If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!
Today’s Top 5
Looks like fish are gettin’ their Golden Corral on for the winter — here’s a few that look like they chowed a squirrel, mink, otter, beaver or a 2fer Chalupa at Taco Bell.
Dave Luhrs caught this 6.49 on a Chug’n Spook (he said shad color — foxy shad?) in 2′ at Lake Pillsbury, CA. Said: “My brother and I couldn’t believe the shape of this thing when it came out. Honestly, the pics don’t do it justice…it had me saying “what the h*ll did that fish eat” for about the next 2 hours. I bet man!
Assuming you heard abut Ott using a rivet to rig his swimbait? Case you don’t have a riveter, solder gun or welding torch handy, he gave these tips on rigging a solid swimbait with a treble:
> Using a line-threading tool, run your main line through your swimbait’s nose and down through its body, exiting just short of the middle. “This will end up putting the hook about dead in the middle of the bait.” If you don’t have a line-threading tool, a needle or a long, thin-wire hook like a VMC Neko Hook will “do the trick just as well.”
> Attach a VMC split ring to a #1 VMC Round Bend Treble 1X hook. Tie your line to the split ring.
> Stick one of the treble’s three arms/hooks up into the swimbait’s body, vertically ed. The other two treble arms will flare out slightly to the sides. “This will keep everything settled on the cast.
If you’re wondering where Ott got the rivet idea, he told me he was home by his pond and heard this:
I’m talking to Seth after the upper Miss derby, and he’s like, “I don’t want anyone to know about that” — that being the leader length for his Carolina rig, which he says is key. I respected his request, but then he gave the info up for a Rapala email that went out to the world. So here’s what he told them:
> Feider was throwing a 3/8 oz. weight with a 12″ leader. “The really short leader is key. You’ll feel and detect bites better. With a long leader like with a traditional Carolina rig, your bait just gets blown all around by the current.
> “That current I was fishing in was running super hard. If you’ve got a 3′ leader behind your sinker downstream and the fish eats it, you’re not going to feel him until you move that sinker 6′.”
> The short leader also keeps your bait on the sweet spot to which you often must make repeated casts. “You use the sinker to kind of feel around where the best little spot is and then that short leader keeps the bait right where it nees to be.”
Huh. Next time I see Feider, gonna give him this look:
News
1. Will someone weigh 30 lbs at Mille Lacs?
And will it be won with only smalls? Here’s my prediction, in watermelon red:
Jared Lintner, Keith Combs and James Elam, noon-3pm at the Shimano booth in the B.A.S.S. Expo at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs in Onamia.
3. BP DID fish the Storm Arashi squarebill…
…on the upper Miss, same bait he was crushin’ ’em with when he was DQd the time before last. But this time he said it wasn’t working as well as:
> Terminator Popping Frog (black camo)
[Here’s the Arashi squarebill on TW.]
You know you gotta listen to that one!
5. Will Mark Davis be a TV star?
Not fishing TV — comedy TV. If you remember, “Catch-Em Lane” is the name of a comedy series he and a guy named Mark Maness have been showing around. Well, at the recent Action on Film International Film Festival in Monrovia, CA, it won “Best TV Series Pilot.” #stout
True story: A while back I sent the pilot to two friends in the entertainment biz (movies and TV — not fishing TV!). They both said Mark can be a star. Not sure he believed me when I told him, but that’s what they said. Hope it happens brother!
6. New Mark Menendez Strike King crank colors.
Best name of the five: sexy rockstar. Not on TW, not sure where you can get ’em but here they is:
7. AZ: WON Bass US Open won.
Guessing the Robo was on a dropshot.
8. New Deps Bullshooter coming.
Check it:
9. BFL bait highlights.
TX: First Popping Perch win?
Not sure where he got the Perch since it’s not at retail yet, but I want one! Or 3. Or 4. etc.
KY: Spinnerbait only bait needed.
Lots of evidence this year that the spinnerbait is far from dead.
10. LA: Pontchartrain bassers rescued.
11. History of Kistler Rods part 1.
Had no idea Trey Kistler was in a tank in Desert Storm. #Stout
12. VA: Upper James smallies are back…
…after getting hit by a trout virus a few years back.
13. NH: 2 HS derbies coming up.
One in Sept, one in Oct.
14. Abu sponsoring college school of the year.
15. New Gary Klein Duckett Rod.
Forgot to hip y’all to this previously. Gary Klein designed a new Duckett rod, the White Ice II Pro Series – Gary Klein. Gary says it’s “a true, balanced 8′ flip stick that was built to my specs. I shortened the handle length and it has a true parabolic bend, and improved nano-light inserts which are the hardest ceramic inserts available. The rod also incorporates a double-flange tip which eliminates insert loss. My personal experience with this system has totally eliminated any guide failures.”
Here’s a Tackle Warehouse vid of Elitist Kelly Jordon talkin’ ’bout the rod — Kelly does a good and entertaining job. Rod not available yet, but should be soon.
Btw, not sure if you’re aware that Boyd Duckett tried to trademark the name “Vanilla Ice” for the rods but got this cease and desist and backed off:
Pretty cool idea:
Doh!
Gotta call some of you out for thinking there’s a real DeFoe-Biffle conflict vid even after the koalas, the just kidding and the gas line. Don’t skim the Blaster too fast yo! What’s that word again — oh yeah: Gotcha! Didn’t even mean to….
Article about that bait I saw recently prompted this, a tip my son came up with — he’s 14, been doing it for about 3 years. When fishing is tough, do this:
> Rig up a green-pumpkin Hula Grub on almost any jighead up to 1/4-oz.
> Cast it out anywhere. I’m convinced rocks help, but he doesn’t care what’s there. Does not have to be a long cast. I’ve seen it work at just 10 feet out.
> Put the rod on the deck, dock or shore. DO NOT touch it. DO NOT give the bait any action whatsoever.
> At some point pick the rod up and — bingo — there’s a dang fish on.
Has never failed, not one time. Even donny barone could ketch one thisaway. (Hahaha don!)
Quote of the Day
There was no way a respec bass would eat such a stupid-looking soft-plastic.
– Kevin VanDam talkin‘ ’bout “stick worms” aka Senkos and similar baits. Of course, he uses the Strike King Ocho. Even though the Ocho seems to have a football-ish name — as in Chad “Ocho cinko (Senko)” Johnson, former Bengals WR — it’s really cuz the bait has 8 flat sides, which helps it move on the fall.
Here’s bait designer Steve Parks explainin‘ it.
All good, but this part of what KVD said stopped me in my tracks:
> Some companies offer weedless hooks, but I like to make my own. I will create a loop with 40-lb monofilament to cover the hook and wrap the ends of the line on the hook shank with fly-tying thread. It’s not perfect, but it helps protect the point when fishing around heavy cover.
Shot of the Day
Random
> A study of a well-preserved Chinese Psittacosaurus fossil shows it had a light underside and was darker on top — an arrangement called counter-shading.
Well dang a lang dang dangy! You mean…what every animal, fish, bug, etc. has? #geniusness #wonthedanginternet
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Dillon rekey
August 8, 2017 at 7:36 am
so much now