Really hope none of you folks or your relatives or friends were hit by the tornadoes. Any prayers needed, please let me know.
Got out for an hour on Sunday. Seemed kinda nice at the house, not much of the forecast wind, but at the lake it was blowing 17-ish and whitecappin'. Trolled over to a spot, snagged and backlashed my first cast (new rod/reel combo), the wind was beatin' on me and Lucky the Lab, she was shiverin' (I did have a vest on her) – I was like, WTHeck am I doing out here?? Trolled over to the lee side to fish the new Jewel Finesse Jig Rod a little and then I was gone. I think that might have to be it for me for 2020.
|
|
Talked to a dude at the ramp who said he crushes 'em. Felt like an idiot til he said he only fishes live bait. But still, I guess the fish are there and peeps can get on 'em – some lesson in there for me.
Aaron folks, I won't be able to get to CA on the 18th for the Hogsnatcher Benefit Event 😢 – got the crud pretty good and ain't gonna bring it out there. Feelin' pretty bad, don't think it's "the stuff" again tho. So incredibly bummed. Bless you and thank you for doing it Billy 'n peeps. Let's raise 'em up on Saturday! 🙏✝️
|
|
The biggest smallmouth limit ever? 🤯
|
|
Lookit those things!! 🤯 Andrew lives in northern MI, where that limit was caught, and was cool with sharing what went down:
> "I fish 5-6 lakes pretty heavy.... There's a lake I go to, I fish it every fall – I think I got it down pretty well to when those big fish eat.
> "I had been fishing there quite a few times...caught 33-lb bag before that one and a lot of upper 20s bags. ...between 47 and 52 degrees, spring too, you can go back every year and catch those really big fish – those 7s and we get quite a few 6-lbers to where we're hunting for those 7s and potential 8s.
[🤯]
> "It seems like...south wind is always good this time of year, usually little bit of warmer wind.
> "I'd been there 2-3 times a week prior to that day...been fishing 25-32' deep out there and this day they were more like 17-22' so it was really weird...not where they had been the past few weeks.
> "I was catching them off deep rock with some big boulders mixed in. All of those big fish from that limit came off one rock, one huge huge boulder. They do have access to deep water close by....
> "I had this rock marked on side imaging, had it lined up perfect – Spot-Lock and LiveScope and everything, kept picking away at them. I was fishing swimbaits but pretty much crawling them along the bottom – throwing 3/8 to 3/4, depending on the wind...3" and 4" [Megabass] Spark Shads...usually on a football head, kind of crawling them along. ...fish deep and slow and being patient.
> "I was casting beyond the rock and bringing it back... just creeping that bait by. I get a lot of bites doing this on the fall as well."
> "I was mainly throwing the 4-inch all week, then downsized to a spinning rod – I caught all those fish with a spinning rod, 7-lb braid to 6-lb fluoro. That's just what they wanted that day.
> "This lake just has big ones – I don't catch many small fish. I was catching 7-lbers – 1 here, 1 there – the week before. But to have them all be on that rock was like a dream. How to do that again, I don't know."
How great is that! Told him that I guess his new number is 40! 🤯🤯
Few more tiddybits:
> "I never saw another boat."
> "LiveScope is a huge deal – it has changed the way I fish [had it for a year]. It does help when they're looking up and go up and grab it. I don't see all of them when they're Super-Glued to the bottom and you have a lot of big rocks."
> Cool piece of insight from him: Smaller lakes cool off faster (water temp), meaning bigger lakes stay warmer longer.
Thanks for sharing dude and congrats!!!
|
|
We need to be 'Trappin' with a flip stick?? 🧐
|
|
Real good Rat-L-Trap juice from Dicky Newberry. Has Dicky ever fished a tournament? No. Has he ever fished 'Traps? Nah not really.
HAHAHA yeah right! If you don't know him, Dicky's a long-time TX stick and has been fishing tourneys and 'Traps longer than many bass fishermen have been walkin' this planet (Mars is a different deal 😁). Excellent post by Kyle Wood on the MLF site, few excerpts here but for sure worth a full read:
> ...composite or fiberglass rod. Newberry agrees that those will certainly help you hook and land fish, but when the water is cold he has a different take...which he actually stumbled upon by accident....
> "It was a bluebird day and the bite was off and the grass was really good at Rayburn. I was pre-fishing for one of the Toyota Series that was coming and I backlashed or something on my [lipless] rod I was throwing, so I cut my bait off and tied it on my football-jig rod, which was a 7-ft 2-in rod and really stiff.
> "I noticed my casting was a lot better and I also noticed when I got hung in the shallow grass it took hardly any effort to dislodge it and pop it free...that bait would hang in the grass just a small flick of the wrist basically was all it took to free it. The bait would free up really quick and wouldn't travel very far before it started its flutter down and they'd knock the slack out of it.
> "A typical day for me fishing a Rat-L-Trap, I'll start out with 4 rods with the same reels, same rods, all spooled with the same line and the spool filled to about the same spot on each reel. That's strictly to help keep your cadence the same even if you're throwing different baits. The little things like that can make a big difference."
Love the stuff that goes against conventional wisdom. But please know that Dicky does have some strange thoughts about where to fish such like:
|
|
Are gobies headed to Champlain??
|
|
If so it will go down as one of the greatest migrations in American history! 😂 Lol here's the info:
> Beginning in 2016, USGS has tracked the eastward progression of round goby along the Erie Canal and Mohawk River with the most recent collection occurring in Jun 2021 in Crescent, NY, 5 miles upstream of the Hudson River.
> Then on Jul 13 and 14, DEC staff captured 4 round gobies at 2 locations in the Hudson River, 12 and 25 miles downstream of the Troy Dam, while conducting routine fish monitoring. By the end of the sampling season, a total of 112 round goby were collected in Albany, Coxsackie and as far south as Poughkeepsie.
[No word on whether they had to fight a gang of obesely muscular smallmouth to get the gobies outta the river. 😆]
> The round goby has the potential to cause ecological, recreational, and economic impacts throughout the Hudson River and its tributaries. In addition, it has the potential to spread to Lake Champlain through the Champlain Canal.
And there you go! The bulbousness is spreading! lol
Btw the easiest way to tell if gobies are in an area is to listen real carefully for:
|
|
Let's round 'er out with another slab o' brown!
|
|
BioSpawn says it's cookin' up something with Ryan Whitacre of Popcorn, Tight Rope Jigs, Chicago bassin' and a few other things – something to do with this pic: 🤔
|
|
Man big smallmouths get rectangular and muscular unlike their green cousins (after about 8 lbs or so anyhow).
|
|
Lake Casitas, Dec 18 from noon til 6 pm. It is NOT a tourney, tho bet Aaron would be stoked if you snatched a few! Few deets:
> Lake Casitas Recreation Area, 11311 Santa Ana Road, Ventura, CA 93001. Live music, food and I bet a lotta stories.
> Get a chance to win some stuff, some here, including an amazing 125 current and former pro jerseys.
|
|
#loveyoubro
That's that "ice fishing bait" that several folks are using here and there in the country to vertical jig, tho the guy who broke it – Al Lindner – has multiple techniques for it, some with the boat moving (slowly). Anyhow, Brandon was talkin' 'bout dialing in his Humminbird Mega Live:
> ...one of my favorite fishing lures for vertical applications, the Rapala Jigging Rap. It has produced a number of key fish for me on tour over the years, but it really excels in determining the makeup of a school of fish. It's great at tempting so many species – not just bass, but also walleye, crappie and perch – that you don't waste a lot of time chasing fish that won't help you. It's a quick way to figure out what they are.
Nailed it.
|
|
Shane Powell won the Bassmaster Team Championship fish-off, 2 days with 23-05 which was about 5 over 2nd, Lake Eufaula, AL:
> ...most of his bass were caught in approximately 20' of water and off the old Chattahoochee River ledges.... "The first day or 2 we caught them on a Strike King 6XD.... I went to a morning dawn dropshot when things got tougher and tougher. It was all largemouth coming off the bottom."
Pending a review of whether dudes from AL are allowed to fish pink dropshots (😁) he's the last man in the Classic, congrats to him.
How 'bout those Tigers – what up Auburn! Love to see a breakdown of who in the pros has come from what college programs if anyone has one.
> "The reason punching is so effective is due to the big females getting up in spawning areas that have very heavy cover. I'm talking about that real thick stuff that looks like you could walk on it.
> "This is the only time of the year we get cold fronts. The bass go to those same heavy cover areas when they're stressed from the cold fronts."
> "I won't go any higher than a 1.5-oz bullet weight. When you use a heavier weight, the hookup ratio is unacceptable. I believe you can miss 50% or more of your hookups with a 2-oz or larger weight.
> "If I can't get my bait through, I'll throw it up in the air and the weight can punch through with force.
|
|
Jon Schlosser (left) won it with some local named Shane LeHew (LeWho? 😁) Lol Shane's a pretty dang good stick but I talked to him and he said Jon more than held his own and is a squarebill fiend – get 'em Jon! Some more deets from Shane – this was The Warrior's Journey benefit tourney on Norman, NC, organized by Hank "not Parker" Cherry, and believe a legit 80 boats fished it:
> "...we both caught fish. It was a good day...4 spots weighted 14.25 and one 2-lber.
> "The start of the day was actually really tough. We got pretty fortunate towards the end, the last 45 minutes to an hour.
> "We caught a few fish on the Berkley Squarebull (ghost brown craw) and on a vibrating jig (gp) with a [new] Berkley Powerbait Boss Grub (twin tail, gp). The vibrating jig fish came around docks, and the Squarebull fish came on long flat points.
> "Garmn LiveScope was important, more for seeing individual pieces of cover on longer, flatter points. The water is really low right now, couple...could make precise casts to that stuff [rocks, cinderblocks, tires] and not just flail around."
> "...had 3 on the front deck – two 9-arms and a 5-armer – just in case."
I was like, "You didn't use 'em? That's a Shane, man." 😂 He said the water was clear but they had a bunch o' wind.
From now on according to a new regs proposal.
Props to the TX B.A.S.S. Nation, Coleto BassMasters Friends of Reservoirs, and St. Joseph's High School anglers.
Love the excitement:
> "Ah, it's amazing. You're fishing with the top 10 of LA. It's the best feeling. It's what you worked all year long for, to make the state team."
Congrats to all state-teamers everywhere yo!
Here's one:
|
|
Maybe businesses could buy a bass and paint it like they do with cows 'n such?
Post says they released "an estimated 369,000 tons of sediment:"
> The MI Dept of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy indicated it's moving toward litigation against the owner of Morrow Dam, which released decades-worth of accumulated sediment into the river 2 years ago after draining its impoundment without warning.
Line of the Day
Huge props to that one writer for mentioning that it IS poz for bassin'! Very rare.
|
|
> "I throw basic, silver models most of the time with very few modifications. All my blade baits are handmade.
> "Fish shallow water: "Blade baits are not – or shouldn't be – restricted to deep water. I fish mine in 3-4' of water on a regular basis. I don't do anything fancy – just cast them out into or around a pile of rocks and then bring them back with a slow, steady lift and drop retrieve.
> "For this technique, spool your reel with 10-lb Fireline and always let the lure fall on a tight line. Bites at this time of year are subtle. You need all the help you can get.
> Work it like a spinnerbait: "I often cast a blade bait out and simply reel it back. Bring it straight back with a steady crank of the reel handle. If that doesn't trigger a strike, try snapping it or maybe letting it fall a foot or so.
> "But remember that the water is cold. Baitfish are lethargic – in fact, many of them are in the process of dying. Anything moving fast at this time of the year looks unnatural because it is unnatural.
> "This is not the time of year to match the hatch with size or color. 1/2-oz silver blade baits work just fine. If bites are few and far between, try a wacky or unusual color, but only if you have no other choice."
Dang I think Jon just talked me into headin' back out this winter, how 'bout you?
|
|
"I've seen him fish the same structure as me, come over and get the bass right off the same tree I had already fished for like 15 minutes."
> ...whereas others were moving their sinkers slowly across the bottom, Martens used a subtle motion, shaking his rig only slightly to give his cinnamon-blue RoboWorm some action, while leaving his sinker in one spot.
Man he knew some stuff! That was 21 years ago!
|
|
Yep you read that right:
> Botox injections, face lifts and other cosmetic alterations to make the camels more attractive are strictly prohibited. Jurors decide the winner based on the shape of the camels' heads, necks, humps, dress and postures.
I'm thinkin' we need a bass beauty contest with judges, the whole deal, at all tourneys...? 😁
|
|
Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best and funniest (sometimes worst) stuff in bassin', 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'!
|
Sign up another bass-head!
|
If you're forwarding every Blaster to other bass crackheads, tx much – or you can email me the addys and we'll take care of it! We'll never send spam or sell the list or anything else crazy....
|
|
Gitcha hands on the best stuff!
|
|
Gitcha BassBlaster social at these links:
|
|
|
|
|