Anyone bought anything from MK2 Designs? Saw a good vid about removing the port-side rod tubes in the Vexus I have, and he uses an MK2-made boot for the opening. Never heard of 'em so asking....
Startin' to climb outta the ICAST stuff but a little more coming – let's go!
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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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"Before The General came around, I was almost on the verge of quitting."
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That's John Cox talkin' what sounds like crazy talk but he's serious – from a real good post on the Bassin'masters site. Some excerpts but worth a full read:
The General changed my career
> In '16 I told myself I was going to add a stickbait into my arsenal and try to put more fish in the boat on those days where I am really struggling. That is what was killing me, I wasn't catching limits. That worm helped me get 5 on so many days where I struggled, and got me to the final day where I could win with something else.
> I was testing a bunch of the MaxScent stuff, and The General was the one I liked the best. I knew instantly it was going to be a difference-maker. An Open has so many people in the field and you end up fishing behind people. I was so shocked that I could go behind people and throw it in the same areas, at cypress trees or reeds, and catch them.
> When I look back, if I took away that worm, I don't know any tournament that I would have won, let alone stay in contention.
> I've been learning more and more how to work it in different seasons. I mostly wacky rig it in the spring. As the season goes on, I use it a lot more with a TX rig and a lot more with a Neko rig.
> One thing I've done recently is throw it on a weightless TX rig and work it like a jerkbait. I've had quite a bit of success jerking it on the surface...almost like a floating worm.
> Even after throwing The General solid for the last 6 years, I still haven't figured it all out. I am still learning stuff with it, which is mind-blowing. I don't know...many baits where I learn stuff with it every year. You can just do so many things with it.
He also said:
> Baby bass is my favorite color, but sometimes if they don't want that color, I'll go to a black or junebug color. Those color switches can make all the difference in the world.
Listen – pretty sure if John isn't fishing "baby bass," he's doing it to sandbag someone nearby...😁
One more tip – John likes to infuse his own manly scent into Generals, making them UltraMaxStankyScent:
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5 Qs with Jody "White" Blanco
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How 'bout a MLF media dude winning an Open? How 'bout beating the Johnstons and other northern hammers on the St Lawrence?? Did you know – and did Jody know – he made bassin' history on Sunday? Let's find out:
1. Do you consider yourself a bass fishing media guy?
> "Yeah I definitely do. That's my job, it's how I get paid. I like to bass-fish a lot and I do it on the side, but my work is the media stuff. Evidence of that is the fact that I was on a plane at 6:50 [Mon morning] in Albany, working my way to La Crosse to finish out [coverage of] the Invitational season."
2. Are you aware that you're the first media guy in the history of bassin' to have ever won a major tournament?
> "I thought that might be the case but I did not really dive into it to try to figure it out.
> "Also some folks who are retired [pros] who are now media guys – Davy Hite for sure, and I think JT Kenney has won major events – sort of muddy the waters a little bit.
> "But I definitely appreciate that I'm in somewhat rare air and it's really cool."
[Little perspective: Most media guys are like me, 100% certain there's no way we will ever be remotely as good as the pros. A few guys over the years have thought, 'I can do that,' tried to do it and got their rears handed to 'em. The fact that Jody IS that good "on the side" even for 1 tournament is pretty dang amazing:
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He wondered if I was going to ask if he knew he was just the 2nd Vermonter to win an Open, the other being Bryan Labelle's 2018 win on Champlain. Let's go Green Mountain peeps! Literally our first line of defense against Canada...😤]
3. How much sabotage was required to beat the Johnstons? 😁
> "I wish I had really dastardly plans, but I think Cory honestly just had a tough day on the river. He said he lost a lot of fish so I probably got a little bit lucky to beat him – because generally speaking those guys are unbeatable up there."
4. How much did technology figure in your win?
> "It was a really big part of it.
> "I borrowed a 21' Phoenix from my friend Billy Gilbert to make the run – I run a 20' aluminum Vexus...I'm not winning that tournament without borrowing that boat.
> "Forward-facing sonar, Garmin LiveScope in this case, was huge. It's something I've used a lot over the years and have really grown to love. I feel like I'm really dialed in on it and it was definitely important to the win."
5. What were your main rigs?
> "I threw a dropshot with a [Berkley MaxScent] Flat Worm in gp and 'brown back,' and threw a Keitech Swim Impact Fat in 3.3 and 3.8 sizes on a 3/8-oz head. I threw a Carolina rig with a 3/4-oz weight and a gp Zoom Speed Craw. Gotta go old school on the river.
> "The dropshot and swimbait were the main deals. I caught a few on the Carolina rig. I don't think I weighed one on it, but I picked it up when it was slow and I felt like I needed to make something happen.
> "Saturday was the first day of practice for the Opens – I fished the ABA that day, had 27 lbs and won that."
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[He also had big fish, a 6.37.]
> "Then I called Billy and said, 'Billy I think I have to borrow your boat.' He and I went to high school together – we were the only 2 guys in our VT high school who liked bass fishing and knew who Kevin VanDam was...been friends ever since."
Bonus Q: Is it true you bet Boyd Duckett you would get to Classic, win it and be even with him? 😁
> "I did not and I also did not make it to the Classic – I only fished the one [Open]."
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"That combo...allows me to break down water extremely fast and fish extremely efficiently during the tournament."
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- Saginaw Bay NPFL winner GA's Trent Palmer, who owns SonarPros talkin'. Full quote:
> "My boat is completely dialed with all the best technology installed by my company SonarPros. I have 2 Lowrance in the console and all 3 brands – Humminbird, Lowrance and Garmin – in the front.
> "That combo, powered by X2 Power Batteries, allows me to break down water extremely fast and fish extremely efficiently during the tournament."
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How 'bout Patrick Walters towing Trent in on the final day and finishing 2nd to him by just 2 oz! That's pretty dang good of him!
From a post at thenationalprofessionalfishingleague DOT com – still can't link it.... Here's SonarPros stuff on the TW.
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SHORTER spin rods for Neddin'?
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Does shorter spin rods sound crazy? Well did you think Ned-riggin' was crazy when you first heard about it?? 😁 Check this deal, from a long post on the Z-Man site that's worth readin' if you're a big-time Nedder...or maybe if you fish tough lakes.
Neddin' co-pioneer Drew Reese talkin':
> "These might be the first sub-6' spinning rods in a generation. But pick one up and you'll immediately wonder why you've been weighed down by 7-footers for so long.
> "The overarching idea is that creating a superior sense of feel is all about rod weight and length. A shorter, super-light blank simply puts you in closer contact with your lure and the fish. Like your hand is in a direct conversation with your lure...each move of the rod tip transmits straight to the lure and back to your fingertips again.
> "...reduce the rod's weight by several ozs and you effectively trim so much unnecessary baggage between your fingertips and the lure.
> "...every little twitch of the rod tip moves the bait a short, precise distance. It's almost a 1-to-1 relationship. Whereas the same maneuvers with longer 7' sticks tend to move the lure much greater distances, often to the detriment of a precise presentation.
> "Now add a light low-stretch braided line to one of these shorter precision rods and you're suddenly detecting more strikes than you can imagine.
> "Almost everyone who's sampled these rods says the same thing. Suddenly, they're feeling everything. They're immediately detecting exactly what their lure is doing, where it goes and the intensity or hesitancy with which different fish bite."
The rods are called Drew's Ultimate Ned Rig Rods and I believe will be sold by Z-Man, starting next month:
> 2 ML F models include a 5' 4" (4- to 8-lb line) and a 5' 10" (4- to 10-lb line)...weigh a mere 1.75-oz and 2.2-oz respectively.
> "Anglers who see a TN handle [where you tape on your reel] today might scratch their heads. But experiencing a rod's true performance can't be fully realized until you've found the precise balance point, or fulcrum, between rod and reel."
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Looking back at that reminds me of a convo I had with 2 young'n guns at ICAST. They were saying it would be cool if the MLF pros fished vs the Elites based on some ranking system. I was like, "Did that already" and walked 'em through the whole BassFan Top Gun Championship – which happened when they were single-digit years old! 🤯
If you don't remember that, click here and read about the APPEARANCE FEE the pros got. Yes it can be done – proved it with my own $$$. Believe that also was the first major weigh-in in a Cabela's/Bass Pro lot....
Kenny Duke and Terry Baksay have a LOTTA bassin' history to cover that lots of folks know nothing about – the Hall of Famousness too. Git after it peeps! (I don't mean the stuff about me, that's just an example.)
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Top trend, Top bait launch, Top question, Top surprise!
Sea Foam Top 5 in Bass Fishing, Ep 57!
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Boiled down the top trends 'n stuff in this one – sorry for the Pad Crasher in my throat! 😁
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1. Keith Poche is not fishing the St Clair Elite...
...because he fished the St Clair MLF BPT.
2. Cory Johnston says the St Lawrence is changing.
> "This place is changing. It's getting a ton of pressure and the fish are doing a lot of different things than they normally do. They're getting really hard to catch...."
3. Gerald Swindle: Skirt or no skirt for buzzbaits?
Bassmaster vid answers that Q – spoiler is: no skirt, small trailer (Zoom Z Craw Jr), no trailer hook. His new Buckeye buzzbait is not on TW yet....
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4. Russ Lane: How to catch fish that don't commit to topwater.
BB vid with Russ a few years back, good stuff that applies this time of year....
5. SC: Wateree getting a bunch of new artificial structure.
Sounds like it should be done in Aug, will be between 30-70' depth:
> As Duke Energy works to upgrade a section of the Wateree Hydroelectric Facility Spillway, 5,200 tons of concrete and other construction materials removed from the spillway will be used to create 4 new artificial fish-attractor sites throughout the lake at the direction of SCDNR fisheries biologists. 2 existing fish attractor sites will also be upgraded.
6. DE tagged 3 bass for its first bassin' contest.
> For the contest, 1 tagged bass will be placed in New Castle County’s Lums Pond, Kent’s Killens Pond and Sussex’s Trap Pond, giving fishers a chance to win a number of prizes....
7. Quick underwater vid of the Bucca Weedless Baby Bull Shad.
Personally I trust anything with Mike's name on it, except maybe his tuna casserole...😂 Okay I have no idea what his casserole is like but tuna casserole ain't my thing!
Can only get those baits here right now. Reminder of what they look like:
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> "I finally got a chance to clean it up and hoped to get the 25-hp Evinrude motor running. I was able to drain the old gas and add fresh gas with a can of Sea Foam Marine PRO. After a few attempts the motor started! I was shocked."
If it does that it'll sure keep ya motor clean! Should be able to get Marine PRO at Wally Marts and maybe auto parts stores. Regular Sea Foam Motor Treatment works in outboards too....
2. Here's your occasional reminder about the Pitbull Tackle Braid Cutters:
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Have we forgotten about the ol' ringworm?
No idea how ringworms popped into my head, but I remembering fishing 'em, catching fish with 'em – and now I don't think I have any? Anyhow, got to looking on the webz and seems like ringworms are one of the least-talked-about baits in the internet era cuz there's hardly anything out there.
Here's a little reminder juice from an older Bassmaster post:
> Guide John Carruth of Davenport, WA favors a 4" ringworm made...by Jerry's Lures as his slow-fall, do-everything soft plastic. The Saturn Worm falls slowly partly because of its action tail, partly because of the resistance of its rings and partly because it's fairly buoyant.
> "It's really a combination of things, but the rings and the soft plastic make this worm swim as it sinks, and I think that helps catch fish."
> It's a fact that as jighead weight decreases, the body has more of an impact on how the lure performs. For instance, pair a 1/32-oz head with a 3" grub, and you'll see a lure that swims slowly, side-to-side, as it falls. To visualize this action, think of a minnow slowly swimming downward. The action is the same.
A search for "ringworm" on TW comes up zip. "Ring worm" gets you a few options.
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"It's no good for looking for fish. It's too slow."
- First Classic winner Bobby Murray's partial opinion of forward-facing sonar. More:
> When Lowrance offered its first electronic "flasher" unit, Murray was one of the first to buy it. Whenever something new came out, he bought it, including LiveScope. Murray quickly realized that LiveScope is not the magic bullet it's made out to be.
> "You've got to really be methodical if you're going to cover any water with it, but as a tool to show you what's down there."
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How 'bout this hat tan! 🤯 That's TX stick and Strike King bait designer Todd Castledine as posted by B-Rad Hallman. I saw Todd briefly at ICAST and can verify that that deal is real! 😁
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Their massive muscles and mouth allow them to wreak havoc on their prey.
- Line from a People post on great white sharks. I have a hard time thinking anyone who can read that doesn't know that already about great whites? Maybe People shoulda mentioned they're not really white and they have a fin on their back! 🤣
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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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