Not sure if you follow B.A.S.S. shooter James Overstreet on FB but if you do, you know he's going through some very tough stuff health-wise. Lucky for him he's a very tough man. Word is what the docs gave him probably would have crushed most people, but he's hanging in.
In my 2c, JO not only is one of the best story-tellers with a camera AND words that we've ever had in bassin', he's also the type of person we want in this biz: tough, works very hard, a no-bull gentleman and big-hearted, among many other great qualities. Please pray for him and his family, and support him on FB if you're able. ✝️🙏 Bless you and love you bro!
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If your email program cuts off the bottom of the email click "View this email in your browser" up top to see the whole thing. Sorry bout that – email programs keep changing stuff.
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Top 10 baits breakdown from the Ouachita Open
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Won by AR's Jeremiah Kindy with 52-03, almost a 6-lb winning margin which is pretty stout. 1st-3rd were from AR, AR and MO. How Jeremiah won it:
> ...rotated through 3 different baits – a Norman Deep Little N crankbait in a chili bowl pattern, a 3/4-oz Rayburn red-colored BOOYAH One Knocker and a 3/4-oz Duo Realis lipless crankbait [which he used all day 3].
> "...with the cold front [day 3], a lot of the big ones stayed up shallow on the rocks."
What the top 10 fished broken down:
Damiki rig = 60% – YUM FF Sonar Minnow and Jighead, Castaic Jerky J, Deps Sakamata Shad, Strike King Baby Z-Too, Zoom Super Fluke, Great Lakes Finesse Drop Minnow, Missile Spunk Shad
Jerkbait = 30%
Crankbait = 20% – Norman Deep Little N, SPRO RkCrawler
Lipless = 20% – BOOYAH One Knocker 20% (1st and 2nd place), BOOYAH Hard Knocker
Bladed jig = 20% – both Z-Man JackHammers
10% each = Football jig (War Eagle Pro Football Jig), Wacky rig stickworm, Spinnerbait, TX-rig worm
Shout-outs
1. Here's Jeremiah's winning baits. That Duo bait might be a G-Fix? In some kinda "omnicraw" color:
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2. NY's Zach Goutremout (10th) fished this head on his Damiki sometimes for a few more bites – anyone know what it is?
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Couple 70+ year old's scopin' success stories 👀
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First IL's Mike Black, 70 years young, who finished 10th in the Guntersville Toyota this weekend, talkin' fishing his A-rig there:
> "A lot of it has to do with the depth – once I got a feel for where the fish were, I would constantly use my depthfinder and my LiveScope to keep myself in that zone."
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'Scopin' at 70 and 10th against the youngsters! 💪 He also said:
> "I'm 70 years old, I don't need to run 50, 60, 70 miles one way to find a fish when there are all kinds of fish all over the lake and a lot of them are near you."
Hahaha love it!
Okay now check 75-year-old Toledo Bend homeowner Doug Reynolds and this 13.67-lb melonius ditch howg:
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He told LA Sportsman:
> "I'm from Baton Rouge, and when I moved up here I didn't even have a depthfinder on my boat. When I got here, [his grandson] Tater and everybody else told me I had to fish deep. So I started buying electronics for my boat, got better at (LiveScope), and now I couldn't do without it.
> "I've caught a lot of fish I wouldn't have caught without it. It's really good with sac-a-lait (crappie)."
No one's got any excuses now! Oops one more – NBT Marine, maker of those yuge screens, posted a pic of another 70+ guy:
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👀 So Rick has 6th Sense, a big screen – wonder if he'll grow a mullet now? 😁
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"Winning still has merit, but with so many tournament winners each season it just doesn't have the same value in the sponsorship marketplace as it did before."
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- Elitist Drew Benton talkin'. Interesting comment. More from a Bassmaster.com post:
> I kept thinking: I didn't become a professional bass angler to be a "YouTube influencer." I became a professional angler to fish against the best anglers in the country and beat them in competition.
> I am starting the 2024 Elite season without a title sponsor or a reel sponsor. Each time I speak with a potential title sponsor, they don't really care that I'm a 2-time Elite Series winner and 6-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier. What grabs their interest is that I'm part of a YouTube docuseries that could possibly show their products at work as I make my journey across this country trying to win another Elite Series or possibly even a Classic.
> ...recently SPRO asked Drew and I to help them design a line of soft-plastic baits. They want our thought process on bait design documented on The Cut Line as we work on this project together. That opportunity does not come along if we were not in charge of our own exposure and promotional capacity.
Drew said he's not bumming about the YT/social thing. He's glad he has it.
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Few thinkin's:
- If there's so much tournament fishing – and coverage of it – that wins are not as big a deal anymore, something's broken somewhere. We're talking about the top level of a major sport. Winning is YUGE – and there should be more $$$ for a win (more on that in a future Blaster).
- The back to back tourneys deal does delete a ton of post-win mojo for the first winner.
- Are there too many tournaments now? Or too much tourney coverage?
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Drew Gill is a predator killer? Shallower fish are bigger? Some DNRs outta touch?
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Here's the rundown 👇 for Episode 79 of the SeaFoamWorks.com Top 5 of the Week in Bass Fishing:
1. Drew Gill won at Rayburn – Why is it maybe his first win of many?
2. Best baits for FFS are...all of 'em? 🤔
3. More sick limits because of FFS?
4. Are shallow fish bigger on average? If so, does beating the banks still win out??
5. Are some DNRs outta touch? Lemme know what you think!
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1. We lost a young bassin' brother.
From that article ^:
> Kale Robinson, 17, was a junior at Winnsboro [TX] High School and member of the Winnsboro Fishing Team. He was competing at a tournament at Lake Cypress Springs on Saturday when he was rushed to a hospital after passing out during a weigh-in. School officials said he passed away after being taken to the hospital.
Heartbreaking man. Please pray for his family and friends. ✝️🙏 God bless you bassin' brother.
2. One thing Edwin Evers likes about every fish counts is...
> ...you're never completely out of contention. You can zero in the first period and still win the round. That's much harder to do when you're only working with your best 5.
3. Gitcha Gussy mega Smeltinator jighead kit for...$90.
Guess Canadian smelts are expensive! 😁
4. Brad "Lee" Roy gets Railblaza for title sponsor.
Railblaza was founded in New Zealand and I believe makes mounts.
5. Good self-reflective post by Elitist Wes Logan.
If you want to get to know him a little bit. He says he's not angry, just ticked...😁 Just messin'!
6. Cliff Pirch says set a jig hard and fast in cold water.
From here:
> "...if you're fishing a big football head, you're talking about crawling the rocks and long casts, and just kind of contouring down those points – just kind of counting down. It might get heavy. You might feel a tick. Either way, you've got to set the hook really fast.
> "...if I'm going with my lighter stuff, my little finesse jigs, probably spinning gear and it's still going to be a hard hookset, but you're using light line and it's a little wire hook."
Throwback to when Cliff was in that reggae band:
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🤣
7. MLF BPT rookie Grae Buck loves the pressure...
...of every fish counts:
> Just watching as a fan, you can feel the stress of the guys on the elimination line, and I know my time is coming to feel it. This is an entirely different game, and I love the added pressure.
8. Another walleye guy (and Rapala CrushCity) win.
WI wally-eye guide (former?) Adam Rasmussen won the B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at Lake Eufaula, AL. So...guessing all that electronics knowledge the walleye guys have is paying bennies now? Anyhow, congrats to him. How he caught 'em:
> ...caught the majority of his weight the first 2 days by targeting hard-bottom staging areas outside of spawning pockets...anywhere from 5' to 15'...he slowly dragged a 1/2-oz brown jig paired with a green pumpkin Rapala CrushCity Cleanup Craw....
> On the final day, Rasmussen started in his primary area only to find it did not reload...he moved to the main lake around 10am. There he found a school of bass in 15-18'...dragged a 3/4-oz jig with the Cleanup Craw.
> "I stumbled on a school of bass that were up on a shellbar...."
9. GSM is going all in on frogs with The Frog Factory.
...Stanley and Fred Roumbanis and his Boom Boom Frowg. Sounds like GSM bought Stanley and is launching a new brand called The Frog Factory:
> Boom Boom: "I can't tell you how excited I am to be working with the gang at GSM to launch the Frog Factory brand. The foundation of the brand will be my Boom Boom frogs and the iconic Ribbit series, but we also already have several awesome new products in the works...."
Wonder if they're keeping the frog fur? Looks like it:
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10. LA put extra FL-strain bass into Spring Bayou.
> LDWF stocked 126 pre-spawn pure FL largemouth bass from its Booker Fowler Fish Hatchery into the Spring Bayou complex on Feb 7.... The majority of these fish were 14-16" in length, included both males and females, and weighed 1.5-2.5 lbs.
Headline of the Day
US Rivers Are Filling Up With Invasive Fish
News"weak" again with the literal fake news. They quote a recent academic study – make sure you read between the lines of this:
> "It is well established that non-native species thrive in degraded areas, can trigger the extinction of native species and have significant effects on ecosystem functioning. So we are seeing important and rapid changes in fish communities, triggered by non-native species and linked to long-lasting and persistent human pressures on rivers."
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A LOAD of Berkley Frittside juice from David Fritts 👀
Lotta nuggets in that Carolina Sportsman post ^, you're gonna want to read it! Here's a few:
> The #5 Jr and #5 both have crawdad actions – a long side-to-side rocking action. The #5 Biggun' has more of a gliding action – like a Speed Shad – which is a baitfish action.
> The #7 and #9 have a side-to-side action, but it's kind of a twist: The back end doesn't run to the right while the front end is running to the left. And big fish love that action.
> If you're in cold water fishing the #5 Jr and #5, the red craw and ghost red craw colors are excellent.
> If you can make 'em bite when you are moving it very slowly, you'll catch everyone that bites. If you have to really blister it to make 'em bite, you'll lose 40% of the ones you hook because they won't get it in their mouth as deep.
> You hear all about the big national tournaments that are being won on the #5s, but the #7 is one of the best-kept secrets. I hear from a lot of guys who tell me they've won using a #7 but aren't telling anybody because they don't want to let the secret out.
> My secret is a #9. Most every day I fish in March, I'm going to catch a big fish that hasn't moved up yet on a #9.
Keep it comin' David! 💪 All the many versions of Frittsides – including the c-c-c-clickin' versions – are here on TW, and here's a vid of David talkin' 'bout 'em:
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"I've fished so much the last couple years that there's no chance of me graduating on time."
- Gville 'Yota winner Hayden Marbut talkin' on the MLF site. That's a young man with his priorities in order! Lol love it! 😁🤙
He will (maybe?) graduate from Auburn, which surprisingly has yet to produce a good pro fisherman that anyone's ever heard of...let alone one with a presidential last name...or a Classic winner...or 2...🤣
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Just another day for @ranker_forever on IG! Dude has no problem catching bloated bigs from the shore – here's one of 'em: 🤙
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Jay Kumar's BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best (sometimes worst) and funniest stuff in bassin', hand-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'!
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