In the wake of recent wildfires in Northern and Southern California, Swimbait Underground has teamed up with Hinkle and Bassjak to raise funds for the American Red Cross. It also gives you a chance to win an Underground Camo Hinkle Trout and Shad.
The Baits are a one off pair and feature the Swimbait Underground lock up logo. In addition to the baits you will also win the new Swimbait Underground Hybrid Bair Wrap and a SU gear pack.
$10 per entry, no limit on entries. Donations will be accepted until 12/15 at 5 PM PST. Winner will be drawn and announced Monday 12/17
Jason Kordan (@Bassjak_) is an angler from Torrance, CA who has recently began painting swimbaits. His background in fishing started in his elementary and middle school years when he would help his friend's dad with his charter business out of King Harbor; the Redondo Special. In high school Jason began targeting spotties in King Harbor targeting ambush points and bottom structure.
Jason credits his old saltwater tournament partner Erik Bombard for sparking his interest in big swimbaits. His facination began one night after a tournament when Erik showed him all of the big baits that he use to throw on the Delta while up there for college. He was intrigued by the subtle differences of the baits that altered the cadence and the drawing power that came with them. Erik lent him his personal copy of Big Bait Posse and a few baits to get Jason started. This night was enough to get him stoked and set a goal for himself to catch a double digit largemouth on a swimbait.
After that night he took a trip to Pyramid Lake with a coworker of his named Tim. Upon arrival, the two of them got to walking their Punkers and managed to get a few nice blowups. This was also the day that he landed his first swimbait fish on a Hudd shad. Soon after this trip he decided it was time to stop messing around and started spending all of his free time (and money) on breaking his PB until he achieved his double digit dream.
One day Jason hopped on his buddy Brent's boat along with Chase and sent it a few hours north braving the drive through intense wind and rain. Upon arrival, they found they were the only people at the boat launch. The morning started out tough as you could imagine, battling the weather in addition to having trolling motor problems. After taking a break to fix the motor and get a bite to eat they rolled up to a big cove. As they spun the boat around Jason said out loud: "The wind is blowing on shore right here, I think we could get a big one up shallow since the trout should be getting pushed up shallow by the wind."
He bombed his Baitsmith Mag into a secondary cove with the wind to his back. While dragging his bait along the rocky drop-off he felt his bait get slammed, swung for the fences, and grinded the fish to the boat. The giant bass swam over the basket of the net and got hung up on the outside of the net by the stinger hook. Luckily his buddy reached down and grabbed the fish before it could shake the bait. This was the day that Jason achieved his double digit goal with a 10lb 6oz x 25.5" largemouth bass.
Jason was introduced to Swimbait Underground by his coworker Casey who he had went on his first swimbait trip with. At the time he mostly utilized the site to buy secondhand baits on the Black Market and save himself a little money in the process. Now he recognizes it as an important resource to the community where you can have the confidence to buy a new bait, try it out, and sell it to another person if it does not fit your style. He also is a fan of the street style apparel that meshes well with his BMX background.
Recently he started getting into painting his own baits in his spare time. He had always been into tinkering with his lures, from trimming fins to adding dots on his trout baits. Finally he bit the bullet and bought himself the right equipment to fully customize his hard baits.
Jason credits Rbtek for influencing his style and inspiring him to paint baits for others. After receiving a bleeding bass pattern Deps 250 from him his confidence in the bait skyrocketed. Once Jason started taking painting seriously Rich from Rbtek was kind enough to answer some questions of his and offer some guidance. Jason's favorite patterns to paint are are trout imitations because there is a huge variety and likes to individualize each of them.
Be sure to keep up with Jason's latest catches & fresh paint jobs on his Instagram @bassjak_. If you are interested in having him repaint one of your baits, the best way to inquire is through his DM on Instagram.
Edited by SU News
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