Was Larry cool with his season? Did Joey Cifuentes steal Larry's mojo? Is someone from Bee Branch, AR trying to use his good name? Is Larry really short for Largemouth?? Got most of those answered 😁, here we go!

1. How would you rate your first year back in a while, not including the Joey part?

> "Oh my – I sucked. I'm not gonna lie about it. There were 2 tournaments – it should've been 3 – that were real good tournaments: the Sabine, Santee Cooper and Lay Lake. I was on the right kind of fish, I just didn't perform. I just didn't fish good.

> "At the Sabine I lost 1 big fish that kept me out of the top 10. Santee I had a great tournament and was right there all the way, but a malfunction on day 3 kept me from making the top 10. When something freaky happens like that...no idea I had a cracked guide. The line was hitting the back of the guide when I was lifting that fish – that's what cut me off. Still, I should've known that. I guess that's just being complacent....

> "And then at Lay Lake I lost a couple key fish which kept me from making a good check. I didn't fish bad – it's just a different world right now and I didn't do well."

2. Are you gonna do anything different next year?

> "No not really. I'm learning – I'm like a kid, having to go back and learn a lot of things about fishing. Mainly I'm looking at and tinkering with my electronics to get them properly set each day, each situation – a lot of that stuff you gotta fine tune and I'm not used to that.

> "This looking out in front of you and fishing for bigger fish, it's an important part of the equation right now and I'm just not very good at it. But I'm gonna learn. I've got to. That's just the way it is."

3. We know how you have helped Joey – how has he helped you?

> "Boy that's a good question. His desire...he's just like I was when I was young. He's out of the driver's seat and on the front deck before the boat gets off plane. Youth and agility are things I'll never get back.

> "...one of those things I'm proud to see is he's also learned how to slow down. He doesn't get excited even when he's not catching them.

> "Sitting behind him at the Pan Am [Championship], letting him run the boat – I made most of the calls about where we needed to go and what we needed to do, but he did everything else. I spent [some] time on the front of the boat watching him read [the fish on FFS] and making him talk to me. A lot of it was exactly what I was seeing, but I wanted to see how he read it...watching him fine-tune his electronics and keep up with the fish."

4. What do you think about the level of competition on the Elites now vs years past? Any difference?

> "A monster difference. Every one of those 90 or 100 guys are very good at something. I'm talkin' very good. And probably 80% of them are extremely good at everything.

> "Back years and years ago, we had some donators – they wanted to fish tournaments but didn't have the knowledge yet. Now 80% of them are whoo they're good. It's hard just to make the top 50 over there now.

> "Used to be if you caught a decent string of fish every day you'd end up in the top 20. Not anymore. Now you better catch a good string of fish every day to end up in the top 20. They're really good."

5. A guy who just won the co side of the 2-day BFL on Lake Hamilton is from Bee Branch, AR and is named Leland Nixon. You know this guy or is he a Nixon imposter??

> "That's my little brother. He's a heat and air man.... They want him all the time – please come fix it. He's big-hearted so he'll go...help a woman or man in distress way more times than he should.

> "He's a good fisherman. He ran the front of the boat for about 4-5 years and won a few events around here. He sees how I live – eat, sleep, fish – he can't do that. He decided to go in the back of the boat, practice 1 day, then go and do it.

> "It's been a good year for him. When he won that tournament, I coulda won it myself."

Couple quick deals:

Larry says "there ain't but 3 ways to fish out of the back of the boat: a shakey head, a wacky worm or a Carolina rig."

He'll be doing the Damiki a bunch this fall and winter with the new Yamamoto Scope Shad, "a really cool little bait."

Good stuff from Great Lakes Finesse main man Dan Miguel, should also work for largies and spots:

> ...the value of a long rod [up to 8'] for an extra-long cast because the biggest fish typically hit the furthest from the boat.

> "If the water is clear, look around at the launch. If you see minnows and a lot of life at the launch, that means there will be a shallow bite.

> ...a lot of good-seeming areas don't hold many fish, sometimes making it seem like the fish aren't shallow. Days often begin with search time.

> Miguel focuses on points and other structures that bridge shallow and deep water, and banks adjacent to those structures. He also considers areas the fish use during spring. ...an In-Fisherman graphic many years ago that many fish spend the summer deep and return to the same shallow areas where they spawned in the spring to feed during fall, and he has found that to be true....

> ...his primary search tool is his bait...a Great Lakes Finesse Sneaky Underspin rigged with a GLF Drop Minnow. "They really key in on little young-of-the-year minnows...and the Sneaky Underspin is perfect for mimicking those."

> He makes as long a cast as possible and just reels back slowly and steadily. Miguel is mostly fishing in less than 10' with this approach and wanting to keep the presentation slow, so the 3/16-oz Sneaky Underspin is his go-to.

> After catching even a single good fish, he'll make several casts to that structure or bank from different angles before moving.... "You want to really dissect an area, working everything from different angles and using different presentations."

> ...if the bottom is mostly clear of vegetation or other snags, Miguel will pull out one more trick when the bite slows. He'll rig a Snack Craw on a Stealth Ball Jig Head and drag it slowly along the bottom letting it find every contour in the rocks.

Here's Dan in a good 54-min YT vid on the Sneaky Underspin in the fall....

You know I'm not a swimbait guy. They're real pretty, I own a few, I admire Mike Bucca and other peeps who make 'em, but I've never gotten into heaving yuge baits out there, big splash, hoping a mythical big bass will come outta nowhere and slam it.

Until now. Maybe.

Met Keith Thomas of PA's Black Talon Custom Lures at Dead Sea 1 Tuesday. Real nice guy, and since we were pretty much boat to boat for at least an hour, I did what I do – catch fish! Lol just messin' bahahaaa!

What I do is AXE QUESTIONS and what better way to get a handle on anything bassin'-related than to ask a guy who's right there and have him show you.

It was unplanned and Keith has been doing the swimbait deal for decades, so I barely scratched the surface. But the stuff I learned I thought you might be interested in too. Here some of it:

1. Keith got into this on his own, way back before there was an Internet or a bassin' swimbait scene. Him and a bud were watching big bass slam big gizzards at their home lake, couldn't catch 'em and finally thought to try surf rods with striper plugs. Result: They smoked the biggest fish in the lake.

2. After getting laughed at a couple times – when guys saw a couple teenagers with rods longer than their tin rig and huge striper plugs in the boat – they got watched by a tournament angler...and then realized maybe they should keep it quiet.

3. They started messing with carving baits on their own, and I think figured out the jointed deal glide baits are known for on their own. Keith said that joint actually was a thing way back in the 1900s – believe he said it was patented back in the early 1900s.

The numbers and size of bass Keith says he's caught in Dead Sea 1 was honestly unbelievable. I mean it was so mind-blowing that my mind was blown:

If he said he was fishing any other bait, I wouldn't have believed him. Because I've fished 'em all. But:

a) I've never fished big swimbaits so I couldn't just say no way

b) Brian believes him and has seen a little of it himself

c) We're all aware that big swimbaits get big fish you might have not known were there to show themselves

d) Keith had pics of Cali-sized largemouths from a lake I'm aware of in PA that honestly were hard to believe even though he had proof!

Anyhow, some swimbait beginner feeshn tips from Keith:

1. Rod – Use a swimbait-specific rod or, if you don't have one, a flip stick. I'm going to try a MH flip stick that's on the heavier side of MH, just for a little "give."

2. Reel – He likes a high-speed retrieve to catch up with the fish fast and to help get 'em in the boat fast...because you don't want to fight a fish with that big a bait in its mouth.

3. Line – He fishes braid with a mono leader, but recommends 20-lb mono if you're just getting started. With mono, you avoid the problem of braid potentially digging in on a backlash and your big swimbait getting slung off somewhere.

4. Retrieve – Just a straight, slow retrieve. No twitching. Pause it from time to time, even if you see a fish following it. He says most bites are on the pause.

Keith sells every bait he makes and you can only get 'em on Facebook – he doesn't have a website. He also stopped making wood baits and went to resin. Also, just saw that The Big Bass Podcast had him on, and says his baits are the most realisstic they have ever seen – and Terry Battisti should know!

Keith's also been on the Bass U show because of his connection with the South Jersey Bassin' Mafia:

Gonna try slinging one of his baits – he gifted me this one, real nice of him:

What do I have to lose? Tuesday he said about a 7-lber came out of some shoreline wood, following his bait. A 7-lber?? In shoreline wood – on that lake??? I gotta try it.