Welcome to the BassBlaster, your daily email about all things bassin’. Hey – forward this Blaster to a bassin’ bud, willya?
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Today’s Top 3
1. Musky championship, zero fish.
What if you held a big derby but the fish never showed – neither day?
> Last weekend at the 2012 Ranger Boats World Championship on Green Bay. Seventy-six experienced anglers gathered for the season-ending event of the Professional Musky Tournament Trail.
> They jigged, trolled and cast all day Saturday and all day Sunday. They tried the Fox River and the waters of Green Bay. The result? Not a musky was caught. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
> The entire field was tied for first. And last. It was the first time in the 14-year history of the professional tournament series that no fish was caught or registered during a tournament….
> A PMTTÂ statement following the event attributed the poor fishing over the weekend to rough weather, a lack of forage in the area, “three major cold fronts the week of the tournament and the fact that they were dredging the river which made it look like chocolate milk.”
> The first prize was awarded through a raffle. All names were put in a hat….
Doh!
2. Bassmaster Opens schedule is out.
No Western Opens again – what happened, a bass fishing rumor that wasn’t true?! (Lol.)
Southern
> Jan. 31-Feb. 2 — Lake Toho — Kissimmee, Fla.
> April 4-6 — Douglas Lake — Dandridge, Tenn.
> May 16-18 — Lake Logan Martin — Pell City, Ala.
Central
> April 25-27 — Red River — Shreveport, La.
> Sept. 19-21 — Arkansas River — Muskogee, Okla.
> Oct. 17-19 — Ross Barnett Reservoir — Jackson, Miss.
Northern
> June 13-15 — James River — Richmond, Va.
> Aug. 1-3 — Oneida Lake — Syracuse, N.Y.
> Sept. 12-14 — Lake Erie — Sandusky, Ohio
BassGold has a lotta gooda data ’bout these waters….
3. Got an Old Man trail by you?
> I had stumbled upon the Old Man Tournament Trail. That’s what they call themselves. It is open to anyone 40 or older but few of the 60-plus members are in their 40s. Several are in their late 70s. There are even a few in their 80s.
> The fishermen put up $60 per team and fish a tournament the third Wednesday every month. The top teams get back 100 percent of the entry fees.
> If a fisherman gets tired or isn’t catching fish, he just packs up and goes home and nobody seems to mind.
> Why Wednesday tournaments? That is simple to answer. Almost everybody in the club is retired, thus they can fish any day. There are no tournaments on Wednesdays, so they get the Waffle House, the boat ramps and sometimes the entire lake to themselves.
> The group is made up of fishermen across central Alabama. Several members are from Birmingham, others come from places such as Montgomery, Prattville, Clanton and even Slapout. Even BASS Tournament Director Trip Weldon is a member. He fishes often when he’s not out of town on BASS business. The group fishes tournaments on the Alabama River, Lay Lake, Mitchell Lake, Lake Jordan and Lake Martin.
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News
Don’t know how I missed this one. Denny and now George. Who’s next?
> George Cochran told BassFan today that he will retire from tour-level competition following the Sam Rayburn Reservoir FLW Tour Open next month.
> “I guess everybody has their time when all good things come to an end and there’s nobody who’s enjoyed it more than I have,†he said. “I loved what I’ve done all these years and I still love it, but this is a time I’ve been getting ready for. I’d set a goal to retire when I was 62.”
> “I plan to spend more time with my family and grandkids and see the stuff that I missed with my kids because I was gone so much when they were growing up. I’m just ready to retire.â€
Deal of the Day
Lucky Craft Silent Fat Rick Clunn BDS DD crankbaits half price!
Tip of the Day
Denny: Fish a white jig in fall.
> One thing I want to say is that you shouldn’t be afraid to swim your jig. We have a tendency to think of flipping and pitching a jig as a vertical presentation. At this time of the year you might do better swimming it back past the target, especially if you’re dealing with a nasty cold front and the fish don’t want to come off the cover. (Not coming off the cover isn’t the same thing as shutting down. They’ll still bite.)
> My color choices are pretty simple at this time of the year. The fish are keying on the forage so I do the best I can to match the color of whatever they’re feeding on. This is the time of the year when I almost always flip or pitch a white jig. It makes a pretty good imitation of whatever’s out there.
Quote of the Day
He had integrity. The rest of us took notes.
– Elite pro Charlie Hartley on the influence of the one, the only, Denny Brauer.
Shot of the Day
Here’s what can happen every day on Lake Okeechobee. Shweet!
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