Gotta apologize for the delay on the product testing deal. Been slammed getting the house ready to sell. Product testing 100% will happen soon, it just has to get back to normal here – which will be after the back to back Redcrest/Classic run. Appreciate your patience! Let's go!

Yep lotsa folks in the biz are doing it right now because it's amazing – 50 years of being a pro bass fisherman! But even more than that: Rick is 77 YEARS OLD.

If you're not 77 or even 70 yet, do you think you could get up every day and grind against men in their prime in a physical, professional sport? And drive all over the country to do it? Now picture doing that in the rain, in the cold, if you're feeling sick, if your back is hurting, etc. At 77 YEARS OLD!

Rick, you are 100% plum crazy – in a good way. Big props from me to you, one of my early bassin' heroes.

Quick story: First time I met Rick, I was the new pony-tailed Yankee media kid at an early '90s Classic. I walked up to him, said hey and I THINK handed him a book of haiku poetry. Not sure what I said. He looked at me like I'd just walked off a spaceship and kicked his dog! 🤣 I beat feet outta there!

Another thing I remember from that Classic is how warm everyone was to the new guy, including Ray Scott and Forrest Wood. They both came up to me, introduced themselves – like I didn't know who they were! – and said they were glad to have me. I was home, man. Like Charlie Hartley always says, I love bass fishing!

Wait – this ain't about me! Just got to reminiscing.... So a YUGE thank you Rick for all these years, congrats on your 50th year as a top-level competin' basser, and here's to many more man! Love n hugs from me, and bless you. I hope you fish the fire outta crankbaits and spinnerbaits this year! 😁

Almost forgot: What does 50 years of pro bass fishing say to you? To me it's simple: Rick loves bass fishing. Not just the fish and the fishing, but the peeps too. That's what this whole deal is about! Love and peeps!

Won by 20-year-old Auburn U student Hayden Marbut ^ with 70-01 – just 2-oz better than GA's Matt O'Connell. How Hayden won it, from the MLF site:

> ...he's spent what he estimates to be thousands of hours on Guntersville. ("I've idled this entire lake just about and I can tell you just about where anything is out here," he said.)

> "I had 2 main little places in an area that had a lot of bait.... They were both just out of the current and there was a little bit cleaner water.

> "...I could get my bait down to them. They could see it from a little bit further. Trying to lead these fish with forward-facing sonar in this current and adjust with the wind and everything like that is hard to do. "

> ...3/8-oz Picasso ball head tipped with a Fluke-style bait, tied to 15-lb P-Line braid with a 12-lb P-Line fluorocarbon leader.

> ...Garmin LiveScope settings, Marbut kept it pretty simple and stuck with the range settings he's used to: 90' out and 40' deep. "That's what I've gotten the most comfortable with. I've been using that range for a long time, and I'm able to hit them efficiently – I can really tell how big they are that way."

Good job on the deets. Here's the top 10's baits broken down – and remember, BassGold.com proved that every water body of the same type, no matter where it is, will fish pretty much the same during the same phase. Meaning if fish in Gville are pre-spawn now, the same type of lake at a more northern latitude will fish the same when those fish get to the same phase.

Here's a breakdown of the top 10's baits:

A-rig = 40% – Shane's Baits Moneyball, YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr 20% – Keitech Fats 30%

Lipless crank = 40% – Azuma Shaker Z, Azuma Heavy Z, Azuma Shaker Z Knock Knock [who's there? 😁], XCalibur XR50 20%

Soft swimbait = 30% – True Bass Hollow Body 20%, 6th Sense Whale

Damiki rig = 20% – Rapala CrushCity Freeloader, Basstrix Flash Trix

10% each = Bladed jig (Z-Man JackHammer), Jerkbait (Megabass Vision 110+1 with Berkley Fusion19s), Glide bait (Tater Hog with SuspenStrips)

Shout-outs

Lotta good tidbits in this writeup:

1. How Matt O'Connell (2nd) fished his swimbait:

> "If the bait wasn't pushed in you really wouldn't even see them on 'Scope. You might see one crawling along the bottom every once in a while. I started throwing an underspin, and they would pop up but they wouldn't eat it. That swimbait, I was just crawling it and not even watching the scope."

2. Mickey Beck (3rd) fished current eddys with a YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr and said sometimes "it would take 20 or 30 seconds" to get it into the right zone.

3. Travis Alcock (4th) said:

> "...I've made the cut 3 years in a row honestly doing pretty much the same thing. Fishing the main river, some ledges, some main-river shoreline.

> "Normally I would look for coontail, milfoil, hydrilla – but as years go on there's more and more eelgrass. I didn't use LiveScope in the tournament, but where it came in handy for me was seeing eelgrass and being able to tell the difference between it and coontail."

4. Logan Dyar (9th) tried that Thump Gel with his XCaliburs:

> "After this event I'm a believer in it. They were knocking slack in it, and I started putting that stuff on it and they were choking it."

5. Michael Black (10th) sounds like he got brainwashed by the Howell clan lol:

> "I truly believe the red hook [he fished a YUMbrella A-rig] had a lot to do with it because it had a lot of flash to it. When the Keitech waggles back and forth, the red hook waggles back and forth and it has a lot of flash. My co-anglers, they'd throw the umbrella rig all day and never get a bite."

From the shore! Some deets from LA Sportsman:

> Standing on the shore of the turbine channel below the humongous Toledo Bend Reservoir dam, Brack hooked into a totally unexpected fish of a lifetime – a 15-lb largemouth bass...26.5" long.

He was fishing a spoon – a LiveTarget Erratic Shiner spoon which looks like this:

> "I was throwing my bait way out into about 25' of water and letting the current carry it around into an eddy and a small pool of still water. When the bait got to the pool, I would begin my retrieve. The hybrids usual stack up in there and I’ve caught a few bass up to 5 lbs doing that, but never anything near this big."

The official Sabine River record is 6.8 lbs! 🤯🤣

Amazed this hasn't taken off yet with FFS. I mean, I don't think too many of us are stoked to be slinging bobbers, but man it HAS TO work and work great! So in a tournament when you have to win...?

Couple deals reminded me of this:

One is that IG post ^ by 1st Gen Fishing, a P-Line owned bait brand (here's their offerin's on TW).

Then next I tripped over this post about crappie fisherman Forrest Green doing it:

> "...sometimes those fish hunker down into some serious structure. A cork allows me to hover that jig right over the structure and not get snagged so much.

> "...getting snagged [if not using a cork] can spook the school of fish, which...cause the crappie to vacate the structure.

> ...he's been known to use a cork in water as deep as 12'.

> He buys 2 weighted corks, one of them being a 2-inch cork and the other 1.5-inch. "I remove that lead weight that's wrapped around the bottom section of the 1.5-inch cork and put the lighter lead on the larger cork. This prevents the cork from being weighed down too much when I add the 1/16-oz jighead to the end of the line."

Looks like TW has some bobbers/corks....

What I'm asking is how do you organize the baits in your compartments (or tackleboxes for yak and bank fishermen) that you use the most? Asking because I've always organized by having one type of bait or trailer in a box or bag. But having taken everything outta my boat before getting it re-rigged I now realize:

• I had way too much stuff in my boat
• I knew I had stuff in my boat that I couldn't find quick when I needed 'em
• I forgot about some of the stuff I had in there
• I carry some stuff I want to fish but never do...because I don't fish enough or I didn't have the right conditions for it
• The soft-plastics I fish the most were the WORST organized – because I just threw them in the center box so I could get at 'em easier

The bottom line was I realized I need a new way to do it. So asking you: Not counting the rods on your deck or in your box, do you do anything with your favorite baits or colors to make them easy to access, or set 'em apart in some way from the rest of your stuff?

Little while back bass-head Ken C sent me Japan's 5S system which looks like this:

1. Seiri – Separate needed from unneeded items, and discard the unneeded.

2. Seiton – Neatly arrange what is left. A place for everything and everything in its place.

3. Seiso – Clean and wash.

4. Seiketsu – Cleanliness resulting from regular performance of the first three Ss.

5. Shitsuke – Discipline, to perform the first 4 Ss.

Pretty amazing ain't it? The thing that gives me a little stress is "discard the unneeded." 😬 Which I guess is where #5 comes in?

Anyhow, separating "most used" from "barely used" or even "not used" I think will go a long way for my fishing...if I can make myself do it! Pls lemme know if you have any good systems....

1. We lost long-time NJ Federation prez Tony Going.

Word is Tony was 82 and was president for 30+ years. Amazing service, much appreciated. Bless you bassin' brother. Please pray his family and friends. ✝️🙏

2. Greg Hackney is starting his 20th pro year.

BUT it's only his 4th year of seriously chasing bigfoot so...😁

3. Here's the Canadian FFS count.

From that post ^:

Gussy = 2 units

Cooper Gallant = 3 units

Cory and Chris Johnston = 4 units apiece

Before any squash is lost, remember that some guys are running 5 and even 6 units. Will it make a real difference? Will it hurt more than help? We'll find out a lot this year.

3. Cooper Gallant says he's hungrier than ever.

Can I prescribe 1 sausage biscuit once a day, every day...😁

4. Mark Rose likes finesse jigs for pre-spawn (IG vid).

Rocky banks with a 1/4-oz Strike King Finesse Football Jig with a Strike King Scounbug with 15-lb Seaguar Tatsu fluoro.

5. First DeFoe, Evers, Montgomery episode now in YT.

6. John "E" Crews runs down his 22" NBT screen (YT vid).

7. Dean Rojas shows his STARTING bow electronics setup.

IG vid says his setup could change depending on the fishery. He's running a dual-screen seetup – a Lowrance HDS 16 Pro on the bottom and an HDS 10 on the top. He said the 10 only plays vids of frog blowups to keep him fired up...😆

8. Brandon Card is SUV stylin'.

Don't see that every day on the top tours so there you go. I drive a Toyota Sequoia so I'm right there with you man!

9. Grae Buck almost fished for yellow perch (IG vid).

Saw some blobs on his FFS, sent an Aqua-Vu cam down (the Micro Revolution 5.0), and saw perch. And a few bluegill. Not worth casting to, moving on!

10. Here's a way to support Kale Robinson's family.

Kale is the young man who passed at a TX HS weigh-in last weekend. To help support the family, Xcite Baits made a limited-run color of its Retro Bug called "Kale craw." The red and white represents the colors of the Winnsboro High School Fishing Team.

Please keep praying for his family and friends. ✝️🙏

11. FL changes bass regs in Alachua County lakes to...

...help their trophy potential:

> ...prohibit killing or possessing any black bass that is 20" or more.... Also the new rule requires circle hooks when fishing with natural baits greater than 3" in length.

12. TX: Fort Worth expects the '25 Classic to bring in $25 mil.

13. Remember the Jewel Gem Blade this time of year.

A spinnerbait made for swimbaits. Kinda ingenious and definitely different than your typical spinnerbaits. They have double willow and willow/CO versions....

14. Check that FishLab Nymph in action.

Like Bill Siemantel's been fishing it:

3.5 and 4.25 lengths are on TW.

15. Costa now has a gold lens.

Or actually it's a rose lens with gold mirror. Apparently Casey Ashley insisted on it because he wanted to feel "mellifluous" on the water, whatever that means...😆 Just messin'!

16. New Duckett Fishing podcast.

17. GA HSer signs with Montevallo U.

Nice! 💪

18. New type of mono?

Sounds potentially interesting, not available here:

> ...a groundbreaking mono that feels and behaves like a braid.... Made from Japanese raw materials...is nearly invisible and has properties akin to fluorocarbon. It is designed for situations when extremely thin diameters are required, and the low stretch ensures immediate response to bites.

19. Garmin released Q4 results.

> Revenue from the marine segment increased 14% in the 4th quarter due to contributions from the acquisition of JL Audio. Gross and operating margins were 53% and 16%, respectively, resulting in $37 mil of operating income.

20. FL: Hunter McKamey new VP at Foundation Outdoor Group.

Internal promotion. Foundation owns Mud Hole, American Tackle, MHX, Custom Rod Builder and more.

21. NY: Lake George commissioners advocating for herbicide...

...to get rid of milfoil. Locals have been opposed to it.

22. CT: Boat inspections will be enforced at Twin Lakes.

> The discovery of invasive hydrilla in East Twin Lake last summer has prompted the Twin Lakes Association to make sweeping changes.... Plans include blocking off passage under the Isola Bella Bridge on East Twin and reverting the state boat launch to its initial mandate of providing access only to non-motorized car-top watercraft.

> ...the goal is to have all trailered boats...access the lake via the privately owned O'Hara's Landing Marina, where negotiations are underway to establish a [hydrilla] monitoring and education station.

Headline of the Day

Spawning bass are feeding like crazy at most spots in Polk County

Doubt it, but I bet pre-spawners and any post-spawners are!

Foller-up

Turns out quite a few peeps knew that that jighead I wondered about is the Duo Bayruf BR Head. Thanks much! TW has it in 6 sizes, from 1/10 to 1/2.

Duo also makes a tail specifically for it, and the action they designed into both is a gliding (not sinking) action. Check their YT vid showing it.

Good Kyle Welcher jig tidbits (YT vid)

No trigger warning needed – he doesn't mention FFS once! 🤣🤙

Anyhow, first he trims 'em TIGHT – 1/4" below the hook bend, 1/4" off the weedguard:

😁 Also said in the vid:

> "Gp and b/b are definitely gonna get you a lot of bites. But if you have time to dial it in, you can definitely get more bites by throwing some different colors."

Jig is an Untamed Tackle Ace Jig, trailer is a Rapala CrushCity Cleanup Craw which he Superglues.

Seems like Kyle's YT has grown faster than most?

"...this bad habit can compound into heaping piles of repetitive tackle that we carry as security blankets."

- Drew Cook talkin' on Bassmaster.com 'bout compulsive tackle-buying. The whole point of the post is intentionally changing negatives into positives. However, in my 2c compulsive or impulsive tackle buying is one of the BEST things about bassin'! 🤣

That security blanket take is interesting. Need to see how that fits with the ADD and OCD parts of being a bass-head...😁

Bass-head Tyler Carey had himself a Martin-like day on the Big O – 33.6 fat lbs and the win at least in part with a Yo-Zuri Rattl'n Vibe: 💪🤙

Fishers of Men Tournament Trail

Bass Chaplain podcasts

Contact Chris Wells the Bass Chaplain

CullGear.com - Versaweb

Advanced Angler

StrayCasts crazy web show!

BassEdge Radio

Champion Jigs

Trophy Bass Co.

National Professional Anglers Assoc.