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Just did a couple-day fast — which I need from time to time to stop being what we call here in NJ a “nudge” (jerk-y), among other reasons. Anyhow, the Lord put on my heart to confess to you about my word for the year which is: Love. I haven’t done that as well as I could/should have. Never have, honestly. Thank you for hearin’ me out.
Today on the Unashamed Robertson-family vid/podcast, Phil read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, which you might have heard at weddings. It reminds me of how much I have fallen short:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Amazing. From that I get 2 things:
1. I have never loved that well 🙁
2. There IS a lot of that kinda love in bassin’ — how ’bout that!
Let’s get to it!
>> If you’re getting the BassBlaster for the first time it’s cuz a bud signed you up!
Today’s Top 5
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Along with the largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass and derp bass — which IS a separate species, possibly from a strange alternate universe — now here’s this:
You might’ve seen one before, but probly not 9.39 lbs! @lavidaespesca smashed it on a YUM Swim’N Dinger (pearl silver flake).
After much thought (a couple minutes anyhow), here’s some potential names for this species:
> Stubby maximus bass
> Honey baked ham bass
> Butter slug bass
> Laardie laardie bass
> Fence walrus (hahaha Z!)
> Corpulent Corn-fed Cottage-cheese Cow bass
> Chunkalunker
What you got?? Hit me on FB or Insta, best name gets a random assortment o’ baits!
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2nd-5th Chickamauga baits.
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Still haven’t gotten with Lee so here’s the rest of the top 5’s baits:
> “Targeting bluff-wall banks with lots of laydowns. Fish were anywhere from 5′ to 20′.”
> “Leaned on some Carolina swimbaiting tactics and another off-the-wall lure this week. Threw a 2.8 Keitech Fat (TN shad) on a 1/8-oz True South Custom Lures swimbait head until I broke off my last one.
> “Also threw the unique 3.5” [1/8-oz] Sebile Hyper Plastic Dart Spin (shad color).
> “1/2-oz Chatterbaits. The white/chartreuse was a Tackle Warehouse exclusive, with a white pearl Z Craw Jr. The black and blue was a Bass Pro Shops exclusive, with a sapphire blue Z Craw Jr.”
> “I was targeting the backs of creeks and mainly fishing docks and sea walls. Caught fish from 1-12′, all suspended.”
5th: Austin Felix — 2nd top 5 in a row.
[Frog says R6 on it, “just lets me know how much stuff (weights) I got shoved inside it.”]
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‘Twas a power-fishing deal at the Rayburn ‘Yota.
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No finessin’ in TX! LA’s Aaron Johnson won it by just 11 oz, but hey — all you need is 1 more oz than the next guy! Congrats to him, here’s how he feeshed:
> Johnson won the tournament fishing entirely around shallow hydrilla with a modified squarebill [which looks like he’s keepin’ secret]. …discontinued bait that he modified with a custom color scheme, a red treble on the front and a filed-down bill….
> …mid-lake…in 3-6’…targeted clumpier sections of the grass. “Typically I would run it over the top or over the side…pop it, stop it, twitch it, just the normal erratic stuff to try to get a reaction. There were times when I would twitch it over a clump, and then reel it fast down when I got it over the other side of the clump.”
Used 15- and 17-lb fluoro on a 7:1 ratio reel and a 7′ MH Kistler Magnesium Rod. Here’s what the full top 10 fished:
Crankbait = 40% — Squarebills = 20%, new Strike King Hybrid Hunter = 20%
Flip plastics = 40%
20% each = Topwater, Swimbait, Football jig
10% each = Bladed jig (JackHammer), Jig, Lipless crank (Rat-L-Trap), Swim-jig, Wake bait, Carolina rig, Texas rig
Shout-outs:
1. Most often mentioned brand = Strike King. Next were V&M and Big Bite.
2. Todd Castledine somehow didn’t fish a Pad Perch OR the Hybrid Hunter. Very suspicious….
3. Fletch Shryock got 11th, Tommy Biffle was 12th and Zack Birge was 14th.
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“I hate fishing in the fall and I think it’s about as tough as it can be.”
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– Yes! David Dudley tellin’ it like he sees it! Which is all he does, which I love about him man. He’s talkin’ on the MLFers’ site about fishing downsized swimbaits (less than 3″) this time of year for bites:
> The fish that are chasing shad are not going to be the biggest fish in the body of water. But if you’re looking to just get bit, then this may be the best strategy this fall.
Fall can fo sho be great, but at the beginning anyhow it’s tough man…for me and David anyhow….
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One of the most outstandin’ posts in bassin’ hist’ry.
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Check it:
That IS bass fishing. Does anything more need to be said? I don’t think so…unless that whole post is code for something…?
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News
Officially I mean:
That’s a heck of a way to get rid of some beavers man….
5. 2021 Bass Pro Tour schedule is out.
Feb 23-27 – Redcrest Championship – Grand Lake, OK
Mar 21-26 – Rayburn, TX
Apr 9-14 – Heavy Hitters – Falls, Jordan, Shearon Harris, NC
Apr 30-May 5 – Travis, TX
All-around cool and props to Rhea County, TN’s Turner Tharpe and Blake James. Sounds like wacky, dropshot and shakey were the deals there. Been seein’ a LOT of finesse-type stuff in tourney news lately, seems like fall is startin’ off slow in a lotta places?
Tourney was on a lake with one of the worst names in the history of lake naming: Carroll County 1000 Acre Recreational Lake. I mean, if that wasn’t a named by committee deal don’t know what is.
8. TN: Wade Bourne Nature Center Opens on Saturday.
In Montgomery County’s Rotary Park. Awesome. I hope to visit 1 day. Props to Ducks Unlimited for carrying the water in Wade’s memory but hope there’s a lot of Bassmaster stuff there!
9. 2021 BFL schedule is out.
Good lakes…except for the OH River. 4 outta 5 in the Great Lakes division are on the upper Miss — that typical?
10. TN: Upcoming Dale Hollow ‘Yota causes intense debate.
Peeps aren’t sure whether to pronounce it Dale “Holler” or Dale “Hollah,” kinda like the “car-mel” and “cara-a-mel” deal. Hopefully it’ll be calm at the ramp….
11. CA: Folsom speed limit now 5 mph.
Seriously! Because of low water…and spotted manatees…and the annual hippie migration….
12. TN: New carp commission being formed?
Shoot yeah, spend the anti-carp $$$ on another dang committee: #govt
> TN will form a special commission to study the growing problem of invasive Asian carp. The TN Wildlife Resources Agency is already investing considerable resources into combating the carp problem, and it is unclear what the new state commission will contribute.
13. Duck hunters also gotta clean/dry/drain…their dekes.
To help stop/curb the spread of invasives.
Or — instead of saddling outdoorsmen/women with this issue — maybe govts could regulate the snot outta the aquarium, aquaculture and shipping industries that brought all this bad stuff over here? Are those industries paying taxes to DNRs like we do to help with this aquatic invasives junk that they started??
Sorry, fired up, sick of us everyday folks always having to pick up the tab….
14. New prez of Brunswick Boat Group.
> Aine Denari…joins Brunswick after spending the past 20 years in a variety of executive positions within the automotive industry, and in leadership positions at major global consulting firms.
BBG = Merc, MotorGuide, Lund, Lowe and many more.
15. NE brewery making beer for Cabo marlin tourney.
Mentioning because:
> …a “clean-drinking 5% (alcohol by volume) pale lager designed for long days on the water and longer nights on shore.”
Hoping the “long days on the water” part means gettin’ wiped not indulgin’? Who knows, those big-boat salty deals seem like a different world….
Could Asian carp see success like chicken wings?
Thinkin’ not unless they at least rename it — “chicken of the lake” or whatever.
Largemouth bass are fair on shad colored crankbaits, bladed spinners….
Can someone please send me a shot of a spinner without a blade??
Bass-head Gordon R submitted this for the “design your own ‘Trap color” deal — outstanding:
I think you can vote for it somewhere? Sorry could not find the link….
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On BassBlaster.rocks right now…
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Tip of the Day
Fall tips from Worldwide Watson and E-squared.
Good’ns from the MLFers’ site:
James Watson
> “When you hit your trolling motor as you run along the bank and you spook 5 or 6 big ‘grizzlies,’ which is my name for giant gizzard shad, those are the days guys like me who love topwater look for. That skittish movement of big shad is a sign I need to see. When I do, I know I’m fixing to catch them.”
> …3 primary baits: a Tackle HD Worldwide Buzzer, a James Watson Signature design buzzbait; a Toad-style bait like the Zoom Horny Toad; and a River2Sea Whopper Plopper. “Walking baits are effective tools, but they move at a snail’s pace,” he says. “I’m covering water with three moving baits. I’m actually running into bass. When the fall bite is on, it’s all about how many casts I can make in a day.”
Edwin Evers
> …I like to fish ultra-shallow with topwaters, wake baits, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. I get to cover water really fast in an effort to get a lot of bites. I’ll be looking for shad and targeting bays, pockets and points with the wind blowing into them.
> A lot of people will tell you to run to the backs of creeks in fall, but you don’t have to do that. I find just as many bass in pockets without current and on points that have some wind on them.
> …walking topwaters like the Berkley J-Walker (bone), buzzbaits (white), wake baits like the Berkley WakeBull (sexy back), jerkbaits like the Berkley Juke (sexy back), and a 1/2-oz double willowleaf spinnerbait (chart/white).
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Quote of the Day
“And now the ‘sportsman’ moves to Clear Lake [CA], to live in his $1,000,000 home, bringing his $80,000 pickup and his fully rigged $100,000 bass boat with a 250 hp engine so he can hit 80 mph on his way to catch 1 fish. Per week. Which he can’t eat.”
– From a comment under a post about old Cali, before the dams were built. Personally think that all sounds great except for the $$$ amounts and the 1 fish?
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Shot of the Day
What’s goin’ on here with Stetson Blaylock’s bait? Did he put Akla-Seltzer in it? (Remember that deal?) Is he drying it out and fillin’ it up with air? Does it have a drool issue??
Cool Bassmastery shot….
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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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