Happy New Year bass-heads! Hope your Christmas was Merry and that you’ll be like reelin’ a swimbait tonight: low and slow (this means you Zaldain). Wishin’ y’all a bass-filled 2016!
As a diehard bassin’ nut, the Vikes’ B-Rob (aka 9-6, Brian Robison) has done more ‘n a few bassin’ sack dances. But his latest — against what appeared to be the Giants’ scout team [eyeroll] — might have been his best yet, cuz it included lippin’ a largie. Check it:
Yo Bri, not sure what’s more intimidatin’, if that visor you’re wearin’ or the Cylon eye:
Btw Brian was one of those athletic stud -slash- genius types that probly got all the girls too, so let’s all resent the heck outta him. If you go to ICAST, gimme the high sign, then you hit him high and I’ll look like I’ll tackle him low but then I’ll run like I trespassed on a Cajun duck blind.
Check these, from a fascinating article about a guy who tracked basses in TX:
> “Once a fish reaches 7 lbs it moves from being a ‘flusher’ to an ‘ambusher.’ Smaller fish will chase prey and as flushers they usually feed in groups. Bigger bass do not feed this way, they simply ambush prey. They’re usually loners, but will sometimes group up in resting areas.”
> He told me when those big fish get into their feeding mode they never stop moving. He clarified that they will move from stump to stump, grass clump to grass clump, looking for a place to set up for a short time. Whether they are either successful, or not, they move on to their next ambush point.
> In “ambush mode” they don’t just sit in one place for an hour waiting for food to come to them — they hunt.
> …his belief that big bass adhere to “trails”. His analogy: “If you follow a deer on a day to day basis, you’ll quickly discover they have an area they bed in, and an area they feed in. Every day (or night) they get up from their bedding area and follow a game trail to their feeding area. They will wander around in their feeding area in the search for food, but the routes to and from are set and they stick to them.”
> …most trophy bass live in 8-12 feet of water, no matter the depth available to them. He found this to be true…all over Texas’s shallow lakes as well as in Missouri and in Amistad, both of which can have hundreds of feet of water 50 yards off the bank.
Article is definitely worth a full read. I gotta find a copy of that book!
Could that be a new largie name? Yep, if Mikey has a say-so:
Why stop there — how ’bout Chunk Donkey, Chunk Thunder, Ledge (Pad, etc.) Ogre, etc? Anybody got one?? Let me know on Facebook.
Awesome:
God bless Eugene and his family.
News
This Sunday Jan 3 at 7:00 pm EST, livestreaming at MikeIaconelli.com.
2. FLWer Redington boat for sale.
171 folks.
4. New Jamey Caldwell-designed rods.
> Custom rod builder JB Custom Rods announces the production of the “JC ProAngler Series” for 2016, built to the specifications of Under Armour and Strike King pro Jamey Caldwell. The former Army Special Operations member has long known the importance of equipment in performing his craft, and he now has the chance to refine the rod line he has come to trust in his quest to qualify for the Bassmaster Elite Series.
Called “Breaking Bass.” Ben shows folks how to get the most out of their Lowrance units for structure fishing. Haven’t seen it yet, could be awesome.
6. TX: Last year’s harvest on Rayburn.
> Black Bass – 27,850 (Non-tournament) / 37,850 (Tournament / live fish release)
7. TX: Austin gets $20K habitat grant.
Hope they have about 20 bowfishing tourneys with that $ — grass carp.
8. TN: Man rescues blind dog on Percy Priest.
Even a blind dog finds a fisherman…. “Blind dog” sounds like a good bait name.
9. MO: New Ozarks winter derbies.
10. CA: CTT ramping up digital/print coverage.
11. MN changes a few bass regs.
12. PA: Union City lake good for bassin’.
13. Check out Rapala Custom HD finishes.
See the HD DTs here on TackleWarehouse.com.
14. Learn more about Winn Grips.
Less hand fatigue? Anyone try ’em?
15. Meet the Stanford Missing Link Jig.
> …patent-pending spinner-jig design…the flexible wire arm does double duty as an effective weedguard too.
Tip of the Day
Stuff we don’t normally think about:
> …who would think a smaller ring size would actually allow fishing line to move more efficiently through the guides? You’d think a larger opening would allow faster flow and longer casts, but that’s just not the case.
> …when it comes to braid or fluorocarbon…I’m convinced the micro guide layouts are the best way to fully realize the performance boosts that these lines bring to the .
> The moment you make a cast, line leaves the spool at incredible speed. What may look fairly smooth and normal to the eye is actually a chaotic mess when viewed in slow motion. Line is bouncing around inside the guides, slapping the rod blank, overrunning the guide frames, loops form…it’s amazing a cast is ever made successfully. Components that are properly designed to control and smooth line flow offer a huge boosts in overall performance of a rod.
> The goal is for the first guide to accept the line coming from the spool, then “choke” the coils as quickly as possible into a smooth flow. The real magic is in figuring out how much, how fast, and where on the blank to achieve it. In every case, however, micro guides do the job better than anything else.
> A guy who fishes mostly on the weekends can’t possibly develop the muscle memory to make as many casts in a day as, a tournament angler. But if you offer him a lightweight graphite rod properly fitted with the right components, he’ll make a lot more casts and possibly fish longer because he won’t get tired.
Quote of the Day
I still wonder what my life would be like if I would have pursued snowboarding over fishing.
– Brandon Palaniuk talkin‘. Pretty sure I know the answer to that:
1. You would’ve been much colder.
2. You never would’ve fished a Classic.
3. Kevin VanDam never would’ve said hi to you.
4. Gary Klein never would’ve beat you up [possibly not true].
5. Trip Weldon would never have smiled at you — oh wait, Trip don’t smile at no one.
6. You would never have been famous in Vietnam:
7. Your Facebook following would’ve been much bigger (lol).
8. You would’ve spent a heck of a lot less money.
Could keep going but you get the picture mang!
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Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. His BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 or #3 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass. Also available as an app:
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