Yo! At a bassin’ media deal this week with some Elitists so this is the only Blaster of the week…probly. Either way hope you enjoy this’n — have a great rest of the week bass-heads!
If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!
Today’s Top 5
The highest Alton Jones ever finished on the Red River was 4th, at the 2012 Bassin’master Classic. But this weekend, a chip off the ol’ bassin’ block finished numero uno at the Open there…so Alton Jones Jr. now has braggin’ rights on his dad.Probly paraded his trophy around the house a couple times and was like, “Just sayin’ dad. Got one of these? Didn’t think so.” etc. (Okay AJJ’s not that young but it’s fun to think about.)
Tracked down the former “little Alton” and asked him what he did to win it. Full deets at BassBlaster.rocks:
> “Every fish I caught this week came off of the main river. I was never able to get a s pattern going in the backwaters.
> “I fished anything that would break the current: stumps, laydowns, barge tie-ups, etc. I was really junk-fishing. The floods over the past 2 years have brought a lot of wood onto the main river. I did catch two fish the first day of competition fishing rock jetties with that balsa squarebill, but other than that all my fish came off wood — the more isolated the better.
Sounds like AJ Jr. is NOT allowed to raid his dad’s YUM stash!
Few more:
> Todd Murray moved up from fifth place to second on Saturday with a limit weighing 11-2. He said he caught 90 percent of his fish on a 3/8ths-ounce white tandem willowleaf War Eagle spinnerbait around submerged laydowns.
> Love this quote from AJ Sr: “You always tend to think of your children as children. What I saw today was a mature young man I’m very proud of.”
> Both Joneses are now in the TX Toyota BASSFest Huk Classic presented by Diet Go Mountain Pro Dew. Craig Lamb pointed out: “Only four fathers and sons have competed against one another in the same Classic: Denny and Chad Brauer, Guido and Dion Hibdon, Bill and Gregory Ward and now the Joneses. Of these, only the Hibdons won a championship apiece.”
C’mon Crews, shoulda woulda coulda been “Cali love,” not California love. Anyhow, here’s what he told me ’bout that color:
> “It’s a laminate of watemelon/red flake and black/red flake. The watermelon side has small red flake, and the black has big and small flake — so when the sun hits it it kicks out a lot of red.”
I get that some local fruity-jars have to be there, but regional derbies? Makes as much sense as this official awarding the ball to the Skins (then looking for the ball in the pile) while a dude on the Browns is standing RIGHT THERE with the ball in his hand (derp):
The TBF HS regional was at the Ohio River recently — check these Top 10 weights:
- 1st: Waunakee High School, Waunakee, WI – Colin Steck and Nate Lorenze, 4 for 8-12
- 2nd: 5, 5-08
- 3rd: 4, 5-05
- 4th: 3, 4-14
- 5th: 2, 3-07
- 6th: 2, 3-05
- 7th: 2, 1-15 [one must’ve been rail thin!]
- 8th: 1, 1-13
- 9th: 1, 1-05
- 10th: 1, 1-04
So if you caught one dink you finished in the top 10?? That’s like the ultimate fantasy pinch-me tourney! Anyone could win that one, man! Gimme a Barbie pole and a crappie jig, daddy I kin win this one!
Recent FLW HS college regional at Chickamauga, TN took 13+ to get in the top 10. Just sayin’….
Shout-out to Brainerd, MN HS — had teams that finished 8th, 9th and 10th on the Ohio Desert. Odd because there’s no small fish in MN….
Aaaaaand that’s all she wrote, folks — probly. NOT a done deal yet. Still has to be approved by regulators (meaning people who do exactly what the lobbyists want them to do) and Cabela’s shareholders…who started this whole thing in the first place.
Here’s how this is going down in Springfield, MO — which btw which is where the Simpsons is filmed:
Johnny Morris is gonna have a big bash and Puff Diddy or whatever bubble bath/kid’s toy name he goes by now will open the ceremony with his version of “Johnny B Goode.”
Then J-Money will make a speech about the buyout being good for both companies blah blah blah, the Cabela’s execs will be introduced, and after some polite clapping KVD will break out his sexy shad-colored fiddle…
…Zona will grab the mic with Tommy Lee on the skins, and they’ll tear into Judas Priest’s “Some Heads Are Gonna Roll.” The Goldman Sachs boys will give each other high-fives — Wall Street banks will make almost $100 mil on the deal — but Johnny’s a country boy with manners so he’ll hit his CFO with a low-five when no one’s looking.KISS will close the show with the tune “King of the Mountain” (Ozzy’s “Over the Mountain” = much better) after which Johnny will announced that he and Gene Simmons are opening up a mini golf course with a KISS a-huntin’ and a-fishin’ theme on Mount Rushmore.
Next up: Johnny buys the United Nations and, of course, Apple.
“I just mainly went on YouTube and researched videos and I went from there.”
That’s how anyone learns anything these days, including NE teen Garrett McKenzie who started his own bait company thataway. Props.
Can also do it the old-school way — inhaling lead fumes in your garage or basement (do NOT do that kids!):
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News
> Right now…bass fishing — from April 16 through June 17 this year — is okay only on a catch-and-immediate-release basis, with no tournaments permitted. That’s meant to protect fish guarding eggs.
> Andy Shiels, chief of the commission’s bureau of fisheries, said some research shows that removing bass from nests on northern lakes leads to almost immediate predation by bluegills, rock bass and the like. “I think our biggest concern as biologists, on the science side, would be removing those fish from their nests.”
Ridiculous. Listen to the OH biologist quoted in the same article:
> “It might seem like a lot of fish when you have a 100-boat field and each of them brings in six bass. Okay, that’s 600 bass. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to how many spawning bass there might be in a population.”
5. New Spro Little John Super DD coming.
> Currently, fishermen can keep up to six smallmouth bass at the reservoir southeast of Park City, but only one of them can be longer than 12″. In 2017, the six smallmouth bass limit will remain, but the 12″ size restriction will be gone.
> …Jordanelle’s smallmouth bass population has gotten so large that the fish are small in size – 11 inches or less in length.
Dudes got a shark to pony up $150K for 10% of this:
Tip of the Day
Quick dropshotting rocks tip.
Dr. Jason Halfen, aka “The Technological Angler:”
> When casting to rocks or particularly snaggy areas, like deepwater rockpiles or a wingdam on the Mississippi River, I simply tie an overhand knot in the tag line and pinch on several splitshot just above the knot.
Quote of the Day
It’s as big as a billy goat’s butt and it’s as hard as a rock.
– Gerald Swindle talkin’ ’bout:
a) A Yoda statue he won at the ‘bama UFO convention.
b) The beefsteak tomato he and LeAnn are submitting in the county fair giant veggie contest.
c) His knee, after something went wrong in surgery.
Well, believe it or not it’s #a! Congrats to the Jedi Swindles!
Okay, not really. Gman’s still recovering from a knee surgery gone rogue. Bet that’s the first Angler of the Year those docs have cut into:
Shot of the Day
Lookit this giant ditch punkin Brandon Palaniuk caught on an Ultra Top Secret new Storm Arashi bait: