For me and several other guys that fish it, it’s to be able to keep the jig on or near the bottom. You can vary the retrieve speed more and still be in the strike zone. I do actually have lighter models, I think one is even 3/8th Oz. Another great thing about Livescope is watching what your lure is doing during the retrieve. That will really show you how much running depth is affected by speeding up or slowing down how fast you’re cranking. Where I used to think my lure was still close to the bottom, I can now see it may be 4-5 feet higher. You’ve seen it plenty of times, when the adrenaline is pumping you’ll tend to crank like there’s no tomorrow! But definitely try other weights, that’s the fun part of using a new technique.

Sorry, Thumper, I forgot about the colors and manufacturers in the picture.

On the left is the crappie color from Northland, top center is the perch color from Northland, center middle is the green bluegill from Northland, bottom center is the bluegill from Outkast and on the right is the white/chartreuse from Outkast that won the tournament.

Thumper, you’re spot on regarding the color choices. I’ve attached a photo (hopefully) that shows some of the colors I use. Contrary to a previous post, color does matter at times. The guy that won our tourney was cycling through 6 colors and caught the most fish on a white/chartreuse. And that was after spending a lot of time throwing DT-16 and DT-20 cranks and Carolina rigs on the same spot.

Regarding the change in Outkast chicken jigs, the only difference I can see is in the head design. Some of the manufacturers found out their version would roll over on its side after hitting the bottom, so they switched to a style that would stand up.

For actual fall rates in feet per second, I can’t say with certainty. My countdown times would be different than everyone else’s, but a guesstimate would be about 2 feet per second with a 3/4 ounce head. But, I use a lot of Talon jigs which have a thinner body. I’ll be out fishing it tomorrow morning, so I’ll put my engineering hat back on and see if I can narrow it down for you.

In regards to this being a fad, I don’t think that’s the case at all. I used to fish a lot of tournaments on Kentucky Lake in the mid to late 90’s when we still lived in Memphis. It’s taken a long time to make its way up here, but has been around since the 80’s.

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I’ve been throwing the preacher/chicken jigs for several years now. Like any other lure, when they’re working you can load the boat. Had a good example of this at a club tournament last month. This was on a lake just out of the metro that has had several tourneys this year; in fact, there was a 45 boat tourney there the day before that was won with 16 pounds. We have a 24 year old phenom in our club that won the tournament with 21.56 pounds and big bass of 5.81 pounds. He was mostly fishing one of the rock basins in the lake in 14-18 feet of water. Oh, and 2nd place was 13.4 pounds, so he kicked everyone’s backside. His technique is to let it hit the bottom, then pick it up and slowly retrieve it right off the bottom. I went over to talk to him at the weigh-in; he had 6 rods all rigged with chicken jigs in 6 different colors. I have a couple of rods set up for chicken jigs, but not 6. All I use, and all he uses, is the 3/4 ounce version. I check my rate of fall with Livescope, then just count down for all other casts. A clean rock bottom seems to work the best, i.e. no grass or very scattered clumps. I use 17 lb. fluorocarbon with a 5″ long 18 lb. test steel leader. In most cases, you will feel a tick, not a slam like a chatterbait or jig bite, as they tend to grab it and swim off with it. If you wanna get serious about this, go out and get several different colors. I carry 6-8 colors with me in the boat and keep switching up. Northland Tackle, Outkast and Talon Preacher jigs are my favorites. Plan on spending a lot of time learning the technique and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Taylor Spraungel at Spraungel Performance Marine in Anoka. 901 W. Main Street, 612-459-0064. Great guy, knows his stuff. He’s done upgrades on my boat the last 2 years. Friend of mine stopped by his place on Thursday, his earliest opening was July 23rd.

You can watch it on channel 410 on DirecTV. The bad part is you’ll have to know Spanish to understand what the commentators are saying.

Actually, MLF is still at 80 anglers for 2024; just yesterday they released the roster of anglers for next year’s tour. Boyd had made the comment last month that the tour would be reduced to 50 anglers for 2024, but after meeting with most of the anglers that decision was reversed. Bobby Lane also announced that he is going to be fishing MLF again in 2024 after he wasn’t able to qualify for the Elites through the Open tourneys this past season. There will be 12 rookies on the MLF tour next year, including Matt Stefan from Wisconsin. Some of the long-time pros like Tommy Biffle will not be back next year, based on overall BPT performance.

Just talked to one of my business associates in New York last night about this very thing. He’s good friends with a bass guy from upstate New York who fished on the Elite trail for 3 years. In that time, his friend got divorced, lost his house, truck and boat in the divorce. He was already over $60K in debt from traveling around the country fishing and not making any money. Now he’s in debt up to his eyeballs and gets to see his kids twice a month. He had that competitive drive inside, but couldn’t keep up with the pressure.

I was a marshall for both of the AOY events on Mille Lacs in 2016 and 2017. One of the reasons they dropped the AOY tourney was because the anglers that had already made it didn’t take it seriously. Plus, the winner of the tournament wasn’t the winner of the big purse. Seth won it in ’16 and only got a check for $12,500. Gerald Swindle won AOY but came in 46th place in the tournament and got a check for $100,000. Seth didn’t even get a trophy, his friends had a trophy made out of wood and presented it to him. There was a lot of confusion among the fans, and some of the anglers saw it as a non-event. In particular, a friend of mine was also a marshall up there in ’17. His first day pro was Jordan Lee. My friend has a picture of Jordan stretched across the front seats looking relaxed. He had already qualified for the Classic, so there was no pressure on him. Definitely not a knock on the guy’s talent, but it shows the tourney was like the Pro Bowl in the NFL. Again, in 2017 Brandon Palaniuk won AOY and $100,000 but came in 20th place in the tourney.
If anyone remembers the AOY controversy in about 2009 or 2010, when Skeet Reese was just having an amazing year. I believe ESPN was still running BASS at the time. They decided that the Angler of the Year title would be determined by the AOY tournament only. So, KVD won the tournament and was recognized as Angler of the Year, while Skeet was an also-ran. In an interview a couple of months later, Skeet said he won Angler of the Year and KVD won Angler of the Weekend.
Always been some controversy over it, so I wasn’t surprised when they dropped it. I agree, having it set up for maybe a dozen guys that haven’t made the cut trying for their last chance, now that would be a competitive event.

Looks like Ike hasn’t changed. He only weighed in 17 pounds, just turned and walked off the stage and wouldn’t even talk to Mercer. SMH….

Apparently some of the pros were also catching the same fish off a bed 2 and 3 times, which is also addressed in MLF’s ruling.

https://majorleaguefishing.com/bass-pro-tour/shuffield-disqualified-from-bass-pro-tour-stage-five/

We had a small club tournament on Tetonka/Sakatah 2 weeks ago. Our tournament director got the permit from the sheriff, everything was set for us. Got there at 5:30 the morning of the tournament and found the parking lot was full. There was a kayak tournament going on with 75 kayaks in their tourney. 30 launching at Tetonka, 30 on Sakatah and 15 at one of the smaller ramps. Apparently this kayak club holds the same tournament every year for the past few years, based on what I was told by some of their anglers. The ramp at Tetonka has been rebuilt and is in great shape with ample parking, but not when this many kayak anglers show up. Plus, they were taking up parking spots designated for vehicles with trailers. I don’t know how the sheriff’s department allowed this, but let’s just say it put a damper on our tournament and club members.

Bass Pundit, sent you a PM. Thanks.

For anyone that uses the Berkley Flatworm, or any Berkley Maxscent products, I was just at Scheel’s in EP and they still have the $3 off sale in effect. Several colors of the Flatworm in stock, both in the 3.6 and 4.25 inch sizes. The sale has been going on for the past couple of weeks, not sure why they don’t show it on their website though. And it is for all their Maxscent products they carry.

I’ve got a similar issue going on right now. I try to log in with a new password I created in the last couple of weeks. I get the “Password doesn’t match” popup. Try it a couple of more times, finally have to ask for a new password. Enter that, then reset my password to a new one. Get the same “Password doesn’t match” error message again. Any help would be appreciated.

Savage Gear Armor Tube worm has the reinforced mesh in the center of the worm. $4,28 for a pack of 8 at Tackle Warehouse. Been using them for a couple of years, seem to hold up pretty well.

My wife and I were out of town all last week, so yesterday was my opener. My opening routine for 20 years has been a lake 1/2 mile from our house. Instead, yesterday I went to probably my favorite lake in the west metro. Started out with a Choppo but the emergent weeds kept fouling the hooks. Put on my favorite chatterbait and never looked back. Caught almost 40 bass from 1 1/2 to 4 lbs. in 5 hours. Water temps hit 73 degrees with minimal sun. They were all in 2-4 feet of water and medium to heavy weed cover. Some were up against the bank, most were out on the flats. Caught 5 on a 100 foot stretch of the bank, went back 2 hours later and caught 5 more. Now I don’t feel bad about missing the first week of the season!!!

Glenn, just sent you a PM. I just saw a bunch of 180 gr. 30-06 ammo, reply and I’ll give you the details.

I bought my Ultrex last spring from Capra’s. Called Dean up one morning, told him what I wanted and he gave me a price about 15% below anyone else at the time. Because of that, I also ordered a pair of 10 foot Talons, where he also blew everyone else’s price away. He used to give a 10% discount to members of the Minnesota BASS Federation, which I am, but that never came up in our conversations. I maybe go to Capra’s twice a year, so I was really impressed with the deal I got for not even being a regular customer.

Link didn’t work for some reason. Good intro video on Russell Marine Products YouTube channel.

Lowrance announced the expansion of its Lowrance Ghost freshwater trolling motor design with the new Ghost 52 and 60. Ghost 52 and 60 models will be available in December 2020.

Not sure why the link doesn’t work, but the announcement is on the Boating Industry website. You can search “lowrance ghost trolling motor” and open the link.

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Wrong reply.

Just got the email, Northwest Sportshow is cancelled.

Try this for Aardvark info.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/08/06/aardvark-only-u-s-producer-paper-straws-acquired-meet-demand/916755002/

Aardvark was acquired by the Hoffmaster Group from Wisconsin.

Sadly, it’s not dead yet. Looks like some late night voting in the state senate passed an amendment to bypass the DNR and activate the plan by July 1st. Contact your state reps NOW and voice your opposition. I’ve attached a link to the Facebook page, if the link doesn’t work just search “Wright County: Annandale Boat Inspection Program Will Harm Local Economies”.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1501474759942534/?multi_permalinks=2181631031926900&notif_id=1556034985797875&notif_t=group_highlights

It was posted in the “Wright County: Annandale Boat Inspection Program…” Facebook page.

it was shot down. See attached letter from DNR

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