BassBlaster

What’s the strike zone? Next big bait idea? Derps of the week!!

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on May 16, 2019

Today’s Top 5

One o’ the great bassin’ shots ever. No doubt.

Maybe you saw this called out on my Insta but either way you can’t get tired of looking at it:

If you’ve lost this bass-lovin’ feelin’ or ANY lovin’ feelin’, I URGE you to hug a bass today or this weekend…even if you incur a penalty to do so (that’s a hint BPT peeps!).

[Shouted out the source of the pic on Insta but don’t see it on their page so not really sure whose it is.]

What’ll bassin’ bait designers copy/use next?

Some examples of what’s happened so far:

Safety pin >> spinnerbait

Ceegar >> Spook

Fountain pen >> Senko

Chatter teeth >> Chatterbait

Stick >> Ned rig

My picks for close bassin’ bait encounters of a future kind:> Dorito — Imagine that soft-plastic action over pads or on a dropshot. Plus that addictive nacho scent….

> Car key — Not as common as they used to be, but gotta love that big head/small tail look/action.

> Potato — Little bit of a stretch, but it has multiple bass-attractin’ eyes and yep, you could catch a bass with it.

Reeeeeeeally diggin’ this swimbait mural.

Whoa:

[At lurenewsr.com, can’t link it.]

Thought ’bout askin’ someone to put somethin’ like that on my truck, which reminded me of that old-skool van airbrushin’ — of all people I expect Skeet Reese (and maybe John Crews) to have such stuff on his personal vehicle. Here’s Dave Lefebre’s old van (stay away kids):

And Bassmaster writin’ legend Louie Stout actually rolls like this:

Guess when you’re a legend, why pretend you’re not…?

Derps are swimmin’, you better be catchin’!

Jumpin’ out with a shout-out from a huge derp supporter:

Lol okay first up is my bud Tadjen “Pete” Peterson’s boy Wyatt (congrats dude!), who smacked this NICE small-derp on Table Rock, MO. Strike King Rage Bug (gp) on a 3/4-oz swing head did the deed:

Adam C got a topwater derp somewhere in OH on this BOOYAH Pad Crasher (cricket frog). Gonna say cuz of the underbite maybe derps get a frog better?

FLWer Chad Grigsby went all the way to Guntersville to catch this fish of a lifetime on Berkley Shakey Worm (gp flavored with Dew drops):

Google translate now has a bassin’ lithp.

Think that’s what it’s called? Used to translate “bass” as “bus” but now it’s this [excerpt also from lurenewsr.com, can’t link it]:

> So, by putting a swim-jig on a weed, you can imitate shrimps and crayfish jumping from the weed, so you can catch a bath that feeds on crustaceans.

Catch a bath!!! Dang good idea for lots o’ bass-heads hahaha!

Lithpth remind me of this dude:

Wasn’t gonna hit on Mike again, but he now makes fun of his own lisp so I hope all good.

News

1. Win a fishing trip with Keith Combs.

If you win and don’t make him get cranky, you’re crazy! (Tho at times Keith can be moody AND cranky, which is challenging…lol Combs!)

2. A semi hit BPTer Adrian Avena’s prop.

Ouch. Amazing it wasn’t worse:

3. What’s Elitist Garrett Paquette doing here?

He’s either bowed up on a stump, acting like he don’t care, wants to see if anyone’s looking, or literally fishing unconscious:

Obviously has a huge dislike for AFTCO apparel as well…lol it rawks.

4. Elitist/poet Frank Talley gets Strike King/Lew’s.

5. Cherokee FLW champ Andrew Upshaw on BassEdge Radio.

6. Look what FLWer Billy McDonald does with his Seaguar fluoro.

Knew about rod socks, but not this. I think it makes sense?

Gives hope to all bass-heads who have no idea what to do with socks….

7. Table Rock BPT: Will other species matter?

Almost always, when it’s a best-5 tourney it’s all about the largemouths. But when it’s a catch all you can deal, not necessarily. Check out what Mike McClelland says about the Rock:

> “I think a person could make it through a round on one individual species, but the guys who do the best will probably catch a mixed bag.”

Pretty sure Mike has won at least 1 tourney there in the past (heehee)…so he may be trying to knock the other guys off the scent, if you know what I mean….

8. TX: High water means great largemouth survival.

> “When you have situations with extremely high water levels like we’re seeing, it almost always means lakes see a great year-class of young fish and tremendous recruitment [survival] for littoral species like largemouth bass.”

9. FL: Pollution control on Lake George by shad removal.

Who knew:

> Because removing large numbers of shad from a water body removes the nutrients contained in the fishes’ bodies, the harvest will help improve water quality in the lake by removing an estimated 4,940 lbs of phosphorus.

10. NY: Guys busted for having 35 smallies on a stringer.

> The officers…eventually located a 15′ long stringer tied to a rock several feet offshore. The men were issued a total of 13 tickets…. The 35 bass were successfully released back to the water….

Best line:

> Inside one of the vehicles, which was registered to a retail fish market in Brooklyn, the officers found a large cooler.

Great — fresh black bass on sale in NYC, dang.

11. WI: Non-residents like largies more than residents?

12. 2 BFL ties in 2 weeks.

First on Rough River Lake, KY, both dudes had 12-03. Then on Lay Lake, AL, both dudes had 16-00. Weird.

13. 2 new baits from Zoom.

The Beatdown, which is a stubby Flanders bait, and the Z-Swim 3.8 ribbed swimbait. Don’t see the Beatdown on Tackle Warehouse yet but the Z-Swim is.

14. Is Z-Man coming out with a bigger TRD?

Lol bigger TRD….

15. This Flanders craw-worm thingy looks pretty cool.

Not real sure what Karl’s Bait and Tackle is but:

16. SD: Dude catches potential state record, gets doubted.

WHAT?! In the Interwebz age? [shocked emoji]. Was a walleye, but dang I feel bad for the dude.

17. Win you this Sea Foam Chevy Silverado!

I think it’s a Silverado anyhow — big-time enhanced by the Truck Tech TV crew:

On BassBlaster.rocks right now…

> Giant space-time basses, Winning baits, Spring cranking bests, Man-card check!

> Weekend winning baits, Best leader length? Derps of the week!!

> Brandon Cobb’s Lake Fork winning baits and pattern

Tip of the Day

Learn ya about the strike zone.

You think you know all you need to know about that, right? I did too — yawn — til I read this stuff from Al Lindner, ‘nother guy who knows 300% more about fish than we ever will.First get in your mind what YOU think the strike zone is. Got it? Now check Al:

> “There’s a zone, based on water clarity, where the fish can see a bait, but they won’t waste the energy to chase it.”

Okay now the rest:

> In clear water, the strike zone is generally larger. In stained to muddy water, it is smaller. Rigging multiple rods with baits that dive to different depths — and in several sizes and color patterns — allows you to experiment….

> “How many times have you sat on a structure and said, ‘I know the fish are here.’ And then…you leave that spot and a guy comes right in back of you, and all of a sudden he lights them up.”

> In such cases…you probably were not putting your bait in the strike zone. “A bait that just gets a little bit deeper, or a little bit further out off of the structure, where it gets in front of their face,” will the only one the fish will bite.

> Such was the case when Lindner filmed an episode of Angling Edge. After locating a group of bass on his depthfinder, he..cast to them with his favorite 3 jerkbaits [a Rapala RipStop, Shadow Rap/SR Deep and X-Rap/XR Deep]. But only a Shadow Rap Deep yielded strikes.

> …the bass would not “come up that extra 3, 4, 5 feet” from where they were suspending off a ledge to hit a shallower-running jerkbait. But the Shadow Rap Deep was “getting right to them.” It was “right in the zone.”

Quote of the Day

“…I knew the spotted bass in deeper water would be more consistent. I fished shallow with crankbaits….”

– Head-scratcher. Sounds like Elitist Jake Whitaker had an argument with himself and lost? His deepwater self was like…

…but his shallow-water self was all:

Shot of the Day

Crazy @rangerboats shot! Looks like Johnny Morris’ newest house is coming along lol:

You can just barely see KVD’s guest house all the way to the right (heehee!).

Random

Here’s what shattered a guy’s windshield in SC:

Yep that’s what it looks like — a pretty good-size turtle, which was DOA.

Scary similar to something that happened to Greg Hackney, Zona and I in a LA swamp one night. We were runnin’ in a side by side and I guess we were lookin’ fer trouble…we sure found it….

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’!

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