Can't get Guntersville outta my head. So many happy bass fishermen (unlike NJ lol). So many bass and ALL had full bellies. Felt like the whole area is there because someone decided to create a community for bass fishermen. Where else is like that? Pls lmk! I need to get outta cold, expensive NJ...😫

I mean, can a jig even HAVE erratic action? Turns out the answer is yep because this one does. Talked to the guy who came up with the idea, Guntersville guide and tourney fisherman Lonnie Cochran:

> "I built that thing in my shop – took a drill to a football jig and drilled holes in it, put epoxy in it and sanded it back down to do what I wanted it to do.

> "I wanted a jig that would grab when I drug it across shale or hard bottom. I wanted it to grab the bottom and give me erratic action more than a football jig would, and then stand up. I did not know it would stand up as good as it does. It stands up now to the point where you can't hardly make it not stand up."

[That trailer is a Berkley PowerBait Shape 108. Picasso has an exclusive "ultra-soft thin sheet silicone skirting material" that kinda acts like rubber.]

> "It was mainly an idea where I wanted a lot more erratic action than what a regular football jig does [which is] just wobbling back and forth. This one, when you drag it, it catches...even on a slick hard bottom. When you're pulling it, it stands up...looks like a crawfish backing up and throwing up its claws up in defense.

> "Erratic action was the purpose of the knobs. It wasn't a cosmetic thing to be different. It was all about getting erratic action."

I asked him if it hunts at all:

> "It hunts a little...depending on which wart hits and grabs.... If it's the center wart, it goes straight back. [If it's one of the side ones] it kicks sideways and up. So whatever wart grabs on a rock or anything that's on the bottom, it's gonna kick it that direction.

> "It's not gonna run out a foot and a half to the right or left. But as you're dragging it, it's going to be going right, left or forward depending on which wart is making contact on the bottom.

> "...also gives a little sound because [structure] rubs all those warts."

> "It's a bait that stands up like no other jig. I'm not saying it because I made it – there's not a jig out there that'll stand up on any terrain like this one does. You can fish any plastic on it and it's gonna stand up.

> "I've caught 'em dragging it, reeling it really slow, hopping it and stroking it. When you stroke it, it always falls standing straight up: All jigs fall straight down, but they won't stand straight up when they hit the bottom.

> "It also fishes heavy. The 1/2 fishes like a 3/4 does. I think what it is – you go up to 3/4-oz to stay in contact with the bottom more. This 1/2-oz, because it has those warts on it, it's grabbing more...moving more silt or what have you on the bottom because it's kind of like it has cleats that are grabbing stuff.

> "That's what makes it seem like it's heavier. It's not heavier, it's just grabbing more of the bottom like their heavier jigs do...just doing it with less weight."

The jig has a 5/0 hook but it's light wire:

> "I wanted a light wire hook...it's like punching a nail or needle into the same material.

> "I always like a thin wire hook because when you're casting a football jig, you're making extremely long casts with it. When you have a thinner wire hook, you can get the hook in the fish a lot easier. At the same time, the hook is strong enough you won't have any stretch in it to where it opens up...."

Innerestin' eh? Check the Wart Heads on TW. Lonnie guides on a few big AL lakes, check his website here and his FB here. He's fishing the NPFL next year.

- The Hack Attack with some more wisdom on Bassmaster.com. Full meal deal:

> When you're younger, you're more versatile and open-minded about tactics. I was more versatile my first 5 years than I am now. Over time, you start to turn into whoever you're going to be because you have become very good at something, and there's a tendency to lean back on that.

> I'm not saying the new breed are better than the Rick Clunns, Denny Brauers and Larry Nixons of my day, but they're very good in an entirely different way.

> We veterans rely upon knowledge of the fish's environment, what he was eating and the type of areas he inhabited to help us put together a pattern. The electronics angler doesn't care what a fish is doing out there offshore. He literally sees him and tries to catch him.

> This has made a lot of tackle irrelevant, and that's another reason this new group of anglers is different. They carry less gear and aren't concerned with cover, structure, patterns, water temperature or time of year. Their only concern is to see a fish on the screen and make it bite. And in many cases, that's with a spinning outfit, small jigs and plastics.

They carry LESS GEAR?? That's un-bass fishing, un-American and communist! 🤣 Well, guess it's just more for the rest of us! 😁 But they are bass fishermen so at the tackle store they'll probly be like:

1. New Shimano Expride FFS spin rod has a SLOW tip

David Mullins ^ hipped me to it, believe it's an Expride B Rod where B = the 2nd series (most recent) of Expride rods. Said there's 2 models, and that one he's holding is 6' 10" M Mod F:

> "...the last bit of this tup is a dead [or slow] tip. ...when you're throwing [small] baits like this, a lot of times they don't want it where you're overworking the bait. ...[the fish] want a smooth glide or a little roll in it. What this slow tip does in this rod, it keeps that bait from being overworked."

2. ALX ZOLO Hover Rod

This is a 7' 3" ML XF spin rod:

> ALX owner Alex Dziengielewski: "We worked closely with NPFL pro Trent Palmer who was fishing final prototypes on Saginaw Bay when he won that $100K. It's pretty cool to already see this rod putting checks in pockets."

> Trent: "The ZOLO Hover's XF tip lets me work the bait in a way that helps me keep the bait closer to fish. I'm pinpoint-casting to a fish. The key is not moving that bait away from the bass too fast.

> Alex: "The rod came about as a request from our pros because this technique is so big on the major tours. Their primary demand was that the tip help impart small movements to the bait. They wanted the tip to load easily on small snaps or jerks so as not to overpower the bait by causing it to move erratically or a large amount. They wanted a very "finessey" tip. For me, this meant a softer tip, something that would give on those small jerks and snaps used by the angler on baits ranging from 1/8-oz up to 3/8-oz.

> "We didn't want the whole rod to be soft though. We're dealing with single-hook baits. If it were a treble-hook bait, we'd want a rod that loads up deeper into the rod.... We wanted a snappy finesse-jig type of backbone that would effectively set a small, regular-wire hook and...control a bass after the hookset."

Note: Just like rod-builders don't have industry-standard actions – meaning one company's MH might be totally different than another's – their definitions of stuff like "slow" and "fast" can vary, or at least might be totally different from what we think. One example is terms like F or XF might not mean "stiff" like I thought it would.