Welcome to the BassBlaster, your daily email about all things bassin’. Take a sec to forward this Blaster to a bassin’ bud, willya?
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Today’s Top 3
1. No truth to Classic A-rig rumors.
What? A bassin’ rumor that ain’t true?! Must be a first….
Anyhow, the rumor that one-hook A-rigs would be allowed in the Classic is bull.
> “The 2013 Elite Series rules are set in stone, and there will be no change from the 2012 rule prohibiting umbrella rigs.”
Good job Bassin’Fan for asking the question.
> Perhaps most unbelievable from the annals of “outdoorsmen who cheated the system and everyone around them” is the story of a professional angler who devised a brilliant plan for cheating the major tournament trails out of thousands of dollars.
> Legend has it the man made a deal with the owner of a fish farm where female largemouth bass in the 5- to 7-pound range were plentiful. Then before every tournament, the two men would place a wooden box under select boat docks on the lake where the tournament was taking place.
> The top of the box had an X-shaped opening that allowed the devious angler to drop a single-hook lure to the fish inside without getting hung. The scheme helped the men earn more than a quarter of a million dollars before a scuba diver revealed their dirty secret.
Word is this is the guy who owned the bass farm:
3. Most pros spend countless hours checking out everything in the owner’s manual.
– Ike on how key electronics are key, and why you should also cuddle up with said manuals.
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News
1. LA looking for Atch Basin largie input.
> A recent LDWF evaluation determined that the 14†minimum size limit for bass in the Atchafalaya Basin, Lake Verret, Lake Palourde, and Fausse Pointe Lake is not effective in increasing the abundance of large size bass.
> Atchafalaya Basin anglers currently catch more bass due to the 14†minimum length limit because most bass are protected from harvest. It is important to understand that removal of the 14†minimum length limit would increase bass harvest and decrease the number of available bass for anglers to catch.
2. Canadian teachers buy Plano.
Yep, Plano, the tackle box (etc.) company, was just bought by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. May have heard that, but did you know:
> Teachers’ is making the acquisition through its private equity investment division, Teachers’ Private Capital (TPC).
> Said Jane Rowe, Senior Vice-President of TPC, “Plano’s proven management team has a record of solid organic growth and has strongly positioned the company to benefit from acquisition opportunities.”
> Plano was effectively owned by Tinicum Capital Partners II, is a private investment partnership based in New York City.
If you’re keeping track, this is yet another big fishing-industry company bought by a company that doesn’t know a bass from a mailbox. Yippee….
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Tip of the Day
Matt Herren: Fall spinnerbaiting.
> “The most critical part of fall spinnerbaiting is matching the size of the lure to the size of the shad. This can vary from lake to lake. In some reservoirs, the bass may be feeding on shad 8 or 10 inches long and you’ll need a larger spinnerbait, while on other reservoirs the baitfish may only be an inch long and you’ll need a smaller lure.”
> “Bass are so focused on shad in the fall that you won’t catch any of them if you don’t take the time to first study the size of the bait before you start casting. In fact, the baitfish are the first things I look for because I know if I do find them, bass will be around them.”
> Herren’s favorite autumn fishing technique is retrieving his spinnerbait right over the top of submerged vegetation just a foot or so below the surface. If bass are active, he’ll make long casts and retrieve as fast as he can turn the reel handle, but more often he’ll be more erratic and change speeds or drop the spinnerbait into the vegetation periodically.
> “Over the years, I’ve decided the best water temperature for fall spinnerbaiting is between 54 and 70 degrees, and as the temperature does cool, you generally have to slow your retrieve.”
> “When it is cooler, I’ll often slow-roll my spinnerbait just above the bottom, bumping logs or rocks, but almost never fishing deeper than 8 to 10 feet because the bass aren’t in deep water now.”
> The Yamaha pro uses both monofilament and fluorocarbon lines, depending on the type of cover he’s fishing. He prefers monofilament when he’s slow-rolling his spinnerbait through wood cover like stumps and logs because the line’s stretch actually improves hook-setting in such conditions. When he’s fishing vegetation, however, Herren uses fluorocarbon line because it doesn’t stretch. For either line, his preferred sizes range from 12 to 20 pounds.
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Quote of the Day
If this were the case, each co-angler would have to bring a stack of $100 bills to each tournament.
– Paul Wagner, president of the Michigan Bass Anglers Club, talking about helping out boaters in an EXCELLENT post about boater vs. co-angler perspectives. Read it!
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Shot of the Day
Sign outside the VanDam residence Mepps spinner HQ (from here).
Gotta love that!
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