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Learn ya some about spinnerbaits…
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…from Jason Christie. Excerpted from a longer Q&A on the BassBlaster site. Dude knows so much we barely cat-scratched the surface, but still interesting for sure.
Context: Jason and I are opposites when it comes to spinnerbaits. For example, I’m handsome — no wait, that doesn’t have anything to do with spinnerbaits hahaha! What I mean is, I know zero about spinnerbaits but Jason knows a TON, most (not all!) of which went into the BOOYAH Covert Series:
Why come out with these baits now?
> “I’ve held onto this stuff for a long time. You try to keep everything secret…but it’s just impossible with what I do. Cameras are in the boat every day. I just felt like…my dad and my uncle sitting there in the interview [BOOYAH did about the baits], I could see their pride in talking about what we’ve done.
> “We want to share what we’ve learned and help everybody else catch more fish. There’s a big bag of tricks that was let out. Did we save a few? Absolutely. But 98 out of 100, we let out.”
Do you believe they’re the best spinnerbaits ever made?
> “I don’t ever in this industry use the word ‘best.’ I’ll tell you why I use this [spinnerbait]: Every component has been tested for 30 years. The head was kind of the last thing to come around, but we’ve done a lot of testing with that.
> “I can tell you that if I were to go fish an event tomorrow and try to compete for mega money, I’d pull that spinnerbait out of the package, tie it on and be 100% confident. There’s not one thing I could do to make it perform better than what it does out of that package.
> For me, personally, the way that I fish, these are the best spinnerbaits.”
I’m not a spinnerbait fisherman, but when I tied on a few of these baits it seemed like they track real straight, and get straight again real fast after they hang up or roll over vegetation, and they seem a little more effortless to fish.
Why is that?
> “It comes through the water easier. That goes to the number of the beads between the blades, the size of the clevis — every little thing on that spinnerbait has been tested. If you change the number of beads, it changes the spinnerbait.
> “Vegetation, when it gets stuck or rolls over it immediately tracks straight — that lopsided head counteracts the torque. The size of the blade, the length of the swivel…that’s why I’m telling you — not hours, days or weeks went into this. It was many years of testing that went into this.
> “I can remember asking [his dad or one of his uncles in the boat years ago], ‘My spinnerbait’s not rolling but yours is — what’s the difference?’ There’s countless hours and years of working on this.
> “There’s 72 different [Covert spinnerbaits], and every one of those has a purpose.”
If you had to pick your top 3 Covert Series baits, what would they be?
> “First and foremost would be the 1/2-oz chart/white silver scale [skirt] with a pearl head and a single gold Colorado. Just day in and day out, you can catch them in dirty water and semi-clear water anytime on that. It’s just all-around…around the spawn.
> “Second is the same bait with tandem CO’s silver and gold — the big blade is gold, the kicker is silver. You can fish it all year round…after the spawn into the summer.
> “The third one would probably be 1/2-oz chart/blue, red head, gold blade and red kicker blade. That’s a bait to throw in extremely dirty water.
> “Give me those baits and I can catch them year-round from TX to NY.”
Do you have a favorite trailer?
> “I use a YUM Pulse [swimbait] in 2 sizes. I use the small one, 3.5″, for 1/2-oz or less and the 4.5″ on a 3/4- or 1-oz. The profile gives…a lot more meat to the bait. > “…can use that trailer to slow the bait down, lift the bait, make it go slower. I’ll use other baits like a YUM Swim’n Dinger [pictured above] if I don’t want it to float as much or a Thump’n Dinger. We could sit here for days and talk about spinnerbait fishing.” Rest of the Q&A — with his fave spinnerbait setup and more — is right here.
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Check you a spinnerbait, in this case of course a BOOYAH Covert:
Key:
1. Blade
2. Swivel
3. Bead(s)
4. Clevis
5. Wire
6. Head
7. Hook
8. Skirt
So taking into account those 8 total variables (and 1 blade only!), the number of possible combinations for just 1 spinnerbait is between 256 and 109,601. (I ain’t a math whiz and for some reason this wasn’t an easy Google, so all you math folks have at it and let me know.)
Either way, just gotta underline that’s ONE spinnerbait with ONE blade — and I’m not even counting the different possible sizes of swivels, numbers of beads and stuff like a bait keeper! How many other bass baits have that many possible combos??
So I guess the Christies weeded thru a heck of a lot o’ combos of stuff….
Now take your fave spinnerbait company — how many spinnerbait MODELS do they make? BOOYAH’s Covert Series = 72 different baits. Sounds like a lot more multiplication of permutations — if anyone wants to attempt the math on that whole deal, have it mang! |
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“…when that first cast of the day…creates a long bubble trail, you’d better keep casting it all day long….”
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– That’s Matt Lee talkin’. When I read the headline I thought he was talkin’ ’bout what happens in private bathtub moments (heehee!) but nope it was about topwater fishin’. Says he can’t explain it but:
> “As a teenager, being a total bass fishing nerd, I probably first read about the bubble trail thing and started paying attention to it. And to this day, it absolutely holds true. If people reading this will look for it – and throw a topwater all day when they see it, I’ll promise you they’ll agree it holds true too.”
Here’s a quick educational vid on what to look for, starrin’ Matt’s iguana named “Curly” for some reason:
[Do believe that’s the first time anything like that has been in a bass fishing media deal…HAHAHA yeah!]
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Crazy cool vid about making a 14′ bass tub.
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From the Tiny Boat Nation YT channel, time-lapse vid of a guy who makes a pretty amazing foamed, carpeted and outfitted bassin’ rig out of a used 14′ Lund Pro Angler tin boat:
Wild! And…I kinda want one now….
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How you know when your reel is money.
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News
1. More memories about Joe Higgins.
B.A.S.S. VP of sales we lost recently. I didn’t know Joe well but do remember him always smiling. Please pray for the Higgins family.
2. Paul Elias had a tough year from shoulder operations and…
…getting used to the BPT format:
> “In a lot of the tournaments you needed to be covering water and making a lot of casts; really the whole tour was that way. I was fishing a lot slower than I needed to be. I didn’t look near enough in the day and a half of practice and I dang sure didn’t cover enough water as the tournament was going on.”
Heard Paul hurt his shoulders doing the Safety Dance but couldn’t confirm it:
3. Jeff Kriet’s house and trucks gone in fire.
He’s okay — was fishing the salt offshore at the time. I’m sure very tough, hang in there man….
4. Every day Greg DiPalma gets after the Classic.
Elite rookie and NJ homie:
> “I have already put more research into that event than any other tournament I’ve fished. Not a day goes by that I don’t do something to get ready for it.”
5. How Brandon Palaniuk helps design Alpha Angler rods.
My 2c is that Alphas are some of the best rods ever made. I know that’s a big statement, try ’em yourself….
6. Swindle, Scroggins, DeFoe helped fix a boat…
…at the ‘Yota Owners Tourney, cool story that shouldn’t surprise y’all a bit:
> “Gerald asked us how our day was…. We told him we’d lost all electrical power, been towed back to the ramp in the cold rain, and might not get to fish. He asked if we could go get the boat back at the house we were renting, and bring it back to the ramp for he and ‘Big Show’ to try and fix,” says, Derrick Gray, team fishing partner of the boat’s owner, Jason Forsgren.
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now…
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Tip of the Day
Boat storage: Watch out fer critters?
Never had this happen, maybe I’m lucky?
> Another issue you want to guard against is animals. They seem to love to get into storage compartments and can do a lot of damage. I have heard of squirrels and even raccoons taking up residence inside boats that are covered during winter months. They can destroy wiring and will chew on just about anything they can get their teeth around.
> One way to deter the invasion is to place a few mothballs in storage compartments and make sure you have not left any boat snacks in there for them to munch on.
> A few years ago, I was running down Bull Shoals Lake and saw a squirrel swimming frantically far off the shore. I eased up next to him and stuck my landing net in the water. He grabbed it immediately. I lifted him into the boat and the poor guy was exhausted. He just laid there for a while. Unfortunately, he got his strength back, dashed under the console and disappeared inside the boat.
> I simply could not get him out. He was in there for a few days, and I finally had to fill my boat full of water to flush him out.
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Quote of the Day
“One season on the Bass Pro Tour has taken my nice and beautiful preorganized tackle and turned it into a matted mess of discombobulation.”
– Cliff “jump and” Pace talkin’ on the MLFers website. Cliff, just wonderin’ man — how much of a mess can you make with a couple jigs and crankbaits?
Hahaha kiddin’! Seriously tho, somewhere there is a place you can get help:
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Shot of the Day
Load you up your world map — now, doesn’t it look like Mark Daniels Jr is about to start fishing the east coast of China?? Lookit both pics:
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Random
Check this amazing fishin’ analogy, from Francis Chan, one of the holiest men on the planet in my opinion: #bold
> “I feel like I’ve been fishing in the same pond my whole life and now there’s like thousands of other fishermen at the same pond, and our lines are getting tangled and everyone’s fighting over stupid things, and one guy tries some new lure and we go, ‘Oh, he caught a fish, let’s all try his method!’ And it just feels like, what are we all doing here?
> “What if I heard of a lake that’s like a 5-mile hike away, and no one’s fishing it. And they’re saying, ‘Man, the fish are biting — just throw a hook in there and they’ll go for it!’ Man, I’ll make that 5-mile hike if I love fishing.
> “What would keep me at that same pond? I’ll tell you what would keep me at the pond is: I built a house on the pond, and all my friends have houses on the pond. And we don’t even fish that much, we just go out, and we hang out, and we talk, and we play, and I don’t want to leave my friends.
> “But if my calling is to go fish, and there’s no one fishing over there, why wouldn’t I go?”
He’s talkin’ ’bout leaving the US to spread the gospel to poor folks overseas. This is a man who has built basically a megachurch (maybe twice?) and walked away from it both times because he felt like it was getting away from what Jesus asks folks who know Him to do. Amazing man.
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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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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 or sell the list or anything else crazy….
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