Didja ketch any? Hope so! Yep I was a sports dad again. Don't usually mention stuff about that but today will shout this out:
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My son's team, UVA lacrosse, won the whole deal! Crazy. He's just a frosh and no freshmen O players see the field unless they're waaay ahead, but like I told him, this year the spotlight wasn't on him so when he gave it his all in practice – and persevered through covid persecution by the school (for real) – all the glory went to the Lord, none could go to him. Amazing.
As amazing as that is, fwiw I make a point to stress to both my kids I'm equally happy watching either of them do anything at any level. So if my daughter wasn't nursing a high ankle sprain, she and I would've been at her tourney yesterday instead of watching my son's team win the natty. All amazing.
Little shorter BB today, let's go!
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Ott DeFoe skipped a crankbait?? to win the Harris Chain BPT tourney.
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Ott knew he was fishing the same stretch as his bud and skippin' maestro Andy Montgomery. So he was like, What bait would Andy never skip? Because even tho Andy is legit crazy 😁 he ain't crazy enough to even think about tying on a crankbait when he can skip a jig/bladed jig into a crack the width of a human hair from 40 yards away...without making hardly a sound.
So Ott, being unable to NOT fish a crankbait, had a eureka moment: I will skip a crankbait! And that was all she wrote – Ott won, Andy finished 4th fishing pretty much the same stretch, and they're still not talking.
> Rapala OG Slim, all new colors for this year: hot copper green shad (top), bream (middle), copper green shad (none on TW yet):
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> 7' MH Bass Pro Shops Cranking Stick, Johnny Morris Platinum Reel (6.8), 14-lb Bass Pro Shops XPS fluoro.
> 3/8- and 1/2-oz prototype Terminator swim-jig (glimmer blue), 3" Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad (pro blue), 7' 1" M Bass Pro Shops Platinum Rod, same reel (6.8), 17-lb XPS fluoro.
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How he fished the docks:
> "...under the dock as [far] as I possibly could. The Slim is a flat-side but you still can't skip it very well, but that was the best thing to get them to rect to it. Some were too low so I had to throw the swim-jig under it...."
> Slim retrieve: "Speed it up, slow it down, twitch it, very erratic. It's something they don't see a lot of. They don't see a ton of [flat-sides] in FL in general, but especially under a boat dock...they see a ton of bladed jigs."
> Swim-jig retrieve: "...shake it a little bit."
> Electronics: "The biggest thing was my Talons because the biggest key to catching those fish lot of times was making repetitive casts...I think because the fish were moving through those areas...at a good spot, sit there and keep throwing."
> "I give God all the credit for sure. My knowledge and my direction took me to Griffin on day 1. I still don't have a good understanding of why those fish didn't bite. The conditions were basically identical to what they were in practice but the fish just didn't bite. Because of that I didn't go back and I won. If I did what I wanted to have happen...probably not make championship much less win. But He had a better plan. Sometimes He closes a window to open a door and that's what this week was."
> MLF format: "I truly love what we do. In a traditional event, with a bad 1st day like I had, your event is over with. You won't win the tournament. That can still happen in these [BPT events] but it's neat...to [be able to] come back and make the cut, and end up winning the tournament."
> The Rapala OG Slim will have 2 more new colors: Coosa special and Classic craw, which will look like the Sharpied-up Storm Arashi Vibe Ott used to win the '19 Classic...and "Classic craw" is an Arashi Vibe color.
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1. Did your parents ever tell you they named you Ott because they knew you'd be great at catching fish just like an Otter?
> "They did not. Don't think they had any idea that I would tun out to be a fisherman at that time."
[🤔 I can't see naming your kid after an Otter without thinking he will be great at catching fish? Either way, Ott was very observant as a young'n:]
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2. Were you tempted to name any of your kids Kingfisher or maybe Cy Young or MVP?
> "No. But Parker is Parker Frederick DeFoe – his initials are PFD, which means you should always wear your PFD. That's pretty funny and was not by design."
3. Do you ever have a feeling you're going to win one before you start or does it just happen?
> "I've had the feeling I'd win one before I started [a tourney] but it didn't always happen. I did have it before the Classic....
> "I was oddly calm going into this one, but I did not expect to win it."
4. I know you were prayerful about your decision to move to MLF. Did you hear God say something like, "You will win multiple tournaments there so just move already"??
> [Laughed] "I never heard Him say that. I definitely did feel peace in it, but I never did hear that part of the plan."
5. Have you changed anything about how you're fishing this year?
> "...as far as baits and that type of stuff, no, but I do feel like I'm fishing extremely aggressively...just going to go fish.
> "[At the Harris Chain] I had spots...thought I would hit them at some point [but] it wasn't like I had to go there because I had a bite. I'm very confident that if I see something that I think fits the bill, I should be able to generate bite off it."
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2nd-5th Harris Chain BPT baits.
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2nd: Bobby Lane
> "I was flipping Kissimmee grass in 4-6', wherever the fish were blowing up shad in the shallows. I would fish the same stretch over and over again until they made it to the outside."
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3rd: Brent Chapman
Brent has finished 4th and 3rd in the last 2:
> Fished shallow: Kissimmee grass, cypress trees, docks.
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4th: Andy Montgomery
> "Variety of shallow cover – docks, Kissimmee grass, cypress trees, seawalls. Also caught a few on spinnerbait."
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5th: Skeet Reese
> Fished a combination of cypress trees, docks and grass.
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How to properly bass-fish from shore.
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Elitist Cliff Pirch and bud showing how it should be done:
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I am awed by this – next-level stuff. Thank you Cliff:
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> ...admitted to Wildlife and Fisheries Agents, during the weigh-in of the Benefit Tournament on Caddo Lake, of weighing bass they did not catch. Wildlife and Fisheries cited them for gaming law violation. The evidence in this case is because anglers spoke up about suspicious activity. They were caught because anglers were vigilant and reported.
> Most bass boats in today's world are designed to utilize a jackplate of some kind.
> Is the price difference for a hydraulic jackplate worth it? I think most anglers who have one will tell you that it is.
I have a T-H Marine Atlas – super useful, even for things like letting the outboard drain in the driveway. Just bear in mind Gary doesn't know much about boats...😂...or bass fishing...🤣 Lol had to Gary!
For excellence in hat-wearin'...okay no it was an honorary doctorate of natural resources. Surprised it took this long! While he was there, Bill also interviewed for the football head coach position...and the AD position...and the university president position..lol U T football fans!
Electrically-powered. I'm thinking lots of high-speed silent boats wouldn't be the best thing??
Reminds me of this – irony always cracks me up:
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Fallen 16' in the last year and they're expect 9' more. Powell's way down too ⤵️:
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No swimmin'! Be careful peeps....
Line of the Day
That might make sense to people from MN (Feider??) but to the rest of us that makes no sense whatsoever....
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
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Night-feeshn tips from Jason Christie.
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> "My rule is use a black blade when there's no moon, and a red blade whenever there's some moonlight. [Also fish the red blade] around marinas or something like that, where it's a little bit brighter.
> "I'll use a trailer sometimes. ...seems like vibration is more important at night, and you lose that long, visual strike zone. If you take the trailer off, it gives the bait that much more vibration. At night, if I do put a trailer on, it'll be really, really slim [so] it doesn't deaden the vibration.
> "Some places I catch them in the daytime, that are just great places in the daytime, I can't get a bite there at night. Then there's places I can't catch them in the daytime but I can catch 'em at night. I've never figured that out.
> "I like to fish places close to deep water at night. I just feel like there's a lot of fish out there in that deep water and it's kind of like deer – when it gets close to dark, they get up there and feed.
> "The biggest thing at night is put your trolling motor down and cover a bunch of water.
> "I don't like fishing real deep at night. In the summertime in the daytime, I might throw a worm or jig 20-25' deep [on his home lake], but at night I tend to fish shallower, like 15' to up on the bank.
> "If you talk to old-timers gigging or bowfishing, they say they see 6-lbers and 5-lber ups shallow. But if you go up there in the daytime you'll never see anything.
> "A spinnerbait lets me cover all those depths."
I asked him about the after-dusk dead period:
> "I think that's when everything's moving. We used to fish these jackpots, and if we didn't have them in the first hour we'd be worried. [The tourney] started an hour and a half before dark and only lasted til 11, which was a couple hours after dark. But when you got into midnight til 2-3 o'clock, the fish would get up there.
> "I feel like [when it gets dark] the fish are starting to swim...takes a while for everything to get congregated and be where they want to be. It's no different than the daytime – there's dead times throughout the day, and it's the same way at night."
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"Don't ignore visible wood on the water."
- Statement about bassin'. First, if you live in NJ or maybe even eastern PA, please DO ignore visible wood. No bass there, trust me. Second, just because you see pros fishing all the visible wood they can find does NOT mean there's bass there. They're just messing with you, especially Gerald Swindle. He told me privately that he hates wood and will never make a cast to it.... 😆
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Photo/vid dude Tyler Freeman got this shot of this frozen in midair bass just before it was sucked up into a UFO that he said had "various fishing logos on it": 🤔
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best and funniest (sometimes worst) 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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