BassBlaster

How serious bassers train, No action topwater, Fish even deeper

How do slumps happen? WHY do they happen? Here to tell you that recreational dudes like me can have ’em too. Startin’ to think that I’m not supposed to catch a bass or that my frog-walkin’s too pretty….

If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!

Today’s Top 5

How serious HS bassers train. 

> “Mondays are in the classroom. We watch videos from Bass University or talk about different bodies of water. Wednesdays we go into the pool and work on accuracy, how to work baits and what baits do.”

From an article about a kid who switched high schools senior year for a better bassin’ program — which is pretty cool. Not sure what happens on Tuesdays but I think it’s this:

lol

Jigger-poling = no bait action? 

Don’t know if you’ve heard of ye olde skool technique called “jigger-poling,” thought of as a southern deal but if I’m not mistaken that out West is what led to flippin’. Anyhoo, check it:

> The pole he used was a telescoping fiberglass 20-footer, much like an old-time cane pole but longer. On the end he had a braided nylon line about 12-15″ long. It was very heavy line….

> Tied to the end of the line was a floating lure much like a Zara Spook, 5-6″ long [5″ Super Spook?] with large treble hooks. …always removes the hooks that come with the lure and replaces them with even larger ones that will hold big bass.

> …well before sunrise…moving his boat slowly along parallel to the bank at a steady pace, slapping the water with the tip of the pole, and dragging the lure behind with little or no action given to it. …he was only a few inches away from the bank most of the time.

> …constant flipping of the small tip of the pole against the water attracts bass….

Never done it but guess I’ll try reeling a Spook straight back to the boat or parallel to the bank?

Everybody at the church is praying for Ray, praying he’ll come to his senses and get a real job and take care of us. 

Ray Scott’s first wife talkin’ to Bob and Barbara Cobb after they took a chance on Ray’s crazy B.A.S.S. dream and moved from OK to AL. Wow haven’t heard that before, but been there myself (the Ray side of it).

When it comes to being thankful for bassin’, after the Big Man it’s Ray and then Bob. The feller who posted that — Dave Precht — ain’t far behind neither. Here’s Ray (right) and Bob back in the day. Shades are lookin’ cool on the basin’ godfathers!

Kentucky Lake Costa baits breakdown. 

Here you go, clinic #1 on ledge fishing. FLWer Jason Lambert won this by 7 oz after being ahead by 2 oz the day before. 2nd was Cole Floyd, 3rd was 3 lbs behind, 4th (Elitist Micah Frazier) was 6 lbs behind. Here’s the top 10 baits broken down:

Crankbait = 70%Strike King 10XD = 30% — looks like all were powder blue back/chartreuse. Here’s Cole:

Also shoutin’ out the beeg weener’s 6th Sense Cloud 9 C25 (sexified chartreuse shad)…

…and Elitist Clent Davis’ (5th) DUEL Hardcore 4+ (looks like gizzard shad):

Spoon = 40% — 3 were Ben Parker Magnums, 1 a Lake Fork Tackle Flutter Spoon

Football jig + Jig = 30% — Tidbit from Micah:

> “Every year it seems like there’s one little thing they like best and it seemed like the fish I was catching liked the jig more than anything. It would be in the back of their throat.”

Scrounger, Worm = 20% each

Dropshot, Swimbait, Hair Jig = 10%

Factoids:

  • Only thing not mentioned was a deep shakey.
  • Scrounger head was 1st and 4th.
  • Spoons didn’t appear til 5th.
  • Jigs didn’t appear til 6th.

BFL All-American baits breakdown. 

Ledge/deep clinic #2. Marshall Deakins won it on Pickwick, AL, props again to him. Here’s what the top 10 baits looked like:

Football jig + Jig = 40%Strike King Rage Craw trailer = 30%

Scrounger = 20%Castaic Jerky J swimbait = 20%. Jerky J (NOT named after me far as I know lol) looks like…kinda like a dead minnow. This is Brett Anderson (2nd):

Shakey head = 20%

Carolina rig, Worm = 10% each

Gotta mention: Tim Horton’s company ProFound Outdoors’ baits are showing up in more derby high finishes — in each of the top 3 finishers in this one. Good job Horton! Here’s Marshall with 3/4-oz Profound Outdoors Swampers Lures Football Jig (rootbeer) with a Zoom Fat Albert Twin Tail (rootbeer pepper green):

News

1. Alton Jones doesn’t know how to check-fish.

> You hear guys saying, “I’m just going to fish for a check,” but I really don’t know how to do that. All I know how to do is go out in practice, try to find the biggest fish I can and then catch them in the tournament.

Speaking as an observer, “fish for a check” I think means “I hope to get a check.”

2. Jordan Lee says fishing media is professional and polite.

What the…? Dang going to have to be harder on that dude…Bowman-esque…lol.

3. Zona talks his first fish (vid).

Gets a little philosophical too. Love the point about remembering your first fish (and then every fish). Have said many a time that folks remember best whatever they’re into most.  oops now I’m getting philosophical — dang it Z!

4. MS: Barnett rebar-marked stumps being addressed.

Apparently the rebar dinged up a few Elite boats when they were there (water was high). I get the marking but…would think plastic milk jugs could work?

5. CO: Catch/kill derby at Elkhead.

Guess they want to get rid of non-native fish….

6. AR: Lincoln Lake has the bigs.

7. LA: Dude catches crappie and bass with one hook.

Looks like they went after the same minnow and:

Bass are like this Lab — big jealousy issues, man:

8. NJ: “”Fishermen for Trump, I like that.”

The Prez, speaking at a fundraiser…and quoting a bumper sticker that was handed to him. Saltwater guys, but still — we’ll take it!

9. Near-final list of Gander stores remaining open.

10. AZ: How Lobina Lures happened.

Folks behind the Rico poppers.

11. New Suzuki 350 has counter-rotating props.

12. What a school of Echo shad looks like.

Wes Higgins at Bill Lewis turned on his HydroWave at the shop and this happened:

Those are Echo 1.75s….

Tip of the Day

How B-Card finds deeper bass.

Elitist Brandon Card. Not just deep bass, but deepER bass — and how he catches ’em:

> Let’s say I’ve been searching for bass for several hours, and I’ve found multiple schools in 20′. That doesn’t mean every school of bass on the lake is 20′ deep. But most people will get dialed in to that 20′ depth and never look deeper.

> I’ll look for bass 25′ and deeper. If I can find them, I’ll usually have them to myself. That’s exactly what happened when I finished 8th at BASSfest at Kentucky Lake. Most of the guys fished for schools of bass that were 15-20′ deep. I fished for schools that I found 25-28′ deep.

> The whole key to catching deep bass is to get on a school that’s feeding or fire them up with your lures. I love catching deep bass on a crankbait. It’s a good lure to start them feeding, and it’s a fast way to catch them. A school only stays fired up for a certain time period, and you need to make hay while you can.

> It used to be that deep crankbaits were all you needed. But nowadays lots of anglers have learned how to catch offshore bass so you need to show them a variety of lures.

> If a crankbait doesn’t get the bass going, I try a swimbait. Then I go to a hair jig, a scrounger [head] and Ben Parker’s big spoon, in that order. If those baits don’t work, I slow down and start dragging. I start with a football jig, then a Carolina rig followed by a 3/8-oz shaky head with a long, straight-tail worm. All the while I’m changing casting angles to see if that makes a difference.

> My final resort is pulling out my spinning tackle. I begin with a traditional finesse shakey-head worm, then a dropshot and third a Neko rig.

Nooooooooooooo! Don’t say that about the wimp-stick gear man! Just use light casting gear. Np. Lol!

Quote of the Day

We caught one right off and it was 3 to 4 hours before we caught another. It was a good day.

Dude talkin’ ’bout an Ohio River derby aaaaaaaaaaand…that’s pretty much what fishing on the Ohio River is like. So I hear and read about because I’ve never actually done it. But I guess any bassin’ is good!

Shot of the Day

May be the first shot I’ve seen of someone bassin’ in a leather jacket:

Random

Check this out — new gunshot detection technology:

> ShotSpotter notifies police departments about gun violence by using sensors that ignore ambient noise. Their sophisticated technology alerts authorities within 45 seconds of the trigger being pulled. It’s currently used in about 90 cities….

Pretty amazing. Makes me think we could isolate the sounds of bass feeding or smacking bait?

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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