Got to thinking about disruptors. No matter where you look, with the exception of Ray Kroc (McDonald's), every disruptor is young. Google, Facebook, Instagram, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Kevin VanDam (and more) – you name it, the guys that bring huge change to stuff typically do it when they're young.

We're seeing it now in bass fishing.

Have to go with a guitar analogy again: No one knew it was possible to do the things those guys did with an instrument that had been around for a long time until those guys did it. They just thought about stuff differently, and their only limits (if they had any) were self-imposed.

Isn't that what we're seeing now in bassin'? Yep these younger cats got onto a new tool (FFS), but that plus all the other stuff – reams of how-to videos, college bassin' and whatever else – got them thinking about bass fishing differently...in the prime of their creative selves, which for most people is late teens through 20s.

Fwiw I have covered the top pros practically every day for 20+ years and have heard stuff in the last 2-3 I've never heard before. It's great!

Am I gonna fish like these younger cats? Probably not a lot. But so what? I'm never going to want to play guitar like Al DiMeola, but I sure do appreciate what he does. I'm not willing to make 1,000 casts with a big swimbait to catch 1 fish, but I still appreciate that and learn from it.

Just some 2c thinkin's. Before we get to the fish juice, a reminder that THE Bass Pastor Chris "live" Wells is giving away his boat THIS SATURDAY – gitcha ticket on his website. Barely used Nitro Z-18, Merc 150, 2 Lowrance Elite units, Lowrance Ghost troller, 2 Power-Poles.

This is a fundraiser for Chris whose work is ultra-important in my 2c:

I was surprised at the amount of new stuff released at the Classic – fewer than I thought, even though Tackle Warehouse lists a pile of 'em. Maybe there was more? Anyhow this Top 5 is just from what I and the fellers saw.

Good thing is, the new stuff we saw was real good. So good it was tough for me to pick 5 (the runners up are in #2 below) but here goes.

1. JackHammer Baby Jack

Already covered this in the BB, no-brainer, lots of people (including pros) excited about it.

2. Here come the American fuzzy dice

No doubt the first of I'm sure several coming this year:

Strike King Tumbleweed

Comes in salted (sinking) and unsalted/floating versions – already on TW but it says available in June. 12 sides, 2 of which don't have strands/tentacles so you can rig 'em there. Also the strands have little "bumps" on 'em to maybe trap some air as they sink and so they don't pull through the bait.

Interesting the colors the Tumbleweed has. Maybe this dice craze will lead to more soft-plastic colors? Lastly, gotta ask: Is the Tumbleweed twice as good because it has 2x as many sides as the OSP Dice? 😁

Missile Shredder and Shredder Jr

Is that a dice or more like a dreadlock bait mon? Well it's not a dice shape, but in function John "E" Crews told me it has more action than a fuzzy dice – here's a quick YT vid showing it underwater.

On the one hand more action might be good – on the other hand the dice catches 'em with hardly any action. The fish will vote and we will find out!

Word is someone put this up in the Missile Baits lunchroom:

🤣

3. Welded split ring rolling jigheads

Ever seen these? Believe the first one was the Austin Felix-designed Treeshaker Dream Stroller (which I don't see on TW but is available on the Treeshaker website).

At the Classic Bizz Baits intro'd a new one called the Ring Roller (pic ^) and Missile is coming out with one at some point this year I believe called the Eye Roll Jighead which looks like this:

That welded ring (weld part is important) is kinda an ingenious, simple way to make/help a jighead roll.

Brian Souza at Bizz Baits pointed out that these jigheads mean you do not have to use a loop knot, which has been proven to be a weaker knot than your normal stuff, and says a regular split ring can't do what the welded one does. Their head comes in 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 and has a custom slick 2/0 or 4/0 BKK Hook.

Missile's will come with a custom VMC hook and will be available in more sizes for baits from 3" to 8". John said he found that his welded-ring head allows the heavier heads to fall straight down instead of pendulum forward. Interesting.

Should also mention that Bizz also intro'd the Minner in 3.5 and 4.5, designed to pair with their head. I saw it work in the tank, it does roll. Gotta say that Ring Roller Head with the Swimming Minner version (has a boot tail) looks really good: the head rolls, then the body rolls.

4. DEX Organizer

This is something I never knew I 100% needed til I saw it. Here's 2 quick vids worth 1K words:

Developed by South African bass-heads who came all the way to the Classic to show it off and I'm glad they did. Also glad David Dudley grabbed me and made sure I saw it (thank you man!). Few more tidbits:

1. It's made of the same EVA decking material (SeaDek, etc) that some guys are putting on their boats now instead of carpet. So heat should not be a factor. Also, they actually kicked it to show me it wouldn't chip.

2. It's supposed to last years.

3. It does go down on carpet with I believe some variety of the adhesive used for carpet decals.

Amazing. You get all that deck space back and when you open the rod locker no rods getting all jumbled up. David says he still does use a rod strap when running.

Here's their website. I think they're selling 'em at $600 each, $1,200 for a pair, but don't quote me on that. If these deals do their thing and last a long time, I gotta believe a lot of guys will put 'em on their boats.

5. Picture Me 3D "mounts"

No pic or video will really do these deals justice. If you think that looks cool, in person these things look amazing.

You can see what it is, but here's the main points in my 2c:

• Not just a fish mount, but a "memory" mount. Does not have to be a PB.
• The fish look realistic – because it's the real pic printed on there and it's 3D (ish).
• The whole deal is sign quality so will/should not fade in the sun.
• Costs less than a mount or replica, but ain't cheap.

Invented by ME bass-head Tony Gelardi who runs a plastics company and is friends with one of Matty Robertson's buds, which is how Matt got involved in it.

These things look so cool they're going to be the 1st place "trophy" for the first online BassBlaster tourney, coming this summer. 👀 Deets next month.

Check their 'gram here.

More stuff that caught our eyes, no particular order:

Justin Hamner-designed Halo BB Series Rods (not out yet)

Don't know about you, but I'm always waiting to see what stuff a Classic champ comes out with. After Hank Cherry won we finally got a Hank-designed jerkbait and jerkbait rod, which were very good. And I assume since Justin is a jerkbait guy we would get one or both – and we did. A jerkbait rod plus 2 more rods:

• 6' 11" MH Jerkbait Rod – parabolic for fighting fish but soft tip for softer movements
• 7' 1" M Scoping Rod – soft tip and good backbone
• 7' 1" XMH Jig rod – softer tip too (I think?)

Believe they'll be $189 apiece and should be on TW soon-ish. Good-lookin' rods too.

3.5" Yamamoto Slim Zako

Are you one of the peeps who made your Zakos slim on your own? Well now you don't have to because there's the new Slim Zako. Rumor is this was inspired partly by Brent Ehrler losing 80 lbs from his all-meat diet (some of that might be true 😆).

Anyhow, why is this an important deal? 3 words: JackHammer Baby Jack. 'Nuff said!

New Bull Shad baits

Man I love stopping by the Bull Shad booth. I love seeing the BS folks and I love the super-amazing baits and how great they look. But I don't love how much $$$ I want to drop there! And now, because I controlled myself, I'm bummed I didn't buy a couple of the new 3/4-oz Baby Burritos ($40 apiece):

One of our guys picked up one of their new Live Gizzards – dives to an amazing 14':

They now also have a 5-INCH Trick Shad – which looks just like a real shad (that's the trick? 😁). Mike Bucca said to fish it like a jerkbait using a ChatterBait or topwater rod. Very cool!

They're not on TW yet and don't even see 'em on the Bull Shad site yet (?) so keep your eyes peeled!

Nomad Design Live Ops baits

Looks like the Aussie company Nomad – pronounced NO-MAD 🤣 – has 5 new Live Ops baits, and 3 of 'em have this new weighting system. The deal is you can insert 1/32 or 1/64 tungsten balls in slots along the bait to make it suspend or roll or do something else you want it to do.

Each TPE (stretchy plastic) bait has 6 or 7 tubular slots that you drop the balls in using a small metal tube – or, if you get used to it, with your fingers.

I spent some time at the Nomad booth learnin' about 'em, including how to get those balls in and out of the bait. Takes some practice but not a big deal. You might want to do it before you leave the house.

Young Guntersville hammer Hayden Marbut – who is fishing next week's Redcrest on Gville – was at the booth so I talked to him a bit:

You might recall Hayden is tight-lipped about what minnows he uses for pinging, so I asked him if this was one of them and he said yes. Also said that the balls help with and allow the use of a lighter jighead, and that if you put at least 1 ball behind the head of the hook it helps the bait roll.

Definitely a cool idea, let's see if bass-heads and the fish embrace it.

New Kistler Abrams Rods

Gotta give Kistler the award for the coolest-looking rods – camo with guns burn into the cork for different actions: 😍

Rods felt real good in the hand (no surprise), light and lively, and have a price tag that reflects that: three-fitty. But a portion of each sale helps Homes for Troops, which builds homes for military vets. 💪🇺🇸

All the rods in the series – casting and spinning – are 7' 3". Not sure if that's due to OCD/CDO or something to do with Trey's service, but it's interesting. Don't think I've ever seen that before?

1. John Cox is Paul Bunyan

Occurred to me that John Cox is now a folk hero, like Paul Bunyan. He is legendary, maybe even exaggerated like folk heroes can be. He also wasn't sure what depth he was fishing because he never turned on his units lol.

But back to the Paul Bunyan thing – people truly love this guy. John's personality makes him pretty easy to love (have not asked his better half tho hahaha!), but there's that and also his fishing style. It's amazing how many people root for him just based on that.

Anyhow, I was amazed at how huge the front deck is on his Vexus AVX 2100. Not sure if you can tell from this pic, but if you see one in person you will be amazed too. I think a power trio like Rush could hit up there! 😁

Here's what that boat costs fyi:

2. Lee Livesay is turning the bassin' world pink

Turns out it wasn't the West Coast guys with "morning dawn" Roboworms that turned the bassin' world pink, it was Lee Livesay. After him showing the pink stuff on Live, 6th Sense and other companies are selling out of pink – and putting in the OT to make more.

I didn't know that 6th Sense made that color of Flush for Lee just for the Classic.

I think this means Lee is entitled to take over Kevin Short's slot as the pink guy on the Elites, just somehow I can't see Lee doing it. 😁 BUT he might do it on a dare and if Busch Light came out with something pink...😆

3. Wheeler and Connell have some fans man dang!

One of the longest lines I saw was for Dustin Connell and Jacob Wheeler at the Rapala booth. My fave part was 2 guys who waited in the line and didn't want the free hat or T-shirt – they just wanted to get as much Mooch Minnow fishing info from Dustin and Jacob as they could. Made the line wait for like 10 minutes! 💪

Also interesting to see a bunch of peeps wanting CrushCity merch vs Rapala merch. That brand got strong and cool in a hurry.

4. Trey McKinney finds fish no one else does

When Trey McKinney won the '24 Elite at Lake Fork, I said the thing that blew me away was he was fishing alone – meaning no one found the same fish. Same deal happened at the Classic. Trey said he only saw 1 other boat on 1 of his spots: "I never fished against anybody." Same thing happened at Okeechobee this year (he finished 8th). That is some talent man.

More about this in today's Abu Garcia REVO/Humminbird + Minn Kota Top 5 Tips, Trends and Techniques of the Month, should be out this evening.

5. What's going on up north?

Easton, the Canada guys – is it fair to say that many of the best anglers in recent years have come from the North? If so, why? I mean, their water is FROZEN half the year??

I'm still not ruling our Dave Mercer "possibly" planning to do all this years ago, and mysteriously getting the Bassmaster MC gig right after the planning of said plans...😆 Zona recommended him for the gig and remember – Z is from up north! 😁

Okay for real: MN and WI have always produced hammer fishermen. Just they've usually fished for...trash fish. 😆 Just messin' wally-eye guys!

6. Another MEGA Live 2 win in a row

3 Bassmaster Elite tournaments, 3 wins all with the new Humminbird MEGA Live 2. Not to take anything away from the guys and not saying ML2 was 100% the deal, just gotta ask again – coincidence?

We're in a weird place when peeps are posting sayings by fictional characters lol. Wait...I just did that!

7. Megabass Vision 110 all over another Classic

As long as the Classic stays in the pre-spawn, the jerkbait will play. And in this one, along with a bunch of prior ones, the Megabass Vision 110 was fished a bunch.

Gotta say I'm a bit surprised considering all the new and good jerkbaits – which are basically made to be similar in some way to the Vision 110. Who knows, maybe the guys just have more confidence in it – or is it still that much better?

8. 6th Sense keeps climbing

Did you notice 6th had the 2nd, 3rd and 5th guys at the Classic? You might think that's normal and I guess it is now, but not if you turn your time machine back 10-20 years. They're a-climbin'.

9. New SPRO bladed jig

SPRO guys said they were legit using that new SPRO Cover Jumper bladed jig. I'm assuming they've had it for a while, meaning they didn't just get a few before the Classic and tie 'em on.

10. Aqua-Vu can see when you can't

Duh! But not talking deep this time, talking muddy. Aqua-Vu owner Kolt Ringer told me that if you can see more than a foot, then the camera can tell you what's down there.

Plus he said it helps increase your FFS learning curve if you don't have the time like the pros do to learn to read fish body language. (Check the Shot of the Day below – if he thought it was a gar and didn't throw at it, then he never would've caught that fish!)

Is that worth more to you than $300 for the Aqua-Vu Micro Revolution 5.0 HD – which you can fit in your glove box and do not need a mount for?

11. More Classic stuff!

Clockwise from top L, next is top R and then down the right, across the bottom, etc.

a) New Geecrack Saf Stick which Alton Jr caught 'em on at Murray. That's his hand btw. I asked him if he ever thought about being a hand model, and he said...yes! 🤣 Don't see it on TW yet....

b) The new KastKing iReel 2 in black is a good-lookin' reel and I gotta say: Whether that level of tech is your deal or not, it's an amazing piece of tech that I think will end up producing some insights for all of us.

c) That's the new YUM Scutter Bug. Recognize it? Hint: Replace Scutter with Biffle.

d and e) Lotsa new GLF stuff – Too much to all mention here but that bait is the 2.5" Juvy Craw in "brown purple orange belly" which looks KILLER in person. One of our guys was drooling over it for bed-fishing for largies.

To see in person how small some of these baits are they're catching giant smallmouths on is pretty dang crazy. To me some of them look like they'd be for crappie!

Also have a new Ned head (1/8, 3/16, 1/4 ) with a 1/0 hook, and their new high-$$ spin rods are for launching little baits to the moon and feeling the little tick waaaaay out there. It really is more than just finesse fishing – it's on a different/new level.

f) Talked to the Solid State Marine battery guys. They seem legit and the stuff sounds legit. Looks like those batteries have more amp-hours too than standard lithium ion batteries. In the pic he's holding a 36v no problemo.

g) Checked out the boat David Dudley is running, the FisherCraft TomCat made in South Africa outta wildebeest skins...😁 Just messin'! I think it's a tri-hull? Definitely some different stuff on the boat (the fold-out console was cool), too much for here.

Pic is of the bow – David says 3 people can Scope up there no prob. Now you can bump heads with your co-angler in a new way! 🤣 Seriously though, that boat is interesting and the South African guys were cool.

In case you're curious. We do this every year, got almost all the guys each day. Percents don't add up to 100% necessarily because of guys fishing/doing multiple stuff:

Man I wasn't gonna go. Then I was, then I wasn't – because I'm not a fan of musicals, and I was kinda concerned it would be...you know...un-manly guys prancing around onstage being some weird version of Ray Scott, Bob Cobb, Don Butler and whoever else.

Well I went, and glad to report that was not the case at all. 3 reasons I went: curiosity, peer pressure from Brian the Carpenter from Bass After Dark, and I heard it was important to Bob Cobb. Since Bob is and always will be THE MAN, that weighed big. (Found out later that the whole script was run by Bob for his okay.)

"Dream Catcher: The Ray Scott Story" was a low-budget deal that had all of us smiling and laughing. We laughed because it was funny sometimes (sometimes not intentionally), and we smiled the whole time because even though we know the story about how B.A.S.S. came to be, it's the first time we saw it acted out – and man, it's a great story.

Everyone who sang and acted took it seriously – we talked to 'em afterward. And props to bass yakker Jack Wagner for coming up with the whole deal. I honestly feel if it had a bigger budget it could be really dang good.

Hard to make a splash with anything new at the Classic (unless it's the winning bait), so not surprised more people weren't there. But folks in all parts of the biz definitely should have been there/go see it. We all have a job because of that story.

If "Dream Catcher" travels at all, go, whether you already know the story of the birth of B.A.S.S. and modern bass fishing or not. I think you'll really dig it. And how many more musicals are there gonna be about bass fishing??

My favorite line from one of the tunes was "Got faith, cast far." Amen to that!

These guys were at the premier too – any guesses who's behind the playbill? Hints: Former pro angler, if you rearrange a couple letters of the guy's first name on the right it will sound like our mystery man's first name:

Next day pic:

Scott Martin told me his dad is 85?? Roland still jumps in and outta boats, fishes all day in the rain, amazing!

We'll catch up on all the News next week.

Sometimes our brain can't pick up on why they are where they are.

- Kyle Welcher talkin' on Classic Live. 2 thoughts about this:

1. Exactly! We theorize, but who really knows?

2. Are some of the younger cats figuring this out more/better?

11-lber weighed in a Hartwell ABA tourney! 🤯 Big congrats to GA's Peyton Dunn who won it with 21.16 anchored by that 11.03. Has to be the biggest tourney largemouth ever there? From GA Outdoor News:

> "Dealing with the 30-40 mph winds, I caught her in 30' of water on a Strike King lure paired with a Buddha Baits Sonar Boss Jighead.

> “There were 2 of them on LiveScope, and when she ate I thought it was a gar because they both looked 3' long on LiveScope.

> "It took me 10 minutes to get her into the boat. When I landed her and put my hands around her, I thought it was potentially a new lake record. After weighing her, and seeing she went 11.03, I had to sit down and stop fishing for 10 minutes due to the shaking."

I bet! Couldn't find the largemouth record there quick but that's gotta be close? That lake just produced a new spotted bass record too.

Fishers of Men Tournament Trail

Bass Chaplain podcasts

Contact Chris Wells the Bass Chaplain

CullGear.com - Versaweb

Advanced Angler

StrayCasts crazy web show!

BassEdge Radio

Champion Jigs

Trophy Bass Co.

National Professional Anglers Assoc.