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Hope you had a good weekend! I didn't fish – went to a weddin' instead, our young dude Brett Jolley. Beautiful deal man, love it.
Request: Would you please take a few minutes to fill out this BB survey? Literally just a few minutes – just clicking boxes. One randomly-drawn person who fills it out will get a box o' goodies (baits), and yes at least one urchin will be in there! 😁 Thank you!
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Gitcha Blaster video fix here:
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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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How Jason Christie won another one, at the Pasquotank River
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Ah yes, the ol' salty Passaquoddy, where Ahab matched wits with Ditchy Melon and someone wrote a book about it. Possibly. 😁
Alright well if there was any doubt before – and there shouldn't have been – Jason now firmly is "one of the best ever."
No FFS tourney won with a spinnerbait/swim-jig (wheelhouse) + close to the ramp in the spring? ✅
FFS + never fished an urchin before + 180-mile round trip in brackish water in the summer where he "tanked" (83rd) last year? ✅
#Stout fo sho. Here's how he got 'er done this time – a little shorter than normal because Jason was runnin' and gunnin'.
Going in and practice
> "Since I finished toward the bottom the last time we were there, it was all about getting points. I was in the 20s in the points, so my thought was, Hey let's get as many points as we can and get out of here.
> "Practice for me weight-wise was good, but we were fishing 14-hour days. I would catch 25-30 lbs but I was only getting 8-10 bites a day. So if you limit that to 4-5 hours of fishing, I was worried.
> "But where I was fishing, I knew that even if I caught 3, I could catch 17-20 lbs. So I made the decision to go [on a long run] no matter what."
Tournament
> "All the fish I caught came off either cypress trees or docks [in 1-8']. The best way I know to describe this event is – other than the last day on that key dock – it was random. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, it would change.
> "The 1st day I caught 'em half on trees, half on docks. The 2nd day they were all off trees. The 3rd day it was mixed again. And the 4th was almost all off docks.
> "The key for me was just to keep my bait in the water.
> "I caught 19 bass and saw 1 of them eat my bait. I was not Scoping fish. I was Scoping a little bit the underwater cover, but most everything I was casting to was visual with my eyes."
Bait
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> Unknown urchin bait in gp and what looks like plum or scuppernong, 2/0 Trokar Frog Hook, a "little bit of weight" (he didn't know the exact weight), 22-lb Sunline Shooter Fluoro, SPRO JC Elite MG Reel (8.1), 7' 2" Falcon Cara Swim Jig Rod.
> "I literally sat down the night before the 1st day of practice, threw something together and that's what I fished with. It was just something I tried...the first stop I caught a big one and I just rolled with it.
> "I don't have any previous experience with that bait before this week. I was learning every day...."
Electronics
> "A lot of people don't realize what we put these rigs through, especially an 180-mile round trip. For everything to still work when you get there and back says something about how tough they are.
> "I was Scoping and was using the trip odometer to make sure I had enough gas. I used 360 a little bit when I was fishing out deeper, but when I got up shallow I just knew if one was there he was gonna bite. I didn't want to not cast at a target because I didn't see one."
[He said the Garmin tidal-water mapping was "really good."]
Shoutouts
> "Obviously the boat and the motor. I'm to a point in my career where I wouldn't have a sponsor if I wasn't 100% confident in everything. [He listed every category] – it's everybody [he wanted to thank].
> "...electronics mounts – if I were to run a sub-par mount, then I would have to stop out there in the middle and fix everything, and I'd lose 30 minutes...I just don't do that. [He runs Precision Sonar mounts.]
> "Everything I run I have 100% confidence in. So when Jason Christie wins, the team wins. It's a team effort."
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Aaaar thar she blows Cap'm! 😁 Here we go:
1. Since you're now the nice Jason Christie but nice guys finish last, are you really nice or...? 😁
> "I'm nice when I want to be."
2. How much of your ability to close do you think is your demeanor – not way up or way down emotionally, just steady?
> "Yeah...I've done it enough, I've been there enough, I try not to go to either extreme, high or low. I've been there with big leads and lost, and I've been there with big deficits and won.
> "So to me the 4th day is a lot like the 1st day – even keel, try to do your job the best that you can, and however it shakes out it shakes out.
> "This one caught me by surprise...long runs, very few bites I was getting, just everything worked out. I landed most of 'em and everything worked out on the last day."
3. You're known for being really good at shallower-water techniques but you don't let that stop you from learning and fishing new stuff well. How does someone do both of those things?
> "I think that you have to be able to do a little bit of everything, but you have to be really good at something. You have to have something you have confidence in.
> "I can catch 'em however I wanna catch 'em – dropshot or whatever. But I have confidence in certain things, shallow water being one of them. I can fall back on that all the time.
> "For somebody getting into this or is in it and wants to get better, you need to learn a little bit about everything – but you have to have 3 or 4 tools or techniques you can fall back on at every event."
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2nd-5th 'Tank Elite baits
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4th: Code "E is for Eagle" Huff
> Bass Pro Shops UrchinX (gp – bait coming out in a couple weeks), frog hook (no weight), 25-lb BPS Excel Mono, BPS Johnny Morris Platinum Reel (8.3), 7' 4" H BPS CarbonLite Tech Dragging Rod.
> "Throwing it a brush 10' and shallower. The frog hook added enough weight that I didn't need a weight. Most fish would come meet the bait as it was falling or when they heard it splash."
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5th: Drew "a weapon" Cook
> HideUp Coike Fullcast (custom color = half gp blue/half watermelon), 1/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend Treble Hook, 1/32-oz Gamakatsu Tungsten Nail Weight, 20-lb Sunline Shooter Fluoro, 8.1:1 reel, Dobyns Champion XP 734 Rod.
> Neko rig: SPRO Wacky Snack (tilapia magic), #2 Gamakatsu G-Finesse Weedless Stinger Hook, 1/64-oz tungsten nail weight, 18.5-lb Sunline Almight Braid to 16-lb Sunline V-Hard Fluoro Leader, Dobyns Xtasy 721 Spin Rod.
> "Threw both at shade trees, point trees and stumps in 1.5-5'."
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Dang!
4. Jordan Lee gets Flop Industries
Apparel company. Hopefully they'll reissue the JLee "This Lake Sucks" stuff lol.
5. Seth Feider's Black Sheep Custom Tackle is open for biz
Looks like so far they only have hair jigs in stock, but all kinds of jigs and jigheads are listed. It's Seth and a few other guys including triple-Aer Alec Morrison, Brad Leuthner, Josh Douglas and Garrett Rocamora.
6. Here's your top 10 in the Elite points
Reminder that T-Rex McKinney finished 2nd the last 2 years in a row (the only years he's been on the Elites) to Chris Johnston.
1. Trey McKinney -- 554
2. Cory Johnston -- 538
3. Drew Cook -- 537
4. Cole Sands -- 533
5. John Garrett -- 525
6. Brandon Cobb -- 515
7. Bob Downey -- 504
8. Jay Przekurat -- 494
9. Kyle Welcher -- 485
10. Caleb Hudson -- 480
Should also point out that #s 2, 7 and 8 are northern guys, and Both Trey and Cory have won events up north.
7. Buddy Gross is guiding/teaching on Gville
8. Final NPFL of the season moves from NY to AR
Was Lake George, now Dardanelle – Sep 16-18. Sounds like the city of Lake George wanted to have a fish fry with all the fish caught but the NPFL said that was "inappropriate."
Okay that wasn't it lol but Lake George and Dardanelle are nothing alike!
9. YUM urchin coming this fall
Jason Christie and Stetson Blaylock (6th at the 'Tank) are both YUM soft-plastic guys and both fished urchins. Sounds like that's because the YUM urchin wasn't ready yet but is coming soon.
10. 2 new Tactical Bassin 5" Senko colors
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The colors are called 'Matt' and 'Tim' – kidding:
> Tactical shad: Meticulously engineered to be the most natural-looking profile available for clear-water execution. Packed with ultra-lifelike hues and subtle accents, it's built to fool the wariest, highest-pressure bass in the lake.
> Tactical twilight: Precision-blended for stained and dark water situations. It takes the bold, high-contrast presence of a classic black-and-blue base and softens it with natural undertones so it stays lethal even if you pull into a clear cove.
Don't know about you, but I don't anything the Tickle Tacklers do. Good and Godly peeps too.
11. How Bobby Barrack trims his frowg legs (IG vid)
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Cody Huff's fave deep-cranking rod isn't glass
Because:
> While a lot of guys swear by...using a crankbait rod made of more flexible and forgiving fiberglass, I prefer a MH rod made of sensitive graphite when finessing a crankbait through brushpiles. Mainly because I can feel exactly what the bait is doing better than I can with fiberglass.
> So while...longer 7' 11 fiberglass rods have their place in my boat for that deeper offshore river ledge scenario, if I had to choose one rod for you to use this summer with deep-diving crankbaits it would be a 7' 6 MH graphite rod.
Personally I don't like much (or any) glass in rods – because I can't feel stuff as well. If you think that's because I don't fish enough, you may be right but – Aaron Martens felt the same way bro!
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"I kept thinking he was yanking my chain. I told him, 'Quit playing with me. This ain't nothing to play about.'"
- KY Lake Bassmaster Open winner Clint Knight talkin' 'bout his good bud Tristan McCormick being all excited and telling Clint he won before the final weigh-in. Tristan finished 2nd. To me that says a lot about Tristan...though he should've messed with him hahaha!
For the record, we've all seen Jacob Wheeler excited when a bud won, but I never saw KVD, Denny Brauer and a few other cats get excited when someone else won. 🤣
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Former Myrtle Beach detective accused of pointing gun at officer over microwaved fish
> According to a warrant, DeBaise confronted an officer at the department about them warming up fish in the microwave and causing an odor in the office.
Alright pointing a gun at him was way bad, but I feel the odor part – the Irish Gal likes to microwave her leftover fish! 🤢 To me, there's no such thing as leftover fish. It either gets ate right away or it doesn't exist! 🤣
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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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