BassBlaster

Float n fly wins, Don’t jerk your jerkbait, Swimjigs at Big O

By (mostly Jay)

Posted on January 31, 2017

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Today’s Top 4

Float n fly wins a derby??

What the…? Does that mean this stuff is back in style too??

Ryan Friend won the Wild West Bass Trail (WWBT) opener on Shasta, CA with 40.54 (3 days). Derby was called “the Super Clean Showdown”…?

> …relied on a float-n-fly as his only lure each day…. “That’s something that I’ve got a ton of confidence in. I did it from daybreak until the bell rang.” [Here’s some float n flies on TW.]

2nd and 3rd fished a G-rig, “an umbrella-style rig made by G Funk Baits,” with Keitechs. Hard to believe the G-rig and G Funk have nothing to do with Swindle….

Teen first-timer wins it on Okeechobee.

What would you do if you went to Okeechobee for the first time? I’m betting you’re a-gonna get your flip stick and stick a Gambler BB Cricket or Why Not — or a Skinny Dipper or whatever your fave soft-plastic is — and commence to flipping.

Well, not 19-yr-old Taylor Ashley, who went there for the first time and racked up a win at the Costa against some for-sure Okee FLW sticks and some guy named Roland Martin. His 68-12 was 7.5 lbs better than 2nd! Here’s what he did — after not catching much in practice:

> With nowhere left to turn, Ashley put his trolling motor down, picked up his favorite lure — a swim-jig — and just started fishing for miles through vegetation fields near Clewiston.

> …winning pattern centered on a single boat lane amid a network of boat lanes through fields of scattered vegetation. The particular lane he favored terminated into the main lake, acting as a conduit for female bass moving into spawn.

> “I could fish all out in those vegetation fields and catch bucks. But whenever I got near that one particular lane I’d get a big bite. All I can figure is those bigger females had to be using that one lane to travel in.”

> …a pair of 3/8-oz Dirty Jigs No-Jack Swim Jigs, one white and one green pumpkin…with Zoom Super Speed Craws in matching colors…. [BassFan says white/pearl was the key deal.]

> …fished the swim jig “Alabama style,” constantly twitching and popping the rod tip as he reeled it across the scattered vegetation….

Okee Costa Top 10 breakdown.

Would you have bet a swimjig would be the deal at Okeechobee? Me neither. But it was. Interesting since the swimjig-like Chatterbait made its bones there. Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 baits used:

Swimjig = 40%

Frog = 30% — both were SPRO Bronzeye Poppin’ Frogs (killer gill and black). Here’s 2nd-place Josh Weaver:

Worm = 30% — either a Gambler Burner Worm or a Zoom Ultravibe.

Jig = 30%

Flip plastic/punch = 20%

Chatterbait, spinnerbait, swimbait = 10% each

Never seen this before: ALL the plastics used by the top 10 were either Zoom (mostly) or Gambler. Wow.

Giving an old-school shout-out to NC’s Brian Holder and his main bait, a 1/2-oz War Eagle spinnerbait in a color that should be called “Drake’s Jordans” (below):

Best launch fails.

Here ya go! Feel bad for these folks but….

News

1. WI: Smallmouth conservationist passes on.

Roger Lapenter fought to protect Chequamegon Bay’s (Lake Superior) trophy smallmouths. RIP fishin’ brother.

2. A-Mart gets DUO.

Not real sure what the release says, but I think he’s a-gonna help them design baits and fish their stuff. Gotta believe everyone in the bassin’ world would try to sign Aaron (I would), so this is a catch for DUO.

3. DeFoe gets Swagger.

Tungsten stuff. Now has Ott and Freddy the Boom-Boom.

4. KVD still likes paper maps.

Yep and Kevin still has a Color-C-Lector on his boat too, which is how he came up with the color sexy shad.

Okay maybe not…but he does like paper maps.

5. Pipkens will fish lefty in first Elite.

Recovering from broken wrist in right hand. Ping-pong ball injury courtesy of B.A.S.S.’s Steve Wright.

6. Clunn now in MO Sports HOF.

Supposedly for his hat choice…

…which has influenced tennis ball boys as far away as Australia:

Just kidding Rick, congrats man!

7. Elitist Coulter now running a Triton.

8. Dave Mercer wins cue ball award.

Congrats bro!

Okay he actually won the Outdoor Sportsman Award (Golden Moose) for best videography. This is a super-big deal cuz Dave is the first bald guy to win it! No wait — actually a big deal because it’s the first fishing show to ever win it.

Dude, seriously, congrats. Dave’s show for-sure rocks videography-wise.

I can hear the almost-bald insults coming my way…and deserved! lol

9. TN/KY: FLWer Chris Jones donating KY Lake trip…

…to a “youth” via God’s Backwoods Disciples Ministry. Cool.

10. TX: Largemouth virus found at Fork…

…but sounds like the bass are immune.

11. MD: St. Jude benefit derby this weekend on Potomac.

12. TX: Amistad bass populations are back.

But DD hawgs might be a few years away:

> “Currently it’s not difficult to catch 15 to 20 bass an outing. A couple of them might reach 5 lbs, most are smaller.”

13. TX: State wants to recognize spotted bass.

In Alan Henry.

14. TX: HS teams in SE growing.

Tough to tell what this actually means but sounds good:

> Participation in the Southeast Texas High School Fishing Association has increased by 43% since last season.

15. VA: Richmond boat dealer fire.

Sounds like everyone was okay:

16. Storm 360GT Searchbait: interesting marketing angle.

Has a bait ever been marketed primarily as a search bait before? A “keep it simple” approach? I can’t remember one. But I like the “easy bait to fish, it finds fish” angle.

> Al Lindner: “This is truly a ‘Go To’ bait…the closest thing that I could think of to what you’d call a universal bait. Fish love it.”

> “There’s no need to make it pause and jump at things. The idea is to cast it out and turn the reel handle – that’s it.”

Check ’em on Tackle Warehouse. I think I’m gonna go with the herring color:

17. Realtree now doing fishing licensing.

A little late to the party maybe? New hook-like logo for it:

18. CA: Big 5 Sporting Goods apparently doing well.

Sells feeshn stuff too.

19. Crappie trail sponsored by ethanol group.

Still amazed by this:

> Renewable Fuels Association VP…Robert White says the purpose of the sponsorship is to help spread the word about ethanol to boaters. “It was an excellent opportunity to get ethanol back around the marine world and help explain the benefits and the realities of ethanol use in marine applications.”

Here’s a list of those benefits:

Tip of the Day

College kid: Don’t jerk your jerkbaits.

John Garrett in a Bassin’master post. Don’t jerk ’em early:

> …a jerkbait in a color called “clear ayu.” I prefer the smaller, shallow-diving KVD jerkbait in that color, with two treble hooks on it, not three.

> Notice I said “shallow” – that’s really critical to my winter approach. My theory is that big cold-blooded bass use flat shallow banks with gradually sloping shorelines to sun themselves and warm up, as compared to colder deeper water elsewhere.

> So while most anglers are casting deep-diving jerkbaits, finessing a dropshot or heaving Alabama Rigs to deep main lake points at this time of year, I look for flat or really gradual sloping banks where my boat is sitting in only 6’…and I’m casting that shallow jerkbait into 1-4′.

> Another thing I’ll say about jerkbait fishing is that maybe we should rename it “pullbait” fishing because I don’t jerk the lure with erratic pops of the rod tip like you might in warmer water. Instead, I retrieve the lure by just “pulling” it, like you might drag a jig across the bottom, simply by moving the rod sideways a foot or two at a time, reeling up the slack and then repeating.

Innerestin’. He also outs the green tomato color, a secret of more ‘n a few Strike King Elitist pros (sorry Menendez!):

> The second lure I was quick to choose for this time of year is a Series 4 Strike King crankbait in a color I’ve got big time confidence in anytime the water is slightly dirty, called green tomato.

> I tie it to 12-lb test on a relatively slow 5.4:1 Lew’s reel and just gradually wind it back. It stays in that magical 8-foot depth range where a lot of fish seem to stay in winter but are often overlooked while most anglers are out there targeting bass on much deeper main-lake points.

Quote of the Day

Everything I saved, I’m going to spend every penny of it this year.

– 26-year-old Okie FLW rookie Chad Warren talkin’. BUT he also said:

> “My mom told me if I run out of money halfway through they’ll make sure I have enough to get through the season. That took a lot of weight off my shoulders. Of course I don’t want her to spend a dime.”

His wife is about to finish nursing school, so that’s a couple sugar mamas. Gotta be careful dude, that much sugar can lead to bad things:

Lol, good luck out there man!

Shot of the Day

Love these pics of yellow-bellies. Never caught one this yellow before, you?

Random

Say hello to supposedly our earliest ancestor:

> …could be our earliest known ancestor on the tree of life, researchers say. Saccorhytus, which looks a little like the “chestburster” from “Alien,” was a tiny, bag-like sea creature that lived 540 million years ago.

Hmmm. Tiny and bag-like — don’t ring any bells. That story was right next to this headline: Mind blown: The entire universe could be a hologram.

Are people just making stuff up or what?

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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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