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Alright el Classico is next week! You will get 1, possibly 2, Blasters – probably shorter. Somehow I will get the Bass Pro Tour tourney deets hopefully.
Every Classic is amazing, can't wait to see what happens. If you're going to Knoxville and see me walking around, pls say hey!
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Gitcha Blaster video fix here:
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If your email program cuts off the bottom of the 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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3 Qs with GLF's Dan Miguel, a possible 'maple leaf supremacist' 😁
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When Great Lakes Finesse announced they got Cooper Gallant, I said I needed to call Dan and ask him what was up with this all-Canada pro staff. So I did! And got some juice outta him too because Dan is a smallmouth juice fountain...or something. Here we go:
1. Why the all-Canadian pro staff? Are you a maple leaf supremacist? 😆
> "[Laughs] I think that we have the best smallmouth anglers in and around our area, mainly because of the level of competition around here. We've got the Johnstons, Evan [Kung], we've got Cooper – the competition around here [in smallmouth tourneys] just makes these guys in my opinion the best
> "It has nothing to do with geography. I just think they are the best smallmouth anglers and they align with our brand."
Are you going to add any largemouth or spotted bass guys to your pro staff?
> "I would we already [have some] – we get to work with Stetson [Blaylock], Jason [Christie] and Luke [Palmer]...also Kyle Cortiana [via GLF's parent company]. So those guys help us with that. They're good, too.
> "But I'm not ruling out anything for the future. Right now I just want to solidify our smallmouth team."
2. Why do you think 'matte 309' is your best-selling color?
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> "It very much resembles a lot of natural forage up here – gobies, minnows. It's a very subtle color that in clear water they really like.
> "It definitely is inspired more by the goby colors up here."
Is it the sand on the bottom that makes that color unique to that area?
> "Yeah the sand, the natural bottom color – that color blends in. And when you get a color that very much blends in with the environment, they seem to hit that a lot better.
> "I'm a firm believer that you want the fish to feel like they found the bait rather than make the bait be so obvious to the fish. I think sometimes you make the bait too obvious to the fish and that turns them off.
> "Especially the bigger pressured fish. They want to feel like, Ah, I see you, I got you."
[Does this explain gp?? 🤔]
3. What's your GLF rod for shaking minnows?
> "I'm personally not the biggest shaking a minnow guy, but the guys on our team who make a living off [competitive fishing] like the 7' 4 ML and 7' 8 ML. [Dan uses the 7' 4.]
> "More like the guys throwing bigger minnow baits with light jigheads....
> "The 7 4 is our most popular minnow rod. It's not too long where it's...difficult to work a minnow, and also has great casting distances and gives them good feel. It's got good backbone too on the bottom end, to set the hook.
> "Stetson believes you can long-bomb a lighter minnow way out there, you get better hookups, you're able to be a little more accurate...guys are really starting to catch on to the longer minnow rods. And having that more-parabolic action also reduces lost fish."
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What was that 7' 4 originally designed for?
> "It was originally designed to be an all-purpose finesse rod – one rod to to fish pretty much everything in the GLF lineup: hair jigs, dragging little baits along the bottom, spybaits, dropshotting with light line.
> "If you could only have 1 finesse rod, that would be it."
_____
Heads up that Dan is doing a Finesse Boat Camp weekly vid series (free) where he will drop even more juice.
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FL's Aaron Yavorsky won the Santee Cooper Invitational minnow fest
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Shortened to 2 days, Aaron won it with 10 fish for 67-04. Crazy average – from MLF:
> "Day 1 I pulled up to one pile and they were just stacked – I caught 35 [lbs] in like 30 minutes."
That was on his 7" 6th Sense Shindo Shad on a 4.4-gr head with an 8-lb fluoro leader. He fished Moultrie and focused on brush and stumps in and on the edges of ditches in 15-20'.
Top 10 baits broken down
What the top 10 finishers fished broken down:
FFS baits
Minnow = 60% – 7" 6th Sense Shindo Shad, 6" Yamamoto Hinge Minnow, 4.5" Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow, 4.8 Big Bite Baits Spotlight Minnow, 6" 6th Sense Shindo Shad, 6" Big Bite Baits Jerk Minnow
Jerkbait = 30% – Megabass V110, Rapala PXR Mavrik 110, Megabass Kanata
Dice "style" bait = 20%
10% each = Swimbait (True Bass Swimbaits Sock Shad – new?), Wacky rig
Non-FFS period baits
Jerkbait = 30% – Megabass V110, Rapala PXR Mavrik 110, Megabass Kanata
Football jig = 20%
Lipless = 20% – Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, 6th Sense Quake
10% each = Bladed jig (JackHammer), Wacky rig
Shoutouts
1. Reigning BFL All-American champ Matteo Turano got 2nd.
2. Chris Lane's son Cal finished 3rd and apparently didn't fish a minnow.
3. Banks "on fire" Shaw got 8th.
4. Quote from local TJ McKenzie who finished 9th and caught a 10-05 day 1:
> “My faith is really important to me and I pray every morning before I make my first cast to help settle the nerves – and that kept me calm when I had that big one hooked up. That was my first fish of the day, and later on I caught an 8 and weighed it and I knew I already had a bigger one in the box."
✝️💪💪
Shoutout to the real good MLF coverage deets.
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Tak brutalized 'em!
Oil filled lipless?
The Bama Stroll?
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> Hope was a well-known fishing guide at Houston County Lake near Crockett in the late 1980s and 90s. He was so obsessed with big bass and their habits that he began equipping big fish with thumb-sized electronic transmitters so he could monitor their daily routines.
> Between 1985 and 1994, Hope surgically implanted transmitters inside 57 bass ranging in size from 6 lbs to more than 15 lbs.
> For years Hope chronicled his findings in a monthly column for the now defunct Honey Hole Magazine....titled “Trackin' Texas Trophies.”
> "A big bass is a big bass, no matter where the lake is. After a fish reaches 7 lbs, it does the same things and goes the same places, every day. It makes no difference if it is 7 lbs or 18 lbs."
He passed on Feb 22 at the 82. Bless you bassin' brother, prayer folks please put 'em up for his family and friends. ✝️🙏
Thank you to TX bass scribbler Matt Williams for that post.
2. Jacob Wheeler DT8 sighting at Hartwell
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Banks Shaw (4th) and Ott DeFoe (9th) fished Rapala DT6s there, but Jacob fished the DT8 which is the same body size as the DT6 with a bigger bill:
> "Speed cranking was the key because the water is so clear and you had to do something to trigger them."
Jacob and Ott both fished 'dark brown crawdad', the same color Drew Gill fished on Guntersville.
3. Dustin Connell's go-to minnow rig is...
> "...a 3/16-oz VMC RedLine Tungsten Swimbait Jig with a 1/0 hook and a 3.5-inch Mooch Minnow...15-lb braided mainline to a 12-lb fluoro leader and paired with a 6' 9' 13 Fishing Oath Shaker Rod and 2500-size spinning reel."
He also teased a new VMC Ace Jig coming out soon as his new fave. 👀
4. Robert Gee thinks this TN River Classic will be heavier
So maybe it'll take 15 fish to win this time? 😁 Gussy is a legend for that 12-fish win! Anyhow Robert is a local but is not fishing it so:
> "It will be the heaviest weigh of any of the Classics that have been at Knoxville. They've just grown up a lot more since the last Classic here. The fishing is just getting better on both lakes."
And because the smallmouth minimum size went from 18" to 15":
> "I've had to throw back 3-lb smallmouth because they've been only 17.5 inches, so the new regulations really open the door for all-smallmouth limits for the whole tournament."
Conditions will be a big deal – will be fun to find out man!
5. Gussy is running one of those The Captain "dashcam" units
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At the very least a safety and liability deal. Wonder if B.A.S.S. will say that's a part of the screen inches limit? Get a Captain here.
6. Why the Hack Attack likes lithium
Says he takes it in the morning and it helps him feel calm...🤣 Just messin'! He says on the Bssmasters they're worth the investment because:
> Due to the power and lightweight nature of lithium batteries, not only did I eliminate one battery, but I took 300 lbs out of the back of my boat.
> I can get on plane without having to bury the throttle and my boat simply floats shallower. That's huge for a guy like me that likes to get into inches of water.
Also better fuel economy, they charge faster and electronics run better.
7. Spencer Shuffield (6th) fished a 5/8-oz lipless at Hartwell
Not 1/2, not 3/4 – 5/8! 😁 Seriously though that's just one of the deals that makes Yo-Zuri lipless baits different – in this case the Yo-Zuri Rattl'n Vibe:
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Gitcha shrimp stank on! Not the powder, which TW also has.
If you're looking for a bigger bag for soaking your baits not named Zip-Loc, the NetBait bag is $1 cheaper than the TW one.
9. How Mark Rose chooses between fluoro leaders (IG vid)
He uses the thinner Seaguar Gold Label for dropshots, Neko rigs and very clear water, and Seaguar Tatsu for minnows, shakey heads and slightly stained water.
10. KVD and Zona at the Milwaukee Sport Show this SATURDAY
Kristine Fischer too.
11. Here's your 2026 Bassin' Hall of Infamy peeps
5 folks, big congrats to 'em:
1. Don Iovino – Pioneer of finesse fishing deep for bass with sonar, and actually went to Japan and taught them! 👀
2. Pam Martin‑Wells – Probably (for sure?) the best female bass angler of all time and from what I hear was a heck of a college bassin' coach too.
3. Takahiro Omori – No explanation needed, but will note he is the first non-American to get in.
4. Rick Pierce – Of course Mr Bass Cat, which is an understatement. I was going to say that he joins his dad Ron in the HOF but it looks like his dad isn't in? If so that surprises me.
5. Mike Whitaker – Created Operation Bass and the Red Mans, aka the BFLs. A legend.
I read it twice and don't see John Murray? NEXT YEAR HOF peeps!
12. Bass Pastor Chris Wells is raffling off his Nitro Z18 again
Happening soon, $100 a chance to get it, more here.
13. PA: Penn State says "northern schools can fish too"
They say their biggest research tool is YouTube.
14. Bill Siemantel outs upcoming FishLab Neko Craw (YT vid)
I think he says it has a SPRING in it? Not sure if he means an actual spring. Either way it looks like a real craw and I bet has some interesting twists to it. Not really a good pic of it in there.
FishLab is also coming out with a Neko Flex Shad.
15. Z-Man released a 6" Scented Jerk Shadz
Thought they already had it but I guess not! Now they have:
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The B.L.B. FFS Minnow to me seems like a cross between a lipless and a jerkbait (kinda). The Daggr Stick – just 3.5" and 1/4-oz – has a tight side to side and a weight transfer system that also is a subtle rattle.
Here's Matt Arey talkin' 'bout fishing the jerkbait (IG vid). He says even at that smaller size it casts a good distance.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DUtbKLUDjG9/
The Black Series baits are geared for us ultra-serious/crazy bass-heads...not that the regular Lunkerhunt stuff doesn't catch 'em too.
17. New CrushCity The Mayor colors
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Yo-yo a lipless for winter bass
From a BM post by Dustin Wilks back in the day – interesting:
> Anytime the weather is stable – ignore...air or water temperatures – bass will become active. They'll chase baitfish in water temperatures as low as the high 40s, sometimes colder than that.
> Most of that chasing occurs in water less than 10' deep, more often than not less than 5 or 6. These are active, feeding fish. They can be caught with the right lures...my choice is a lipless crankbait.
> I know that challenges conventional wisdom.
> ...I'll look for a shallow creek arm that's no deeper than 10' – 6' is even better. If I can find one that has a channel or cut running through it, I'll stop there first. But I won't pass over a good-looking spot just because it lacks a channel.
> I'll cast my bait out, let it fall to the bottom and work it back toward the boat with a yo-yo type of retrieve. I'll fish it relatively slowly. What I won't do...is work it ultra-slow. My bass are chasing baitfish. If they want my bait, they'll catch it, cold water or not.
> If I'm really lucky, I'll find some rocks...bring it back with an up and down retrieve, making sure I hit every rock I possibly can.
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"I was catching 40% of the fish I was raising off the bottom."
- Dale Holler BFL winner Lee Stephens talkin' 'bout his minner period. Full quote:
> "The guys here at Dale Hollow are really good at fishing the bait-ball stuff. Like really good. I typically try not to butt heads and compete with them at what they're good at, so I was fishing hard targets with the 'Scope.
> "...I needed a perfect bait presentation. Those fish are so educated. But you could trick them, as long as you got it to them exactly right and paid attention to how they react. I was catching 40% of the fish I was raising off the bottom."
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How is this man holding up the fish that's 2nd from the left?? Either way he got out there in 29-degree air temp and 43-degree water temp and caught 'em! 💪💪 From the Norsk Lithium IG, so I assume he was thusly powered!
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I've had Lyme disease twice, the second time bad (a naturopath friend cured me). My daughter had it once (same). The county we lived in in NJ had and might still have the highest per-capita Lyme rates in the country.
Because of that, someone sent me this post today – by a guy who says he's a Dr, about the federal govt's role in Lyme creation and spread, here and in Cuba. Apparently it's sourced with real documents – it is loooong.
FYI if you're interested. Not the first time I've seen this stuff, never from that guy.
The Bible tells us to exercise our discernment – here in Hebrews 5:14 and in other places. So season it with salt and either way – please be careful of ticks. I truly hope you never get Lyme or any other tick-borne disease. It is bad man.
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest stuff in bassin', hand-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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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 whatever....
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Gitcha BB social at these links
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