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Maybe it's just me but I think if I DO NOT wash my coffee cup every day, the coffee tastes better. Somehow. I get to find out about half the time because my wife can't stand it so she sticks it in the dishwasher when I'm not around. I'm like, "But then it has soap residue in it!" And she's all, "That's the point!" 😆
I think I'm breaking her down a little though. Got a "nice hoodie" for Christmas. I was like, "So I can wear this out to dinner with folks?" She said, "We'll see." I said, "What does that mean?" She played her trump card: silence.
We're gonna see alright! 🤣 Let's go bassin'!
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If your email program cuts off the bottom of the email click "View this email in your browser" up top to see the whole thing. Sorry bout that – email programs keep changing stuff.
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5 Qs with the one 'n only Hack Attack
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Who doesn't love Greg Hackney? Dude is funny, smart, a little wild 'n crazy, a heck of a fisherman and a flippin' hammer! Been too long since we talked for a bit so I called him, here's 5 – or actually 7:
1. If you saw a legit bigfoot when you were hunting, would you shoot it?
> "I'd have to. Because I'm gonna legitimize bigfoot sightings. And how cool would that be, come around here and look what's hanging in my living room."
😆 But he's kinda serious!
2. Are we gonna see a Gamakatsu Hack Attack Hook?
> "Basically you're already seeing one. Gamakatsu makes all the hooks for Strike King that go in the Hack Attack line."
3. Is it getting hard to find something to fish with that doesn't say Hack Attack on it? 😁
> "[Laughs] No there's still plenty of good stuff that doesn't say Hack Attack on it. I'd say about 50% of what I use says Hack Attack on it."
4. Is the right rod more important for hooksetting or for landing fish? Or is it the same thing?
> "I think it's basically the same thing. That goes hand in hand. I don't think you can have a rod that's good for one and not for the other."
5. Do you or would you ever use braid to fluoro for flipping?
> "...here's the deal – the fluoro I use is so good, why wouldn't I just use straight fluoro if I needed that?
> "I don't see any advantages, only disadvantages. The first thing is it increases how many knots are between my rod and reel and my bait. So I have cut down on my efficiency. Most guys I see who do that use 50-65 lb braid to 20-lb fluoro. Why would I want a stronger main line than my leader?
> "I get it on a spinning rod when I'm using 8-lb braid to 8-lb fluoro. ...straight fluoro isn't real manageable on a spinning rod.
> "...on a baitcasting rod, I always hear about guys breaking off so why would I do it?"
[Check this crazy pic of Hack hand-lining a smallmouth in on the St Lawrence – the line had wrapped around his rod so he couldn't reel without breaking the fish off:]
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Bonus Q 1: Will you use forward-facing sonar (FFS) up shallow or do you think it spooks shallow fish?
> "I leave it on 100% of the time. I never turn it off, it doesn't matter if I'm shallow or deep. I think you always find stuff...if you don't see fish...follow grasslines.
> "It's a tool. Will it revolutionize bass fishing? I guess it has to an extent, but there's still so many places where you [can still see cover with your eyes]."
Bonus Q 2: Is FFS changing anything for you?
> "Not really. It's just another tool to use. Is it something I will depend on? No. There's just too many scenarios still out there where I'll still fish [without needing it]. It will also depend on the lake – it will change way I fish certain bodies of water....
> "...the majority of our water [in LA] FFS has no effect on whatsoever. Certain places in the country it will dominate, but there's also certain places where a guy will still have to fish for a fish he can't see....
> "I can't say it's not changing the way I fish, but...I just went fishing the other day with a boat that doesn't have any electronics on it and caught 20....
> "If I'm a young angler, I'd be really careful about letting it hurt me as a total angler. It's a tool, but it's not the end of all ends."
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Top 10 TOURNAMENT baits of all time: #3 – Zoom worms
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Why
We all know Zoom is one of the most – or the most – popular, respected and copied creators of soft-plastic baits ever. Not sure how many shapes and colors Zoom developed that became industry staples but it's a bunch. Zoom plastics have contributed to literally millions of dollars in tournament winnings over the years, and their red and yellow logo is one of the most recognized brands in bassin'.
History
Ed Chambers started Zoom baits out of a barn in 1977, but had been pouring his own soft-plastics for years because he couldn't find the shapes he wanted. In the beginning he was using a trolling motor in a 55-gallon drum to mix up the plastic! Obviously it's a lot different than that now. Zoom makes 70+ plastics and has 400+ colors.
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On Tour
What Zoom baits do we pull out for this list? Could be the Fluke, the Brush Hog, the Lizard or maybe others, but for this list it's the Zoom worm – or really "worms" plural. Even narrowing it down there's a long list of tournaments where Zoom worms played a win or top finish, but here's a short list of just some of 'em:
- Mike McClelland used a Zoom Trick Worm to win the 2008 Harris Chain Bassmaster Elite.
- Brent Long used a TX-rigged Zoom Ol' Monster (redbug) to help him win the 2010 Guntersville FLW.
- In 2011, Kelly Pratt used a Zoom Finesse Worm (junebug and gp) to win the James River Open.
- A Zoom Ol' Monster worm (plum) helped Marcus Sykora win the BFL All-American in 2014.
- Duke Jenkel fished a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (red bug and watermelon candy) to win the 2016 Central FLW Series event.
- Whitney Stephens won the 2019 Harris Chain Open fishing 2 different Zoom baits: a Magnum Trick Worm (junebug) and a Magnum Speed Worm (green-pumpkin).
- 2019: A Zoom Ol' Monster (plum) helped Bryan Thrift win the FLW Cup at Lake Hamilton, AR.
Toss a couple Gerald Swindle AOY wins in there as well as many other wins and top finishes at lower tournament levels. Bottom line: A lot of guys fish 'em – whether they are sponsored by Zoom or not – and they are still catching piles of bass for tournament and recreational fishermen.
Runner up: Berkley Power Worm
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The Berkley Powerbait Power Worm is one of the most widely-fished bass baits on the planet. The unique texture of this worm is irresistible to fish. It's not really the classic ribbontail shape that fools the fish, it's of course the Powerbait, which makes fish hold it up to 18 times as long, Berkley says.
This worm debuted in the bassin' world in 1988, and the 10" version is still considered a "go-to" summer worm for ledge fishing, pond fishing, brush fishing, you name it. Here's a few high finishes from tournaments:
- Larry Nixon's 2001 2nd-place Toho FLW finish using a 7" junebug Power Worm.
- 2006 Kentucky Lake Bassmaster Elite runner up Kevin Wirth and 4th-place finisher Skeet Reese both fished one.
- Bobby Lane's 2009 Kentucky Lake Bassmaster Elite win.
- Scott Canterbury's 2011 Eufaula Southeastern EverStart win was with a 10" Power Worm.
- In 2015, James Elam got his first Bassmaster Elite win at Fort Gibson, OK, and one bait he fished was the Power Worm.
- 2020: Jordan Lee won the inaugural Bass Pro Tour Heavy Hitters event at the Kissimmee Chain, FL using a few presentations, including a 10" Power Worm and a Powerbait Magnum Hit Worm.
Honorable mention
1. Yamamoto Senko – Is the Senko a worm? Yep, a "stick worm." No need to say anything about this bait other than DO NOT USE IT. It DOES NOT WORK. 🤣 Side effects of excessive use include: bass thumb, permanent smile, overspending and, at times, backlashing.
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Future stuff: Tracking a single fish on sonar?
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Meaning not with your eyes but with your sonar, like this from sonar company Coda Octopus:
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Doesn't sound too far-fetched if you have a mouse and enough processing...from this silent, short YT vid.
Btw on their website they say this:
> This year, Coda Octopus has released several new products that are revolutionizing the subsea industry including our Echoscope Parallel Intelligent Processing Engine (PIPE) in the world's only 5D and 6D sonars....
I thought we could only see/perceive in 3D??
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Future stuff: How 'bout this for our graphs – 3D rendering, no special glasses needed
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Remember this deal from 2021 ICAST? A company was thinking about (not sure if they still are) bringing some kinda heads-up display like this to the eyes of fishermen:
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Very cool in a way, but how would you do it? I figured some kinda goggles or glasses because we'd have to still see – wouldn't want to step outta the boat or get dizzy or whatever. But what if no special glasses were needed?
At the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Show), laptop and display company ASUS hyped their new/upcoming Spatial Vision displays, the "world's first glasses-free 3D OLED technology." Supposedly like such:
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Full vid here. More:
> ASUS Spatial Vision technology adds specially crafted optical layers to the surface of an OLED display. It's like a high-tech glass sandwich that's bonded to the OLED panel with optical resin. The 'filling' consists of a lenticular lens layer that directs the stereo images separately to each eye, and a switchable liquid crystal layer that lets you turn the 3D effect on and off.
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> The OLED display is covered with a specially crafted lenticular lens, which ensures that separate stereo images are sent to your left and right eyes. This lets you see stereoscopic 3D visuals with your naked eyes, an effect known as autostereoscopy.
> Switch smoothly between 2D and 3D visualization with one click.
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"You're not anywhere near the type of electric boat where you can go 50 miles offshore and go fishing for a couple of hours and come back. There's no technology that can enable you to replicate that experience outside of an internal combustion engine."
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- Truist Securities analyst Michael Swartz, "who follows the leisure boat industry," talkin' in a post about Swedish company Candela's new 28' electric-powered hydrofoil speedboat. Says it can cruise for over 2 hours at 20 knots, which sure doesn't sound like much.
Wonder if it's like a trolling motor, meaning the higher setting you run it at, the more power you drain and the less time you have.
Michael also said:
> "How safe is it for me to go out in the middle of the week with no one around, miles from shore, in an electric outboard engine?"
Word!
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1. Brandon Palaniuk is leaving Rapala after 10 years.
Sounds like all's good, no word on where he's going but not sure it matters cuz he said he'll no longer be fishing hardbaits.
Lol kidding! Let's see what happens – if he starts his own deal, blame Johnny Crews!
2. Larry Nixon mentored new Elite Joey Cifuentes.
#BeeBranchMafia 😁
3. Ott DeFoe says the Rapala Rocco is the best squarebill ever?
> "The Rocco is, in my opinion, the best squarebill crankbait ever made. It's got all the right ingredients. It has the best deflection."
Since Ott's from TN, I assume by "the right ingredients" he means BBQ sauce and bacon...😁
> "You're able to fish it faster in those heavy-cover areas. You can burn it and trigger a reaction bite.
> "It's a pretty good-size hunk of balsa, and the more you've got there, the more buoyancy you're going to have. So when you reel it down into a crack in a laydown, or a piece of rock, or something like that, you can stop it, and that bait has enough buoyancy to back out of a lot of those situations so you can keep your retrieve going."
Here's Ott's fave color in that bait – "bruised citrus shad:"
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> "That is just a dynamite color man. It's kind of got that little bit of chartreuse, like 'citrus shad', but a darker back with gold iridescence over it."
4. New longer peek at Jacob Wheeler's iKon boat (YT vid).
Couple things:
- Seems like they are real reluctant so far to show the front deck, so I'm thinkin' it's different and a big selling point?
- This boat is generating an amazing amount of interest.
5. Chris Lane's jersey on eBay for St Jude.
6. Dakota Ebare Power-Poles down and up before flippin a dock.
...to stop his momentum and even drift back a little, to not spook fish (MLF vid).
7. TX's first ShareLunker of the season.
Not a great pic so not including it:
> ...caught at O.H. Ivie by Tom Nilssen. ShareLunker 633 weighed in at 13.52 lbs....
8. FL: Southeastern U is launching new bass team.
Can't link it, it's at seu DOT edu:
> Southeastern graduate Weston Marsh will serve as the program's first head coach and is currently in the process of gathering sponsors and his first roster of 10 anglers to begin competition in Aug 2023. Anglers participating will earn scholarships to participate on the team and will have their travel expenses and tournament entry fees covered by the program.
9. This Berkley jig/trailer looks juicy!
Believe that's the Berkley Powerbait Flippin Jig in "brown gp" with a MaxScent Meaty Chunk in "watermelon"?
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Also great on a jighead in my 2c. Check 'em on the TW. Believe that's a Buckeye G-Man Ballin' Out Jig....
11. Your periodic reminder about the FishLab Slam-A-Mander.
Pre-spawn Carolina-rigging or swimmin', bed-fishing, etc:
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Other stuff on sale there too....
15. Just a reminder that you can't do this with all trollers...
...for all you bad back dudes!
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Gitcha tiller on!
17. TX: Wall-E Marshall going into TX Fishing Hall of Fame.
Wally is better known as Mr Crappie and is one of the hardest-working peeps in the fishing biz. Just a shout-out to him – congrats man!
18. TN: Fish biologist says state not doing enough about Asian carp.
> We made numerous requests for scientific data supporting their groundless speculation that placing barriers behind the fish is the correct approach. TWRA has provided no data or science. ...the report it is using addressed only reducing numbers, not preventing fish from reaching new lakes.
> Scientific data supporting their plan does not exist. The mere fact that the silver carp have taken over nearly the entire Ohio, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee river basins is proof enough that merely slowing their progress only slows the devastation, and stopping them is the only answer.
19. Study: Freshwater fish have lots of PFAS chemicals.
This was a for-real study, not computer modeling:
> The researchers analyzed data from more than 500 samples of fish fillets collected in the US from 2013 to 2015 under monitoring programs by the EPA, the National Rivers and Streams Assessment, and the Great Lakes Human Health Fish Fillet Tissue Study.
> "For decades polluters have dumped as much PFAS as they wanted into our rivers, streams, lakes and bays with impunity. We must turn off the tap of PFAS pollution from industrial discharges, which affect more and more Americans every day."
> ...estimates there may be more than 40,000 industrial polluters of PFAS in the US.
20. DC: Biden Administration wants to relocate endangered species.
Wow that could cause a bunch of problems – like introductions being technically non-native species to a different state, and land possibly becoming instantly endangered/threatened species-regulated.
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Where do you go to look for lipless crank fish?
Uncle "Frank" Scalish gives some good tidbits in that YT vid. Couple things that stood out to me:
- Current concentrates shells (for shell beds) in certain areas.
- Current speeds up over the top of high spots, which fish like.
- Sorta drag it on hard bottoms like a crawfish.
- Early fish come up on rounded points with hard bottoms that have nearby deep water. Grind the bait along the bottom.
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"...I mostly want to understand things that I can see with my eyes better than I can with my electronics – for example, where two types of grass mix together."
- Keith "XD" Combs talkin' 'bout fishing shallow in FL. How about that! Stuff you can see with your eyes BETTER than you can with electronics?? 🤯😁
I wonder when bass boat electronics will show stuff ABOVE the water...?
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This was a rad new finish back in the day! 😁 Old Bomber Model A ("pumpkinseed"), pic posted by vintage lure dude @dstacklebox on Insta:
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Michigan oil slick turns out to be record-setting duck gathering
> On Dec 21...the Mackinac Bridge Authority started receiving calls from concerned divers regarding a possible oil spill in the area. With each passing day, the number of calls regarding the oil spill kept growing....
Turns out they were redhead ducks. Meaning people who were actually IN THE WATER couldn't tell the difference between oil and ducks?? David Mullins, you need to get up there and help some folks – and shoot some ducks! Maybe then they'll get it...?
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest stuff in bassin', hand-picked by me – Jay Kumar. I started BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a bunch more in bassin'. The Blaster is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o' bass so thanks for readin'!
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