Bunch of bait 'n gear stuff in this'n, what's not to love about that! Save your paper route money, dig for change in your couch (both no longer possible!) or sell your meme coins and git ready! 😁

They're doing the same things there that we are here! This stuff is from Lurenews which covers all types of Japanese feeshn:

L to R by row

Row 1

1. New Megabass IxI Blowly fat cranks have these hydrodynamic "cavities" in 'em. Makes me want to adopt a new expression – like if someone says, "What do you think about that?" I'll be like, "It's blowly. Super blowly." 🤣

2. How 'bout a hologram-colored crankbait lip?

3. Anyone want to chuck this double-metal bad boy all day long...or even for an hour??

Row 2

1. Here's your ultra-finesse A-rig!

2. Any ideas about why to cut off the top half of a jighead? 🤔

3. Here's your next fuzz bait, the Daiwa Quad Fourth. So...will the Fourth be with you? 😆

Row 3

1. Gitcha octopus on! Obviously made for the salt but the 3 guys that come to mind who would fish it in a tourney are: Brandon Palaniuk, Mike Iaconelli and Easton Fothergill. 🤔

2. Kenta Kimura is developing this Yagot bug bait for Megabass – looks pretty chunky!

3. New DUO BR Chatter Mini head for fluke-style baits (or any soft-plastics?).

Row 4

1. Not sure you can get a more realistic cicada than that?? Just watch out for birds dive-bombing it!

2. A resin blade sounds interesting for finessein'.

1. A smaller Krej is coming 👀

Posted by Berkley's head bait man Dan Spengler, I gotta think that size Krej is going to get massacred by a bunch of fish (a bunch of species too). Current Krej is 100.

2. Lookit this Berkley Saltwater Gillydine!

PowerBait of course and dang is that a shad or what!

Comes in 4.5 and 5.3, don't see it on TW but it is on the Berkley site.

3. Damiki has a new Fat Armor Shad

Guess that'll be called the Fatiki rig? Plumpiki? Chubiki?? 🤣 Might run that deal on social – contest for the best fat Damiki rig name, keep your eyes peeled!

4. Digging this "violet shad" color V&M Vertical Shad

3" long, "wings" that stick out (like whale flippers??) and real pretty!

5. Smithwick Pro Rogues FX Series for coldwater bass?

If you want to throw something your feesh haven't seen maybe ever (I mean, how long do most bass live??), check the Smithwick Pro Rogue in a paint series by the one 'n only Uncle "Frank" Scalish:

Scaleesh the feesh! 😆

Am I late to this party? Didn't know about it, very cool. If it doesn't cause any issues, hope we see something similar rolled out on a lotta reels:

👆@jmasonfishing shot, here's a quick vid:

Rest of that FB short is here.

Believe it's only on the Elite-Ti Reels – which right now are $100 off on TW.

Hey if you do this Speed Knot deal in NY, you could say you're "back in the New York Groove." 😁 #Ace

Here's your rundown for the Sea Foam and Kistler Top 5 of the Week in Bass Fishing, Episode 100! 🤯

1. Finesse dragging ⛓️

2. Finesse A-rig 🚌

3. Tiny Child rig 👶

4. Sand it 🏖️

5. Pinch it 🤏

Baits 'n stuff in this one:

Sea Foam Marine PRO

Kistler rods, reels and line

Great Lakes Finesse Drop Worm

Yamamoto Cut Tail Worm

Z-Man Finesse TRD FattyZ

Lunkerhunt Hellgrammite

Berkley MaxScent Lil Super Trooper Craw

YUM Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr (willows)

YUM Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr (Colorados)

Z-Man Finesse TRD

Berkley PowerBait Flute Worm

VMC Neko Hook

VMC Half Moon Nail Weight

Rapala Shad Rap (#7 size)

Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow

1. Next year's Classic is in Gussy's hometown!

Hahaha basically! It'll be on the TN River outta Knoxville, and the last 2 times the guys were there – 2021 Elite and 2023 El Clasico – Gussy won. The 2nd time he did it with just 12 FISH!! 🤯

3 quick Gussy things:

a) Told him he might only need 11 fish next time! 🤣

b) Gussy fished Lanier (I think?) yesterday and caught this STOUT spotted derp:

You'll never guess what he caught it on: 3.5" Z-Man Jerk ShadZ (smelt) on a 3/8-oz Smeltinator Jighead (Ralph's smoke). I was like, Is that color named after Ralph Gustafson, the fire chief in Kenora?? 🤣

c) After much consideration, I'd say that even though President Trump got more press about a smelt, Gussy's smelt deal has lasted much longer. Congrats Gussy! 🤣

2. Alton Jr's new 4.2" Bellow Vibe now on TW

Bladed jig trailer, looks like this:

Maybe he'll do what Jacob Wheeler did when he came out with a bladed jig trailer – ping with it and win some tourneys!

3. Lee Livesay says the new XPress XR21 is way better

> XPress greatly reduced the weight, reconfigured the decking and added all new seats and compartments, including a recessed trolling motor mount and a bigger gas tank. They made this new model faster and lighter....

Said he's also impressed with the new Humminbird MEGA Live 2.

4. Anthony Gagliardi gets Livingston Lures

5. Mike Iaconelli gets Wilderness Systems yaks

6. John Garrett gets Evolution Outdoors

Fishing gear, tactical gear, coolers, etc. Another guy who got 'em is yakker Bailey Eigbrett who used to be on the PR side of the fish biz but is now trying to be Jody White! 😁

7. 3 tour guys now running a Caymas

Already mentioned Casey Ashley, also Micheal "Top 10" Neal and JT Thompkins.

8. TX: Meet some Opens pros Feb 12

First Baptist Church in Jasper, vittles at 5pm, talkin' starts at 6.

9. Biggest day 1 limit at Pickwick Toyota was 31-03!

Guy who caught 'em is Ken Thompson from...PA?? Also crazy is this:

> “I’m fishing around boats, but I’m fishing a little bit different area within that area. There’s people around, but nobody’s fishing the same stuff I’m fishing."

Implied he's copin' by Scopin'.

10. New Sanders/Zona Bassmaster podcast

Well, well, well it seems like KVD and Z have the same edition of the Webster's dictionary where "retirement" is defined the opposite way than most of us think! Lol, anyhow good to see and very smart of B.A.S.S. – losing Z completely was/would be a body blow.

Z was like:

😁

11. CA: Shasta BAM won with a trout "fished like a worm"??

That's what winner Alex Niapas said he did:

> ...fished a prototype lure that he described as a hardware-less, line-through trout imitator. He explained it as a “bait with no hook” that fished like a worm.

Uh...pretty sure it had a hook!

12. Mike Bucca's fave Bull Shad/swimbait color is...bone

All I need to know, maybe you too!

13. Minn Kota spring promo deal now extended to ULTREX! 👀

Was just Terrova QUEST, deets are here (scroll down), offer ends Mar 31:

14. Buy 2 spools of Berkley line, get 1 free

Only at the Berkley site, and DOES include the ultra-thin new Forward Braid.

15. MN: Freeze Your Bass Off smallmouth swimbait tourney

Feb 15 outta Monticello on the MS River.

16. AL: Registration open for the MK/Bird big bass tourney

Eufaula, Mar 28-30, $230,000 in cash and prizes, grand prize is a fully-rigged 2025 Nitro Z20 XL:

17. TX: 14.05 caught at Lady Bird is the pending lake record

Congrats to Willie "Chad" Pipkin:

18. Revolution Sonar rotary pedal now for sale

Outed it last year, now finally available. So far it looks liek just Garmin and Lowrance options, costs $2K:

19. Auburn U's Jake Peck and Luke Wyle on Rapala podcast

Talkin' V for victory at the Harris Chain.

20. JackHammer main bait in Kissimmee Chain yak win

FL's Sherman Bishop won the Bassmaster derb there:

> ...transitional lanes – areas where bass were moving into shallow water to spawn and those who’d finished spawning and were moving out. "The water was about 5' deep and there was a sandy bottom that moved up to about 3'...where there were hydrilla lines. The bass were hanging out there at the edge, staging in that hydrilla...."

> The lake was churned to the color of chocolate milk...so he couldn’t see any bass on beds. Remembering the golden shiners that were successful bait when he was a boy, he threw a variety of golden-colored lures on both days of the tournament. The best ones included a Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer (bluegill) with a gold blade and a golden-tailed swimbait.

21. MLF's Jim Wilburn semi-retired but...

...still working a bunch. Post says he is part of MLF's 4-person executive team and mentors the sales folks.

22. Ever heard of BBR Bass Boat Rentals?

Supposedly a new nationwide deal? I know nothing about it so this is not an endorsement!

23. Jeff Dunn new CMO at Sportsman's Warehouse

Chief merchandising officer, came from Wally-mart and Sammy’s Club.

Line of the Day

Fly fishermen have been known to use special stomach pumps to extract and examine from trout what’s been recently ingested in the quest of duplicating the same.

Eeew! This is what can happen when you get obsessed with bugs and don't become an entomologist...😁

Maybe more crappie FFS learnin's

From a gameandfishmag.com post excerpted in the first issue of Target Crappie. IL speck guide Kyle Schoenherr talking:

> How quickly or slowly a bait falls and the way it falls can also be quite important. For this reason – and due to crappies' varying dietary preferences – anglers should keep a range of plastics...and jigs of various weights, sizes and head shapes on hand. All affect drop rate and bait action.

[So who is out there pinging 'em with a 2-3" bug bait or whatever? Could work?]

> Compact tungsten jigs get baits down quickly – a clear advantage when crappies are positioned deep. But a buoyant plastic on a light jig or a jig/plastic or jig/minnow combo suspended beneath a sensitively balanced bobber might be a better choice with fish positioned high in the water column.

[Still VERY surprised a big FFS tourney hasn't been won with a float 'n fly.]

> For fish positioned low in the water column, Schmidt prefers a dropshot rig with buoyant plastics like the Z-Man StingerZ or Shad FryZ. A long dropper line can extend the range of the rig's effectiveness.

[Dropshot for crappie?? Pointing out the long dropper for us....]

> "The biggest mistake people make with FFS is trying to drop the bait in the fish's face. A shad is not going to swim right up to a crappie. The key is to keep the bait above them – close enough so they can see it...you want them to come to you."

"If anglers knew how much they are robbing themselves of potential knowledge about fishing by just watching a video screen, they might not do it."

- MN muskie guide talking about FFS for muskies in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I get his point, but a lot of bass pros say the opposite – that FFS has INCREASED their knowledge of bass...though of course they already had a lotta knowledge. Wish that made the article.

Other than that, thought this was a funny line:

> ...muskies...turning the pursuit of these trophies from one that historically has required 10,000 casts to one, as Stevenson says, that requires only "$10,000 cash."

Brown megamelon caught by Ben Milliken – a shot I forgot to run a while back. When your fish looks wide like a big flounder, it's in a different league mang!

Researchers shocked by male Amazon dolphins' aerial urination ritual

> Scientists suggest that the bristles on the dolphins' snouts help them 'decode' messages in other dolphins' urine.

Hahaha what?!?! But...kinda sounds like dogs sniffing each other? 🤔

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