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Don’t know about you, but for me Memorial Day is kind of a tough day. Not sure whether celebrating feels right…. Makes me grateful for our current military, veterans and of course our military folks who have passed on. They always remind me of this verse, John 15:13, Jesus talking:
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
And what about laying it down for people you don’t even know! Amazing. So as always, a huge THANK YOU to those folks (and their fams) who have chosen to be in a position to lay down their lives for us. Bless you.
Gonna go with Gerald Swindle’s Memorial Day repost:
>> If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!
Today’s Top 5
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The real reason the BPT’s back on Table Rock.
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I think the BPT snagged another first: back to back pro-level derbies on the same lake basically under the same conditions.
MLF said it was because of flooding on Grand — okay, but why Table Rock again? Choose from one of the following:
a) At a meeting where they were trying to decide where to move it, Johnny Morris said, “How ’bout Table Rock?” People were like, “Uh, Mr. Morris, we just had it there.” And Johnny was like, “I don’t see the problem?” So they were all like, “Great idea!”
b) Boyd Duckett wanted to make sure all the bass in Table Rock are too sore-mouthed to work the Bassmaster Classic…hahaha Boyd!
c) Andy Montgomery was sick of his buddy Ott winning stuff this year and Aaron beating him on the Rock with “wimp baits” so he went nuts…
…which scared the sardines outta everyone so they gave him a redo. Andy was like, “And stay away from my docks!” Word his he’s payin’ HS kids to put these up all over where he fished:
HAHAHA! Case you missed it, the feeshn day will now be from 8 pm til 3 am — oops not that late:
> Most significant is the change to the fishing times. For the 5 days encompassing the usual Shotgun, Elimination and Knockout Rounds, competition will be from noon to 8 pm CT. On day 6, the Championship Round, competition will be from 10 am to 6 pm CT.
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Few deets from Aaron Martens.
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Well, Aaron won Table Rock BPT #1 (#6 overall) but since they’ll be back on the same lake this week he didn’t want to say much about how he was fishing…which he doesn’t like doing anyway. Here’s what I got for now:
> In practice he spent about 16 hours just graphing.
> Swimbait, spinnerbait, dropshot last.
> “That’s a bada** hook — it really is the best heavy cover finesse hook on the market. It changed my fishing a lot because the wire is super strong. You can set the hook harder and pull away harder, and you hardly ever lose a fish when you hook them. They’re very sticky sharp too, and have a great bait holder.”
Had to ask him how he feels about fishing the same lake right away:
> “I like Table Rock. It’s a very fair lake. It’s one of a few lakes that’s extremely fair because it has all 3 species and you can win on all 3 of them. You could go 40 miles upriver and win it on largemouths. You can fish gravel points all day and win it on smallmouths.
> “Lots of places we go, there’s areas of lakes where there’s no bass…. This is not one of them. There’s literally a fish everywhere.
> “I think my chances of winning [again] are actually pretty high because I like Table Rock.”
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Some bait info from the BPT Rock #1.
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Asked the guys if they wanted to keep their info quiet til after this derby, Andy Montgomery and Mark Rose were cool with sharing now so:
2nd: Andy Montgomery
> “Skipped jig around boat docks. I was swimming it around docks. I basically got in an area and fished as many as I possibly could. Bushes as well. I flipped bushes with the Game Hawg.
> “Fish were everywhere. I’d catch mostly spots on the main river and largemouths in the pockets. But it was mainly just covering a ton of water. There’s so many fish in that place I don’t think they can get on one particular bush. There’s not enough room in the bushes for all the fish! Lol. They just swim till they find an open parking place I guess!”
Man that place sounds good! Haven’t been there in years….
4th: Mark Rose
> “Most fish I weighed on white jigs, one being a 1/2-oz white Strike King Skipping Jig with a pearl Menace trailer. 7′ MH Team Lew’s Custom Pro Rod, Lew’s Hyper Mag Reel (8.3), 20-lb Seaguar InvizX fluoro.
> “Caught a few here and there on other stuff but these did the bulk.”
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John Cox is gonna win every tourney this year on the Chick.
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Looks like it anyhow. FLWer Johnny Cox won the Chickamauga, TN FLW Tour event on May 5th. That was a 4-dayer, and he won it with 83-09. Then 3 days ago he won the Bassmaster Open there, a 3-dayer, with 66-05.
Both times he was swimming a 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs Swim Jig (white in the FLW, tactical shad in the Open) with a white Berkley MaxScent Meaty Chunk, and fishing a wacky-rigged 5″ Berkley MaxScent The General stickworm (baby bass in the FLW, gp party in the Open).
Both times he had a crazy experience:
> At the FLW: “I really don’t know why it just popped in my head, but it did — go to the trees…. Tears were coming down. It was overwhelming — I don’t know. I’ve won tournaments before, but I’ve never felt anything like it before. This one was different.”
> At the Open: “Today I didn’t see one of my key fish — a 5-lber — until the last second. He didn’t see me, for some reason. I flipped over to the fish and it ate my bait. When I got it into the boat, I realized I was on its blind side — it was missing his eye. If it had been any other direction, I wouldn’t have caught it.”
Wonder if someone’s tryin’ to get John’s attention….
Shout-out to Buddy Gross who finishes a close 2nd in the FLW and 3rd at the Open.
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Same Bethel U team won 2nd consecutive natty champeenship.
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Gotta shout out college boys Cole Floyd and Carter McNeil for a-winnin’ the BoatUS Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship for the 2nd year in a row — pretty dang stout, congrats!
Won it on Pickwick Lake, AL with 45.65 lbs — fishing deep with a purple ribbontail worm. Maybe purple worms are so old school they’re new again?
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News
1. Good Zaldaingerous post about fishing with Zona.
Good insight on fishing with Zona, who yes is a REAL good fisherman, and about being yourself on camera. BUT had a pretty disturbing photo:
Not sure I’ve ever seen a bassin’ shot with that pose? Closest one I saw was of Tommy Sanders and I went blind for 4 days after that…hahaha! kidding, thank goodness….
2. Mike Iaconelli gets Panther Vision lighted lids.
So he can light up his name on his hat so he knows who he is in the dark too…heehee! No link 🙁
3. Huge congrats to Greg Hackney for…
…upgradin’ his truck and usin’ his talents to be an Official Bigfoot Responder:
Takes SERIOUS stones, man. Now if we can just get Zona and Mercer — who I believe has seen one — there, we’ve made progress….
4. “Sweatpants Mike, Scratchy and the Weasel.”
How can you not read that post with that title? By Elitist Chris “weasel” Groh, and really dang good — talkin’ ’bout local tackle shops, which used to be your Tackle Warehouse, dock talk and vittles station all rolled up into one. One of my fave lines:
> “…plenty of regulars who didn’t work there, but they’d come in every day, drink some black coffee, disappear to the bathroom for a long time, and then leave after 3 hours without buying a thing. I’m not even sure if some of them fished.”
HAHAHA!
5. Was the Chick FLW the last pro derby for Jimmy Houston? (vid)
54 years of walkin’ the walk, love it.
6. Learn more about Irwin Jacobs.
Info from his family and biz associates on the kind of guy he was.
7. Travesty at the Sturgeon Bay, WI Open.
Yep tons of huge smallies caught as usual, but it was won by a team with a pro WALL-EYE angler?!?! Was live bait allowed or what??
Korey Sprengel is a walleye hammer but dang this was a BASS TOURNEY. Had to tell my bud Cinnabun twice before he could make sense of it, then he was all:
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now…
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Tip of the Day
> “This is true with swim-jigs for sure. I almost always use braid, whether the water is gin-clear or muddy. It is a moving bait. Bass aren’t fixated on the line.
> “The only time I will use fluorocarbon for swim-jig fishing is when the water is colder and I need to fish slower and deeper. It has to do with the action of the jig on the lighter line and not the fish reacting to the line.”
Here’s the deal with Greg and many (but not all!) pros: They don’t care about conventional wisdom. It’s like they’re gonna learn everything from the ground up and draw their own conclusions based on firsthand experience.
Huh. Sounds like so much of a head-slapper I’m wonderin’ why I don’t do the same? Oh yeah — I don’t fish enough….
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Quote of the Day
“I’m not sure big bass are smarter than small bass, but they are different.”
– Elitist Drew Benton deliverin’ up something…?
Was torn between runnin’ that quote and this one from Drew:
> “…think about the immediate past and then either repeat it or do something totally different.”
Drew’s been fishin’ with this guy a whole lot recently and I’m thinkin’ ’bout textin’ him and sayin’ maybe it ain’t the best thing:
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Shot of the Day
What can happen when an argument gets outta hand I guess? Cool @bricebosemanoutdoors shot of floaters that still look kinda fresh…possibly alive?
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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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