– “The real” (allegedly — has that ever been verified?) James Watson talkin’ ’bout a recent MLFer win. That’s not gonna get him any big bassin’ stick points, but I gotta give him a low 5 for being dead honest — and also describin’ bass feeshn in one statement hahaha!

Lookit that facial expression — he genuinely looks like he’s surprised he won:

Here’s the bottom line about spinnerbaits being “dead” — allegedly killed off by bladed jigs and swimbaits: No. When the spinnerbait bite is on, it’s on. It fer sher was ON at the Cumberland, KY FLW Tour event, where 80% of the top 10 fished spinnerbaits…BUT winner Bryan “it’s my turn to win again” Thrift didn’t use one.

Bryan fished for smallmouths with ribbed swimbaits — stayed in Indian Creek, mostly fished points, bluffs, lead-in banks and pockets. Sounds like he won the whole deal just on smallmouths? If that’s all he weighed, that’s hugely unusual anywhere outside the Great Lakes. What he said about the largies: “I couldn’t catch largemouths.” lol

How the top 10 baits broke down:

Spinnerbait = 80% — War Eagle = 50%, BOOYAH = 20%, also Santone and Luck-E-Strike. Here’s Greg Bohannan (4th, left) and Andy Morgan (5th) with a couple War Eagles:

Swimbait = 20% — Bryan used the Damiki Armor Shad and the Keitech Fat, Clent Davis (3rd) used a hollow paddle-tail.

10% each = Swim-jig (Allen Boyd, 2nd, used a 3/8-oz Dirty Jigs Swim Jig with a Strike King Rage Craw (claws dyed chartreuse) along with 1/2-oz BOOYAH and War Eagle blades), Jerkbait, Carolina rig.

Props to the Aussie, Carl Jocumsen (14th), for this vid, one of the coolest “here’s what I fished” vids I’ve seen in a loooong time:

Little visit down south TX way last week, here’s a few highlights — L to R clockwise:

> The fishing at Amistad was good #s-wise and super-scenic, but the fish we managed to get on weren’t big. I was in the back of the boat and will claim I caught the most and possibly the biggest. Coolest thing was the first fish I caught was a smallmouth — waaaay south for a smallie! Largies also weirdly fought like smallies….

> On the left that’s Wade “I only wear visors” Middleton — host of Americana Outdoors, Whitetail Diaries and enough more stuff that I don’t even think Ike is split so many ways — and Brian Miller of Sea Foam who’s a diehard bass-head and…

> …loves him some shootin’. We went for a couple night Squatch hunts — with a SICK $6K FLIR infrared scope!! — but only managed a couple feral howgs.

> Typical south TX lunch at Heavy’s BBQ in Hondo. I was raised to finish everything on the plate, but…I couldn’t do it. Tasted so good too.

Quick story: We’re riding around this ranch lookin’ at critters, and Wade keeps talkin’ ’bout shootin’ “crawdads.” Didn’t know if this was another “punk the Yankee” deal or what, so I was like, “Exactly how big are the crawdads down here Wade?” Was imaginin’:

Wade pointed at what he was talkin’ about and said “AW-DAD”…spelled “aoudad” lol:

Did not see any in green punkin…or black/blue….

Initially had low demand but Bassin’masters said that’s cuz there was no interwebz:

Zell has a mystical bond with the Pop-R. Said: “If I want it to chug, I work it with the rod tip down. If I want it to spit, I hold the rod up. It’s the only chugger I know of that can do one or the other.”

Regular Pop-Rs here, Zell-designed BOOYAH Boss Pop here. New lipped Pop-R — the BOOYAH Prank — here. Here’s the Pop-R (left) vs Boss Pop — note the different face shape. Zell says the Boss Pop consistently spits.

Not sure how I missed this vid, but dang that’s insanely scary:

Reminds me of the time Gary Klein was shot at at one of the New Orleans Classics…also scary.