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Welcome to the BassBlaster, your daily email about all things bassin’. Hey — have you forwarded the BassBlaster to a bassin’ bud yet?!
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Today’s Top 3
“Yoot” bass fishin’ today:
1. Okies win Carhartt College Series Championship.
Oklahoma State’s Zack Birge and Blake Flurry let it wire to wire – impressive. Interesting stuff:
> They fished on top, first on the Arkansas River, clear water, 100-degree temps, no current, with a River2Sea frog (green/white).
> The final day they fished Zara Super Spooks (bone), with one key alteration: “We rigged a feather on the bait [you can get a Super Book Jr. already rigged thataway], and they seemed to hit that a lot better. They would short-strike it without the feather.”
And how ’bout those jerseys:
2. Heartbreaker: Brother vs. brother for Classic bid.
Did you read about this? The two young men in this weekend’s fish-off for the Classic bid are brothers, Matt and Jordan Lee.
> The mood was more like a funeral than a coronation when Matt Lee earned the Bassmaster Classic berth by beating his brother Sunday.
> “If we fished 20 times, he’d win 18,” Matt said. “I hate it for him, but I’m happy for me. I know right now he’s hurting, and I’m hurting for him.”
> “This is painful,” said Leigh Lee, their mother. “When you see your children get so close to their dreams, and it slips from one of their hands, it’s painful as a parent.”
Dang. What made it especially tough is one brother goes to Auburn and the other goes to Alabama.
Just kidding. They both go to Auburn.
Almost forgot: Their dad’s name is Bruce…Bruce Lee!
3. AR high-schoolers win championship.
TBF-run championship, great stuff. This one also was in AR, not last weekend but the weekend before. The winnahs – Sawyer Grace and Austen Cathcart of Russellville High School – fished “citruse” color Bomber BD7 Fat Free Shad “all day” on Dardanelle. Assuming the fishes were deep:
> The World Champions were offered a $5,000 scholarship per year each for 4 years to Bethel University’s collegiate bass fishing team in McKenzie, Tenn., making it a $40,000 total offer. Bethel was the first college in the nation to offer scholarships to their bass fishing team.
> Wilkins Brothers Outdoors in Russellville, Ark. also offered $1,000 Scholarship to Arkansas Tech for each angler of the highest finishing team in Arkansas, which was also the World Champions.
That’s friggin’ great! One more thing: By the size of those trophies, looks like those boys ain’t done growin’ yet….
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Tip of the Day
James Niggemeyer on finding offshore bass.
> I look for water depths where bass, crappie, catfish and baitfish are concentrating. Using my depth finder, I search for that band of water where most of the fish activity on the lake is taking place.
> Sometimes it can be a thermocline. That zone where the bass are all holding may depend on light penetration, water color or wind. It’s the zone not only where the bass are most comfortable, but where they easily can ambush bait.
> Once I know the water depth at which the most bass are holding, then I look for some type of bottom structure, such as a hump, a ledge or a tree top, that intersects with that depth and hits that band of water the fish are favoring that day.
> I’ll search for a point that may have a drop-off that intersects that zone where the fish are holding. Or, I’ll look out in the lake for a hump with a top that tops out where I find that fish zone.
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Quote of the Day
It’s the best of all dilemmas you could have. You don’t want either one to lose, but you’re glad that they’ve both got a chance to pursue their dreams.
– Bruce Lee, father of the Classic shootout boys above
Shot of the Day
The Okies hooked a camerman in the B.A.S.S. college derby…luckily only in the headset. Full photo sequence here.
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