BassBlaster

Do we walk frogs too much, Top baits now, Junk fishing insulting

Today’s Top 5

Perfect swim-jig storm for Monsoor win. 

Some pro guys are still specialists somehow. Pretty tough nowadays to hang it all on one technique, but when you get the perfect storm of conditions, it can work. That’s what happened to swim-jig nut Tom Monsoor, who won the Potomac FLW using one.

FLW said it was a 1/2-oz, Bassin’Fan said it was 1/4-oz, Tackle Warehouse only has his signature swim-jig at 1/4- and 3/8- so take your pick. Either way it was black/blue with same-color 3.75″ Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog and Strike King Menace Grub trailers.

He milked a couple spots: a weedy flat in Quantico Bay that was done after 2 days, and a 100′ weedbed near Mason’s Neck. Using Power-Poles and being methodical was the deal.

If you don’t know, Tom’s the guy who brought the swim-jig to the whole bassin’ world. Totally a hero or zero deal. Props to Tom, too cool.

Top 10 Potomac baits broken down. 

A few surprises here — for me, anyway — but not a lot. Here you go, the top 10 baits:

Swim-jig = 40% — Only interesting thing here was looks like Monsoor was the only one who used black/blue.

Senko-type baits = 30% — 20% were actual Senkos

Worm = 30% — Gotta shout out MN’s Andy Young (10th) whose main bait was a TX-rigged olde skool Zoom Centipede (junebug) with a rattle in the tail. Yep, that’s a Centipede even tho it’s shaped like an olde skool French Fry:

Crankbait (includes 1 lipless) = 30% — Three almost totally-different ones: Strike King Red Eye Shad (gold black, I believe), SPRO Fat John 60 (rootbeer chartreuse), DUEL Hardcore 2+ (chartreuse black). Mike Surman’s DUEL might have been custom-painted — check it:

Swimbait = 20%

Popper = 20% — Shout-out to Brandon Cobb for fishing with a bum leg the whole derby. Here’s his Yo-Zuri 3DB Popper in bluegill:

Flip plastics = 20%

Jig = 20% — How ’bout Chris Johnston possibly illegally crossing the Canadian border with his brother and doing well in yet another derby here in ‘Merica…innerestingly with this all-black combo: 9/16-oz jig and Zoom Big Salty:

Do we walk frogs too much? 

Walked by a pond this weekend, happened to see a bullfrog swimming, and was like: Whoa, I forgot that frogs SWIM. Frog went under, swam like 3-4 feet, then popped up again. Went pretty dang fast too. (Here’s a slow-mo vid of a bullfrog swimming.)

Can you imagine doing that with your frog? Fish it on fluoro, pull it under the water straight back to you, then let it float back up. If Dean Rojas or Ish Monroe saw you do that, they’d get all Hulk Hogan on you like:

But seriously — that’s what frogs do. Frogs don’t act like bobbers that had too much Red Bull, so maybe we shouldn’t walk them so much…maybe?

MDJ’s 2 fave baits right now. 

Gonna have more stuff like this, dropping Mark Daniels Jr. on you first. Here’s what he’s doing right now:

> The Bill Lewis StutterStep 4.0 in “ghost shad” is a bait I always have tied on during the warmer months. I like the 4.0 around docks, especially in low-light conditions. Shad will feed on the algae that grows on the floats of docks and big bass won’t be far away.
> My setup for this bait is a Kistler Mag 2 MH rod, 8:1 Cabela’s Arachnid reel and 50-lb Seaguar Smackdown braid.

> The Missile Baits D Bomb in “super bug” is one of my all-time favorites. This bait has played huge this year for me with all the high water we’ve had throughout the country. Bass are always curious about new habitat, and rising water is a great opportunity to search backwaters and new shallow habitat such as trees and bushes. I like to pick apart these shallow areas by flipping.

> My setup: 7′ 6″ H Kistler KLX rod, 7:3:1 Cabela’s Verano baitcaster, 25-lb Seaguar Flippin Fluoro, 4/0 Owner Jungle Flipping Hook and 3/8-oz tungsten weight.

It sounds kind of negative, like it lacks class…. 

Ike talkin’ ’bout bein’ on the Real Basslives of New Jersey the phrase “junk fishing.” Thinkin’ he’s been goin’ to too many therapy sessions, which btw all stem from this birthday surprise when he was a kid:

Supposed to be Teletubbies but led to all kinds of dreams about alien abductions. Sorry to let your secret out Ike!

He also said junk fishing sounds like “you don’t know what you’re doing.” Well…20 rods on the deck and fishing everything in sight — is that a pattern??

News

1. Carl Svebek wins Sabine River Open!

What a trip to see Carl’s name again. Dude fished the old Bassin’master Top 100s! Won this weekend’s Open on the Sabine River like this-here:

> …fished the marshes just on the Louisiana side of the Sabine River, which was about a 20-minute run downriver.

> “There were a lot of lily pads, especially on the shorelines…milfoil and hydrilla. I was in about 1.5′ of water, and it was clear. That was key — getting the clean water. There was very little tidal movement in there, and that kind of helped me.”

> …his key bait for the week was a Zoom Super Fluke (bluegill) Texas-rigged with a Bass Pro Shops XPS EWG hook. He also put a swivel about 1′ up the line to help keep his line from twisting on long casts he was making to open pockets….

> “I really liked the way the bait worked with the swivel. It sounds ridiculous, but it was just enough weight that when it hit, if I paused for a minute, it would give it time to go down.”

Also caught a few bigger fish on a Bass Pro Shops frog. Git ’em Carl!

2. B-Roy says gotta be a bassin’ nerd…

…to catch more basses. Believe me, the most successful Elites are big-time bassin’ nerds.

3. TN: Chick derbies have revitalized town.

Bassin’ $$$ to the rescue!

4. OK: $1 mil bass in Thunderbird this Saturday.

Maybe a job for the Flanders rig?

5. OK: Insurance required for bassin’ derbies.

> “If they were just fishing as part of their fishing permit, we wouldn’t care. But as soon as you pull it into an actual tournament, it’s an organized event. From the city’s standpoint, we don’t want to be exposed to liability.”

6. FL: Billions of gallons of polluted water went into Big O.

Line of the Day

Wallen went into the final day of the 2-day…kayak fishing tournament with a 1-inch lead.

Is that not a nailbiter or what? lol

Headline of the Day

Bass obsession costing anglers buckets of time and money

So…what’s your point??

Slammin’ Giveaway!

Alpha Angler Rods and Brandon Palaniuk (some fisherman lol) are giving away 6 rods over the next 3 weeks. These sticks are the ones BP used to win the Sam Rayburn TexasFest, and are dang good for the post-spawn or whenever. If you want one of these dope donkey wreckers (hahaha! I love that!), you gotta sign up. Deets here on Facebook, or click the pic:

Tip of the Day

Does your frog do this?

That’s Dean Rojas with a Bronzeye frog hanging off his skin by the point of one hook. Two points to make here:

1. He was fishing open(ish) water so he widened the hook gap big-time.

2. Are your hooks that sharp? Mine aren’t, which means I get to complain about losing fish on frogs. Not an option for the Elitists.

From a good short vid on Basssin’masters.com btw. Learned that Dean has different identical-looking frogs for different situations…smart. Was a forehead-slapping moment for me.

Quote of the Day

I said I could die tomorrow and be happy, and I meant it.

Potomac FLW winner Tom Monsoor. Tom, dude, I get that you finally got a Tour win and all, but hey — how ’bout setting some even-bigger goals like eating this:

Shot of the Day

Speakin’ o’ snacks, Jamey Caldwell ran outta Vienna “sausages” on the Potomac, and got hisself a mouthful of large! Dude gits some hunger pangs…or the snakeheads are getting outta control there (and pretty dang big):

Random

Some NBA teams are putting patches on their jerseys next season.

Awww, the round-ball dudes are finally catching up to bass-heads! Prolly will look somethin’ like this:

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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