40-60% of the Elites are fishing Great Lakes Finesse baits at the St Lawrence? Big claim made here (IG). For sure hot baits and they caught that 32-lb all-brown limit at the St Lawrence this year so...let's see what happens!

Found this old post by the great Wade Bourne on Bassmaster.com about the float-n-fly – check how similar it sounds to what's going on now with forward-facing sonar:

> When fishing the Float-N-Fly, Nuckols keeps his boat 20-40 yards out from the bank. (He says most fishermen casting to the bank are actually sitting right over the fish.) The long rod enables him to roll-cast his float/fly combo toward shoreline, then he waits while the fly sinks.

> When the weight of the jig stands the float up, Nuckols holds his rod parallel to the water, and he begins shaking the rod tip to make the bobber and fly jiggle.

> He shakes the bobber/fly 10-12 times in quick succession, simultaneously reeling slowly to "swim" the fly toward the boat. Then he pauses for 3-4 seconds to allow the bait to pendulum back down.

> He repeats this process until the float is almost back to the boat, then he reels up for another cast.

> "This presentation makes the fly look like a dying baitfish. Bass are attracted by its flash and struggling action. The float holds the fly in the strike zone and it looks like an easy meal. They can just ease up under the fly, suck it in and swim away with it."

> [Eddie] Nuckols stresses presenting the jig at or above the bass' level, not below them. "I'll keep an eye on my depthfinder, and if I see fish below me I'll make sure to set the float so the fly suspends above them. Smallmouth feed up, not down."

Letting it sink, shaking it, swimming it, pausing it, keeping it above the fish – that IS the Damiki/moping deal! Amazing to me that FFS guys have unknowingly kinda reinvented this technique, just without the float (so far).

A little more juice from that post:

> ...reels spooled with 4-lb mono.... "Backreeling is a lot safer than depending on drag. You can give line faster, and you don't have to worry about adjusting drag."

> The Float-N-Fly was designed for deep upland reservoirs with clear to semi-clear water. However, Nuckols' testing has proved that this presentation also works in dingy water. "The fish feel the fly's vibrations, and they'll find it even if the water has some stain." In dingy water, Nuckols uses a brighter colored fly than he does in clear water.

> Nuckols religiously adds a coating of Lure Doctor scent to his fly. He dabs a small amount of this gel on his index finger, rubs it around with his thumb, then applies it down both sides of the fly's hair dressing.

1. Anyone else hold a spin rod like Brandon Cobb?

Kinda looks like he's ice fishing? He's got a fish on btw:

2. Kevin VanDam didn't have a plan?

> "Right off the bat I had a lot of success and it pulled me right in. Before you know it, I'm like 'Man, I'm a full-time professional' and I didn't even plan on it or realize it."

Btw KVD says "I'm Far From Done!" on Dave Mercer's show. More good stuff from Dave "why would I sleep?" Mercer...😁

3. Edwin Evers: Put a Fluke on a swing head.

IG vid, interesting – he puts a Berkley PowerBait Jerk Shad on a Berkley Fusion19 Swing Head to give deep or bottom-oriented fish a different look vs all the stuff they've seen all summer.

4. Skeet Reese's new spin reels are now available.

$99.99 and Skeet-color handles of course:

5. BPTer Grae Buck turns his camera backwards...

...when he's drifting for smallmouths:

> "When I'm drifting. And the smallies follow it...from behind. Lets me get the best look at them."

He says he uses the Aqua-Vu Multi-Vu Pro Gen 2.

6. OH River BFL won with 12-07. 😱

Congrats to IL's Cole Jezek for Neddin' the win. He had 5 and the lowest-weight 5-bass limit in the top 10 was...8-07 (9th).

Brothers, I feel your pain....

7. Tucker Smith & Hayden Marbut on Rapala college podcast.

8. UT: "Unwanted" bass intros in 2 lakes.

Found this year:

> Smallmouth bass in Settlement Canyon Reservoir in Tooele County.

> Largemouth bass in Newcastle Reservoir in Iron County.

DNRs always assume these are "illegal fish introductions." How would they know that 100%? Anyone know pls enlighten me....

9. New Caymas CX 20.

10. WA: South Bay launch closed, will get new ramp...

...parking and bathroom, all by Sept 30?

11. FL stopped posting advance notice of spraying...

...because of "threats against spraying contractors." Such like:

The fish don't like it man!

12. PA: Regular carp being netted outta Middle Creek Lake.

13. AL: How to make spotted bass cakes.

Seems like wherever they are, a bunch of small spotted bass need to be taken out of lakes every year so they don't stunt and mess with the other bass:

> "I use 4 huge dollops of mayonnaise per 1 block of cream cheese, 2 cups of fish, about a half-cup of mixed and cooked onions, bell peppers, jalapeños and garlic. Then I take about 1 can of breadcrumbs. I use a little Tony's (Chachere) on the fish that I sauté in butter on the flattop. The key is to try to keep the fish as chunky as possible."

14. NY has $3 mil in grants for invasive species projects.

15. KY wants comments on State Wildlife Action Plan.

> ...summarizes the status of our state's more vulnerable wildlife species and the condition of habitat on which they depend.

Headlines of the Day

Water stays murky after recent rains

Sounds like a conspiracy theory...🤣

American Forests to Become Carbon Emitters by 2070, Scientists Warn

Bahahaha now it's time to cut down the trees to "save the planet"??

Lines of the Day

"There are no poisonous or venomous crayfish anywhere in the world."

Scientist talkin' 'bout the crays coming out after the Cali storms. I guess peeps I are scared of 'em.

This is a catastrophically stupid plan....

Guy talkin' 'bout the US Forest Service dumping rotenone into the Colorado River to try to kill a few smallmouths. Far as I know rotenone isn't specific to any particular fish species so....

Cole Floyd: Finding flip fish fast

From the MLF site – says in there that his dad Steve Floyd won a FLW Series event flipping:

> "I cover a ton of water when I'm flipping, especially in practice I cover as much water as I can, I don't slow down much. That's something dad has taught me, especially on Kentucky Lake – just cover water.

> "I'll slow down on tournament day – in practice, I flip fast. If I get one bite, there are liable to be a bunch of fish there.

> "Most times I'll flip it in there, hop it twice and I'm out. I'm usually a 2-time hopper kinda guy and I'm out. Maybe even 1, because if they ain't ate it by the time it hits the bottom, I'm gone.

> "There are some times if you hop it and leave [it they'll] bite, but usually if they ain't touched it by the time it's halfway down, usually they ain't there or they ain't gonna want to eat it."

"Many times Kiyokata was thrown overboard by the angry captain, as Kiyotaka thought he found a fish school which really was a swarm of jellyfish."

- Story from the history of how fish-finding sonar was developed in Japan by the Furuno brothers. Wonder if that ever happened to Darrell Lowrance??

Btw, apparently the Furunos developed the first known fishfinder, in 1948, 9 years before Lowrance's Fish Lo-K-Tor/"little green box" came out.

Is this is how they dress at weigh-ins in South Africa? 👀 Lookin' good fellas! Posted on IG by @neelsbenekefishing:

Didja know you can get a red meat allergy from a tick or chigger bite?

One of my sisters got that and so did another person I know. Use your tick repellants, on your dogs too!

Big Q is are these diseases...intentional? Start with this book about how Lyme disease was actually developed as a bioweapon. Yet more insanity. From the back cover:

> This quest led [the author] to Willy Burgdorfer, the Lyme microbe’s discoverer, who revealed that he had developed bug-borne bioweapons during the Cold War and believed that the Lyme epidemic was started by a military experiment gone wrong.

Ugh.