BassBlaster

Deadsticking deep fish, More Rayburn Elite baits, Long jig trailers

Hope you ketch ’em this weekend and be safe out there!

Quick story: Was complaining about not having a boat right now, want to get a used tin one, and my wife was like, “No way are you getting a used boat it’s not safe, etc.” Whatever. But then I was like — wait, is she saying I should get a NEW BOAT?? So I checked my bank account and then…went back on Craigslist….

Today’s Top 5

More Rayburn Elite baits.

Can’t afford to be a bait hoarder so I’m a bait INFO hoarder. Here you go, more top Elitist finishers at “Sam I am” Rayburn — reminder that Brandon Palaniuk’s and Brent Ehrler’s baits/patterns are on BassBlaster.rocks:

3rd: Jacob Wheeler

J-Wheels flipped upriver bushes with a black/blue jig. Seriously. I was like, Were you on the phone with Denny before this one or what?

> 9/16-oz ER Lures Jig (b/b), switching trailers between a Larew Punch Out Craw and Zoom Big Salty Chunk. Said: “It really seemed like I could get a better-than-average bite throwing a jig over just a Texas-rigged soft-plastic.

> 7′ 6” H Okuma TCS Scott Martin Sig rod, Okuma Helios TCS reel (8.1), 20-lb Sufix Invisiline Castable Fluoro.

4th: Jordan Lee

J-Lee is kinda turnin’ into an Elite bully, man. Like he’s taking people’s lunch money and shovin’ them into lockers and such. Here’s how he did it this time:

> Fished a TX-rigged (1/2-oz weight) Strike King Thumper Worm (plum) in brush, and a Strike King Bullworm (plum apple) on 3/4-oz Magnum Shakey Head around brush. Also a Strike King Popping Perch around pads (green pumpkin gill).

> 20-lb Seaguar Rippin Mono for the plastics, 65-lb Seaguar Smackdown braid for the frog.

5th: Hank Cherry

For once Cherry did NOT fish jerkbaits…lol Cherry!

> Livingston Cherry Picker (ayu), Lucky Craft Pointer 128 (ghost minnow), Whopper Plopper (custom painted). Fished grassline breaks in 4-8′. Concentrated on creek drains instead of major creek arms.

6th: Greg Vinson

In practice, Vinson was eating a pizza with jalapenos on it and was like…I got it! Right there he decided green was the only color he’d fish and it worked:

> Jerkbait: Suspending Rogue (looks a little like avocado shad?), 15-lb Seaguar InvizX, MH Duckett Triad rod, Duckett 320 reel (6.4). On hydrilla edges in 4-8′.

> Worm: 11″ Netbait C-Mac worm (bama bug). Submerged creek channels/drains and brush in 16-20′. Used Garmin Panoptix to make precise casts.

Jason Christie was froggin’ crazy!

What the frog was with Christie (7th) at Rayburn? Guy was froggin’ crazy. Like he didn’t know what the frog to do except throw a froggin’ frog! lol check it:

Other than that severe leg amputation, several bass-heads said Jason was using a bait called a “tickle sprinkler” or “tackle sprackle” or something. Hahaha! Okay, called a Teckel Sprinker BUT word is was a prototype BOOYAH Pad Crasher with a Sprinker kinda thing (Whopper Plopper-type thing) happening. Will try to steal one from Jason’s boat….

Has the TPWD lost it?

Last Blaster I mentioned the mandatory 2-handed fish holds at the Texas Bassmaster thingy at Rayburn. Elitist derbies are always great, but the whole catch/weigh/release deal seemed to be a fail — no one wants to go to a weigh-in that has no fish. Feeshn has always been big-time about looking at fish, won’t ever change.

Gonna guess the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept (TPWD) was behind the 2-handed holds because for sure B.A.S.S. allows the 1-handed hold — Trip Weldon posted a heck yeah about it here (yeah Trip!). Sounds like the TPWD has lost it a little when it comes to this whole deal. Check it, from the TPWD website:

> Typical bass tournaments involve holding up to 5 bass in livewells and taking them through a weigh-in process on stage, which is very stressful and can be fatal for some fish. [Uh…so what??]

> The TTBC pioneered a new format for professional bass tournaments. The new approach to weigh-ins was embraced enthusiastically by the professional anglers…. [Well…not the ones I heard from.]

> Since that first tournament, the catch-weigh-immediate release concept has been adopted by the nationally televised Major League Fishing series…. [Is the TPWD actually claiming they pioneered the MLF format??]

TX does have detailed instructions for handling ShareLunker (13+ lb) bass. My 2c: Extra care makes sense for those fish because they want to:

a) keep those bass alive outside their normal environment (they are not dropped back into the lake)
b) for a long time

c) for breeding purposes.

Any one of those factors will still kill some fish no matter how gentle you are with them because this:

Any old, obese animal is gonna have a harder time recovering from exertion than a young skinny one (so tempted to make an Elitist analogy here….). So go fishing and have fun. Last thing we need is dang fish guilt mang.

Side note: Big issue is that state DNRs think their job is to “protect the resource” — which is right, but some forget it’s FOR USE BY their citizens. They also seem to forget that license fees are by far the majority of their funding so we are their customers yo!

Latest rage in Japan seems to be…

…jigs with long trailers:

How ’bout those scooped jigheads…. Japan has a good record of thinkin’ stuff up we end up adoptin’ like:

Okay not those but for sure this one:

Trout Magnet = trout Ned Rig??

So my neighbor stops by and tells me about this Trout Magnet thing, supposedly all that for trout. What does it remind you of:

What the heck is going on with the feesh?? Senko, Ned Rig — what’s next, a pencil eraser for bass??

News

1. BP doesn’t want to know the AOY standings.

Won’t ruin it for you dude, but will give you Ricky again:

Shake n bake bro! Asked BP what he did after his Rayburn win and he was like:

HAHAHA! I believe it mang!

2. Evers getting bad starts.

Just temporary…. I blame pecan residue on the hands because more bass than ever have nut allergies….

3. Good Alton Jones PSA on hearing protection.

Yes, running down the lake in a bassin’ tub messes up your hearing long-term. So does shooting and playing loud music in basements…which have messed up hearing in one ear (at least one!) for me. So as Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “Listen to me now or hear me later.”

Similar theme from Mark Davis on general health.

4. CA: 11-04 ‘Dullards Jar’ spot officially new WR.

Congrats man!

5. TX: Huge largie chix nugget was from McDonald’s.

Lake Bardwell, 10.8 lbs, 24.5″ long. Gotta say that’s a terrible use of a perfectly good McNugget. Folks wouldn’t say whether any sauce residue was on it, but I’m thinkin’ chipotle BBQ or spicy buffalo:

6. IA issues water level advisory.

Other states are too. Be careful out there this weekend.

7. Bass Pro-Cabela’s deal still on track for Q3?

Someone said when the US gov’t asks to review a deal twice, it usually won’t go…but someone else said that at first it was Obama’s folks and now it’s Trump so it should go through.

Only thing we can for sure know about the future is that your electronics will look like this…

…and KVD will own two of ’em before you do.

8. DC: All you need to know about ethanol.

> “There are too many corn state senators to have a vote to eliminate the [Renewable Fuel Standard = mandatory ethanol].”

Politics sounds fun…for some peeps:

9. Switch your baits more often?

Lot of info holes in this but:

> After just 3 days of experimentation, the fish grew less naïve and the researchers’ catch rates plummeted. On day 1, they were catching 2.5 bass each hour with the black and chrome lure [crankbait]. Three days later, they caught an average of 0.5 fish each hour.

> The bass picked up on the [plastic] worm trickery, too. By the end of the experiment, the anglers snared just 1 bass an hour, compared with nearly 2 an hour when the experiment began.

Line of the Day

…the lure offers added peace of mind. It is safe while casting and while storing.

– From a press release for a new lure where “hooks will only set in once a fish strikes the line.” Good luck with that….

Didja miss…



Sorry for slow loading times — DONE with our current web hosts, new one next week. Gracias for your patience.

Tip of the Day

Deadsticking for deep fish.

Posted by some guy named Louie Stout (lol) — about smallmouths but for sure can be for largemouths too:

> Most come on a 5″ YUM Dinger stick worm (similar to a Senko) rigged on a 1/4-oz jighead.

> He makes long casts and lets the bait settle on the bottom. The key…is not getting too impatient to move it.

> “I leave slack in the line and let it lie there for at least a couple of minutes…some underwater currents that create natural movement while the bait lies on the bottom. You have to give the smallmouth time to investigate.”

> The natural inclination is to impart action or move the bait after a few seconds. But Gearhart says that’s a mistake.

> “I’ve taken buddies up there who get frustrated because they aren’t getting the bites I get. Trying to convince them to let the bait lie is like trying to teach a dog to stay. But once they do, they get bites, too.”

> He’s not a big fan of working the bait back to the boat, either. He’ll pick up the slack to feel for pressure or signs that a fish has it. If there are no takers, he winds in and makes another cast.

Quote of the Day

I’ve caught more giant bass — 8 lbs or better — in the late afternoon during the summer when the water was 90 degrees or better, and I catch a ton of my bass in the middle of the day.

Greg Hackney talkin‘ in an egg-zellent post about bassin’ myths…like bait colors don’t matter Hack? lol

Btw Hack sent me this shot of the Loch Ness monster from a pond in Louisiana:

I’m like, “Uh Hack, Loch Ness is in Scotland or England or something.” And he’s like, “No it ain’t bro! It’s right here!” So I was like, “Dang you got me there.”

Hahaha tx for bing a good sport Hack!

Shot of the Day

Lake Biwa, Japan BOMB! Who needs sunglasses to look cool when you got fish like this:

Dang I would LOVE to go a-feeshn there….

Sign up another bass-head!

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Use the best!

Git on these yo!

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Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass.

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