Family funeral over the weekend, my wife's uncle who was a Franciscan monk: Michael Joyce. All good, no sympathy needed – as he said at family funerals he presided over, "There's no reason to be sad because we know he/she is with the Lord now." One of his brothers said the same thing at his service.
Anyhow, mentioning it because reflecting on Mike, I realized how much joy he always had for his extended family which is gigantic (my wife's side). He officiated all the weddings and everything else, whether it was in a church or not, because he just wanted to. He just wanted to love on his family, and love the Lord. Amazing. So simple and so great. Here he is – he smiled like this all the time:
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One of my favorite "Uncle Mike" stories was when one of his biological brothers, who lives in OR, sent Mike a plant, and he planted it outside his room – believe it was at a college as Catholic monk/nun residences sometimes are (I know that because one of my wife's aunts was a nun!). Anyhow, the students got a kick outta what kinda plant it was, if you know what I mean, and when the head monk (or whatever) found out, Mike had to trash it. I always wondered if Mike knew dang well what it was – too funny!
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Reminder: If your email program cuts off the bottom of this 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 Austin Felix got his first blue trophy.
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Not sure where it happened, I think somewhere close to AK or Gussy's house...😁 Lol okay – seemed like the tourney was a lot tougher than the guys thought it would be, so not sure if it's more or less surprising that someone got their first win there. Here's some of how the Somnabulant Bassin' Assassin did it – full pattern into is on the BB site:
> "[Day 1] I had a really late boat number and the fish were still on pretty obvious stuff. Even though that lake is extremely long, it fished a lot like a ledge tournament. A lot of guys were on most of the stuff, so with a late boat number I ran a really long ways.
> "I was running by stuff I marked that had 1-5 boats on them. I ran almost all the way to the bridge by the time I found something I could fish. It was a secondary or third spot, not really one I wanted to get on.
> "Day 1 was a grind. I caught 6 keepers – I lost a really good one that would have helped me a lot. It was really a struggle.
> "Day 2 was the opposite of that. I had a really early boat number so I got on the spot I wanted. My first drop I caught a 3.5 and my second drop I caught a 5.5...spot-locked there.
> "Lee Livesay pulled in, and the 2 of us spent 4 hours there. I left with almost 23 lbs and he left with 19. Just one of those dream days where everything goes right.
> "I went back to the ramp early. I had 22.5 lbs with a 3.5-lber. On the way back I stopped on a random point I'd never fished, but it looked right and was out of the wind. I saw a boulder on Active Target in 20', and I culled out that 3.5 with a 4.5.
> "Day 3 was good...started on same hole again, but they really weren't set up right. I figured we had scraped most of them off the top of that high spot. I left there with 2 fish and had to run a bunch of waypoints. With half the field gone it was a lot easier to do that.
> "At one of my spots below the bridge, I was able to catch 3 good ones real late in the day on a Carolina rig. It was something I hadn't thrown at them before. I had one in the box but wasn't sure if they would bite it. But Lee clued me into it on day 2.
> "Day 4 I obviously had that starting hole all to myself. My plan was to start on it and scrape the last few fish off it I could. I was fortunate to catch a limit...one solid 3.5-lber and bunch of small fish, but it was a limit and that calmed me down some.
> "I knew that other hole I'd done really well on, I felt it was an afternoon thing. I told myself not to go there before noon.
> "[Around noon] I made the run, got there and caught a 3.5 pretty quickly, and that calmed me down. I caught a couple 3.5-lb fish there and a couple in the high 2s – I never thought I had sealed the deal. I kept doing the math in my head...."
His biggest fish the last day were three 3.5-lbers.
Baits
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Electronics
> "I couldn't have done it without [Lowrance] Active Target. Every fish I caught was more or less because of Active Target. I caught half of them throwing at individual fish...
> "...show me where they were setting up and where they were roaming. A lot of fish would not stop swimming – those are the ones I had to target with Active Target. In my main areas the fish would actually set up on the bottom, on rocky stuff, and I would lay off on them with the Carolina rig to get more bites.
> "They were main lake points, 25-35', with some rock on the end of both of them. They had a sharp break...to 80' when they hit the main channel. The fish were just using it as feeding zone...swim up on those points and feed. It was flatter, shelfy stuff.
> "I'd run my side scan...focusing on the main channel break."
Shout-outs
> "I want to shout out Lee Livesay for turning me onto that Carolina rig deal. Without that I wouldn't be able to win.
> "Bryan New and Jake Whitaker traveling with me. They kinda called it, but I thought they were gonna jinx me."
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I did get confirmation Austin wears flannel Superman onesie jammies when it's cold:
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Lol just messin'. Here's 5 with the new champ:
1. You had a good finish at the St Johns, then didn't do so well, and now have finished 11th, 11th and 1st. Did you change anything...like your flannel pattern? 😁
> "No, in the middle of the season I was just making bad decisions. I was jokingly blaming that on Zona the whole year for calling me AOY halfway through....
> "I knew the second half of the year would set up better for me, the same way it's been the last couple years. Summer and up north...more stuff I like to do and...be able to capitalize on it."
2. For real now – did if affect you when Zona called you out as a possible AOY winner?
> "No it made me feel proud that like someone like him would say something like that. It was a relief, to be honest with you.
> "I was really happy I did so well in FL [6th at the St Johns] when it was that difficult. So when I started off really well I was excited for the future of the season."
3. Do you have a special flannel pattern or piece of clothing you only pull out on day 4s?
> "I try not to change anything once the tournament starts as far as clothes – if I do well. If I don't do well I switch up everything.
> "Whatever I'm wearing as far as a hat or pants or bibs, I keep the same stuff on when it's working, or switch it when it doesn't."
4. When's the last time you won a smallmouth tournament on a Carolina rig??
> "I bet you I was 20 years old on the Mississippi River, fishing pool 4. I won an event down there doing it."
[Thought he'd say never lol! Btw Austin says he's 38, which can't be true man...not with those jammies...😆]
5. Do you ever feel sleepy when you fish or only like an assassin?
> "Practice days I get sleepy sometimes, but tournament days I usually have the pedal down the whole day – straight assassin mode."
Bonus shot – check out the real estate on his screens...I'm diggin' those "yuge" screens!
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2nd-5th Oahe Elite baits.
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Didn't get Matt Robertson's (5th), hopefully for the next one.
2nd: Chris Johnston
> "90% of my fish came on this setup."
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3rd: Taku Ito
> "10-15' rock point, and 20-34' big point flat area."
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4th: Marc Frazier
> "Used my Active Target to find bait and fish in 22-28' that dumped into the channel. No specific structure, just where the bait was."
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Ever fish a swim-jig slow and low?
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Me neither but that's how Elitist Bryan Schmitt often (mostly?) does it. Says it lets him target fish that others don't and ones that won't come up to eat a swim-jig shallower. He designed his Hayabusa Lil' Schmitty Swim Jig for that but also for "regular" swim-jiggin'.
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Interesting he picked gold eyes for his jig and specified this "the OG" color:
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Sounds like he has some serious stuff going on, here is the GoFundMe. Please pray for him and his family. 🙏✝️
Looks like his daughter has been posting his condition, sounds like he had a stroke. Check his Insta page for opportunities to support him – and of course please pray for our brother. 🙏✝️
- Brandon Palaniuk: 647
- Brandon Lester: 610
- Chris Johnston: 601
- David Mullins: 597
- John Cox: 585
> ...from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm...at Fish and Game Headquarters, 11 Hazen Drive.... All student athletes, coaches and athletic directors participating in high school bass fishing tournament activities are encouraged to attend.
> The event will feature presentations by local bass tournament anglers on topics ranging from fall bass-fishing techniques to tournament fishing tactics. All students attending will have an opportunity to receive complimentary tackle and baits.
Richland Creek and Grasshopper Creek:
> ...a joint effort with the MLF Fisheries Management Division, Berkley Fishing and Minn Kota.
First increase since 2005.
Active Target Live Sonar was $1,649 but is now $1,249, also slashed prices of HDS Live displays. Don't know if that's to make way for new stuff or what....
...that definitely could be used in the fresh too:
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Gitcha CBD relief!
Always like to hear that. Find a way to do it with MaxScent!
Headline of the Day
That's all there is there hahaha! Big congrats to bass-head Bob Logan who got 4 bites and won it with 9-02. I feel your pain OH River peeps!
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
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Here's one from Ned himself:
> The bulk of the largemouth bass was caught while I was employing a swim-glide-and-shake presentation. Four of the 30 largemouth bass were caught on the initial drop of the Finesse WormZ rig.
So do you swim/glide/shake? That's kinda like the old Slider fishin' stuff – I'm gonna try it!
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"To put it bluntly, my boat does not go backwards."
> I didn't grow up fishing for smallmouth, so I've never gotten the hang of drifting. To put it bluntly, my boat does not go backwards. So I trashed that approach and went back to my saltwater roots to make things happen.
Not real sure what he means but I'm gonna ask him about it!
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Lotsa great whites and now hammerheads?? That place is turning into South Africa!
On the East Coast/Northeast, seems like warmer ocean currents have come in much closer to shore this summer....
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest 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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