Dang another lion of bass fishing passes on. Another man I wish we all knew better because he was a good (and saved!) man and for sure a pioneer in our sport. Little tribute to Lonnie in here, for sure way less than it should be but I hope it gives you a little window on him and his bassin' legacy.
Love to his family and work fam. 🙏 Bless 'em and Lord, thank you for Lonnie!
Please keep praying for Aaron too, thank you....
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What can I say except Lonnie was a jig pioneer – anyone fish a jig?? – and from what I know a good man. I only talked with him a few times over the years, didn't know him well so will let other folks do the talkin'. Jig part is in #2 below.
> In 1980, while fishing with the Bryan Bassmasters and working as a heavy equipment operator, Stanley started building lures to overcome...deficiencies in those that were already on the market. ...he later expanded to spinnerbaits.
> Stanley competed in more than 100 Bassmaster tournaments, amassing more than $300,000 in winnings. He earned over a third of that by winning the 1987 Megabucks event on FL's Harris Chain.... A decade later he beat a stacked field at the 1997 TX Central Invitational on Sam Rayburn. He qualified for and competed in the 1982, 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1992 Bassmaster Classics. Along the way he also found time to host ESPN’s Sportsman’s Challenge and G3 Outdoors. He was elected to the TX Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in 2012. [Hope it's the Bassin' Hall soon!]
> "...turned pro and started making a Stanley homemade jig, and fished my first tournament with it in 1979...I know it was 100% the Lord's will that I won that tournament because I didn't have a clue what I was doing.
> "After I won that tournament, that was in Dec...in Feb and Mar...won 5 more tournaments...on a homemade jig...then all those guys [several are household bassin' names like Rick, Larry, Tommy, Zell, etc] wanted to know what in the world I was catching all those fish on.
> "Then the pros came behind me and started helping me promote it, and I just kept making it better and better...same identical jig we make today...just little bit better hook in it. But the pros led me down the right path of what to make."
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> "I begin with spinnerbaits. I can cover more water with spinners. My goal at the beginning of any contest is to first locate bass, and by casting with a spinner you can determine the depth bass are concentrated. I refer to spinnerbaits my search-and-rescues lures. Once bass are located, I usually switch to my big-fish favorite, a jig and lizard combination."
👀 A jig n lizard! Love it, thank you Lonnie. Bless you brother.
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Lonnie Stanley IS the bass jig.
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Okay yep Stanley jigs and spinnerbaits have caught huge bass (Ethel) and won Classics (Guido Hibdon, I believe Robert Hamilton, maybe others) and many other tourneys. But that doesn't even scratch the surface of what Stanley Jigs mean to all of us.
Got a chance to talk with John Hale, who's THE man at Stanley. Here's John and Lonnie just a few weeks ago:
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John was kind enough to take about an hour today to talk to all of us about how Lonnie changed bassin'. Here you go:
> "Lonnie Stanley was the father of the modern-day jig. ...he understood about balance – to get a jig to fall right, to look natural, to stand up, all that. He understood about bite angle. People don't understand that different hooks and weedguards change the bite angle of a jig, and if you cut down on the bite angle you miss more fish.
> "Lonnie invented the nylon bristle weedguard system.... [Way back] DuPont said they would stop selling us big rolls of the fiber weedguard were making for us. We didn't buy enough at one time. So that put us in a bind. Lonnie got in touch with Kayser and got in touch with them...basically told them what we did, how we made that weedguard.... [Believe Kayser still sells 'em here?]
> "...Rick Clunn got ahold of some Herter's [old English brand] hooks – some gold-plated needle-point jig hooks. He had a box of 50 of them. He brought those to the shop and wanted to know if we could make some jigs with those needle-point hooks. He explained the advantages of a needle-point hook. [They did and liked 'em so....]
> "At that time we were buying hooks from Eagle Claw. We went to Eagle Claw and they refused to build a needle-point hook. ...Mustad was courting us for business. Lonnie told them, 'If you build us needle-point hooks, you can have the hook business.' That's how [Mustad] got into the needle-point hook business, and Lonnie designed the first needle-point hook for them. ..that's how got needle-point hooks were introduced to the American market.
> "...started getting them to make us hooks with the eye laid down...90- to 60- to 45- to a 30-degree angle. 30 offers the best bite angle of any of them, but you can't apply that to every jig you make. Different jigs require different hook-eye angles. A lot of people buy a mold, put a hook in it, put lead in it, paint it and you've got a jig. But it does not always work right.
> "A guy named Don Link worked for a company named Rubber Industries in MN. They made products out of silicone...he and his friends, big bass fishermen, started making silicone skirts to bass-fish with and muskie-fish.
> "Back in the '80s, Stanley came out with fire-tip skirts. Don sent Lonnie samples of what he could do with silicone...scared Lonnie to death [because they were so good]. Don wanted to go into business with Lonnie and came down to TX. Me, Lonnie, Don and another individual [met] and I said to Don, 'Can you make a translucent skirt with metal-flake in it?' They said, 'Oh my God'...it was like a revelation. That's how the silicone metal-flake skirts came about.
> "Don, Lonnie and Mike Dyess started company [to make the skirts], and then Don Link went on his own started Skirts Plus which his son still owns and runs."
Okay so the way I hear that – and bearing in mind LOTS of folks have contributed in various ways to the fishing gear we all enjoy now – Lonnie, John and the team basically invented every component of bass jigs except the lead (and rubber skirts)! Amazing. Few more tidbits from John (I can't include it all):
> The early days: "Lonnie and his wife and their little girls, they made those jigs themselves, packaged them.... Lonnie had an old blue van...would go to tournaments...a lot of times he had had to get a check to get home, or sell jigs to pay his entry fee."
> "How he got his start, he won 6 tournaments in a row on Toledo Bend and Rayburn – all the big TX and LA pros, everybody was fishing – on the first hand-made jigs."
> "The one thing that always sticks out in my mind was the first time I ever saw him, in the early '70s.... I had gotten out of the military...moved to Houston and my best friends had already moved down there...fishing Lake Livingston. The Bryan Bass Club was having a club tournament and I remember this guy with a big ol' mop of hair and man he had a sack of fish. I said, 'Oh my God.' I can still remember him sitting in a little bass boat and dragging those big fish out of his livewell. I was like, 'Dang I gotta figure out what these boys are doing.' That the first time I ever physically saw Lonnie and it still sticks in my mind."
Bet that big sack is why it sticks there! Gonna leave out for now the company's advancements in spinnerbaits/wire and other things, but just know they didn't just stop with jigs.
Also fyi for about the last 7-8 years, I believe, Stanley Jigs has been mostly owned by John's 2 brothers, Robert and William. Robert designed the old Hale Craw Worm (now on the Stanley site) which at one time probably was the biggest-selling craw in bassin'.
Amazing stuff. Lonnie's funeral was today, please say some words to the Lord for his family and friends. Apologies to everyone I could have called for this tribute but didn't – did not have enough time for this BB....
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5 Qs with the 'stache 'n mullet AOY.
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1. What happened? What was way different this year?
> "Everything went right for the most part. I had a few negatives that actually ended up turning into positives.... I fished really open-minded and free – every time I felt like something wasn't right, I'd make a change and be rewarded fairly quickly. I got bites when I needed 'em, I didn't lose fish when it mattered – I fished super-clean this year. I only lost a handful of fish and it never hurt me that bad."
2. Did it ever feel easy?
> "No. Nope. I don't think there was any tournament where I pulled up and caught 'em. Every tournament was kind of a slow grind, but I like that – start out slow and at the end of the day I'd have a nice bag. I don't think I ever pulled up in the morning and slayed 'em, not once."
3. Did you do anything different gear- or technique-wise?
> "Yeah. I really fished the way I wanted to every tournament. I'd say I probably threw less different baits this year.... I locked in my most confident baits and fished how I wanted to fish all year vs what should be the deal on paper."
[Asked him what those baits were.]
> "It was baits I like to throw vs like in FL you 'have to' throw a Speed Worm – I've never caught 'em on a Speed Worm so I'm not throwing it."
4. Can't believe I'm asking this, but did hanging out with Pat and Matt somehow help?? 😁
> "Uh...maybe subconsciously...I'm sure it did. They're my buddies."
[To me this looks like a pro wrestling team...a local one...😂]
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5. Do you feel maybe like a peer now to Greg Hackney and Denny Brauer?
> "Uh no. I don't think I ever will. I kinda put those guys on a pedestal. ...I'm afraid to talk to those guys.
> "I don't know if I really even want to be friends with them, if that makes any sense. I'm like a little school girl [around 'em] – I see Hackney all the time and I'm afraid to talk to him. Christie [he's] kind of the same way. Denny – Pat had him on the [StrayCasts] show and didn't tell me, and my face turned red and I could barely talk."
[You know what's weird? I've seen Denny many a time with a red face and barely talkin'...because he didn't ketch 'em and was MAD AT THE WORLD! Hahaha Denny I remember those days man!]
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Dude named Jimmy Washam won the MLF Pro Circuit champeenship.
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Who is this guy? Where did he come from? Where is he going? Lol okay he's from TN, which seems to have more than its fair share of sticks....
Anyhow, reminder that this tourney was in the Bass Pro Tour format, and sounds like the conditions were changing a bunch, the fish got harder to catch (duh!) and still Jimmy beat a bunch of MLF pros with 17-15. Bobby Lane got 2nd with 16-12. Here's some deets but no baits breakdown (yet?) cuz the baits weren't posted yet:
> In the Black River...everything from a shakey head to walking baits to an Azuma Popper Z and a Black Bass Tackle "BRD" Buzzbait with a black toad....
> At his winning area, Washam targeted bass set up in shallow water on a rock ridge with meandering current that was close to deep water. "...they've gotten tricky, hard to catch. This morning I started out with a walking bait and I figured out a little cadence to make them eat it. I would speed it up, and then kill it, and walk it almost as slow as I could, and then speed it up again. Every time I would get in the juice and slow it down, one was going it eat it and I'd actually catch them. With just a normal retrieve, they'd come up behind it every time."
Big congrats to him, heck of a win.
Shout-outs
> MLF pros in the top 10: Zack Birge (3rd), Skeet Reese (5th), Justin Lucas (9th) and Adrian Avena (10th).
> Another Reese (Jimmy) got 8th and it's only because he finished lower than Skeet that they're still talkin'...😆 hahaha just messin'! (I think??)
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Congrats brother!
Here you go:
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Screw-lock, no hook, lets him pitch soft-plastics with no hookup issues. IG vid at the link.
3. MI's Buck Mallory won the NPFL on Lake Winnebago, WI.
Can't link it but it's at thenationalprofessionalfishingleague com:
> ...rotated between flipping and drifting a dropshot in the current. The key to his success, the areas he had located in practice had lots of bluegills around. "I literally did textbook junk fishing 101 this week. ...I fished pads, docks, grass clumps and even had a few smallmouth holes. My flipping technique was a Strike King Rage Bug and I used a Strike King Z Too with an Eco Pro Tungsten weight."
Big props to one of our own, bassin' sister Vannetta Groeteke:
> The inspiration to write the book came Groeteke's desire to help local special-needs children and veterans to enjoy outdoor activities that would otherwise be impossible. All of Groeteke's profits from the sale of her book are being donated to the organization Fish Tales...to help special needs children....
She's also an MLF official. 👊 Bassin' peeps are the best!
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Including:
> South Holston Lake – Remove the 15/day creel limit on spotted bass. This change is to be in agreement with VADWR on reciprocal regulations and to support the efforts to limit the invasive effects of AL bass on native bass populations.
> Up to 22% off retail. Use code: SUMMER21
Check their 360 (bow and stern) setup deal there too....
> The Lowrance app is free to download and...includes free up-to-date and detailed nautical charts from C-MAP, creation and management of all your personal waypoints, routes and tracks, along with the latest marine weather...the ability to synchronize data, mirror and control right from your mobile device.
> The premium version...includes custom depth-shading...as well High-Resolution Bathymetry Charts, offline maps and global charts, Automatic Identification System (AIS), Lowrance app Traffic, 5-day weather along the route and 5-day weather overlay, GPS navigation data and line and track record.
Now folks are transferrin' for bassin'! Pretty amazing!
Hayden Scott and Griffin Fernandes from Adrian College who won the Bassmaster College Series National Championship on the St. Lawrence River.
From a business perspective the whole deal sounds crazy to me but a bunch does now:
> The company said it will reconsider its decision if the owner commits to 'protecting the planet'
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
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Short version: Buy Berkley Gulp Alive – which IS available now most places nationally – put any soft-plastic in the little tub for 2-3 days, gives 'em scent, makes 'em softer and, he says, "seems to make the fish hold onto it a lot longer." Sound familiar??
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Kinda head-slappin' myself on this one – I shoulda thought of it!
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"The American dream don't never leave. It's worth fighting for."
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Gitcha biggy smalls on! Couple big shots for ya:
1. Trait Zaldain said, "3 casts and 2 fish for 13+ pounds?! Oh my, Smallmouth Disney WORLD is real!! On a [Seaguar] Gold Label leader I've had since the Oneida Open too 😅"
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I was like, "Did you tell Chris what you were using?" And she was all, "Nah." 🤣 just messin'....
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That's a sack! They'll fish the Nationals on Lake Eufaula, AL in December.
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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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