In-Fisherman http://www.in-fisherman.com The World's Foremost Authority On Freshwater Fishing Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:55:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Bass fishing for trout http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/22/bass-fishing-for-trout/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/22/bass-fishing-for-trout/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000 Ned Kehde http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=13130 ...»]]> In northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri,  practitioners of Midwest finesse fishing tactics for largemouth bass occasionally enjoy some startlingly encounters with rainbow trout this time of year.

The trout are stocked in October and February at several of the small reservoirs that grace our suburban and exurban landscapes.

We don’t know  how many survive the heat of our summers, which at times escalates surface temperatures above 90 degrees.  But Brent Frazee of Parkville, Missouri, has caught a few of them at night on midsummer outings while fishing for crappie under a light.

When Frazee does this, he calls it crappie fishing for trout.

During Frazee’s nighttime forays, he was fishing an area that was 45 feet deep.  The trout were suspended in 20 feet of water. He caught them on a 1/16-ounce jig dressed with a live shiner. The biggest trout were situated at the edge of the beam of light, not directly under it. The crappies were above the trout. He began catching trout in June and continued to catch them into early August.

In sum, we aren’t trout anglers. All of our trout escapades are serendipitous affairs.

In years past, our most fruitful bass-fishing-for-trout outings usually occurred in March.

During some springs, however, we have enjoyed some bountiful trout catches in April.

For example, on April 5, 2011, Clyde Holscher of  Topeka, Kansas, Steve Desch of Topeka, Kansas, and I fish about three hours  at a 416-acre community reservoir. To our delight we caught 24 largemouth bass,  one smallmouth bass and 12 rainbow trout.  We estimated that the total weight of the 12 trout approached 40 pounds.

In regard to the weather, it was a typical earlyApril day. The low temperature hovered around 24 degrees during the early mourning hours. The high temperature pushed area thermometers to 72 degrees by midday. The wind angled at 15 to 24 mph out of the southwest. The sun sparkled.  The lake’s surface temperature reached a high of 50 degrees.

We caught all of the fish on either a  Z-Man’s 2 1/2-inch peanut-butter-and-jelly ZinkerZ fixed to a red 1/16-ounce Gopher Mushroom Jig Head or a Z-Man’s four-inch green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ attached to a 1/32-ounce red Gopher Mushroom Jig Head.

The best presentation was what we call the shake, swim and glide retrieve. (Anglers can read more about our Midwest finesse tactics and tackle in several previously posted blogs.)

We also caught seven trout on April 11, 2011, when the surface temperature reached 58 degrees.

The latest date in April that we have caught them occurred  on April 12, 2009. On that outing, the surface temperature was only 52 degrees, and we inadvertently inveigled four rainbow trout.

Even though Frazee has caught them fishing for crappie under a light at night suspended in 20 feet or more of water, we have never caught them while bass fishing after the surface temperature broached 58 degrees. Perhaps the reason for that is that we rarely probe lairs that lie in more than 12 feet of water.

Below are several photographs of some of the trout that we caught caught while fishing of largemouth bass with our finesse methods. And as March is about to unfold,  we are eager to relish  several more of these serendipitous interludes during our pursuits of  largemouth bass. The last photograph in this series is one of the many trout that Frazee has already caught this year.

Steve Desch of Topeka, Kansas, holds a handsome rainbow trout that was enticed by a 2 1/2-inch peanut-butter-and-jelly ZinkerZ affixed to a red 1/16-ounce Gopher Mushroom Jig Head.

This rainbow trout was bewitched by Z-Man's green-pumpkin Finesse ShadZ affixed to a chartreuse 1/16-ounce Gopher Mushroom Jig Head.

 

Clyde Holscher of Topeka holds another northeastern Kansas rainbow trout that our bass tactics allured.

This photography reveals that our mission is to catch largemouth bass, and Clyde Hoslcher shows off one of the 24 largemouth bass that we caught on April 25, 2011.

Brent Frazee of Parkville, Missouri, has already tangled with some rainbow trout this year while wielding a Z-Man's 2 1/2-inch peanut-butter-and-jelly ZinkerZ on a 1/16-ounce jig. He caught this brute on Feb. 1, which was an unseasonably warm midwinter day or at least warm enough for Frazee to don a short-sleeved shirt.

In the future, we will post some blogs about our bass-fishing-for-channel-catfish and bass-fishing-for-walleye outings, which usually erupt in May and June. We have found that tangling with another species or two  always provides a delightful interlude in the midst of our perpetual quest to catch 101 largemouth bass on every four-hour outing.

]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/22/bass-fishing-for-trout/feed/ 0 Perret, Egoscue and me: my quest for pain-free fishing http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/20/perret-egoscue-and-me-my-quest-for-pain-free-fishing/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/20/perret-egoscue-and-me-my-quest-for-pain-free-fishing/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:22:27 +0000 Ned Kehde http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12867 ...»]]> Occasionally people ask me how  and why I became such an ardent disciple of Travis Perret and The Egoscue Method.
Those questions mostly occur after I have penned an article about Perret or Pete Egoscue and their methods for conquering chronic pain without using medical and pharmaceutical means.
After I posted a blog about Perret’s work with Brent Chapman on Feb. 14, I decided that I should finally spend some time answering those questions by creating a blog that delineates how and why I became a devotee of  Perret and The Egoscue Method.
Thus what follows is a short history of the hows and whys of  my relationship with Perret and Egsocue’s methods,  and how they have made me a better angler.
My wife, Pat, and I are in our seventies.  During the past decade and a half, an astonishing number of our friends, acquaintances and family members have had hip and knee replacements, as well as back, shoulder, elbow and wrist surgeries.
It has almost become a fad.  For instance, one of Pat’s bridge-playing acquaintances told her that he and his wife have had five hip and four knee replacements, and he hinted that they expected that another replacement might be in the offing.
After our friends have endured the grueling aspects of the surgery and weeks or even months of physical therapy sessions,  some of them are still bothered with pain and use assorted pharmaceutical products to dull it.  Eventually some of them begin to worry about  how these pharmaceutical items can wreck havoc with their internal organs. For instance, it has been reported numerous times that some everyday pain-killers, such as  acetaminophen (Tylenol), can cause acute liver failure.
We also noticed that surgery didn’t significantly improve our acquaintances’ sense of well-being and nimbleness.  Therefore, we couldn’t understand why anyone would opt for surgery.  And across the years,  our anti-surgery perspectives are doubly reinforced when we read front page stories in the “New York Times,” such as the one that appeared on Dec. 28, 2011, proclaiming that “artificial hip failures [are] expected to cost billions”  and the one about problematic hip implants on Feb. 15, 2011.
Coupled by what we witnessed and read, we gradually  came to the conclusion that we wanted to avoid surgery and pain killers. Because we have always had minor proclivities to be  health-food and alternative medicine advocate, it seemed to be an intuitive decision.
 During the 1990s, however, when we were in our fifties, we occasionally consumed an aspirin or two or even some other over-the-counter pain-relief medication to mollify our knee, back, shoulder, elbow and wrist pains. At times, my pains were somewhat chronic. Therefore, I took a few more aspirins and ibuprofens  than she did.
The rudimentary stages of our transformation began shortly before the turn of the millennium.  At that time, our youngest daughter was living in Austin, Texas. She was an active  yoga practitioner, and several of the yoga instructors  that she knew were afflicted with a variety of chronic pains. To these instructors’ chagrin, their yoga exercises couldn’t tame these pains. To alleviate them, the yoga instructors relied on the therapists at The Egoscue Clinic of Austin.
Upon hearing this story about yoga instructors  using The Egoscue Method rather than yoga postures for conquering various musculoskeletal pains, we were intrigued.  It provoked us to think that it might be a way for me to quell some of the pains that regularly afflicted my body after I spent many hours fishing.
During one of our trips to Texas, our daughter also introduced us to Pete Egoscue’s book entitled “Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain,” which was published in 1998. During that visit, I was in the midst of a battle with low back pain.  So, I read Egoscue’s  chapter entitled “Backs: Close Up on the Far Side.” Then I did the exercises on pages 120-123, and it tamed the pain a bit.
For the next few years, however, I just dabbled with The Egoscue Method as a pain remedy. In essence, I didn’t have the patience, diligence  and discipline to spend 40 minutes or so a day doing the exercises that would totally quell the pain.
My  half-hearted  approach to the Egoscue Method began to change when I started working on an article about the various pains that tormented anglers. Straightaway I was stunned by all the pains and medical procedures that tournament anglers endured.  In my attempt to find an alternative to surgery and pain pills,  I spent a  lot of time e-mailing and talking to Brian Bradley of San Diego, California, and V.P. of  Therapy  Protocol of The Egoscue Method at The Egoscue Clinic of San Diego.
 Bradley told me that procedures such as epidural steroid injections, cortisone injections, and Platelet Infusion Therapy don’t correct the problems that anglers suffer with their backs, shoulders, hips, elbows  and knees. He described them as mere bandages that hide or mask the  pain but don’t address the problem.  According to Bradley, “the site of the pain isn’t the source of the pain,” and those injections are administered at the site of the pain.  The Egoscue Method, however, focuses on the source of the pain.
From all of the telephone conversations and e-mail exchanges with Bradley, I began writing in 2004 about Pete Egoscue and his method for conquering chronic pain, and those words eventually appeared in “In-Fisherman” magazine in February of 2005.  (A copy of that story can be seen at this link: http://www.egoscue.com/about/articles/inFishermanArticle.pdf).
 Shortly after those first words appeared in print, more words about The Egoscue Method were posted on In-Fisherman’s website.
The  ”In-Fisherman” magazine story that focused on The Egoscue Method examined the array of chronic pains that burdened Mitch Looper, who is a masterful angler from Hackett, Arkansas.  It was noted that Looper was able to tame his pains by following the routines outlined in Egoscue’s book. During that time, Looper reported that he felt the best that he had felt in years.  Subsequently, however, Looper failed — for a number of reasons — to spend the  time to execute the exercises that would keep the pains at bay. Thus, many of his pains returned. Looper is a case study of why it is important to work continually with a routine that Egoscue calls maintenance exercises after the pain subsides. Then when another pain erupts, it is essential to do the exercises that will conquer that particular pain, and then return to the maintenance exercises once that pain has been vanquished. In short, conquering pain is a never-ending process for many of us.
Several months after the “In-Fisherman” magazine article appeared, Travis Perret, who was the director The Egoscue Clinic of Kansas City, and I crossed paths  via the telephone.  After that we engaged in numerous telephone and  e-mail exchanges – especially as we worked together to write  a column for the outdoor page of  the Topeka Capital Journal on January 10, 2006.
On St. Valentine’s Day of 2006, Pat and I gave ourselves a joint present. It was an appointment with Perret at his Egoscue Clinic.
He began by examining  the way we walked, which he called a gait analysis. He also scrutinized our posture and alignment, searching for muscle imbalances, which can cause wear and tear on the joints and bones.
 He saw immediately that my shoulders and neck were in a state of flexion.  The position of my right shoulder blade was different than my left. My left hip was higher than my right. My right arm, elbow and wrist hung differently from my shoulder than my left arm, elbow and wrist did. My right foot was everted.
In sum, my musculoskeletal system was out of whack, and that was why I was plagued by pains in my  low back, right shoulder, right elbow, right wrist, right hand and occasionally in the left elbow.
Pat’s left shoulder, left arm,  left ankle, and hips  weren’t properly aligned.
Initially, Perret gave me 11 exercises and Pat 10 to do daily for a month.
From March 14, 2006 to June 22, 2006, he gave both of us four more series of daily exercises. One of my series contained 15 different exercises. One of Pat’s consisted of 12. The last series was more rigorous than the first, but they were all geared to improve our flexibility, muscle imbalances  and body alignment.
Throughout all of these series of exercises, he implored me to work on getting my shoulder blades down and back on a consistence basis.
After working with us for six years, telling me incessantly to work on getting my shoulders back  and down, we are essentially pain free. But that is not to say that pain doesn’t occasionally erupt in our 71 year-old bodies, affecting our shoulders, knees, backs, hips and necks. When it does, Perret  either creates a series of exercises that eradicates those pains, or he advises us to do one of the series of that he created at an earlier date
In addition, to our occasional shoulder, knee, back, hip and neck woes, he created exercises that tackled  plantar fascitis, heel spurs,  headaches and dizziness.
I haven’t had an aspirin or other pain medication since mid-May of 2009,  which was when I was waylaid with some intense TMJ.  When the TMJ erupted, Travis gave me eight exercises to do twice a day, and within two days, the TMJ was completely tamed. Since then, it has erupted twice, but those eight exercises tranquilize  it.
Despite all of Perret’s guidance and my daily exercises,  I must confess  that it  wasn’t until the summer of 2011 that I was finally was able to get my shoulder blades back and down, which reveals how long it takes to counteract 65 years of abuse that I gave my body before I crossed paths with Perret.
In short, it is not a quick fix.  For six years,  I have spent about 30 to 45 minutes every day doing the exercises. There were spells when I did them three times a day. During this time span, I have failed to do the daily exercise only four times. Now as I approach my 72 birthday, I feel better physically and mentally than I have felt my entire adult life.
Nowadays Pat plays tennis three to five times a week.  I fish three to four times a week devoid of pain. And every once in a while, Pat goes fishing with me.
We are also blessed with a sense of well being that we have never experienced before, and we attribute that to being free of pain and not having to rely on pain medication that often clutters and blurs one’s mind.  What’s more, I think that sense of well-being has made me a better fisherman. In fact, Perret says the better an angler feels physically, the better he will feel mentally. And the better he feels mentally and physically, the better he can fish.
As I reflect upon my six years of seriously working with Perret and The Egoscue Method, I can honestly say that its effects have been far more important than any of the fishing tackle, marine equipment and angling theories that I have used since I started fishing in 1947.
(Anglers who are interested in talking with Travis Perret can contact him at 913-424-9354. His website address is http://www.felixfishing.com/category/help-with-chronic-pain/)
In addition to being a talented personal trainer and exercise therapist, Travis Perret has become an ardent and skilled bass angler.
]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/20/perret-egoscue-and-me-my-quest-for-pain-free-fishing/feed/ 1 Conservation Clubs Make A Difference http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/19/conservation-clubs-make-a-difference/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/19/conservation-clubs-make-a-difference/#comments Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:50:16 +0000 Matt Straw http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=13125 ...»]]>

The Quad Cities Conservation Alliance Outdoor Show is a unique event. For one thing, the Expo Center where it’s held is owned by the combined conservation clubs that form the QCCA. It was designed as a lumber warehouse and covers 60,000 square feet of display area under a vaulted, wooden roof.

At the Show, kids can win participation in a group outing on Lake Michigan for salmon and trout. They can fish for trout at the show, too. And climb rock walls, take target practice with BB guns, learn archery, race minnows, and listed to some great, youth-oriented seminars.

And all the speakers at the event are invited to attend a breakfast banquet for area kids and answer their questions in a panel. Afterward, rods, tackle, DVDs, and fishing trips are raffled off. While sitting at breakfast with the kids, I had a young lady on my left, and a young lad on my right, sharing their fishing stories simultaneously. They had a lot of stories, and both quite obviously loved fishing with dad.

It often seems like the cards are stacked against the effort these days. Gas prices, insurance, finding volunteers who can find the time—it’s a daunting proposition. So how do these groups do it? It’s all about strength in numbers. The QCCA is made up of the Rock Island Conservation Club, the Frye Lake Sportsman Club, the Mississippi Valley Chapter of Muskies Inc., and Quad City In-Fisherman. Combined, with help provided by the Outdoor Show, and by renting the of the Expo Center to other groups and events, they  have the financial strength to make a difference and stack the odds in favor of the kids.

Young men and women of the Moline High School Bass Fishing Team spoke to the kids at breakfast this morning, reinforcing the excitement fishing can generate. How many high schools, I wonder, have bass fishing teams? Another great way to get kids to involve as much time in the real world as they do in the artifice of texting, video games, and social networking.

Watching kids win prizes is special, but hearing them glow about their fishing experiences was inspirational. Clearly, the QCCA is making a difference, and setting a great example. By combining efforts, conservation groups and volunteers can change the odds for city kids. It never hurts for kids to see, first hand, that life can be lived in appreciation of life.

The show goes on again tomorrow (Feb. 19). Great weather is bringing big crowds, and that’s great news for all the kids of the Quad Cities.

 

 

 

]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/19/conservation-clubs-make-a-difference/feed/ 0 Kansas crappie fishing video http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/16/free-kansas-crappie-fishing-video/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/16/free-kansas-crappie-fishing-video/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:45:37 +0000 Ned Kehde http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12901 ...»]]> KDWPT TO RELEASE FREE CRAPPIE FISHING VIDEO

Craig Johnson is a district fisheries biologist for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. He is also chairman of the department’s Fisheries Divisions Video Committee.

On Feb. 13, he sent an e-mail, announcing that the committee recently created a 25-minute video entitled “Kansas Crappie Bonanza.”

It features various tactics employed by crappie guides and expert anglers during each season of the year.

On Feb. 17  the video will be available for anglers to view free of charge on the KDWPT  website. The link to the video is  ksoutdoors.com/crappie-video.


]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/16/free-kansas-crappie-fishing-video/feed/ 0 Jerry Kropff: the blue-cat master http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/15/jerry-kropff-the-blue-cat-master/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/15/jerry-kropff-the-blue-cat-master/#comments Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:37:14 +0000 Ned Kehde http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12982 ...»]]> Jerry Kropff of Afton, Oklahoma, resides on the shores of the Grand Lake of the Cherokees, and he is a talented multispecies angler.

His friend Joe Davis of Tulsa, Oklahoma, tells stories galore about Kropff’s angling prowess.  One of those stories revolves around Kropff’s abilities  to catch an impressive array of crappie, white bass and catfish on the same outing and around the same lair.

In-Fisherman’s 2012 ” Catfish Guide” will feature some of Kropff’s methods for locating and catching blue catfish at Grand Lake.  In addition, his insights about the state of the white bass fishing at Grand Lake highlighted several of our blogs in 2011.

On St. Valentine’s Day,  Kropff exhibited his prowess once again.  He was guiding Max Buzzard, 86, of Miami, Oklahoma, and they caught a 67-pound blue catfish and several other brutes that weighed more than 25 pounds.

Kropff said that Buzzard landed the big one, which is a new lake record.

The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation instituted in 2008 a lake-record program, which notes the biggest specimen that anglers have caught at every lake across the state.  Kropff caught the Grand’s lake-record blue catfish in April of 2008; it weighed 44 pounds. Then, Ryan Ross of Joplin, Missouri, caught a 54-pounder on February 21, 2009, for a new lake record. Now Buzzard has the record. Before the lake-record program was established, Kropff caught a 74-pounder.

Kropff said that Grand Lake isn’t blessed with a significant population of  humongous blue catfish. Nevertheless, it is graced with a  substantial population of blue catfish. For example, this year he has already tangled with 460 of them, and on average, he catches 25 blue catfish an outing.

Max Buzzard and Jerry Kropff caught this 67-pound blue catfish at Grand Lake, Oklahoma, on Feb. 14. According to Kroff, February is one of the best times of the year to tangle with a big blue catfish at Grand Lake.

 

]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/15/jerry-kropff-the-blue-cat-master/feed/ 0 Awesome Spoon Bluegill System! http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/awesome-spoon-bluegill-system/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/awesome-spoon-bluegill-system/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:14:07 +0000 Jeff Simpson http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12906 Check out this deadly spoon system for big bluegills introduced by one of In-Fisherman’s readers.

Plays videos on our IMO Mags website


 

]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/awesome-spoon-bluegill-system/feed/ 1 Brent Chapman and Travis Perret team up http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:02:37 +0000 Ned Kehde http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12473 ...»]]> Last year Brent Chapman of Lake Quivira, Kansas, purchased a copy of In-Fisherman’s 2011 “Bass Guide.”

As he perused it, the story about Travis Perret entitled “Pain Free Fishing” caught Chapman’s eye. (This a link to the Internet edition of the article: http://www.in-fisherman.com/2011/05/30/pain-free-fishing/)

Chapman, 39, has been a professional tournament angler for 18 years, plying primarily the Bassmaster trails, as well as some FLW events and a few other venues. He has competed in 10 Bassmaster Classics and four FLW Championships, winning more than $1,438,303 in both circuits.  He  has also won three Bassmaster events,  and across both tours, he has garnered 26 top-10 finishes. On Feb. 24, Chapman will compete in his 11th Classic.

Perret of Overland Park, Kansas, is a personal trainer and exercise therapist specializing in chronic-pain therapy. From 2004 to 2008, he was director of The Egoscue Method Clinic of Kansas City. Now he is an Egoscue affliate with a private practice, working in conjunction with Henry Marquardt, who is a chiropractor in Overland Park, Kansas.

Perret’s affiliation with Egoscue began after he graduated in 1998 with a degree in exercise science from the University of Kansas, where he also competed as a decathlete on the track team.

As his undergraduate career came to an end, Perret thought about pursuing a master’s degree in physical therapy. But after much deliberation, he decided to study at Pete Egoscue’s clinic in San Diego.

From Egoscue, Perret mastered the theories and methods for subduing pain by using body alignment exercises.  He also learned about exercises aimed at  improving the physical and mental performance of athletes, which Egoscue calls PatchFitness. 

After Perret completed  his  training period, he worked for Egoscue in San Diego, Stamford, Connecticut, Tampa, Florida, and Kansas City for eight years.  During this time, he worked with such notable athletes as Jennifer Capriati, a professional tennis player, John Lynch, a professional football player, Mark Brunell, a professional football player, Troy Glaus, a professional baseball player, Scott Wedman, a professional basketball player, and the University of Nebraska volleyball team.

Perret’s first encounter with the pains that afflict anglers occurred on Feb. 14, 2006, and that was with me. Since then he has helped Kevin Hawk of  Guntersville, Alabama,  and Stacey King of Reeds Spring, Missouri. King has been competing in the big-time bass tournaments for 23 years.  Hawk  is beginning his third year of competing on the FLW circuit.  (For more on Kevin Hawk’s relationship with Perret, see http://kramergonefishing.com/2011/03/03/kevin-hawk-fishing-has-been-a-pain-no-more/ )

Most of the time, Perret can work with anglers who send him photographs and videos of themselves. From that information, as well as information that he receives from e-mails and telephone conversations, he can develop a series of exercises that will stop the chronic pain. He works with Hawk via the telephone and e-mail, and he visited King once at his home, but the rest of their contacts have been either on the telephone or with e-mail.

In July of 2011, Chapman and Perret crossed paths after a seminar that Chapman presented at Rogers Sporting Goods, Liberty, Missouri. During this encounter, they made plans to meet again  in early August.

When they met the second time,  Perret explained his method and how it would help Chapman as a professional tournament angler.  Chapman agreed to try it.

In August, Perret began working with  Chapman and his wife, Bobbi, two to three times a week for an hour at each session.   They focused on a number of rigorous exercises aimed at  preventing fatigue and pain from confounding Chapman during the extremely demanding hours he has to endure when he is competing in a bass tournament.

Perret notes that Chapman’s wife added a significant and beneficial element to the workouts. She encouraged him when the sessions became difficult, which they often did. What’s more, her flexibility and posture provided a model for her husband to emulate.

Because Chapman has not been afflicted with chronic pains during his 18-year career,  the series of exercises that Perret designed for him were a hardcore physical workout, revolving around strength and endurance.  They were different than the therapeutic exercises that he created to alleviate the  chronic pains that have plagued Hawk and King.

Chapman’s exercises were also designed to focus on proper body alignment and posture, which most physical trainers aren’t concerned with or aren’t aware of. This focus on strength, endurance, posture and alignment is the method that Perret learned when he was working with football players for Pete Egoscue in San Diego.

But the exercises that Perret created for Chapman focused on the unique demands tournament fishing puts on the human body. Perret finds that an angler’s body is often adversely affected by the pounding and jarring  that occurs during high-speed boat rides, by standing on one leg while operating a trolling motor, and by whipping a fishing rod for hours on end.  During a long day on the water, gravity also works on the angler’s body:  his neck, shoulders, back, hips, knees, ankles and feet become misaligned.  When the alignment of an angler’s  body is askew, pain is likely to erupt, which affects the angler’s physical and mental performance.

Chapman is in better physical shape than the vast majority of tournament anglers. For instance, he competed last September  in a minor triathlon, which consisted of a 500-meter swim, nine-mile bike race and a three-mile run, and he reported that he felt great as he crossed the finishing line in one hour and 16 minutes.

According to Chapman, competing in a bass tournament is considerably different than participating in an hour-and-a-quarter triathlon. A Bassmaster Elite tournament is  a multiple-day marathon, which, unbeknownst to most observers,  can be both physically and mentally fatiguing.  Chapman says that it normally takes him several days  to recover from a tournament.

Perret says strength and endurance is one of Chapman’s physical assets, which is reflected in his abilities to compete in the triathlon.  But he does have some problems with flexibility and his posture.  For example, his neck, shoulders, back and hips are often rounded forward, which Perret calls flexion. And his posture woes can  eventually cause chronic pain to erupt. Perret notes that Chapman’s posture problems have developed gradually for 39 years, and it usually takes  a substantial amount of work and time to rectify what has occurred to the musculoskeletal system across those many years.

On Feb. 1, I was invited by Perret and the Chapmans to watch a workout session. For an hour, Perret lead them through 35 exercises.  Some were yoga postures, some were traditional ones such as push ups and sit ups, and others were from Egoscue’s repertoire of  exercises that focus on  specific muscles. It was a rigorous hour of work for both of the Chapmans.

Before, during and after this session — even when he was painfully struggling to complete a series of sit ups — Chapman regularly proclaimed that he was in the best mental and physical shape that he can remember being in.

At the end of their workout, Chapman mentioned that his  confidence level had reached an all-time high. Even though some of their workouts had been extremely grueling, Chapman and his wife declared without hesitation that their six months of working with Perret had been fun and astonishingly rewarding.

Perret noted that their six-month aim was to have Chapman at the top of his game mentally and physically when he wields his last cast at every tournament in 2012 — especially at the Classic, where the weather and all of the hoopla can be extremely trying and distracting.

Perret contends that a strong body can create a strong mind. Likewise, a strong mind creates a strong body.   If  Chapman keeps working as hard as he did from mid-August to Feb. 2, he will eventually reach the strong-mind, strong-body pinnacle, Perret says.

On Feb. 2, the Chapmans had their last off-season workout with Perret. At the end of this session, Perret gave Chapman a series of what he called maintenance exercises that he advised him to do at the end of every day that he was on the water throughout his 2012 tournament season, which commenced on Feb. 6 and runs until Sept. 8.

To Perret and the Chapmans’ delight, Brent Chapman’s 2012 tournament season began with an auspicious start. He won the Bassmaster Bass Pro Shops Central Open tournament at Lewisville Lake, Texas, on Feb. 12.

(Anglers can contact Perret at 913-424-9354 or view his Web site at http://www.felixfishing.com/)

 

The five photographs below focus on Brent and Bobbi Chapman doing some of the 35 exercises Perret gave them on Feb. 1:

 

Brent and Bobbi Chapman doing the counter stretch.

Brent Chapman doing the kneeling groin stretch exercise.

Brent Chapman doing the cats and dogs exercise.

Brent Chapman doing a series of sit ups

The Chapmans struggling through two minutes of the air bench exercise

]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/14/brent-chapman-and-travis-perret-team-up/feed/ 0 Basse’mup! http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/bassemup/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/bassemup/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:49:15 +0000 admin http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12383 ...»]]>
Eric Garling
Kernersville NC
Caught a 5 pounder of a 1/8 spinnerbait at Lake Brandt!!
Species: Largemouth Bass
Date Caught: 01/30/2012
Kept / Released: Released
Region of Catch: Region 1
Length: 17 inches
Weight: 5
Lure / Bait used: Lure | chart Spinnerbait
]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/bassemup/feed/ 0 My Biggest Smallmouth http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/my-biggest-smallmouth/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/my-biggest-smallmouth/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:32:21 +0000 admin http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12312 ...»]]>
Edward Dyer
Alto Michigan
I was fishing October 23, 2011, with my friend, Mike Ozinga, on Manistee Lake in Manistee, Michigan. This lake is a drowned river mouth of the Manistee River, a well-known trout stream. We had fished farther north on Saturday, October 21, but found the bite for Smallmouths difficult. The next day we decided to drive to Manisteee Lake. The bite was good, with us catching many smallmouths and a few largemouths as well. My biggest that day was caught on a tube bait, weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces and was then released. We caught a few over 4 pounds that day as well. We came back the next day and there was a cold north wind in the morning and the bite was tough. After several hours, we found some fish on a steep drop-off near the bank. after catching several smallmouth and largemouths there, we move to an area of old submerged shipping docks. I had been fishing a tube most of the day, but switched to a texas rigged creature bait because I was losing so many tube jigs. i was catching quite a few on a smallie beaver, but switched to a 410 size to try and catch a bigger fishing. I casted the gobie colored lure out and when I set the hook on the bite I new I had hooked a big fish, but wasn’t sure it was a smallmouth. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a salmon, it was so wide. After getting it into the boat, we both said”that is a big smallmouth!”. Mike casted to the same spot and caught a 4 pound 14 ounce fish on his first cast. We took pictures, after we weighed and measured the fish and released them, hoping the next time we fished there they might both be a little bigger.
Species: Smallmouth Bass
Date Caught: 10/23/2011
Kept / Released: Released
Region of Catch: Region 5
Length: 21 and 1/4 inches
Weight: 6
Lure / Bait used: Lure | Green Gobie 410 Beaver Texas Rigged Creature Bait
]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/my-biggest-smallmouth/feed/ 0 Big Rainbow Threw The Ice http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/big-rainbow-threw-the-ice/ http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/big-rainbow-threw-the-ice/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:27:11 +0000 admin http://www.in-fisherman.com/?p=12393 ...»]]>
Kevin Black
Thornton colorad
I cought this 24 inch Rainbow Trout at Green Mountain Resivor. He was in 10 ft of water I cought him on a pink power tube and meal worm. He played withme at first buy going back forth between my 2 rods I had in the water (the other rod had a pink and white rat finkiee on it) taping them and pulling just enough to get the meal worms off. At first I thought it was a real small trout when I had problems geting a hook set but when I finaly did he about took the rod rite out of my hand when he drove to the bottom and ran with it. 20 minutes later with help from my budy I had him on the Ice. After taking this picture and a few others I put him back in the water. Fun fish the biggest I cought threw the Ice.
Species: Rainbow Trout/Steelhead
Date Caught: 01/27/2012
Kept / Released: Released
Region of Catch: Region 3
Length: 24
Weight: around 7
Lure / Bait used: Lure | Pink 2″ Power Tube
]]> http://www.in-fisherman.com/2012/02/13/big-rainbow-threw-the-ice/feed/ 0