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5 Qs with Patrick "fair weather 'stacher" Walters
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Paddy O'Walters can for sure catch 'em, and there's something about him a lot of bass-heads like, or identify it, or something. He was 5th in the points in 2022, 4th in 2021, 3rd in 2020 – so guess he's doing worse?? 🤔 😁 Just messin', here's 5 with him:
1. Is the bassin' 'stache here to stay?
> "Yes and no. From what I've noticed it's a northern thing. It does not do good in the South. Those big southern largemouths don't like it – they're living in the modern day. But the northern smallmouth, they like a good throwback.
> "So halfway through the season the 'stache will make an appearance without a doubt."
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2. Is the NPFL here to stay for you?
> "I think it is. I was a little worried...we have schedule conflicts [this year]......so I will miss one tournament completely. But I think I am going to fish it. Why not? I make a living with the rod, fishing-wise, not withe social media, so I think I have to fish as much as possible."
3. Any new techniques or new baits or anything else new you're bringing out this year?
> "That's TBD. When you have the off-season you have a lot of time to think about things and tinker. I've been tinkering a little bit. Nothing out of the norm, but you have to hone your craft. ...little subtle tweaks...nothing that's unheard of yet...."
4. Will we see different color shorts this year or are you sticking with what works? 😁
> "I'm sticking with what works. Neutral colors baby – I'm going green, probably a little bit of grey and some khaki. I'm keeping it simple. I don't like to be flashy."
5. What's your fave pre-spawn bait?
> "It's gonna be a moving bait. I have to say a shallow crankbait, probably the [Rapala] DT6. For pre-spawn...I want to catch them moving, super-quick, covering a lot of water.
> "The DT6 is something that catches big fish, you can throw it in dirty water, clean, grass, rock, doesn't matter. I'd go with 'demon' and 'silver.'"
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The #1 Best TOURNAMENT Bass Bait Ever (so far) is – Strike King crankbaits! 🏆
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Why
The winning equation here looks something like this:
The right conditions, including frequency of tour-level events on TVA "ledge lakes"
+ Baits needed that dive deep and cover water
+ Crankin' masters like Kevin VanDam and Keith Combs
= Several wins and high finishes
History
After the successful Strike King Pro Model crankbaits, notably the Series 5, Strike King rolled out the 5XD and 6XD "extra deep" crankbaits in 2010, which quickly impacted the tournament scene, particularly the 6XD. The XDs were designed I believe by amazing Strike King lure designer Phil Marks and Kevin VanDam, and were tested for over a year by KVD. The cat got outta the bag when Kevin got 2nd fishing a 6XD prototype at the 2009 Kentucky Lake Bassmaster Elite.
The XDs were rolled out in 2010, as were the 1.5 and 2.5 squarebills. The 1.5 in particular also became a well-used tournament bait. Other now well-known Strike King cranks followed, like the 10XD and 8XD which also played in high tournament finishes.
On Tour
You would have a long list of top finishes with Strike King crankbaits just using Kevin's success alone. For example, he fished a KVD 1.5 to win the 2011 Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta, a 5XD and 6XD for a 2nd place finish at the 2011 Wheeler Lake Elite, a 6XD, 8XD and 10XD combo for 2nd at the 2015 Kentucky Lake BASSFest, and he won with the same combo at the 2016 Toledo Bend Elite. The 6XD also sealed the win for him at the 2021 Chickamauga Bass Pro Tour event.
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Keith Combs has won so much with the 6XD and Series 5 he's practically an ambassador for those baits now.
Believe it or not, Greg Hackey has dished Strike King cranks to win events, notably the 2014 Pickwick FLW (Strike King 2.5).
A few more: Brandon Palaniuk fished a 6XD for a few critical fish in his win of the 2012 Bull Shoals Bassmaster Elite, a 5XD played a role in Jordan Lee's 2017 Classic win on Lake Conroe, and we could add many more guys to this list like Mark Rose and Randy Haines.
Runner up: Lucky Craft squarebill cranks
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It can be argued that the Lucky Craft lineup of squarebill crankbaits including the RC and BDS Series of baits singlehandedly reenergized and even revolutionized the squarebill crankbait market.
The RC Series began as a partnership between Lucky Craft, Bass Pro Shops and "RC" himself, Rick Clunn. Rick designed the baits, Lucky Craft made them, and Bass Pro Shops had the exclusive for a bit. The baits became best-sellers and are still fished a ton.
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This line of crankbaits has played a key role in several top tournament finishes including Ben Matsubu's 2007 Toho Elite win, Aaron Martens' 2009 Guntersville Elite win, and Skeet Reese breaking the century mark to win the 2010 Guntersville Elite (RC 3.5).
Honorable mentions
1. Rapala DT Series – Designed by David Fritts and launched in 2003, these are still some of the best crankbaits ever made and are still being used by many top pros including Jacob Wheeler, Ott DeFoe and Gerald Swindle. Shout-out to the much older Rapala Shad Rap, one of the best cold-water crankbaits of all time, if not the best.
2. Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap – Has to be the most popular lipless crankbait of all time, and has accounted for an untold amount of fish and money on tournament trails throughout the country. It's considered a "must have" bait anytime you have pre-spawn conditions and grass, and in tour-level events has been particularly deadly in FL.
So your final Top 10 list is:
1. Strike King crankbaits
2. Strike King jigs
3. Zoom worms
4. Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver
5. SPRO Bronzeye Frog
6. ChatterBait/JackHammer
7. Keitech Fat swimbaits
8. Dropshot a Roboworm
9. War Eagle spinnerbaits
10. Megabass Vision 110 jerkbaits
What can we learn from this list? What speaks to you? Lemme know! Gonna give some thoughts next time....
Big shoutout to Brian Waldman who did all the analysis and put this Top 10 list together. Great job man and thank you! 💪
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Fascinatin' 5+ Qs with giant bass hunter Ben Milliken
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Are we in a giant bass-huntin' revival? What baits does it take to catch YUGE green fish? If we have a 6th sense does that mean we can perceive the 4th dimension?? 😮
Got with TX big bass dude Ben Milliken to talk about that – except for the last Q – and a bit more. Hre we go – fascinatin' stuff:
1. We all love catching huge bass, but hardly any of us target only them. Why do you do it?
> "To take it back, I've been a huge fan of trophy bass fishing and tournament bass fishing my whole life, but I grew up in NE where the state record is 10 lbs and that's a mythical-size fish....they just don't live there. We would make overnight trips down to TX, leave after work, drive 10-12 hours, fish, and then drive back in time for work on Monday – just to try to catch big bass....
> "Now that I'm living down here in TX with the long growing season mixed with FL-strain bass and great habitat, I would have a hard time – being the competitive person I am – trying to catch just average-sized fish."
2. Does it take a different mentality to do it? Like, if you see a 7 or 8, do you just keep on moving and looking for a bigger one?
> "It definitely takes a different mentality. I definitely would never pass on a 7 or 8, and I think anyone who says they would is probably a liar, but to me it's the same as tournament fishing.
> "I have a tournament background. I've been fishing them for almost 20 years. If you know at a tournament it'll take 20 lbs to win, if you're catching 2-lbers, you need to start passing them up. You're not in the right areas , you're not doing the right thing.
> "Same thing with big bass fishing. I'm not satisfied with 5, 6 or even 10-lb fish...going to waste too much time with that."
3. How can you tell the difference between a 10 and like a 14 on sonar?
> "Experience, and obviously they look bigger. They will move a little bit different and give a little bit different return, depending on what type of sonar.... I run Garmin which is by far the best type of forward-facing sonar. I get nothing for saying that....
> "The way that the return comes back on the Garmins is almost more 3D, and you can tell by the 'fuzziness,' I guess you would call the appearance of the bigger ones. ...different caliber than the stronger returns you get from 7- to 10-lb fish.
> "...based on the swim bladder on the fish.... Carp and gar and other rough fish give a similar fuzzy return."
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4. Before forward-facing sonar, big-bass fishermen would either deadstick live crayfish in CA or fish big swimbaits there – not including random catches on "regular" baits in TX and FL. Are we in a new era of big-bass hunting?
> "My approach is based on a lot of that historical [big bass stuff]...couple of these guys catching big fish have been bass fishing for [a short time]. My approach takes a lot of my 25 years of bass fishing prior to this and applies the same [stuff, also things] outlined in Bill Murphy's 'In Pursuit of Giant Bass' book.
> "...apply natural, refined big baits with sonar in different parts of the water column or part of a lake where these giant fish have not seen a lure before."
Follow-up Q: Some guys have said that with forward-facing sonar they're finding bass in new places they haven't even considered before, and that bass spend more time there than the classic bass spots. Have you seen that?
> "Yes and no. I think the biggest thing I've learned since moving to TX is these big ones aren't necessarily solitary predators...not just one 15-lb blob in the middle of the lake by itself. The majority of fish I catch are in groups of 6-12 fish that, depending on the fishery, are all 7 lbs and bigger in open water...using size and numbers to overtake their prey.
> "Think more of them are together out in open water in schools, just big wolf packs, than we ever thought before.
> "I know for a fact that if you catch a fish, a 10-lber, on a point after dragging a Carolina rig there for 3 hours, it's not because he was there and didn't want to bite. It's because him and 6 of his buddies came by at that moment – because they're constantly moving."
5. What's one thing that's blown your mind about big bass behavior that you've learned?
> "It would definitely be what I just said – their propensity to live with other big fish in groups. And it's in every single lake...especially grass lakes...giant fish in wolf packs. I think it's nothing we could ever know with out forward-facing sonar."
Bonus Q 1: Do you have a favorite giant bass bait, or is it possible to have just one? Or is there a key to big bass baits?
> "Every lake is different, but one thing I've found is that the best lakes down here are the lakes that have a large population of big gizzard shad.
> "It's not possible to have just one bait, especially seasonally. A lot of LiveScope guys only fish one body of water for 3 months of the year in the winter, so they can just have an Alabama Rig. But a 6-8 inch line-through swimbait is a good bait to have, a 10-inch shad-style glide bait, and a jerkbait is also another one. That's one of the only small baits that can fool giant bass consistently."
Bonus Q 2: Is there really something about 6th Sense baits for big bass or does it just happen that a lot of the big bass guys are sponsored by 6th Sense?
> "I'm the head product developer [and co-owner] along with Casey [Sobczak] and I can tell you.... The longer answer is there's no arguing with the fact that that the entire industry is trying to create products and baits around forward-facing sonar [FFS]. Anything we're putting out right now is not just an idea that we think might work to catch fish with FFS. Anything that we design and we put out is tested with the best big-bass fishermen in the country on the best big-bass lakes to make sure that they work, and that's a lot of it.
> "Guys like Josh Jones, Jack York [who just caught the 13.51 at Nacogdoches] and is fishing the Opens this year, Lee Livesay – just a bunch of guys that know big fish and are in the right area to catch 'em."
Amazing stuff. He sent me this pic a couple weeks ago of a new TX lake record (wouldn't say which lake tho!) on a jerkbait that hadn't yet come out yet – but now is out and which I believe he designed: the Provoke 106DD Silent. The silent part is new.
Looks like right now it's only available on the 6th Sense website. I'm interested but gonna wait til 6th Sense ups their finish game...🤣
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That fish needs to cut down on the soft drinks!!
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Is the Power-Pole trolling motor finally coming out??
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Recent stealth shot from the Harris Chain, Cory Johnston's boat:
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Does it say "Move" on it? Because that's exactly the kind of thing Cory would yell at someone in front of him on the water...hahaha! Anyhow, Cory has a Power-Pole wrap so...? Motor has been rumored for years and seen at ICAST at least twice.
Since Brunswick (Merc, MotorGuide, etc) bought Lowrance, all the major trolling motor companies have electronics and vice versa – so if Power-Pole came out with a troller it would be kinda the odd dude out? Maybe?
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1. "Shane's Baits" LeHew gets Grundens.
2. Pros fishing GSM brands-only tourney on Gville SATURDAY.
Was the Rat-L-Trap Open, now "The Battle of the Brands." Use any baits from Bill Lewis, Yamamoto and Buckeye. Take money from Boyd Duckett! 😁
3. Here's a YUM Flash Mob Jr A-rig on LiveScope.
Rookie Elite John Soukup vid talkin' 'bout the new, limited-run colors of Flash Mob Jrs, points out that it's a great rig to learn forward-facing sonar with because it shows up so huge:
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John's been calling me non-stop to get pointers about fishing LiveScope. I'm like, "Learn it yourself man!" 🤣🤣
Regular YUMbrella Flash Mob Jrs at TW, custom-painted ones John is talking about I think are only at Lurenet.com.
4. Few Catch Co/Googan launches today.
No particular order:
Bumper Double Colorado spinnerbait
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- First double CO for the Googans
- 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 oz, same colors as their CO/willow Zinger but added black/blue for 6 colors
3 reasons I like this:
- A black/blue spinnerbait! Now I need to have a couple!
- Weight printed on the body – head-slapper idea.
- Double-Colo blade launch this time of year.
7" Rival Glide Bait
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- 5 colors, 2.1 oz, 3x hooks and rotating hook hangars
- $29.99 – if it works, hard to beat at that price
Also launched to fish it is the 7' 9" H Mod F Googan Gold Series Muscle XL Rod (same rod already exists in the higher-end Black Series. Carbon grip, Fuji guides, $179.99.
One mo': 7' 2" MH Go-To Spinning Rod launched for both the Green and Gold series. Kinda a do-it-all heavier spin rod for folks who don't have or want to use baitcasting gear. For stuff like jigs, worms 'n frogs.
Apologies can't find links for a few of these – will have 'em next time. Gitcha bigs this spring!
5. TX: 10-lb largie eats 13" hooked white bass head first.
At Richland Chambers under a dock. Do we need to be fishing huge fat swimbaits??
> ...tied on another [1/8-oz] jig, shot it to the same spot and got another bite. What looked to be a 1.5-lb white bass swirled the surface, then darted behind an underwater piling. "I was just holding the fish there, then all of the sudden it started pulling a lot harder."
> He eventually wrangled the bass into the landing net. "At first I thought it was the tail of a big shad hanging out of its mouth, but it had eaten my white bass. Its head was wedged so deep in its throat I had to use pliers to move its fins around and work it free. My crappie jig was still in the white bass' mouth."
6. MO: New Madrid ramp redo will start this spring or summer.
On the Mississippi. Wasn't there a Bassmaster Tour event outta that ramp one year?
7. GA: Blueback herring now legal for Allatoona.
First found in the lake in 2020, guess expect more of 'em.
8. MN DNR "wants to talk rather than act" on Asian carp?
> ...12 years after that plan was formulated, instead of requesting money this session from the legislature to install a Mississippi River deterrent that could minimize the chances silver carp can establish breeding populations that threaten more state waters, the DNR wants to...wait for it...form a committee to talk things over.
Sounds like gov't!
9. AFTCO and Wildlife Forever ramping up War on Carp.
Educational campaign, sounds like. Maybe start with the legislators and agencies....
10. FL: New type of snakehead found.
Goldline snakehead. Shoot FL is like a giant aquarium dumping ground....
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How Rick Clunn fishes (fished?) squarebills.
Tripped over some older tippage ^ around the release of the Lucky Craft RC series:
> "The RC is a target bait. By that I mean it's designed to make contact with specific objects or targets, usually shallow, visible pieces of cover like stumps, laydowns, pilings or rocks.
> "I use the rod to control the angle and depth of the bait to make sure I contact the sweet spot on the target. On one cast, Clunn may crank the RC with his rod tip down low in order to hit the base of a stump in 4' of water. On the next cast he might raise the rod tip up to get the bait to crawl over top of the stump.
> Since he is often cranking the RC around hard cover, Clunn uses line in the 14- to 20-lb test class.
> His rod length preference is 7' but...rod action is more important that rod length. ...Clunn likens this style of shallow cranking to flipping or pitching where the rod must have enough power to turn the bait in the fish's mouth so the hooks can penetrate.
>"Shallow cranking calls for a very stout rod – a true H-action rod, not a MH. These are big-bodied baits that are attacked by big fish in thick cover, and a softer rod simply does not provide enough power to hook the fish and move it out away from the cover."
👀
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"Some of the first behaviors I witnessed with Mega Live absolutely shook the very foundations of my knowledge base."
- Kevin VanDam talkin'. When KVD's bassin' knowledge base shakes, I guess ours crumbles?? A little more about it from him on the MLF site:
> First were the sheer numbers of fish I saw swimming around out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously they were not all bass, but certainly, some of them were. I was shocked to see how much of a lake's ecosystem is so nomadic. And, I'm not just talking about St. Clair. I'm talking about Ozark impoundments, Carolina lakes, TX, and yes even FL.
> The second huge myth in my belief system was how "stationary" and cover-oriented bass are supposed to be. So many of my strategies revolve around this "fact." Yes, some bass do relate to cover, but there are a lot of them that are perfectly fine just swimming around over nothing. And when I say, "swimming around," I mean constantly swimming.
> The third shocker is how many bass follow our lures, over and over again, and don't bite. This has been going on for years and I never knew it. If I did, I would have changed lures, actions, sizes, colors, etc so much sooner to figure out what would trip their trigger.
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Great Daiwa shooter Casey Yoern with another 🔥 shot – I think it's Brent Ehrler but it looks a little too cool to be him? 😆 Lol just messin'! Great stuff:
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Missing Dallas zoo monkeys found in an abandoned home closet
Missing?? So many questions like – why a closet? Wouldn't you expect 'em in the kitchen or the TV room?? Sounds like the Dallas Zoo is a dang zoo!
> What an awful January the Dallas Zoo had. Leopard escaped thanks to someone cutting a hole in the enclosure. A vulture was killed that was on the endangered species list. Finally, two monkeys were stolen....
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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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