Found this on the shore of one my drawn-down lakes – someone's day might have ended early:
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Heads up that the second Blaster this week MIGHT be a day late because of Redcrest travel, but hopefully not. As always thanks for readin'!
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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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Some Redcrest stuff to chew on this week
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BIG tourney this week! Got some thoughts headin' into it, gonna call out SOME of the guys fishing it but when I look at the field literally any one of 'em could win it. Here's some thoughts anyhow:
Bryan Thrift and Andy Montgomery are the local hammers – you probly know that already. Both have won major tourneys on the lake. Local knowledge has played and hasn't mattered in tournaments, so it could go either way in this one too. That said, if it's a dock deal and everyone is hammering docks, the guys like Andy who can skip a jig (or whatever) into gnat-sized cracks might get more bites.
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Power or finesse? – Typically Norman would be won on or around docks, notably by skipping jigs but also by fishing brush. It might be won thataway this time too BUT...forward-facing sonar. Will that make dock-fishing more important – or less? It should for sure make it more efficient, like it did for Jason Christie in last year's Classic. Could it mean that other techniques come into play, like dropshots and jerkbaits? Crankin'?
Did someone say docks? Paging Jesse Wiggins...and his band, The Shakey Heads...😁
Dakota Ebare is fishing 🔥 hot. That always matters.
Dustin Connell is coming off one of the grteatest tour-level seasons in the history of bassin'. Can he keep it rollin'? A couple tidbits from his Redcrest prep on Lake Martin, AL:
> I spent a lot of my time trying different lures around docks and even found some new ones that seem promising. I also wanted to dial in the best line size and types of jig trailers for skipping docks. I put myself through the paces of fishing all kinds of docks: floating docks, cable docks, pole docks. I wanted to try docks in different water depths and in different water colors.
> ...what I did do at Martin was tune some things up to put myself in a position to do anything I need to do quickly.
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Jacob Wheeler finished 11th in the last Bass Pro Tour tournament of last season and the first one of this season, then 26th at the Clarks Hill Invitational. Obviously something is wrong...🤔 Maybe it's that new boat? 😆 Jacob said he spent a lot of time at Clarks Hill tuning up his gear for Redcrest – here's one example:
> Dealing with springtime pollen was also a huge learning experience for me at Clarks Hill. Pollen that sinks below the surface and then sort of suspends in the water column can make sonar signals get a little weird. I found a few hacks for dealing with this if the pollen happens to be bad at Norman too.
👀
Michael Neal can't finish low either.
Jordan Lee wins tournaments, especially championship tournaments.
NINE guys in the 40-man field have won a Classic, and 2 of them have won a Redcrest – Edwin Evers and Dustin Connell. Edwin is the only guy to have won a Classic and a Redcrest. At least a couple guys have won an FLW Cup – can't tell how many because I don't remember those as well and there's no way to see a list of 'em (that I can find). Josh Bertrand won the last WON Bass US Open. Bottom line: More than a quarter of the field has won a major championship tournament. #ultrastout
It's Kevin VanDam's last champeenship tourney – All I'll say about that is...I'd hate to be a Norman bass this week. And KVD might fish so fast that the water temp gets a little higher around his boat. 😁 Here's a few tidbits from him:
> As I’ve been studying [Norman's] satellite and digital mapping over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying to think of lakes that might be similar to it, and there really are none.
> ...plenty of docks for bass to hunker down around, but spotted bass are more prone to be nomadic, especially if there are blueback herring in the system. So do you lean towards stable shoreline cover, or do you get out in the main lake basin and try to intercept roamers following bait?
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Dakota Ebare won another one!
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Started the year with a win in the Toyotas, now he got a win in the Invitationals (Pro Circuit) so that's one a month! Will he move up yet another level? Can he keep it going? We'll find out! Here's how he won at Clarks Hill, GA – few more deets on the BB site:
> "The 1st morning I started off offshore in a drain or ditch-type area where there was a lot of fish. I caught a quick nice limit of 15 lbs, spotted bass and largemouths...Strike King Baby Z Too on a Damiki rig.
> "After I got around 15 lbs I went up and started working my way toward some dirtier water. I hit a stretch of docks where I shook some nice fish off in practice. I caught a 5-lber on wacky-rigged Ocho [Strike King stick worm] and then made my move on up to even dirtier water. I started throwing around a bladed jig at isolated wood targets, and that's where I caught the back to back 6-lbers and several other nice fish. [He ended up with almost 24 lbs.]
> "Day 2 I started the same way but I didn't catch 'em. I left there and went up shallow for a while but I wasn't catching them up there either. I caught a couple keepers here and there – think I had 9 lbs....
> "Then I backed off. I had marked a bunch of brush and started running brush in that mid range, like the 9-10' range. That's where I caught an 8-lber on a Strike King shakey head. That bumped me up to around 16.
> "I ran some more brush but didn't have any luck. Then I ran back down to cleaner water, another drain/ditch area, and the fish were really biting. I culled out everything I had, all spotted bass, with the shakey head.
> "Day 3 I went straight up the lake. It was windy, cloudy, kinda raining – it really felt like the shallow fish would be active and biting. I started running everything I knew to run – laydowns, isolated wood targets, all of that. Aside from a random 4-lber under a dock on a wacky rig, I really hadn't caught much.
> "I had probably 10 lbs with a 4-lber, and I knew that probably would not be enough even though I had a substantial lead. I knew the conditions were right for guys to catch 'em.
> "I ran back down the lake, got into cleaner water, and caught spotted bass on secondary points, brush and drains. I culled up to 14lbs and my smallest one at this point is like 2.5. I was running out of time. Most of these spotted bass were 2.5s – nice ones but I needed something different.
> "I started running shallow brush in that area. With 15 minutes left to go, I caught that 4-lber. It was a 2-lb cull – that's what won it for me."
Baits
> Shakey head: 5" Strike King Ocho (KVD magic), 3/16-oz Strike King Tour Grade Shakey Head, 12-lb fluoro, Lew's HyperMag Reel (7.5), 7' MH Lew's Elite Rod.
> Why the Ocho instead of a finesse worm? "I don't know, it's just something I've done for a long time. It probably falls different, glides.... I don't keep a lotta trick worms in the boat."
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> Damiki-type rig: Strike King Baby Z Too (blue glimmer), 3/16-oz Damiki style jighead, 15-lb braid to 8-lb fluoro, Lew's Custom Lite HyperMag Reel, 6' 8" ML Lew's Elite Rod.
Electronics
> "I'm always using [forward-facing sonar] even when I'm not catching fish with it. My Garmin LiveScope definitely was a key player – just being able to see bait, see fish, know I'm around productive water, see the brushpiles, all of that.
> "I was able to use the Garmin mapping as well – it's great mapping. Clarks Hill really was a pattern lake. I ran a lot of water on that lake that I'd never fished...was able to look at the map, run to those areas I'd never been to, put my trolling motor down and use LiveScope to break it down effectively and efficiently. It's a good all-around system."
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3 Qs with the once a month winner
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1. You said that 4-lber you caught on the last day "wasn’t even hooked." How does one get a fish into the boat if it's not hooked – did you just reel super-fast?? 😁
> "Divine intervention. I have no idea. Normal hookset...she jumped twice, I got her in the boat, grabbed her mouth and the hook was just sitting there. It was not even skin-hooked."
2. Your plan seems to be going pretty well – is winning Redcrest next on the list?
> "It's on the list, but I'm not going to call shots like that. This is bass fishing so anything can happen. I'm gonna stay confident but humble. I'll work really hard to try to win that – it'd be a great win for my career and all my sponsors."
3. You won at Rayburn by 21 oz and this one by 10 oz. Does the plan include winning 'em by less than half a fish?
> "Negative. I want to Jason Lambert the next one I'm in so I don't stress so much. I want to win one when I can eat pizza at the ramp at noon...."
Hahaha love it! Who doesn't want to win like that man! Especially if it's half pepperoni, half sausage 'n peppers.
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Power-Pole finally outed its new Move troller – and it's $5K! 🤯
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For $5K it better make at least one cheeseburger a day! 😁 Okay – new motor comes in 2 versions: salty and bass. The bass one is called the Move ZR:
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Full deets at that this link – power-pole DOT com/move-zr (can't link it) – here's a little:
> ...the ultimate brushless trolling motor for elite anglers. With nearly a decade of research and development behind it, the Move ZR delivers unparalleled power, durability and efficiency....
> Our founder, John Oliverio, and the Power-Pole team began by looking at the technology and materials available and decided that to bear the name Power-Pole, they needed to begin from scratch.
> The Power Unity System of the brushless motor and reinforced Techflow propeller create 30% more power than industry-leading trolling motors, all while being whisper quiet....
> 30% more thrust [and] 30% more efficient.
> The shaft is...manufactured from nearly unbreakable aerospace-grade titanium that will hold up to extreme pressure. That shaft combined with the bracket has been tested to withstand the harshest environments in fishing [including being operated by the Lane brothers lol!]. Compound fail-safes were engineered into the system to ensure that the motor functions as it should even if parts become compromised.
> ...advanced Anchor Mode allows the angler to stealthily maintain position while focusing on fishing. The Vector Heading feature follows a straight course down a bank or offshore drift, while our Follow a Route feature guided by ProNav allows the angler to use the Power-Pole app or compatible device to set a route for the motor to follow. Finally, a Compass Heading feature causes the motor to bear towards specific compass headings identified by the user.
I THINK they say that the same motor can run on 24v or 36v, meaning you don't need different motors for each. Lowrance-compatible only.
5-min YT vid here. PP said they didn't have a price point in mind, meaning they just wanted to build the best troller they could. Cool but SOMEONE's gotta have price point in mind man, dang!
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Will the new VMC RedLines be the best hooks yet?
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Yep that sounds like hype and maybe it is, but my 2c is that I doubt VMC pros like Jacob Wheeler, Ott DeFoe, Gerald Swindle, Seth Feider and the rest of 'em – who have been fishing these hooks for a year+ – would be saying that without actually believing it. Either way, only one way to find out...and we will!
Don't know much more than you about these brand spankin' new hooks, but I did watch the real good YT launch vid on 'em and had seen a little info on 'em before that – here's some things that stand out to me in no particular order:
- They were made for "optimum power, strength and [my favorite] hook-up speed."
- Some kinda coating on them = 50% faster hook penetration! 👀
- They're made with vanadium steel, the same steel used to make Formula 1 cars. Word is the stuff in Wolverine (adamantium) was stronger and lighter but it cost too much and one "Charles Xavier" owns the patent so...😁
- The needle points have some kinda ultra Top Secret point-grinding process.
- After product-testing a sample hook and catching 100s of bass on it, Ott kept that hook rigged up and then fished it to win the 2022 Heavy Hitters on Lake Palestine, TX. No point issues, which sounds crazy.
- Check this gap on the EWG-style hook, which helps reduce the chances of skin-hooking:
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- In the vid Seth says he loves the flipping hook because flipping heavy cover is when you lose the most fish and these hooks reduce that. Says he also loves that the the hook eyes are closed up with resin:
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- Davy Hite is in the vid too. Did Davy used to fish? Did he win any big tournaments? Does he eat the rind of his bacon? Can't remember...😁
- The included Hook-Lok makes it easy to keep track of which hooks are which.
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The hooks ARE on TW already:
- Heavy-Duty Flippin': 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0
- Hybrid Wide Gap: 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0
- Wacky Neko: 6, 4, 2, 1, and 1/0
- Finesse Neko: 6, 4, 2, 1, and 1/0
- Weedless Wacky Neko: 2, 1 and 1/0
- Dropshot: 4, 2, 1 and 1/0
- Hybrid Worm: 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0
- Finesse Treble: 5, 4 and 3
More info on 'em here.
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1. What James "Capt Donuts" Elam will do at Norman.
Fishing the Redcrest Champeenship this week:
> “I’ll be looking for 57 to 60-degree water near docks for bass staging to spawn. Docks with 3-5' of water should hold fish, and I’ll be looking for the deepest docks, which usually are best.”
Says the KastKing Speed Demon Elite Reel (10.5:1) will be key in making more presentations per day. He also just got sponsored by LiveTarget.
2. Greg DiPalma won a yak tourney??
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Before gettin' into that, let's look at some of the ways he ain't right. #1, he's from south Jersey. #2, name one NJ pro bass fisherman who's normal, not including Adrian Avena...😁 #3, he says there's lots of big bass in NJ which is crazy talk, and now #4 he sits in a kayak all day for multiple days – and wins a tourney! By inches!
HAHAHA! Okay it was a Bassmaster Yak Derb at Guntersville:
> “I just like bass fishing. I burn to fish tournaments and this is why I do it. I’m super excited. We all want to win, but I wasn’t expecting to just come out here and win the very first one.
> ...he won using a bait he designed...the new Nomad Swimtrex Max lipless crankbait, which has been in the making for 2 years. "It is like you are reeling a ChatterBait. It is a very hard-thumping lipless crankbait.
> "...when it was lipless season in south Jersey, I always struggled to catch fish on it. It was a bait I could never catch them on. Now if it is a lipless tournament, I always feel like I have a chance to win.”
> Focusing on pre-spawners, DiPalma fished 4 little ditches where bass were staging that led into a spawning flat. Those ditches had a mixture of hydrilla, coontail and milfoil on the edges.
#5 he said this:
> “I’m going to take my kayak back home and rub it against my bass boat for good luck.”
Greg ain't right! 🤣
3. Lee Livesay and pard won at Lake Ray Roberts.
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Sounds a little light for Rayburn? 😁 Congrats to Aaron Freeman and Hayden Heck, their kicker was 9.32. 2nd had 28 lbs and a 13-04 kicker.
7. Gitcha a Vexus deal!
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8. Bill Lewis is going into the Bassin' Hall of Fame this year.
Well-deserved – 'Traps have caught a TON of fish! Congrats to the family. We lost Bill back in 2005.
9. MLF lands Bass Pro Shops for another 5 years and...
...not sure what exactly this means but:
> White River Marine Group brands Nitro, Ranger and Triton will become the exclusive boat brands for the Bass Pro Tour, General Tire Heavy Hitters and the General Tire Team Series.
10. Troy U signs 3 to bassin' team.
11. Ford might re-start making 'lectric F150s this month.
> Ford couldn't make enough trucks to match the already wild demand, and production had to be shut down for a month due to supply issues with the battery and safety concerns.
Just bear in mind: Ford filed for a patent on technology that could remotely shut down your radio or air conditioning, lock you out of your vehicle, or prompt it to ceaselessly beep if you miss car payments – and the car could even drive away on its own
Ooooookay?
PSA
Gitcha Sea Foam Top 5 of the Week video!
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Bryan Thrift dock-skipping tidbits.
From WesternBass.com:
Rod – “The 6’ 9” length is perfect. The whole key with skipping a bait is to generate bait speed when you make a skip. It’s also much easier to be accurate with a shorter rod. I like a softer tip to load up when you begin to make a skip,” he said. “It will make the bait go much further.”
Reel – “A good rule of thumb is to adjust your reel so when you drop your bait over the side of the boat, it falls and hits the water and doesn’t backlash."
Line – He likes 20-lb P-Line fluoro for skipping jigs.
Boat positioning – Getting the right angle is crucial.... “I like to keep my boat way back, around 30' back. This allows you to really load up and make a long skip and also keeps you from the fish. Stealth is key with skipping."
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"I’d hate to kick off the season on a lake with bad weather and small fish."
- Word! But...that's how we do it here in NJ. 😭 That's Greg Hackney talkin' fishin' in FL on Bassmaster.com – inbetween talkin' bigfoot AND other cryptids...👀
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Anyone know this guy?? One of the funniest peeps on the planet in my 2c – he posted: "A cigar and a HOG. Man GOD is good...catchnrelease." Amen to that! Someone get that man a baitcaster! 😁
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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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