1. It's amazing. I highly recommend it. You don't have to believe in God or go to church to get something from it.
2. Al might be the best man I know – humble, hard-working, successful, insightful, good listener, bold, and you can add whatever qualities you think a truly good man should have because he has 'em. In other words, whenever he talks, in my 2c it's worth listening.
Hope you enjoy it peeps! And ketch 'em this weekend! (Supposed to be "far" hot here...)
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Reminder: If your email program cuts off the bottom of this 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 back to back Pro Circuit AOY winner Michael 🔥🔥 Neal.
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Lol he's more of a quiet dude but that is fo sho a big achievement. Here's 5 with El Fuego Caliente:
1. Did you fish shallow at Pickwick [105th] just to make AOY closer than it had to be? 😁
> [Laughs] "No I wish I could say that was the case, but that was the one lapse in my judgment for the year."
2. What's going on with your fishing? Is it the spinning rod??
> "It's a little bit of everything. You can't say it's just forward-facing sonar – that's just a few tournaments. You can't say it's finesse fishing, that's just a few tournaments. I really just think it's me putting my head down and fishing the way I know is the best way for me to fish on any given body of water. Besides Pickwick...."
3. How much is forward-facing sonar helping with your offshore fishing?
> "This year I think in the Pro Circuit really just this one tournament [at Champlain] was the only one that it played. 360 played at Guntersville and the Harris Chain with the grass....
> "It plays but it's not something [you always need]. A the James River you could've completely taken it off my boat.... It's a tool and just like anything else it's got its windows."
4. How do you take this winning/high-finishing mojo to the Bass Pro Tour?
> "Just staying confident and again carrying on doing what I know I need to do personally, and not necessarily what I'm supposed to do. Just having the confidence...."
5. Is the Pro Circuit easier for you than the Bass Pro Tour for some reason?
> "No I don't think so. I had a really high AOY Bass Pro Tour finish last year, and I had a dead last this year in the BPT [Lake of the Ozarks] which is why I'm so far down there now.
> "I don't think it's easier, just the fish management aspect is a little bit different. You don't have to lean on your fish every single day like you do on the Bass Pro Tour."
Bonus Q: Is a 3rd AOY title coming?
> "You know that's gonna be my goal going into next year. My #1 goal is to make the championship, #2 is to win AOY. But it's all about the odds – every time you win it, the odds go down for you to do it again."
[I said to him that on the other hand the odds are the same every year: 1 in 100+. He said he's talking Vegas-type odds. Either way don't bet against him on either circuit mang, dude is red 🔥🔥 hot.]
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5 Qs with Zona mostly about the Jay Przekurat win.
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Maybe you were unaware, but Z designed the bait, rod and at least helped out with the reel (I didn't know 'bout that one til now) that Jay used to win on Lake Ontario. Pretty cool, proud of him, wanted to ask him about it – and also about Ontario and smallmouths, both of which seemed to act a little strange over those 4 days.
1. You designed the bait and rod Jay fished to win and set a record at Lake Ontario. Was that a "whoa" moment for you?
> "It was one of the moments of my lifetime where I was, Wow that's a special deal. I'm not taking credit – I'm praising the job he did. That's as close to hitting perfection in the pro tournament world as you can touch, and for him to touch that at such an early age in his career, he has no idea what he did...may be a little bit.
> "To have my fingerprint on the rod that he used, the reel that he used and the bait, it was weird. I get one tournament off a year, and when it was done I looked at Karin and was like, I truly enjoyed watching it from a spectator standpoint that also had his fingerprint on it in a very minuscule way. It was weird, but I felt really close to that tournament...."
2. If you were in that tourney, would you have fished the same stuff too or...?
> "What's weird is that bait was actually designed about 2.6 miles from where he was at. But the depth zone he caught them in...I don't fish 10-20' of water. I fish either extremely shallow or extremely deep out there. So I would have fished near there but not there.
> "That region of the lake has an odd water color because of a river that flows into the lake right there. I've always mentally bypassed that general half-mile zone because that water color just bothers me. It has a certain tea/tannic stain to it which just mentally bothers me.
> [About the rod:] "In all honesty of the 4 rods I designed for Lew's, when Jay told me on the phone what he was using [the 6' 10"] I started laughing because that's the one I used the least. I told him after the tournament maybe use the 7 or 7 2. I personally think the 7 2 is way more able to manhandle them than the 6 10 he was using, but he obviously proved me wrong on that."
3. Do you think they could've broken 100 lbs without forward-facing sonar but still with 4 flat-calm days?
> "Yes."
4. How often do you come up with a bait design or whatever, and do you need to cycle through a bunch of so-so ideas to get to a good one?
> "It's usually by mistake. How that bait [the Strike King Half Shell] was designed was with a professional angler – a lot of fish were cruising shallow, we were fishing deep, and to me we didn't have the proper tool. I took a Baby Rodent, sliced it in half, dropped it down and we caught 'em.
> "I brought it home, talked to Kevin VanDam and we both refined it.
> "Where that bait is ultra-special is, if you look at it it looks exactly like a mayfly larva that comes out of the bottom of our lakes. I'm not saying that's what happened on Lake Ontario [but] that bait mimics a mayfly larva better than anything I've ever seen. When there's a mayfly hatch, that is one of the finest tools I've ever used [dropshotting]."
5. What's your current bait or rod or whatever gear obsession?
> "This time of year I get slightly burned out because I've smallmouth-fished so much. ...I caught [largemouths] yesterday on a Sexy Frog on the Andy Montgomery Skipping Rod, skipping under pontoons. You don't see it but you hear it because the pontoons magnify the explosion. It sounds like a little child jumping off a boat dock.
> "...since I was 5 years old I've boat-dock fished, and to this day it's an absolute passion."
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Bonus Q: Can you explain Jay's schools of smallmouths? Meaning it was flat calm and sunny, and yet the fish – smallmouths – didn't move, and he was dropping fish over the side and the bite didn't shut down.
> "I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but his experience and lack of knowledge on Lake Ontario to me is one of the reasons he beat one of the best fishermen ever on that lake, Cory [Johnston]. One of the problems you get get into on Ontario – I've taped there and had top finishes in tournaments there more than anywhere on Earth – you can get in trouble knowing too much and getting behind your steering wheel.... So he was either gonna catch them there or he was screwed. It was the first week there of his lifetime.
> "He had an area where the conditions and a lack of a bunch of different spots to fish [meant] he bunkered in and milked it for 102 lbs.
> "The area he was in is a Stop sign from where they spawn to where they're headed. To me it must have been a massive [school]. I fished in tournament there many moons ago, it was that time of year, and there was a 10-acre stretch where there were more crawdads on the bottom...they just kept coming and coming.
> "What's unique about Lake Ontario, whether it's crawdads or gobies, if there's a food source they will show up and there's nothing you can do to make them move. You are not gonna spook them. That's very unique to that body of water....
> "Another thing about it there – I've talked with Mike Iaconelli about this: When Taku [Ito] said he's on smallmouth Disneyland with 500 4-lb bass or whatever it was, that is not an overestimation. There are schools on that end of that lake...biggest schools...seen it shallow there, deep there, more so than any other Great Lake.
> "I believe Jay was on that – one of those schools that's not 50 bass but 100s of feeding fish.
> "The biggest thing on the magic that Jay touched that week is something that took me a very long time to learn with big schools of smallmouths: You can have the best spot on Earth, but if there's not something there for them to put in their mouth, they're leaving.
> "A smallmouth relates more to his forage than what the bottom composition is. A school is...going to hunt, eat and move on. When you've got the spot, it's the spot where the forage comes to."
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Here's you a new type of swim jig.
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> Combining the hard-wobbling action of a crankbait with the 'fish-anywhere' versatility of a swim jig...assembled with a squarebill-style fish head...and a stout 4/0 straight shank jig hook.
Couldn't find a vid of it. 4", 5/8-oz, should be available this fall.
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Biggest Bussey Brake bass so far is this 13.
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Was NOT weighed on a certified scale so technically Randy "Flat Top" Howell still has the official record with the 12-14 he caught at the MLF earlier this year:
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Now you can buy a feeshn rod for $12,000. 🤯
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Guess I'm only surprised it hasn't happened before! Short version:
- Made in Japan
- Company name is Zenaq
- Rod name is "Naked," which I'm pretty sure you pronounce "nekkid" 😁
- Made to order only (duh – not gonna get to wiggle one at your local store!)
Vid on 'em is here and if you didn't know it was about fishing rods you'd prolly think it was a scary Netflix thing. Here's the website (can't link it, at zenaq com), same deal:
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😳 I mean, who's ever sold a rod with lines like "Truth lurks within complexity"?
A little more:
> To ‘Be Naked’ is to peel away the complexities of life and find your true core. And as in life, so it is with the tools that bring meaning and joy to existence. Hence, the master craftsmen of Zenaq have stripped their Naked concept to its very core and fashioned a rod of pure quality, with an accompanying video that gives expression to the feelings it evokes. This is what it means to ‘Be Naked’.
> Instead of conventional thread, the guides are wrapped in a patent-pending carbon fiber to blend into the blank and give the impression of an uninterrupted single shape.
Stack your rod box with some o' those hahaha!
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...with pard Jeff Slute. 4 fish/day, here's 24 lbs:
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By bass shooter man Seigo Saito:
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Phoenix 721, Merc 250 Pro XS, all Garmin with LiveScope, Poles, etc.
Dang, that would stank because that's a brand new lake that's supposed to be the next giant bass lake there:
> The North TX Municipal Water District broke ground on construction of the 16,650-acre water supply reservoir in May 2018. The dam began capturing inflow from Bois d’Arc Creek and other tributaries in April 2021.
> As of July 26, the lake was 38.5% full with a level of 515.77'. The last significant rise occurred this spring, about 7'.
> “It’s still got a long way to go. We had hoped to see it closer to full by now and hopefully open up in Sept ahead of the early teal season, but it’s not looking like that will happen. Things have turned off dry. We need some of those big 5-, 6-inch downpours. That would start some runoff and bring it up in a hurry."
> Stanley says a water level of 524.00 – 10' below full pool – is the magic number at which the boat ramps will be considered functional.
Still not much hydrilla though.
Rockahock Campground on the Chickahominy River. No word on whether you'll have to rock a hock...😂 Learn more at their FB.
Big retirement deal for him at ICAST – doesn't sound like he's retired!
> The newly formed Navico Group will be comprised of numerous industry leading brands that serve the marine, RV, specialty vehicle and industrial markets. Some of the many brands that make up Navico Group include: Ancor, Attwood, B&G, BEP, Blue Sea Systems, C-MAP, CZone, Garelick, Lenco, Lowrance, Mastervolt, Marinco, MotorGuide, Progressive Industries, ProMariner, RELiON, Simrad and Whale.
Sent to me:
> Following a few small meetings with state and federal wildlife officials along with representatives from local politicians, some concerned bass (and other species) anglers have just started a petition with the end goal of encouraging some site-specific research on the impact white pelicans may be having on the upper Mississippi River.
> Numbers have increased dramatically over the last 20 years after they reappeared on the river. There are an estimated 4,000+ on Pool 13 alone where they have the only breeding colony on the upper Miss. They are being seen in increasing numbers on all the pools.
> Since they are primarily fish eaters and feed only down to about 3' – and bass and panfish on the river spend most of their time in 3' or less – you can see why there is concern. Anglers want to know if they are feeding on gamefish and if so how many pelicans is too many pelicans.
30% capacity:
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Looks pretty dang odd/crazy severe to me, definitely dry here in NJ too:
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
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Click the pic ^ to see the YT vid.
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"I've missed a cut every single year of my career to this point...."
Maybe he's just trying to find one even semi-negative thing about the last few years to make him seem more normal? 🤔 😁 Keep goin' Jacob man and enjoy the heck outta it!
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Ever hear of "splooting"?
Me neither but it's when it's so hot out that squirrels and other furry critters spread out on the ground like this to cool down as much as they can:
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest stuff in bassin', 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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