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Welcome to SEPT already man wow! Hope you had a green and/or brown and/or spotted feesh-filled weekend. Few quick deals:
1. Hope you folks in LA and TX are okay. Anyone need prayer, please lmk.
2. Weather-wise it’s headin’ toward the cold = make sure your lifejackets are good!
3. Big thank you again to everyone involved in pro bassin’. Might not be perfect in your eyes, but I for one am real glad it is what it is and ain’t like some of what we’re seeing in the so-called major sports. Not commenting on anything in particular, and all good if you disagree, I just see our sport and pros being Godly, brotherly/sisterly, patriotic and clean (PG), which I for one very much appreciate. Proud to be a bass-head!
>> 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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How Ish Monroe crushed ’em at the Delta ‘Yota.
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Don’t get Ish mad! Don’t be gettin’ Ish fired up! Cuz then he’s gonna take your hard-earned wages and buy himself another offshore tuna trip…or something. That’s pretty much what went down at the 3-day Cali Delta FLW ‘Yota derby — Ish won it by 16.5 lbs against a bunch o’ Delta sticks in a 3-dayer with short fishing days. Dang!!
Here’s the bait info — full fishing deets on the BB site:
> Day 1 he just punched, and the next 2 days he weighed 3 each day doing that and 2 on a frog. Punching first:
> “…matted blown-in hydrilla — blown into the tules on tule berms. Tule berms are high spots on the main channel. The channel is 6-12′ deep and you’re flipping into 1-2.5′.”
> Bait colors: “A crawdad in my livewell…’el diablo’ matched exactly, and PB&J is just a really great color — brown and purple looks very bluegill-ish.”
> “Weight size depended on how thick the mat was. The lighter weight gives a better hookup ratio. I did miss a couple fish on that bigger weight — just the way that weight hits the back of their mouth.
> “I’d just do a couple hops — covering a lot of water fast.”
Froggin’ deets:
> “…tule berms with sparse tules. The berms themselves are made out of dirt, so as the tide started lowering you’d see more dirt. The tules out in front of it [in the water]…[bass] were there feeding.
> Frog color: “Dark days and dark water use a dark color, and light days with light water use a light color. The water a little dirty from the irrigation pumps…pump water out of the fields…and we had that overcast haze from the fires [so] low-light conditions.”
Ish shout-outs:
> “That Lowrance Ghost trolling motor… would cut through some of the thicker vegetation, it was super quiet –I really appreciate that.
> “HDS Live with the tide info on there is huge when you’re fishing tides. I can type in the date on my HDS Live for tide a year from now if I want to [and get the tides]…helps you plan….”
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1. Was your original plan to win by 20 lbs but you just took your foot off the gas?
2. If you couldn’t flip and frog, would you even fish?
3. Shouldn’t Johnny Crews rename the D Bomb to Ish’s whatever you want to call it?
> “Yes. [cracks up] We should rename it ‘the best most winningest bait that Ish Monroe has in his box.’
4. What’s more fun, fishing a 5-fish deal and winning or not winning an MLF format tourney?
> “Winning is everything.”
5. What’s behind this whole saltwater fish deal and does it help you in bassin’?
> “Yes it does help me in bass fishing. And saltwater fish taste way better than freshwater fish.”
[He was gonna stop there, but Ish has a lot of Clunn-like amazing fishing knowledge in his brain so I asked him to explain about the fishing part.]
> “It helps you with feel. A lot of the [saltwater] fishing I do is live-bait fishing so you have to know what your bait is doing and how it’s swimming. When you’re fishing for tuna with 80-lb braid to an 80-lb fluoro leader with 5/0 hooks, and that sardine has to swim to the fish, you can tell when it’s about to get bit because it starts acting really crazy.
> “Halibut fishing we’re using live bait and you have to know when the halibut actually has the hook in its mouth because they actually bite part of it first before they eat the the whole thing.
[He means all of that helps with feel.]
> “When you pitch your bait in there and it’s sliding down that grass….a prime example was yesterday, fishing Clear Lake. I flipped my bait to a stalk in 8′, and 2′ down a fish eats it. It wasn’t a thump — I could feel my bait sliding, and then the speed it was sliding at sped up. I knew…the only thing that sped-up my bait was a fish, So I set the hook and landed that fish.
> “[Salty feeshn] helps me understand what my bait is doing normally vs when something different happens.”
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Delta top 10 baits breakdown.
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Anyone who knows anything about the Delta won’t be surprised that this was a power-fish festivus. Here’s how the top 10’s baits broke down — and props to FLW for havin’ consistently good bait/pattern info:
Punch = 70% — D Bomb = 40% (top 3 punched with it)
Frog = 50%
Bladed jig = 50% — JackHammer = 40% (I heard Cali anglers need written permission from Brett Hite to use any other bladed jig)
Bubba shot = 20% — both used Roboworm Straight Tails in MM or MM III
Senko = 20%
Topwater = 10% (Berkley Choppo)
Shout-outs:
> D Bomb dominance. Amazing considering John Crews spends most of his time lifting weights and doing social media posts…lol Crews!
> Bass Angler Mag’s Mark Lassagne finished 3rd. That’s pretty dang stout cuz some media dudes think they can hang but rarely prove it. (I know I can’t hang with those dudes so….)
> AZ’s Joe Uribe Jr has pepperoni on his jersey = #stout:
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MaxScent Flat Worm rules again on Sturgeon Bay.
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Hope to chase down winner I Ain’t “Rusty” Salewske soon, but here’s all the baits of the top 10. Reminder that Sturgeon Bay is where Justin Lucas ‘n friends blew up the Berkley Powerbait MaxScent Flat Worm, then demand and prices skyrocketed, and now we know who won all those auctions on eBay — the FLW Title dudes! Here’s what the top 10 fished:
Dropshot = 100% — MaxScent Flat Worm = 70%
10% each = Swimbait, Wacky rig
Shout-outs:
> Elitist John Cox finished 3rd. Conclusion: John can fish any derby anywhere, can’t fish enough and is a big-time sledgehammer. #nobasssafe
> Check this great shot of Evan Barnes’ (10th) 3″ Berkley Gulp Alive Leeches — $19.99 yo! lol!
I straight-up texted Justin this: Do you feel horrible that the demand for MaxScent Flat Worms has skyrocketed, supply has crashed, prices have skyrocketed, and people have anxiety over not having the baits?
He said:
> “I don’t feel bad at all. The demand wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t winning pro events. I’m proud Berkley has baits that are so good that everyone is looking for them.”
Bet he sounds chill cuz his garage is full of Flat Worms….
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Biggest skinniest-water smallie ever??
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Lookit this insane 7.4-lb smallie caught on the upper James River, VA! I mean, I’m assumin’ the water wasn’t as skinny as it looks in the pic, but either way whoa man that’s a HUGE river fish! Congrats to @blueridgemusky, caught on a War Eagle spinnerbait:
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News
If it’s not zany I’ll be surprised….
4. Chance to fish with a (sketchy) Elite.G-man, B-Lest, M-Arey.
5. LA: 2 guys arrested for fraud in Fishers of Men tourney.
Alleged, from the LA DNR website:
> …for alleged fishing contest fraud in lower St. Martin Parish.
> Agents received a complaint about possible fishing contest fraud on July 24 at a Fishers of Men bass tournament near Stephensville. Agents were advised that tournament officials and contestants believed that 2 of the contestants in the bass tournament knowingly violated tournament boundary rules.
> Upon completion of an investigation, agents learned that Bourg Jr. and Lane fished outside of the allowed area for the tournament. Bourg Jr. and Lane then weighed in and entered their fish where they won and collected first place over all, first place bonus bucks and the “big bass” contest totaling $5,562.50 in prizes and trophy plaques.
> Agents secured arrest warrants for Bourg Jr. and Lane and they turned themselves into authorities and booked into the St. Martin Parish Jail.
> Fishing contest fraud brings up to a $3,000 fine and 1 year in jail.
6. Fluke “Genemaster” Jensen gets Plano.
They are not holding his obsession with ‘yaks against him…lol congrats Gene!
7. Natty Pro Fishing League rolls out a couple talkers.
Looks like Luke Dunkin will be on the Live team with the one and only Fat Cat “Thaddeus” Newton. All they need is Brian le Carpentre from Ike’s South Jersey Hot Wings Teamsters and they’ll either have a hit record or certain psych professionals will have to be on set….
8. AR: World record shot-putter now a bass-head.
Moved to coach the Razorbacks track/field team, bought a bass boat, now competing. All it takes is 1 bass!
9. AL: God is Bigger tourney needs anglers ‘n sponsors.
Believe it’s on Logan Martin Sept 12.
10. VA proposing no size/bag limits for spotted bass.
Statewide, also making it illegal to stock spots. Plus these bass regs:
> Smallmouth — Flannagan Reservoir: change to 15″ minimum size.
> Largemouth — North fork, south fork and mainstem Shenandoah River: standardize to no harvest between 11″ and 14″.
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now…
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Tip of the Day
Russ Lane likes the olde skool jig-n-worm.
Good reminder, similar to the Bubba shakey but not quite the same. From the MLFers site:
> “On ledge lakes, a big worm is hard to beat from late July and Aug into Sept. By this time of year, bass are conditioned to crankbaits and jigs and swimbaits.
> …Big Bite Baits 10″ Kriet Tail Worm or Big Bite Baits 8″ Big Finesse Worm…. “Depending on the depth I’m fishing, I’ll use a 3/8- to 1/2- or even a 3/4-oz Buckeye Magnum Spot Remover jighead…flat bottom so the bait stands straight up.
> “I’m a firm believer that I get more bites fishing big worms on these jig heads than I do on a TX-rigged worm.”
> …2 favorite presentations…1st is a…”a slow, steady drag. You drag the bait and pick up slack.”
> His 2nd option is a stroking technique. “I let the bait get down, then do short, quick snaps of the rod to get the worm to jump off bottom. When I throw slack back into the line, the jig’s shape makes it fall straight down. It’s a great way to fish when bass are situated higher in the water column.”
I love the throwing slack into the line part. I think learning to do that with a variety of techniques is gonna be a deal in the future….
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Quote of the Day
“If you don’t win, you don’t deserve to touch it.”
– Gitcha minds outta the gutter, that’s the most recent Elite winner Bill Weidler talkin’ ’bout blue trophies. Just made me wonder: Do the guys actually touch these things during a tourney? I could see a few being superstitious like that? Anyhow, quote’s from a real good FB vid….
Actually reminds me of one of the things I say to myself: “If you can’t afford it, don’t test-drive it!” Which is why I have refused to drive a Vexus VX glass boat…cuz I know I’ll be runnin’ to a dealer if I do…for which I blame the Hoppers, Daffrons and many other ex-Rangers now at Vexus….
If you have better self-control than me and can get to Blue Springs Lake Marina THIS SATURDAY Sept 7 for the Vexus demo day, do it!
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Shot of the Day
Love this pic of Mark Rose talking to bass-heads about Jesus before a tourney because it’s awesome — one of many things that make our sport awesome in my 2c — and it also reminds me of all the times God tried to get my attention in bassin’ and never gave up on my sorry self which I find incredible. Ain’t preachin’ (I don’t think?) just spoke to me:
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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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