The Starting Spot: Browning Still Hungry, Queen DQ’d, and the Best Minnow Bait Tips

The Starting Spot Daily Bass Fishing Headlines are the perfect way to start your day with some of the top bass fishing articles on the internet. It’s the quick, informative, how, where, and who you need to know. So, rub the sleep from your eyes, pour that first cup of the day, and head to your Starting Spot.

Today on The Starting Spot: Browning Still Hungry, Queen DQ’d, and Best Minnow Bait Tips | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

In this edition of The Starting Spot:

-Stephen Browning has been a bass tournament angler for a long time. He’s had a great career with more significant accomplishments than lots of successful anglers. But he’s not done yet.

-It turns out KJ Queen was unable to pass Bassmaster’s polygraph test, multiple tests actually, so he’s been disqualified from his 8th place finish at the Bassmaster Elite, La Crosse event.

-In this article, you’ll get all the details of the wildly popular “minnow” bait. From jighead options to the best plastic designs and the most effective ways to fish them, you can get yourself up to speed on this proven, but relatively new, bait.

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You’ve got to stay hungry

by Stephen Browning

From a story on Bassmaster.com: The Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series is just about done with its 20th year of competition, and those two decades have gone by in a flash. I can still vividly picture my son Beau showing up to the weigh-ins in a stroller, and now he’s out there competing on that same big stage. While a lot of things have changed on tour, from the boats to the lures and certainly to the electronics, one thing has remained the same: The competition is as good as it gets. If you’re not hungry to win, you won’t remain out there long.

I’ve seen that in Beau’s progress and in the way he attacks the water. He eats, breathes and sleeps bass fishing. It’s what he wants to do every day, and while he enjoys the heck out of it, he’s constantly learning too.

I’m proud because he reminds me of a much younger version of myself, and his passion has inspired me to double or even triple my own efforts on the water…MORE.

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Queen disqualified from Mississippi River Elite

by B.A.S.S.

From a story on Bassmaster.com: B.A.S.S. officials announced today that KJ Queen has been disqualified from the 2025 Pro-Guide Batteries Bassmaster Elite at Mississippi River event and fined after failing a screening credibility assessment administered via polygraph, which are randomly selected based on finishing place in advance of the tournament. Elites Series rule C3(ii)a prohibits soliciting, gathering or intentionally receiving information from non-competitors to gain a competitive advantage. Rule C3(ii)j states that a first offense will result in tournament disqualification and up to a $10,000 fine…MORE.

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Best Minnow Baits and How to Fish Them

In an article on Wired2Fish.com: Generic terms — they tell you everything you need to know about a product’s relevance.

You see kids throwing a plastic disc in the park or on the beach and you say they’re playing Frisbee. The hospital staffer serves a patient a wiggly colorful gelatin and we assume it’s Jell-O. One of the purest examples: A person lifts a glass of dark colored soft drink and they’re enjoying — say it with me — a Coke. (Again, could be the Coca-Cola product, but it could be Pepsi, or one of the many store brands.)

The bass fishing world has its examples and one of the most relevant is the simple, yet profoundly impactful jighead minnow. The cool kids say “The Minnow,” but while they may very well have several Cokes in their cooler, that generic bait reference is kind of a catch-all term for several different uses of the basic setup…MORE.

Thanks for starting your day with Fishing On SI. Lines in!