BassBlaster

Quick ICAST tour and reflections, How to deep crank, Tin rigs better??

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Today’s Top 5

2-minute ICAST tour!

“I’m [so and so] and we’re here at ICAST 2017 looking at the new [product name]….”

Could NOT shoot yet another one of those vids. So I gave Elitists and FLWers 5 seconds to say whatever they had to say about a new product, stitched those vids together and here you go — an ICAST tour in 120 seconds. Believe it or not, 5 seconds can be surprisingly informative (you hear that Mercer? lol):

Wish I got to more of the fellers…next year….

ICAST thinkin’s.

Just one bass-head’s 2c:

1. Congrats to the ICAST show winners, tho some of the awards are kinda weird. First of all, seems like if you have a new bait that actually looks like a fish, you can’t win. Next year I’m entering baits in each category:

> Hard baits: Swimmin’ buffalo, Paddlin’ housecat, Armadillo buzz, Whitetail walker

> Soft baits shaped like these: Twinkie, Ice cream cone, Spare rib, Roofing nail

2. Second, how can you give awards for stuff no one has fished yet? To me it seems more like a fashion show. Not in all cases but….

3. Product I will never understand = fishing shoes. Boots for cold weather, yes, but not fishing shoes.

4. Few years ago the hot new product at ICAST was sunglasses. Then it was coolers. This year it was rod and apparel companies. Tons o’ them. Kayaks comin’ on strong.

5. Many foreign companies there. What do they see about the U.S. market? Hawg trough demos done by European folks were pretty dang funny.

6. Big topic among bassin’ biz folks was the evaporation of big-box retail and the demise of the middle man in the tackle biz. On the other hand, amazon is buying brick and mortar stores so….

7. Love hangin’ with bassin’ folks. Of course they’re the same as you and me, includin’ the bassin’ biz folks. Talkin’ tarpon with Tharp, dinner with Z and the VanDam clan, sharing a cab to the airport with the Zaldains (including Nebo the dowg) — all good folks…I think?

Will have a rundown on all the new ICAST stuff I wanted to know about soon.

Zona and Mercer gone from Shimano??!!

Almost the biggest ICAST news, at least for me. Definitely love Shimano reels and G. Loomis rods (owned by Shimano), but marketing-wise this is one of those decisions that flat stumps me.

Z ended up at Daiwa (that link’s a FB vid with some hilariously uninformed comments), and word is Dave has multiple offers so expect him to land somewhere soon. Both dudes are big-time catches (duh!) — Daiwa marketing honcho Curt Arakawa told me it was a “no-brainer” to jump on Zona — so props to all involved.

Gonna go out on a limb and assume that some folks at Shimano/Loomis were like:

Hahaha! All good, man….

“I can say definitively that the majority of tournaments on the Elite Series are not won by getting outside help.”

– Randall Tharp talkin’ the new B.A.S.S. no-info rule. That’s good to hear, tho I’m not surprised. Few things I’m thinkin’ about this new rule:

> Like any rule, if there’s no, little or even moderate enforcement, it’s worthless. Sounds to me like winner and random polys at every tournament will have to be the deal. But could be a case of:

> Has to be 100% clarity about the rule because a guy could fail a poly if he’s confused about it.

> Does this rule mean guys who have gotten info the “old fashioned way” (guides, phone calls) are punished more than guys who get it by the interwebz? And if so, does this mean Trip has to basically act like Elitists’…dad? Checking people’s phones and such…. I mean, I’m pretty sure Hank Weldon gets to have his phone 24/7 now.

“…they can catch just as many bass, and sometimes more, fishing from an aluminum boat than from a fiberglass boat….”

– Elitist Skylar Hamilton talkin’ the economics of tin vs. glass boats. But…did he just say that sometimes aluminum just plain outfishes fiberglass? My bud Kirk was like:

News

1. TX: Husband/wife pass on after Conroe boat crash.

Happened at night, sounds like one boat hit another. Dang it. Two kids lost both parents. If you can, please support them here.

2. Great post about taking fallen soldiers’ kids fishing.

#stout

3. B Lane stoked to be in the Northeast.

> Just the thought of fishing in cooler weather puts the biggest grin on my face. I don’t care how long it takes me to drive up there.

Lucky for him it is cooler up here now. Was hotter than FL a couple weeks ago….

4. Shaw Grigsby towing boat with a panel truck.

A first:

5. KVD gets Mossy Oak deal.

Not sure if this means he’s now Mossy…Huk?

Also Mossy Oak is now the official water camo (I guess?) of B.A.S.S. Post says there’s 4.4 mil readers of Bassmaster Mag? With 500K members that’s 8+ readers per copy. If so, that’s pretty dang amazing and they need to be giving James Hall a biiiiiig raise!

Wait, nope, my sources say he’s overpaid already. Hahaha Hall!

6. Bertrand gets Eye Ojo.

New shades company. Ojo = “eye” in Spanish and an eye-eye is this animal so not sure what it all means:

7. FLWer Shane Lehew on BassEdge Radio.

Not sure if I mentioned Fletch Shryock was on there too.

8. SD: Oahe Elite either cost $50K or $150K.

I’m betting $50K? Can’t tell what this means as worded:

> The tournament also needed $50,000 from 3 different organizations to be secured.

9. 2018 FLW Tour schedule is out — NO BEAVER.

The dink tour stepped up its game this year. Lots of bigger-fish venues, cool to see Lanier back in the game, all 3 bass species will play = cool, and…no Beaver (Wally-Mart home lake).

Wish FLW would change their website so I don’t need Google to find things on there….

10. Steve Parks got Rage copies trashed at ICAST.

Steve is the Strike King Rage Tail inventor:

> …resulting in the confiscation of Headstream’s Rage Tail Craw products, and bags of Rage Bugs and Rage Tail Minnows. Parks personally escorted Headstream exhibitors to the New Product Showcase, and watched them remove the Rage Tail Craw from display.

> In addition to Rage Tail products, Parks also discovered replicas of soft plastics from Zoom, YUM, and NetBait at the Headstream booth.

Steve’s got some rage issues, man…lol.

Hole up…China copies stuff we do??

11. AR: New weigh-in facility at Beaver.

Because of the size of fish on Beaver, they opted for:

12. TX: Austin grass carp now in Lady Bird.

Not good. Money quotes:

> TPWD: “It’s serious. We knew it could happen, so right now it’s more of a control situation to see how we can revert things to where it was.”

> …they released somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 carp between 2002 and 2013. [????!!!!!!]

> “When it was really bad in Lake Austin, [grass carp] were coming up out of the water and picking leaves off of trees.”

13. AL: Guy who arrowed a bass on Gville gets 2-yr ban.

> A SC man…used a bow and arrow to shoot and kill a bass while fishing…pled guilt…was fined a total of $726, had his hunting and fishing privileges in AL revoked for 2 years, was given 24 months of unsupervised probation and was ordered to perform 160 hours of community service.

Dang, don’t be messin’ with AL’s basses! MLFers fainted dead out when they heard about it, then were pushing for the guy to be exiled to Saturn for 100 years…lol.

14. ME bass-heads take care of derby lakes.

Love it:

> “We try to leave the boat launch area better than we found it.”

15. PA: Rivers closed for spawn at least 1 more year.

Lower Susquehanna and lower Juniata.

16. KY proposes new regs for 2018.

A few bass things in there, doesn’t look like any major lakes.

17. Cabela’s shareholders approve Bass Pro deal.

And Forbes has Johnny Morris’ “real-time net worth” at $3.4 bil. Dang, that’s a lot o’ bassin’ baits.

18. KY: Custom bait painter opens retail store.

Interesting. Bassers come in, pick out a bait, want their own color, he paints it. Army vet too (thank you man!).

19. MO: More bio info on new Ranger etc president.

20. Bassin’ world champeenship in Africa in Oct.

Never heard of it, could be cool.

21. Costa givin’ away a bassin’ tub!

Sounds like you can enter more than once.

Help: I need a bassin’ backpack.

Been doing some bank-bassin’ with my son and his friends. Realized I need a bassin’ backpack. Anyone you know make a good one? Lmk by replying to this-here email or on social.

Tip of the Day

Paul Elias: How to crank deep.

It may be that Paul Elias invented deep crankin’. If you forget:

> During an era…[when] the deepest crankbaits only went 12′ down in the water column, Elias figured out that by kneeling on the front deck of his bass boat, sticking his rod down into the water and then reeling the crankbait back, he could gain an extra 2′ or 3’…. That might not sound like much, but it was just enough to help Elias catch enough bass to win the 1982 Bassmaster Classic by a margin of nearly 8 lbs.

Dang straight! And that’s when long rods were like 6.5′ hahaha! Here’s some tips from the deep-crankin’ master:

> “You’ve (got) to realize that you’re out there hunting schools of fish and you’ll be fortunate to find one (active) school of fish (during the course of a day).”

> …a crankbait must be fished correctly, meaning that there is more to it all than just chunking it out and winding it back in really fast.

> Elias wants to find a school holding around offshore structure — sometimes a hump, sometimes a ledge, sometimes a shell bed — and get the bait cast well beyond the structural feature.

> Then he wants to get the bait bottoming out and in the strike zone as it arrives at the spot where the fish are congregating.

[This was the key point for me. Usually I just reel and hope….]

> “You’ve got to treat it like you do shallow water…take the time to cover that bottom like you would if you were fishing shallow water.”

> It may take a while to get things zeroed in but Elias says that it is almost always worth it because where there’s one offshore bass, such a fish is almost always surrounded by his buddies.

Quote of the Day

Therefore it doesn’t really matter to them if they win a tournament with 40 lbs of bass or 100 lbs of bass. The checks they win still spend the same.

– Guy talkin’ ’bout the 2018 Elitist schedule. Not true. Can tell you for a fact that most Elites prefer — in this order — lots of bites, and lots of big bites. Cuz they’re bass-heads too mang!

Plus half of them don’t get a check….

Shot of the Day

Young dude’s first swimbait fish and it’s a nice one! On a 5″ Bull Shad:

Random

Flight crew experiences difficulties because of “passed gas” odor.

Weirdest thing about this was: no bass club members were on that flight….
Sign up another bass-head!

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Use the best!

Git on these yo!

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Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass.

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