Was supposed to fish today, got stormed out...😭 Gonna give it a shot on Saturday, hope you're ketchin' 'em.
Haven't seen many derps this year?? Ketchin' any?
Little different Blaster today, hope you dig it.
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Reminder: If your email program cuts off the bottom of this 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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How El Mustachio Zaldaingeroso drops a spoon on slack.
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Y'all know Chris is crazy – which in bassin' terms means he loves fishing big swimbaits and big spoons in big tournaments for big money under the big top...😁 He's a spoon hammer and since this BB is about slack, he started there:
> "When you mention the word slack – yes, absolutely. That's the deal with a giant flutter spoon. I like the 7- and 8-inch variants. The the 5-inch spoon was a popular one, but I like 7s and 8s. You're talking about a threadfin shad imitator vs a gizzard shad imitator.
> "Absolutely the only way that thing gets bit is if you have slack in your line. That's unlike [baits that] require reeling the reel and the force of the line to keep it moving. This thing only works when there's slack in the line.
> "If I tight-line this flutter spoon, it just doesn't fall correctly. ...requires just the right amount of slack. Not too slack...like 50-60% slack. Not to where you miss bites, but really controlled slack. The only time you tighten that line is when you're reeling it in and when you pump the rod.
> "The very top of your pump, that's when your slack starts – controlled sack. Let that flutter spoon give you feedback on whether to add more slack or tighten it up a little bit.
> "The best spoon fishermen know the exact amount of slack needed to make that spoon flutter away from the boat and toward the bottom. It's almost pulling back...that real fine 50-60% slack. Let that thing give your rod and line feedback...can feel it pulling and twisting away from you."
His spoonin' gear
> "I like using an 8' rod to control that slack and just let it flutter down. The rod is probably the most important part...8' H 13 Fishing Muse – it's a new model. What I like about that rod is it has a longer than normal butt section. That's huge when you're pumping that giant spoon...you have to use both hands...where that longer than normal handle really comes into play.
> "The reel is a 13 Fishing Concept A2 – 8.3:1 because when you're dealing with slack and feel that bite, you have to set that hook and keep 'em coming. It's so important to take up that slack asap. A lot of times you're making long casts, sometimes current is involved and it's almost always deep fish.
> "I like a heavy line – 25-lb Seaguar AbrazX [fluoro]. I choose AbrazX because it's got less stretch – it's the fluoro with the least amount of stretch I've found – and it's also very abrasion-resistant. When you're dealing with heavy metal like that – sharp metal, giant swivels and split rings – you need very abrasion-resistant line.
> "...the original Nichols Mini Mag is a very good spoon. I think they say it's a 6.5" spoon but it's really more like 7+. The Magnum 9" spoon gets bites, but it's really hard to land them. You don't have to get crazy with colors and flavors, you just need shiny chrome.
> "The one I love the most – I'm down to my last one – is designed by Yusuke Miyazaki. It's the Daiwa Steez Spoon. It's a 7.5" spoon...just gives me more feedback, that feedback I want. When your line has that 50-60% slack, you can feel every little flutter and twirl of that spoon. But good luck finding them."
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Now's the time
> "May, June, July is your best time to fish a giant flutter spoon. ...idle around, use your electronics – you want to have 3 fish or more. It doesn't work with 1 fish – if you pitch your spoon to it, it doesn't work. 2 doesn't work. But when you have 3+ fish, that's when it works best because triggers something...competitive nature to come up and grab it as it's fluttering down.
> "It works best in 15-25' – that's kind of the sweet spot. You're looking for ledges, long sloping points with a drop...has to have a hard bottom – shell or gravel bars, fairly close to the main river channel. That's why it works so good on the TN River system.
> "I typically fish from shallow to deep – 15' to about 30'. So I always want to position the boat to the deeper side. Cast past where you saw the school, let it flutter on controlled slack, feel the spoon falling, and let it hit the bottom. Let it get to the bottom – you get a lot of bites while it's falling
> "If they don't pick it up in half a second or 1 second, pump the rod up 4-5', then follow that slack down and feel it fluttering. Pump, let it fall, let it fall, let it fall, let it hit the bottom. Pump it [etc].
> "...my rod is going to move at the same rate of speed it's falling with just a slight bow. It kind of looks like the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable supports – a real nice bow to it. My rod tip is just controlling that nice slope....
> "The bite, even with that 50-60% slack, they straighten out your line. It's that jig thump. It's very rare you're like, Oh I think that was a bite, maybe I should set the hook – most times they try to kill it.
> "Conditions-wise it doesn't really matter. It can be flat calm, sunny, cloudy, rainy, storming – it doesn't matter. If they're out there and there's more than 3, they will compete with each other to grab this giant gizzard shad imitator."
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"Shakin' it on a slack line is the key to being successful with a shakey head."
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Liked this reminder too:
> "The slower you can work it, the more bites you're gonna get [because that] keeps it in the strike zone as long as possible."
Gear he uses
> 6.6" Jackall Flick Shake Worm bit down to 5" (gp candy). "I like the Flick Shake because of the action the tail has. Green pumpkin – I just always throw it."
> 3/16- and 1/8-oz shakey head
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More good stuff on slack-line shakey-headin'.
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Some good stuff I tripped over – on GA guide Bill Payne's site. It's at billpayneguideservice com (can't link it):
> How you work the bait means everything. Always maintain bottom contact…ALWAYS!!! You likely won't catch any bass jerking and pulling the bait up off bottom.
> With your rod at the 10:00 position, begin to slowly move your bait with a bow in your line. One of the most important keys to fishing a shakey head is fishing it on a slack line. This is the #1 problem I see with people that are just learning this technique. Slack line is critical.
> You want to impart a very subtle shake at times to make the worm look natural. Move it only a few inches at a time and pause for a few seconds before moving it again. Other times you want to move the worm slowly without shaking it and keep it in the strike zone area as long as possible. Really slow down when you feel cover like rocks, stumps , or submerge brush or trees.
> ...your best bet is to slowly drag the bait across the bottom, keeping in contact with the bottom at all times. Even though its name, shakey head, implies that you want to shake it all the time, I find that it may be better to just subtly and slowly drag it across the bottom imparting no additional action.
> You must be a line watcher to master this technique. Most of the bites will be very soft, and if you are waiting on feeling the old tap tap of the strike, you'll miss 90% of the bites you get. Most time the line just tightens up and the fish is slowly moving off with the bait.
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"All I'm doing is shaking that slack and the bow in my line."
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A bunch o' times slack-line techniques were in the Blaster.
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Weirdly not much about jerkbaitin', I guess because that's an obvious one?
12/10/20
Kevin VanDam says ye likes yo-yoing a Strike King Red Eye Shad on a "semi- slack line" because that bait will flutter as it sinks.
12/3/20
> "I always let the bait fall on a semi-slack line and watch my line because a lot of times they will hit it just when it starts to fall or just before it gets to the bottom.
> "When it is on the bottom I kind of check my slack and hold the rod at about 3 o'clock. Then I pick up the rod a few inches and then let it fall back down on a semi-slack line."
10/15/20
> That heavy dropshot weight carries that bait all the way down to the bottom really fast, and then you just fish it like a spoon.
> The biggest thing is that you want this bait to fall on slack line.
9/1/20
> "I let the bait get down, then do short, quick snaps of the rod to get the worm to jump off bottom. When I throw slack back into the line, the [shakey-head's] shape makes it fall straight down. It's a great way to fish when bass are situated higher in the water column."
5/28/20
> ...he suggested concentrating on the movements of the rod tip. As the gliding lure forms slack in the line, you'll feel it, and that's when you twitch again.
> By continuing the sidestepping retrieve, the line will wrap around the backside of the object the lure is intended to circle.
11/21/18
Worldwide Watson breaks down spoon-jackin' (with his R2S Worldwide Spoon) in this BB vid, and says you need slack line for the spoon to fall/swim backwards, meaning away from you:
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8/16/18
> "You want to jerk it on a slack line. A 7 [reel ratio] is a little too much and makes the line tight. It's the opposite on a 5 – it doesn't take up enough slack, so after 4-5 turns there's too much slack...."
8/8/17
Denny Brauer says you have to let your jig fall on a slack line because else you're pulling it outta where you wanted it to go.
6/27/17
> ...pitch or flip the jig close to the cover as quietly as possible, let it fall on a slack line, then once on the bottom he will reel in the slack and begin crawling it slowly back to the boat. Fish will sometimes follow the jig without striking, so he crawls it until it is under the boat, then hops it before bringing it up….
> A slack line is crucial to making the jig appear as natural as possible.
5/25/17
> Most come on a 5" YUM Dinger...rigged on a 1/4-oz jighead. He makes long casts and lets the bait settle on the bottom. The key…is not getting too impatient to move it.
> "I leave slack in the line and let it lie there for at least a couple of minutes…some underwater currents that create natural movement while the bait lies on the bottom. You have to give the smallmouth time to investigate."
Slack in the line while it sits on the bottom! 🤯
8/5/16
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6/23/16
> The greatest attribute of the Rev Rig is its ability to glide through the grass. …can also twitch the Senko back and forth with minor rips on slack line.
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...at Pickwick this week:
> Fishing pressure is going to be a big deal.... The guy that can find those off-the-wall wolf packs, as opposed to those giant schools, will be the guy that does well.
Heard there was a lotta crowded idling in practice....
...and is 2nd in the Elite ROY points:
> "If I can't get it done there, I don't deserve to have it."
> After the bass spawn in your local fishery, they’ll head to deeper water to take a break and have a cooler temperature. It doesn’t matter what body of water you’re fishing, they’ll find something to relate to. They may seek out an offshore rockpile, a ditch, a hard spot or even deep grass....
> Even on a little pond, the first depth changes away from the bank will hold fish just because there’s more shade....
Long-ish post, vid in there about his dropshot rig but the audio ain't the best.
> ...hosts Aaron Martin and Kurt Dove rap with Nick about his rookie season...and his top 10 AOY standing after the first 4 events of 2022. Also...we talk with a product expert from Seaguar about the new TactX braided line.
6. BFL happenin's.
> "I'm a big frog fisherman, but there were people already frogging there so I just went to finesse fishing. We had boats literally right beside us all day. I threw a wacky rig and a swimbait...."
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> Montevallo became just the 3rd school to win back-to-back School of the Year honors in the history of the sport.
Congrats to 'em!
Chad "Time" Warner breaks it down for ya in 80 seconds:
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> "Lake Lowell is one of the better largemouth bass fisheries in the state, and it produces some quality bluegill as well. Throughout the West, there are numerous examples of introduced walleye negatively impacting established panfish and largemouth bass fisheries, so this is something we will be monitoring closely."
> ...a Ranger bass boat hit a stationary dock which had another boat tied to it. The solo male operator of the boat, going at a high rate of speed, was ejected from his boat as he ramped up the dock and hit the stationary boat, a wildlife officer said.
> When Swink looked over, however, she said she saw the man in the air. "It was like the man had been shot out of a cannon," Leah said. "He just flew through the air."
> She saw him go into the water, without a life preserver on, but his body popped up to the surface, face down.
> ...Leah threw on her life jacket and grabbed an additional one for the victim, then jumped in and swam over to him, turning him over so he could breathe. "I knew he was face down and if somebody didn't get him to be not face down, he wasn't going to live...if you see somebody that needs help, it's just what you do."
Outstanding! 👊💪
> Leah serves Aquadale Elementary as the school's first responder, adding it was important to put on her lifejacket and be safe before trying to help someone else. She said that was what she wanted her kids to remember about the incident.
Dean Rojas said it's named after one of his pet frogs, Stubby:
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I was like, "Dean I think you need to put him on a diet man." And he was like, "It's a 'she' Jay and you need to take that back." And I was like, "Okay."
> During his tenure as senior VP, Stone helped Skeeter grow its market share from 8% to 20%.
14. Dick's sales down but not really.
Can't link it, on angling-international com:
> ...reported net sales of $2.7 bil for the first quarter, down 7.5% from the same period last year but up 41% against 2019.
No mention of e-Evinrudes:
> Karim Donnez has been appointed president, marine group. With the acquisition of 3 boat companies since 2018, BRP aims to become a key player in this industry....
> The state Dept of Water Resources concluded in 2018 that increasing the unimpaired water flows on the three rivers by 300,000 acre-ft of water a year might yield 1,103 more fish on an annual basis.
> The same research said those 1,103 additional fish would force 130,000 acres of croplands and orchards to go fallow. It would cost 4,000 jobs in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties with and overall regional economic loss of $12.9 bil.
Please be careful bass peeps.
Called the "Chinese mystery snail" – for real!
Milfoil and curly palm leaf.
Not surprising because these contaminants have been found for decades in water critters, including mammals like otters. Some of these chemicals end up changing the sex of these critters. It's a long-standing serious issue that rarely sees the light of day.
The issue is wastewater treatment plants weren't designed to handle these chemicals:
> "These troubling findings underscore the urgent need for FL to expand and modernize wastewater treatment facilities and sewage infrastructure statewide."
> "These contaminants pose a significant threat to the flats fishery, an important part of Florida's recreational saltwater fishery, which has an annual economic impact of $9.2 bil and directly support over 88,500 jobs."
> ...finding an average of 7 pharmaceuticals per bonefish, and a whopping 17 pharmaceuticals in a single fish. The list includes blood pressure medications, antidepressants, prostate treatment medications, antibiotics and pain relievers. Researchers also found pharmaceuticals in bonefish prey – crabs, shrimp and fish....
Updatin's
Back in the day Mann's made a sparkly frog – check this, sent in by bass-head JD. Disregard the rabbit-strip tails he added:
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
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Warning: Cody really doesn't know a whole lot about catching spots...HAHAHA! Okay the opposite. Anyhow, here's some juice – about SLACK! – from the MLF site:
> "...one of my favorite things to do is cast out a small plastic on a jighead and let it slowly fall through the school of fish. I like to think of it as open-water punching with a small rig.
> "To do this I generally have a target in mind, like a bluff wall or tip of a point. I know what depth the fish are in because I graphed around a little before making a cast. So now all I do is cast the bait out as far as I can and let it naturally fall on a slack line through the school. It is such a simple presentation, but I can’t tell you how many big fish I have caught doing it.”
> Meyer will make several casts throughout an area where he believes fish are suspended, counting down each time until he believes the bait has passed the fish.
> If you can’t stand to simply do nothing on the fall, Meyer suggest shaking the bait on a semi-slack line back to the boat. Done this way, he’ll let it swing as it falls like a pendulum by lifting the rod tip up and reeling up the slack, pausing to let the bait fall while shaking it as it swings.
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Bet that deal works on any kinda bass....
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"If I’m in a creek or pocket and one bank has a bunch of stumps or grass while the opposite bank looks barren, I’m going to give that ugly bank a closer look."
- Edwin Evers talkin' 'bout makin' ugly banks feel loved...😁 I mean talkin' dealing with fishing pressure:
> You can bet that every angler who’s ever gone into that area has cast to the stumps and grass – and they’ve probably caught quite a few fish, too, at least until it got pounded nearly to death.
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> ...what really makes it unique is that it is built around a giant hive of over 1 mil bees...a humming sound known to have a soothing effect.
Soothing?? No thanks mang! And not with mosquitos either!
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest 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'!
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