FishCraze

Fishing trip from long ago but never forgot!

2009-09-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Many years ago we used to fish a old oxbow lake off the black warrior river near Fosters Al. There was 2 or 3 of these,you had to be a member or have a member with you. I was lucky my friend was as I couldn't and still can't afford their rates:)
The lake we were fishing was full of standing timber,laydowns,weeds, Lilly pads every where, the kind of lake Bill Dance seems to fish often:)
We started our morning throwing buzzbaits,pink floating worms and topwater baits. We prolly caught 20 or so "footballs" these fish were healthy almost as fat as long and dark green color. The water was a tanic color and full of fish.
After fishing around one side and wearing out the bass I decided to go big:) I tied on a 12 inch worm without a weight and swam it among the lillypads. There was a section of pads,prolly around 20'x20' 15 or 20 feet off the bank that we haven't fished yet.

My first cast across the pads, I slowly started swimming the big worm when the whole pad field exploded, and I mean exploded, the wake of it made our 12' boat roll. We both about had a heart attack and thought that had to be a state record of some sort. I miss the biggest strike I've EVER had:(
Well, I reeled up and made another cast same place, I hadn't move the worm 2 feet when the fish hit again, blew a hole about 5 feet and missed my worm. I kept on swimming the worm(now my shakes had put more action to it also:)Bout 5 feet more and again someone threw a cinder block into the pads at my worm, and again it missed:( I was just about to the end of the 20 or so feet of pads when it happened again, this time I dropped my rod and watched my line, this time it started moving and set back with all I had,when I stuck the fish it didnt move, I set it again and this time the fish went ballistic, it pulled our little tin boat about 20-30 feet while I tried to gain control. After about 5 minutes,seemed like 5 hours I had the fish close and told my buddy to get ready to help. We had no net and didnt know what we had yet. When the fish surfaced it was the biggest gar I had ever seen in my life.
I could not lift it out of the water, all I could do was lift it about half way. Thought about keeping it because it was at the time by for my biggest fish of any kind. We both guessed it weight in the area of 60-70 lbs. But really didnt want that thing in a 12' tin boat:)
After talking to a local taxidermist he said it was a alligator gar and he would have mounted it for free since it was so large.
Man I would give anything for at least a picture, but now after catching 100lb tarpon, 50 lb cobia, 30lb red snapper and 10 lb black bass in my life so for that one fish with it's multiple hits and finely boating it is one top of my list of fish caught. I'll never ever forget that day and glad I got to share it here, sorry for the length and grammer,etc...
I fish way better than I write:)

Forums REopened on Fishcraze.com

2009-07-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

I've reopened the forums at Fishcraze.com
I shut it down about a year ago because of spammers and a problem with the board to keep them out I've tried to find a board to use and keep the old one open for the 4-5 years of infomation that's on the old board.
I couldnt find what I wanted, so I reopen the old one. I'm going to try to make it work and hope to keep a grip on the spammers. Wish me and the mods luck on that:)

I hope ya'll stop by we're be adding more stuff and hope to have the cobwebs cleaned out and everything running smooth in a day or so

I'll be back to post about the hog I caught this past saturday morning at lake lu.

fish on
Danny

Happy Indepence day!

2009-07-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

Please think of those that are in harms way today and to those that have servered and to those that have gave the ultimate sacrifice so we can all enjoy the BBQ's,beers, and to be with loved ones!

One of my fav for sure, thank you and SemperFi!

I got this picture from this blog
Great read on the 4th.

I might to go fishing tomorrow, full moon coming up, front coming down, big bass cruising! Could be good :)

Fish on
Danny

New World record bass from Japan

2009-07-03T08:09:00.001-07:00

Here's a video of the massive bass that was caught on july 2 in Biwa lake in Japan.

that's crazy! It looks like it'll Tie with Perry's long held world record bass. It has to be 2 ounces over the current record to be a new record. Whatever!?

I want to catch one that big :)

fish on
Danny

Weekend at lake Lu

2009-06-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

Crossing the dam Lake Lu Saturday 27th of June.

I decided to fight the heat and hit Lake Lu at daylight Saturday morning 6-27-09
3rd cast of the morning with a zara spook in baby bass color.I didnt even work the lure, I didn't see the hit, but I heard it, the cider block hit, it was loud and it was fun.
(I have a vid, that's not too good I'll add at the end of the post of this fish.)

First fish of the day, what a great way to start, cool, calm and explosions at daylight:) There's a tape that goes to 18 inches in the photos, you can tell pretty much how long they are.

another pic of her, over 23 inches and over 8lbs.

I caught 5 bass total Saturday, 3 dinks and another toad of almost 5 lbs. The 5 hit a shakyhead in some brush. It was hot, but those fish made is seem like I was fishing in Alaska :)

Sunday, the lake opens at 1230 or so on Sunday, I wasn't in a hurry to go and sweat so I got there around 230. slight nw wind with some clouds(thank you lord)
Both days the water temp was in the low 90's but it's green that's a good thing.
I started fishing and went a couple of hours with only 2 small fish on a crankbait. around 5 or so, I hit a shallow bar where I've caught some big fish in the past and was bumping the bottom around a bream bed and this fish hit and went crazy, she was around 19 inches and around 5lb

sweet! that's why we fish.

That fish made my day and I was ready to start fishing back to the boat area. I stopped to hit another shallow bar that sits about 15 feet off the bank, I know it's a bream bed,seen the big holes when the water was clear. I started dragging the crank though the holes, feeling it hit then bounce up, on about the 3rd hole I felt the crankbait go away from me, I leaned into the hit and knew I had another solid fish on. It went crazy, I stumbled around for the net,when a 9/10 pounder jumps it's awesome(as long as I'm not in a tourney:)

This fish was over 24 inches long and I know it was close to if not over 10. I didn't weight it, cause it was just too hot to keep it out long, I wish I did weight it. Ohwell it was big toad! Sunday all 4 fish hit a H2O crankbait, was a long slender chartreuse with a green back kind that runs about 4 feet deep.

Both days were hot but fun. 2 over 8 and 2 more around 5. Now that's bass fishing in the south in June :)

Here's video I shot on Saturday of the 8, sorry quality, it's hard to fight the fish and shoot the vid, I'm working on my technique :)

Fish on
Danny

Turtle fight

2009-06-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Went fishing down on Lake Lu in livingston al. Been going down there about every weekend, hoping the big toads will start their summer feeding patterns. I've done so so. Nothing over 5 or lbs since April but the last couple of weekends the fish have got a little bigger. On may 30th the biggest 5 would have gone about 15 or so. They were sitting on a brush top on a ledge. Crankbait were the ticket. This past weekend, I caught a couple from that brushtop but I found some good fish on another. Past Sunday jump off one over 5 and boated 2 over 4 with some misses. Hot though!

Here's a quick video of a turtle that got a little too close to my crankbait. This is the first of my vids I'll be uploading this summer to my youtube channel. REALfishcraze.

I'll be in north alabama this coming weekend to fish Wheeler lake, I'll blog about it next week. Untill then, follow me on Tweeter :)
Danny

Fishing and Balloon races

2009-06-01T13:03:00.001-07:00

Great morning for flying :)

Been busy working on several things, some of my irons in my fire are toast:) Ohwell, live and learn. I spent the weekend over at Lake Lu. That's a small 55 acre lake on the campus of west Alabama campus in Livingston Alabama. I'm going to do a post on that lake soon so you'll see what the deal is. Big fish is the deal :)

Saturday,got there at sunup, clear sky's light nw winds. The fishing was pretty slow most of the day. Around 12 or so I found some fish on brush near the channel and started catching some nice fish. 4 over 15 inches and a couple more around 12" or so. most came on a Banditt Flatmax(my fav:)

Sunday, went to the balloon race at sunup,see pic, pretty cool, I wanted to fly with them but instead just took some pics. see top!

Sunday, headed to lake lu at 12pm for about 5 hours, started off at the same place, caught 2 nice ones, missed one and thought well I know there here I'll go find more and come back here and really clean up......nope,didnt find them anywhere else and when I got back to the brush on the ledge, caught 1 more about 3. that's it. Fun of course anyhow.That's way we do what we do :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I can't wait untill I'm on the water again.
until then, fish on
Danny

week is about over, wohoo!

2009-05-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone has a great weekend! If your fishing, catch'em up, if your doing other things, well you should be fishing :)

thanks to everyone that spends a few minutes to read my blog and I hope oneday I'll post something that will help you in your fishing.

also, here's a new color for the fishcraze stickers,

fish on
Danny

weekend fishing, what else is new:)

2009-04-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday fishing lake Lu in Livingston Al, both days were pretty tuff fishing, post spawn blues, plus they fertilized the lake on Thursday:(
Normally it takes a few days for them to ajust to that and well they were not this weekend:)
I did catch 2 very nice fishes on sat though. Dont ask about Sunday.
Here's the first nice one, caught on a lizard, guess he/she thought it needed a big meal:)

13" and about a pound and half, one of the biggest shellcrackers I've ever seen or caught.
Then just a little while later while fishing a channel edge with a flat shallow crankbait, this pig just about swallowed it, luckly I got the bait out and she swam around, little sore but kicking :)

22 1/2 inches and right at 7 on my scales, she jumped prolly 5 times, but the bait was so deep it wasnt coming out.
Those 2 fish made the weekend :)

until later, fish on
Danny

More on Guntersville Rally with pics

2009-04-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

I wanted to add a couple of pics from our Tourny day,
Here's Micheal with his 2 toads,

another one,

here's one of mine,

Great morning on Lake Guntersville, we had the 4 we weight in at 11am or so, we caught several shorts, like I said yesterday, should have stayed in our pond and never left without that 5th fish.

thanks and fish on
Danny

Back from Guntersville

2009-04-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Back at the work place and thinking of the past weekend at lake Guntersville, man what a awesome lake!
We had 2 nights of great food, 2 days of good fishing and a Tourny day that almost was great :)
We came in 3rd, 4 fish for 16.8 lbs, my partner had the 2nd bigfish at 6.8.
Man, if only IF we could have got that last keeper............ohwell, that's fishing.

We found a little round hole on friday, caught a keeper and couple of shorts, it wasnt a big place at all, maybe a acre or so, there was a ton of fish moving in the weeds, friday we were'nt sure if they were bass or not but we added it to our places to fish on Saturday. Found out friday night that there would be about 400 to 500 tourny boats on the lake saturday and decided to go to the round hole first off trying to beat the other boats. We did, and first pass, partner boated a 4 1/2 lber. Good start, on the 3rd pass he boated the 6+ fish and we continuted to circle this small hole.
I finaly got a keeper, then another one. So, about 10 passes in this little circle of water and 4 for about 15lbs.
What to do, go and try to find that last keeper or keep circleing? Well, we went looking, bad, bad! NEVER, NEVER leave fish to find more fish........learn damnit!
If we had stayed we would have got that 5th fish and could have won the darn thing, but you have to learn from your mistakes and I did.
*Should'nt have to learn this one over and over though:(

!8.8 won, 17.5 2nd and our 16.8 3rd. I can't wait to get back to Lake Guntersville :)

I'll post some pics later this week,
fish on
Danny

Guntersville or bust

2009-04-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

I'm about 2 hours from starting the 2 hour drive up to Lake Guntersville for the Bass Boat Central.com southern rally V this saturday. The late week is shaping up nicely, the weather is sorta stable for this time of the year and most bass should be post spawn and those are the ones we're after. I'm going to try to keep everyone updated, at the least check the twitter, I'll be twittering from my Google phone. link is on the side>

hope you all have a great weekend, be carefull and catch'em up

Danny

busy working, about to be busy fishing :)

2009-04-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I haven't updated in a few days. I've been busy here at work and getting ready for the Bass Boat Central.com southern rally V on Lake Guntersville this weekend. I hope to blog a few times from there though the weekend, I know I'll twitter for sure, so Follow! :)

Here's the new logo for fishcraze, it was done by Iquana Grafix Darryl does awesome work, if you need some disign, check him out and tell him fishcraze sent ya.
here's the new logo

Nice uh, I'm digging it, I'll have stickers, hats, shirts, etc...soon as I can. This will rock!

next time from Lake Guntersville
fish on
Danny

Weekend fishing

2009-04-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

Well, after working sat morning, I took off for lake lu for the afternoon. Just 2 days after a cold front and a ton of rain. I knew that some big fish would be caught and wanted to at least be there just in case it was me to catch them :) Well some were caught, one guy got 2, both over 7. There were prolly more caught but I didnt hear about them. If you in the south/west part of Alabama, lake lu is a place you should try to hit. Robby the manager does a great job and the lake is full of big bass, big bullgills and nice shell crackers.
I did throw the big trap some, and also the small mann's bait, didnt catch anything on either and looking back I wished I had thrown the trap more. I ended up with 7 small bass that I gave to some guys fishing for dinner. Robbie wants the unders out and trys to get everyone to take them out and I help :)

Sunday, I wanted to go and check out the blue angels that were in town for the weekend. I didnt go sat because I knew the crowd would be huge, well it was over 125000 came to town, I heard the traffic was very very bad. So my plan was to fish early, get back and go watch some jets. Well at sunrise it was raining and storming. I should have stayed in bed but I'm hard headed and wanted to get down to Bibb county lake another lake that is FULL of big bass but for me thier very hard to catch. But, after sitting in the truck for about 30 mins waiting on the storms to pass, I went out for about 5 hours, 4 small bank runners were all I could get. Caught those on a fluke, one of my go to lures when the fish are in 5ft or less.
It looked like the prefect spring morning, clouldy, rainy, foggy, man it was nice:)
ohwell, that's why it's called fishing not catching. I'll try again as soon as I can that's for sure.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, caught some fish or whatever you were trying to catch:)
I'll be back in the next day or 2 for more :)

Fish on
Danny

More Custom painted lures, wohoo

2009-04-03T10:15:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to get on the water this weekend and give these 2 lures a try,
The first one is a 1oz Trap in Shellcracker(red ear) this is a big fish bite for sure :)

The next one is for the skinny water where this time of the year a lot of Bass will be hanging out, plus they hate bluegills roaming around their area :)
Manns baby minus 1, this will be fun to throw, and I have the prefect place this weekend to try it, I'll have a report on monday or so and let everyone know how it went.

Until next time, fish on
Danny

custom painted crankbaits.

2009-04-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

I wanted to show off a couple of custom painted crankbaits I just got in,
I think they look awesome and will have more coming in soon.
Here's a H20 in Shellcracker(Red ear)
Here's a Rapala Risto Rap in Bluegill
Both look great as I hope can be seen in these big pictures :)

Let me know what you think.
Also, I have Twitter set up, I'll add a link soon, but you can find me by seaching for fishcraze.

thanks and fish on
Danny

Love Spring time Bass fishing!

2009-03-30T12:13:00.001-07:00

Sorry I havent posted much, this computer is giving me some troubles, but I'll work though it.

I am very happy that spring as sprung. The bass and other fishes are shallow and if you take your time, open your mind and go slow you'll find them.

Good luck and here's a pic of pair of toads I caught last march on a shakyhead with yum dinger.
Great lure and great fish :)
This is what I look forward to everytime I get to go bass fishing during the spring.

The BASSmasters are on Wheeler this week, I wish I could go up and see some of them, but will have to hang here and hope to chase green trout :)
Good luck to Boyd Duckett and all the Bama sticks :thumpsup:

Fish on
Danny

posting again

2009-03-12T12:02:00.001-07:00

I'm working on getting this blog back up and looking like I want it too. There'll be some changes and some additions. I feel like it'll make the blog much better. I'll also be blogging all my fishing trips and thoughts.
Look forward to comments and whatnot from any fishers out there.

Fish on
Danny

BACK JACK

2009-03-11T08:39:00.001-07:00

Well, it took some time, but I'm now able to start this blog back.

I'll be updated as much as I can and hope to keep everyone up to date with me and fishcraze.com

visit, leave me a message and fish on
Danny

Press Release for Fishcraze Lures

2007-09-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks Angie :)

Press Release for Fishcraze Lures

2007-09-25T12:15:00.001-07:00

Well, that didnt work to well, Here's another way to read it, sorry for the trouble.

Press Release

thanks
Danny

Fall is in the air

2007-09-17T14:50:00.000-07:00

Football season is here(ROLL TIDE) and the fishing is about to turn on. I havent been able to go as much as I want/need:) to and I will change that soon. I have a couple of new things I want to play around with. I have several products that I want to get out the winter so I have a ton of stuff to do so I make that goal.

As for as the next great thang, it's the "Weedhead" and it's going to set the jighead world on fire:)
Anyone that wants a couple post here your email addy and I'll be in touch.
Be the first one on your block to own a "Weedhead" :)

fish on
Danny

Day after and still laboring :)

2007-09-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great labor day. I worked the morning and completly blew off the rest of the day. All weekend I wanted to go fishing but different things kept getting in the way. Next time, I'm just going dang it :)

I'm still working on the prefect shakeyhead jig, it's coming I promise and you'll love it. WHY? Cause it'll help you catch MO fish and frankly that's why we fish, well one of the reasons anyhow :)
It'll be soon, very soon.

Keep fishing and keep reading it'll do everyone good.

Fish on
Danny

Coming Soon........

2007-08-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

Man I can't wait to release this info! It's going to be awesome and every fisherperson will need/want some in thier tackle box. It's the PREFECT jighead :)

stay tuned, it's coming baby

Danny

HOY Summer time fun

2007-06-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about 100 here in central bama. I fished lake wheeler last saturday and didnt do squat. My partner Casey Martin(caseymartin.com) did well, I guess I netted well, I just couldnt get bit. I hate days like that, but sometimes they happen. I have a feeling I was a little too tight, new partner, new trail, new things and it was hard to get my game face on. Hopefully we'll fish together more and I have my bad day out of the way :)
Might be able to fish Wheeler again sat with the BBC guys. If So, I hope to do better and will post the good and bad.

I hope everyone is well and getting to fish as much as possible. REmember my motto......
Life's too short not to fish.

fish on
Danny