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Greetings from TX where the wind always blows – especially when the fish are pushing up shallow lol – EXCEPT in the ghost pepper-hot summer. That's what it seems like to me, after spending all of 18 months here anyhow.
Boat is getting worked on, should be in the water this weekend, YEE-HA! But every time I think that's happening something pops up, so I ain't gittin' my hopes all the way up.
Been thinking about what the first bait will be. Typically it would be a JackHammer but maybe it should be a TEXAS rig?? 😁 When's the last time any of these fish have seen a TX-rigged ribbontail worm?
Alright enough about me, let's get to bassin' with the pros!
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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 Jacob Wheeler won his 11th BPT at OH Ivie and Brownwood, TX
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How bad do you think the guys on the MLF Bass Pro Tour want to beat Jacob? You know the answer. They're gonna have to wait til Redcrest because he just won another. Here's how it went down in another BPT 2-laker.
Practice
> "The first day of practice I spent the first 4 hours on Lake Brownwood just because I wanted to see what kind of stage the fish were in there. ...I wanted to make sure I was spending the last bit of practice on OH Ivie – things tend to change a lot this time of year.
> "I ran around [Brownwood]...felt like the fish were pretty far along...not a lot of new ones spawning...some fry-guarders up there.
> "Ivie...I spent the next day and a half...flipped trees and bushes. I sort of got dialed in on a Bronco Bug bite and flipping a dropshot around with a Janitor [worm] once I figured out the depth zone. 5-7' seemed to be the best.
> "...a lot of stuff looked the same there. You had to flip to find them. One stretch was great, the next stretch...wouldn't have anything."
Tournament: Ivie
> "On Ivie, day 1 I started on a fish I shook off in practice. My second pitch with a Bronco Bug I caught a 7-lber. So it started off really good. My first 5 weighed 25 lbs [all 1st period, which was his FFS period].
> "The only reason I did that [FFS] is because I had that fish that I shook off and wanted to see if she was still there. I had [FFS] on that period, but wasn't like it was necessary....
> "2nd period I had to hunker down. I caught 2 more and lost 2 pretty good ones.
> "The 3rd period was really what jump-started what going on. I was flipping a stretch of bushes, and they came up schooling on the inside bush line. I caught 1 on a frog, another on a swim-jig and I took the lead...[the fish] went down and sorta disappeared.
> "I was in the lead after day 1 and now I had the bush thing going and the place where fish were feeding on bait – had a feeling they were staying in that area.
> "Day 2 I started where those fish blew up...a school of bass on the inside edge of that bush line. I'm assuming it was a shad spawn thing...I want to say I caught 30 lbs on a frog and swim-jig, and a couple more on a Bronco Bug.
> "[That bite] died off, then I went running around a little bit and I ended up catching a couple more on a Bronco Bug throughout the day. I had enough to win the round.
> "I was really conflicted on having enough to win the round because no one had ever won the Qualifying Round on a dual-lake tournament [and advanced directly to the last day] and won.... But a dang guaranteed top 10 – I was conflicted. I just decided that if the fish bit, I'd just go ahead and do it."
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Ivie baits
> Flipping: Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug (gp blue), 4/0 VMC RedLine HD Flipping Hook, 1/2-oz VMC Tungsten Weight, 25-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, Shimano Curado (8.3), 7' 6" H Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.
> Power shot: Rapala CrushCity Janitor (gp and gp magic), 3/0 VMC RedLine Worm Hook, 1/2-oz VMC Tungsten Dropshot Weight, 40-lb Sufix 832 Braid (dark green) to 20-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro Leader, KastKing Skeet Reese Icon Reel, 7' 2" MH Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.
> Frog (chart/white), 50-lb Sufix 832 Braid (dark green), Duckett reel, 7' 6" H Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.
He also caught 1-2 on a 3/8-oz swim-jig (white) with a CrushCity Cleanup Craw (pearl white).
[These are a selection of his baits from both lakes.]
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Tournament: Brownwood
> "...with the fish being further ahead ...I really felt like I could catch 'em on a ChatterBait, I thought I could catch a few spawners that were spawning a little deeper – 3-5' of water on some flats – and then I felt like I could frog if I needed to up in the day....
> "[Day 3 which he didn't fish was a catch-fest but] it also was cloudy all day, misty rain, a really good fishing day. Championship day it was sunny and windy as all get out – cold in the morning....
> "I hit the docks first. I went down a stretch of docks and caught 1...I just wasn't feeling it. I left to fish [his] other stretch of docks, and I hit a stretch where I caught 1 on basically every dock. The 1st 5 I caught weighed 18-14. ...with a 2-lb minimum it was all about quality.
[If you don't know the ins and outs of the BPT, a 2-lb minimum is common but doesn't happen 100% of the time.]
> "[Justin] Lucas was leading after period 1...we were sort of jawing back and forth....
> "Period 2 the wind got up. It was...only supposed to blow 10-15, but it was blowing 20 with gusts to 30. I turned on FFS and went to go fish spawners I found in practice. The first place I cast out there with a dropshot [and caught] a 2.5 lber. There were 2-2.5' waves...boat position was really difficult."
He caught another 2.5 and an almost 5, then pretty much the entire field went the rest of period 2 without boating a fish.
> "3rd period, I know I gotta catch them. In the back of my mind I wanted to go to my [backwater] frogging stretch, but it was really hard to get to...gonna be locked in and I didn't want to lock myself in.
> "I started on a stretch of docks with the vibrating jig again. I made a cast at a dock, got to the back of it – it looked so good. So I made another cast and nothing. I made the exact same cast the 3rd time and I catch a 3-lber. A huge lightbulb went on....
> "With an hour and a half to go I'm in the teeth of the wind – 2' waves are crashing on the docks. I went from a 7 3 MH rod to a 7 0 because I could make those roll casts so much easier in that wind.
> "It was literally like playing putt-putt golf with the windmill going around – you would have to time it perfectly between waves to get your bait underneath a dock in an opening. ...probably the most challenging conditions to fish boat docks I've ever fished in.
> "I ended up locking in and fishing that way [til the end]."
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Brownwood baits
> 1/2-oz Z-Man JackHammer with a 4.25" Rapala CrushCity Freeloader: white with a 'sight flash' Freeloader on docks when it was really blowing and the water got dirtier, and in clearer water a 'natural shad' or 'spot remover' JackHammer with an 'albino shad' or 'green shad' Freeloader.
> 17-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, KastKing Skeet Reese Icon Reel, either a 7' 3" MH Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod or 7' 0" MH Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod (for the dock bait).
> Flipping for fish spawning on stumps and brush using FFS: Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug (gp blue), 4/0 Rapala VMC RedLine Straight Shank Hook, 1/2-oz VMC Tungsten Weight, 20-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, Shimano Curado (8.3), 7' 6" H Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Rod.
> Dropshot: Rapala CrushCity Janitor (gp and gp magic), 2/0 VMC Finesse Neko Hook, 1/8-oz VMC Tungsten Dropshot Weight, 8-lb Sufix Revolve Braid (neon lime) to 14-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro Leader, Shimano Vanford Spin Reel (2500), 7' M Duckett Wheeler 2.0 Spin Rod.
Electronics
> "I definitely caught some of my fish throughout the week on [Lowrance] ActiveTarget 2. It helped me a lot, especially on Brownwood when there was a major lull...in the 2nd period. I put my range back to like 70' and bumped the contrast down a little bit.
> "...helped me on OH Ivie finding the bushes that were underneath the water. Everyone was fishing the bushes that were topped out and super full above the water. Some of the bushes that were under the water that just had a couple little sprigs sticking out, you could see how full they were [under the surface] with forward.
> "I would just make a pitch to that. Not see a fish, just go pitch in there.
> "Power-Poles were huge in that wind on Brownwood. Power-Poled down, the wind was so strong it wanted me to bump me [over] like a foot per wave....
> "I covered a lot of water on Brownwood, having lithiums. 3 people following me had AGMs and lead-acids and they were like, 'Our batteries are shot.' So Millertech was a huge part of it – being able to cover enough water...to go against the wind...."
Shoutouts
> "Shoutout to my mom and 2 sisters..for coming out. They've been to 3 tournaments that I've won: the All-American, the Forrest Wood Cup, might have been a BassFest back in the day. It's been a while since we've all been together at a tournament, and to have them up on stage, to be able to celebrate the win...it was cool to do that...."
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3 Qs with the man with the number of the day: 11!
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😁 The ol' Count! Let's get into it:
1. Did you plan to win right before Redcrest to psych out Dustin?
> "[Laughs] Dustin does his own psyching out – I don't need to help him. Redcrest, that's his tournament. Might as well call it 'Dustincrest'.
> "I don't know if I can psych him out, but I hope I did!"
2. You caught fish making multiple exact same casts to docks. How do you know when to do that vs just making 1-2 casts and moving on?
> "So that's something that you can't – there's no way of understanding it. You just feel like there's one there. It's more of a gut feeling.
> "It's not forward – I wasn't using electronics. It's just your intuition...you know there's one there.
> "I literally caught 4 fish making the exact same cast to the dock. I can't explain it. I felt like it was a God thing...'Hey make another cast, hey make another cast, one more.'
> "...those moments that happened. You can't explain it. It looks good, it fits the pattern and you just have the intuition it's gonna be one there."
3. When you hit a lake like Brownwood where you didn't have much practice on, how many different baits or techniques are rigged up in your rod box? Do you keep it simple or do you want to cover any possible scenario?
> "Simple? Heck no. That is not a part of my gameplan at all – simplicity is not. I literally have any given day 40 rods rigged and ready to go for any tournament.
> "So that scenario...I had DT16s to buzzbaits to [Rapala] Claptails, 3 frogs tied on, 4 different swimbaits, 3 jerkbaits, 2 crankbaits, 3 ChatterBaits, a spinnerbait – like everything. 3 swim-jigs, a bubba shot rig, 3 flipping sticks....
> "I had a day to rig tackle!" [We both laughed.]
> "Efficiency is everything. I want to have something rigged up for anything I could potentially see in the moment. I even had an offshore hair jig tied on...every scenario I can think of.
> "...take it out of the rod box, boom grab it, make a cast. I might only have it rigged up for 1 cast."
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How Jason Christie got on a spinnerbait bite and won the Tenn-Tom Elite
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Well that's really all you need to know! Spinnerbait bite + no FFS = Jason Christie win. Here's how his 9th Bassmaster W happened for him.
Practice
> "My initial thoughts was I knew there would be some fish still spawning and I wanted to spend as much time as far north as I could. If I ran 40-50 miles north, then...chances of a bigger population of fish spawning.
> "And you get up there and the river kinda changes – not as much backwaters, so you think there'd be more fish spawning because the river water is a little cooler than the backwaters.
> "I spent 1.5 days north and only found 1 area I thought was good. ...a nook in a bay, close to the channel. It was a big area, big enough I thought I could [do okay]. It was the only place I found on the whole river system that had milfoil. I thought there might be a population of fish that would stay there.
> "I spent the last day on the takeoff pool. I found the area where I ended up doing most of my damage literally like at 3:30 the last day. It was kinda of fortunate the way it worked out.
> "It took a while to get into it – it was kinda hard to get into. It was a belly in a flat, 3' at the deepest. It had hyacinth mats, lilypad stems, stumps and some other kind of grass – a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything.
> "I immediately had a bite – of course I had my hook covered up. It wasn't a big fish. I went another 50 yards and had a bite...just some fish in here.
> "It was so close to the ramp I didn't have high hopes for it because I figured people had found it and it was gonna get fished. So I was like, Here's a place that I can use to supplement...."
Tournament
Day 1 he ran north:
> "I thought the area I had up north was better than what it was. The 1st day I had a handful of bites and zero quality bites, so I ended up bailing.... It took so long to get there, I only got to fish like 4 hours. I fished it pretty throughly the 1st day so I pretty much wrote that off.
> "I came back with like 9 lbs and ran into the other area I found close to takeoff. I culled up to 12 lbs in 30 minutes, and made up my mind that's where I was gonna start the 2nd day."
That's where he fished, the same way, for the next 3 days:
> "I started in there the 2nd day and I was boat 50-something. I was watching to see if anybody went in there and nobody did – I still didn't know if anybody had fished in there.
> "I ran in there and could literally hear Mercer on the speaker releasing the boats...'That's the last boat, thanks for coming.' I look back and nobody's coming. I couldn't believe nobody's starting in here. I keep fishing, and all of a sudden here comes Seth – he was idling in.
> "So I gotta choose a side. I chose my side and he took off on the left. In the next 5 casts I caught a 4 lber, the next 5 another 4-lber. I decided if got to 15 lbs I was gonna leave because the area wasn't that big, especially divided by 2 anglers.
> "...just creeping along. My area was probably 3 acres and I would just creep along and make a cast at everything. It would take me about 1 hour and 15 minutes to make a circle...going as slow as you can go, just covering everything. I wanted to go really slow....and also it gives it time to rest.
> "The 3rd day of the event the lake got low. The wind blew out of the north really hard, and along with the direction of the river current drew that backwater down so I saw a lot of stuff I didn't know was there. That's how I caught a lot of my big ones the 3rd day, off stuff I didn't know was there."
Same deal on day 4.
Baits
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> 1/2-oz BOOYAH Covert Single CO Spinnerbait (#4.5 single CO, chart/white/blue) with a YUM Covert Trailer (white), 20-lb Sunline Shooter fluoro, SPRO Jason Christie MG Reel (5.6), 6' 10" MH Falcon Cara Head Turner Rod.
> Why chart/white with blue: "It just makes it look like it has a back in the dirtier water. If you hold it in your hand it's not that appealing, but if you put it in 3-4 inch visibility water it looks like a shad. In that dirtier water I like some dark in my bait.
> "It's also good all-around. I feel like I can catch 'em [with it] in the dirtiest water and borderline getting too clear for a spinnerbait.
> "When the water gets super dirty, I can literally take my fingers and spin the skirt and put the blue on the bottom, and it totally changes the color of the spinnerbait without having to put a new spinnerbait on.
> "That's my favorite color even though we have a 'JC special' [color]."
> About the 5.6 reel: "I still don't get how people haven't figured that out. 5.6 is just the right speed for a spinnerbait."
> 1/2-oz BOOYAH Mobster Swim Jig (b/b) with a YUM Craw Chunk (gp), 50-lb Sunline SX1 Braid, same reel (7.3), 7' 2" MH Falcon Cara Swim Jig Rod.
> "...I made a pass in the morning with the spinnerbait and got the aggressive ones. I felt like the females wanted that spinnerbait. Then I switched to the swim-jig a little bit."
> Flipping: YUM Wooly Bug (b/b), 4/0 Trokar TK130 Hook, 3/8-oz tungsten weight, 25-lb Sunline Shooter, same reel (8.1), 7' 3" H Falcon Cara JC Pitching Stick.
Electronics
> New Garmin 360: "I had it on in practice – that place is pretty treacherous with stumps and things like that so I was super careful. I was marking stumps I couldn't see...in the area I ended up winning out of. The 3rd day of the tournament I caught the 2 biggest fish off stumps I'd marked and couldn't see. It was a big deal.
> "The [LakeVu] mapping we had was good. A lot of these backwaters, even though they looked good, were really shallow. They didn't have any kind of belly or gut in them. I could only get a bite if deeper water – 3-4' – was pretty close. Our mapping...showed the deeper water."
Shoutouts
> "Everybody was really respectful, the anglers and the locals, where we were fishing. That could've gotten really bad with such a small area. The locals stayed outside and watched, and [other Elites] didn't come in there. [With] Seth and I everything went good...."
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3 Qs with the Blade Runner
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I guess AI can't do a realistic Jason Christie! 😁 Anyhow, if the spinnerbait bite is on and Jason is in a tourney, as they say in Jersey: Fuggetaboutit! It's on like King Kong. Here's 3 with Mr Blade:
1. So the plan all along was to release this new spinnerbait trailer and then win a tournament with it?
> "That's the plan but that doesn't always work out.
> "...you know you released a good bait whenever Elite Series pros come up to and say to you, 'I'm glad you released that – we needed something like that.' They're not even [YUM] sponsored anglers, just shallow-water fishermen.
> "The positive on that trailer release has been overwhelming."
2. How is it different than the old Mann's twin-tail and the Zoom one?
> "A few things – one is the little boots on the bottom gives it action at slow speeds, and the colors. It's just everything I wanted in [a spinnerbait trailer] and we built it."
3. Are you aware that a lot of people, including younger Elite fishermen, think you're the scariest guy on tour?
> "That's what they say and I'm kinda glad they think that. I don't know why they think it, but I'm glad they do.
> "I'm business on the water – I think that's how it should be. I don't know – I just hope they keep thinking that."
[My 2c: Jason is pretty chill and joyful now. So if they're scared of him now, 10 years ago they would've ran just hearing him coming lol.]
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2. Byron Velvick is doing a bank fishing 101 series
Kinda cool – when's the last time someone "of renown" did that?
3. AL: Big bass boat-winner helps another win a boat
Very cool – gotta love bassin' peeps (the non-negative ones lol):
> 27-year-old Will Robinson had just won a Phoenix bass boat valued at $80,000 in the Lake Guntersville Big Bass Splash for catching a largemouth weighing 8.48 lbs. And to make his day even better, his name was then called for the event's Elimination Boat Drawing...1 of only 5 people in the crowd whose name was drawn to take part....
> At that point, the structure of the contest is "last man standing." In other words, if your name is drawn from a hat, you're eliminated...until finally only 1 person...is left standing.
> ...Chuck Bridgewater (80) standing on the far right of the stage who has his name called first, meaning he's out of the running to win the boat. He's supposed to take a fishing rod as a consolation prize and then leave the stage. But before he can do so, Robinson steps forward and insists on taking his place by being eliminated.
And yep, Chuck ended up getting the boat. Outstanding! Bless you Will, great stuff man. ✝️💪💪
4. CA: Frog Factory Sonic Boom Frog won small Delta derby
Dang Freddy was right, that frog actually works! 😁🤙 Not sure what color it was but here's 'dirty bird':
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Been awhile since we derped! Got a bunch of these stacked up so don't remember who sent me this'n but it's a real nice spotted derp! 😁🤙 Keep on sendin' 'em!
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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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