BassBlaster

Most virus-like bass stuff? Spybaiting tips, Top baits from the weekend!

Guess it’s virus week 2 (ugh). Hopefully you’re gettin’ out to catch some fishies. Word is Largemouth Bass Virus don’t jump to peeps…except for the makin’ us addicted part….

Quick word to the MLFers and Bassmaster pros — planned to see you guys this month or next, now probly not. Think my wife would shoot me if I was seriously going to the airport, then don’t wanna get coughed on by someone and bring sumpin’ to you all. Doubt it’d happen but…see y’all in late April or May….

“Random” section at the bottom has a little on a couple virus Qs I had fyi. I get the deal’s serious — I for sure don’t want my folks gettin’ it, or my chemo/radiation-gettin’ bro-in-law…or anyone for that matter. Just wanted a couple answers. Other than that, my 2c: faith and fear can’t co-exist so gotta pick one! Bless you and your fams.

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

Today’s Top 4

Most virus-like colors n other stuff.

First a couple quick things I realized puttin’ this list together:

> Bass-heads use the term “snot” a lot. Knocked the snot outta it, fished the snot outta it, Reelsnot, etc. We use it way more than “booger.”

> Hardly any baits have color names with snot, booger or virus. Honestly shocked me. Guess good ol’ “chartreuse” is hangin’ on….

In no particular order:

> YUM has a “snot rocket” color, which is a dark green over pearl, so that’s kinda the right direction. Here’s the Vibra King Tube in that color (also in the Tip Toad):

> The Big Bite Jointed Jerk Minnow also has a “snot rocket” color and it’s a little more what I’d expect maybe:

> The Whopper Plopper used to come in the “slime” color but not sure if it still does:

> Dry Creek Outfitters makes soft-plastics in a color called “buzzard snot” but I guess buzzards don’t have green snot. Come to think of it, guessin’ buzzards can’t even get sick with what they eat? Anyhow, some pretty good colors in that 5″ tube like “Snake River craw:”

> Likewise LureCraft has a color called “smallmouth snot” but it’s…light brown? I guess that makes sense….

> Weirdly, Reelsnot is odorless…kinda a letdown with a name like that? Hahaha! Never used it — is it at least neon green and sticky??

> Fish Monkey — which makes good gloves fo sho — has Snot Gloves, which thankfully have some neon green and are sticky:

> AFTCO’s Cloudburst Shorts have a coating that helps “prevent slime and guts from sticking” — so I guess they could help?

Winners

Think the winner of this deal has to be Bandit — check the color “viral perch” in the Rackit Squarebill:

Runner up: Smelly Jelly Sticky Liquid — Not sure if there’s a better virus-like name in bassin’ than that! Plus check the bottle:

3rd place: The Bio Bait Paddletail Swimbait comes in the color “slime bug:”

Top 10 baits broken down from 2 FLWs.

Toyota FLW Series on Okeechobee, FL and Havasu, AZ:

Okeedokee

Brandon “the young Overstreet” Medlock won it by 5+, here’s how he did it:

> For fish around shad: Pitching and making short casts with a 1/2-oz, white Medlock Double Guard Flipping Jig with a white Zoom Super Speed Craw….

> After corralling a limit each day, Medlock flipped reeds the rest of the time. “As hot as it is, I felt like that inside [the reeds] bite was dying. I felt like the fish were leaving that, so I concentrated more on the outer stuff. …flipped up multiple big fish from isolated reeds out past the main reed edge.

> …3/8-oz and a 3/4-oz Medlock Double Guard Flipping Jig in black/blue. …the 3/8-oz model with a Riot Baits Little Fuzzy, and used a Zoom Big Salty Chunk…on the 3/4-oz model.

Used Randall Tharp-designed Ark rods maybe cuz they made him feel…randy baby:

Lol! Anyhow here’s how baits of the whole top 10 broke down — almost a whole tacklebox deal:

Jig = 30%

Flip plastics = 30% — 1 was a lizard (Zoom Lizard)

Topwater = 30% — walker (River2Sea Rover), frog (Bronzeye Poppin’), Devil’s Horse that looks custom-painted (Joseph Kremer, 8th):

20% each = Swim-jig, Swimbait, Stick worm/Senko, Worm (1 weightless)

10% each = Spinnerbait (War Eagle), Bladed jig (Jack Hammer), Lipless crank (BOOYAH One Knocker), Shakey head

Shout-out to PETER T, who finished 2nd! Glad to see he’s still doin’ it!

Havasu

Dude with the cool name Tai Au won it by only about 1.5 lbs but had 61-03 which sounds good for Havasu? He caught ’em junk-fishin’ and a little bed-fishin’:

> “I just went junk-fishing. I checked a few of my beds. I caught one of my nicer ones on an Evergreen Jack Hammer with a Zako Paddle Tail trailer [white and white]. I caught 1 flipping a Flappin’ Hog. I caught 2 on a Senko, and about 5 or 6 on a Daiwa Neko Fat.

> “Deep tules [reeds], shallow tules, it didn’t matter as long as there were tules nearby I was catching them.”

Here’s how the top 10 fished — sounds like in/around spawning areas:

Flip plastics = 50% — most was flipping to beds

Stick worm/Senko = 40% — most/all wacky-rigged

Dropshot = 40% — all used a Roboworm Straight Tail Worm, plus a few other baits

Bladed jig = 30% — Jack Hammer, Chatterbait Custom, D&M Piranha II

Worm = 30% — most/all wacky-rigged

Spinnerbait = 20%

10% each = Swim-jig, Football jig, Swimbait

Golf dude watched an MLF tourney…

…the BPT Redcrest Champeenship, cuz no other sports were on. Pretty funny — and honest about himself. BUT warning if you click the link: This is a dude who thinks it’s cool to cuss [eyeroll emoji]. Excerpts:

> “Greg Hackney put up 16 bass in period 1,” the announcer says, “including the Berkley Big Bass, a 3-pound, 10-ounce La Crosse lunker.” And suddenly…I understand what it’s like for non-sports fans to listen to cultists like myself speak the language of athletics — a complex, idiosyncratic and ultimately foreign tongue. Bass fishing has periods? You can catch 16 fish in one of them? What the h*ll is a lunker?

[Thinkin’ you have to be pretty sheltered not to know what a lunker is….]

> I was just introduced to someone named Fred “Boom Boom” Roumbanis. Again, these are all real people. Boom Boom caught 55 pounds in the “first period,” which I think is a day, and he’s in 2nd place.

> What’s to prevent these guys from catching the same fish over and over again? What if there’s a stupid fat fish that gets caught several times in one day?

> The guy [Edwin Evers] is fishing in ways we only thought possible in dreams.

> For a moment, I forgot that sports are gone, and I became totally engrossed in both bass fishing and the legend of Edwin Evers. From the managed vegetation to the hollow-bellied frogs, I do not regret a thing.

Did Bear Bryant fish a ’60s MLF?

Check it…legendary Allabamy football coach in ’63 with 22 bass allegedly weighin’ 94 lbs — maybe the first version of MLF feehsn (heehee!) — @alabamavintage shot:

News

1. TN: 3rd body found on the TN River.

Last one from that missing boat in a high school tourney. My heart is breaking for those folks and all who knew them. Bless you bassin’ folks.

2. AL: Cool detailed post about how Classic bass were handled.

Kind of amazing — I didn’t know all the steps they go thru to get ’em back to the lake for a fish fry.

HAHAHA! Kiddin’ ’bout the fish fry part. Srsly tho, a good post, worth readin’.

3. Hank Cherry on the Cast of Stray Casts WED night.

Wed 3/18 @ 7pm Central on Facebook.com/StrayCasts or StrayCasts.net.
straycasts.net

4. Kelley Jaye’s on BassEdge Radio.

5. MN: TV host Babe Winkelman filed for bankruptcy.

Hate to hear it for anyone, I’m sure it’s a scary deal.

6. SC: Shoutin’ out Khris Williams winning the co side at Hartwell.

FLW Series eastern division tourney that Marty Robinson won a week or 2 back. Shoutin’-out Khris for 2 reasons:

> The bass don’t care what you look like, how tall you are, what your accent is, what sex you are, what rod you have, what your boat cost, etc. — just get a hook in ’em!

> One of his main baits was the DEADLY Luhr Jensen Speed Trap — 1/4-oz in “crystal TX crawdad.” Dude knows his baits!

7. Check the whole YUM #bassloveDingers mini-series…

…starrin’ Micah “Hollywood” Frazier. Rolled out by episode before the Classic, now all rolled up here plus a red-carpet Classic interview with Hollywood:

8. Gitcha purple on!

New FishLab apparel at fishlabtackle.com:

9. OH: Website lets you rent a private pond for feeshn.

Cool idea…tho Billy Dance’s been doin’ it for decades (heehee!).

10. KY/TN: Watch out for carp gillnets on KY Lake.

Supposed to be marked, but only at either end. Be careful runnin’ out there folks.

11. DC: Interior Dept will fight zebras in lower Colo River basin.

12. 90,000 U.S. dams need repair?

Environmentalists want them gone but…wouldn’t that mean losing 90,000 lakes??

13. Shooting ecomm site MidwayUSA now carrying fishing stuff.

Huh.

Headline of the Day

Fishing is a prudent way to avoid the coronavirus pandemic

Yeah buddy! Zombies too….

On BassBlaster.rocks right now…

Note: The TackleWarehouse links in this email are affiliate links, meaning if you go through them to make a purchase I might earn a commission…at no cost to you. Click here if you want to learn a little more about links in the BB.

Tip of the Day

Spybaits for suspended, inactive fish.

Never thought that spybaits mimic “thermally stressed” shad…. Info from this post a-featurin’ Chad Miles, host of the Kentucky Afield TV show, an “early adopter” of spybaitin’:

> The term spybait means “silent capture” in Japan.

> “At this time of year, after the sunlight gets on the water, fish will move out and suspend and get really hard to catch. They may be 10-15′ deep, but suspended over 30′ of water. That is a great time to throw the spybait.”

> …electronics on his boat to find schools of baitfish…then usually fishes near these schools….

> Note the depth of the baitfish schools and cast the spybait near them. Allow the lure to sink to that depth by counting it down and then slowly retrieve it. Watch your line intently while it sinks as bass often strike a spybait on the fall.

> Stop reeling occasionally and let the spybait slowly sink and wobble. This mimics a thermally stressed threadfin shad fighting to survive winter and often triggers strikes….

> Anglers without sophisticated sonar units can prospect…by casting the spybait in the middle main-lake cuts or small coves and let it sink for a count of 10. Retrieve the lure slowly and pause to let the bait sink a bit. If there is no action…let the lure sink to a count of 15, then retrieve again and count it down to 20 on the next cast.

> ML-power spinning rods from 6′ 8″ long to 7′ long designed for the dropshot technique make excellent rods for spybaiting. Japanese anglers often use 4-lb fluorocarbon line for throwing spybaits, but anglers here can get away with 6- to 8-lb….

> “If you can catch them on a suspending jerkbait, you can catch them on a spybait and it doesn’t wear you out.”

Here’s all the spybaits on TW. Also a vid I did with Jacob Wheeler on spin/spybaiting year-round for specific targets.

Quote of the Day

“That guy who’s got 2 outboards on his bass boat and is thinking about upgrading — he’s not upgrading.”

Motorcycle dude talkin’, I guess tryin’ to make a point that cuz of the virus folks might be waitin’ a bit for bigger purchases, but…#fail

Shot of the Day

With the BOOYAH One Knocker gettin’ a lotta slings this year already, thought this’d be a good illustration of why — @d.l.m_05 shot via @booyah_baits

Questions:

1. Do you keep fishin’ that bait or retire it?

2. Do you touch up the paint or haaaaaaaaail no?

Random

Since my kids are home from school and already driving me nuts (not really but they say I’m doing that to them lol), I wanted to try to learn about this corona deal. Specifically had 2 questions I wanted answered. Not saying these are 100%, just thought it was interesting:

Vs the flu

> …the spread of the virus continues to slow. More than 18,000 Americans have died from this season’s generic flu so far, according to…the CDC. In 2018, the CDC estimated there were 80,000 flu deaths. That’s against 19 coronavirus deaths so far, from about 470 cases.

> Worldwide there have been about 3,400 coronavirus deaths, out of about 100,000 identified cases. Flu, by comparison, grimly reaps about 291,000 to 646,000 annually.

> China is the origin of the virus and still accounts for over 80% of cases and deaths. But its cases peaked and began ­declining more than a month ago….

> …same pattern, in what’s called Farr’s Law. First formulated in 1840 and ignored in ­every epidemic hysteria since, the law states that epidemics tend to rise and fall in a roughly symmetrical pattern or bell-shaped curve. AIDS, SARS, Ebola — they all followed that pattern. So does seasonal flu each year.

> Clearly flu is vastly more contagious than the new coronavirus, as the WHO has noted. Consider that the first known coronavirus cases date back to early December, and since then, the virus has ­afflicted fewer people in total than flu does in a few days. …why are there no flu quarantines? Because it’s so contagious it would be impossible.

China

> …how many “microbiology labs” are there in China that handle “advanced viruses like the novel coronavirus”? It turns out that in all of China, there is only one. And this one is located in the Chinese city of Wuhan that just happens to be the epicenter of the epidemic.

> Add to this China’s history of similar incidents. Even the deadly SARS virus has escaped — twice — from the Beijing lab where it was (and probably is) being used in experiments.

And this headline in the WSJ:

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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