BassBlaster

Radical crank theory, Pads are transparent, What Blaylock’s fishing

Today’s Top 5

Radical crankbait color theory.

Tripped over this, by crankbait painter Dwain Batey who’s now with Skirmish Baits. First conventional wisdom, then the radical stuff:

> The clearer the water the more you should use natural [crank] colors, even transparent or translucent colors, and the dirtier the water the brighter your offering should be.

Now the #rad:

> 2 years ago I was fishing a tournament on a very muddy lake — I’m talking water so muddy you couldn’t see what color topwater you were throwing. I selected a Skirmish Baits M9 Squarebill in a very bright color and did ok, but 3 others outfished me — also throwing our M9 but in much more subtle colors. This perplexed me, but at the time I had not connected the dots.

> Fast forward to next fall. Now I’m fishing the M9 in “crystal,” which is basically clear with a little black on the nose and red eyes. This is my go-to color when I see fish chasing shad that are shorter than 2″ long…I had seen bass feeding on shad about an inch in length…started catching fish right away, after having a brighter color tied on before with no success.

> Fast forward through a lot of testing…I now believe that water color is NOT the most important factor in choosing your crankbait color. I firmly believe that a bass has no trouble finding subtle colors in dirty water, and no problem with eating bright colors in clear water.

> …has much more to do with the mood of the fish…fishing pressure, high barometric pressure or anything that has them not wanting to feed is when I choose natural and even transparent colors…for muddy or clear water.

> …if the fish are chasing bait, the fishing pressure is minimal and/or the barometric pressure is falling…I’ll choose brighter colors even in clear water.

> To even further simplify: Active fish react better to bright-color crankbaits, and inactive fish react better to natural or transparent crankbaits no matter what the water color is.

Wayne’s from the South so he’s not talkin’ easy-to-catch northern fish. His theory makes sense, but…will we have the stones to test it out?

David Fritts’ fave cold-water crankin’ retrieve.

Speakin’ o’ cranks, here’s what Fritts said on the bm.com about cold crankin’:

> My best retrieve — the one I use almost all the time — is a pull and pause. I make my cast, wind it back 8 or 10 turns to get it down, and then pull my lure forward with my rod before I reel in the slack. Once I have the slack taken care of, I do the same thing again. This’ll make your crankbait look like a dying shad.

Makes sense but check this doozy:

> If it’s vibrating, you’re pulling it way too fast…true about your lipless crankbait, although it takes some practice to learn how to swim one.

Swim a lipless crankbait?? First of all, if Fritts is figurin’ that out he has waaaaaay too much free time (lol). Second, what’s the opposite of that: Cranking a worm? Walking a spinnerbait? Slow-rolling one of those topwater duck bait things??

Lily pads are…transparent?

Did you know that pads are transparent? Me neither. Check it:

That’s from the Strickers, the awesome Hook N’ Look guys. There’s a topwater frowg in that pic — can you see it? Answer here.

What Stetson Blaylock’s fishing now.

Stets is a serious dude. Okay not really, but he comes off that way sometimes, ‘specially when he’s intent on puttin’ some ditch melons in the jacuzzi. Here’s what he’s doing now:

> “This time of year I like the BOOYAH One Knocker. I use it on clear-water impoundments, casting it and yoyoing it back to the boat through grass.

> “The rate I’m bringing it back depends on how the fish are reacting to the bait. The color depends on the forage, but I like Toledo gold and blue shiner in 5/8- and 3/4-oz.

> “I throw it on a 7′ 3” MH 13 Fishing Muse Rod with a 7:3:1 Concept C Reel, spooled with 15-lb Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon.”

Beaver trap catch and release!

Looks like bass don’t just like Beavers, they also like beaver traps…. (Not Beaver ‘Traps lol.). Check it:

Bass-head caught it (by accident of course), released it, said it swam away fine. Still thinkin’ bass must be dumber than cinderblocks, but then I saw this:

Looks legit!??!

News

Wonder if he’ll wear a bowtie to this one too…. #Chevy

Remember this is the one that has frog FUR. Not available yet tho.

3. B-Rock Mosley gets Tricked Out Marine.

LED lighting company.

4. Kreiger not in Elites, fishing FLWs again.

Fishin’ in a lot of pain stinks. Hope he has a good ’18.

5. Check MLFer Scotty Ashmore’s ‘lectronical setup.

That’s how you watch the Super Bowl and fish at the same time yo hahaha wow!

6. CA: Lookit this limit!!

Check T-Roy Lindner (right) and Derrek Stewart’s 28.55 limit (7-lb kicker) from a Diamond Valley Lake (aka DVL) derby:

May be the heaviest DVL limit in 3-ish years. Troy be sayin’:

> …after only having only two small bass by 10am with a 2:45pm weigh-in time, instead of slowing down, we sped up. Covering as much water effectively and as many spots as we could.

> Running and gunning main-lake points and any back pockets with lots of flooded brush. Main-lake points were the key. Using small to medium finesse baits on light line, if the bass swam out of the trees you could land them. If they stayed in the trees and brush, you didn’t have a chance.

> A big factor was the Ultrex on Derek’s boat to hold us over key spots.

Ugh not the Ultrex again! I’m now officially like that dang otter:

7. TX: Livingston, Georgetown infested with zebras.

8. AR wants your Christmas trees.

9. Gitcha Bass U stocking-stuffer bonus…

…when you sign up before the 18th. As I always say, WELL WORTH your hard-earned cash. Seriously, if you haven’t been you owe it to yourself to go.
https://thebassuniversity.com/class-training

Here’s the line-up of shady bassin’ gang members that’ll be a-speakin’ at ’em in Jan: Ike, Cajun Baby, Mista Missile, Turtle (Lowen), Suggs, Z, The Idaho Kid, No Red Undies (McClelland), Otter, Jamie Hartman (lol), Skeet, J-Mo, Boom Boom, Christie, J-Lee, Capt Donuts.

Just tell the Mrs. or gf you’re hanging with that crew and see what kinda look you get lol.

10. FL: Bass Pro Shops coming to Okeechobee?

11. MN: First Gander Outdoors store opened yesterday.

From the bones of Gander Mountain:

> …reportedly will open 15-20 Gander Outdoors stores by sometime in March, depending on lease negotiations, and 40-45 stores later in the year….

12. Would you flip these colors?

New company, Champion Jigs. Can’t comment on the jigs because I haven’t seen ’em in person, but how ’bout these colors — L to R they’re “puke,” “tomato seed” and “freedom craw.” Love the names…would you fish those colors?

13. Is Deeper killing it?

This is the portable bobber-looking sonar deal:

> The Lithuanian business has become the first from the Baltic States to be included by Deloitte Global among the top 10 fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Deeper was named #8…after recording a 7,048% increase.

Also says on its website that it’s “America’s No.1 Portable Fish Finder for shore, ice and boat fishing.” Hmmm. Let me know if you own one, tried one, would want one. Just curious.

14. Big Rock distributors planning big announcements.

> …improvements to the shows, a major expansion in the company’s fundraising efforts and a new ‘cutting-edge’ tool to streamline customer ordering.

15. MA: Animal rights nut implies ‘abuse’ by angler in swan death.

Swan had a treble hook in its mouth, had to be put down. Check this sentence:

> Halpin said he has no information about people intentionally hurting swans in MA, but said animal abuse by an angler is also a possibility for how a bird could be hooked.

So…no information, but a fictional angry angler who hates swans could do something one day. C’mon man. Can’t we all just get along?

Gitcha Christmas bassin’ shots in!

Okay, since you may be like me and refuse to own an ugly Christmas sweater, just send in something Christmas-themed like for example:

Giving away 2 shweet Okuma egg-beaters: 1 cool-lookin’ Ceymar Tiara and 1 new Epixor XT:

Might be 2 weeners, might be just 1 so gitcha shots in! Contest ends midnight Christmas Eve cuz we got to git ‘er done before Santa drops — good luck bass peeps! You can email ’em back to me or hit me on Facebook or Insta.

BassBlaster STILL needs…you?

Lookin’ for any peeps who are DEEP into any one o’ the following bassin’ scenes. In ’em, does ’em, knows what’s happenin’. If you think that’s you or someone you know, hit me back be replying to this-here email — and you gotta have an Insta account!

> Diehard bank anglers
> Cali – what’s catchin’ ’em, who’s hot
> Texas – same
> Kentucky Lake – same
> Florida – same

Tip of the Day

Keith Combs’ 2 cranking lines.

Yep just 2 — Seaguar InvizX fluoro in 2 sizes, and Seaguar Rippin Mono (for real) in the same 2 sizes. All you need to know about crankin’ line in less than 2 minutes:

Crazed bass-head yeti say:

Quote of the Day

It’s not about catching bass.

Jordan Lee on Bassin’masters talkin’…CRAZY TALK! Baby fridge owl’s all:

Hahaha! Okay, it’s about buying stuff and then TRYING to catch bass. Okay seriously, here’s the whole thing:

> During the offseason I can go fishing and do things at my own pace. I can learn in a relaxed way and still have fun. It’s not about catching bass.

And a couple interestin’ items:

> A lot of the time I just practice with different lures using different tackle. You’d be surprised at how different a jig performs on 25-lb line instead of 12-lb line, or on fluorocarbon versus braid. It’s almost like they’re two different lures.

> Another thing I do — a lot — is fish water I’ve never fished before, or fish water I know about in a way I’ve never fished it before. I’m always amazed at what you can learn doing that.

This is why J-Lee is a:

Shot of the Day

A little A-ring snow-bankin’ from Korea. Anyone else sling a chandelier from shore? (Gotta shout out the light YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr — best I’ve fished for shore-slingin’.) Is it me or do those blades and baits look bigger than the ones we use here for A-rigs?

Meme of the Day

Sign up another bass-head!

If you’re forwarding every Blaster to other bass crackheads, tx much — or you can email me the addys and we’ll take care of it! We’ll never send spam, sell the list or anything else crazy….

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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