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"Honey Seekers" "Fireflies"

"Bass Class" is the 11th episode of Season 1 of Wild Kratts, originally airing on PBS Kids on January 20, 2011. It is the 11th episode of the series overall. The episode was written and directed by Martin Kratt. On April 5, 2011, "Bass Class" was first released on DVD as part of Wild Kratts: Creature Adventures.

In this episode, Chris and Martin Kratt meet a boy named Gavin while searching for bass in a lake. Gavin tells them that he is practicing fishing for bass. Zach Varmitech finds out, and he arrives at the docks and initiates a fishing competition. The winner is the one whose bass they caught weigh the most. However, Zach, desperate to win the competition, refuses to play by the rules.

Plot[]

The episode begins with a live action segment. The Kratt brothers and several kids dive into a lake and observe the fish inhabiting it. Afterwards, they ask their "What if?" question and the show transitions into the cartoon segment.

The Kratt brothers are searching for one of two types of bass in a lake to activate their Bass Creature Power Suits. Chris looks for smallmouth bass, while Martin looks for largemouth bass. Martin is the first one to find a bass, which he finds in a thicket of aquatic vegetation. Martin names her Gulpa and activates his Creature Power Suit after touching her. However, the Creature Power Suit gives Martin the mind of a bass, and after seeing a fish lure, he gets hooked. This lure belongs to a kid named Gavin. Chris comes up the docks and tells him to keep the line steady, and Martin is lured onto the docks. Gavin tells the Kratt brothers he is practicing fishing for bass in the lake, and he shows them the third-place trophy he won when he caught a large bass.

Zach Varmitech is taking a day off on his yacht, when Gavin's trophy's shines a light on his face. Annoyed, he propels his yacht to the docks and tries grabbing Gavin's trophy out of his hands. After doing so, he initiates a fishing contest. Whoever catches bass that weigh the most wins a large first-place trophy and Gavin's trophy. Gavin agrees to enter the contest. Chris then lists several rules to keep the contest fair.

The contest begins. Zach heads out in his yacht with Chris following him, while Gavin, Martin, and a Zachbot ride in a boat provided by Aviva, who acts as its driver. Martin reactivates his Bass Creature Power Suit and holographically projects an arrow pointing to a school of smallmouth bass he encountered. The boat moves towards the arrow. Gavin attaches a crayfish lure to his fishing line, and after Aviva sprays crayfish scent on it, he casts his line and catches a smallmouth bass. Zach, on the other hand, is having very little luck, and resorts to disadvantaging his opponent. He orders the Zachbot in Gavin's boat to scare away the school of smallmouth bass under Gavin, which it does after Gavin catches his second bass. Chris notices and gives Zach a warning. Zach denies any cheating and claims to winning as he seemingly just caught another bass. Chris inspects it and not only states that it's dead and on ice, it has stripes: it was a striped sea bass that was bought at a fish market. After having the Zacbots toss Chris overboard, he steers his ship to the bass spawning grounds. Chris informs Martin about the situation, and Gavin, overhearing what Chris said, insists that they go to stop him. Martin warns Gavin that Zach will prevent him from winning and decides to handle it himself. He re-reactivates Bass Powers and heads to the spawning grounds.

Zach is able to catch a male largemouth bass guarding eggs at the spawning grounds. Martin arrives and defends the nest from sunfish. Chris sneaks onto Zach's boat and propels the boat away from the spawning grounds, simultaneously making Zach drop the largemouth bass, which returns to guarding the nest. Chris hops off the ship, with Zach announcing that he has a better way to win. Zach orders the Zachbots to catch the three fish required all at the same time, rather than catching one fish at a time. The Kratt brothers then return to help Gavin. Martin, remembering Gulpa, leads them to the vegetation. Gavin casts his line; Gulpa bites and Gavin catches her.

After sundown, the two teams gather at the docks for the weigh-in. Zach declares victory when the mass of his bass surpass Gavin's by one unit. Despite the loss, Chris and Martin advise Gavin that he still did great and that playing by the rules and trying hard makes him the real winner everytime. However, the Wild Kratts find several flaws in some of the bass in Zach's weigh-in tank (such as each having blinking red eyes, one was purple instead of green, and another had too large of a mouth) and after the fish go out of control, they find out that they're Zachbots, and they pronounce Gavin as the official winner. Zach goes away in his boat, exclaiming that he dislikes fishing and blames the Wild Kratts for making him lose by exposing the robotic bass. After the worm that Zach tried to use as bait earlier reappears on his face, he runs around the boat in disgust and swore to get back at the "Wild Ratts". At the end, the Wild Kratts release the fish.

The show transitions into the concluding live action segment. The Kratt brothers and some kids fish for bass. While doing so, Martin pranks Chris by hooking his lure to a stick and pulling him into the water. They laugh and conclude the episode by saying "Keep on creature adventuring; we'll see you on the creature trail!"

Characters[]

Animals[]

Animation[]

Note: Featured animals are in bold.

Mentioned[]

Note: Mentioned animals are linked to Wikipedia.

Live Action[]

Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.

Trivia[]

  • The ecological topic shown in the cartoon segment is bass fishing.
  • This episode reveals that Aviva learned how to fish when she was a kid.
  • This is the first episode where Zach does appear, but he doesn't capture an animal to use in his inventions and cause trouble for the Wild Kratts. Instead, he only captures fish because it's a fishing contest.
    • Rules for the bass fishing contest
      • Rule #1: Only bass count. Largemouth bass or smallmouth bass can be caught.
      • Rule #2: No live bait, only lures.
      • Rule #3: Catch and release. All the fish are kept alive and healthy in aquariums until weighing, then are let go.
      • Rule #4: Contest over at sundown. Whoever has 3 fish that weigh the most wins.
      • Rule #5: (super important) No fishing in the spawning grounds. (this is because if the father bass is caught while he's guarding the eggs, the eggs will be exposed to the sunfish, which are its predators and they will be in jeopardy of being lost)
      • Rule #6: (possible last-minute rule by Chris) No throwing anyone overboard.
      • Rule #6: (made up by Zach) The Zachbots' real job is to help Zach win.
      • Rule #1: (Zach's version) Zach doesn't care.
      • Rule #1a: (made up by Zach) Zach reveals he has a better idea to win; to have the Zachbots capture the three required bass so he can win the contest (the bass were too fast for the Zachbots to catch though). It turns out that Zach made bass-like Zachbots so he can win the contest, but the bass expose themselves to the Wild Kratts, which make them win by default.
  • This is the first time Zach causes trouble in a way other than capturing animals, which is cheating or attempting to cheat in games/competitions.
  • It is shown that Zach cheats to win in games by not following the rules, and he's a sore winner, if he wins. However, if he loses, he's also a sore loser.
  • Chris and Martin didn't wear their boots for the entire episode.
  • This is also the first episode someone else other than any of the Wild Kratts crew members corrects Zach for saying "Wild Kratts" incorrectly. In this case, it's Gavin, a Wild Kratts kid.
  • Error: Chris said rule number 7 when technically it’s rule number 6.

Key Facts and Creature Moments[]

  • Largemouth bass are big, have large jaws, are solitary hunters, and are found in weedy areas.
  • Smallmouth bass are small, have small jaws, hunt in groups, are found in rocky areas, and jump high.
Wild Kratts episodes
Seasons: 1234567
Season 1

"Mom of a Croc" • "Whale of a Squid" • "Aardvark Town" • "Flight of the Draco" • "Mystery of the Squirmy Wormy" • "Platypus Cafe" • "Polar Bears Don't Dance" • "Build It Beaver" • "Voyage of the Butterflier XT" • "Honey Seekers" • "Bass Class" • "Fireflies" • "Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus" • "Tazzy Chris" • "Octopus Wildkratticus" • "Walk on the Wetside" • "Elephant in the Room" • "Let the Rhinos Roll!" • "Kickin' It With the Roos" • "The Blue and the Gray" • "Falcon City" • "Koala Balloon" • "Cheetah Racer" • "Kerhonk" • "Mimic" • "Caracal-Minton" • "Zig-Zagged" • "A Huge Orange Problem" • "Seasquatch" • "The Food Chain Game" • "Masked Bandits" • "Flight of the Pollinators" • "The Gecko Effect" • "Little Howler" • "Quillber's Birthday Present" • "A Bat in the Brownies" • "Stuck on Sharks" • "Birds of a Feather" • "Googly Eye: The Night Guru" • "Raptor Round Up"

Season 7

"Outfoxed" • "Clever the Raven" • "Race to Goat Mountain" • "Owl Odyssey" • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA • TBA

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