New little deal below in the Tip section sponsored by Fuji about Japan bassin' stuff – because it seems to be more important now than maybe ever. It's the Tip today but might move around in the future. Hope you dig it!

As I finish this, Ott DeFoe is in the lead at the MLF on Hartwell – and he's doing it WITH SHOES ON! This might be a new phase for Ott, we'll see hahaha! He's also making it look easy: Go up shallow and crank. Maybe it is that easy after all? 🤔😁 

One other thing: Takahiro Omori was in 2nd and never turned on his FFS. He ain't a fan of it!

Alright let's bass!

Gitcha Blaster video fix here:

His main baits

What he fished – his main baits:

> 3/4-oz Buckeye Football Mop Jig (gp/purple) with a 4" Yamamoto Yama Craw (gp), 18-lb Sunline FC Sniper fluoro, 7' 5" MH TFO Taction Series Rod.

> "I do trim probably about 3/4-inch off the skirt because the Yama Craw floats and I wanted it to be a a little more exposed...the pinchers float up a little bit more. You wouldn't lose any of the profile and you could accentuate some of the Craw by doing that.

> 6" Yamamoto Hinge Minnow ("I've been using the 6-inch the most...rotated between 'sexy shad' and 'rainbow shad' but I don't know if color really mattered") on a 1/8-oz Buckeye G-Stroll Jighead, 16-lb Sunline SX1 Braid (hi viz yellow) to 12-lb Sunline Sniper fluoro, 7' 3" ML+ TFO Resolve Spin Rod.

> "I did catch a few on a Carolina rig, a few on an A-rig and I caught a few cranking, but the main deals were the jig and the minnow."

How he fished 'em/keys

> Jig – "The key was finding hard spots where the bottom would be rough. And right now a lot of those spots are only in 5-12' because the lake is so low. The spots I had were in 10-12'. They would normally be in 20'.

> "...long cast – you had to get way away from the fish. Let it hit the bottom and just either drag it really slow or just reel it real slow...no hopping, no shaking...just dragging along the bottom.

> "I tried to keep the rod on a 45-degree angle...hookset-ready. If one bites it, you turn the handle a couple times and then jack it. A lot of times those fish won't have that jig for long.

> Scoping – "The big ones were not around bait. You could find bait around there and catch all the 2-lbers you wanted.... The big ones I caught were in that 10-15' range.

> "...fish that were coming up sunning – thinking about going up towards the bank, just in the very early stages to...spawn. Just coming up out of the deep to check things out."

4 Qs with him

1. Ever win with the biggest bag of the tourney before?

> "Man I think so. I think in 2022 at Guntersville, the MLF Pro Circuit on the final day, I think I had like 22-something. I think that was the biggest bag of the tournament."

[Yes it was and he also had the biggest fish of the tourney that day.]

2. Why didn't you run a crankbait down those hard spots before the jig came out? Is it a time of year thing, a lake thing...?

> "To me it's just a conditions thing. The first 2 days were slick calm, no wind at all. Rayburn being like glass is very rare, and when you have those kind of conditions, you want to be subtle.

> "A lot of times...a plug will actually spook those fish, I believe. I'm not saying it won't catch 1-2, but to catch a mega-bag, dragging something is a little more effective in my experience."

3. That tourney is one of the toughest to win in the country. Did winning it feel any different for you?

> "Yeah it did. It was very special to me and my family.

> "I haven't won since 2022, and I say that gracefully and humbly – there's peers of mine that have never won. With the changes in the sport...the faces are getting younger and younger [and] my face is getting older and older – sometimes you think, Man I may never win again...just have to be a mid-level guy and survive and grind it out.

> "But to win against that crowd at that lake, that was a huge confidence-builder and a huge peace of mind for me right now at this point in my career."

4. Any God moments in this one?

> "Yeah. Me and my wife have been reading though the 1-year Bible. Every day you read Old Testament – a Psalm a Proverb – and then part of the New Testament. Last week Proverbs was talking about a lot of asking for wisdom and knowledge – wisdom, wisdom, wisdom.

> "Day 3...I didn't really know how it was gonna go. My stuff was barely hanging on and the weather was changing. I just prayed for knowledge and wisdom – just for me to make good decisions and join the Lord in what He's doing, be on His plan.

> "And went out and jacked that giant bag. So that was pretty cool."

Funny quick deal is when Nick walked up the hill to the weigh-in the final day, the handle of his bag broke. Nick said to all the youngsters there, "All you young Scopers...you know you got a bag when your bag breaks." 🤣

He asked MLF if he could keep the bag as a "trophy" and he's now got it along with the story to go along with it!

A while back I called out a lipless bait color I had never seen before called a Copper Red Baits Snatchin' Shad. Company owner Jared Sullivan reached out and we had a convo about a few of his baits. Some fascinatin' stuff, here's a little about that Snatchin' Shad.

2 versions of the bait, silent and rattling. The silent version has oil with glitter in it. Why:

> ...the Sebile Flatt Shad – he put some oil in [it and] that was my favorite lipless crankbait. They discontinued it and it broke my heart.

> "I use some of the things he put in it because he's an incredible lure designer...we changed it up a little bit. I actually think we improved on that Flatt Shad, and that's saying something because that was a legit lipless.

> "The oil and glitter inside it [means] you can still really cast it but it doesn't affect the weight of it too much. You can bomb-cast it and it has a slower fall [than a traditionally-weighed lipless], and the bait is translucent so the fish can see the glitter.

> "...when you're fishing it in cold water, the viscosity gets more dense and the glitter will fall slowly through that oil. As it's sitting on the bottom, that glitter is settling and it looks like an injured baitfish.

> "We really focused on getting it perfectly balanced. It runs true, stands up on bottom like a shakey head...you can crawl it on the bottom, which is why the nose is rounded – so it doesn't hang up and [accumulate junk].

> "...thumps like a blade bait. Not quite as much but it thumps quite a bit. It's real slender with a rounded back, which helps it to run true the way it's weighted. When you pull it and stall it, it has a really nice shimmy and will fall as it should."

Couple deals:

- The rattling version doesn't have any oil in it.

- They recently sold out of 'Rayburn red' in 1/2-oz – on their website and on TW. But Jared said the 3/4-oz is the exact same size, just heavier.

- But this color, called 'bluegill' has a gold head and a little red on the side so: 👀

Also gotta mention:

- Copper Red Baits is actually best-known for their frogs. Will have deets on them at some point.

- Their jerkbait is called the Jonah 1:17 – love it!

- Jared is some kinda genius, and I don't mean just with baits. He started the company by getting his wife to make baits, telling her it was "crafts." 🤯 She got to name the company too – after her hair color. Dude! Amazing. Raise a glass to that man! 😆

Exhibit A ladies 'n gents is this pic from Hunter Shryock:

Self-explanatory – dang! At this point I'm pretty sure that 99% of the time a bass opens his mouth, he ain't hungry!

Btw that bait is a Berkley Stunna 112+2.

As usual, from trips around the webz, no particular order.

Make any hard bait red like this

That's from Berkley hard bait designer Dan Spengler's IG – before on the right, after on the left. Looks dang good! He says the markers he uses in a bunch of colors are a permanent – Marks-A-Lot or Sharpie.

New Butch Brown-designed Optimum Baits Escape Gill

6.5", 4.4-oz, believe it should be for sale in Mar.

Really dang good idea: tungsten "Suspendots"

Seen on the @thehookuptackle_usa IG. TW does have Baitsanity stuff but not those deals.

Alpha Angler is working on a new Clutch swimbait rod

Limited edition collab with Josh Pladies of Clutch Swimbaits, get on the drop list here.

New Savage Tough Frog comes in 5" and 5.5" 👀

3/4- and 1 1/5-oz, made of scent-infused floaty TPE plastic:

$10.99 per 2-pack on TW.

PSA – Less than a week left on TW's Spring Sale!

Gitcha bassin' news fix and some chuckles! 😁 Here's the rundown for Episode 128 of the Sea Foam/Sufix Lines Top 5 of the Week in Bass Fishing! Thanks for watching!

1. Hank Cherry's cold grubbin' 🥶

2. The ol' curlytail grub 🐛

3. Cherry jerkbaits = Fritts crankbaits ↔️

4. Drew Gill is batting 1,000 🏆🏆

5. High-level A-rig tips 💪

Sea Foam Marine PRO

Sufix lines

Normally I'd put all the bait links here but it would make this way too long – but you can get 'em in the YT vid description!

1. Stetson Blaylock's fave big-minnow rod is...

...a 7' 4" ML Great Lakes Finesse Finesse CX Rod. Dang they need 1 more "finesse" in there lol. Anyhow, he says that rod – here on TW – throws a big bait (he was using a lighter jighead too) "a mile," has a good stip for working the bait and also has a solid backbone.

One warning on those deals: The guides might hypnotize you: 😁

If you're keeping track, there's some rod "branching" going on depending some on the size of the minnow in particular.

2. Steve Kennedy had the Martin winning baits in his boat

Sill in the box lol! G-Ratt Webbers.

3. Ott DeFoe has one of those Dex rod deals on his deck

Lets you walk on that area without breaking your rods. More info here.

4. Check Brad Whatley's fave 'Trap colors for right now

All regular 'Traps except the top right one is a Hammer Trap.

5. SC: Meet ya some pros THIS SUNDAY

At the Second Baptist Church in Manning.

6. Strike King will pay your Opens fees...

...if you win their tourney series deal. Interesting. 

7. CA high-teener can't be a record because...

Big congrats to Cali fisherman Damian Thou on that fish which weighed:

> ...17.46 (Rapala scale), 17-14 (Bubba scale), 18.75 (certified scale).

Apparently CA has a law that if you transport a live fish away from the lake, which did to get a certified scale, it doesn't count. So the scale could be at the lake or the fish could be dead and then weighed.

How his day went:

> ...within the first 20-30 minutes I land a 7.5 and a 10.05 on a Working Class Zero Tyrant 10. Few more casts go by with a few tail-grabbers.

> I switched it up to a Megabass Magdraft 10" in 'albino pearl.' Made about 3 casts at the tree, popped it free from the limbs and that is when the big girl ate.

Someone please send that pic to the KY DNR lol.

8. AR: Conway renovation sounds amazing

Here's 1 small part of it:

> ...AGFC employees added 250 lean-to structures. They also built concrete bowls that are placed on the lake bed and are then filled with gravel. These are ideal spawning sites....

> "We've given away 1,400 concrete spawning discs. We've got more requests for gravel beds than we can fill."

9. Apply now for Bassin' HOF schollies and conservation grants

Word is if you put your last name as "Bowman" or "Gilliland" you have a better than average shot – kidding!

10. John Bretza new Okuma VP of product development

Been at Okuma since 19 and 97, back when California was a territory...kidding. He was in sales and marketing before product development. Congrats!

11. DC: Potomac sewage spill hurting local fishing businesses

Guides, tackle shops. No word on the fisheries themselves yet that I have seen. Believe the final # was 280 mil gallons of raw sewage.

12. Garmin marine revenue up in Q4

> Net sales in the marine segment increased 18% in the 4th quarter to $296.9 mil, driven largely by increased plotter sales. Gross and operating margins were 52% and 18%, respectively, resulting in $52 mil of operating income.

> For the year, the marine segment posted $1.2 bil in net sales, a 10% increase over 2024.

10% in a down economy is pretty strong.

13. New BoatUS lifejacket loaner program

Digital checkout. Businesses can apply here before Mar 27.

14. CO: Rusty crayfish found in Little Thompson River

Sounds like not the first time they've been found in the state. Btw here's what one looks like – you know, for bait purposes:

Looks like they can also have blue/grey claws.

15. Keep an eye on...

FL citizens got "disparagement clause" removed from Senate farm bill

Believe it would have made it a crime (?) to speak out about Big Ag impacting water quality. The fact that that deal was even thought about being intro'd by a human being is incredible, let alone a supposed representative of "the people."

OR and CO legislators looking at banning fishing and hunting under the guise of animal cruelty

About time "they" tried this. They've been building up to it for a while (decades). Would not at all be surprised to see NJ do it too.

Canadian/foreign company decimating menhaden and smelt...

...off the US coastline? Wonder if that is affecting the doom and gloom about coastal stripers lately.

Line of the Day

"The lake was high for most of June."

- After an intervention by the AR DNR, it is now in recovery...🤣

Could the Bama Stroll be a deal in no-FFS tournaments?

For those who haven't seen it, the Bama Stroll is basically the A-rig of shakin' minnows. Exact origins of this technique are hard to find, but we do know that it was popularized in Japan in 2022 and has started to make its way over here.

One of the major keys with this rig is a lighter-gauge wire than the standard A-Rig. Rigs like the Raid Ghost Wire, Geecrack Stealth 8 Bamasuto and Jackall Luster Blade 75 are some examples of Bama Strolling rigs with a lighter wire.

They have 5, 6, 7, sometimes even 8 minnows on display (often with blades too), so this thing has some serious drawing power compared to the traditional single jighead minnow—basically making this the Deps 250 [glide] of the minnow shaking world.

We saw Banks Shaw successfully blind-casting a single minnow at the Lake Guntersville BPT during his no-FFS periods, and I expect we'll see more blind minnow-shaking under the no-FFS rules/periods.

The Bama Stroll won't be legal in most professional trails, but I bet it doesn't take long to gain momentum in the smaller no-FFS tournaments emerging nationwide that still allow multi-armed baits like the AL Rig.

Bama Strolling offers the fish a presentation they simply haven't seen before: a school of rolling minnows instead of what has traditionally been small swimbaits. And of course you can use it for pinging with FFS too.

How to fish it

A H-power, Mod to Mod-F action baitcasting rod is recommended. The key here is finding the balance between the ability to throw a heavy rig while having some give so you won't bend the light-wire hooks out.

Pair it with a fast gear ratio reel (8:1 or faster) and 15-16 lb fluorocarbon. 

If you're fishing a rig with multiple hooks (check your local laws!), rigging each bait with a 90-degree light-wire jig hook and a small nail weight helps keep the weight down, and means less fatiguing when working the bait.

The 4" Jackall Drift Fry has been my go-to on the Bama Stroll so far. But as always with new techniques, we can expect anglers to get dialed in based on their conditions, local forage and personal preference.

This installment of Fuji's The Juice is by former college fisherman Jack Baron who is with Japanese fishing and rod experts Anglers Resource in AL.

Gotta point out that a "milder" version of the Bama Stroll would seem to be the new Berkley Triple Minnow Rig.

"I actually enjoyed fishing in those conditions because it's something we don't do too much."

- Luke "ain't right" Palmer talkin' 'bout the literally freezing weather at the Gville Elite. More from the Bassmasters:

> The only real issue was the rod guides freezing up all day in practice and then the first tournament day until 11:00 or 12:00. It wasn't that I was cold, it was just frustrating digging your rod into the water every other cast.

Could we say that Luke likes "cool hands"? (Get it??) Either way I think we can safely say that Luke is...chill. 😁

Check this 16.4-lber caught from a CA-type lake in TX by guide Austin Miles on an unnamed jerkbait with Garmin LiveScope. Purtis Creek State Park Lake in Eustace, a 355-acre rez that limited to roller and idle only, and only 50 boats at a time out there:

Fishers of Men Tournament Trail

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