First, all you prayer warriors please send some up for former Bassmaster Tour competitor Mike Terry. He is having some health challenges. Thank you.
Gotta shout out a couple things. First, I'm at a Minn Kota top secret deal and all I can say right now is what they have coming is pretty dang cool. Also, we're in IA and I think IA bass have never seen a jig before? 😁
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Thankfully a bass-head named Rick FISHback (no kidding) came all the way from MO to also make 'em eat a jig, found 'em, and it was on. The deep jig bite is one of the best thumps in bassin' man woohoo!
Also shoutin' out the new 2.5" Yamamoto Yamatanuki:
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Don't have any yet BUT I do have the regular 3.5" size, got to mess with a little bit and I really feel like "heavy soft-plastics" are a thing – meaning a thing that works and bass haven't seen before. I haven't quite figured 'em out yet, but more on them soon – and I can't wait for the 2.5 because I want to use a smaller hook with 'em.
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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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How Adrian Avena got his first tour-level win at Cayuga
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Cayuga was a smash-fest, just like everyone on the Bass Pro Tour knew it would be. Guys were catching 40+ lbs in 2 days and not advancing. So how did Adrian catch more than everyone else to win it – in just his third time fishing the lake? Here we go!
Going in and practice
> "I was 100% committed to the smallmouth spawning deal. I spent $3,000 on a new trolling motor and got 2 more 36v trolling motor batteries literally for this event...
> "The only issue was that in practice we had terrible conditions. We had smoke, low light, wind – literally everything was against us. But when it comes down to it, it played into my favor.
> "Historically, good sight-fishermen actually hunt them down during the tournament. Some of the best in the world, like Drew Benton who's a good buddy of mine – all the big bags he catches sight fishing he literally finds the day of the tournament. ...that's what I did...with the conditions throughout the week I started to find more and more.
> "Coming into the event I thought that mid-lake was gonna be the area it was gonna go down at, but then what I realized was we had all this north wind so it was actually colder [water temp]. The south end the first day of practice was the warmest area of the lake, which is not normal for Caygua. Once I realized that, I devoted more time to the south end.
> "As the wind shifted, the water started to warm mid-lake and I ended up winning it there. I caught my weight earlier in the tournament down in the south end.
> "I caught 2 bass in practice – one the 1st day that was 2.75, and one the 2nd day that was 4.25. Literally those were the only 2 bass I laid my hands on the entire 2 days of practice. Outside of that I was just marking them. I had like 70 or 80 bass marked that I had to go revisit."
Tournament
> "The first 2 days of competition were all about me figuring out which ones were the 5+ lbers because those were the ones I really needed in this tournament.
> "Once I figured out what a 5 looked like vs what a 3 looked like, then I tried to expand on areas where I was finding the big ones. It seemed like the big ones were grouped up by size.
> "In practice nobody was down [south] doing it...then group A smashes them down there, then the whole field goes down there. ...what I realized quickly was the bass they were finding were the ones on the bank that were easy to find. Once I realized that, I devoted all my time to flogging offshore. That's what led me to winning the tournament. I was finding 6-lbers and the guys fishing the bank were catching 4-5 lbers.
> "The technique is no different than largemouth fishing. Every bass has a particular spot that it really wants to defend. Once I found that spot I needed to focus on, I'd get that bait in there....
> "...some bass you had to back way off and cast up to the area to where they were spawning.... Those big ones get educated so you gotta get way back."
He was fishing in 8-12':
> "Through the flogger you see everything. You watch them swallow the bait. When you're casting to light spots...you don't even see your bait.
> "You have 2 different types of bass. You have bass that will bite the bait to move it off the bed. Those bass are hooked in the mouth every single time. Then there's the bass that bite it and blow it...those are the ones you will snag [unintentionally]."
Baits
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> 4" Berkley Gulp! Minnow (chartreuse and chart shad) – "The chartreuse color was definitely the best color that particular week. A lot of times when that water gets a little dirty, the chartreuse allows you to be able to see it really well down there. And smallmouths absolutely can't resist chartreuse.
> "One of the main predators they need to fend off a bed is a perch, and of course perch have a lot of chartreuse, a lot of yellow....
> "I was fishing that on a 1/4-oz Ned head, a Berkley Half Head [jighead], and another one on a a dropshot with a really short leader, keeping it close to the bottom as if it was a perch.
> Why not MaxScent: "It actually doesn't have that lime green, fluorescent green color. In MaxScent a lot of colors are dull. I wanted something really, really bright you could see really deep."
> 7' M Abu Garcia Fantasista Spin Rod, 30-size Abu Garcia Revo RKT [Rocket] Spin Reel, 10-lb Berkley X5 Braid (flame green) to 10-lb Berkley Trilene 100% Fluoro.
> Dropshot: 1/0 straight shank hook 4" off the bottom, and 3/8-oz tungsten weight.
> More on the Revo RKT – "No doubt you can tell a difference [vs a regular retrieve spin reel]. A lot of times [flogging] you are either on your knees or on your stomach, in really awkward positions whenever you're fishing. You have to set the hook and stand up – a lot of times you have to reel quick, and that reel with the fast gear ratio lets you be able to stay tight with the fish.
> "It's a really good reel [for] when you're making specific casts – spawn-fishing or panning around...[when you're] worried about where that next cast is going to go."
Electronics
> "One of the main things for me was I installed a brand new trolling motor [Lowrance Ghost] before the event. I was running a 45" or 47" shaft all season, and for this event I put in a 52" shaft. Other guys had done it in the past – it allowed me to keep my trolling motor in the water longer...the motor is not blowing out when you are spot-locked on a fish.
> "Other than that, my trails. Since we were covering so much water on the trolling motor, a lot of times I would start forgetting what I hit and what I didn't hit. I labeled every day a different color so I knew where I was Friday vs Wedesday...what stuff I hit so I was being efficient."
Forward-facing sonar didn't play at all.
Shout-outs
> "Miller Tech batteries definitely were a big key for me. I got a couple extra trolling motor batteries too because I knew what I was gonna end up doing. Plus summertime practice days being 16-17 hours long."
> "Redfin Polarized [blue mirror Big Ships] – I was wearing their sunglasses. Finding those spawners, they were a big asset."
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5 Qs with "Yo Adrian did it!"
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Hahaha still a great movie! Here's 5 with the new champ:
1. How do you get good with a flogger?
> "The #1 thing is if you're overweight I suggest you go the gym – and if your pecs are little small you should probably do pushups. It's a lot of getting up and getting down.
> "No, but really understanding what the bottom is like is key. Spawning smallmouth really like pea gravel and sand, and of course if you have boulders mixed in. Once you kinda get those ingredients together it's really covering water.
> "...what you're looking for in the water is almost like turquoise spots. It almost has an aqua blue color to it when you're looking above the water. You see light spots, dark spots, but if you see something glowing a little bit, that typically is a spawning bass.
> "That's when you get down with a flogger. ...that's when you try to figure out the mood and tempo of the fish [and size]."
2. How can you tell at that depth if a fish is 5.5 lbs vs 4.5 or 5?
> "I had kind of a joke with Jacob – whenever you look through that flogger and you see the silhouette of the bass and you see a bubble....
> "...looking through, you have the silhouette of its back. A lot of these bass have an 18" frame, and a lot depends on how deep they are – some are 8" deep body-wise and some are 6" deep, and that's the difference between a 4.5- and 5.5-lber. But if you looked down there and saw a bubble, you'd see it's stomach...like hips...if you saw hips on that bass you knew it was a 5.5-lber."
3. Do you always try to make fights with smallmouths on 6-lb line take a least 5 minutes? 😁
> "It's funny – I started the tournament fishing 6-lb line, but as the tournament progressed I realized I really didn't need to do that. So by the Knockout Round day, I had 10-lb on everything.
> "Even though you have 10-lb line, people have to realize you're using light-wire hooks. So you can't go putting all that pressure on that fish or you'll just open the hooks up. You still had to play them out."
4. Is this is another "new baby" win?
> "You know it always used to bother me when Marty [Stone] used to say it.... I was like, 'Marty I had a baby 15 months ago and I haven't won a tournament yet.' Maybe I had to get on that new baby pattern...."
5. Isn't it true you saltwater fish because there's not enough bass in NJ to fish for 'em every day?
> "That's a fact. I'd get so frustrated I'd probably quit."
Just in case you thought I was kidding about Jersey bassin'!
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2nd: Spencer Shuffield
> Z-Man TRD (gp goby), 1/8-oz Woo Tungsten Ned Head.
> Dropshot: Strike King Baby Z Too (siren), 1/0 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Worm Hook.
> Both: 15-lb Yo-Zuri SuperBraid to 8-lb Yo-Zuri T7 Fluoro.
> "Fish were all on beds around rocks where the bottom had some shell, 3-6' deep."
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3rd: Dakota Ebare
> Dropshot: Strike King Dream Shot (KVD magic), 1/4-oz weight, 15-lb Strike King Contra Braid to 12-lb Contra Fluoro, Lew's Custom Lite Reel, 7' Lew's Elite Rod.
> Strike King Rage Bug, 4/0 Owner Jungle Flippin' Hook, 3/4-oz tungsten weight, 20-lb Contra Fluoro, Lew's Pro SP Reel, Lew's Magnum Grass Custom Lite Rod.
> "Used the spinning setup for bedding smallmouth and the flipping setup for largemouth in grass staging to spawn."
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4th: Jacob Wheeler
> "My main bait was a [new Rapala] Freeloader. The smallmouth committed to that bait better than any other one I had in the boat. ...chartreuse was definitely a major deal.
> "Caught them on a dropshot with a short leader. 2/0 VMC Finesse Neko Hook and threaded the Freeloader on it. 1/4-3/8 oz VMC Drop Shot Weight depending on depth and wind."
> 7' M Duckett Jacob Wheeler Spin Rod, Shimano Vanford 2500.
> "Focused on finding fish a little deeper, 5-8'."
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Jacob Wheeler let out a little more on the new Rapala soft-plastics
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Interesting stuff from an MLF post:
> One of the goals I had in mind was to design single soft plastics that can serve 2 purposes, in an effort to shed some of the large volumes of plastics we carry around.... Sometimes it seems we’re basically carrying doubles of the same thing, and with some modification we could make it one lure that served dual purposes.
> The soft plastic bait I used at Guntersville – officially named the Freeloader – was designed to serve dual roles: one as a vibrating jig or spinnerbait trailer, and the other as a Damiki-style bait on a jighead...to cast to suspended fish.
> While some have already claimed that it’s just another Damiki rig or that I copied it from another company, I can assure you neither one of those is the case. When people finally get to see one up close at ICAST, they’ll realize it’s an original design – there’s nothing out there like it.
More on the Freeloader win
> Several weeks ago, the final rendition of the Freeloader was sent to me to try. Since bass were already post-spawn at my home lake of Chickamauga, I rigged one onto a VMC Hard Ball Jighead...and headed to the lake.
> My first stop was on...a popular ledge that receives a lot of pressure. I began rolling through some of my usual ledge lures – a big spoon, a hair jig, a jerkbait, etc. After about 25 minutes without a bite, I pulled the Freeloader out, made a cast, let it fall toward the fish and began shaking it over them. Within seconds, a 2.5-lber shot up out of the school and crushed it. On the very next cast, the same exact thing happened....
> The next day, which was the day before I left for Guntersville, I decided to give the Freeloader the ultimate test. ...I headed to the biggest community hole on Chickamauga. Again, I fished around for about 30 minutes, trying the normal ledge stuff....
> I couldn’t take it anymore, so I pulled the Freeloader out and let her rip. The first cast produced a 6.5-lber, the next cast was 4.5-lber – then I knew in my gut I had something special.
> I couldn’t sleep the next couple of nights before the Bass Pro Tour on Guntersville.... I just knew that Freeloader had an action that those Guntersville bass had never seen.
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Sea Foam Top 5 of the Week, Ep 53!
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Brock Mosley power-shotted Senkos to win the Sabine Elite, a spinnerbait played again – are spinnerbaits back? – why the best bait color might be "baby bass," wacky-rigging with a dropshot hook, and the winner of the BLF All-American in this one!
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1. New size and colors of Gussy's Classic-winning bait.
3.5" size Z-Man Jerk ShadZ. Gussy had one rigged up en el Clasico but didn't catch 'em on it – he used the 4". Along with that all 3 sizes of Jerk ShadZ will have 2 new colors: "Gussy’s glimmer blue" (^) which is patterned after Gussy's UFO encounter in the woods 😱, and "electric shad." Gussy:
> “For smallmouths, largemouths and spotted bass almost everywhere I’ve fished, this is a superlative color. The Jerk ShadZ's ElaZtech composition really puts the shine on this pattern. It’s just one of those fish-catchers that give me confidence. In slightly stained or tannic-colored waters...'glimmer glue puts out a nice underwater glow that gets eaten consistently."
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> Electric shad "is a color that’s proven itself in many top swimbaits. It’s a great, natural addition to the family...."
TW has the 4" and 5", don't see the 3.5" yet....
2. Here's your top 10 in the MLF AOY points.
After Cayuga. Ott finished 23rd there:
1. Ott DeFoe -- 360
2. Dakota Ebare -- 332
3. Matt Becker -- 316.5
4. Alton Jones Jr -- 311.5
5. Edwin Evers -- 310
6. Jacob Wheeler -- 305.5
7. Chris Lane -- 297.5
8. Brent Ehrler -- 297.5
9. Takahiro Omori -- 297.5
10. Adrian Avena -- 289.5
3. GA: Emil Wagner is your BFL All-American winner.
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Got 'er done with 55-11 on Hartwell, where it was all about the herring doing upside-down herring things (or rightside-up if you understand it). His main deal was focusing on drops where most guys were fishing brushpiles:
> Wagner’s pre-practice work was spent graphing much of the lower lake... "...the fish seemed to be on the drops. The places where the water was 6-10' deep and dropped to around 20', they were sitting right on the drop. I don’t know if it was a late herring spawn or what it was, but the fish just wanted to be there.”
> He fished a Zoom Super Fluke, a 6th Sense Catwalk topwater in royal chrome, and a custom-painted Sebile Magic Swimmer. “I got way less bites on the Swimmer, but they were all good ones."
4. GA: 2 big late-day catches get the HS championship win.
> Lanier High School students Bryson Dover and Angel Cornejo have won the 2023 GHSA Bass Fishing State Championship. The competition was held...at Clarks Hill Lake...where with 30 minutes remaining in the competition Dover caught a 5-lb largemouth bass. That catch was followed 10 minutes later with Cornejo securing a 6.88-lb largemouth.
Whoa! 💪
5. MO: Bassin' Hall of Fame gives more bassin' grants for bassin'.
6 bass-specific projects "that will enhance habitat in lakes in GA, KS, KY, TN and VA, along with supporting a smallmouth bass tracking study at Lake St Clair, MI."
Lakes that will be improved are Clarks Hill, GA/SC, Wilson Rez, KS, Lake Barkley, KY, Normandy and Center Hill in TN, and Lake Gaston, VA/NC. More on the St Clair thing:
> The data collected will allow MI DNR fishery managers to address questions related to the dispersal and movement of bass after being released following tournaments, along with evaluating the survival of fish post-release.
6. NY: 62 degrees is the smallie spawn water temp.
Says bass-head Thomas Russel who caught that state record 8-lb 5.8-oz smallie last year.
7. NJ bill advances to keep public lakes publicly accessible.
If that sounds duh/crazy, it is. Welcome to NJ! Glad to hear it tho....
8. Angie Thompson buys FTR and The Fishing Wire.
Angie worked closely with Jerry McKinnis for a long time. FTR = Fishing Tackle Retailer magazine, which is helmed by former B.A.S.S.er Ken Duke.
Updatin'
MD: More on the Potomac commercial fishing issue
From bassin' guide Steve Chaconas, who apparently has been trying to get something done about this for 12+ years – insight much appreciated:
> Commercial harvest of blue cats and carp on the Potomac River is big business. A harvest technique, haul seining, involves a 1,000' net, 10' tall, staked to the shoreline and then dragged into a circle toward where it’s staked.... All Potomac species including largemouth bass are trapped in a mass of fish and river grasses. Fish are plucked...largemouth are released.
> However, many of the bycatch don’t survive release. Fishing behind the commercial watermen is often a killing field with masses of ripped up grasses.
> Anglers complain on social media, blaming MD DNR and VA DWR, but it’s the Potomac River Fishing Commission (PRFC) and the Virginia Marine Resource Commission (VMRC) that regulate these activities. ...there’s not a lot of enforcing going on. Mainly nets are measured to comply with regulations.
> The commercial harvest of millions of pounds annually of blue cats is good for the fishery. But at what cost?
> Commercial haul seine nets are being dragged in spawning areas and in water less than 5' deep. The 10’ tall nets easily drag along the bottom and remove valuable SAVs [veggies] and there’s no enforcement of SAV destruction. Despite this, the Potomac largemouth population is strong.
Be interesting to see the economic impact of fishing and tournaments vs commercial on that fishery.
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The line MDJ and G-Spo use for frowgin'
Interesting they both prefer Seaguar TactX braid, which is not the highest-end braid Seaguar makes but is "a 4-strand braided line with a rough textured finish to help cut through the grass:"
> Gerald Spohrer:" I use it when throwing a frog around pads because it slices right through them when you make a strong hookset. Smackdown does cast a little bit better...but it doesn't cut through grass as easily as TactX does."
> MDJ...starts with 50 lb TactX instead of the 65-lb that some prefer. "Your castability is going to be much better because of the smaller diameter. [And] I know if I hook one and it buries me in the grass, it's not going anywhere and I can get him out."
TactX is $16.99 - $22.98 a spool on TW.
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"If you’re going to flip a jig, you must keep a jig in your hand all day when you’re looking for big ones."
- "Beeg Feesh" Bobby Lane speakin' truth mang! Of course he doesn't really mean keeping it in your hand...😁
Reminds me: Anyone make a baby bass-colored jig with not too heavy a hook?
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Really cool Sabine shot by B.A.S.S. photo man Seigo Saito:
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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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