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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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Quick check-in with Jacob "CrushCity" Wheeler
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Season is about to kick off so gotta check in with him – partly since he seems to win one here and there 😁 – here we go:
1. Did you learn anything you can apply to bass fishing from fishing for barramundi?
> "I definitely did. As big as they actually are, they are way more sensitive than a bass is – to the cast and everything. A bass, if you cast on top of them and you make a splash, it's not as big of a deal. But barramundi are way more sensitive. You have to really lay your cast in there right.
> "I think I just learned to be a lot more stealthy."
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2. Have you already figured out your FFS strategy?
> "I haven't. Each tournament is completely different.
> "Last year I used it probably half the time throughout the season. This year, depending on the tournament, obviously we only get 1 period. It depends on how practice goes.
> "It'll also be fun to run around and fish what's in front of me."
3. After the Freeloader and then the Mooch Minnow, I gotta ask – will we see more new CrushCity baits in the first few events?
> "There might be something. I don't know if we'll out it, but maybe. It will just depend.
> "Typically we can only out it if we win a tournament on it. We gotta win the tournament."
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Top 10 baits breakdown from the Clarks Hill, GA Bassmaster Open
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The season's off and rolling, here's what the biggest tourney so far looked like.
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Shortened to 2 days and won by Chase Clarke who had one of those tournaments:
> "...I made a really long cast and got the bait to them at 110' out." Those bass followed his bait back to within 20' of the boat before another largemouth Clarke did not see swam up from the bottom to eat his lure. That 6-02 largemouth anchored his bag for the day.
> With just 2 bass in the livewell around 10:30, Clarke hooked up with another big largemouth. After working it to the boat, he was able to lip it and bring it in the boat, where the hook immediately fell out of the bass's mouth. That 5-10 bass turned out to be the winning catch....
It was his time! Fishing deets:
> ...Clarke started by fishing ditches on the GA side of the lake before moving to the SC side in the afternoons. ...Clarke caught all of his bass in 35' of water or less.
> "They would push up way shallow in the backs of the ditches in the mornings and then in the afternoons I was catching them in brushpiles. It didn't matter how deep the brushpile was, it just mattered where it was. And the brush had to have blueback herring around it."
> A Greenfish Tackle Bad Little Shad Swimbait Head...with a Fluke-style bait was his best presentation.
> He used several different sizes of that jighead throughout the tournament, but he always used one with a 3/0 hook to make sure he kept the bass pegged.
Top 10 baits breakdown
Here's what the full top 10 fished – and yep all pre-spawn deals are now dominated by the ping:
Jighead minnow = 100% [never seen a 100% before! 🤯] – YUM FF Sonar Minnow, Z-Man Jerk Shadz, Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow 30%, Strike King Z-Too, Yamamoto Scope Shad, CAST Echo 20%, Big Bite Baits Jointed Jerk Minnow, Deps Sakamata Shad
Jerkbait = 20%
10% each = Crankbait, Hair jig (3/8-oz Juices Jigs Hairmiki), Dropshot (Yamamoto Sensei Worm)
Shoutouts
1. Michael "Top 10" Neal finished 7th, and was the guy who fished that hair jig:
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2. How 'bout 18-yr-old Okie Blake Bunney mostly fishing a RkCrawler (and that YUM FF Sonar Minnow on a jighead) – no Scope needed:
> ...he picked apart a long, rocky point where the bass were chasing herring in 17'.... A creek channel ran up against that point...he had to crawl his crankbait across some of the bigger chunk rock. "It was the deepest ledge point before going all the way out. The bass were using it like a ladder to go up or down."
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Rayburn Toyota Top 10 baits breakdown
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Won by OHIO's 👀 Brody Campbell who said:
> "I'd never even been to TX until last year. (Sam Rayburn) sets up nothing like the Ohio River, where I was born and raised, and the caliber of fishermen down here is just insane.
> "...I've caught 5 fish over 10 lbs down here already, and I'd never even seen a 10-lber until I came to TX."
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First 2 days he caught 'em dropping a minnow to fish in offshore timber. The last day that spot got blown out so he fished a protected pocket.
Here's the Top 10's baits broken down:
Jighead minnow = 60% – Deps Sakamata Shad 20%, Z-Man Jerk Shadz 20%, Yamamoto Scope Shad, 6th Sense Strobe Shaker
Umbrella rig = 50%
Lipless crank = 20% – 3/8-oz Bill Lewis Hammer Trap, XCalibur 75 (discontinued), BOOYAH One Knocker
Jerkbait = 20%
10% each = Dropshot (Roboworm Straight), Neko rig (Zoom Trick Worm), Crankbait (Strike King 6XD), Football jig
Shoutouts
1. AL stick Hayden Marbut finished 5th his first time on Rayburn...and still won't say what minnow(s} he's using.
2. Remember the name Mike Hawkes? Fished the FLW Tour back in the day, and finished 7th in this one:
> "I went out and practiced and LiveScoped like 90% of the time, but I'm not good enough at it to know exactly how the fish react and where to look for the fish and which fish is a catfish and which is a bass and which is a white bass."
> "...I ended up using an old XCalibur 75...I had a red one and I tied it on – it still had the good hooks on it that I put on in 2003 or whatever." [Hahaha no rust, no problem! 💪]
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Yep it's the pre-spawn = heavy FFS season, but it ain't all about that in all cases.
1. "...essentially, if it wouldn't have dominated, or even if it would have been just a little better than everything else – it's probably going to be better for me to maybe not even do it at all. With my personal skill set being what it is...never having tried to fully embrace it, for just that one 2.5-hour period it seems like a tough thing to turn on and off."
- Ott DeFoe talkin' FFS in an MLF post about his AOY goal. He's been close!
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2. "Right now my biggest weakness is catching bass with forward-facing sonar."
- That is an amazing statement from Cody Meyer, who qualified for the Elites through the Opens last year on his first try. The Opens are (especially last year) the FFS gauntlet. So the fact that he did it only with a Senko and instincts 😁 is legit amazing.
Couple more deals from that Bassmaster.com post:
> I've been in a boat with some of the guys who excel with this technology. It's pretty mind-boggling to see what they can do with it.
[Another big statement from a full-time professional fisherman.]
> There will always be bass near the bank for me to catch, but other than during the spawn, they usually don't run as big as those suspended fish.
Interesting.
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3. "A lot of people were casting at single fish, but it's almost impossible to do that on a day like today when they weren't biting that well."
- FL HSer Dylan Quilatan who with pard Tommy Rust won last weekend's Bassmaster High School Series tourney at the Harris Chain:
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He's talking about FFS – full quote:
> "We had 2 Garmin LiveScopes – 1 in Perspective Mode and 1 in Forward – but we weren't watching the fish eat our baits. It was really difficult to get them to bite today, so we were just casting into as many fish as we could and reeling the baits through them.
> "A lot of people were casting at single fish, but it's almost impossible to do that on a day like today when they weren't biting that well."
Crazy. I would've thought the opposite.
They were fishing through groups of pre-spawners. When the bait was threadfins, they threw 2.8 Keitech Fats on 1/8-oz heads. Around bass chasing gizzards, they threw 7" No Live Bait Needed K-Tail Swimbaits on 1/2-oz heads.
4. At 10:15...they hadn't caught a single fish, and many of the fish they spotted on their LiveScope turned out to be drum or rocks that resembled fish on the bottom.
- Talkin' the Guntersville AL Bass Trail 2nd-place finishers James Austin Swindle and Elliott Gault, who pivoted to fishing grass clumps in 10' with a 6" Bass Mafia Daingerous Swimbait (blackback shad).
Sounds like they needed an Aqua-Vu – don't waste time fishing for drum and rocks! 😁
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He fished a 3/8-oz Gobius on 8-lb braid:
> "This lure weight allowed me to swim it nice and slow in that cold water, while its buoyant ElaZtech body could be hovered just above all the clingy algae, which would otherwise take your cast out of the game.
> "Most of the bass faced into the current, which let me drag and hop the bait right into their strike zone. Just lifting and letting the bait's tail kick as it dropped triggered most of the bites."
8. Reminder: Bass Pro Tour cuts
> Following the 2024 season, the Bass Pro Tour trimmed its roster from 80 anglers to 66. After this season, another round of cuts will bring it to 50 anglers, which will represent the field size moving forward.
9. MLF events coming to Japan
MLF Japan is launching the Kasumi BMC Series, sounds like wit the catch 'em all format.
10. FL DNR meetings will explain FL bass vs largemouth bass
That's right, supposedly they're now "2 species" of bass, and FL is now incorporating that into their regs so it has to explain that to peeps. I'm going with the TN "we are changing nothing" approach....
11. Megabass now partly owned by investment firm?
Sounds like it? Or maybe it got a cash infusion and...? A little tough to tell:
> Megabass has entered into a strategic partnership with global investment firm L Catterton. The deal positions the Japan-headquartered fishing gear manufacturer for continued expansion by leveraging L Catterton's operating capabilities and industry network....
> Megabass and L Catterton will reportedly work closely together to drive growth.... The company's combined focus will initially be on "thoughtfully" ramping up Megabass' production capacity and strategically expanding its distribution network....
> [L Catterton] remains a majority shareholder in Birkenstock and also owns West Marine, 2XU, and Taxa Outdoor. In the health and wellness space worldwide, current and past investments include Peloton, Equinox, EGYM, Soul Cycle, CorePowerYoga, FlyWheel, Pure Barre, Xponential Fitness, Tonal, Hydrow, BodyTech, ClassPass, and iFIT/NordicTrack, among others.
The Catterton Website says:
> With approximately $34 billion of assets under management dedicated to growing middle market companies and emerging high-growth enterprises, we believe we are the largest and most experienced consumer-focused private equity group in the world.
12. All new NetBait HexTek baits now on TW
This time of year I'm sure folks will jump on the Eko Shad, but I'm digging the 4.5" Big Boar Tube...but it won't be out til April:
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13. Latest salty sonar stuff
As I've said, there's no way we can put their transducers on our boats (and they cost more than our entire boats!) but this is interesting:
> Addressing the issue of tracking a fast fish or multiples, the new Target Lock makes locking and tracking effortless. The Fish Quantity Mark function takes it a step further, helping operators gauge the size, depth and distance of the target so they know exactly how to approach for the best results.
> ...with a range of up to 900 meters, operators can cover a huge area, locate distant targets and still see all the details clearly.
14. Yamaha Power Pay program expanding
> ...will now reward the 3rd and 4th highest-placing anglers with $1,000 each on select trails, in addition to distributing payouts for the top 2 finishers.
> ...B.A.S.S. Nation tournaments will award $1,000 to the highest-qualified eligible participant from each state.... In addition, the Bassmaster Team Championship will feature a $5,000 payout to the highest-eligible participant....
15. MS: Christmas trees dropped in 2 lakes
Tippah County Lake and Trace State Park Lake.
16. GA Outdoor News needs full-time content help
17. MS: New Bass Pro Shops coming to Gulfport-Biloxi
Will be the second BPS in the state.
18. New crayfish gin??
> ...crafted using crayfish claw shells, dill, watercress and lemon. The distilling process releases crayfish oil, which enhances the gin's smoothness....
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KVD used/uses craw scent??
Did he ever mention this? From a Louisiana Sportsman post:
> "A jig is a good bait to use [in late winter/early spring] in an area with a lot of thick cover, such as rocks, stumps or fallen trees. Bass have a keen sense of smell. If I'm fishing a lure like a plastic worm or a jig, I add crawfish-based scent because it's a little stronger.
> "Even if bass are keying on shad, they are opportunistic feeders. If a crawfish swims out in front of it, a bass will swallow it."
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"Tournament days were rarely canceled. If it was cold or stormy, they went."
- Exactly! That's Greg "Jay, one day I WILL kill a bigfoot" Hackney talkin' on the Bassmasters 'bout the golden age of pro bassin' and how it will never be the same.
Gotta say – long time covering this sport and I am constantly amazed how many tourney days are canceled these days. Not saying it's "wrong," just went decades with that practically never happening.
A little mo from the Hack Attack:
> You can go through every piece of equipment they used then – shorter rods, heavy baitcasters, cheap monofilament line, crappy hooks on lures and hooks that had to be filed to sharpen. Today you couldn't file a hook to be as sharp as what my chemically sharpened Gamakatsu is right out of the package.
> Shoot, in the early days, no one knew the differences in hook styles. There weren't different reel speeds to make specific lures work better. Rods were heavier, less sensitive and certainly weren't technique specific.
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Here's the new lake record for Havasu, AZ – an 11.34 caught by Brad Miller on a white swim-jig. Said he was fishing "up the river toward Blankenship Bend in the Colorado River current:"
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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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