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Wow Trey McKinney man dang! Anyone who thinks he won because of FFS – no. You'll see what I mean in this'n but I might have some mo' thoughts about it in the Thursday BB.
This issue of the BB is brought to you by the Queensryche album "Operation: Mindcrime." Amazing ground-breaking "concept album" – like Pink Floyd's "The Wall" but harder and (unfortunately) darker. Great tunes, mixed great, great playing, great drummer. Just sold an amp I had that was owned by one of the Queensryche guit-players actually.
Check these lyrics from one of the tunes – it's from 1988 and the whole album still holds up great:
I used to trust the media to tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Word! Wish I was paying closer attention to the lyrics back then instead of just trying to figure out the guitar riffs...because then I went into the media biz! (Not bass fishing at first.) Anyhow, here's the chorus from that tune – it's about FFS:
Revolution calling!
Revolution calling!
Revolution calling you!
There's a revolution calling!
Revolution calling!
Gotta make a change!
Gotta push, gotta push it on through!
🤣 Let's go! 🤙
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If your email program cuts off the bottom of the 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 Trey McKinney won at Fork, just his 2nd Elite event ever 🤯
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Well first of all, he won because he's an amazing, gifted bass fisherman. Anyone who tries to say otherwise is insulting all the amazing fishermen he fished against and has no idea what it takes to make it to the Elite Series let alone win one. And if anyone says he won it "because of FFS" – c'mon man, get over yo' crazy self.
That outta the way, big congrats to him. Here's how he did it.
Going in and practice
> "This tournament was one of them tournaments – I knew it was going to be a slugfest. But I didn't know we'd have 15 bags over 30 the 1st day. Coming into it I was like, Okay that's what need to catch – my focus was 25-30. You know you gotta hit that goal or get forgot about....
> "Practice the 1st day I just went fun-fishing and had close to 40 lbs. I was like, This is unbelievable. I had a 9-08, an 8-08, a 7-something...this is nuts.
> "It was almost a practice that was to good to be true. I figured if anything the [pre-spawn] fish would move, change, go to spawn – they had to change. It was too good.
> "...I saw a cold front coming and knew that could be the tournament...this could just be the tournament. I knew these fish were headed in to spawn. The last day of practice I felt them. I knew they were coming.
> "...gonna be harder to compete with these guys when they're on the bank. That means there's so many other spots they will be at. But when they first pull in there's only so many pockets where they do it off the bat. I had 2 of those pockets, and they were protected enough where I could have 4 days. So I saw the cold front, and that's what I needed.
> "...they will pull out, suspend, float there just as I wanted them to, at the mouth of pockets I have, so I would not burn as many fish as if they were all shallow. So if they kept moving in and moving out, that would keep them more fresh."
Tournament and his 2 pockets
> "[Day 1] I started at the back of [one] pocket and did not catch them. As soon as I moved out, I started catching them. I had 28 lbs in like hour and a half. So I had all day just to get 2 bites. I went and hunted for those 2 bites and ended up with 33-11.
> "The best thing I liked about [this tourney] was we had to change with them. I started out with suspended fish [and eventually] to catching them on on a wacky rig in 3-4' [as the fish moved up]. What I liked was the versatility that was happening.
> "It was 60 degrees when we went to bed before last day – they all went shallow. They were hard to catch but they were there.
> "I was the only person in those [2] pockets. Kind of amazing in that small lake that I had as much room as I had. I knew there were enough fish in both those areas to win that tournament. The weather actually helped me in this tournament for once.
> "I look for stuff that really does not look that good, stuff that people drive on by. Little hidden points, little staging places, maybe a little bitty point...more of north-facing areas. In these north-facing pockets the water will warm up fast so those fish will be ahead. Every pocket, every place I caught 'em was north-facing....
> "I figured out how to let the fish rest. I knew I had to catch 5 more the next day and the next day. I felt like I was doing a good job of managing the fish.
> "I manage them the same way [anyone would do it] even without FFS: If I get to a place [weight-wise] where I have to catch an 8-9 lber to upgrade, I don't need to catch any more of these fish. When I get to where I feel like I've gotten all I could get out of it, where it won't help me, that's when I start to pull out and...try to find new areas.
> "I start looking for new things: points, little bitty cut-ins, the stuff that doesn't get as much pressure – to find one of those big ones. A lot of fish, how they set up it's hard to tell how big they are size-wise [with FFS]. But I've been doing it a while so I have a pretty good estimate of what kind of size they are."
Baits
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Day 1 was a jerkbait and a Damiki rig:
> Normal and Jr-size jerkbaits (natural shad colors) – "I modify my own jerkbaits. I can make a deep one into a shallow one and a shallow one into a deep one...weight strips and floating strips to get the bait to do what I want it to do." 12-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro, Lew's HyperMag Reel, 6' 8" St Croix Legend Tournament Rod.
> Strike King Z-Too (AR shiner?), 1/8-oz head that had a 3/0 Gammy hook, 15-lb Seaguar Smackdown Stealth Grey Braid to 12-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro, Lew's Custom Lite Spin Reel, 7' 1" M St Croix Physyx Rod.
Day 2 he used the Damiki too with Lowrance ActiveTarget 2, but day 3 that wasn't working as well. By day 4 ("I knew I had to change and change quick") he fished a jig and a Neko rig:
> Strike King Denny Brauer Baby Structure Jig (natural bream) with a Strike King Menace (gp), 22-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro, Lew's Custom Pro Reel, 7' 6" MH St Croix Physyx Rod.
> Neko rig: 5" Strike King Ocho ("honey candy" was his best color), 1/32-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Nail Weight, 1/0 Gamakatsu Stinger Hook, 15-lb Seaguar Smackdown Stealth Grey Braid to 10-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro, Lew's Custom Lite Reel, St Croix Legend X Rod.
Electronics
Obviously he used FFS fishing for suspended fish just like everyone else did so:
> "Electronics can be used shallower than what a lot of people think. When I'm fishing shallow like that [on the last couple days] I usually find a general area these fish like to sit, look around and try to find them...hard to see when they're shallow.
> "When I find area they like, I go back and truly just fish...casting to high-percentage areas and just fishing – working those areas without [ActiveTarget] so I know what I'm doing and concentrating at the fullest."
Shout-outs
> "All my sponsors and all my supporters that's believed in me and watched. The people that came down [to the weigh-in], the people who watched back home. All the new people on Instagram. Thank all you all for all the good luck and well wishes."
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3 Qs with Trey "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" McKinney
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1. You've been winning so fast – is there anything else you're fast at, like running, eating or driving?
> "I'm about the slowest person. When I run, it sounds like I have cinder blocks on my feet. But I can swim. I used to be on a swimming team when I was younger – I used to swim freestyle, butterfly and backstroke. I never was an athletic type, but I do like to drive fast...."
2. When you were abducted by the aliens and they schooled you on FFS, did you see Drew Gill or Dustin Connell up there?
> "Drew and I were both up there. Drew is unreal. I would have stuff to learn from him – he's really good at it.
> "Whatever people say, it's a lot harder than it looks. It's not as simple as it looks. All these guys – we all do it a different way. I take [from] everyone's way of doing it and make my own puzzle of doing it.
> "I don't really know Dustin" [so he didn't want to comment on him – smart! 💪].
3. What did just being in a boat teach you that you couldn't learn from videos or reading or whatever?
> "Time on the water. A lot of us are hardheaded. So lot of times we see something on video, and it doesn't stick like it would holding rod, feeling a fish, feeling a bite.
> "...I'm really hard-headed. When I see it myself and do it myself, it's in my arsenal or whatever.
> "Videos can get you in the right direction, but they don't always get you the bite. [Get a bite doing something] it'll stick with you a long time."
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I reassured him that we're all hard-headed...and have ADD...and many of us also have OCD (I mean C-D-O!). 😁
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Looks like reports of Fork's slide downward were misplaced! All it takes is hitting it at the right time, which the Elites obviously did, and putting a bunch of hammers on the lake. Here's what 2nd-6th did.
2nd: Tyler Rivet
> Main bait: Bill Lewis Scope-Stik 120 jerkbait (ayu), 15-lb P-Line Tactical Fluoro, Shimano SLX Reel (7.2), 6’ 8” M F5 Tyler Rivet Signature Rod.
> 1/2-oz flip jig (gp/AL craw), Big Bite Swimming Craw (AL craw), 17-lb P-Line Tactical Fluoro, same reel, 7’ 1” H F5 Ghost Code Rod.
> 1/4-oz swim-jig (b/b) with a 5" Big Bite Cane Thumper (hemotoma), 65-lb P-Line Endurx Braid, same reel, 7’ 3” MH F5 Tyler Rivet Signature Rod.
> "My main focus was staging areas going into spawning pockets. My main deal was shallow but learned quick that it wouldn’t keep up with what was showing on LiveScope out in the timber waiting to spawn.
> "I would start out shallow catching a couple to fill the limit on the swim-jig, then I would back out into the timber that was their back-off spot when the cold front came through. The fish backed out to the cedar trees that were in 12' of water.
> "I was also catching a few that were spawning at the top of the trees.
> "I would go around looking at the trees with LiveScope and see fish suspended within 5' of the surface. I would throw the jerkbait...letting them follow it out and finally eating it. For the ones that were tight in the trees I would flip the jig in the thick stuff and winch them out.
> "I just used one LiveScope transducer in forward mode."
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4th: Tyler Williams
> 3/4-oz Greenfish Tackle Little Rubber Jig (T bug) with a Yamamoto Flappin Hog (gp), 22-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro, 7’ 6 H Duckett Black Ice Rod.
> 3/4-oz Greenfish Tackle Little Rubber Jig (white) with a Fluke-type trailer (blue pearl-ish), 22-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro, 7’ 7" Duckett Jacob Wheeler Select Series Rod.
> "I was just putting my trolling motor down on a large stretch of lake and zigzagging in and out until I found where the majority of the fish wanted to be, whether it was suspended over 40’ or in 3’ of water. Then I’d look for both fish and cover in that zone.
> "I used [FFS] heavily about 60% of the time. I used it the other 40% however it was used because I had it – fishing brushpiles and stumps...things I had marked that I would’ve fished anyways without it."
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6th: Stetson Blaylock
> Wacky rig: YUM Dinger (dirt purple), 3/32-oz weight, 10-lb Seaguar InvizX fluoro, 6’ 10” ML Academy H20X Evo Rod.
> "YUM Christie Craw (gp purple flake) was key for the bed fish," 3/0 hook, 5/16-oz weight, Evo Reel (8.1), 7’ 3” H Evo Rod.
> "Smithwick Super Rogue (custom painted) was key for a couple big bites on day 3," 15-lb Seaguar InvizX fluoro, Evo Reel (6.6), 6” 9’ M Evo Rod.
> "I used Lowrance C-Map to find small, isolated stretches of bank and little backwater pockets to find spawning bass. Also used ActiveTarget to locate the larger fish with the jerkbait."
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Wheeler wins again, Freeloader + JackHammers, The swim nymph!
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Running down the top news + juice beyond the news in this week's SeaFoamWorks.com Top 5 in Bass Fishing, Episode 80! Here we go:
1. Wheeler won again! Can you dig it?? 😁
2. Freeloader and JackHammers ruled at Santee 💪
3. Damiki Elitey at T-Bend
4. The swimming nymph 🤫
5. Wrong assumptions about bass? 🤔
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Jason Christie: Water color – not temp – key for colder-water spinnerbaiting
From a little older MLF post:
> “I used to think water temperature was the most important thing, but now I believe water clarity has more of an impact.... You do need some off-colored or muddy water for spinnerbaits to be at their best. If the water is clear, something like a jerkbait is going to be a better choice.
> “If someone lives at a place like Table Rock Lake, I always tell them to run up the creeks and look for some dirtier water.
> “If the water is stained or muddy, I believe that forces them shallow to look for food because it’s easier for them to find it than in deeper water or out on ledges.
> “[In cold water] I’ll pop my rod or slow it down to get the action to change during the retrieve. Another key is to keep it close to the bottom, but not on the bottom. I’ll kill it and let it fall to the bottom while counting. You want to track it right along the bottom.
> “If it is slick calm, the tandem blades seem to do the best. If it’s windy, you might need a big thumping blade or 2 big blades to get their attention. Sometimes, you need to try a few different ones and see what looks good in the water. I am always experimenting with different baits until I find what’s working.”
Of course he fishes his BOOYAH Coverts, which had been a Christie family secret til it got out after something no one wants to talk about...😱😁
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"Fishing saved my life."
- Ish Monroe talkin' like literally:
> On this particular night a party was planned and many of his friends were urging him to go. But Monroe had a fishing tournament the next morning.
> "I told them no. I went home and one of my best friends died that night. I would have been with him. Fishing took me down a different, much better path."
I've always liked Ish and as the years pass I like him more and more. To me he has one of the most realistic, balanced and ego-less voices in our sport. I've actually encouraged him to do more "content" partly because of that – but on the other hand, who needs more content lol! Love ya Ish! 💪
That's a real good post about Ish, hope you get to read it. He's a-speakin' at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show, Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center in West Allis, on Mar 10.
One more thing: Fishing (bass fishing) saved my life too. Quick version: From being in men's ministry, I am 100% certain that God writes something on each of our hearts – for our fulfillment, joy and our own good. For me, it was bass fishing.
I truly believe God put bass fishing on my heart, partly so when I pursued it I would find Him – through my fellow fishermen. Amazing! Thanks Lord! And thank you my fellow bass-heads!
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Ever hear of Lake Murray, CA? Now you have! Check this 12.3-lb chubby ditchy caught by Murad “Hottrodd” Walker with guide Andre Casey. Deets from WON:
> “After about an hour of not seeing many active fish, I decided to to move up to points to locate potential staging fish. I could see a lot of fish moving around in shallower water which gave me the idea to fish a finesse approach with a dropshot and Neko. We began to notice a lot of fish staging in 8-20'....
> ...his Lowrance ActiveTarget...a hump with a big fish marking near the top of the hump, but it was very tight to the bottom making it hard to keep a read on. “I mentioned to my partner that this was a potential bed because of how stationary these fish seemed to be....
> "I threw in a dropshot and landed right on the spot. This quickly resulted in a small fish that I put in the well as I did not want to release it just yet to not disturb the big one...." Casey made another pitch...and was bit as soon as the bait hit bottom...the tiny size 4 Neko hook quickly bent and the fish came unbuttoned.
> ...he had Walker work the spot with a 7" worm dropshotted on 10-lb mono with a 2/0 hook....“The moment I stood up after retying he says, ‘I got her!’...."
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Love the facial expression in that shot!
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest stuff in bassin', hand-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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