Today’s Top 5
Sure it’s great that a great “kid” wins one, but ruminate on the follerin’:
Justin Lucas grew up fishing the Cal Delta, then got his first Elite win there this weekend.
Justin grew up idolizing fellow Cali dude Aaron Martens do his thing, then beat him at the Delta.
> From BassFan: “Growing up watching Aaron and then going head to head with him was crazy. I look up to him as much as anyone in the sport. I pretty much followed the same path in life as he did growing up out here and moving to Alabama. It was just neat to have him up there for it.” [No one — let me repeat, NO ONE — has followed A-Mart’s path bud! hahaha]
Justin won flipping, a technique invented on the Delta by Dee Thomas. [Watch Dee talk about that here.]
Very cool Justin won…and how ’bout those former FLW guys the last couple years.
With Ike’s Delaware River win and Justin’s on the Delta, is it safe to say that local knowledge of tidal rivers is a lot better than local knowledge of lakes? Yep.
Btw, key for Justin was the spaz-out hookset:
J-Lu won the Delta with the Berkley Havoc Pit Boss (vampire orange), using a 5/16-oz. tungsten weight (black) and the crazy Abu Garcia Revo Rocket reel (9.0:1 gear ratio) with braid and a 2-ft leader of 20-lb Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon.
Just like you, I’ve seen a bazillion creature baits. What up with this one…which I’ve never fished. Couple thangs:
1. Designed by Skeeter Reese. Watch him talk about it here.
2. Action-wise, the deal seems to be the flappity outside arms. Yep, flappity.
3. Skeet finished 15th at the Delta.
Ray “you can call me Ray” Hanselman [throwin’ the bassin’ gang sign yo] won his third-in-a-row Rayovac FLW Series derby in TX this weekend. That of course is:
His last win was with a Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Slither Rig, which he also caught a few with this-a-here time, but this derby was mostly the Strike King Sexy Frog (says spring frog but looks like tiger to me):
Feeshed it on the inside weed lines in mid-lake pockets. Cast with a Shimano Curado 300 (7:1).
Okay, he is…
…but the dude is a bass fisherman first, and pretty dang tough…and possibly nuts. At the Delta he hit a huge boat wake going high 60s:
> “…that’s when both my marshal and I went airborne. At that point, I don’t really remember much except for the fact that Billy McCaghren, who was right behind me when it all happened, said that we launched about 8-feet in the air….”
His marshal I guess had a broken arm, and when Velvick eventually went to the hospital…AFTER weighing his fish:
> …it was determined that Velvick had suffered what he called a “compressed fracture of the spine in my L2.”
> He has been given the green light to compete this week in the Elite Series on Lake Havasu under several conditions. “I have to wear a back brace, and if I feel any numbness or pain during practice or competition, I have to quit fishing. I’m planning on taking it hour by hour.”
Uh…Byron, take a dang seat on the shore and watch the Mercer shenanigans, man. Seriously. Either that or you and Overstreet head a soccer ball back and forth to each other in the marina….
Been YEARS of the PA DNR telling it’s own “environmental protection” agency that’s something wrong with the Susquehanna bass/water (lesions, sores, etc) and that “polluters protection” agency denying it. Well:
> The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has released findings from two independent laboratory tests that confirm a malignant tumor on a single smallmouth bass caught in the middle Susquehanna River by an angler late last year….
> PFBC [DNR] executive director John Arway said that although the finding represents only one individual fish from the overall population, it provides additional evidence that the health of the fish community residing in the river is being compromised.
News
1. CA: Mussel-sniffing dogs at the Delta?!
Forget drugs, CA residents your tax $ is going to other dogs:
> On Sunday prior to the practice, the state had sniffing dogs at the launch area inspecting our boats for quagga and zebra mussels.
If someone other than KVD had written that, not sure I’d believe it. What a waste of money CA!
Wonder if any of the Elites got nervous-like seeing those dogs…lol just kidding mang!
In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a vid of Ish taking Justin to check-in day 3:
Ish haters will make something up about this I’m sure (this bein’ bassin’ ‘n all), but whatever. Most hilarious moment is when Justin bags his fish before jumping into Ish’s boat. Ish’s like “Whoa.”
> The Holston Army Ammunition Plant is once again allowing limited fishing access to terrific Holston River smallmouth….
4. Striper lure dude gets $80K on Shark Tank.
Mark Cuban did the deed. Git a basser on thar!
Lines of the Day
1. Missouri Squirrel, Black-bass Seasons Open Memorial Day Weekend
So…squirrels are more popular than bass in MO??
2. “The bass and still eating spinnerbaits and bussbaits on windy rock banks.”
Git er done!
3. The fish imitate what it eats like worms and little bait fish.
Bass imitate worms? This explains everything.
4. “Havasu has all the infrastructure needed: a wide open lake, hotel rooms, a fan base.”
B.A.S.S. ops director Eric Lopez talkin’ Elite Series criteria. Heck, if that’s all you need come on here to NJ man, we got all 3!
Tip of the Day
Gotta do froggies in honor of the TX win:
> I fish it everywhere. A number of anglers think that the frog should only be fished around grass or lily pads. But that’s not true. A frog is a topwater lure just like any another top-water lure, and you can fish it in the same places where you’ll fish a top-water lure.
> The KVD Sexy Frog is a good lure to fish in heavy cover because it’s weedless. But I fish the frog on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas where there’s no grass and catch bass. I’ll catch bass on logs and any type of cover in the water. I’ll also fish it around boat docks.
> Many times I’ll fish the frog like a walking bait, making the bait dart from side to side. Using this tactic, I’ll catch a number of bass in open water.
> I fish three colors of KVD Sexy Frogs: white, black and a leopard-type color that has a little white, a little yellow and a little black. When I’m fishing dark water, I’ll fish the black KVD Sexy Frog. In clear water, I’ll fish the white frog, and in stained water, I’ll use the leopard color.
Case y’all missed it, see the Sexy Frog on TackleWarehouse.com.
Quote of the Day
I was just trying to catch something so I wouldn’t have to cross the stage with just one fish in my bag. That’s a losing mentality.
– Randall Tharp barin’ his soul on Bassmaster.com. Props.
Shot of the Day
Very cool release shot:
Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. His BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 or #3 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass. Also available as an app:
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