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Have you noticed the de-evolution of social media FFS comments? At first it was all about FFS being eeeeeevil. Now it's devolved to all "sonar is cheating." Sonar is cheating?? Where have these "people" been the last 5 decades – hiding out on a farm in Siberia? Did they just get the internet over there?? 😁
I put "people" in quotes because – remember when Elon Musk said a huge number of Twitter accounts were fake/bots? Man these "sonar is cheating" peeps sound and act like bots/spam to me, even though I can't think of a reason why any entity would bother doing that!
Maybe people can't wait to get home from work to be trolls. If so, that's sad man. Whole deal reminds me – and I always need reminders – of Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Before and after that verse are the words "rejoice" and "peace" and that ain't no accident!
Few random deals:
1. Got even more "more" from the Berkley deal I can't fit in this'n so will keep sprinklin' it in future Blasters.
2. All the athletes at my kids' college just had to watch a video, answer Qs and sit through a "presentation" that basically said they were awful people because of the skin color they were born with. Just the athletes, not the rest of the students. An fyi that the nonsense you might have been hearing about is real. Man I really hope we can all just be left alone to love one other.
3. Dogs PSA: Musher's Secret paw wax – we use it in the winter and summer to "refresh" their paw pads. Believe it was developed for dog sled racing, works great.
4. The Sea Foam Top 5 of the Weeks are back this week! Also got a cool new type of Top 5 comin' soon...👀
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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 "Southwest" Dakota Ebare
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By now you know who Dakota Ebare is. That's because in just 2 years on the Bass Pro Tour he finished 4th (rookie year) and 5th in the points, had several Top 20 finishes, and last he year won an Invitational and a Toyota, and once again got close to a BPT win. Definitely one of the best "new guys" on the top tours who looked like he would be an MLF star.
You also know that he just announced he's leaving the Bass Pro Tour to fish the Bassmaster Opens. Yuge. Got him on the phone, here we go:
1. How long was your decision brewing?
> "Since the end of last year, after that last event. Throughout the offseason I've been brewing on this decision."
2. Any specific reasons other than wanting to fish a Classic?
> "I'm just excited for the opportunity, for the challenge that the Opens are going to present. I feel like it's going to take me outside of my comfort zone, having to qualify for the Elites. I'll have to really dig down deep...make me a better angler.
> "I'm also excited about the opportunity to go to weigh-ins and hopefully one day on the Elite Series to interact with fans – and hopefully one day walk across that Classic stage.
> "And that 5-fish format, I'm really excited about that. I enjoy getting to fish for 5 big ones. When you fish every fish counts, you're pretty much forced to fish a certain way. I can pretty much take all my big fish tackle out of the boat. I enjoy targeting big fish."
> "That's not saying it doesn't take an extreme amount of skill in the every fish format, and I do understand that to some fans every fish counts is more exciting in a way. I think maybe there's a way to combine the formats down the road...."
3. Were you surprised at how fast you rose to the top at MLF?
> "It seems fast to everyone else, but it didn't seem fast to me. We're talking about 7-8 years of spending countless hours on the water, fishing 20-25 events a year and putting 50,000 miles a year on my truck.
> "It seemed fast to some people, but it took a few years and lot of time and effort on the water. And having a lot of good faith that everything would work out. I'm very thankful that it did."
4. What do you think will be the most important thing for you fishing the Opens?
> "Consistency obviously across all 9 tournaments...very diverse fisheries. But I would say the most important thing would be really just getting back to having fun, working hard and getting better. I think the Opens provide those opportunities and I'm excited for them.
> "I'll be back to like where I was a couple years ago, trying to qualify [for the BPT]...right back into that grind mode."
5. How many Uncrustables is too many? 😁
> "There's no such thing. I've been pounding them suckers in the deer stand and I'm fixing to eat some in the boat too.
> "We kind of got out of the Uncrustables this year. ...my buddy helping me get content, we're both PB&J connoisseurs. We're trying to get the bread right and we're dialing in the jelly – it's a serious thing around here."
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Hahaha love the PB&J thang! Didja know:
- He was a rodeo bull rider. 💪 (Guess I don't need to say rodeo before bull rider...🤔)
- If you're wondering why guys can't fish both the BPT and the Opens, I believe MLF won't let BPTers (contractually) and either way at least 1-2 of the events overlap either with competition days or travel days making it impossible.
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We're definitely late to this 'lectronics party
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Lol! By now you're aware that crappie fishermen were the guys to love on forward-facing sonar before us bass-heads did. But were they alone? Negative.
The more I talk to pro walleye fishermen, the more I am a) impressed as heck by the fishing knowledge these guys have and b) really come to understand what I always "knew" but didn't really know: They're way ahead of us on electronics.
What I mean by I "knew" is that everyone in the fishing biz has known that wally-eye fishermen have used multiple big screens and multiple trolling motors for many years. In other words, they've had more electronics on their boats than bass fishermen for many years now. I knew that but I didn't fully realize why til now.
Here's the dots that connected for me – really came together at Berkley's new bait announcement deal last week.
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1. Walleye pro Chase Parsons ^ was talking about how they were the first to embrace Spot-Lock type tech with the MotorGuide Xi5, I believe, and they've also had multiple big screens on their boats for years. YEARS!
2. I'm not a walleye fisherman, but my understanding is that wally-eyes pretty much have to be found with electronics. You're not going to find them seining shallow structure with a jig or whatever. You have to graph 'em to fish for 'em. In other words, the walleye guys have always had to love on electronics to catch their fish.
3. Like Chase, walleye pro John Hoyer also has been helping Berkley develop their FFS baits. Hearing John talk about FFS and the baits at the Berkley deal was – well, real impressive. More about that below, and I wasn't the only one who thought so. Check Mike Iaconelli paying serious attention to John and also Joe "E" Cifuentes talkin' 'bout FFS:
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Bass-heads are always a-learnin'!
4. After last week I thought again about my time with walleye pros last year, including Korey Sprengel showing me bottom current on his 2D graph. When's the last time you saw current – indicated by how the tips of bottom veggies were angled – on your 2D sonar??
Bottom line: The walleye guys have a lot to teach us and I hope they do. And yep, they also catch bass (mostly smallmouth, deeper fish) doing what they know how to do.
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FFS wisdom from wally-eye pro John Hoyer
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Real innerestin' info – 2 deals from him:
1. Using FFS is like muskie fishing and ice fishing?
I and other have said that using FFS is like bed-fishing: figuring out which fish will "go" and then how to get 'em to go. I don't muskie-fish, and I don't ice fish and never want to ice fish. Okay I'd do it maybe once just to have done it, but I'll take open water all 12 months mang! 😁
Anyhow, I say that so you know that I know pretty much zero about ice fishing. But Brett McComas, the main man at Target Walleye, confirmed this stuff John said, though he had never thought about FFS this way before.
First John talked about learning to fish for muskies:
> "[He did a figure 8 with the bait by the boat] and it didn't bite. So what can I do to make it bite. [He studied on it and] learned that nothing it's going to eat is going to be easy to get."
He started to realize there's a timing element to getting that fish to react – when it commits, what bait motion can make it commit. So he started to apply that to walleye:
> "...always pushing the envelope, doing more aggressive things [with baits] that people said wouldn't work for walleye."
Reminder that when I fished with Korey Sprengel last year he was working a jerkbait for smallmouths WAY harder than most bass fishermen ever would...and it worked. I was doing it the regular way and didn't get a bite! (I know he's a pro and I'm me but....) John again:
> "Ice fishing was the only time of year when we got to manipulate fish into biting...pick out specific fish and catch them."
He showed a flasher, which if you haven't used one shows (for ice fishing) the bottom, the fish and your bait as sorta "lines" on the flasher dial:
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I guess the goal is to manipulate your bait so the fish line comes up to the bait line. So when FFS came out, it was on like kong for John:
> "With FFS...how aggressive can I make this fish get."
He said everywhere he goes, he looks for a FFS bite:
> "It has completely changed the way I fish.
> "I'm always trying to find the funnest way to fish a tournament."
As a result he said he now spends more time on his trolling motor – like us bass fishermen – and he is looking for better-quality fish and kicker singles.
One more tidbit is he says in practice he'll tie on a heavy bait so when a FFS "blob" reacts to it he can tell what species it is (walleye/non-walleye) by how it reacts.
2. Great take on what Forward Facing Sonar Optimized baits are
Reminder that my impression of what FFS Optimized means was this:
> Baits that can be fished throughout the entire water column (top to bottom) with actions from chill to aggressive – which anglers can manipulate, watching the screen, to get fish to commit.
> Also baits that can stay in the strike zone longer.
John had a much more detailed and interesting definition on an IG post:
> Easy to cast into the wind – Using FFS has a lot of us walleye guys running our boats from the bow, directly into the wind. This gives us the best boat control, which results in accurate casts and more hooksets.
> Shows up well on the screen – When you add wind, waves, depth and a very specific target on your screen, success is based on being able to see your lure easily on the screen and make moves in relation to the fish's reaction.
> Gets down quickly – As I move around looking for that tourney-winning mark, the second I see it on my graph, the clock is ticking against me. This is due to a fish swimming, it sensing the boat noise, wind blowing me off track, etc. The faster I can get down in front of that fish, the better the chance of catching [it].
> Versatility – Throughout any given day, different fish have different moods. The first step is quickly determining the mood of that individual fish. From that point, the perfect lure has the ability to get away quickly or erratically to trigger the strike of an aggressive fish. The neutral or negative ones are all about trying to stay in their zone...change their mind by representing the easiest of meals.
He also said:
> Berkley has developed 3 [FFS] lures now [that] give us the opportunity to do all these things, but most importantly have a number of different FINISHING moves to make almost any type of fish bite.
Gotta highlight 2 deals:
- Wally-eye pros fish (including with FFS) in conditions that most bass tournaments would never be allowed to launch in. Yep their boats can handle it, but important to mention it because all that boat action, boat noise and wave action DOES affect how FFS can be used effectively.
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- He credited Berkley bait dude Aaron Wavra (should be "bait activist" – lol Aaron!) with this observation: "From the second you mark that fish, every second that goes by your chances of catching that fish go down."
On that last deal, bettin' the guys who will use "bass brakes" this year know that!
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Flipping through the channels and saw I believe a high school (college?) cornhole champeenship on ESPN and:
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💪💪💪 Not sure if he's a bass-head but he should be! Maybe his parents are? 😁
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First ever bass boat outboard baby gender reveal?
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Pretty cool and congrats to 'em!
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Click the pic to see the vid where he 'splains it. Believe those deals are around $3K.
Wait til we all see what some of the guys on the tours are running this year. Last year was nothing!
3. Drew Cook might have a soft-plastics opening?
No longer with Big Bite Baits....
4. Gussy-designed Northland Elite Marabou Jig(head) is out...
...and already almost sold out. Not on TW yet.
5. MDJ's dad (I think?) fished this color combo – would you?
Couldn't tell exactly who it was but:
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6. Mark Davis gets GSM brands (Yamamoto, Bill Lewis, etc).
No longer with Strike King. Whoa. He's one of the guys who helped build that brand, was with them almost forever. Bless you man!
7. Justin Hamner switches baits a bunch...
...in a Bassmaster Day on the Lake deal. Winter, cold front, and he's switching all over the place. Interesting.
8. Bunch of folks get Beatdown Outdoors mounts.
Scott Martin (and Hilary Martin), Cody Huff, Pat Schlapper, Jeremy Lawyer. They had a few more people lined up, but the rest of 'em were scared of James Watson and his toxic masculinity...😆
9. FL: 2 college teams DQd at MLF Championship.
Sounds like they were protested:
> ...violated rule No. 12 which states that "Alabama rigs and similar umbrella-type rigs are limited to a maximum of 5 wires with a maximum of 5 spinners, 5 lures and 3 hooks (single or treble) unless state regulations are more restrictive, in which case state regulations prevail."
Wonder if that means MLF is getting more serious about this and about letting violations be known.
10. TX: First-ever 13+ caught outta JB Thomas.
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Guess I should say it's the first 13+ from that lake to be entered into the ShareLunker genetics program. That's the 76th lake in TX to produce a ShareLunker feesh. #stout Bass-head Lawrence Lee caught it, no bait info I could find quick....
11. PA Corps doubles down on anti-tourney mentality using "safety."
Press release headline from the Corps:
> Raystown Lake incorporates new fishing tournament safety measures ahead of 2024 recreation season
More:
> ...requests [looks like they need to get permission] that fishing tournament directors schedule the start and end times of their tournaments outside of peak capacity weekend hours, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, between Memorial Day and Labor Day holiday weekends, when first-come, first-served boating traffic is heaviest.
> Tournament directors wishing to schedule their activities, such as launch times, weigh-ins, and prize distribution, during peak capacity hours are requested to follow the established safety measures that will assist in mitigating the impact of their event on other lake users who will be accessing the same areas.
Proof of tourney-caused "safety" issues = zero! 😡 Check it:
> "A 2018 boating capacity study conducted as part of our Master Plan revision found that the project has 'reached or exceeded' boating capacity," said Raystown Lake Operations project manager Jude Harrington. "Fishing, recreational boating, and boat-to-shore camping activities are very popular at Raystown, and efforts to access the lake via the boat launches often create heavy congestion that could impede safe access for emergency vehicles. The safety of our visitors is our top priority, and this request will assist with maintaining accessibility, should an emergency arise."
Even if that made sense, tournament anglers are the only ones getting the shaft? WTHeck?? We're tax-paying citizens too – not cool man!
Maybe if you send the Corps an angry note, they'll feel "unsafe" lol.
12. FL: Okeechobee very high for this time of year.
16'+ when typical for the lake apparently is 12-15'. Wonder how many skunk apes are displaced...🤔 Bet this guy knows:
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'Nother name of that rig is the "silent but deadly"...🤣 Crappie weighed 3-15, 18.25" long.
16. Transducers are called "probes" internationally?
"Probes" reminds me of:
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Hair jigs – we gonna see more of 'em?
Here's maybe why, from an older Bassmaster post with Aaron Martens:
> "Hair jigs show bass a slim, minnow profile. It's stiffer than rubber or silicone and responds with a sharper action. It drops faster, which may trigger reflex strikes. Most bites come as the jig falls."
> Hair jigs produce for Martens when the water clarity is 3' or more, as it was at the [2002] Lay Lake Classic. During practice rounds, he found schools of spotted bass upriver feeding on baitfish in 4-8' of water.
> Initially, he caught Lay Lake's bass on topwater baits, but that bite soon died. When the bass refused to respond to jerkbaits and crankbaits, Martens tied on a hair jig and cleaned house. It's unlikely that any competitor caught more bass during the 2002 Classic than Martens did on hair jigs. His 3 culled limits of spotted bass totaled 39-09.
Never doubt Aaron man. He finished 2nd to Jay Yelas in that Classic, one of his many 2nds before he started racking up wins. Love ya bro! 💜✝️🙏
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"I like going to a lake, but there's a lot to figure out."
- 😂 Elitist Luke Palmer talkin' – taken outta context it sounds funny! He's talkin' 'bout fishing farm ponds. Little more:
> If I'm walking to a farm pond, I keep it simple – I don't need 20 rods. A spinnerbait, a BOOYAH Hard Knocker lipless bait and a jig can cover almost anything I'll encounter.... On a big lake, I can do everything I need to do with that lineup, plus a Smithwick Rogue jerkbait.
> It might surprise some people, but we catch them dirt shallow when it's really cold. They're a cold-blooded creature, and I think we allow that to dictate our thoughts too much.
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Guess if you wanna fish big swimbaits and only big swimbaits, roll like this! Posted by @okuda_manabu on the Insta:
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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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