Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i Bassmaster

6 D-Day. 4,414 Allied soldiers paid the ultimate price on the beaches of Normandy 77 years ago today. They will forever be worth remembering. 10 Iced Tea Day. Take a lesson from the South and learn to make true Alabama sweet tea. Trust us, nothing is better on a hot summer day. 18 Go Fishing Day. We know a great holiday when we see one. This has got to be on the board, with Halloween and Christmas at the top of the list. 20 Father’s Day. If your dad is with you, take him fishing. If he isn’t, go fishing with his favorite lure. If you’re a dad, take your kids. 27 Log Cabin Day. Some say this is a holiday to celebrate rustic, wooden homes. We say it’s a…

The site of the 2021 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts, Fort Worth, Texas, is the fifth largest city in the state of Texas and 13th largest in the United States. The city is home to rodeos, museums, racetracks and the world famous Trinity River. The Stockyards National Historic District features daily cattle drives and year-round rodeos, as well as the world’s largest honky-tonk. 45 Square miles covered by Lake Ray Roberts 6.16 Smallmouth bass record on Lake Ray Roberts…

Luke Webb This one is going to go down as one of the great home wins of all time, like Iaconelli on The Delaware River. Those Michelob Ultras are going to be flowing like wine! John Miraldi Congrats Lee. I was on the water all day watching him. Awesome. Yes I was one of the boats in the background. Holly sure got lucky. Tommy Davis Lee Livesay guides on that lake and it takes a lot to win on your home turf as it’s a ton of pressure on him and the Lake as well. That was an absolute monster day and he was over 30lbs before 8:30am and piled it on with two more biggens later in the day. Congrats Lee you deserved and earned every bit of that…

I’m 14 and a member of my high school Bassmasters. I just got my license to drive a boat. What’s the best pro tip you can give to a young, inexperienced boat driver? @Idoucet_fishing, Instagram Bassmaster Elite Series pro Gary Clouse, owner of Phoenix Boats, offers some great ideas for getting you familiar with boat operation. At first, he says, practice going forward and backing up at slow speeds with an experienced boat driver at your side. “Position some marker buoys on the lake and idle in and around them like they are trees or other boats,” says Clouse. “Once you think you’re comfortable, gradually increase your speed while negotiating the buoys. There are no brakes on a boat, so learn how to reverse the boat to stop its forward…

IT’S STRANGE TO think back to 1999. I was broke. I was skinny. And I was living in Texas with more than just a lone star in my eyes pointed toward a career in outdoor journalism. I was editing Angler’s Choice Magazine at the time, still very wet behind the ears, when the organization held a charity big bass derby on Lake Fork. I decided to team up with Larry Mader, a great friend of mine to this day, to fish the legendary lake for the first time. Actually, “legendary” is not an accurate term. Knowing that you are going to fish that body of water stirs an emotional cocktail in the soul that intoxicates every sense important to an angler. So, let’s go with mythical. The beasts that swim…

Sometimes, an idea comes along that is so good, we wonder why it hasn’t been done before. In this case, we’re talking about a $14.7 million plan to bring native fish species back to a disused freight harbor in Buffalo, N.Y. The plan is being enacted at a 6.7-acre slip in Buffalo’s Outer Harbor. The slip, which once housed Great Lakes cargo freighters, is set to become a new home for bass, pike, perch and muskie. According to The Buffalo News, the plan will eventually reduce the 30-foot depth of the enormous slip by filling it with the spoils of annual dredging projects from 2023 to 2029. Once filled, additional features like a break wall, root wads, submerged aquatic vegetation, logs, gravel beds and emergent vegetation will then be added.…

For 40 years, Minnesota’s B.A.S.S. Nation has been building the sport in the heart of walleye country. This year, the chapter is reaping its just rewards with an induction into the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame. “I got the phone call, and I was almost speechless,” says Minnesota B.A.S.S. Nation President Peter Perovich. “I had to ask her, ‘Are you sure?’” The Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame was sure. Thanks to a track record of conservation, community support and continued success as an organization, the chapter was in. “It says a lot,” adds Perovich. “It says that if you run your B.A.S.S. Nation chapter the right way, get involved in your communities and get involved with your state DNR, there is a payoff in the end. I think it will…

ACTIVE ANGLER Did you know that every Elite Series angler is required to run a camera on the back of their boat at all times during competition? It’s a fact, and according to Caleb Kuphall, that requirement has led to a huge increase in anglers making use of an overlooked accessory that is paying off big during and in between contests: the YOLOtek PowerStick. For Elite Series anglers, the PowerStick comes in handy when they don’t have a marshal. Typically, this isn’t a problem. But in some situations, marshal fields don’t get fully filled and some anglers are forced to run without one. “It’s a good rule,” says Kuphall. “It helps the integrity of the sport and makes sure that none of us are doing something we shouldn’t be doing.”…

Bass ambush baitfish by knowing where to position, and they know where to position based on their understanding of the route baitfish will take. Pay attention bass anglers: That same strategy will often help direct your search. Specifically, master the routes fish follow into and out of shallow areas and dial in the intercept zones. “It’s our starting point, the skeleton of how we break down pattern fishing,” said Bassmaster Elite Series standout Chris Zaldain. “As professional fishermen, we’re going [all over the country], and that skeleton helps us know where the fish will move to and from in different seasons and conditions. “The backbone is your main-river channels and your main-creek channels, but then it’s the migration routes. Where they spend winter and summer, which is kind of similar,…

LAST YEAR WAS a hot mess. Actually, most would use an iron skillet full of profanity to describe 2020. That said, the year of the pandemic did turn the attention of the masses to outdoor experiences for the first time, or at least the first time in a long time. Ten million more fishing licenses were sold than in the year prior. Retail racks holding bicycles, camping gear and kayaks remained empty for most of the year as demand soared. This newfound interest sent the outdoor industry scrambling to not only produce the gear to meet demands, but also get appropriate content in front of these new users to make sure they had enjoyable experiences afield. To the latter end, B.A.S.S. decided to lead the charge with the creation of…

IF LEE LIVESAY’S predictions for this year’s Bassmaster Classic at Lake Ray Roberts hold true, as well they might, the 54 competitors fishing the 29,350-acre north Texas impoundment and hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide will see fishing history unfolding as they watch. “I think we’ll see a scenario where one angler will have 30 pounds the first day,” says Livesay, “then between 23 and 25 pounds each of the next two days. If he can catch between 76 and 80 pounds, he’ll win.” Livesay, already a decorated Bassmaster Elite Series pro in just his third full season — he won the 2021 Elite event at Lake Fork as well as the 2020 Elite event at Chickamauga Lake and finished eighth in last year’s Classic at Lake Guntersville — knows…

Scott Martin, Clewiston, Fla. You might be the most terrifying rookie in Elite Series history, considering your past accomplishments. What’s the transition to the Elite Series been like for you? I wasn’t sure what it would feel like, to be honest with you. I didn’t really know what to expect. I remember going to the first event at Palatka. We had to get our stickers on the boats, check in and get organized. I remember walking around, signing papers and getting the boat ready, and it felt like home. This isn’t the first year you have fished B.A.S.S. You actually debuted with B.A.S.S. at a 1998 Bassmaster Invitational on Okeechobee. What do you remember from that tournament when you were 23 years old? I was supernervous. I was superexcited at…

9-10 B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series National Championship, Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas 11-13 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk, Lake Ray Roberts, Texas 16-17 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series presented by Bass Pro Shops, Saginaw Bay, Michigan 19 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, Saginaw Bay, Michigan 19 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster Junior Series, Saginaw Bay, Michigan 23-24 Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Wild Card Tournament presented by Bass Pro Shops, Lay Lake, Alabama 23-25 TNT Fireworks B.A.S.S. Nation Northeast Regional, Lake Erie/Presque Isle Bay, Pennsylvania 26 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster High School Series presented by Academy Sports + Outdoors, Lay Lake, Alabama 26 Mossy Oak Fishing Bassmaster Junior Series, Lay Lake, Alabama…

Candy Corn Worm Howdy Bassmaster, I know this is a little behind the 8-ball, but I just finished reading the “Pattern of the Month” in the March edition featuring Joe Sills Sr.’s candy corn worm and wanted to affirm that this technique is very much still alive. It’s one that I discovered on my own for fishing over the top of thick vegetation and always wondered why more people didn’t use it. I fish kayak tournaments and this is my confidence bait when I need a bite. I can attest that it’s not limited to just small fish, as my personal best (7 pounds, 13 ounces, 23.5 inches) came on this technique during a Sam Rayburn tournament last March. My color choice is slightly different, as I opt for a…

NO ONE EVER called it a jig-and-pig. For anyone in the know, clearly enunciating that middle word just wasn’t done. Instead, the term was jig ‘n’ pig, a comfortable, casual contraction that rolled off the tongue of every bass fisherman no matter where they called home. It was a perfect, slangy fit to flippin’, pitchin’ and every other technique in an era when the apostrophe was king. In the last decades of the 20th century, heady days of growth and discovery for bass fishing, it would have been difficult to overstate the cultural impact of the jig ‘n’ pig. Everyone used them. Every single one of us. It was a lure woven into the very fabric of bass fishing just as surely as sponsor patches were stitched on tournament jerseys.…

IT’S A BROADLY occurring scenario, but don’t count on a one-size-fits-all game plan. No doubt, the much-anticipated bream bed pattern is a straight-up big-fish deal whose potential requires strategy and patience. As Louisiana’s Greg Hackney points out, bream bedding — we’ll generally include shellcracker and other sunfish — typically follows a given fishery’s standard bass spawn, often in similar areas. Easy access to this protein-packed procreation party makes it a slam dunk for big female bass looking to fill out their recently slimmed figures. “Typically, when you get on bream beds, you’re fishing for big ones; you’re not fishing for rats,” Hackney said. “You’re fishing for bigger-than-average fish because that’s the fish that would be up there eating the bluegill.” FIRST, TO FIND ’EM Same as bass, hard bottom is…

Water type: Bream bedding on a Southern reservoir Water temp: Mid- to upper 70s Clarity: 1 to 2 feet Depth: 2 to 14 feet Structure: Points, shellbars, hard sand bottom Cover: Bank grass, hydrilla Forage: Bluegill and other panfish Weather: Mostly sunny and hot Wind/current: Calm day Experts: A trio of Elite Series pros explain how they tempt big bass looking to take advantage of spawning bream 1 MOWING THE GRASS Hunter Shryock Ooltewah, Tenn. First move: Starting in protected areas, Shryock looks for the hard bottom that bream need for bedding. Bank grass is a good indication of clean, firm bottom. Beyond that, Shryock keeps an eye on his Lowrance ActiveTarget to pick up any movement that might lead him to a cluster of bream beds in deeper water. Baits/tackle…

JUST AS PRODUCTION for this issue of Bassmaster Magazine was finished, a small group from B.A.S.S., including folks from the digital realm, all the good people from the editorial department and folks from Go Out{side}, gathered with one impossible task on our to-do lists. We had to determine the order of the annual Odds Gallery for the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk on Lake Ray Roberts. If you’re not familiar with the gallery, it’s a collection of photos on Bassmaster.com that lists each anglers’ statistical odds for winning the upcoming Classic. I wound up leading the task force that produces the gallery five years ago when I made the gigantic mistake of complaining about how someone else was doing it. So now, every year, I get…