Merry Christmas from the Kumars to you and your families:
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Just like every year I'm the good-lookin' one to the left. 🤣 I don't look that outta shape in real life I swear...😁 One day I gotta actually care about how I look in these deals I guess!
Really hope you have a great, peaceful, joyful Christmas. Grateful to you for reading and watching the Blaster stuff, thank you.
Thank you to the BB sponsors for supporting this whole deal, and to the whole bassin' biz for being amazing.
Thank you to all the pros who do and sacrifice so much, and drive this whole crazy biz.
And most important – thank you Jesus. You are awesome, Lord, thank you.
Puttin' out some cool stuff this week that never made other Blasters, hope you dig it. Also, the last Sea Foam Top 5 of the Week in Bass Fishing for this year will be posted today or tomorrow – check 'em all here on YT.
This is the last Blaster (officially) of the year as I take my 2 week break to chill, reflect and get jonesin' for bassin' again. I will send out 1-2 housekeeping deals though.
Let's git to it!
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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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One way Jay Przekurat improves his graphs' performance
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Good info from here:
> "Basically, what I've come up with is running a separate microSD card for each lake. I carry a small card holder, and file each lake during the season on a separate microSD card into the individual slots in the card holder.
> "For example, last year Lake Okeechobee was the first tournament of the year. When I was done fishing Okeechobee, I inserted a blank microSD card into my unit, and exported everything I did...that week to the microSD card, then deleted the info off my Garmin unit, and later backed up the info to my computer."
> ...one benefit of clearing his Garmin units...is the graphs run a lot faster, beside appearing "cleaner when you don't have a lot of data storage on them."
> "When we go back to a lake I've fished, I simply pop in the microSD card and all of my former waypoints, tracks, and routes are right there. And the only information that shows up on my graph is for that specific body of water – no extra data decreasing processing speed or cluttering up my screen."
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Check how David Fritts won the Clarks Hill FLW Series
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Back in 2008 – from the MLF site:
> "The fish were suspended on isolated pieces of standing timber [upper end of the lake]." ...specifically isolated pieces of pole timber that were completely submerged.
> His key baits were...the whole family of Rapala DT crankbaits including the DT-10, DT-14, DT-16 and the new DT-20.
> ...for trees that were too deep to hit with a diving plug, Fritts relied on Rapala's Clackin' Rap, a big lipless knocker reminiscent of the old Cordell 1-oz Spot.
> "My best spot was the top of a tree that was actually too deep to hit with the DT-20, so I used that Clackin' Rap as a drop bait – casting it out there, letting it fall some 30' to the bottom and hopping it up off the bottom on that one tree.
> "I had to make the exact cast or I'd never get bit. I was basically trying to hit a 2' x 2' area of water located at the tops of each of the trees. Some were 10' down, some 15, some 20 and a couple as deep as 30'. Several times it took me over 2 hours to find the exact right cast, but once I dialed it in I could catch one fish after another."
2 hours?? That's incredible focus wow!
His reel were signature Bass Pro Shops reel that cranked at 4.7:1! 🤯
Man there's sooooo much bassin' knowledge out there from the past, and not in YT vids!
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Ever boil your soft-plastics in salt water?
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From a LureNews post – Google translate from Japanese:
> ...in the winter I take the time to simmer these...in a salt pot, pickle them in powder...so that they...have a strong odor.
The powder seems to be something like Taku Ito's bait powder stuff:
> After being simmered they become sticky, so soaking them in Moebi powder...to retain as much flavor and smell as possible....
Also, boiling it makes it way more flexible:
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The post says big baits are key for big fish in winter, and the #1 rig this time of year is the Free Rig – here's a vid I did with Shink Fukae on that rig. More:
> The most important thing here is whether you can remove the presence of the line from the bass' consciousness, even for a moment, by cutting off the line tension and signs.
> This requires a great deal of concentration, such as dropping the rod...as soon as [the rig] lands on the water, or letting out the line quickly enough, and unless you do it consciously and consistently, it won't lead to results.
In other words, slack is key!
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So Ike wasn't the first Classic winner to yell when he caught the winning fish? 👀
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Caption:
> Bo Dowden screams after boating his 6-06 largemouth caught on the last day of the 1980 BASS Masters Classic. February 1981 Bassmaster Magazine.
He might not have been the first to yell either, who knows. Anyhow, the 1908 Classic was outta Alexandria Bay on the St Lawrence River. Bo fished a jig. Couple more deals from it:
> Guido Hibdon hooked what he said was a 5' muskie that took 30 minutes of his precious time.
> Larry Nixon reported that pike and pickerel had broke him off so many times he was almost out of 1/4-oz worm weights.
Larry would fish a worm anywhere man! 😆 And do great too!
In case you're not realizin' it, that Classic was WAY before the zebra mussel/goby/giant smallmouth era up north.
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🤣 Reminds me of my favorite cook book cover:
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1. 2024 will be 50 years of Rick Clunn.
> In 2024, Clunn will compete in his 500th Bassmaster tournament during his 50th year as a pro angler.
To honor these milestones, Rick will only be fishing crankbaits and spinnerbaits all year.
Just kiddin' 😁 but it would be cool!
2. Skeet Reese recovering from knee surgery.
Sounds like he was racing Alton Jones and they both went down...or maybe Alton Jr tripped 'em? 😁 Heal fast man!
3. Jacob Wheeler fishing the Bronco Bug on rocks (IG vid).
Little feeshn lesson about fishing around basically a current break that accumulates rock around it. Love that Bronco Bug. He's fishing it on 4/0 VMC HD Flippin Hook, 3/8-oz VMC Tungsten Weight and 17-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro.
4. Randall Tharp has a new Ark signature jig.
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He says it has the perfect jig hook and then explained it when someone asked him about his prior Greenfish Tackle jig:
> The Greenfish jig is a great jig with a quality black nickel Gamakatsu hook. My hook has an O'shaughnessy bend with a 30-degree line tie. This is much different than the round bend Gamakatsu.
> My hook is also a raw teflon-coated hook making it better-penetrating and sharper than any black nickel hook. Black nickel coating is a 20-year-old multiple-step process that was intended to keep a hook from rusting. Most good hooks, including the Gamakatsu, are chemically sharpened. A chemically sharpened hook is the sharpest in its raw form. Each coating of black nickel then makes the hook not as sharp.
> ...several Japanese companies pushing the envelope right now using new wire that is thinner and stronger than anything we have seen before. I am thankful to be working with one of the best. We have much more in the works.
Don't see it on TW yet....
5. Luke Clausen likes crankin' with 12-lb fluoro (FB vid).
Glad it's not 10! I can't do 10! 😁 He likes the top of the line Seaguar Tatsu. If he's around stumps or whatever, he'll up his lines size or change to Seaguar AbrazX fluoro.
6. Couple tourneys on CBS Sports this Saturday.
The 2023 Abu Garcia College National Championship at Toho and the 2023 BFL All-American at Hartwell, Dec 23, 9-11 am EST.
7. CA: Tackle Warehouse is sponsoring all BAM trails.
8. Sneak ya a peek of the new Vexus VXs20 (FB vid).
Keith Daffron does a quick walk-thru ^ – some cool new features. Looks like it's on the website as well:
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Call me nutz but I think jigs are just as pretty as crankbaits and swimbaits. Here's the Pro Footballs on TW.
16. Diggin' this color combo.
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Honestly I like some of the colors a little too much, like "burnt orange craw" and "prism chart perch"!
19. Reminder on the KastKing Deadbolt Reel.
For close-quarters combat – NO DRAG!
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Word is Cliff Crochet uses it for crankin' too...😁
20. Not sure why I dig this pic....
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Maybe because that Lunkerhunt Compact Frog is lookin' at the camera? Anyhow, good bait!
21. Here's you a Polish bass boat.
Bass tubs are made in Poland? Who knew?
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22. NC: $1.4 BIL economic impact for TROUT fishing?
In NC's mountain streams. Gotta imagine the bass fishing #s must be insane then!
23. Keep an eye on...
Is A Global Gunpowder Shortage Coming In 2024?
Sounds like most gunpowder is NOT made in the US? Sounds crazy to me, but I will ask Ryan Chuckel.
Headline of the Day
Australia's waters are laden with dangerous animals, but minimising the risk of a shark bite can be done
Okay? In that post, a dude goes swimming in Australia, in dirty water with lots of bait around – that's the trifecta right there man dang.
Doh!
The 2 TX hammers quoted in the last Blaster are NOT tourney partners. My bad. Todd Castledine won every AOY in TX this year. 💪
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'Lectronics rigging tips from Keith Combs
From Bassmaster.com talkin' 'bout why he likes to rig his boat himself:
> Those hefty electronics use up a lot of power, so I've dedicated a Lithium Pro 3130 12v battery exclusively to them. I run a Sea Clear wiring harness between them. It's made to fit the boat, and it's secure and waterproof. Today's units can be extremely sensitive to low voltage, but with that combination the voltage never varies.
> By keeping my wiring neat and labeled, if a problem arises I'm able to identify it quickly. For example, I label the wires running to and from the 360 system to the ethernet boxes clearly. If I'm having a problem with my 360, I can immediately troubleshoot it at the source.
> Even if you have a great dealer or mechanic, it's worth it to find out how your boat is rigged and to clean up any potential problem spots.
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"Instead of making 1,500 casts up shallow, you're only going to make 500 to 800 because you're going to scan around a little bit more and see if the fish have pulled up...."
- Skeet "Shootin'" Reese talkin' using forward-facing sonar (he uses Lowrance ActiveTarget) in SHALLOW water.
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When you and your bud fish the same bait because they're on it – @mattbatyfishing on IG:
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'Biblical' plague of frogs, toads and tadpoles causes multi-car pile-up
In Honduras:
> The outbreak started on Dec 3 and, according to locals, continued for at least 3 days.
😳
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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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