BassBlaster

Capsized on Rayburn, Why bassin beats the Super Bowl, Finding mid-depth fish

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on February 2, 2017

Yo! Happy ground-hawgs and give ya a big bass-head welcome to Okuma — they’re making some good stuff, and the Scott Martin rods/reels are fo’ real. Thanks for reading bass peeps!

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Today’s Top 4

Lake Atkins, AR is hotter than a fox in a forest fire.

Stocked with FL-strain largies, and in the last 2 weeks at least FOUR DD bass have been caught includin’ 2 over 11 lbs. Here’s an 11.2…

…and an 11.7:

These were caught FROM SHORE. Word is many are being caught on live bait but come on: Any self-respectin’ basser with tourney gear or swimbaits should be able to smack ’em even better. The fish look dang healthy too. Z, get down there and do a show mang!

Rumor is AR bass-heads already have a code name for the lake: “Bubba’s Gar.”

Dudes survive 90 minutes in cold Rayburn.

Wow. Highlights from a good report on it:

> Darrell Proffitt and Brandon Lovelace…narrowly escaped death…when Lovelace’s bass boat began taking on water for unknown reasons and sank as they made their way toward the boat ramp at Mill Creek Park….

> …left the two men with no choice but to jump into the 61-degree water where they spent the next 90 minutes bobbing and paddling and getting beaten to a pulp by a relentless chain of tall waves churned up by high winds that ushered in a recent cold front. …treacherous rollers estimated by some counts to be as tall as 8′.

> “We were prepared for it. We both have a ton of experience running boats and we had everything planned out.”

> “We didn’t take any waves over the front or hit anything. The boat just started taking on water for some reason. Water was coming in faster than the bilges could pump it out.”

> “By this time the whole back of the boat is full of water…. I told Brandon we needed to get to the front of the boat. About 2 minutes later the whole back end went under, causing the boat to roll. We didn’t have any choice at that point except to jump and hope for the best.” [Both were wearing PFDs.]

> …Proffitt said there were several times over the next 90 minutes when he questioned whether he and his partner would survive or not.

> “I was having to hook both thumbs in the bottom of the lifejacket and pull it down on my shoulders to keep it from pulling over my head and Brandon did the same thing. We took waves over our heads every 10 seconds.”

> Exhausted, water-logged and cold, the two anglers washed ashore several minutes apart on a main lake point.

> …the boat and its contents are wrecked. The motor’s cowling was torn in half, one of the Minn Kota Talons was ripped off the transom and three Humminbird Helix 12.1 chartplotters were destroyed. Additionally, the anglers lost all of their tackle….

Dang! Glad they’re okay.

I don’t like dropshot or finesse fishing in general.

– Woo-hoo! lol That’s Steve “the other enigma” Kennedy talkin‘ in an interestin’ (cuz it would have to be!) Q&A on the Bassin’masters website. Other innerestin’ facts:

> Says he is NOT competitive. Not sure yet whether to believe him.

> Says he tried to make his own side-scan sonar 15 years ago. Do believe him.

> Claims he has some killer jig skirt colors. Okay but unless they’re pink n red how different could they be?

> Thinks most of us weekenders fish TOO SLOW. Now that is dang innerestin’.

> His dad fished a Classic — either I had no idea or plum forgot:

5 ways bassin’ beats the Super Bowl.

1. The NFL uses 72 game balls during the Super Bowl!!!

> ALMOST as many rods as Swindle and Iaconelli have on their decks.

2. Football fans will consume an estimated 1.33 billion chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday.

> On any given weekend just bass-club members alone could top that…lol.

3. Houston will be Tom Brady’s 7th championship.

> Big deal. Houston will be KVD’s 26th.

4. The Super Bowl has a 30-minute halftime.

> HALFTIME??? Bwahahahaha! Try fishin’ 8 hrs a day for 3 days straight — and if you’re doin’ well, answerin’ questions live on camera.

5. Each athlete on the Super Bowl winning team gets $107K.

> The Classic winner gets $300K! (Never mind that whole salary thing….)

One mo’: Looks like Skittles sent Marshawn Lynch to Houston, Scotland before the Super Bowl for some hahas. Dude cracks me up but we can top that too: B.A.S.S. P-L-E-A-S-E send Overstreet to Scotland for the exact same dang reason. It’d be about 20x funnier.

Probly late to this party but: Suddenly hit me why the Classic is in March. It’s in Houston. Get it? SUPER BOWL. In which case I guess moving the Classic date was the only option.

News

1. TJ Stallings passes on.

From cancer. Did a lot in the fishin’ biz, including being responsible for the whole red hook thing. RIP bassin’ brother.2. Former Sampo owner Brian Butts passes on.

RIP fishin’ brother.

3. Guido Hibdon lost 150 lbs…

…from cancer treatment. Sounds like he should recover fine, which is great to hear. Dion said, “He’s just as ornery as ever” — that sounds like Guido! (And Denny, and Nixon, and Cochran, and KVD, and pretty much all the great ones.)

4. Christie had bicep and nerve surgery.

Says the nerve thing was cuz of fishing working his last raw nerve, and the bicep thing was cosmetic to look like this guy:

Okay, the bicep thing was so he could flip a Magnum Christie Critter all day long:

OKAY — nope, he was legit hurt. Says he’s not 100% yet. Hope he gets there fast cuz there’s a derby comin’ up!

5. DeFoe gets Bass Pro Shops.

Rods, reels, line, plastics.

6. Herren’s ankle is a mess.

Matt I TOLD you not to play that flag football game against Richard Sherman’s team man!

7. Elitists Prince, Myers get Greenfish.

8. Open champ/Elite rookie Wiggins gets Bassin’ Cat.

Bassin’ Cat pro staff manager K-Pink says Jesse’s “remarkably seasoned.” Not sure if he means like gumbo or beef jerky, but either way cool.

9. FLWer and MLFer Scotty Suggs on BassEdge Radio.

10. Econo Lodge sponsoring 2 Elite events.

11. TX: ‘Trap and Zoom win another one on Rayburn.

It’s practially the law there — Blake Schroeder won a BFL there with 28-10 by running and gunning:

> “Around Caney Creek I used a crawfish-colored Rat-L-Trap in the grass. By 1 p.m., I had everything that I weighed in.”

> …caught the biggest bass of the event [8-11] just north of the Highway 147 bridge. “…on a Carolina-rigged watermelon candy red Zoom Brush Hog. I used the Hog out deep around points that had brush, laydowns or any changes in structure.”

12. TN: Bass club improving Tims Ford habitat.

13. Castaic Baits now distributing Flip In The Bird topwaters?

Check the Bird topwaters, and the Castaic baits.

14. TN: Doomsday Tackle wants to move to VA.

Makers of the Doomsday Turtle, and sponsor of Elitist David Mullins.

15. MN: Albert Lea HS starts fishin’ team.

> “We don’t really play video games and stuff like that. We find it more fun to fish and be outdoors.”

16. SD: Revised regs to fight spread of zebras.

17. Didja get your contingency programs lined up yet?

If you’re a derby angler, git on Contingense.com and do it!

18. Is Julio Jones the best fisherman in the Super Bowl?

Could be….

Line of the Day

The Future Farmers of America students at Albertville High School received life lessons from a professional fisherman, and left smelling good.

– Wanted to read more but honestly couldn’t….

Tip of the Day

Michael Neal: Finding and catching mid-depth fish.

FLWer knows a bunch, and here talks about finding and catching bass that most people just plain overlook because they’re not shallow enough and not deep enough:

His bait o’ choice for that is the SPRO Fat Papa 70 in nasty herring.

Quote of the Day

The best time to go for it is when you’re just out of college, because if you wait until you have two kids, a boat, and a house payment, then it’s really hard to change. It’s much easier to have nothing and continue to have nothing. There’s no better point in your life to be a vagabond for a couple of years.

– Washington State football coach Mike Leach talkin’ in his book “Swing Your Sword.” He’s talkin’ ’bout being a coach, but might as well be about a basser too…except coaches don’t pay entry fees….

Shot of the Day

Mike C. from NY sent in this shot a college dude trying to launch. Said:

> A local lake opened up for about a week, but the ice was so thick near shore that it was impossible to launch a boat.

> …two college kids showed up with a bass boat in tow. I told them the ice was still pretty thick. They said, “We got sledgehammers.” …the two of them worked on that ramp for over an hour to get their boat in.

#stout!

Random

Someone paid almost $30K for this crawfish!

In Thailand. Dang thing even has a name, like a show dog: Chao Khun Chang — which probly means “Bigtime Largie Killah.” Craw is an “ornamental procambarus clarkii Ghost crayfish with rare colors.” Was sold for a record 1 million baht = about $28,500.

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Jay Kumar is the guy who created BassFan.com, co-hosted Loudmouth Bass with Zona, was a B.A.S.S. senior writer and a whole lot more in bassin’. Jay Kumar’s BassBlaster is a daily-ish roundup of the best in bassin’, and is the #2 daily read on any given day in the wide world o’ bass.

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