BassBlaster

Giant KY Lake limit, Cold-water bassin’ myths GONE, Melons of the week!

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on December 21, 2017

MERRY CHRISTMAS bass-heads! (And happy holidays!) Thanks for being part of the BassBlaster…cuz you are! Hope you and your fams have a great Christmas. Special shout-out to the members of our military who’ll be far away from home on the 25th. Not forgettin’ you peeps, #love and many thanks!

Not supposed to work ‘tween now and New Year’s, but thinkin’ I’m gonna sneak away and get one Blaster done before Jan 1….because #neverenoughbass….

Today’s Top 4

Ditch melon shots o’ the week!

Hamtastic Slobberin’ Donkeys of the Week

13+ caught at Berryessa — which maybe should be renamed “Beeg Melones” or “Clear-ish Lake” — by dude named Mark Crutcher. Team Lew’s Custom Pro Speed Spool SLP, lipless crank looks crazy small on that head:

I wanna be Cali melon-hunter Mike Long just for 1 bassin’ day cuz he never catches a small bass. Or if he does, he catches so many big ones he never runs out of big-fish pics. Can’t figure out if it depresses me or brings on the stoke, ‘specially since it looks like he caught that sucka on a topwater with 10-lb mono?? (Seaguar Rippi’n Mono):

Limit of the WeekTim Falwell and Keith Stone needed a dang backhoe to heft up this 32.23-lb limit with an 8.54 kicker at Kentucky Lake. Insanely #stout

Golden Corralers of the Week #overstuffedFirst one caught on a BOOYAH Pond Magic Spinnerbait, which more’n a few folks use as a secret weapon:

Full bag o’ Doritors-looking spotted bass caught on un-IDd SPRO crank:

Fish need to stop with the seconds at the shad bar….

Double of the WeekLast not least, a dang good spotted double by guide Jimmy Mason on a YUMbrella Flash Mob A-rig with YUM Money Minnow swimbaits (fog light and blue mist):

“If I could pass along any advice to younger anglers it would be to fish.”

– HAHAHAhahahahaha! Almost choked on my gluten-free, organic Slim Jim-like thing my wife buys…. That’s Elitist rookie Jake Whitaker announcin’ hisself to the world with a $$$ quote. Welcome to the bigs mang! What he said after:

> Fish as much and as often as you can. I never pursued sponsors, which isn’t always the right thing to do, but what it did help me with was learning to fish.

So…anything you DON’T do so you can fish more helps you…learn to fish? Do I have that right?

LOL! Jake, no offense brother, and thank you — funny stuff! Good luck next year…just bear in mind Elite derbies are like:

Jeopardy category: Crazy crankin’ facts.

If you were on Jeopardy:

INVENTED THE STRIKE KING 5XD

If you said “who is Keith Combs,” you not only wouldn’t be right, but amazingly he didn’t start becomin’ an OCD cranker till he saw David Fritts doin’ his thang on the TV:

> “I was amazed to watch a Bassmaster TV episode and see Fritts approach an offshore structure and catch in 5 or 10 casts what would take me all day to catch — and he was doing it with a crankbait.”

SHOWED JASON CHRISTIE HOW TO CRANK

[Wasn’t even aware that Jason DID crank…lol kidding.] If you said, “who is no one from Oklahoma” you’d be right — hahaha you Okies!

> “That was back when Mark Davis was dominating tournaments by cranking a Bomber Fat Free Shad offshore or using a Rapala Shad Rap during early spring. Few anglers were fishing that way around here, but I could see how effective it could be.”

Have a feeling Mark could still dominate some tourneys doing that….

INSPIRED CASEY SCANLON TO CRANK

If you said, “some old-timer fisherman,” you’d be half right: it was Brandon Palaniuk…who is “some fisherman:”

> The week before the Open, Scanlon caught bass deep by cranking in the Elite Series event at Bull Shoals, but he didn’t stick with the pattern and ended up finishing 70th. Knowing that Brandon Palaniuk won that event with a deep-diver [actually a Rapala DT-16 and a Strike King 6XD], Scanlon decided to stick with his cranking pattern at Table Rock and won the Open, catching most of his fish on a 6XD.

And there you have it. Love those kids of stories, from this In-Fish post. Last Jeopardy answer:

You know it: “What Zona says when he gets a big’un!!”

When you know your baits don’t work.

Hahaha not! Gotta love it when they eat on confidence baits. Question for ya: Do you believe baits mysteriously work better when the paint gets knocked off ’em?

Those are original ‘Traps btw.

News

1. How Ike proposed to Becky Iaconelli.

Shot just surfaced — what better way to get her attention than a big Stop sign in the middle of her office, and a shiny new jerkbait is fo sho better than a ring for bass-heads:

Okay that might have been how it went down (I wasn’t there), but that’s really a shot from a new Rapala RipStop vid. Click the pic to see it. Looks like Mike’s about to crack up in it….

2. Swindle runs down his tin rig.

Good vid:

3. Check A-Mart’s swimjigs.

Believe this shot is from when the Elitists were up in the cheese-making and -consuming states doncha know:

4. FLWer Zack Birge got on some smalls.

Maybe it’s just me, but I keep looking at this pic thinking it’s a merp smallie and somehow Zack knows that but ain’t sayin’ it:

5. MX: LakeForkGuy and Denny double hookup.

Good to see Justin back in action after the brain surgery:

Also did some jig-fishing. Justin’s all Favorite rods of course….

6. CA: Casitas reopens after Thomas fire.

> …still a little ash in the water, the overall water clarity is pretty good.

Also got a trout plant last week….

7. Great Lakes: Should lock be shut down and concreted…

…to prevent Asian carp from getting in the Great Lakes. Talkin’ ’bout the Brandon Road Lock near Joliet, IL.

8. DC: Support our salty fishin’ bros.

If you live in a coastal state, or even if you don’t, at least it’ll show our citified Congress that fishermen will defend their turf. Takes literally 10 seconds to fill the form out and hit send.

9. This XCalibur crank sold for $100 on eBay.

Here it is, in magical brown craw:

Pretty sure you could get a couple painted for less than that….

10. What a Rapala DT-6 looks like underwater.

Love any and all undewater vids. Helps us visualize what a bait is doing, which is sooooo important:

11. Looks like T-H Marine is giving away stuff every day.

Git on their Insta or Facebook to see ’em, and enter here.

12. Would you fish this color Bronzeye?

Uh…yeah! Forged In Fire dude’s like:

That’s a custom-painted color SPRO was giving away. Let ’em know at that post whether they should make it permanent. Btw, dude holding the frowg is Syd the SPRO-mastah who ain’t nearly as serious as he seems in that vid…Syd!

13. Gitcha topwater strikes on!

Do topwater bass-smashes ever get old? Heck no, so here you go:

Seein’ those smaller, angry bass make me want to fish that Lunkerhunt Froglet kinda bad…. Sorta like a mini-Spook but weedless….

14. Tackle Warehouse’s 25 days o’ savings still on!

Last chance! Gitcha Christmas bassin’ shots in!

Just take your Santa hat out and selfie yourself! Here’s the best one so far — heck yeah you can Photoshop yo’sef!

Remember I’m giving away 2 shweet Okuma egg-beaters — send pics in before Christmas Day!

Tip of the Day

Don’t believe what you think you know about cold-water bassin’.

From 2 Bassin’masters posts by KVD, here and here:

> My experiments through the ice have revealed that I can jig a variety of baits rather rapidly and get the kind of bass strikes that knock the slack out of the line. Since then, I’ve come to believe that water temperature is highly overrated in predicting cold-water activity levels of both largemouth and smallmouth bass.

> I’ve expanded my cold, open-water approach to include far more lures and techniques than what I once used. …misconception is that whenever the water gets cold, the only presentations that are effective are finesse baits fished vertically and slowly. That’s definitely not true. Remember when the Alabama rig was introduced….

> …air temperatures don’t affect water temperature or the bass’ aggressiveness on large lakes as much as one would believe.

> The lipless crankbait can be dynamite…I do slow the retrieve down and keep the bait in contact with the bottom. If there’s grass, I like to allow it to touch the vegetation and pull it free. My favorite retrieve is to yo-yo it on a semi-slack line — I let it flutter down because the Red Eye Shad has an enticing shimmy as it falls. That’s when 90% of strikes come.

> When the water is colder, the shad suspend in the water column…if I see shad dying and gulls diving on them, that tells me the suspending jerkbait is the best choice.

Quote of the Day

Who else is ready to smell like fish again!?

– Elitist Chaddeus Pipkens talkin’. Anyone but a fisherman would get offended by that comment, and not just cuz peeps these days get offended by everything [eyeroll emoji].

I’M ALREADY READY MANG! #bringonthebass

Shot of the Day

Elitist John Murray’s caught more bass than most of us will in our lifetimes, but check it:

Sho nuff ketchin’ one never gets old!!! Know you’re feelin’ him!

Deets: Watts Bar, TN, Biffle Bug Jr in flat rocky areas, Team Lew’s Custom Pro Speed Stick, Lew’s HyperMag SLP.

Meme of the Day

Sign up another bass-head!

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, sell the list or anything else crazy….

SIGN ‘EM UP!

Use the best!

Git on these yo!

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Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass.

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