For the last few years I've been saying I've never seen more tourney days delayed and canceled because of weather – then the next year seems like it's even more. Crazy! I still think Harold Sharp and Dewey Kentrick woulda launched the guys but that was back before the internet...and pitch counts! 😁
A phenomenon has started to become obvious on the pro tours, one that us weekend bassers know real well: When there's a tournament, it rains, blows or snows! Welcome to our world pro peeps! 😆 Lol just messin' they fish like 1,000x more than all of us....
|
|
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.
|
|
Gotta think this new dropshot weight is a must have.
|
|
Ever hear of the Rattle Shot? Dropshot weight that has rattles in it, which I think is head-slappin' genius. The owner of the company (named Drop Zone), Dennis Stump, is a bass-head who took years to perfect it – was way harder than it seems – and says he's won tourneys with it when other guys have been dropshotting too. He's law enforcement so I guess we can't really doubt him what with surprise drug tests and all...😁
Okay I have no idea what our LEOs have to do as far as that, but I have been on a couple drug busts – as media, I was not in the house! 🤣 Anyhow, check this YT vid about the weights:
|
|
Couple deals:
1. Dennis knows John Crews, and Missile carries the Rattle Shots on their website, so that counts for something. Tackle Warehouse has 'em too and those TW folks know what's for real.
2. In the vid Dennis points out:
> The rattling weight helps even in clear water – to draw bass toward it and if there's an obstruction between your bait and the fish: "If the bass doesn't know the bait is there, he's not gonna bite it."
> "You're going to add sound and vibration to a technique that already catches a lot of fish that's mostly almost always visual. Now you're appealing to more of the bass' senses and you are exponentially expanding your strike zone.
> Shorten your weight-to-bait leader. He explains why.
I don't have any yet but will be gettin' some! For my baitcastin' dropshot rig!
|
|
5 Qs with Dan "I only build championship-winning baits" Spengler.
|
|
Dan is Berkley's "senior project manager for bait development, specializing in hard bait and terminal tackle design and development." In bassin' talk that means he designs hard baits and some other stuff...😁 And how 'bout 2 of the baits he designed (with pros) won 2 pro championships in the last 2 years. Pretty dang #stout.
Is that a coincidence? Is it a moon phase thing? Does Dan pace his garage at night with a can of Red Bull in one hand and a bag of Power Worms in the other and between sips 'n sniffs runs to a whiteboard to draw some diagrams/equations on it?? Possibly 😆 but either way I wanted to find out what's up. Btw Dan's a good fisherman, as you might expect. Here goes 5 with him:
1. If phase 1 was to have Hank Cherry win the Classic on the jerkbait you both designed and phase 2 was to have Bobby Lane win Redcrest on a crankbait you helped design, what's phase 3?
> "That's kind of a tough question. We're striving to create and engineer better baits all the time. There's a new bait we're coming out with...called the Berkley Money Badger. That's kind of the next thing. It has the FlashDisc [weighting] and the 'Better than Balsa' technologies built into it, just like we did with the Frittside and we did to some extent with the Stunna.... I think it's the next crankbait that will connect with the fish and fishermen.
> "I'm pretty excited about that one. I think it will play a role in lot of tournaments coming up.
> "But man, I'm set. To be able to get those wins with baits I helped design...9-year-old me hand-carving lures from sticks off trees and testing them in my horse tank – I think 9-year-old me would be very happy and content."
[Believe the Money Badger will be out this fall. Here's a prototype pic:]
|
|
2. Other than fishing on company time 😁 is there anything else you guys do to give your baits special sauce?
> "Yeah. It's all about the lab and research. We have one of the top-level research facilities in the fishing tackle industry. So we have the awesome ability every day at work to take a prototype hardbait, change it a bunch of different ways – bill angles, bill designs, pull points – and we can go back in our lab, check the actions, change the bait and see how it changes the action...compare it....
> "We have a flow tank and that's like the icing on the cake. We can drop any prototype or competitor bait into the flow tank...and we can actually quantify specific actions....
> "We can dial in specific actions and then take them to the fish. We submit them to the fish and let them tell the story of whether they like it or not. So that is the day to day internal view of what we get to do with baits."
3. Do you have things from favorite old baits that you incorporate into new baits?
> "Absolutely. #1, every bait that we develop is archived in our history – all the actions, how we changed the bait and design details, body shapes that worked better than others.... That gives us a consistent building-block platform. And the more at Berkley we're doing trial and error...the more I can build on that for future designs. Every bait I try to build to be the best I can at the time.
> "The other thing is inspiration from old baits. I've been fishing since I had a diaper on...very young with my dad and my mom. I grew up in a fishing family. One of the things I was able to do was collect baits through the years that inspired me. I love that in the fishing tackle industry we have all these lure manufacturers...there's great baits....
> "The Big O, Rapala has a lot of baits, Storm Wiggle Warts – I've fished a lot of jerkbaits in the past. It helps you become a well-rounded angler and also helps you become a well-rounded lure designer...able to take bits and pieces from those who set the platform before you and maybe try to build something a little bit better.
> "There's definitely subtle nods [to old baits] that I build into our designs. In the end it's a Berkley bait but it has those subtle nods to the history of fishing lures for sure."
4. What's a sleeper bait out there, Berkley or otherwise, bass-heads need to know about?
> "There's been so many baits...I'm gonna say that [Berkley] Snap Jig...allows a bait to move laterally across the water column, you can fish it like a jerkbait, like a regular jig, fast or slow, vertical-jig or cast and retrieve it.
> "It's the perfect forward-imaging [sonar] jighead. You can change the cadence of the bait, watch your forward-imaging sonar and adjust til you find something they like.
> "We launched it 5 years ago and it never really took off because I think it was ahead of its time. Hopefully as more people try forward-facing sonar it will become a bigger deal."
|
|
5. Do you have a favorite bait you designed?
> "Yeah I do. I always say it's the next one, but I think my #1 would probably be the Stunna because I'm a jerkbait freak. I live and breathe jerkbaits, and to be able to build a bait that won the Bassmaster Classic, and obviously Hank Cherry – working together with a guy like him to build one of the better jerkbaits on the market....
> "It almost won Redcrest [and has won other tournaments] – it's one of the most awesome feelings as a lure designer I think you could ever have. Knowing all the blood and sweat that went into it and seeing it come to life, that's the ultimate dream for a lure designer."
[Here's the final prototype:]
|
|
"I don't know whether you pre-order 'em, how you get in, whether you gotta get an evangelist to order 'em for you, but I'd say you better start looking for them little fellers right there."
|
|
- Bahahaha an evangelist?? 🤣 That's the one 'n only/broke the mold Gerald Swindle talkin' 'bout the Rapala OG Tiny crankbait in this YT vid. Not sure where he gets his stuff from, but if it's a God-given gift then for sure the Lord has a sense of humor – or at least wants us to have one!
Here's the vid – G calls it the Mini but it's the OG Tiny:
|
|
Hey Chris Wells (the Bass Pastor), can you order me some of those baits? 😂
|
|
Does your custom crankbait paint need to be Japan perfect?
|
|
Well if you're one o' those OCD/CDO fishermen – aka "pro fishermen" 😁 – then yep it 100% does need to be perfect. But if you're a regular bass-head, maybe not. Case in point is TX's Jake Shannon, who caught this 11.53 from "a small public lake"...
|
|
Now you might not think that bait is the prettiest you ever saw, but that bass of a lifetime did! Props to ya Jake, thanks much for sharin' man! 👊
|
|
Is that how this happened maybe? Either way 😳:
|
|
The boat also ended up off the trailer. Yikes.
|
|
...in the freezing cold at Fork (IG vid). Insane but just another JLee day! #jealous
Can never have too much funny in bassin' so git after 'em Brian!
Props to OK's Brody P (and his dad) for winning $15K and a boat – and beating MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND other anglers. First he caught a 6.5, which at the time was his PB. Then 20 minutes later – after his dad then caught an 8 – came the 11.2:
|
|
> ...caught the winning fish while targeting a main lake hump near the dam at around 9:30 am. He was throwing a 3/4-oz chrome/blue Rat-L-Trap.
> “We started out in Little Caney Creek and didn’t catch anything, so we headed for the dam. Our boat was sitting in about 12' and we were casting to water about 2' deep.”
Bet he's hooked on tourneys now! Big congrats to 'em....
^ Find an event on their page. Also Jay Yelas says they're always looking for folks to help start/organize an event. Contact 'em their page ^.
How many peeps do you know who can ride a skateboard let alone flip a jig into a cup while ridin' one? Check Ryan "Jiffy Pop" Whitacre of TightRope Jigs doin' it – and the cup barely moves! 🤯 Click the pic to watch it:
|
|
Can see where it would be useful in a bad wind or if you had your troller on 20...😁
Crispin Powley over there already bein' smart...even tho he's still a Vols fan...😁
Congrats!
10. TX: College recruitin' folks NSR will be in TX twice.
Can't link it, at nsrfishing com:
> ...NSR Fishing will be attending the Palestine Regional Championship on Apr 9. NSR feels that the TX tournaments will allow us an opportunity to get in front of some of the best talent the state has to offer. THSBA will hold their state championship on Lake Belton in May and NSR Fishing will be there as well.
B.A.S.S. conservation honcho and Hall of Famer Gene Gilliland is spearheading the deal so I'm guessin' OK applications might have a little advantage...🤷🏻♂️
> Each angler that catches and documents a pink-tagged bass will score a $5,000 gift card to Bass Pro Shops, $1,000 to shop at AFTCO, with a chance to win an additional $10,000!
Fyi they are not the same thing as chicken fingerlings....
And making less of a wake.
For milfoil, with a new "miracle" herbicide that supposedly targets only milfoil, lasts for 3 years, and has zero effects on fish and other water critters. Here's the site for the herbicide.
Same herbicide suggested as for Lake George.
You can't spell "weevil" without "evil"...🤔
...to protect 2 rare species of crayfish. Here's what one of 'em looks like – which makes me think we need a color that's green pumpkin with red and blue flake:
|
|
Just a reminder that it's not killing the carp, it's just trying to keep them away from the Great Lakes. To me that sounds kinda nuts. The likelihood that these carp would turn the Great Lakes into a carp hell is REAL high. Maybe countin' on the gummint ain't too sound a strategy....
Headline of the Day
He's a pic – looks like most of 'em were dropshot leaders:
|
|
🤣 No truth to the rumor they were arrested for trying to bring a fishing rod into the Capitol Building...🤪 Okay I'm done now....
Updatin's
Heard from folks that Frank Kuiack, who was in the last BB, passed on last year. Had no idea. Apparently there's a book about him titled "The Last Guide" and here's a 45-minute profile of him on YT. Bless you fishin' brother.
|
|
On BassBlaster.rocks right now...
|
|
> Power fishing is the foundation of everything I do. It makes me a more efficient angler by helping me locate and catch as many fish – big fish – as I can in the shortest amount of time. Of course, to be successful you have to be in the area the bass are using.
> I've discovered that bass are far more active in colder water than I once believed. Northern bass, more accustomed to colder water, will be more aggressive in lower temperatures than fish in Southern waters, but lure selection is a lot less relative to water temperature than most people realize.
> Granted, the strike zone is smaller.... Bass may not move as far to take a moving bait, but they will crush a power bait worked appropriately in their immediate area. And while the retrieve may be slower, it's still more efficient at covering water than finesse lures.
> You have to match the lure/presentation with the conditions too. Crankbaits and jerkbaits are two of best lures for this season, but I'm not opposed to snapping a tube or even jig off the bottom. That allows me to fish a more finesse pattern, yet fish a little faster than most anglers do with traditional finesse presentations.
> As a rule...the Strike King Red Eye Shad, jerkbaits and crankbaits are my primary go-to lures. They not only cover a lot of water and depths but they feature a lot of inherent reaction qualities required to trigger the cold-water strike.
> This is a time when boat position becomes as critical as lure/technique selection. When fishing those drops and edges, I position my boat parallel with the drops so that I can make optimum casts and keep my lure in the proper depth zone throughout the retrieve.
> Because the water is cold, the bass are less likely to move far to take the bait. If you don't fish parallel, your bait catches a much smaller percentage of the key depth or area.
He gave a tourney example:
> I ran to the upper end of the lake where there was stained water and fished shallower with flat-sided crankbaits. The move saved the day for me – I caught 12 lbs in a couple of hours. Could I have caught them on slower, finesse tactics? Maybe. But I wouldn't have caught them in the short amount of time I had.
|
|
"Netflix and ESPN got behind a racing series that for most of its history had the profile of competitive bass fishing in the US."
- Auto media talkin' 'bout F1 racing. So – guess that means peeps in the US thought F1 was as 100% AMAZING as bassin'? I don't think so mang! Shoot I guarantee more people fish for bass than F1 has fans here, so take that! 😤
Btw, I have watched the excellent "Drive to Survive" Netflix series about F1 aaaaaaand...the teams with the most money always win. So the races ain't exactly suspenseful.
|
|
For all you gingers 'n Zaldains – or just gitcha robot on!
|
|
> ...it covers the whole face, like a face shield, but then it features one giant polarized lens and features a frame that slides behind the ears, like traditional eyeglasses. Plus, it’s obviously designed as more of a fashion accessory than for practical use.
Yep obviously 🤣. Cost 2,000 yen = $18.
|
|
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'!
|
Sign up another bass-head!
|
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 sell the list or anything else crazy....
|
|
Gitcha hands on the best stuff!
|
|
Gitcha BassBlaster social at these links:
|
|
|
|
|