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Thinkin’ my wife’s jealous of the new boat already — from me spending so much time with it. Might give it a girl’s name just to check lol! Been usin’ every free minute loading stuff up, watching videos about ‘lectronics, etc. Took my son and our black Lab “Lucky” on the water this weekend and broke ‘er in:
First greenhead in the new rig! And yep I was in the back cuz my son was all about running the boat, which was great. A bunch to learn for him but he’s pickin’ it up quick. Can’t wait to get out there again. In the meantime been movin’ a LOT of tackle from the house and garage into that boat. Amazing how much fishin’ gear fits in a bass rig!
Noticin’ that the boat is endin’ up with a disproportionate amount of squarebills, Rapala DTs, topwaters ‘n frowgs, BOOYAH Covert spinnerbaits, stickworms (duh), worms, trailers (especially Berkley purple packages #MaxScent) and — weirdly — finesse plastics, like I’m afraid to get skunked? I mean, I don’t fish ’em much?
>> If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!
Today’s Top 5
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Ott DeFoe runs down the new Rapala OG Slim 6 crank.
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New Rapla flatside, used for years by Ott and a few others, includin’ at the Classic he won. He says in the vid:
> “Excellent cool-water bait…65 degrees or less there’s a really good chance I’ll be throwing a flatsided bait….” [Meaning the OG Slim in “big shad.”]
After he runs down how to fish it and his rod/reel/line setup for it, he talks about the “big shad” color and how it happened — from Jacob Wheeler to Ott to his friend Biggs “Jason” Chambers (whom the color is named after) to Rapala. Here’s how those colors evolved:
Ott’s Slim cranking gear:
> Rapala OG Slim 6 — The new colors are real nice imo, and the baits come standard with black VMC 1x Strong Hybrid Trebles.
> Bass Pro Shops XPS fluoro — 14-lb shallow around cover (gets to 5-5.5′), drop down in line size to get the bait deeper
> BPS Platinum Reel (6.8:1)
> 7′ and 7′ 6″ MH BPS Cranking Stick
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Reeeeeeal innerestin’ PowerBait vid.
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Only a couple minutes long — since-type deal. Things that stood out to me…maybe even shocked me:
1. First bass smell, then they see and feel — when they are FEEDING, so not necessarily on reaction strikes, but still innerestin’.
2. Bass first taste baits (or can do this first?) with the OUTSIDE of their lips. Maybe this explains the bump/hookset/nothing deal?
3. Says fish DON’T like salt, garlic or coffee. Okay but do they not mind ’em as much as our grubby hand oils? And what about WD-40 scent lol.
4. Avg (non-pro!) human reaction time is 0.25 seconds. And guess what: bass spit a bait in…0.25 seconds. PowerBait is supposed to make ’em take longer to spit it….
After watching that vid, I was like:
Hahaha! No idea what that means really….
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Hartwell, SC Open was a Fluke-fest.
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Clear Lake ‘Yota baits buffet.
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Sounds like AZ’s Tai Au had the nerve to cross the border and hand out a beatin’ to all the Cali fishermen — congrats to him for winnin’ by 5+ lbs. Here’s how FLW says he did it:
> “I was fishing the grass edges in 5-12′ of water. The clear water helped and let [coontail] grow deeper than on other ends of the lake….”
> The 1st day Au relied on a Neko-rigged 5″ Yamamoto Senko (watermelon red)…. > …2nd day Au returned to the same area. He caught 1 immediately, but the bite went cold after that. “I knew they were still there because I could see them on my Lowrance units. They were just nipping at the Neko Rig and I knew I had to change it up to get them to react. I started throwing a Lucky Craft LV 500 in ‘ghost minnow’ and ‘chartreuse shad’….
> “The key was to rip it as hard as I could to get them to react. I sat in 1 spot and made repeated casts to the same place. If you could get the school to fire up, you could catch 4 or 5 in a row.”
Innerestin’ goin’ from finesse TO moving. Here’s how the entire top 10 fished bait-wise — sounds like you could catch ’em on just about anything:
Bladed jig = 40% — JackHammer = 10%
Lipless = 30% — all were Lucky Craft LV 500s (believe these are 3″ and 3/4-oz?)
Dropshot = 30% — Roboworm Straight Tail in one of the MMs = 20%
Swimbait = 20% — all Little Creeper All American Trash Fish. Here’s John Pearl (6th) with one:
Underspin = 20%
10% each = Neko rig, Topwater, Crankbait, Carolina rig, Swim-jig, Flip plastics, Texas rig, Jig, Football jig, Spinnerbait
Shout-outs:
> Tai Au — Cool name, easy name to remember — wonder if he’s gunnin’ for the bigs?
> MLFer Jared “milk ‘stache” Lintner finished 3rd finishing only on top with a prototype 1/4-oz double-bladed Brabec Buzzbait, a Jackall Gavacho Frog, and a custom-painted translucent baby bass-colored Super Spook. How great is that — all on top!
> Former pro surfer Todd “O” Kline was 5th in this one and been doing pretty dang well in Cali this year.
> Wade Curtiss (9th) from Eagle, ID was the only other non-CA dude in the top 10. Amazing cuz I heard there’s only like a dozen bass fishermen in ID? Hahaha ID peeps!
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He has won over $60,000 and actually won a log cabin.
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– Post talkin’ ’bout Ozarks tourney legend Jerry McCutchen — not sure if anyone else has ever won a log cabin in a bass tourney?? An RV or camper topper sounds a little more likely — or a shed?
Trophy Bass Co sells his Ozark Flash spinnerbait.
For some reason this deal is remindin’ me of Gussy Jeffstason winnin’ this-here trophy recently:
I kinda dig ’em! I mean, I could find a place for one fer sher. Also heard Gussy’s wife Shelby caught most of the fish in that deal…heehee!
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now…
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Tip of the Day
A little Brett Hite JackHammer juice.
Post on the MLFers site, here’s a little from it:
> “What’s amazing is how well a ChatterBait [JackHammer] skips. It allows you to put a reaction bait in places most people can’t reach. I can skip it 30′ under a dock.”
Called him, says he skips with the same setup as regular JackHammer fishin’: 7′ 3″ H glass Evergreen signature Combat Stick Rod, Daiwa Tatula SV Reel (6.3), 20-lb Sunline FC Sniper fluoro. He said the SV spool “helps with the anti-backlash so if you happen not to skip it perfect you don’t blow up the reel.”
> “Some guys are missing out on the capabilities of the 1 1/4-oz JackHammer. I like to fish a flat, say 15-25′ deep. I let the bait go to the bottom and sweep it sideways, like sweeping a jig, so it starts vibrating. You can cover water that way. I like to keep it close to the bottom and side sweep it. Pull it up, and let it go back down. I’ve been very successful fishing it on rockpiles, over brushpiles or even deep grass. Once again he uses the same setup: “When we made the US model JackHammer rod ^, I made it a little stiffer than the rod I had been using…from Japan, just knowing we’d have anything from 3/8- to 1 1/4-oz [range of JackHammers].
> JackHammer Stealth Blade…”I had wanted a more subtle bait, something not so aggressive…vibrates but not as aggressively. I wanted a clear plastic (polycarbonate) blade, just slightly smaller. It’s virtually invisible in the water.” Same setup “except for a lot lighter line. The Stealth Blade has the same type of hook shape-wise, but its a nano-coat…thinner, so I throw it on 12- to 20-lb line.
Little more from our convo:
Colors
> “It depends on the time of year, but I’ve definitely caught more bass on a gp chatterbait than any other one. Fall…fish are really feeding heavy on baitfish, shad, stuff like that…shad [colors] definitely dominates.
> “What I would recommend to someone is have couple different gp colors — like regular gp or B Hite delight which has a little chartreuse in it — a black/blue, real dark, and then 2-3 shad patterns: 1 for a clear-water scenario, such as ‘clear water shad,’ then either white/chart or standard white, then something middle of the road you have confidence in. It’s just kind of a good starting point.”
Weights
> “1/2-oz is the most versatile. When I go to FL or somewhere like that, where there’s tons of aquatic vegetation, I use the 3/8-oz a lot. But day in and day out, that 1/2-oz works pretty much anywhere you go.”
Trailers
The MLF post says he always uses the original Yamamoto Zako as a trailer, tho in warmer water he might switch to the paddletail Zako (Kickin Zako). For the Stealth Blade he always uses the original Zako because he wants a more subtle action — “you don’t want the trailer to overpower it.”
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Quote of the Day
“I felt a thump…when I go to lift it, I seen the leg come up, and then I saw the rest of the body.”
– Whoa. That’s Luis Castoire talkin’, who was fishing in Central Park, New York City. More from the post:
> Castoire said he’s been fishing in the park since he was a child and that the moment was “really devastating.” …he’s not sure if he will be able to come back to the place which once brought him so much peace and happiness.
> The incident is the 3rd time a body has been found in the park this month.
NYC has always been a little dangerous but now is in a real bad place man. Not everywhere I hear, just generally. Very sad.
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Shot of the Day
Fork guide James Caldemeyer had a…visitor? Inquisitor? Odd occurrence? I mean, that bird looks like it’s FOCUSED man, weird:
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Random
From a fly feeshn site — post on goin’ ‘footin’ in the Ozarks:
> Large rocks, boulders even, are stacked in an unnatural manner…. The cairns stand about 7′ tall and some of the rocks must weigh nearly 500 lbs. The stack looks like a monument of some sort, but on this roadless, isolated ridge it’s hard to believe a man would do this. Also, it seems impossible without heavy equipment or at least block and tackle. And then you’d have to ask why?
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Ya got me
Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup
of the best, worst and funniest in bassin’, as curated 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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