BassBlaster

Just need 3 colors, 103 mph bass boat, Do you tune your cranks?

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on March 5, 2019

Not sure what’s with tornadoes in AL, but they seem to be more common there now. Lost some folks — pls pray a few words for their families.

>> If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!

Today’s Top 5

MLF BPT pros have used only 3 colors?

From a dude on the BBC boards who’s an MLF boat official:

> I’ve been to FL and south TX [the first 2 BPT tourneys] and the waters were totally different but the colors were the same…variations of green pumpkin, white or white/chartreuse and blue/black.

> Bait type and shape were different based on what was being fished but 90% of the anglers used those colors. Jigs, bladed jigs, spinners, finesse, sticks, etc.

> [Other officials] and I discussed the techniques used at the end of each day and the colors were consistent.

Gonna bet the VARIATIONS he mentioned were ultra-important to the guys. And maybe we need a new color that combines gp, b/b and chart/white so everyone can just fish 1 color and the bass might look at it like:

The boat official also said:

> I’m also leaning more about electronics. These guys live by their graphs.

Heck yeah they do….

“They’ll look at a river or lake and do things that other anglers won’t or haven’t even thought about.”

– Elitist Hank Cherry talkin’, flabbergasted any Elitist would fish any bait other than a jerkbait…. LOL just kiddin’! Actually from a classy post about the new Elites — full quote:

> Watching them has been interesting to me. They approach fishing differently. They’ll look at a river or lake and do things that other anglers won’t or haven’t even thought about. They go to different types of places and fish with different lures. They’re less structured in how they go about things.

> It’s been said that some of them will learn as they go along. That’s true, no doubt. But it’s also true that some of us who’ve been around longer will learn from them — in a lot of cases the hard way.

> It’s been my pleasure to fish against them.

#stout Cherry…or is that:

Power techniques dominated Mead Costa.

Power-techniques in a western lake?? This might explain things like why Denver has a talking gargoyle in their airport and the new Sour Patch Kids cereal. Or maybe the bass just wanted that stuff.

Local and one-time FLW pro Tim Klinger won it…

…with 34-12 over 3 DAYS and just 13 fish total! In fact, NONE of the top 10 guys weighed 15 fish — which you might think would’ve argued for finessin’ but no. Here’s how the top 10 baits shook out:

Jig = 50%

Spinnerbait = 30% — Tim’s main bait was a 3/4-oz white War Eagle Screamin Eagle Spinnerbait with white double willows, as well as a jig:

Crankbait = 30% — 4th, 7th and 10th, couple Lucky Crafts, couple Duos, Strike King (I think it was a 5XD?) and a Rapala DT6. Shout-out to BPTer Roy Hawk for his 4th.

20% each = Flip plastics and Swimbait (both Keitech Fats)

10% each = Jerkbait, Swim-jig, Underspin, Stickbait, Bladed jig

This bassin’ tub went 103 mph!!

Bullet 21SST. But…it had one of the new Merc 300R (300 hp racing) engines on it:

What a BoatingWorld.com dude said:

> …a Bullet SST 21 bass boat rigged with a 300R with a Sport Master lower unit. It reached a blistering 103 mph. By the time I screwed up my courage to ride it, they were pulling it out of the water.

> I tested the same boat later that fall with a Pro XS 250, and it still hit 84.4 mph. Fast enough for me.

Any bass-head with enough coin to put that rig together, remember it’s just like a “super car” or a high-hp bike — you better know what you’re doing before you get behind the wheel.

Two mo’ thangs:

> Merc does make a Racing 250.

> Kevin Short is givin’ rides in this bad boy at the Classic. I’m gonna get one — a ride, that is:

Elitist Cliff Prince just set the bar on walk-up tunes.

That’s a “walk up to the weigh stage” tone — Cliff’s new one is called “Gone Fishin” and it’s by the legit band Moccasin Creek! Tune’s good, all his sponsors are in it (!!) and the vid’s for real:

Here’s the story from Cliff:

> Jeff McCool is singer for Moccasin Creek — he wrote the song — my wife and I went to school with him. Him, Wess Nyle and Moccasin Creek boys produced the song and video.

Says the Moccasin boys do tunes for WWE and NASCAR too.

C’mon Cliff! Bringin’ it!

News

1. Elitist Chad Pipkens broke his collarbone.

Dang, sorry to hear:

> Broke my left collarbone in half with a perfectly wrong, soft fall playing hockey Sun morning. I see a surgeon tomorrow and we will go from there. I love what I do, but I still choose to live life in between fishing. I do so cautiously, but sometimes things just happen.

> We will keep our head up and hope for a speedy recovery, and we are fortunate there are 4 weeks until our next event. My glass is still half full.

Wonder if he was checked hard cuz of that hair…KIDDING! Wishin’ ya fast healin’ Chaddeus, and glad to see you were bangin’ heads on the hard water!

2. BPTer Jason Lambert gets Lure Lock.

3. Elitist Chris Groh auctioning off jersey for St. Jude’s.

#stout

4. Zona on StrayCasts tomorrow night.

Wed at 7pm CST on Facebook/StrayCasts and straycasts.net. Hostest Pat Renwick said:

> Please tell people not to watch because I’m sure only boredom will ensue from dullards such as Mark and I.

Mark? Who’s Mark?? Only heard 2 people call Zona “Mark,” and they’re both women he says “yes ma’am” to…. Anyhow, I found this promo shot very disturbing yet surprisingly accurate…though Z’s arms ain’t that big in real life (hahaha Z!):

5. AL: More on that 13.7 Guntersville hawg-melon.

1 lb short of the lake record caught the same week in 1990:

> …were fishing deep water where it broke into a shallow flat. The boat was in 11’…the flat was [in] about 4’….

> “TVA has been moving some water because of all this rain. There was an eddy in the current there and we got a wild hair to fish it.”

> He was fishing a Zoom swimbait in blue herring color. Guntersville doesn’t even have blue herring. “The water was stained and I felt it would show up a little better.”

> He caught a 5-lber on his first cast. And he could see other fish on his electronics.

My fave line:

> Tyler deer hunts too and he did not get a deer this season. His family had been ragging him that his bad deer season was going to carry over into his fishing.

Hahaha gotta love givin’ peeps a hard time (in love)! 2nd fave line:

> “I’ve had people calling me I haven’t talked to in 10-15 years, wanting to go fishing.”

[eyeroll emoji]

3rd fave line (from here):

> Mahaffey said the bass was full of eggs and had a large gizzard shad in its mouth.

6. GA has a new trophy bass program.

First TX, then FL, now GA. No idea why CA, TN and LA don’t have one….

7. KS bassin’ forecast is out.

> …the #1 reservoir for largemouths this year is Sebelius Reservoir where 63 bass, 12″ or longer, were caught per hour of electroshocking and 26 of those fish were 15″ long or longer.

> But…La Cygne Reservoir is tops for big bass. Of the 51 12″ long or longer bass caught per hour at La Cygne, 39 were longer than 15″ and 7 of those were 20″ long or longer! La Cygne also had the biggest bass sampled, by far — 9.31 lbs.

8. UT: Powell level way down, feeshn way up?

> The current elevation of Lake Powell is roughly 3,572′ above sea level. Just a year ago, the elevation was 44′ higher at 3,616.

> …at least a dozen “new” islands dot the entirety of magnificent Bullfrog Bay.

> The good news is that fishing is super….

9. FL: President George HW Bush going in IGFA HoF.

Hall of Fame. Personally don’t think the IGFA much matters in bassin’ world, but a lot of what President Bush did for fishing involved bass.

10. SC: Club tourney will donate proceeds to students…

…who need glasses. #stout

11. AFTCO on the road with the new Bass Bus…

…which is a pontoon boat that I guess “buses” the “basses” to “bus stops” after tourneys — hahaha! Love the release boats, of course including Shimano’s on the Elites. Good vid on the AFTCO boat here.

12. New Raymarine Element models.

Headline of the Day

Anglers need some patience, self-control

That’s specifically referring to bass-heads, and it’s 100% TRUE — which is why we fish for bass. Ain’t no lawn chairs in bassin’ man…. #impatient

Tip of the Day

Do you tune yer cranks…like this?

If not, maybe you/we should. Check this, from BassBlaster relative (adopted red-headed step-relative, lol) Target Walleye — very inneresting. Has to do with trolling, but what’s trolling — it’s just regular cranking over a longer distance:

> The best trollers in the game do things differently, but are always precise. One of their overlooked tweaks is running “tuned” crankbaits to get the best possible action out of a bait….

> No doubt tuning baits with a pliers can mess up a crank’s action more than it helps — been there! There’s finally a tool that’s actually designed for the job…the Off Shore Tackle EZ Crankbait Tuner.

> [Guide Charlie “Turk” Gierke:] “If you’re trolling or casting crankbaits that aren’t tuned, you’re wasting your time. I’ve been professionally guiding for 21 years and I can tell you with 100% assurance that tuned cranks catch a lot more fish. If it’s designed to run dead straight, it needs to run dead straight.

> “Tuning cranks is touchy to say the least and most anglers (even pros) apply too much pressure while tuning baits and make matters worse.

> “I’ve field-tested it a lot and would describe the EZ like this: It does what the torque/clutch setting on your drill does. You know, the torque setting [list of numbers from 1 to 10 or 20] on the drill so you don’t strip screws or over-tighten nuts. The EZ does the same thing but on cranks!

> “The EZ has these same pressure setting features, so when the prescribed pressure is reached it “slips.” Visibly the short plier jaw pops up…a ‘click’ noise is heard.

How to use it:

> “…when your lure is out of tune either left or right…put the short-nose jaw on the line tie opposite the way its running. Put the long jaw on the diving bill at a right angle. Then slowly squeeze the handles together.

> “As you apply an increasing amount of pressure and the pressure limit is reached then the short jaw will pop up. You have just applied a measured amount of pressure.

> “Repeat the process (if necessary) if the lure didn’t move exactly to center, but this time turn the knob clockwise a quarter turn.

> “Once you get the hang of this tool, you’ll master tuning crankbaits in no time and catch more fish.”

Never used one but now want to. Here’s a good vid on it and the product page at Off Shore Tackle:

Quote of the Day

“I probably would’ve went to college if they had bass fishing.”

– FLWer Billy McDonald. Love the word “probably” hahaha B-Mac! But what if a college offered a bassin’ scholarship and…tutors and…free pizza! All good til you get a roomie who does this:

Billy’s quote is at wibc.com — can’t link it.

Shot of the Day

FLWer @josephwebsterfishing took this shot of the best stick on Lake Seminole:

Shoot man, someone needs to design a treble hook that works as good as an osprey talon…or maybe we already have that?

Random

Volvo’s putting a speed limiter in its cars…

…aka a “governor.” I’m sure no one will be towin’ a bassin’ rig with a Volvo anytime soon, but just watch all the copy-cat car companies pile in on this one. Hey all you outboard and bassin’ tub companies, don’t even think about it:

> The automaker says the limit will stop cars from going faster than 180 kilometers per hour, which works out to 112 mph. It said it is also considering other technology that could put stricter speed limits on cars driving near schools and hospitals.

> Volvo said it is also looking at ways to address the problems of driving while distracted or intoxicated. It said it will present plans for technology to address those problems later this month.

> “We want to start a conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even an obligation to install technology in cars that changes their driver’s behavior, to tackle things like speeding, intoxication or distraction”….

Ya got me

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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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