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Apologies for a jacked up schedule this week. I'm on a lake in GA getting a sneak peek at some stuff. All I can say right now is:
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Couple deals:
1. People in TX love their football. Like ultra LOVE their football. Which makes it real surprising to me that Jerry Jones hasn't been tarred, feathered and escorted out of the state. Strange.
2. When it comes to marriage, I'm a remarkably slow learner. Example: The Irish gal and I went out shopping for a few pieces of furniture because before we moved we gave away or sold almost all we had. I had our shopping route mapped and timed, and in the stores I was acquiring targets. My wife – she was shopping but in a different way. For the fun of it.
A successful mission for me would have been coming home with something on our needs list. My wife was just happy to go out for the day, and was okay with however it turned out. I should have known, but didn't realize it til I got my jerk on. Dang. Opposites attract...guess which one I am!
Alright now to the feesh!
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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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The jig 'n minnow just won $235K
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Okay the the jig 'n minnow rig was USED to win that $200K+ mega-pot at the Toyota Championship on Wjheeler Lake, AL – and the guy who won it was 21-yr-old former Auburn basser Hayden Marbut. Right after that the Marbut clan set a Guinness World Record for the number of folks on a weigh-in stage:
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Dang! Fire dept needs to recertify that deal! 😁 Hayden got 'er done by 5 lbs over Keith "off the grid" Poche, who took the day 2 lead by about 1 lb after boating 27 lbs. What Hayden said about how he fished:
> “I understand current...how it affects different places down the lake, and current was definitely a major factor. I was looking for the most obvious textbook stuff I could find – big channel swings, any point that stuck out into the river, anywhere a smallmouth could just pull up and feed."
> Though plenty of pros ran bluffs for smallmouth, the zone of the lake that Marbut ended up in was key in his estimation. "...I bounced around the Elk and made that my home. It had a little bit more stained water. ...one of the biggest channel swings in the lake...right above the Elk...."
> ...Marbut used a Picasso Tungsten Ball Head, mostly in the 3/16-oz size, several [4" and 5"] minnows, and a 6' 10" ML G. Loomis NRX+ Spinning Rod and a few Shimano spinning reels.
> At Guntersville [the Toyota he also won fishing bluffs] Marbut used a 12" Garmin EchoMap, but he upgraded to a Garmin 1643xsv on his new boat.... “I ran the blue color palette at Guntersville, but with the 16 I was running lava. ...I was running 30' depth and 90' out...."
Here's what the full top 10 fished, broken down:
Jig/minnow = 30% – Deps Sakamata Shad, Rapala CrushCity Freeloader (on a VMC Hybrid Swimbait Jighead, the Wheeler/Connell combo)
Topwater = 30% – Berkley Swamp Lord Frog, Livingston Walking Boss Jr, Popper
Jerkbait = 30% – Megabass Vision 110 (2), Bill Lewis Scope-Stik
Buzzbait = 20%
Jig = 20%
10% each = Big swimbait (Bucca Trick Shad), Spinnerbait
Shoutouts
1. Keith Poche fished the Berkley Swamp Lord in the exact same "Potomac" color he fished to finish 2nd in Heavy Hitters this year:
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2. Laker Howell finished 3rd – looks like he is a chip off the ol' flat top! 😁
3. Austin Swindle (4th) junk-fished. A Swindle junk-fishes to a high finish...sounds familiar!
4. What Drew Gill (6th) did:
> “I fished the main channel swings down the lake like everyone else, but I knew the fish were seeing so many minnows...so I wanted to show them something different. I started with the 3.3-inch Big Bite Baits Pro Swimmer swimbait on light heads – 1/16- and 1/8-oz. I also used the new stealth colors, which are clear with some glitter, since those fish were getting so much pressure.”
> As that bite disappeared, he switched to a 'cajun pearl' Bill Lewis Scope-Stik...and relied on it the final day. Another key was a 6" Bucca Baits Trick Shad in 'pro herring. “I would start making my way back upriver in the last hour and a half and throw that glide bait around chunk rock and laydowns."
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5. Sounds like FL's Kennie Steverson (10th) went off the grid too...?
2c: The Toyota Series might be the best deal going in competitive fishing right now.
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"These fish are like us. I mean, we’re moody. We have feelings."
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- Keith Poche talkin' after weighing those 27 lbs to lead the Toyota Championship after day 2. Please remember that next time you're talking to this emotional and sensitive man...😆
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A spinnerbait won the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship
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Actually an Okie won it 😁 and Okie folks fo sho know spinnerbaits! Yuge congrats to Blake Capps for taking home one of the toughest trophies to win in bass fishing.
Went down on Grand Lake, about 100 miles from his domicile. Here's what he did – combo of what B.A.S.S. said and what he told me:
> With temperatures warmer than usual...he figured bigger bass would be feeding in shallow water. “I don’t know if anyone covered as much water as I did this week. I ran constantly, and it was all for 5, 6, 7 bites a day. It was work, but it paid off.
> "Every fish I weighed in came from 6' of water or less. It was actually the perfect storm on Grand Lake. It rained almost 9 inches in 2 days and the lake came up over a foot, making the water dirtier.
> “I was catching them behind boat docks or by shallow logs. If you could find floating wood, that was a big deal. But the key really was getting the spinnerbait behind the boat docks.
> "Both spinnerbaits I threw on a Falcon Cara Head Turner. It’s a 6-ft 10-in rod, heavy action. It’s a short rod for making tight casts around boat docks, but still has enough backbone to get them over the cables."
His baits
> 1/2-oz War Eagle Double Willow Nickel Spinnerbait ("spot remover" and "blue herring")
> 3/4-oz BOOYAH Covert Spinnerbait (CO/willow, "white silver scale")
> Trailer for both was a 4.5" YUM Pulse swimbait ("blue pearl" and "TN shad")
> 6:1 ratio reel, 20-lb fluoro
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Don't know if Blake knows Jason Christie but that's pretty much Jason's spinnerbait setup.
Shoutout
Gotta shout out Will "Wood Jig" Davis Jr who won the last 2 Nation Championships and had a shot at this one too, finishing 5th, 3 lbs behind Blake. Amazing Nation run wow.
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One thing I really like about the full-size Hammer Trap is how hard it hits – the "hammer" part. If this new 2", 3/16-oz version does that too, look out:
> GSM's Wes Higgins, who used to run Bill Lewis: “The wide profile of the head puts out heavy vibrations from a compact body, which is the perfect balance between size and action."
Same "Tri-Tone sound chambers" and Mustad Triple Grip trebles. 16 colors, it's already on TW.
4. With Power-Poles you can now have 1 pump
Guess I missed that at ICAST, thank you to Dean Rojas for the heads up.
5. AL: Montevallo U is the MLF School of the Year again
3rd time in 4 years, pretty dang stout! Freddie the Falcon knows what's up....
6. Country star Luke Bryant is allergic to bass??
> According to Bryan, when he touches a bass or any species from the sunfish family of fish, "my eyes will get red, my hands will swell if I have to take the hook out," and he'll get a red face and stuffy nose, adding, "they wipe me out pretty good."
🤔 Apparently this is what Luke looks like after that:
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🤣
7. TX: US allowing Mexico to pay back water it owes but...
> Mexico owes the US over 1 mil acre-feet of water by Oct 2025, which is the end of a 5-year cycle, according to an international treaty between the 2 countries. But so far, Mexico has paid just over 425,000 acre-feet of water
> “It’s going to give [Mexico] the tools to be able to deliver the 1.75 mil acre-feet over 5 years." ...allowing Mexico to pay water from 2 river basins – the San Juan River, and Alamo River – which previously were not stipulated in the treaty. And Mexico will be credited for water deliveries or releases from those river basins.
> These river basins are too far southeast for the US to store the water in Falcon Dam or Amistad Reservoir.
Sounds like no benefit to Falcon or Amistad. Also, the guy who owns the La Perla trophy bass lakes will be moving his bass elsewhere because of the situation.
8. New Suzuki 7-year limited warranty on V6 outboards
Suzuki’s longest factory protection yet, for all new Suzuki V6 outboards purchased for recreational use between Nov 1, 2024 and Dec 31, 2024.
Headline of the Day
Missing kayaker in Green Lake believed to have faked his death and fled the country
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Ever thought about a Ned Neko?
Or a Neko Ned? Check it:
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Interesting ain't it? Is a Neko a "rig of the future" that's here now...or something? More:
> Coupling a Finesse TRD, Hula StickZ or other buoyant finesse bait with a Neko hook and Neko weight....
> Hooking configurations depend on cover and bass activity level. The simplest is to TX rig your chosen finesse bait onto a...Neko-style hook. The toughness of [Z-Man's ElaZtech plastic] even eliminates the need for an O-ring....
Never thought about it, definitely an alternative to a Neko'd 4" Senko.
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“We need to treat it like a business and keep it closed doors among our employees and our business."
- Greg Hackney talkin' 'bout complaining on the Elites. Also said:
> “We don’t want to scare a Toyota, or whoever’s looking to get in this bass fishing deal then starts reading all these comments – ‘Do I want to put money there?’
> "We are professionals, and we need to start acting like it.”
That might sound "old school" to some, but in my 2c that harder, older-school attitude/conduct is needed. Also, Hack IS old school– like back when Larry Nixon, Denny Brauer and other fisehrmen used to take guys to the woodshed. Do it Hack! 😁
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Greg Hackney sent me this – wanted to know if it was over the top for his hunting camp. I said no but it looks a little...suggestive? Like, in a weird way? 🤣
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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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