BassBlaster

Oahe winning baits, Some bass bite weights, Who is Pierre

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on July 5, 2018

What up bass-heads! Sorry for getting this one out late — a little chaotic after the Monday ending of the Elites, plus the A/C on my truck needed fixin’. Not sure if we’ll have another Blaster this week cuz of the weird midweek 4th, and just one next week because it’s ICAST week. Have a safe 4th and hope you catch some!

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

Today’s Top 5

How MDJ won it at Wahooee.

Wow that was fast…but not surprising cuz he’s a stick! MDJ’s phone was like…

…but looks like it was time to upgrade anyhow. Huge props to him even tho…he used a Flanders Rig…but not only. As usual, all the deets on BassBlaster.rocks but here’s a sample. No bait pic yet cuz he’s driving, but will have one soon:

> “I used 2 baits the entire tournament. One was a 1/5-oz Z-Man Finesse ShroomZ Jighead with 2 different color 2.75″ Z-Man Finesse TRD worms: gp goby and mudbug. I was dragging it on the bottom, really subtle. If I saw one on the graph, I’d just drop down to it.” Used a 7′ 1″ MH Favorite Sick Stick.

> “I was dropshotting with 2 setups — 1 TX rig, 1 wacky-rigged. When I got around scattered brush, I’d use the TX rig. Around rocks or open water, I’d wacky rig.” Bait on both was a 4″ Z-Man Finesse Wormz (gp).

> Wacky dropshot was the same rod as the Ned Rig, TX-rig dropshot was a 7′ 2″ MH Favorite Jack Hammer. Both used 3/8-oz tungsten weights and a #1 dropshot hook.

> Reels were all Cabela’s Verano 2500 spinning reels, line was 15-lb Seaguar Smackdown braid with 8-lb and 10-lb (around rocks) Seaguar Tatsu fluoro leaders.

> “My Garmin electronics were paramount. A lot of the boulders and brush I could see on Panoptix. I wouldn’t have to troll up to it and get right on top of it. As the tournament wore on, the pressure started to get to those fish so I was doing more casting. [Panoptix] out to 60-100′ in front of me…see [structure] then cast.”

All the details on the BassBlaster website yo!

A few of MDJ’s Favorites.

Dude is sponsored by Favorite rods…get it?? Know the new champ a little:

Favorite song right now — “I’m really digging Kendrick Lamar right now. I can’t pick just one song now though.”

Favorite meal right now — “Grilled shrimp. Had it the other night, it was awesome.”

Favorite thing to do if not fishing — “I like going to the gym, staying active, and I’m really a big fan of gardening…haven’t had a ton of time to do this year. Tending the garden, watching stuff grow, that kind of stuff.”

Favorite Favorite rod — “Right now I’m digging that Sick Stick, baitcasters and spinning…. The Jack Hammer is expensive, but it’s bad to the bone.”

Two wins in a row by black anglers. #stout

First, gotta apologize cuz I don’t know which term is okay now, African-American or black. Was told the latter, but if I got it wrong, many apologies.

Second, yep, the fish don’t care what you look like, what sex or size you are, your age and all that. BUT personally I think this is a big deal — because it’s never happened before!

To me this isn’t just about two black anglers winning two Elite events…even tho that’s dang cool and important (my 2c). It’s about two AMAZING FISHERMEN — both from CA who actually used to fish team derbies together — winning the toughest tourney in bassin’…who happen to be of a certain race…which hopefully shows everyone that bassin’ is for anyone and anyone can be successful at it. Especially if Sherry VanDam puts her cookie recipe on Twitter….

Quotin’ the guys:

> MDJ: “Following up Ish’s win with a win here for me is monumental. Historic. As a black man representing this sport, I feel overwhelmed at the moment. I hope this inspires more people in the black community to get involved in the sport that has made my dreams come true.”

> Ish: “To me he’s a good angler and I don’t want to take anything way from that. I expected him to win and he’s gonna win another one.”

> Ish again: “We’re both urban youths — we grew up in the Bay area [CA]. Now we both fish for a living. [This shows that] if you love fishing and want to be a professional angler, you don’t have to be from the South or white or whatever.”

Always a tough subject to talk about without someone getting offended or whatever, so hopefully that came across right and props to both guys for being cool with talkin’ ’bout it. Stoked for ’em both, just like I am for every guy who gets a blue trophy.

How Cliff Pirch caught ’em.

The top 12 Wahooee Elites are on like 10,000-mile drives home today, but Cliff Pirch is taking a shortcut, crossing the Rockies by mule…

…so he had time to give up his 3rd-place pattern:

> Cast Senko (gp) with rebarb hook, used 7′ 6″ Phenix MBX.

> Dropshotted Roboworm Ned Worm (Aaron’s gp) nose-hooked with a #1 Hayabusa Power Wacky Hook, 3/8-oz weight, Phenix Feather Rod.

> Ardent C-Force Reels, 20-lb Seaguar Smackdown braid, 8-lb Seaguar InvizX fluoro.

> “Watched it all hunting deep fish on the Lowrance screen. 25-45′, just tried to keep up with the baitfish. Some suspended, some on bottom, few on top.”

Who’s Pierre?

All through the Wahooe Elite heard constant talk about some dude named Pierre. I was like, Who the heck is Pierre? Never heard of him, but at the weigh-in he was arguing with Jacob Wheeler so I guess there’s some bassin’ connection:

Anyone??

News

1. NC: We lost 2 bassers on Norman.

Uncle and nephew:

> The Moorseville Tribune reported the boat appeared to have dry rot and had filled with water. It also reported it was the first time the men took the boat out on the lake.

> Another boater located the overturned bass boat not far from Hagers Creek Landing, in 16-20’…. Life jackets were retrieved nearby.

Bless their families.

2. Casey Ashley gets whiskey sponsor.

Canadian invasion of U.S. bass feeshn continues with Forty Creek whiskey.

3. Jamie Hartman withdraws from Elites.

Says he has a ruptured L5 disc:

> I can’t continue and I need to go home and seek further medical attention so that I will be able to compete in the future.

> I appreciate BASS for allowing me to focus on my health and working with me through this situation.

> This is one of, if not the most, hardest decisions I have had to make in my life, but I need to take this time now to get better so that I can come back next year and continue to do so for seasons to come. Competing at the highest level of professional fishing in the world is an honor that I am still humbled by til this day. Thank you.

Post-surgery rehab advice for ya man: Don’t overdo it, don’t be in a rush, your brain will tell you you’re fine before you really are. I was in a rush and did overdo it, and extended my back surgery recovery by an extra 12 months…. #bonus #not

4. Mark Rose wins FLW AOY.

Mark talkin’ it like he walks it — except for that time he tripped me (lol):

> “God has truly blessed me with the opportunity to make a living in this sport and to make a name for myself, and that’s all I’ve ever asked of Him since I started my career. AOY isn’t going to change that. He gave me the opportunity to live out my faith and to make a living.

> “I don’t want AOY for me. I want it for my Lord and savior Jesus Christ, who is my everything, and I want this for my family, and I want this for my sponsors.”

Amen and congrats brother!

5. FLWer Derrick Blake gets boat/trailer back.

Don’t think he’s gotten his truck back and here’s what the boat looked like:

Theft surveillance vid is here but a little confusing. Derrick’s boat is in upper right.

6. FLWer Britt Myers on BassEdge Radio.

7. FLW Cup field announced.

56 will duke it out Aug 10-12 on Lake Ouachita, AR for $300K and the title.

8. Wiley X re-ups with MLFers for 3 years.

Check the Wiley X offerin’s on TW.

9. LA: ’75 Classic champ Jack Hains in LA Sports HOF.

How he fished his winning spot on day 3, Currituck Sound, NC — 40 mph winds that day (no postponements back then!):

> The motor in his flat-bottom bass boat had started hitting the bottom and pretty soon it shuddered to a stop. Hains had unknowingly hit a sandbar and was now less than 100 yards away from a pier he had successfully fished during the practice…. He had no choice but to strip down, get out of his boat and push it back the 100-150 yards it had traveled through the sandy water.

> “It wasn’t easy but I was 25 years old at the time, so what else was I going to do?” He got back in his boat, put on a snowmobile suit to stay warm, and then cranked up his motor and headed over to that pier. Even with the low tide, Hains still managed to boat 3 more fish, which proved big at the final weigh-in.

10. SC: Mark Hogan’s winning bait.

Won the B.A.S.S. Nation Eastern Regional on Winyah Bay, SC and — get this — is from DELAWARE?!?! Main bait was a Missile D Bomb (super bug):

20-lb Sunline fluoro, 3/8-oz tungsten weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline Hook. “I fished in and around small creeks catching my fish in 2-4′.”

Wanted to shout-out his co-anglers Brandon Labove (RI), Marc Charron (ME) and Dan McGarry (NJ). Dan being from NJ I’m sure was the best of ’em…hahaha!

Asked him how a guy from DE — which I believe is smaller than Lake Okeechobee — gets good. He said: “Anybody on our team could have won that tournament. It was tidal water and that’s where we are most comfortable. I was just fortunate to get a few big bites that last day.”

11. FL: 93-yr-old AOY!

That’s Randale (left) and John Coble, AOYs for the Apopka Central FL Bassin’ Club this year. Gotta give Mr. John this #stout for keepin’ limber:

Just kiddin’ Mr. Coble, congrats!

12: MI: Bass, Brews & BBQ Festivus…

…around St. Clair FLW. Not often you see beer and bass fishing together. Not giving an opinion, but glad no one flipped out about it.

13. AR: 6.03-lber won $50K in Big Bass Bonanza.

On Arkansas River. TX-rigged worm pitched to the end of a dock. Dude said:

> “I wasn’t really even paying attention. It just hit, and I set the hook and caught it.”

That might just describe how many of us catch bigger fish lol.

14. AR: Conway gets 10th stocking of FL bass.

15. Evinrude parent buys Alumacraft.

> …Evinrude and Alumacraft will now operate as part of the newly-formed BRP Marine Group.

16. MI: How Yo Adrian College became a bassin’ powerhouse.

Adrian also has acrobatics and tumbling, and synchronized skating, which I believe Chris Zaldain used to do?

17. Lowrance merges with C-Map mapping company.

18. MI: 7th-graders started a fishing tourney.

#stout Said they wanted it to be “like the pros” but the max entry fee was $15….

19. NY Times calls homemade soft-plastics “artisanal.”

Lol, typically a word used for craft cheeses, meats, etc. If homemade baits are now “artisinal,” we’ve got a good many “arteests” in the bassin’ world.

20. Tackle Warehouse July 4th sale!!!!!

Headline of the Day

Buy lures to catch fish, not because they look cool

I have no idea what that means.

HAHAHA!

Tip of the Day

How to stop smallmouths from eating your weight.

If you’re in smallie country and spend lots o’ time dropshotting, here’s a quick Seth Feider tip for ya:

> “Sometimes smallmouths will eat your chrome sinker because they’re stupid. I never thought much about it, but I’d always have it happen — a couple times a day if you dropshot all day.”

He said problem solved with the Woo Tungsten Green Pumpkin Invisashot Dropshot Weight:

> “That brown sinker, [smallmouths] don’t bite it.”

He says largemouths never bite a regular-colored dropshot weight, which I find surprising cuz there’s not much difference between the two species:

Seth said spotted bass will bite a weight, just not as much as smallmouths.

Btw, he found Oahe tougher than he expected…cuz he’s from MN where they grow smallmouths big, dumb and multitudinous. Here’s what he used:

> “All on a dropshot, 15-25′, fishing off the graph and dropping on them. Rocky point. The lake laid out beautiful…all kinds of rocks and big boulders offshore.

> “Caught them all wacky-rigging a Biospawn Exo Stick (Feider shad) on a #6 VMC Neko Hook, 1/2-oz Invisashot weight, 8-lb Sufix 832 braid to 8-lb Sufix Invisiline fluoro, 7′ 1″ M Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler Dropshot Rod, Daiwa 300 Exist reel.”

Quote of the Day

“I must have been fishing a community hole.”

– Seth Feider talkin’ again — pretty funny that there’s so little known about that lake that the guys didn’t know where the community holes were. Seth thought so because:

> “I opened my livewells up after the tournament and there was a 4” pink Roboworm and a 3″ Crosstail Shad. No minnows, no crayfish.

> “After the end of a tournament, normally there should be crayfish parts and little minnows, but those were the only things they puked.”

Asked MDJ and he said that none of his fish puked up a thing, not on the carpet or the wells, and were fat.

#weird, tho not sure if it’s as weird as this donkey nap device from the 1800s:

Shot of the Day

Givin’ this one to Bassmaster’s Stevie “what me worry?” Bowman, for this shot of bassin’ scenery you don’t see every day in bassin’ world:

Random

NY City now has a $185 sandwich….

Japanese steak sammich, in the Financial District (aka Wall Street). Go to TX, the Carolinas, anywhere with BBQ, order you some brisket = better than any obscenely-priced NYC stuff. Of course as a bass-head, you know this already….

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’!

Gitcha BassBlaster apparel right here!

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, sell the list or anything else crazy….