BassBlaster

BassBlaster 10/23/12: The Algae-Shad Bite

Welcome to the BassBlaster, your daily email about all things bassin’. Take a sec to forward this Blaster to a bassin’ bud, willya?

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Today’s Top 3

1. First FL TrophyCatch bass landed.

You may recall from an earlier Blaster that FL recently launched a program sorta similar to TX’s ShareLunker program called TrophyCatch. Well, the first fish caught under that new FL program is a 12.33-lb, 27″ Lake Talquin monster. He caught on a “rubber worm near some lily pads about 1:30 pm.”

For registering and releasing the catch he got: $100 in gift cards from Bass Pro Shops, Dick’s and Rapala; long-sleeve TrophyClub shirt from Bass King; discounts from New Wave Taxidermy, FishPhoto Replicas and Sportsman On Canvas; a one-day pass to fish to Bienville Plantation; and was entered into drawings for other prizes.

> The TrophyCatch program was started Oct. 1 by the FL FWC to reward anglers for legally catching and releasing big largemouth bass.

2. Great quotes from Jacob Wheeler article.

Jacob is the mild-mannered dude who won the FLW Championship this year.

> “Jake can catch a fish, and I mean one particular fish, then tell you the bait he used — the color, the size — to the pinpoint two, three years later.”

> He recently broke up with his girlfriend…. “I’m like, ‘Time-out!’ I thought fishing was tough, but women….”

> He has a large head, which is perfect because his primary sponsor is a company called Fatheadz that makes sunglasses for large-headed people.

> Jimmy Houston: “This game is marketing. They’re paying Jacob Wheeler to sell sunglasses. They’re not paying you to win tournaments. It’s like advertising on the Super Bowl: You don’t care who wins, you just want to sell a lot of Pepsi Cola.”

3. Zoom-Zoom’s smallie obsession.

> Why would former Tigers pitcher Joel Zumaya fly from toasty south Florida to Michigan in the mid-October cold? This climate is perfect for catching big smallmouth bass.

> Zumaya discovered Michigan’s natural resources when he was called up to the Tigers in 2006. Eight months later, he would throw the fastest ball ever recorded at the major league level, a 104.8-mph bullet in the ALCS. He crushed the record for the most fastballs over 100, earning him the nickname “Zoom Zoom.”

> Injuries marred his Tigers career (2006-11), and he has been a free agent since being released by the Minnesota Twins in March. “I was born to be a Tiger. I’ve been talking to them. I could end up back here.”

> “I love fishing. I love Detroit. It’s a great city, a great state,” he said. “I especially love the outdoors here, and I can’t get enough of it.”

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News

1. TX high school championship lakes set.

> Lakes LBJ and Marble Falls have been selected as the sites of the 2013 and 2014 Texas High School Fishing State Championship

2. IL DNR releases smallies in Des Plaines.

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Tip of the Day

JVD: The algae-shad afternoon bite.

For this tip JVD was fishing Kentucky Lake, which is classified by BassGold as a “riverine reservoir.” This means this should work on any similar river-like reservoirs, and some upland and lowland reservoirs as well.

> Baitfish also stack up on shallow water weedbeds near the main channel, and the bass gather there as well.

> Jonathan spotted shad skipping, fired a Sexy Dawg [topwater] almost into the next county, and hooked up with a 2-pounder. I was tossing a Hack Attack swim jig…trimmed with a white Rage Chunk…and JVD advised me to pitch the sinking bait directly to the spot where he had scored.

> Sure enough, a 4-pounder grabbed it. By the time I had that one aboard, Jonathan was hooked up again on the topwater. He landed that one and two more before the fish raced out of range.

> “The nice thing about this bite is that it gets better as the day warms up,” Van Dam told me. “The warm water brings the algae to the surface and the shad come up to feed on them and that turns on the bass – so from noon to about 3 in the afternoon can be really good, even though that’s not the usual topwater time.”

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Quote of the Day

We grow whites and pinks, blues and grays, red and black, red with black and green, white with orange stripes and so forth.

David Fritts talking about growing pumpkins. Also said: “It’s not something where you make a lot of money,” says Fritts of his pumpkin farm. “It’s more about seeing a small vine come out of the ground and watching it turn into something beautiful. It gives me a lot of satisfaction. That’s the only way I can explain it.”

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Shot of the Day

Another, better shot of the Lake Talquin, FL 12.33. Doesn’t it look…huggable?! Like one of those fish pillows.

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