Welcome to the BassBlaster, your daily email about all things bassin’. How ’bout forwardin’ the BB to a bassin’ bud?
*|FACEBOOK:LIKE|*
Today’s Top 4
1. We’re only catching 20-35% of the bass?
Stat is from Florida, but it sounds about right. No way are we catching close to 100% of the basses in a water body:
> A recent tagging study by the FWC and University of Florida revealed that 20-35% of all largemouth bass longer than 14″ were caught annually by anglers.
Other tidbits:
> This past spring, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologists tagged 136 trophy largemouth bass greater than 8 pounds. Tagged bass came from 41 lakes and rivers that varied in size, etc.
> After 6 months, 21% of tagged trophy bass have been caught and reported, and 83% of them were released alive. Anglers fishing in tournaments accounted for 22% of reports. Thirty percent of trophy fish reported were caught on live shiners.
> 28% of tagged bass heavier than 10 pounds have been caught, but just three of seven (43%) of those were released.
Here’s a 14-02 that was tagged on Toho. Yummy.
2. Gal catches possible WI record largie…
…lets it go.
> Gabriella Esperson of Whitewater [21] grew up in a family of anglers…and is a member of the UW-Whitewater fishing team.
> Esperson was fishing on a small lake near Edgerton on Tuesday with her boyfriend, Ryan Nelson. Using a wacky-rigged 6″ soft-plastic bait…in about 8 feet of water, Esperson…set the hook and felt like she was “dragging in a northern.”
> Soon, though…”my adrenaline kicked in,” Esperson said. “There was no doubt in my mind I had the biggest bass I have ever encountered on my line.”
> Esperson and Nelson had a tape measure, camera and bathroom scale [!!] on the boat. The fish was 25.75 inches long, 20.06 inches in girth and weighed 11.05 pounds.
> The Wisconsin record for largemouth bass record is 11 pounds, 3 ounces. The fish was caught in 1940 in Lake Ripley in Jefferson County.
> “I knew this was an old fish and I had to let it go, whether it was a record or not,” Esperson said. “By releasing the fish it allows it to reproduce and continually grow, and hopefully others will do the same down the road.”
Cool story, but…there’s a bathroom scale on the boat and you’re not out record-hunting?!
3. 2013 Bass Champs schedule announced.
4. Central Pro-Am gets rid of angler fees.
> Central Pro-Am Tournament Association announced today it will no longer charge a fee to its members. Anglers will be able to become members of the organization by filling out a simple registration form on line or at qualifying events.
> “Membership fees have become a way for tournament circuits to generate income without giving anything back to their anglers,†new CPAA Owner Mike Webb stated. “Central Pro-Am is moving away from magazines and the like so charging a fee didn’t seem fair to our anglers.â€
> “We plan on making huge improvements to our website…instead of printing magazines. The costs are much lower so we decided to pass those savings onto our anglers.”
*|FACEBOOK:LIKE|*
Other Stuff
1. Make sure you read don barone’s latest about the Chapmans. Great stuff.
2. Noted bassin’ writer Mark Hicks wrote this piece in which he talks about getting DQd before the recent Cayuga Open, then gets mad at a young man and B.A.S.S. TD Chris Bowes, then fishes the first day of the tourney anyway (!), and then quotes himself at the end of the piece. I like Mark and props for writing it, but dang! Heat stroke or tourney insanity?!
3. Classic qualifiers announced today.
*|FACEBOOK:LIKE|*
Tip of the Day
Fish a green sunfish color, not bluegill.
In case you missed it on BassParade:
> In the most recent study…bass were able to successfully feed on green sunfish faster than on similar sized bluegill. In fact, they could eat larger green sunfish faster than they could eat the smallest bluegill tested.
> The theory is that bass will eat whatever prey item gives them the most benefit for the least amount of energy expended. In this instance, green sunfish are more rounded and not as deep-bodied, and the thought is this might explain why a bass can eat one so much faster than it can a similar sized bluegill.
*|FACEBOOK:LIKE|*
Quote of the Day
The only way to fish a place like that is to grit your teeth, put the trolling motor down and go with the wind until you hit fish.
Shot of the Day
Not a bass, but a great shot of a tiger muskie. Yuge!
*|FACEBOOK:LIKE|*
Comment on any of these items here.
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
