Bad News Bass Friendsgiving – Fresh Threads and Big Bait Culture

Introduction: On November 22nd, Bad News Bass hosted its “Friendsgiving” event, uniting bait builders and anglers and debuting a fresh round of exclusive baits and apparel. The gathering took place at Metro City in Sunnyvale and featured appearances from Ceaser Chavez of Toxic Baits, John Sanchez of Fish Your City, and Tackle Snob’s own Mason Surber.

Erik "Aki" Yamamoto, owner of Bad news Bass, put together the Friendsgiving event featuring special guest Ceaser Chavez, head of Toxic Baits

Friendsgiving has always been about the combination of the concepts of "Friends" and "Thanksgiving" to create a celebration focused on one’s chosen family. In this case that chosen family is bonded by a shared love for fishing, big baits, and the community surrounding swimbaits that continue to take on a life of its own.

The event was held at Metro City in Sunnyvale California

I always enjoy going to fishing shows, but events like this are a completely different animal. At most tackle shows the stars at the events is the tackle itself, the gear that we are there to cover, and to an extent the anglers, the pros, that make a living fishing competitively. Bad News Bass (BNB) Friendsgiving is a much more intimate event, where the stars are not mass-produced tackle but rather garage builders, custom painters, and passionate anglers that are often grinding from the bank or their own personal rigs. They’re the heartbeat of the culture, and events like this puts them front and center.

BNB drops included the new Smallmouth Series lid

Metro City sits in the heart of Sunnyvale’s lively downtown - a charismatic restaurant and bar that, on paper, isn’t the first place you’d picture for a swimbait gathering. But with the California Delta just an hour away, it makes perfect sense. This crew brings the culture with them wherever they go.

Slick looking matching carpet decals

The unofficial dress code? Hoodies worn soft from long sessions, bombers and field coats with stories in every crease, and a BNB cap finishing the look. The crowd is a sharp, fashion-minded mix, repping their favorite swimbait brands and limited collabs with bait makers and designers like BNB. It’s the same uniform you’ll find on the bank or on a boat at first light - gear that’s been broken in by weather, water, and the pursuit of a single big bite. Every tear, stain, and scuff are a badge of honor, proof of time spent chasing giants.

The other limited edition cap launched at the event was the "Friendsgiving Black" with a nod to Illude

As always, the Friendsgiving apparel drops from BNB were fresh and clean. There were two cap options: a black-on-black PVC Otto snapback featuring an Illude callout, and a camo snapback celebrating the pursuit of smallmouth. Other standout merch included sweatshirts, and matching smallmouth gaiters and carpet decals in both 12” and 24” sizes.
Anglers were there to see, and buy, the latest exclusives and collaborations, and this year brought a lot of standout collabs.

The swimbait drop included three way collabs with BNB exclusive Illude baits with Finnbait custom painted trout patterns

BNB often works with Illude Baits, the maker of my favorite rat bait of all time, the hand-carved wooden Rad Rat - but for Friendsgiving they took things up a notch. Custom painter Tanner Finn of Finnbait Customs laid down his signature trout pattern across a range of Illude Rad Rats, Acid Rats, and resin swimbaits.

One winner took home a 1 of 1 Monka painted by Finnbait by guessing the number of treble hooks in the jar

Attendees took turns writing down their guesses. The actual number was 262 hooks

A trout pattern on a rat? I’m all for it. It’s not only something most anglers haven’t seen before, it’s something the fish probably haven’t seen either. And with their limited availability, the collectability of these baits is also high.

A look at the assortment of baits on display from Toxic Baits

Always great catching up with Ceaser and learn about his latest creations

Ceaser Chavez of Toxic Baits showcased several of his latest creations, both from his custom resin line which are now airbrushed as well as from his fast-growing ABS line of baits. Ceaser has long been known for his rattle-can paint, but his airbrushed lures now show a new level of artistry and detail. Ceaser will still likely put rattle can to blank in limited runs but talked about the need to move to airbrushing with the challenges of procuring his favorite spray paints recently, and it also gives him an opportunity to mix things up and take his paintwork to another level.

Ceaser's latest topwater bait is the 8" C-Walk

Ceaser has been airbrushing his latest baits and they exhibit some great details

This paintwork was on display on the Toxic C-Walk a 8” resin based topwater walking/gliding bait that is designed to trigger strikes from big bass and stripers. The C-Walk weighs 5.25 ounces and is armed with three treble hooks.

One of that baits that Ceaser is most proud of is his more accessible ABS versions which he designed and developed personally

I also talked to Ceaser about his ABS Wade Hoggs and Wade Hoggs Jr. baits which are not only more consistent than resin baits, but more accessible to anglers retailing for 49-75 dollars each, depending on pattern and size. Ceaser talked about his love these baits, and how much attention he spent on making sure they met his standards in both build and action. I picked up one of each and look forward to adding them to this season’s arsenal.

The Old Man River Jr. is a large creature bait that is very durable and has characteristics designed to appeal to both freshwater bass and Calicos in the salt

Ceaser also highlighted some of the new Toxic soft plastics, including a creature bait called the Old Man River Jr., which can be fished on its own or as a trailer. The a Old Man River Jr. measures 4.5” and sold in packs of eight for $12. These baits use a durable plastic similar to Toxic’s custom swimbait tails and are designed not only for freshwater but for chasing Calico bass in the salt.

Ceaser has been fishing for a lot of Calico bass recently and has been developing more durable soft bodied swimbaits for the salt including the Mudskipper

Calico fishing has become a real passion for Ceaser. You’ll often find him out of Long Beach targeting them from the deck of his bass boat. He’s now designing baits specifically for kelp bass, and he showed me prototypes of a new swimbait called the Mudskipper, built to be rigged in multiple ways to cover the entire water column. I have no doubt green bass will have a hard time passing it up as well.

Ceaser showed us the favorite bait in his collection, a hand carved wooden JDM glide that he is determined to catch a fish on. Beautiful bait.

Mason Surber of Tackle Snob showcased many JDM lures and custom painted exclusives

Another guest at the event was Mason Surber of Tackle Snob, a retailer affiliated with BNB. The team specializes in sourcing high-end JDM custom tackle for domestic anglers and is even collaborating with custom painters to add unique flair to these hard-to-find baits. On display was a mix of both JDM and garage-built creations.

Aki was excited to show us some new baits painted by the talented Thomas Nhan of Final Boss Baits

A Throwback Flee Shad with Final Boss paint

Mason shows us the BNB x Baitsanity King Yosh collab. A very cool King Salmon pattern that can be paired with a number of Baitsanity HatchMatch tails

Some of my favorites were JDM and Throwback swimbaits painted by the talented Thomas Nhan of Final Boss Baits. They also showcased the King Yosh Explorer Glidebait, a collaboration with Baitsanity, featuring an exclusive Gen 2 Bones plus HatchMatch Shad Tail in a striking king salmon colorway. It looks like pure striper candy.

One of the things I love most about events like this is meeting up with passionate anglers like Alex "Apex" Tran who is an absolute stud of an angler and guide

Friendsgiving celebrates the artistry of all things lure making. Big baits come in many forms and fast rising builder John Vano came to meet up with the other builders and showed us his latest Donkey Slayer giant bladed jigs

Copping some awesome swimbait art and exclusives

Bad News Bass continues to give back to the community by putting on events like this, as does Ceaser with his Toxic Day events, bringing together anglers, bait builders, painters, artists, and those that love the game.

Luis "Saintboo" Duran is a well known Norcal Swimbait angler and picked up an Illude x Finnbait Customs lizard and new BNB kit

I couldn't resist picking up a Rad Rat Double x Finnbait Customs rat

I personally picked a up a fresh BNB lid, an Illude Rad Rat Double and a few Toxic Baits, and went out and put them to work immediately. I wasn’t the only one, either; many of the limited drops sold out immediately.

Aki and Xavier "Nugget_rvk" Walker at Friendsgiving. The night was full of cool tackle, some awesome new threads, and most of all anglers infused in the culture of swimbaits

The morning following the event wearing my new BNB cap and gaiter trying to catch a few, and still riding the high of a great night with some even better company. Thanks Aki, Ceaser, and the crew from BNB and Toxic for a great night out

As we head into Thanksgiving weekend, I’m thankful to see that the community is thriving, as events like this recent BNB Friendsgiving are a reminder that anglers, and especially big bait enthusiasts, are passionate not only about fishing, but also about supporting the artists and creators who continue to push the culture forward.