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Today’s Top 4
Mega melons of the week!
That time of year — the rolls o’ buttah are movin’ up:
John Adami of Broken Braid Guide Services scored 13-10 lbs of buttah-slathered mega melon on Falcon Lake, TX. Looks like a black/brown jig with a blue or black/blue trailer… interesting. Hope John can afford himself a new hat soon:
This Falcon donkey king kong weighed 12.8 lbs, caught on an old-school 1/2-oz Terminator spinnerbait (white/chartreuse, no trailer) winched in by Lake Falcon Guide Service guide Jimmy Steed:
Just a fin lighter is this 11.5 caught on the Chick (TN) by HS team angler Parker R. with a Strike King Red Eye Shad (Rayburn red) — nice fish dude!
And how ’bout a DD from Lake Ouachita, AR! That’s like finding a Snickers ice cream bar in a freshly baked sponge cake…or somethin’ like that. Robert H. caught it on a secondary point in about 15′, water temp was around 48. Used a jig he built with a black/blue Starflash skirt and trimmed Uncle Josh Pork Frog (black/blue) with a Lew’s Tournament Pro reel and 20-lb Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon.
Bass-heads now shooting docks?
Crappie technique, seems like it would be tough to do with bass gear but maybe not:
> …involves using spinning gear with about 3′ of line extending from the tip of the rod. A fisherman grips the bend of the jig hook, draws the lure back below the rod like a bow, aims at the target and then releases the jig.
> The lure then skips over the water to get underneath docks, walkways, swim platforms and boat lifts….
> “The bass fishermen are doing it also, and Gene Larew has made a Bass Shooter lure….”
Here’s FLWer Andrew Upshaw talkin’ ’bout it. He makes like he’s pulling the bait back to his face, like you’d do with an arrow, but personally I’m ain’t a-puttin’ a hook that close to my eyeball:
A little weird that a crappie technique could move to bass….
Top 10 baits breakdown from Gville FLW.
This time of year it’s all about the lipless crank there, but because of that there was a little rumor that Silver Buddy-type blade baits would play. If they did, no one’s saying anything about it. [Funniest name for a blade bait: the Cotton Cordell Gay Blade. Tempted to crack some non-PC jokes about that but won’t!]
Lipless cranks = 80% [red/craw colors = 100%]
5th: Shin Fukae’s choice was a SPRO Aruku Shad, both sizes (3/8- and 1/2-oz) in Delta craw and mudbug red:
10th: Chris McCall fished a couple different Rat-L-Trap colors, including cranapple which is a sleeper bass-killin’ color but no longer made. Here’s a close-up of it:
Lipped cranks = 40%
Gotta shout out AL rookie Justin Atkins (9th) for chucking a Rapala DT6. Said:
> “This lake gets so much pressure with rattling baits that sometimes something a little quieter is better. Plus, I can really control where I run that bait by raising and lowering the rod tip, sort of finessing it through that grass. And it floats, instead of sinking like a Trap, letting me sort of suspend the bait in the grass on the pause.”
Vibe Jig and Jig = 20% each
Jerkbait and Swimjig = 10% each
Also gotta shout out FLW for their Top 10 pattern info, best in the biz. Good job on this one, Robby “do the robot” Newell.
What to do with your old trolling motor.
Don’t throw it out! But do throw out yer manual paint-stirrer:
News
1. We lost Carmen Macdonald.
Dang it. Carmen was a principal in OR-based Vaunt Marketing which works with Okuma and other fishing brands. I barely knew him but he was a great, energetic guy. RIP fishin’ brother.
2. Looks like a cold, brown opening to the Elites.
Air temps in the 30s, hail, small fish overall (here’s a good practice conditions vid from Alton Jones) mostly smallies — what’s not to like about being an Elitist?? Unless the conditions change, look for smallie guys to shine like:
Or if anyone’s on decent largies they aren’t talkin’, and I don’t blame ’em. Russ Lane says he’s gonna be chucking this — I think it’s a Fat Papa 55 in a new color:
> Lefebre chose the Elite Series in part because it schedules more tournaments — 10 vs FLW’s 8. It also puts his fate more squarely in his hands because FLW uses co-anglers. While they are scored separately, co-anglers double the fishing pressure on each spot.
Pretty sure it’s impossible to own the water (except in LA and parts of NY: eyeroll) but:
> “Piers or boathouses attached to private leases are more complicated. Some leaseholders may be paying for use of the water as part of their lease.” [Paying for the water??]
> …anglers may fish inside and around residential boathouses and slips, but may not enter or tie up to them. Anglers are also barred from touching the structures or boats occupying them in any way, including with fishing lures.
Have to admit, the bad side of me would think about smackin’ some gunnels with 1.5-oz weights in the wee hours of the morn, then blastin’ outta there…but only if I put a “Trip Weldon” decal on my gunnel first…lol….
Worth every dang penny and then some, go if you can. Tell Gluszek the BassBlaster sent you and tell him you want a free hat. Not saying he’s aware of this special deal but can’t hurt….
> …the deal looks like it’s unraveling. Although the FTC’s request for more information is not a death sentence…it’s going to be more complicated and may require divestitures that will delay any potential closing date for some time.
“There’s nothing worse than wasting very expeensive, very high quality braid.”
Dang straight Latimer! He’s talkin’ Seaguar Smackdown. Love this tip cuz some of us (including me) don’t have 10+ reels:
FLWer McCall is a ‘Trap maniac — love hearing from guys who obsess over one kind of bait. This is about his Gville pattern but can work anywhere:
> He cast the baits at subtle depressions or “bowls” throughout the midsection of the lake, trying to specifically target points of grass in the bowls.
> McCall rotated through a lot of colors on purpose. One thing he’s learned after years of ‘Trapping grass is that for some reason just changing up bait colors can suddenly produce a bite during big lulls.
> “It’s happened to me enough over the years that there’s something to it. I can’t explain why it happens, but I can reel a ‘Trap for an hour without a bite, pick up another color and get bit immediately with the new color.
> “One day here I weighed in a limit, and every one of them came on a different color.”
Hmmm. Very cool but:
Quote of the Day
She hit right beside the passenger seat, slid about 2.5′ across the gunnel and went out.
> She had the bait down her throat, so I went ahead and boat-flipped her. She got half way over the gunnel, and the Zara Spook ripped out of her throat. She hit right beside the passenger seat, slid about 2.5′ across the gunnel and went out.
Dang dude that stinks but everything happens for a reason and:
Shot of the Day
Not sayin’ this is fo real, but if it was Chris Gulstad at BOOYAH could throw it 60 yards no prob:
Random
Julian Edelman says his Super Bowl catch was 80% luck. I’d say Julio Jones’ Super Bowl catch was 90% skill. Which one is more like Elite bassin’ catches? Hint: Julio is a fisherman….
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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.