BassBlaster

Memes of the week, More Dardanelle baits, Use big trebles

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Today’s Top 5

Memes of the week yo! 

Few I tripped over, startin’ with what seems to be a pretty common thang:

Been there and also here:

This is also too true:

I’ve tried this and still do, but it’s more like, “There’s gotta be one village idiot fish around here, c’mon fish!”

Trip sent me this one (allegedly…lol) — I don’t get it but he thought it was hilarious. Said Elias got him into this Pokemon Go thing, and Elias said it was barone so….

More Dardanelle baits. 

3rd-5th, here you go, right from the guys:

3rd: Kevin VanDam

> KVD fished shallow wood and grass in the main river’s dirty water with a Strike King 1.5 (gizzard shad with Triple Grip trebles), a Strike King Skipping Jig (black blue) with Menace Grub (blue sapphire), and a Strike King Swim Jig and Menace (pearl).

> He fished the two sizes of Strike King KVD jerkbaits — regular and deep — (sexy shad) off points and offshore structure in creeks.

4th: Mark Menendez

Mark had a few custom colors working in this one:

> He flipped wood in backwaters (creek channel in the back of a bay) and the main river with a Strike King Rage Craw (black and blue) and a Strike King Game Hawg in a special-run black neon color.

> Also cranked main river (mud and current) veggies and rock with current, then logs with current. Used Strike King 1.5s — days 1-2 I was a custom-painted “spaghetti” color painted by Mike Russell of Bag 5 Baits, who also paints for guys like Fritts and Rose. Days 3-4 he fished the “Cataouatche” color (KVD New Orleans Classic-winning bait) and “added a false eye above front hook holder for better hookups (better visibility in the muddy water).” Both baits had #4 Gamakatsu extra-heavy round-bend trebles.

> 17-lb Seaguar InvizX, same Lew’s reel but in 6.8, and a Team Lew’s Cranking Rod.

> The back-of-creek spot was 15″ falling to 24″. The main-lake fish were in 15″ to 24″, boat sitting in 3-4′ with 10-12′ on the other side.

5th: Dean Rojas

Dean had two baits for the same pattern, which was basically junk-fishing:

> A SPRO Bronzeye 65 Frowg (midnight walker = black/red eyes) was his primary bait, and he fished it “around any visible cover — laydowns, rock, water willow, grass and matted vegetation. I fished it in bays, the main river channel, little pockets and backwater stuff too…no set pattern.”

> Jacked ’em up with 80-lb Sunline FX2 braid, his signature series 7′ MH Duckett Terex frogging rod and a Duckett 360R reel (7.1).

> When he wanted to slow down, he beat on ’em with a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog (which is a flip bait) in hematoma = black/blue. “I was fishing it in shallow cover — in and around grass, water willow, matted vegetation and tules.”

> 4/0 Gammy Superline EWG hook, 5/8-oz tungsten weight, 22-lb Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon, signature 7′ 4″ H Duckett Terrex rod, same reel but in 6.3.

Shout-outs to rookie Jamie Hartman and Matty Lee who have been feeshn well.

Gander Outdoors expanding fishing tackle? 

Accordin’ to this, the remaining Gander Outdoors (buh-bye “Mountain” word) stores will be smaller and:

> …will only have a handful of handguns and shotguns to sell, while fishing gear is going to be greatly expanded. [New Gander owner Marcus] Lemonis believes that’s the sort of store customers really want to shop in….

If true, that’s a big deal because brick/mortar fish/hunt stores have been rolling in firearms and ammo sales for years, maybe at the expense of some fishing tackle. But, when the goin’s that good it could be a bubble, which it might have been. That article says the cyclical firearms biz killed Gander and is hurting Cabela’s. Implication is fishing is steadier.

Lemonis also said about the former Gander owners:

> “Just a really [bad] inventory system is what they have…never seen something so stupid.”

Obviously that guy’s not scared of brick/mortar retail. Plus, check this from the Gander website — you don’t see this every day:

Dude is also having a contest to design the new Gander Outdoors logo. Smart. Really looking forward to seeing what he does in our side of the outdoor biz.

A bunch of my friends and I had to ditch these big ole bass boats we had because of the economy. 

– Word, mang! Guy talkin’ who started a small-boat bassin’ club with his buds. Nothing wrong with aircraft-carrier rigs, but nothing wrong with small tin ones neither. I’m still a-lookin’ fer a tin rig, can’t wait….

Bait color name of the week. 

Spent WAY too much time on Tackle Warehouse last night, came across this color of SPRO Bronzeye 65, “harbor seal:”

Huh. Had no idea that sometimes real harbor seals can be blue:

News

1. What Stets was doing on Dardanelle.

Stetson Blaylock tore ’em up the first few days, and here’s how: with a YUM Genie worm. Not a “normal”-lookin’ worm, and that’s the point:

2. Hayabusa hooks adds 3 mo’.

Elitists Matt “crowned night” Herren and Cliff “don’t call a bluegill a” Pirch, and FLWerr Bryan Schmitt.

3. Lew’s Marky Mark Rose Ledge Rods now on TW!

Word is they’re all that: here’s casting, here’s spinning (is heavy duty spinning still a wimp stick?), heeeeeeere’s Mark talkin’ ’bout ’em in-depth:

Also waw this, a pretty cool little deal on Mark saying how he sets the magnets and spool tension on a reel in case you can’t get yours right.

4. AL’s Marshall Deakins wins BFL All-American.

Congrats to him, that’s big-time. More on the BFLAA coming next week. Meantime here’s my fave quote from the story:

> “I almost spun out when my co-angler started catching all these big ones. When that 9-lber jumped out of the water, I about had a heart attack.”

5. TX: Grandpa-granddauther team win Bassin’ Champs Tawakoni.

Thumbs-up emoji to you gramps!

6. Task force formed to look at motor/electronics thefts.

Growing problem across the country.

7. Ultimate Match Fishing Invitational?

UMF, MLF, referees, UMF on Outdoor Channel, MLF on Outdoor Channel…this is gettin’ to be like country hits — all be soundin’ the same. Don’t believe me? Check this mind-blowin’ vid:

8. SPRO coming out with mouse-sized rat.

Click it to see the vid:

9. Sick new BUFF largie hat!

Got mine! Restin’ on the desk in my secret Jersey bass bunker:

TW doesn’t have ’em yet, so check it at the Buff website.

10. Lunkerhunt Link best way to hit a double?

You ever caught a big double? Me neither. Now I want to:

Link up with a Link on TW here.

11. Bass Pro might want to pay even less for Cabela’s?

Speculation….

12. Bunch of Kmarts closing.

None near me but word is they carry feeshn stuff too. Guess no more goin’ to the store? Pretty soon people will be too lazy to leave their houses for anything, will all weigh 650 lbs and robots will do everything. Wait…they already made a movie about that.

Tip of the Day

Do we use big-enough trebles?

Question hit me when listening to the Hack Attack talkin’ big cranks on the Stray Casts show. Read what he says, then “axe” yosef if we can do something similar with smaller cranks:

> “I throw both the 8XD and 10XD on my Hack Attack Flippin’ Stick. And the reason for that is, I’m taking the hooks that come in the package — they’re really good-quality hooks…on all Strike King crankbaits, but I like to go oversize with these bigger plugs.

> “I’m either using a 2/0 or a 3/0 [trebles]…. That’s a treble hook where one hook is as big as the hook they put on most spinnerbaits. So the deal is, you got this big bait and those big hooks, and you need to be able to move that bait when that fish hits it.

> “I like a crankbait rod best for smaller crankbaits, but…for the 8.0 [magnum squarebill], 8XD and 10XD, I really like my flipping stick. You’re crankin’ that plug as a high rate of speed, and…it’s almost like a different strike.

> “Like when a fish attacks one of these bigger plugs, it’s not the same [strike]…. [With smaller cranks] all of a sudden the bait gets heavy — that really doesn’t happen much with these big plugs. It’s like a frog bite. Seems like those bigger baits get a more aggressive [strike]….

> “It’s a different deal. It’s awesome. It’s kind of like a frog bite. It’s addicting.

> “The cool thing about these baits, typically with a crankbait you want both [treble] hooks in a fish. But with these baits using 3/0 hooks, if I get one hook in the fish, I’ve got that fish caught.”

Pretty cool, eh? Hey — can anyone find a Quantum Hack Attack flip stick? I can’t, and findin’ it odd that yu can’t buy the rod of one of the world’s best flippers?

Quote of the Day

Really.

12-yr-old after being asked how excited he was to win a derby, and a new Ranger, with his dad. Lol, love the literal answer! His dad said:

> “You can’t imagine how excited I was to win fishing with my son.”

Too cool:

Shot of the Day

CMA country gal Misty Loggins on the Great Lakes showin’ she knows how to use that Okuma Helios wimp-stick and what looks like some kinda swimbait:

Random

Apparently rompers — those things women wear that are like connected shorts and shirts — are now being made for men. Checked the calendar, doesn’t say it’s the Apocalypse yet so not sure what’s going on…

…but was starting to think bass fishing really can save the world when I remembered that early bass-heads wore long-pants rompers:

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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