BassBlaster

Crazy Japan swimbait, Quiver a jig, Rope bait for bass

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on June 19, 2018

The top items are all questions today — hope you enjoy bass-heads!

Today’s Top 4

Greatest swimbait you never heard of?

Check this video out:

That’s a Japanese soft-plastic bluegill-shaped swimbait called the Gill Flat. It’s TX-rigged in a way I haven’t seen before but maybe you swimbait-heads have. Not sure I’ve ever seen a bait swim as nice as that either, dang!

More deets on it and a similar bait coming in this week’s Bass GEEK….

Bass caught on…rope?

Just in case you can’t afford a high-dollah swimbait — or if you wanna scam a couple buds outta a twenty — check this:

Ingredients:
> Blue rope, frayed
> #2 octopus hook, just to have a way to attach the line to the rope

Gotta do a contest on this one — hit it here on my Facebook with your ideas on what such a bait would be called. Here’s a couple to get you started:

> Bass N String
> Goat Rope
> Gar Lick Getter

Don’t say Rope a Dope — that’s too easy….

Does bassin’ social media mess with you?

One guy posted this:

> I have also heard of those who post fictitious fish pictures and tactics, intentionally trying to mislead those who read their posts. They take pictures from the opposite end of the lake with a lure hanging from the fish’s mouth that was not the bait they were actually using.

[That’s why I love practice-day posts from Elite Series fishermen….]

> I think another detriment to social media is it can provide undo stress. For example, you spend a day on a particular lake and come home with little to show. You check out social media and begin seeing pictures of people who fished the same lake on the same day holding limits of fish. Other people figured out the correct pattern or found a better spot but you couldn’t. Your mood changes in the blink of an eye and you begin thinking about your self-perceived inadequacies. You go from enjoying a day on the water to feeling incompetent.

Reminds me — hey all you NJ peeps, here’s me on Round Valley Rez yesterday…HAHAHA! [Sorry Matt Allen….]

C’mon man: Never doubt your bassin’ self….

Can weeds grow on largemouths?

If they’re lazy enough the answer appears to be yep:

I’m like:

News

1. Jamie Hartman is OOC at the upper Miss.

This is where he was at the start of practice — and OOC = out of commission:

> I’m dealing with an EXTREMELY bad sciatic nerve issue in my back and leg that won’t allow me to stand or sit.

Dude I’ve been there and also a long way from home with it (Hot Springs, AR, where I first met this new guy named Greg Hackney…). Feelin’ for ya and sendin’ a few up for you too….

2. Check Alton Jones’ rig from the Sabine.

Heard about it at the time but didn’t see any reporting on it til now:

> …Alton Jones and his marshal were involved in a boating accident during Saturday’s semifinal round [at the Sabine]… Neither man was injured.

> “I was running way up to the north end of the river, and it’s a pretty hairy run anytime…today, the water had gone down, and I hit something extra hard. I didn’t think anything about it.

> “I was coming back for check-in…passing a redfish boat. When I hit his wake, my nose dipped and the boat spun 90 degrees and went into the woods.

> “I had knocked my skeg off when I hit that submerged log….”

Glad they were both okay.

3. Jacob Powroznik’s new bait is out.

V&M Flash Jig. 1-oz available now, lighter weights should be available next week on the TW:

4. KVD gets 20 mpg with his Tundra??

> “I put about 50,000 miles a year on my truck. I drive it hard. But I still get better than 20 mpg.”

Anyone else get that towing with a Tundra?

5. Keith Poche fished the same crank at the Red River Open…

…where he finished 12th — the highest Elitist in that one — as he did in the Sabine derby where he finished 5th. Luck E Strike Ricky Clunn series 4 squarebill in what looks like green copper shad:

Heard the Red River might have been even tougher than the Sabine! On day 3, only 4 of the top 12 weighed a limit, and two guys zeroed — Poche and some guy named Gary Clouse, who I believe runs a boat he designed and built himself…ain’t that right Gary??

Oops almost forgot: Beeg weener was SC’s Pat Walters, recent college kid who stayed near the ramp to win it cranking a Rapala DT-6 (Ike’s demon) and unnamed squarebill [who can name that bait?]. Also fished a 5″ Yamamoto Thin Senko with 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG Hook, both weightless and with 1/8-oz:

6. Looks like Mark Davis is back at it post-surgery.

Check that custom deck throne:

7. Johnny Crews/Missile about to release the Bomb Shot.

> The Bomb Shot is a 4″ bait that is based on the…D Bomb shape with a ribbed body and a thin beaver-shaped tail.

8. Nice David Walker post…

…about him seeing competition through his daughter:

> …Lilly has helped me see my own competition in fishing with a fresh perspective. …sometimes the goal is not to win the whole entire tournament at one time, but just to be better at something today than you were yesterday.

9. FLWer Bryan Thrift’s boat looks like a military robot.

10. FLWer Pete Ponds on BassEdge Radio.

11. Matt Allen of Tactical Bassin’ okay…

…sounds like, after a bad accident. Here’s where his boat ended up, click it to see the damage to the truck — a Dodge Ram 3500 that got put on its side:

Sounds like Matt and his dad are okay, which is awesome, but a sad deal.

12. MO: Dude wants bass boats off public water.

I’m sure that’ll happen in Johnny Morris’ home state lol but this is great stuff:

> …from the far distance, you heard a muffled roar, almost like a distant boom of thunder or rumble of a freight train. You looked all around the horizon, but the sky was clear, with no clouds at all, and there were no railroads within 50 miles. But the noise not only persisted but quickly became louder and louder, until it cleaved the air like the scream of a 747 jetliner.

> And then suddenly around the corner raced a whole armada of 50, 100, 500 or…2,350 tournament anglers at the helms of 21′ 350 hp bass boats traveling at nearly 100 mph. Totally ignoring you, they screamed right past your spot, rending the air with horrific noise, throwing up huge, dangerous wakes which angered the swimming adults and frightened the wading children, nearly swamped nearby kayakers and canoeists, carelessly rocked the wading anglers and left behind them thoughtlessly polluted air and water and quiet.

> As one of the casual non-bass boat owning fishermen, I urge the MO legislature to immediately mandate that every fishing boat over 14′ in length with an outboard motor of more than 40 hp — along with all fishing tournaments with their disruptive behavior, infernal racket and corporate pageantry, etc — be moved to private lakes, just as NASCAR’s 200 mph souped-up cars, for the obvious safety reasons, aren’t permitted to race on public roads and highways.

On a related note, an electric-powered boat just went 88 mph. Don’t know ’bout you, but I’d rather hear any boat coming at me at that speed….

13. Great Lakes: Could Asian carp dominate?

Even with zebras filter-feeding in there already:

> A report published…in Jan 2016 predicted that once planktivorous Asian carp get into Lake Erie, they will eventually become 34% of the total weight of all fish in the lake.

14. 2019 Skeeters will have Humminbirds.

No link but:

> Skeeter…announced today that selected model year 2019 boats will come featured with Humminbird Electronics. Currently in production, the 2019 model year boats will start shipping to our dealer network in late June 2018.

15. FL: Lake Ponte Vedra will be treated for…cattails?

Never heard of that before?

16. Zona’s kids kan ketch ’em too.

Thunder twins Hunter (left) and Jakob got ’em a 6th at the first MI college-kid tourney of the year, congrats to ’em:

Take after the old man…who not sure if you know was good enough to hit the national trails at one point but refused to go too far away from his beloved anchovy deep-dish pizza, which is like a basic food group for him:

Looks good right? I had a bite once (all it took), and was like, “Z, you really like this dude?? It’s pretty salty.” To this day he refuses to talk about pizza with me…fair warning for y’all….

17. DC: Happenin’s in the swamp.

EPA approves ethanol alternative — Bio-isobutanol, which I guess the marine industry feels will be a lot less harmful than ethanol.

Marine companies hate new US tarriffs — On “nearly 300 marine-related parts” made in China.

18. Class action suit against BPS upheld by Supreme Court.

Article says $21.7 mil, 100K+ people involved, over “document fees” in boat purchases.

19. New pro staff mgr for T-H Marine.

Shana Ramsey, formerly of Bass Pro Shops and Garmin, is T-H’s new sponsorship and pro staff marketing manager. Congrats!

20. Is this War Eagle bait made outta pure gold??

If gold’s the deal, not sure I’ve seen a bait that’s more gold?

21. Is this color big in IN?

New Nichols bait in the “Hoosier” series:

22. Culprit reinvents the ol’ reliable lizard.

Meet the Culprit Water Dragon — dig those gills. Click the pic to see a good vid where former Elitist Dustin Wilkes breaks down the bait:

I like the reinventin’ the lizard thing!

23. Star Wars bass-heads gitcha Boba Fish sticker.

@LunkerLab:

24. Fish camo catching on with Euro carp anglers.

Those guys are nuts:

Eeeeeeeew….

On BassBlaster.rocks right now…

How to old school Rapala, Giant and deformed melons, Costa winning baits

Hackney’s winning baits, Fish the Squatch pattern, Dink award

All past BassBlasters are archived at BassBlaster.rocks!

Tip of the Day

Alton Jones: Quivering a jig for pressured bass.

“Pressured” describes every bass in NJ, maybe where you live too, so:

> “…you automatically imagine that fishing is tough,. That means bass are holding much tighter to cover and are less willing to move to take a lure. The strike zone has shrunk to near nothing — therefore the jig presentation must be very, very precise.”

> The second key involves speed of the lure retrieve, both during the drop through the water column and the return along the bottom. …Jones always uses as light a head as possible — usually 1/4-oz or even as light as 1/8-oz….

> “Once on the bottom, you have to give that bass plenty of time to react. If you employ a standard hopping retrieve speed, you will never have the opportunity to put fish in the boat.”

> One of Jones’ favorite finesse techniques is something he refers to as “quivering.” The presentation is utilized when there is a high degree of probability that bass are in the immediate area…. Quivering can be particularly effective on lakes under drawdown, where shallow cover has been exposed, therefore forcing bass to hold on smaller bottom objects that are not readily detectable to either the naked eye or the depthfinder.

> “I make a long cast, let the jig settle to the bottom and then begin crawling it along until it contacts an object. It can be a root, branch, rock or something as small as a large pebble. On clay banks, it may simply be a divot in the bottom. It can be anything that will catch the head of a jig and impede its forward motion.”

> …he repeatedly tightens the line and then gives slack…”I want the jig to remain in place while the skirt flairs as the back portion of the jig rises and falls. This gives the appearance of a crawfish — the prey that turned-off bass are more likely to attack than more difficult-to-catch baitfish. Quivering in one spot is absolutely deadly for drawing strikes from non-aggressive bass.”

Alton Sr likes a BOOYAH Baby Boo Jig, and trims the skirt flush with the hook bend for an easier flair. He normally uses a 2.75″ YUM Chunk on the back, but will upsize to the 3.5″ if he’s on a lake with bigger fish.

Quote of the Day

“The more confidence you have [in a bait color], the more focused you will be fishing that lure.”

– A seriously profound and 100% on the money statement by KVD. Never really thought of it thataway but he’s right. Wow.

Quote from a post about the little things he does — few highlights:

> Color: Stick to the basics but don’t be afraid to experiment with variations that might add a little different look on heavily pressure waters.

> Scent: Count me among believers that fish attractants can make a difference in getting a few more aggressive bites, and more importantly, cause fish to hang onto the lure better. I use FishSticks that come in a lip balm-style applicator that I coat on my soft baits and hard baits.

> Sound: I’ve had too many instances where I flipped on the HydroWave to the appropriate pattern and saw the fish in my area get more active.

Shot of the Day

Lovin’ the colors of this bank bass caught by Elitist James “time to make the donuts” Elam — on a Molix Jerk 95DR:

Random

Some of you, like me, have always wondered: Do dogs know how to photobomb? Well:

Ya got me

Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup

of the best, worst and funniest in bassin’, as curated 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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