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Wesley Strader Wins #2
Wesley Strader checks in after winning the Bassmaster Eastern Open on Lake Norman. Here is how he got it done.
Tackle and Rigging Tips for the Boom Boom Swimbait
Fred Roumbanis is usually targeting the biggest bass in the lake when he’s chunking and winding his signature Optimum Boom Boom Swimbaits and he knows that trophy fish don’t get big by being stupid or careless. Even when hooked, they’ll use every trick available to them in order to get back to their comfort zone in safety. One miscue or one weakness in your tackle and it’s game over.
That’s why he relies on the 7’11” iRod Fred’s Crank Launcher to get the job done with both the weedless and treble hook versions. “It’s soft enough that it allows them to inhale it, but it also has plenty of backbone to set the hook and land them,” he said. In open water he’ll typically pair the lures with 15 or 20 pound fluorocarbon, which sinks, has little stretch and minimal visibility. In heavy grass, though, on lakes like Okeechobee, he prefers 65 pound braid for its strength and castability under all conditions.
With the treble hooked Boom Boom, Roumbanis relies on a size 1 round bend Gamakatsu treble under most circumstances, but will upgrade to a 1/0 in really open water.
“Be sure to put one point of the treble back into the body,” he advised. “And keep the split ring tight.”
His preferred hook for the 6” weedless model is the 8/0 Owner Beast, which comes in a weighted (3/8 ounce) versions, as well as a “Flashy Swimmer” with a small willowleaf blade dangling from beneath the hook. All of them use a large Centering Pin Spring (CPS). For the 4.5” Weedless Boom Boom he likes the 7/0 (1/4oz) Wide Gap Screwlock from Hayabusa (Model 958).
“It’s the most simple bait to rig up,” he said. “The most important thing is that everything be straight. It’ll have a lot more action than if it’s kinked up.” He cautioned that it’s critical to put the CPS through the bottom color of the bait, not where the colors meet, which will put it in perfect position for a rock solid hook set. He also adds a bit of scent around the bend of the hook so that “it slips through easier.”
The Boom Boom swimbaits come in a variety of colors to match different situations.
While there are over a dozen colors of these baits available, one for every water clarity and local forage, Roumbanis keeps his choices relatively simple. “On dirtier lakes, like here on Dardanelle, I like whiter colors like Sexy Shad and Ayu. I think that white bellies equal greater visibility. We’ve also started pouring them up in Junebug and Black Blue flake which should be on the market real soon. On clearer lakes like Beaver, Shasta, Oroville or Smith Mountain, I like more natural colors like Ghost Minnow, PB Shad and Ghost Rider. And on cloudy days, Jackson Trout is a killer.”
Iconic Lure Designer, Ed Chambers Sr. Passes Away at Age 78
WATKINSVILLE, Ga. – It is with great sadness, founder of Zoom Bait Company, William Edward Chambers Sr. passed early Tuesday morning. Chambers, a famous iconic lure designer, was diagnosed with a rare form of Mantle Cell Lymphoma. After undergoing treatment for a short time, complications arose which eventually took its toll.
Mr. Chambers was a fighter his entire life, as he would never settle for anything less than perfect. If a good mousetrap existed, he’d find a way to make a better one. Striving for perfection is how he built Zoom Bait Company. Chambers started Zoom in his backyard as a hobby, which included countless hours after his day job. It began in a one-horse barn with sawdust floors. This became the foundation and backbone of Zoom Bait Company, which was founded in 1977.
Zoom was family owned and operated since day one. As the saying goes, behind every man is a great woman. Faye Chambers stood by his side making countless sacrifices in the early days as the company was just getting started. Often, she was found on the living room floor bagging worms and loading their station wagon, so she could deliver them to UPS.
The company began to grow with the help of close friends and fellow fishermen from the Athens Bassmasters. Eddie Wortham, while still in high school, was the first employee hired by Chambers. Today, Wortham still works at Zoom as General Manager.
Shortly after Chambers started the company, Zoom experienced another growth spurt. Chambers son, William Edward Chambers Jr., while still in school, stepped in and began running routes delivering worms with Wortham, across the southeast.
In 1988, Chambers realized that his hobby had turned into a big business. At this point, Chambers believed it would take the entire family to make this work. Eddie Jr., graduated from UGA and returned to the family business, while younger sister Kym pursued a nursing career. Kym graduated from college and worked as an RN for several years. Eventually, she joined Zoom to fill her mother’s shoes, when Faye decided to retire.
Chambers was a humble man, who never saw himself as famous. He was completely content working seven days a week seeking constant perfection. This was evident in his second hobby, making handmade balsa crankbaits. W.E.C. Custom Lures was his passion. W.E.C. was born around 1992 and, by the mid 90’s, was in full swing. With the help of close friends, Chambers developed many crankbait models that are highly sought after to this day.
All who knew him will miss Mr. Chambers, but for us here at Zoom, we are honored to have had such a wonderful leader, mentor and friend.
Funeral arrangements are pending and will be announced when they become available.
Wesley Wins
Here is a look at how Wesley Strader got it done last week at Kentucky Lake!
Hackney is Headed Plinkin’ on Championship Monday
After 176 B.A.S.S. tournaments, Greg Hackney has invented a new fishing term probably unfamiliar to even the most avid anglers. He calls it “plinking” – a word normally applied to shooting a .22 caliber rifle at random targets like bottles and cans.
However for Hackney, “plinking” applies to making soft underhand pitch casts with a relatively light worm weight on a Texas-rigged soft plastic lure.
“Anytime I’m just moving super slow and methodical pitching to every little target I come to with a light weight, I call that “plinking”,” grinned the 2014 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year.
The Gonzales, Louisiana pro has “plinked” his way to yet another Top 12 this week on famed Kentucky Lake by focusing on super shallow bushes in less than 2’ of water.
His best stringer of the event thus far weighed 19 pounds, and he planned to spend “Championship Monday” doing more of the same with a Strike King Structure Bug threaded on a 5/0 Hack Attack Flippin’ Hook tied to 65-pound braid.
He uses a large spooled Quantum Smoke HD or Smoke S3 in a 7.3:1 gear ratio for fast line pick-up once a bite occurs. A 7’ 6” TourPT rod provides plenty of leverage to get fish from the flooded buck brush.
Hackney is also one of the few Elite Series anglers that uses braid nearly exclusively when pitchin’, flippin’, and “plinkin’”. “Guys that say they don’t get as many bites with braid compared to fluorocarbon have got kind of a mental hang-up in my opinion, because I’ve never seen that be the case, and there’s so many more advantages to braid,” says Hackney.
“I use braid every time I’m fishing heavy cover – whether it’s wood, grass, or whatever. And I’ll also tell you that fatter braid like 65-pound test actually slides over limbs better than fluorocarbon or mono with a lot less hang-ups. Plus, I get to fish pretty much all day without ever retying,” he emphasizes.
Known best for this style of shallow water, heavy cover fishing, Hackney says his favorite way to catch a bass is with a topwater frog, but this is a close second.
“I mean look, it’s pretty tough to beat the up-close-and-personal approach I’ve used this week, when you’re dragging ‘em out of bushes in less than 2-feet of water with 25-feet of line,” said Hackney just before pushing away from the dock at Paris Landing Marina for another great day of “plinkin’.”