Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Bassmaster

Historic, Indeed The 2020 installment of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk was historic for near countless reasons. Most obviously, it was the 50th world championship of bass fishing. In other terms, it marked half a century of the best anglers on the planet competing for the biggest prize in our sport. The event was extra special because it was held in Alabama, the birthplace of B.A.S.S. The golden anniversary of the Classic was chock-full of nostalgia and celebration. Fans at the arena weigh-in were in for a surprise, as a video montage of every Classic was presented, and a Classic champion from each decade walked on stage. Bobby Murray, Rick Clunn, Hank Parker, Jay Yelas and Ott DeFoe stood before thousands symbolizing the pioneers of…

ACTIVE ANGLER Todd Auten fished his first B.A.S.S. tournament in 1996. In nearly 25 years of professional angling, he’s seen the landscape of marine electronics shift from the earliest LCD screens, which painted a Game Boy-like image of the world below, to modern multifunction displays that feel more closely related to James Bond gadgets than consumer fishing electronics. Yet, here they are. And as Auten steams toward his 30th anniversary of professional tournament angling, he’s doing so with some of the most advanced marine electronics on the market today under his foot: Garmin’s Panoptix LiveScope. First things first, Garmin is not the only marine electronics brand currently offering live sonar technology. Lowrance unveiled its own version of the tech, dubbed LiveSight, just last year. However, Garmin’s tech, launched in 2018,…

WINNING A BASSMASTER Classic requires an angler to compile a detailed strategy, execute efficiently and avoid the demons that creep into one’s head when the stakes are high. Hank Cherry aced all three in his wire-to-wire victory at Lake Guntersville in early March during the Academy Sports + Outdoors 50th Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk. The Bassmaster veteran, who won the 2013 Bassmaster Rookie of the Year title, became the first angler to lead all three days since Cliff Pace did it in 2013. He’s also the first North Carolinian to win a Classic since David Fritts won in 1993. Cherry jumped to a big first-round lead with 29 pounds, 3 ounces — his biggest tournament sack ever — then protected it by resisting temptations to change tactics when things got…

If you were to look back at your days on the lake, is there a decision you’d like to have back? Is there one moment you’d like to change that would have reversed your fortune? Three Elite Series pros answer these questions and ponder what might have been EVERY BASSMASTER ELITE Series pro has a painful tale of a near-win, a total bomb or something in-between where a key decision shifted outcomes one way or another. Within these tales we find a rich harvest of techniques, tactics and timing that can help every angler sharpen his or her game. DON’T FIGHT THE INEVITABLE Paul Mueller Event: Cayuga Lake Elite, 2016Scenario: In late June, this 38-mile-long New York Finger Lake had fish in all three stages of the spawn. The Decision:…

HEAD TO YOUR favorite fishing destination on a warm, sunny weekend and you’ll be wondering where all the other anglers came from. Weekdays are somewhat quieter, but you still won’t have the water to yourself. Even your secret spots are likely to see baits cast by others more often than you’d like. Based on on-the-water observations, the fishing industry appears to be booming. And although it is doing well, with the total number of U.S. anglers increasing each of the past few years, the participation rate (percent of the population that fishes) hasn’t been moving in the right direction. According to the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, the number of licensed anglers in the country hit a remarkable 49.4 million in 2018. In terms of participation rate, however, they report…

Pro Tips For Postspawn Bass 1 [Postspawn Options] As we learned in last month’s “Bass Basics” installment, the spring bass spawn occurs in waves; when some bass are actively spawning, others are preparing to spawn, while still others have finished spawning and have vacated their nests. This month, we’ll focus on postspawn bass behavior and showcase patterns favored by Bassmaster Elite Series pros during this exciting period. Postspawn Bass Facts Largemouth bass spawn in shallow bays and coves. Once the water temperature reaches around 75 degrees, the majority of spawning fish will have vacated their nests and moved to nearby cover where they will rest and recuperate from the rigors of spawning. As the lake temperature continues to rise, they will gradually move out of the shallows toward the deeper…

I’m in a small bass club and I’m a rider on the back of everyone’s boats. How do I catch more fish while fishing from the back of the boat?@Stevo1627, Instagram Bassmaster Elites Series pro Hank Cherry First and foremost, you need to have a different mindset and arsenal. For example, if the guy in front is paralleling a riprap bank with a crankbait, you should throw something different. My recommendation is to have a Ned rig, stickworm or maybe a shaky head worm rigged. Most companies offer those baits, and they generate a lot of bites! I use the Berkley General as my stickworm. With baits like that, you can fish them wacky rigged, Neko style, Texas rigged or even on a shaky head and generally on the same…

CRANKBAIT FISHING IS generally regarded as a contact sport. The accepted truth is that you should run a crankbait into the bottom, a boulder, a stump or some other object. This makes the bait ricochet, rebound or do something that disrupts its steady, wiggling rhythm. It is beyond question that an abrupt change in a crankbait’s action triggers reflex strikes from bass. Bassmaster Elite Series pro Seth Feider of Minnesota is a proponent of full-contact cranking, but there are times when he fares better with no-contact cranking. One of those times was during the 2019 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship on Lake St. Clair, an event he dominated with a three-day total of smallmouth bass that weighed 77 pounds, 15 ounces. A Rapala DT-10 balsa cranker was Feider’s…

VETERAN ELITE SERIES pro Keith Combs had a game plan in preparation for the 2017 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Conroe, and it didn’t include fishing. As he explains, “I was on the lake ahead of the cutoff period for the Classic in March, which I figured would be a postspawn event, so I wasn’t even concerned with catching bass that far ahead of the tournament. Instead, I spent several days just idling around, looking for places with my Humminbird sonar where the bass would likely group up immediately after they spawned.” The days spent behind the wheel gave Combs a detailed picture of key offshore locations and, though he didn’t claim the Classic crown, Combs believed his strategy of covering acres of water with his electronics, rather than a rod…

Congratulations to the newest members of the Bassmaster Lunker Club™. Membership in the club is free and open to any B.A.S.S. member who catches a largemouth bass weighing 10 pounds or more, a spotted bass weighing 5 pounds or more, or a smallmouth bass weighing 6 pounds or more, from Jan. 1, 2019, to the present. New Lunker Club members will receive an official certificate with holder and a gift pack. [Trophy Trends] To request an application, write to editorial@bassmaster.com or B.A.S.S., The Lunker Club, 3500 Blue Lake Drive, Suite 330, Birmingham, AL 35243. A photo documenting the catch must be provided, along with the length and girth of the bass. Only suitable photos will be published in Bassmaster Magazine. We will only accept entries for bass that are released…

Spring Into Summer Humminbird Helix 8 Mega SI + GPS G3N $1,049.99-$1,199.99 | humminbird.com Features: Comes standard with Mega Imaging that is three times greater than traditional 455 kHz frequencies, resulting in the clearest, sharpest underwater views available. Equipped with Dual Spectrum CHIRP sonar that is designed to help you see individual fish and clearly identify bait and structure. Humminbird Basemap comes built-in as well, providing depth and points-of-interest to the entire U.S. coast and more than 10,000 lakes. The G3N family consists of five sizes: 7-, 8-, 9-, 10- and 12-inch models. Missile Baits Quiver 6.5 $3.99 | missilebaits.store Features: Designed by Bassmaster Elite Series veteran John Crews to be used as a Neko or Toyko rig, but also works well as a drop shot, Texas rig and shaky head. The…

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is on a mission to make Texas the No. 1 destination for trophy bass via its ShareLunker program. If enough anglers donate Legacy Class ShareLunker brooders that weigh 13 pounds or more, eventually all hatchery-produced bass stocked by the TPWD will have the genetics of these enormous Florida-strain largemouth. Anglers can also help the TPWD measure the success of these stockings by registering all bass caught that are 8 pounds and larger. This can be done at texassharelunker.com, or with the free Toyota ShareLunker app, which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play. 1. Sam Rayburn, lake record 16.80 pounds Despite relentless tournament pressure, Sam Rayburn is capable of producing a 30-pound, five-bass limit any time of the year.…

DOTL Challenge: Put a Bassmaster pro on a small lake he’s never seen before. Give him seven hours to locate and catch bass while we log his every move. Date: May 21, 2019 Venue: Lake X, a small, flatland reservoir Water: Low 80s, stained Weather: Clear, windy, high of 90 degrees Pro: Randy Sullivan, 26, of Breckenridge, Texas. Sullivan grew up in a bass fishing family and qualified for the Elite Series in 2018 via the Bassmaster Central Opens. Boat: Triton 21 TrX with 250-hp Mercury outboard, Minn Kota trolling motor, Lowrance electronics on Bass Boat Technologies mounts and twin Power-Pole shallow-water anchors I see a bad moon a-rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightnin’ I see bad times today Don’t go ‘round tonight It’s…

Harnessing La Rana Blanca With Horne An Ozark trick can trigger big bass to strike a white frog swimming above spawning shad Last month, we broke down how focusing on the shad spawn can pay off in a big way by targeting bass with a white spinnerbait. Thanks to a few tips from Robbie Latuso, we also learned about following birds to find flickering schools of shad in the early morning light. Well, we’re back for more in May with another way to target those late-spawning shad … and more importantly, the big female bass that may still be lying in wait near them. The pattern comes to us from the heart of the Ozarks, where Bassmaster Elite Series pro Harvey Horne has honed a method for targeting super-shallow bass…

The Double-Anchored Yak Whether tossing to Mama Hawg on her bed or thoroughly covering a piece of shallow structure with a finesse bait, it’s vital to keep your kayak stationary. A stake and anchor combo with a bottle-holder hack accomplishes the task. (Note: A Power-Pole is a fabulous substitute for the anchor and trolley, but the stake still helps you stay stationary.) [Tackle Tips] Viking Kayaks Pro Fish Reload $1,499 viking-kayaks-usa-llc.square.site YakAttack Through-Hull Wiring Kit $20 yakattack.us FishMonkey FM33 Task Fleece Glove $26.95 fishmonkeygloves.com Kayak Kushion Utility Cushion $40 kushioncompany.com Midwest Watercraft RP-120 $1,399 midwestwatercraft.com…

You just never know what is going to happen at a Bassmaster Classic. On the final day, Elite Series pros Seth Feider and Micah Frazier tied for the hot seat with only a few anglers left to weigh in. The implications were many. First, if the following anglers did not best these two, there would be a tie. That was interesting enough. However, the more pressing issue was which angler got to sit in the actual, physical hot seat on stage. Emcee Dave Mercer decided the best way to solve the dilemma, seeing these two were fierce competitors, was to compete for the privilege. And compete they did, in a savage game of rock/paper/scissors. Sounds easy enough, but the game had spectators on the edges of their seats, as five…