Got the Bobby rundown and all the Redcrest bait info I could get in this'n, will have a normal Blaster with a bunch o' 'Crest tiddybits on Thursday. Got back to Joisey yesterday and it was snowing. 😫 Done with it man, dang....
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Reminder: If your email program cuts off the bottom of this 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 Bobby Lane won the MLF Redcrest – at the last dang minute!
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Wow what an ending to that tourney! Near the end Luke Clausen needed a 4 to take the lead, except 4s weren't exactly common – but he got a 4+. So Bobby needed any legal fish to overtake Luke, and in what seemed like the last minute he caught one that looked like a 2+ but it weighed 1-15, then 1-15 on the 1st reweigh – but then 2-01 falling to 2-00 on the final reweigh. A couple seconds left, done. Insane!
Startin' here about halfway through the last day:
> "A log was laying there that had water on it now. I flipped to it and caught a 3-11 or 3-12, and the wheels started spinning then: Golly the fish are shallow – I caught the last few in 2' or less.
> "A dock was there and I pitched behind it – I hung a 6-03 between 2 cross-members. Somehow the fish swam under the boat...swam back under the dock. I had the line and lifted that fish in the boat – all of a sudden that bumped me into 4th place. I'd caught 10 lbs in 3 minutes.
> "Now I was starting to feel it. I knew what I needed to do, where the fish had migrated to. It was just a matter of time to catch 'em.
> "...little drain in the back dropped off in about a foot of water – I flipped a little jig into a tree, and it sunk about 2.5'. I thought, One has to be in here. A little further back I caught a 3-lber. I was right around 4th place.
> "...little laydown in 2', I pitched to the front, then pitched to the back and caught a 2-10. That moved me to within 6 oz of the lead. I lived this story so many times, being so close but so far away."
Then he caught the last one behind a dock and that was all she wrote:
> "It was mind-blowing. I've watched it 100 times – my reaction on camera was exactly what I felt at the moment. I was breathing hard, my head was spinning – I felt like I was going to pass out. My tears were tears of joy."
Baits
> Backs of creeks, 2-7' – the last rock. "Now that the water's come up, you have to hit [the rock]."
> Why a brown bait in dirty water: "Drowning Creek – in the back there must be a spring [because it] remained clear during the event. So all the water coming out of the back was clean and clear. All the way to the front of Drowning it was absolutely beautiful. Same with Horse Creek – the more toward the front, the prettier the water was....
> "...what I call 'little buddys'. [On the trip to Redcrest] my son and I saw dogwoods starting to bloom, and...anywhere I go, especially up this way, if I see any kid of little buddys on the trees I immediately start looking at the weather. I know sometime in the last couple weeks it was warm enough to get those fish to start migrating. It meant...shallow cranking will be big in this tournament."
> How he could cast a light crankbait accurately in the wind on day 4: "With that longer rod and those Abu reels you can whip that rod in any direction, and that Frittside weight system in there – into the wind, against the wind, it doesn't matter."
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Electronics
> "[Lowrance] Active Target did come into use a little bit. Some of those transition points in the back of the creeks, I could see the brushpile, log or laydown under the water with it. It made it easier for me to cast the Frittside to the left or right knowing I would bring it through some of the structure. So it was a key factor in some of the bites."
Shout-outs
> Every single one of my sponsors [he listed 'em all!]. I want to thank every one of those sponsors for believing in me, for sticking with me the past 15 years, having hope and faith this would come one day. Sunday was the day.
> "Above all of that, God and my entire family."
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5 Qs with the Florida hamma jamma.
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1. Did you pray before that last reweigh or what??
> "No, I did not pray. I think the whole world was praying for me. I could feel their prayers coming. I was blown away it went 2 lbs...it went 2-01 and fell to 2 even.
> "I don't remember what happened, to be honest. I was in la-la land."
2. What business does a FL boy have winning a muddy-water tournament in freezing weather wearing a down jacket? 😁
> "The tournament set up perfect for me, and every day it was setting up better for a shallow-water guy to win. It stayed cold all week long, but I've fished many muddy-water and cold tournaments – and I think the beginning of this season prepared me to be ready for the weather....
> "And those [tree] 'buddys' gave me confidence to know that the fish would be shallow enough to win this tournament."
3. You've fished real well and been so close the last couple years. What's behind you getting better and better?
> "About a year and a half ago my wife was diagnosed with Celiac [disease, meaning no gluten]. It's been a change of pace ever since...what we can and can't eat, trials and tribulations, hospital visits and stuff like that....
> "...the kinds of food I was starting to eat...I got on a kick – I wanted to be healthier, I wanted to be mentally prepared and be physically better. I started walking 3-5 miles a day, and really cut all the bread out of my boat. I wanted to feel better....
> "And I truly believe us tithing in church – we made a pact in the Lane household to give 10% every week to our church, and since then God has blessed us tremendously. And I couldn't be more grateful. I will tithe out of this check also...."
4. Tell me about God in this win man.
> "We are nothing without God. I was raised in a Presbyterian church, my parents a true believers in Christ and I became a Christian in 2nd grade...you can venture off the path but God always knows what's going on in your life and can always reel you back.
> "I'm not the best example in the world of a Christian, but I truly believe...to forgive and forget.... I pray hard in the mornings for peace and safety, we pray every night at the house, all of us together. it's been a change of heart for me...I can only be grateful for what's in front of me.
> "God put me in a position last weekend to win the Redcrest, and I truly believe He said that fish will weigh 2 lbs on its 3rd weigh. So it had to be an act of God."
5. When we fished Toho last summer – do you always drive your boat like that or were you trying to freak me out? 😁
> "I drive my Phoenix 920 Elite everywhere the same way in FL. I was born and raised in FL, and down there I know there's no rocks to hit. With that Yamaha I can go through the roughest, toughest, pads, hydrilla, you name it and it will always have water pressure – that gives me confidence to go anywhere.
> "...wasn't trying to scare you, it was just a perfectly normal boat ride."
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Didn't get pics from all dudes due to travel but got some:
2. Luke Clausen
> Chunk rock, 2-4'.
3. Jacob Wheeler
> Isolated rock, brush, little channel swings, 4-12'.
> Transition banks, where the contour tightened up and flattened – pea gravel type of rock.
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4. Dustin Connell
> "I threw the deeper jerkbait on 8-14' brushpiles near the main lake and threw the shallow jerkbait near the bank on wood. Later in the tournament the fish moved shallow around any wood available inside the pockets. I was using Lowrance Active Target to find the wood."
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5. Andy Montgomery
> Most were behind docks in 3-8', some also "ankle deep."
> 3/8-oz spinnerbait (white, double willow), 20-lb Strike King Contra fluoro, Lew's HyperMag Reel, Lew's Signature Series Thunder Cricket Rod.
> Docks and trees, less than 2'.
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6. Zack Birge
> 3-5', 45-degree rock banks toward the backs of pockets. Small shell stretches were the best, also isolated wood.
7. Edwin Evers
> Berkley Stunna jerkbait (Table Rock shad, stealth shad), 10-lb Bass Pro Shops XPS Fluoro, BPS Johnny Morris Platinum Reel (8.3), 6' 8" M BPS Platinum Rod.
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8. Jordan Lee
> 5-8' brushpiles.
[I asked him, "Any bait around?" he said: "No, just bass" and cracked up. 😁]
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10. Michael Neal
> Fish suspended in 5-15' over 10-20'.
> Rocky banks, main-lake creek banks.
11. Mark Davis
> Channel swings and points, 3-12' – "old school."
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11. Bradley Roy
> Docks in a secondary creek arm, 3-5'.
13. Casey Ashley
> "Shallow, any transition: bluff to chunk rock, sand to rock, bluff to sand," etc. "Where the bluff turns to flat, like a point on a straight bank. They're underwater and hard to find – you have to fish to find 'em"
> Lowrance Active Target: "I had a pattern the second day catching them off brushpiles in Wolf Creek. I'd find a dock with a brushpile, and tick it with a spinnerbait."
13. Takahiro Omori
> 1/2-oz TO Spinnerbait, chart/white, double Colo blades (orange kicker and gold), chartreuse grub trailer. "I made [the bait] 20 years ago...selling the bait to Japan to keep my fishing tournament business [funded in the US]."
> "Less than 5', logs, wood, docks, rock."
15. Greg Vinson
> "Rock turns and little transition points, secondary pockets. Most fish were positioned in about 10' and you'd have to work the bait down to about 7'. I ran through a bunch [of jerkbaits] in practice – that bait gets down quicker than the larger baits. I also felt like the smaller profile looked like an easier meal...."
15. Fletcher Shryock
> 2-4', middle to the backs of the pockets and creeks, and random cover (a chair, firewood, etc.).
17. Scott Suggs
> Rock transitions – rock change and depth change. Steep-type banks, the very first flattening out on a transition.
17. Wesley Strader
> 5/8-oz spinnerbait (chart/white, red kicker with gold 4.5 IN blade) with a Zoom Split Tail (white pearl), 16-lb Sunline Sniper ("16 helped me cut through the water and get it down a little bit deeper"), same reel, 7' 5" MH Powell 755 CB Endurance Rod.
> Bluff ends in creeks and Wolf Creek.
19. Brandon Coulter
> 2-5', bigger rock on gravel – gravel banks with bigger rocks.
> 17-lb line because speed was key. When the water went from 3' to 5' he had to slow the bait down to get it down and that hurt the bite.
19. James Elam
> 3/8-oz Jig (b/b or brown, homemade with Gamakatsu hook) with a gp or bb trailer, 15- and 17-lb Seaguar InvizX fluoro. 3-6'.
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Do FL-strain bass try to swim back to FL?? 👀
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> Anglers familiar with typical FL bass lakes might expect these genetics to flourish in the backs of creeks and coves where stained water conditions exist, but that was not the case. The genetic contribution of FL bass was more apparent in fish collected from main-lake areas than the backwaters.
> "We don't know if this is a behavioral change that is linked with the genetics or factors outside of the stocked fish. For instance, native fish densities may have been greater in the backs of creeks and coves, which would have decreased the amount of genetic contribution from stocked fish."
> ...FL bass genetics were prone to increase as the samples moved eastward in the lake. "We joked that maybe they were headed back to Florida. But it really was interesting to see this movement. Both lakes are dammed at their east end and the cleaner water is at that end, in general. That may play a role."
Or maybe they just miss this kinda stuff:
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😳 🤣
Serious for a sec: Betting a lot more such data will be coming in the next few years...from states and folks that "get it." Some DNRs are still in the 1850s, seems like.
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1. This week's pro jerseys for St Jude.
> ...guest speaker at the Resurrection Breakfast, to be held from 8:30 to 11 am Apr 16 at Mid-Ohio Conference Center.
> The Idaho Fish & Game estimated the total number of kokanee to be nearly 10 mil in 2021, the highest estimate on record. As a point of reference, the average...since 2000 is around 3 mil.
> According to IDFG managers, the expected record number of kokanee...sufficient diet for the smallmouth, allowing them to grow faster.
> The current catch-and-release and certified weight state record smallmouth bass have both been caught at Dworshak, and the [ID DNR] says they wouldn't be surprised to see the current state record challenged over the next couple of years.
> ...was worth $500 and a 7' [MH] Halo Fishing Rod.... BassCashBash founder and owner PD Vinson of Leesville drove over to Lake Sam Rayburn in time for the bass club's weigh-in the next day and presented the check and fishing rod.
> ...made history Saturday [on Caddo Lake] by becoming the first girls team to win a North LA High School Fishing League tournament.
> The girls fishing team made history less than 2 weeks ago when they won the state championship. The team of Taylor Bacot and Alexis Virgillito become the first ever girls team to win a TBF State Championship in the entire country.
💪👊 #girlpower
> "The use of this barbaric and totally unethical form of fishing.... Many oversized and multiple treble-hooked fishing lures have been seized and these have been used to deliberately impale fish and damage them when the barbed treble hooks pierce the body flesh and internal organs of the fish."
Not a fan of snagging myself but "barbaric" seems a little over the top? Reminder that England exported "animal rights" to the world...and also place settings with like 5 forks and 4 spoons or whatever...😂
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
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In his case Active Target. Real short and to the point, here you go:
> On the water learning more about my Lowrance Active Target and trying to become confident with Scout mode. Using hard objects that I can see above the water has helped me understand what I'm seeing on my unit.
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"He was picking up rocks and was tossing them into his boat. He didn't say why. As this was my first tournament and not knowing why, I began throwing them in too."
> ...all at once he picked up some rocks and began throwing them. I didn't know what or who we were rock fighting with. Cletus was yelling about those SOBs – not knowing exactly where any SOBs were I grabbed a rock and kept looking.
> Turned out Cletus was attacking a bunch of ducks that were ahead of us. He attracted more ducks as the night wore on. We flung every rock in the boat....
Anyone else have duck fights in night tourneys?? Anyone else ever fish with a guy named Cletus that hated ducks?? 🤣
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Is that what the ramp parking lot looks like there??
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best and funniest (sometimes worst) stuff in bassin', 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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