's only one person who can change that really. And that's you.

For my part, I have to keep doing more things to get more of you to want to participate as much as possible. Or I won't have to worry about posting on this website. Like any business, project, activity - if you aren't growing, you're... well, you'll be gone eventually. I don't really want to be gone.

So THANK YOU again to all of you who do take the time to share, and please share what you are comfortable and willing to share. Don't share what you don't want to. Just share something. It still can be entertaining and informative without giving away all your 'secrets.' There really aren't very many secrets in fishing anyway. Listen to the best anglers out there and you'll hear they pretty much tell you everything you need to know. You just have to be willing to listen, and do what they do, and the 'secrets' can be yours too. That's probably the REAL 'secret' of fishing - always learn; always be open to things - never think you know it all; only expect to get out of it what you are willing to put into it.

Spots don't make the angler. The angler makes the angler. Over the long haul, I've seen nothing to change my mind on that.

[mikesmiph]

Long, but very well said Dan.

[djkimmel]

Thanks. Some day I will write a shorter version. The message will always be the same though. Share. Be nice to each other.

In the words of Brother Dave Gardner "a stranger is just a friend you haven't yet met" though I don't really consider other anglers strangers. I already know a lot about them before I even say the first hello. Now I'm going to go put some more time into getting some more out-of-state 'strangers' to come fish here soon... I might even give them a few spots to try...

[dartag]

Not sure I like this contest Dan.  I see this as a great way for guys to get new spots without having to go find them for themselves.  

I seldom see reports that give specific locations.  There are tourny's every day of the week but I rarely see the winners even posting.  I guess I see this site as kind of the local bar.  A place to hang out and read about fishing.  

[djkimmel]

That is definitely one of the many reasons I want to keep the website going - 'hang out and read about fishing.'

The winners don't post much. Some of them are fishing too much. Some of them are shy or the Internet makes them nervous. I've talked to some of them about it - things like trying to get rufus to post more often - though I understand it takes a lot of time to post the long reports he posts.

I never expect anyone to give away information they don't want to but we can all learn from just about any level of information usually, and we can definitely be entertained and share that common love of the water every time we post something about it!

One of the many things I like about fishing is the wide range of different things people can get out of it - pretty much whatever each individual wants.

[Waterfoul]

Wow.  Then let me re-phrase my ealier concern.  It's not the members of this site I was refering to.  It's all the "trollers" who simply open the site, cruise around, and never join.   I think this site gets a lot more of them than we think.  I've heard on more than one occasion fishing small lakes or some of the local rivers "I read it on the internet" from guys.  When I say "really, what site?" and the list a couple I always ask them their screen name.  Most of them are not members of any site.

These are the type of people I was refering to.  Everyone knows I share a lot of information with people here... taking many members fishing on lakes they've never seen before.  I enjoy doing this a lot, and will continue to do so.

[bigjc]

So Dan...do you plan to keep us in suspense until the May TX?

[Firefighter Jeff]

    I appreciate all the help I've gotten from anyone on this site.  I try to return the favor when asked.  Not sure if my info has helped or not.  Sometimes you never know.  Fishing changes from day to day.  I had a member tell me where he was fishing the day before and what they caught them on and when I tried, zip.  LOL  Just because you pass along some help doesn't mean it will always pan out.  But I like to put that info in my memory bank and I'll try that spot with those baits each time I go.  It's all part of the learning process. 
    Do you guys ever look back a few years at how you fished or what baits you were using and realize that you're a better fisherman now???  I think the main thing I would do over if I had the chance would be to join a fishing club.  I think the experience of fishing with different people would have been very helpful.  I usually take along friends that don't fish much.  I rarely learn new techniques or other opinions on fishing with them.  Tcook excluded.  I don't take them to learn from them but to have some fun.  Problem is, I don't get much better.  So, I have to refer to articles and websites such as this to try and become a better fisherman and learn certain lakes better.
     I'm very fortunate and get to fish quite a bit, eventhough, some of the things I have learned from the guys on this site have cut down the learning curve and it's very much appreciated.   

[gmetime24]

Perfectly said!! That's the best part about this site!

[TheFishinPollock]

I've tried yer guys spots up here.  They were not that great    Specialy Jeff and Dan's spots on Mullett <jokin> 

[gmetime24]

So is this contest over and was a winner ever selected?

[djkimmel]

The contest is over. But the prize committee has done a poor job of selecting a winner. 'We' (me) just need to calculate the scores to determine a winner. At this point, if I get power and Internet back on before the Ultimate Fishing Show, I'd like to announce and award there. But I'm behind again in client work thanks to being off the grid for a week already, and they pretty much always come first unfortunately for this favorite website of mine.