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Today's Top 4
Berkley rolls out 2 new Forward-Facing Science baits
Check the new Berkley Finisher:
And the one I'm most stoked about, the Berkley Krej:
If you're anti-FFS, hold up a sec – like I always say, you don't need FFS to catch fish with these baits, and maybe thank FFS for leading to the development of a whole new class of baits which at least one of these is.
Berkley is having a couple-day deal at NASA in Houston to roll out these baits, which should be on Tackle Warehouse soon. I have a bunch of good info on them, on FFS fishing and bass behavior from Berkley folks and the pros here. Can't drop it all here and now, but here's a starter pack on the new stuff. More coming next week.
1. Berkley is designing baits for FFS
What does "baits designed for FFS" mean: Baits that can be fished throughout the entire water column (top to bottom) with actions from chill to aggressive – which anglers can manipulate, watching the screen, to get fish to commit.
Also baits that can stay in the strike zone longer.
Berkley marketing head man Jon Schlosser:
> "Anglers with FFS are now able to see what Berkley has been seeing in the lab for years." [Meaning how bass are reacting to stuff in real time.]
> "...match the hatch, deliver a certain action...we wanted to go different route and attack it differently.
> "How do I get [a bait to the fish] accurately, how to get it to stay in the strike zone longer, how to draw the fish out of cover, [and] once I draw it out of cover how do I get [the fish] to commit.
> "How to keep a lure in the strike zone...without FFS we were guessing. Get it there fast and keep it there...."
Berkley PhD scientist John Prochnow:
> "Now that anglers are watching fish live on sonar, we think we're in a very unique position from the things we already know [decades of fish science including lots of watching bass]...we can find ways to help the angler interact with what they're seeing.
> "We're using science and and technology to find the next frontier for anglers, to interact with fish."
INTERACT WITH FISH! I love that. That's really what we're talking about with FFS, and to me it accurately describes the fun of it rather than the scary/cheating rep some are bent to give it. Thanks John!
Speaking for myself, took a while to get my brain around a bait that could have multiple actions – so long that Berkley put me in a boat with Mike Iaconelli to finally understand it, which I did (shout out to Berkley's Aaron Wavra – thanks man!). Here's the vid on the Switch on the BB YT.
Here's some info on the 2 newest Berkley FFS baits:
What's a Krej? It's "jerk" spelled backwards – because this is a lot like a jerkbait that "swims" backwards. That bill makes it look a little like the Jackall Riser Bait (a topwater), but the Krej is a totally different bait. It's a jerkbait-like (Stunna body) FFS bait that:
Swims UP when you jerk it
Backs up and sinks when you give it slack or drop your rod tip
You cast it and it will sink backward and shimmy/roll on slack line, then will work UP the water column if you jerk it – or you can keep it where it is in the column, working it back slower. So:
Bass like to hit something that's above them, including near the surface "barrier"
Lotsa times fish will open their mouths for something backing up toward them
It's a jerkbait (ish) that you don't just jerk away from the fish – you jerk it away and it drops/swims back to the fish
You can pull it away from the fish, brushpile, etc, then let it slide back to the fish, and keep doing that as many times as you want
Berkley's head bait developer Dan Spengler says that when you pull the Krej forward, it "surges:"
> "That surge is not really talked about [in terms of bait actions that trigger fish]. This bait surges forward and causes that innate strike response.
> "That surge and die [when you give it slack so it backs up and shimmys]...looks like a struggling baitfish."
He also said:
- When you pop it or raise the rod tip and then let it flutter back down, it's kinda like what a flutter spoon does.
- The bait always has action. It's always moving.
- You can straight retrieve it like a spybait. I saw that in a tank and it looked good!
- You can make it scurry across the top of the water.
- Comes in 1 size = 100 mm = 4"
Absolutely can't get outta my head fishing that thing around brushpiles and under docks! The pros here say it's the real deal. We'll see mang!
Like the Power Switch, I didn't really get this one til I saw it being worked in the tank. It's kinda like a hard bait version of the Switch in that it can do similar, multiple things, but it's also different.
The actions of both baits are somewhat like a Rapala Jigging Rap, aka "ice jig," one of the most popular walleye and ice fishing baits of all time. It's also being used on the down-low for deeper bass – so much that Rapala came out with a bass-specific version at ICAST that looks like this:
Every other bait of that style – what walleye anglers call "glide baits" – has those wings. Berkley and walleye pro Chase Parsons wanted something like it action-wise but without the wings, and which wasn't as heavy. What they ended up with after 3 years is the Finisher.
Chase said all those ice jig-style baits are good at 1 thing – like vertical-jigging, or casting and hopping it back. But he says the Finisher is good at all of 'em and more, plus:
> "It has 2 trebles so your hookup ratio is much better.
> "It sinks a little slower so it lets you keep it in front of suspended fish."
Other tiddybits:
Erratic side to side action
It rolls and flashes as it's darting
Sometimes when you rip it it can back away from you
When it comes back to center (after jerking), the tail of it moves/twitches like a live minnow
You can stroll it (straight reel, maybe with a little jiggle) and it has a little tail "thumping" action
Dan:
> "If the fish doesn't commit, drop it and fish it horizontal."
When I said the Finisher seemed like a hard-plastic version of the Switch, Chase said since it's more buoyant, you can keep it in the fishes' face better.
Comes in 3 sizes: 5, 7 and 9 = 1/3, 1/2 and 3/4-oz.
The baits and the whole approach to designing 'em is pretty dang interesting. One more interesting deal is that Berkley didn't wait to announce these baits at the Classic or at ICAST, and the baits are available to buy as you read this or soon. 👀
Several folks at other companies also have been pushing for not waiting for ICAST to launch baits and for fall to start selling 'em – maybe this is the start of more of that?
More about these baits and bassin' at NASA coming next week.
That other trend: BIG
You might recollect that the 2 trends I saw at ICAST last year (and in general) are finesse – driven by FFS and since-Covid fishing pressure – and the opposite: big baits. Don't just mean big swimbaits, though that's a thing that's never going away and for sure they've been fished more in more in tournaments over the past few years...and those baits can also be more effective with FFS.
> Based on a custom 10/0 VMC 60-degree heavy duty jig hook with the super slick PTFE coating.... Available in 1-oz or 1.5-oz sizes...offered in the top 6 big-bait color patterns including 'green gizzard,' 'bruiser' and 'rainbow trout'...will retail for $15.99.
> ...think of Ike's Monster Jig as the big swimbait of jigs. "Glide baits and big swimbaits are becoming super popular because they work. The Monster Jig will be another option for anglers going after big bass that are in thicker cover or in water deeper than you can reach with traditional big glides. It's also gonna be a weapon for catching suspended giant fish off of forward facing sonar!"
A 10/0 hook!! Gonna need one of Skeeter Reese's 10' poles to set that hook mang! 😁 Anyhow, if you've got a hook that big, how 'bout putting this on it...
That's just under 5" of triple Whopper with cheese for flippin' or jiggin'. Personally I'm real interested in it, just because the basses will see it as a Whopper or 32-oz steak:
That's Colby Dark, 18, and Gage Struben, 19, on Dec 28 with a limit that was almost 51 or 48.5 (2 difference scales) with a 13-05 kicker. Whatever it weighed could be the LA record for 5 fish...though this limit wasn't caught in a tourney. Deets from LA Sportsman:
> Dark and Struben whacked big bass in the lake a day earlier but ran out of the prime meal ticket – a 3/4-oz V&M Football Jig to which they added a green pumpkin Crock-o-Gator creature bait. Their biggest 5 bass that day weighed an estimated 40 lbs.
> ...they called it a day, went home and restocked their supply while planning to fish again the next day. They got on the water at 6:30 am with...a social media marketing agency, to film the pending beatdown of big ol' bass....
> Their first bass during the cold morning was a 10-lb-class fish."It was kind of slow," Dark said.
> "We went graphing and found them in the middle of a roadbed, kind of toward the end at the grass at like 13' deep. When we pulled up, it was cast after cast. We missed 2 really big ones that came off right at the boat."
> "They fought pretty hard," Struben said. "They'd just try to dig down, like they were trying to wrap up in something. They were so fat they couldn't really jump...just come up to the surface and shake their head."
3 Qs with Van Foster of Bass Boat Technologies
Are there technologies on bass boats? 😁 Of course, but Van's company actually makes mounts. In fact, I believe Van made the first dual-screen mounts ever made? For himself, when he fished the FLW Tour, and then for his good bud Randall "tharpon" Tharp.
Eventually he decided to kick pro bassin' to the curb and founded Bass Boat Technologies. I was talking to him about mounts for my boat and on the spot decided to ask him a few Qs since he knows a lot, and every component of this 'lectronics deal is important. Here we go:
bassboattech.com
1. What are the top things folks don't know about mounts?
> "Basically that every boat – every year and model – is different. You can buy a generic mount that will probably do the job okay. But when you spend that much money on electronics, you want a custom mount made for that particular boat and those particular units so they're safe.
> "[Some] don't do their research as far as mounts and stuff. They just buy whatever, and when they finally try one of ours, they say they'll never have any other mount on their boat. 'It looks perfect, it looks like it came from the factory'...not an obvious aftermarket piece."
2. What's the most common mistake you see when guys order mounts?
> "The most common mistake is they don't do research. Do your research, look at the pictures, see what they look like, and see what [the mounts] do and don't have."
Follow-up: You ever see people ordering the wrong mounts?
> "I read every order that comes in. I don't have a giant customer service department that prints off all these orders. I look at each one – year, boat brand, what model, what graphs they're putting on it. Then if I see something wrong, I shoot them an email and ask...and correct the orders right then.
> "I hate more than anything in the world to send someone the wrong stuff."
3. What boat do you run and what are your electronics on it?
> "To tell the truth, I don't have a boat. I fished on the FLW Tour. For 3 years I was Randall Tharp's full-time practice partner, then I went to the pro side – I had a Ranger Z520. He's the one who asked me if I could make a mount. I said, Yup – I'm an inventor. God gave me that talent. I've had 3 different businesses, and they've all been niche businesses. That's the mind He gave me. I look at everything from a different point of view.
> "[Randall] put [the mount] on his boat...we ran those mounts secretly. The next year, he asked me, 'Can you put 2 on the dash?' I said yeah. I made one for my boat first, then sent one to him. He said, 'Whoa that will change the game.' That's how the whole business started. ...then all the pro guys were saying, 'Man I gotta have them.' At the time I was making them at night by hand.
> "During the 2012 season I had so many orders come through – and when you're a professional bass fisherman, that's what you need to do. You need to concentrate on bass fishing. I would think about mounts. Then me and the Lord had a talk...'I think this is what you want me to do.' Not only to make a living, but I love designing new stuff every single day.
> "So I sold my boat. I unloaded all my tackle 12 years ago and it's still sitting in the same exact spot.
[🤯]
> "Professional tournament fishing, or competitive bass fishing – it's an addiction. My family got ticked at me when I sold my boat and quit fishing. They said, 'That's what you wanted to be doing all your life.' I said I thought I could do the fishing world more good doing this....
> "I have not been in a bass boat or fished a tournament in 12 years, but I'm more connected to the fishing world now than I ever was back then. I love what I do. But as long as I don't sit my butt in a bass boat and blast off, I'm good. Because if I ever do that again, it'd be on like donkey kong."
Now that's a serious competitive streak! Enjoyed talking to him, hopefully you did too. His company's site is here. Believe Randall and Mark Rose are BBT-sponsored, but lots of guys run those mounts.
> "I was fishing a little bit offshore. Nothing super deep [boat in 10']. I was using a brown/purple football jig and a dropshot rig. There was a lot of bait around the area....
> "...the last couple of weeks have been tough here. The fish seem to be moving around a lot, like saltwater fish. They're on the move daily with the bait. So if you can time it right, you can really catch them."
2nd annual big bass derby, May 30-Jun 1, no pros or guides allowed.
> The 2023 Minn Kota & Humminbird Owner's Tournament paid out over $150,000 in cash and prizes with 50% of the anglers participating in the tournament either receiving a prize or cash payout....
> The 1st-place finisher will receive a grand prize of $50,000, with a total of over $180,000 in cash and prizes paid out to the entire field during the event. ...anglers have the flexibility to compete in 1, 2 or all 3 days of competition, vying for hourly prizes.
Up to 3 anglers per boat, entries are $275 (fish all 3 days), $175 (2 days) or $125.
> There was no difference in blue catfish [catch] by anglers using LIS [live-imaging sonar, aka FFS] and anglers not using LIS.
> Anglers using LIS thought their time spent searching and catch would have been similar if they did not use LIS. Anglers that did not use LIS thought they would spend more time searching for fish and catch may have increased if using LIS.
> Time spent searching for angling locations was greater for anglers using LIS than those not using LIS.
That last one = yep, at least when I use it! Too much time lookin' and not enough time fishin'!
> The metal fabrication Center of Excellence will be equipped with the latest laser and robotic fabrication technology.... Most of these products will come to market under the Attwood brand.
> The new state-of-the-art battery lab and assembly capability will aid in the design and development of custom power solutions for the nearly 20 end-markets that Navico Group serves with brands like Mastervolt and RELiON Battery. The lab will enable engineers to develop and test end-to-end battery technologies....
Battery deal is interesting. Expect the other 'lectronics brands to do the same at some point.
> The Avikus and AquaSport collaboration will advance the recreational sport boating market by harnessing the power of AI, sensor fusion and machine learning....
> Avikus' NeuBoat technology will bring the innovations seen in the automotive sector to the recreational marine market, such as 360-degree situational awareness, 3D cluster views, advanced route planning, "smart" autopilot navigation that can identify objects and avoid potential collisions, and most importantly, autonomous self-docking capability.
[NeuBoat? Pat Neu of the NPAA – they might owe you a royalrty man! 😁]
> "In winter I like a natural-color jig, like green pumpkin craw, and I'm probably going to use a chunk behind it, something that doesn't have a lot of action...create a subtle presentation."
> ...he works the bait slowly.... When he gets to a prime piece of cover, he works it thoroughly and waits for the fish to warm up to the idea of eating.
> "In the wintertime I get a higher percentage of bites when my bait is resting on the bottom. The rest of the year I'd say 70-80% of the bites come when the bait is falling, but in the wintertime...you have to slow down and work for the bites."
Quote of the Day
"...I learned from FFS the longer I can keep my bait in front of that fish, the better chance I have of catching it."
- Joey Cifuentes talkin' FFS at the Berkley Forward Facing Science deal. Might sound like duh! But read it a couple times – real insightful...and reminds me of older-style bass fishing (pre-KVD?) and sight-fishing.
> A suspect was caught on camera Wednesday night removing a 50-lb, living tarpon from Bass Pro Shop’s fish tank with netting he grabbed from the shelf. Then he left the store with the fish.
Just another day in FL mang! 🤣
Ya got me!
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'!
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 whatever....
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