Russ Lane is one of those skinnier-water hammers believe a bunch of us are hoping we'll see more of next year β partly because it's just fun to watch. Before gettin' into a quick 5 with him, gotta say again that he has one of the best Instagrams you might not know about when it comes to bait intel and just plain good shots. Here we go:
1. Is it easier to count to 5 or infinity? π
> [Laughs] "5 is way easier."
2. Okay seriously β what do you think about the change to the best 5?
> "I'm more excited about it for the fans and the viewers because I feel like it's more relatable to them. It's the game they play. If we were playing basketball and they're playing baseball on the weekends, it'd be a little bit hard for them to relate to it.
> "It's...what we used to do β 5-fish tournaments β I saw that as educational for the fans. The MLF Cups were a little bit educational and little bit entertaining...fun to watch. Getting back to that is probably what the fans want.
> "Selfishly, I grew up fishing for 5 like all the guys my age. That's the fun sweet spot for me, so I'm looking forward to it also."
3. Will you crank more or are you already maxed out there?
> "I think it 100% means I will go back to my confidence, feel-good techniques: crankin', flippin', throwing big swimbaits, slow-rollin' a big spinnerbait, a Chatterbait. That's not to say I didn't learn a lot the last few years about finesse fishing. I'm not going to totally give that up, but I'm going to push that crankbait and flipping stick awful hard next year."
4. So you think we'll see more jiggin' 'n flippin' on the BPT?
> "Yeah absolutely I do, especially with our schedule. I've got a grease board in my shop and I've got the schedule laid out β the 1st one is spawn, then pre-spawn, spawn, spawn, post-spawn...then a smallmouth tournament. Our schedule will have a lot of fish on the bank so you'll see a lot of flipping and pitching next year, and big swimbaits β fun stuff to watch."
5. If you had to fish one bait at one depth range all fall around the country, what would it be?
> "6' deep, a SPRO Fat Papa 55 crankbait (mellow yellow). I'm gonna run up a creek and get in to where the shad are and where there's a slight bit of discoloration in the water. That's gonna force most of the fish in that zone to be in 8' to 3'.
> [Asked him why that color instead of a straight shad color.] "It has a faint pale-blue back and pale chartreuse sides. It really is more of a shad color. I like that chartreuse...something about it triggers bites. When the water temperature gets cold, that little bit of extra something I think triggers them a little bit....
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