Jacob made the announcement on his social that "I'm building my own bass boat." I thought, Either he's made a whole lot more money than anyone thought (he does not come from a $$$ fam), or he's got partners, or he's full-on crazy.

Possibly all 3 😁 but the deal is Jacob designed a boat under a new brand called iKon, and the boats are being built (and I'm guessing owned) by HCB Yachts. Hadn't heard of HCB but their website says they build "center console yachts" – like 65' long with 4 big motors on the back. 🤯

The bass boat connection here is that HCB stands for Hydrasport Custom Boats, as in the same TN company that started as Hydra Sport bass boats. Little history from a 2019 post:

> HCB Yachts, formerly known as Hydra-Sports, actually began in the 1970s as a bass boat company in TN. After being purchased and re-positioned in the 2000s by [now CEO] Elias De La Torre III, the company now focuses on creating exceptional quality yachts on a low volume level.

Guessing from that maybe the bass boast will be the same – high price/low volume?

Seems like HCB is still based in TN and so is Jacob so....

No great pics of it yet (iKon website wasn't loading) but the above and below shots are taken from this short YT vid.

Alex Niapas caught this 14-08 outta New MELONES 👀 on Dec 3 – deets from St Croix Rods:

> "Once these lakes turn over in the fall and you've got water below 60 degrees, the trout and shad move shallower and the biggest bass follow. These are largely stocker rainbows around 10 inches, although a big bass will ambush trout up to about 15 inches. [👀 🤯] Those are the conditions we have in many of our lakes right now, and that's what was happening at New Melones."

Pulled up to a secondary point:

> "I was fishing a Hawg Hunter Mag-X Swimbait [12", 9.5-oz] and 25-lb Seaguar fluorocarbon line on St. Croix's new Mag Swimbait rod."

> "I think it was only my 3rd cast across the point in 15-20'.... My lure came through a tree but got hung up when it hit the next one. I eased up over the snag and stuck my rod tip straight down into the water and was able to pop the lure free. and I got hit immediately.

> "She came up to the surface and jumped about 25' from the boat and I saw it was a giant...when I finally put my hands on the fish...it barely fit in the livewell."

This the last teener of 2022? Hope not! Congrats man! Quick YT vid showing it live here.

TW doesn't have that 12" Hawg Hunter but does have the 9.5", 5.6-oz version.

😂 Of course that's Ranger Boats legend and now Vexus Boats boat designer and then some Randy Hopper. He was out on the floor gettin' his hands dirty when we ran into him. Gotta love that!

Jewel Bait Co

You probly know that AR is one of the THE bassin' states. Great bass fishing of course, but also bass stuff – manufacturing (boats and baits), media (Jerry McKinnis and his folks), history (Forrest Wood, Jerry, lots more). Don't know how many bass-related business are in AR but it's a bunch! Just driving around we went past Ranger, Bass Cat and Triton.

Anyhow, Gayle Julian and his staff gave us a detailed tour of a seriously impressive bait-making operation – wow. If it was possible to know who Gayle makes jigs 'n stuff for besides just Jewel, after seeing his operation you'd want to buy that stuff, no doubt.

There's way more to even making jigs or jigheads than I ever thought – did you know there's many different types of lead? One big-time pro you've heard of even has his OWN type of lead!

Anyhow, amazing operation and I got new insight into Gayle's big-time OCD! 😁

Fishing DEEP on Bull Shoals

In the late afternoon we ran out on Bull Shoals for maybe 90 minutes – because talking fishing makes you wanna fish! Air temp was in the 30s, water temp was 53 and it was windy (whitecaps)...a little chilly but our group dropped in 3 boats and got busy fishing deep.

"Deep" out there is like 60-80+ feet! Meaning that's how deep they actually fish! We did some of that with the Jewel Scuba Spoon and some small swimbaits. My son and I didn't catch any but our guide Del Colvin did. It was the hardest bite I'd ever seen. What I mean:

We're Spot-Locked in around 60' watching the bass fishing version of an African safari – pods of fish slashing through giant shad schools on LiveScope. They were about 50' down. We're dropping swimbaits on 3/16-oz heads to the bottom – in 15+ wind. Bow in the line much?? 😬

The kicker was Del said we wouldn't feel the bite – they would just grab it and when you dropped your rod tip there'd be slack in the line...but there already was slack in it! I was half trying to figure it out and half laughing to myself – literally never felt a thing BUT Del caught a spot and largemouth so it was doable!

Amazing. A few LiveScope learnin's from the trip are below.

AZ and fishing with Josh Bertrand

I love AZ. Amazing landscape, everything is definitely not at all like the East Coast, and pretty good bass fishing too. Pretty wild to see Cliff Pirch kick open the doors to a saloon and start shootin' up the ceiling! 🤣 Okay just messin' about Cliff, but fishing for bass with cactuses and wild donkeys on the shore is pretty cool!

Did a bunch of driving and hiking, soaking up the country, and then went out for most of a day with Josh Bertrand.

I'd called Josh about getting a guide why we were out there, and he graciously offered to take us out. Couldn't say no to that! We fished Lake Pleasant which was a little stingy, but we caught some – and we got a lesson on LiveScopin' and dropshottin' from Josh who's a black belt at that stuff and just won the US Open doin' it, making him an official western legend. 💪

My son caught a decent one – on Josh's signature Abu Pro Series Dropshot Rod with Josh walkin' him through it – pretty cool!

I'll get into the Scopin' stuff below, but here's a few things I learned fishing with Josh:

- It's possible to dropshot wood (trees) with light leader line, but don't set the hook hard!

- If you cast and drag your dropshot with your rod tip high, when you get close to the boat drag it like a Carolina rig to keep that weight on the bottom.

- Asked Josh if his signature dropshot rod, which I have, was supposed to feel really light and be kinda like like a ML rod with a MH heavy backbone and he said yep, but maybe more like a L tip and M backbone. It's a real nice rod.

- He had an amazing cranking setup: 7' 6" MH Mod F Abu Winch Rod, Abu Zenon MG-X Reel (6.8), 10-lb Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. Could cast that "KY blue" Berkley Frittside 5 a country mile and be real precise. My 2c is that rod doesn't feel like a MH, more like a M, and you can feel the bait like it's all graphite even though it's not.

More

1. LiveScopin' tidbits

- We saw tons of aggressive fish in AR and lots of fish in AZ, all on Garmin LiveScope. We got baits in front of 'em. A few bit, most didn't. In other words, LiveScope is NOT a fish guarantee. Bear in mind we were fishing with a pro angler and a pro guide so they knew what they were doing!

- Josh says the new Garmin transducer – the LVS34 – is significantly better than the original: clearer and separates fish from the bottom better. 👀 After installing the Sea Clear Harness in his boat for the first time says he'll never have another boat without it. Way better/clearer screen rez.

- The way we were fishing in AR, Del used LiveScope to see what was coming and 2D to see where the fish were under the boat and thus what depth to pull your bait up to. Interesting.

2. Favorite bait round table

Had some great BBQ (AR has good BBQ!) with the Jewel folks. At the table, I asked 'em all what their favorite Jewel bait was. Everyone had a different answer, which was real interesting since they're all fishing mostly the same lake (Bull Shoals). Shows that there's no magic bait and how great is it that bass will bite all kinds of stuff for any fishin' style.

3. Self-taught

Vexus and Jewel are full of people – experts at what they do – who are self-taught. No fancy degree needed, even though some there have 'em. I hope that was eye-opening for my son and maybe encouraging for someone reading this. Sometimes there's a snobbiness to college stuff, but practical smarts and a good work ethic always win man!

4. Thank you

Thank you to everyone we talked to and met on the trip, includin' the dude workin' at our AZ hotel who's a bass fisherman from MN! So great to be away from the tension-filled Northeast. Told my wife I didn't realize I'd been carrying this little ball of tension around – from dealing with certain folks out here – til I got to AR and realized I dropped it because folks are what I'd call normal!

Love from me and thank you again.

Hints:

CTG

SSPR

LZRD

LJST

JIG???

Click it to watch on YT:

Lmk if you've got any other ones that are 🔥 and STILL MADE!