Dude’s harder to get ahold of than Trump, but here you go. Accordin’ to the Bassin’Fan, he fished up the Pearl River, “overhanging trees with limbs and branches in the water…also deep laydowns with mats that fish would congregate under…some water was 15′ and some was 2’….” Fished moved vertically with the weather.

> 3/8-oz 6th Sense Divine Swim Jig (sexified shad) and Netbait Baby Paca Craw (pearl).

> 1.5-oz tungsten weight, punch skirt (looks like a Paycheck Punch Skirt in “tax man”), 4″ Netbait Paca Slim (Okeechobee craw), Owner Jungle Flipping Hook.

> Also frogged it a little with a SPRO Bronzeye 65 (midnight walker).

Bama boy W-squared — William Weidler — crushed the Chickamauga, TN Costa when his pattern held up from the Bassmaster Open there (where he finished 6th):

Caught ’em with a Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jig (b/b) with an H&H Lures Swamp Frog (feet dyed blue):

Here’s how the Top 10 break down bait-wise. Nothing much dominated, but you could put swim-jigs, jigs and a couple other things in about the same category:

Swim-jig, Jig, Vibrating jig = 20% each — No-Jack Swim Jig used by winner and 4th…Taylor Ashley, the rookie who won this year’s Okee FLW…and couldn’t decide what color earrings to wear lol:

2nd (Barry Wilson) fished a 1/2-oz Strike King Pure Poison vibe jig with 5″ YUM Pulse swimbait:

Also check this crazy trailer on Anthony Ford’s (10th) vibrating jig. Anyone know what it is?

Looks like an elephant fish:

Crankbait, Wobble-head, Underspin, Spinnerbait = 10% each

Check Brent Butler’s (5th) custom Strike King 6XD, painted by Bushwhacker Custom Baits:

You probly saw this already somewhere because a lot of folks are getting behind it, but putting it here in the top 5 anyway cuz it’s that important. Bottom line: Guido Hibdon, who whether you realize it or not has taught you something about how to catch a bass, needs some $$ help related to cancer treatments. If you have a buck or 2 to send his way, great. If not, please pray for him and the fam.

Don’t hold it against Guido that he likes to sit in the boat and wimp-stick it…lol. He’s Guido Hibdon — he can do what he wants!

So I head up to the Niagara River for the annual smallie whack-fest and:

Any one of those factors would’ve made catching smallmouths tough. All of ’em = not great.

A few what I call “village idiots” (luck fish) were reeled in, but only a few, like this one, a 5-02. That’s Jeff from Seaguar’s fish and Frank (left):

My big catch, hooked in the mouth on a 3.5″ Strike King Coffee Tube (dark melon goby), was this:

That’s like 16″ long — the biggest dang shad I’ve ever seen…but so friggin’ what! Only other fish I caught was even more disappointing than that one: a wally-eye. BUT I did get some a-learnin’ about how to catch Great Lakes smalls, which you can see on BassBlaster.rocks including this vid:

Even wore my rad smallie UV BUFF and no suerte:

Gojira Larry vs bass-head: