Fishtails Podcast: Jay Kumar on Bass, the Rise of Bass Blaster, Bigfoot in the Pines, and the Gear That Got Away
Byron Velvick welcomed longtime friend and bass fishing media pioneer Jay Kumar to the Fishtails studio for an episode that hit every note—nostalgia, humor, and a touch of the paranormal. What began as a trip down ESPN’s early 2000s memory lane quickly veered into tales of Bigfoot encounters, lost guitars, and the search for bass fishing’s next visionary leader.
Velvick and Kumar’s friendship dates back to the late ’90s tournament trails, where Velvick was grinding it out on the water and Kumar was breaking ground as one of the first digital fishing journalists at BassFan.com. Their shared history deepened during ESPN’s push into outdoor programming, when both found themselves in Charlotte studios one surreal weekend. Velvick, fresh from The Bachelor fame, landed on Bass Center alongside NASCAR veteran John Kernan. Kumar, initially auditioning for the same show, wound up teaming with an unknown Michigan boat dealer named Mark Zona to form Loud Mouth Bass—a brash, fast-talking spinoff that became must-see TV for anglers.
The chemistry between Zona and Kumar was lightning in a bottle. Zona’s booming charisma met Kumar’s dry, deadpan delivery in a way that redefined how fishing could be covered. “Zona had peripheral vision on steroids,” Kumar recalled. “The camera light flipped on, and he pivoted like he’d been doing it for years.” Velvick credited the trio’s authenticity—and Kernan’s teleprompter calm—for helping a generation of fans connect to tournament fishing in a new, media-savvy way.
Two decades later, Kumar has distilled that same energy into his creation of Bass Blaster, a twice-weekly email digest that has become essential reading for competitive anglers and industry insiders alike. After selling BassFan and serving out a non-compete, Kumar launched Bass Blaster as a direct-to-inbox antidote to the chaos of social feeds. It now reaches more than 150,000 readers every Tuesday and Thursday, delivering curated tournament news, new gear drops, and behind-the-scenes insights. “I’m still a bass fisherman first,” Kumar said. “I just share what I’d want to read.” The format’s success underscores its genius—no algorithms, no scrolling, just the real juice from the sport’s front lines.
Then came the twist. When Velvick mentioned Kumar’s side project—a Bigfoot novel titled Dark Woods—the conversation took a hard turn into the unknown. Kumar recounted a chilling 1990s camping trip at High Point State Park, where he and his younger siblings heard a howl that defied any explanation. It echoed three times across the pond, up the ridge, and finally, terrifyingly close to their Jeep in the rain-soaked dark. Years later, Kumar stumbled across a Washington-state recording online that perfectly matched the sound. “It hit me in the spine,” he said. The encounter left a permanent mark—his media company today is, fittingly, named Sasquatch Media.
Velvick responded with his own brush with the unexplained: a UFO sighting near Las Vegas that made its way onto Unsolved Mysteries. From there, the pair traded stories about strange happenings in the wilderness before easing back into more familiar waters—the gear they regret letting go.
For Kumar, that ghost takes the form of a 1980 Gibson Les Paul Standard and an amp that produced a tone he still can’t replicate. Sold during a lean stretch after the recession, the memory of that perfect sound still haunts him. “I’ve tried to rebuild it,” he said, “but the magic’s gone.” Velvick, himself a lifelong angler and musician, nodded in total understanding—because whether it’s tone or tackle, every fisherman knows the ache of the one that got away.
As the discussion turned back to the state of bass fishing, Kumar voiced a sentiment many veterans share: the sport lacks a single, unifying leader like Ray Scott. “We could use another Ray,” he said. “Someone who listens, then says, ‘This is the hill.’” He warned that the rise of forward-facing sonar could erode decades of angling knowledge if left unchecked. Velvick agreed and used the moment to champion another cause—getting West Coast legend John Murray into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame. Kumar didn’t hesitate to back him up, calling Murray “a pioneer, a stud fisherman, and a no-brainer.”
As the episode wound down and Velvick raced off for school pickup duty, the two signed off with mutual gratitude and a promise to do it again soon. Somewhere in the background, the Fishtails studio pinball machine still bears Aaron Martins’ high score, and maybe—just maybe—a Sasquatch howl still echoes through the Jersey pines.
