Team9nine

That one dates back to 1986 and Dr. Loren Hill, the Color-C-Lector guy, but he also had many other patents related to his studies, some of which involved Doug Hannon. Bass Forget Worms article

Pretty much through all of the 1990s, with a few added years on either end. Peter T won a Bassmaster event there in 1994 with a 4 day total of just over 23 pounds, which is just one tiny step above “Ohio River” level badness ? Bassmaster didn’t return to the lake for a good 10 years because of that pitiful showing.

Hit my first Carolina lake by boat late last week (Fri). Used @A-Jay’s topo link to look it over and mark a few spots of interest. Spent 2.5 hours mostly looking around and figuring out pretty quick this is not a well structured lake. More like a flatlander with some light weeds down to about 6-7 ft, slight tannic but clear water, and very little offshore cover. Looks heavily silted in, and I’m thinking this is going to be a dock lake for the most part, with some fish around the scattered shallow weeds and treefalls. Only got to see about a quarter of the lake in that time, and caught 2 small bass (and no crappies). Today I went back for trip No. 2. Weather was mostly sunny with a very light and variable breeze, but at least half the day was calm. Moved up the lake a bit looking for a bit more stain, but didn’t find it. Did find an old roadbed along with a small bridge and one or two weird pallet-like assemblages, so focused much of my 3 hr day offshore in that area. The weather conditions looked like it had the fish well pinned to the bottom on the graph, so I just started fishing along the length of the roadbed. Started out trying for crappie based on the clusters of fish I was seeing, and after a few trial and error attempts at bait styles and colors, I finally figured a couple combos out and was able to catch about 15 or so. I was seeing a lot of scattered fish all along the roadbed, so I picked up a Ned rod and started working a TRD TicklerZ over the hard bottom and was quickly rewarded with a 14” bass. Long story short, there were a lot of bass running this roadbed along with the crappie, as well as a few schools of the occasional baitfish of some sort. I was able to catch about 15 bass, most in the 12”-15” range, but did trick this one that went a bit over 4 lbs. Starting to piece together the puzzle, and looking forward to trip No. 3 to expand on this bite and to check out another section of this lake.

I think there’s a subgroup here that is still offended by the holes in my jeans, and they just flex their muscles every once in a while to remind me to stay in check ?

I just got the dreaded ‘pink post’ warning myself on another thread Lol. Might happen again on this one when I hit Submit. Finding out in 3…2…1…

Either 15# or 20# Big Game, or 17# CXX back when I was a straight mono bass angler. All are floating around that 0.016”-0.018” range.

Sunline makes a really good product, but I started with Seaguar first, and I’m not a big fan of constantly switching and testing stuff out. That’s what forums are for ? So I’m all InvizX and Tatsu, except when I can get my hands on some Toray every now and then. Between those few brand names, you really can’t go wrong.

Was planning on a day on the water, just me and Milliken, but then a bunch of guys had to outbid me by more than $15,000 - lol. Guess I’ll just wait for the final minute or two and hope it doesn’t go over $25,000 before then. Don’t want the wife upset before she has to sign the second mortgage paperwork with me to cover this ? ?? ?

The river overlords have accepted your sacrificial offerings and granted you permission to return to said waters again with promises of a more productive outing. So it is said; So shall it be!

Listen closely, and you’ll hear Wheeler click his reel in and out of gear 4 or 5 times while fighting this 10 pound bass:

No doubt that shorter out of water times are best for the fish, but that said, there are controlled studies with bass documenting no mortality (immediate or up to 5 day delayed) at exposure times of 10-15 minutes. Bass are much tougher than we sometimes give them credit for. Really high water temps as well as high air temps might challenge these results as those extremes weren’t tested. As for deep hooking, studies suggest cutting the line and leaving the hook in instead of trying to unbury a deeply swallowed hook as being the much preferred way to go. There has been some differences of professional opinion though on whether to leave a long tag end or a short one.

This ^^ It’s called “thumb-barring” and is kind of the equivalent of backreeling with a spinning reel. Not super popular, but those of us who run with heavier than recommended drag settings use the technique. Wheeler is one of the pros that you’ll “hear” using the technique regularly. Not right or wrong, just personal style.

What @Pat Brown said, ^^ especially the buzzbait/spinnerbait/Jerkbait/swim jig/crankbait/football jig/Shakeyhead/wacky rig/drape rig/popper/Spook/Spoonplug ?

It's always interesting to dig back and find out the history of bass fishing stuff that now days, most people just take for granted. For instance, can you name when Gamakatsu hooks were introduced in the U.S.? Gamakatsu began in 1955 in Japan, then the countries smallest hook manufacturer. It wouldn't be until 1992 that they had grown enough to form a U.S. marketing division to introduce their hooks to American bass anglers, Gamakatsu USA, Inc.. So over 30 years ago is the first part of this story. Another interesting and related concept is the EWG hook, another tackle item we take for granted these days. It morphed from the traditional Eagle Claw J-style hook used back in the original days of the Carolina rig. From there, companies like Owner and Gamakatsu created "wide gap offset worm hooks," similar in nature but a little deeper. Then Lucky Strike introduced the Shaw Grigsby HP hook, a modified version of a Kahle hook, commonly used with live bait. This was all in the early 90s. Then, in 1994, we got the blend of the offset worm hook combined with the Kahle-style live bait HP hook, and the "extra wide gap (EWG)" style hook was born. This 1994 ad, featuring B.A.S.S. pro Charlie Ingram, was one of the first such ads introducing the hook. Charlie mentions playing a part in the development of the hook. The "fat-bodied" and "big bodied" baits referred to in the ad might be a reference to baits such as the Slug-Go, which was first "broken" to the public by Rich Zaleski back in 1990 via an In-Fisherman article. Baits like the modern paddletails (~1996) and the Sweet Beaver (~2002) that frequently get used with EWG-style hooks didn't come about until a little later.

Windy.com is the best overall I’ve found for assessing current conditions. Radar, cloud cover, wind, lightning strike detector, and isobars are the most frequent things I watch closely.

The standard Stupid Tube is 3.7” You could try upsizing and see how your fish react. You might also try taking one of the tubes into a sporting goods store near you and seeing how similar available jigheads might fit that short of a tube. You might also try an HP hook or similar and TR it, or possibly just an exposed hook jighead insert if snags aren’t a huge issue.

For sure, less people. Summer crowds are gone, kids are back in school, and hunting season takes many of the remaining anglers off the water. Cooler temps and fall colors are just an added bonus.

If your link is correct, you’re going to have issues because the tube is only 2.75” long, and only half of that is ‘body.’ You’re probably going to have a hard time trying to match a hook to that body by just randomly guessing on an internet purchase. Try searching to see if you can find someone who has already done the trial and error testing and found a specific match for that specific tube. Also, line the jighead up next to the bait to see the best alignment before trying to thread the hook. The eye should be coming out more toward the nose of the tube, and the hook coming out further down the body to get the right angle to span the body and texpose on the other side. A couple of yours look close, but most seem to be at too sharp of an angle, probably because you’re trying to fit that hook length onto such a short body.

Jesse Payton with a 10 lb FL bass, circa 1970. Here in the Midwest, a popular version of that rig was the pre-rigged 2-hook (sometimes 3 hook) plastic worm. The worms would be bent in half, then the leader was wrapped around the worm to hold it in place and warp the worm, thereby creating a natural kink that would make the worm corkscrew upon retrieve naturally without having to get the hook rigging and bend right like on the single hook version. Have caught plenty of bass over the years on that rig. It was especially popular on the clear water natural lakes to my north, over shallower weed flats, which would be similar to the FL waters where you typically read it being used.

First hook is the “original” Carolina rig hook, before the advent of big, bulky “creature” plastics. It was commonly used with thinner lizards like the Zoom 6” standard lizard. The bend in the hook helped keep the head of the bait in position without barbs like found on straight shank hooks, and you didn’t need to worry about a sinker banging the head of the bait or the knot. It is also a stronger design than an EWG (2nd hook). Still has its fans and followers, though not nearly as popular or used as it once was.

My 16.5’ Alumacraft ? Might just have to add one battery for the front TM, but otherwise, I’m good.

Well, the wife and I up and moved over 500 miles away this past week. No more pond fishing, sadly. Did get my first look yesterday at the two closest public lakes I’ll have access to. Looks like half a dozen within 30 minutes of the house. Be a couple weeks at least before I can get everything registered and get my licenses. Talk about completely starting over on bodies of water you’ve never seen before. Might have to start a new post thread documenting my approach and efforts via trial and error down here. Here’s a few pics showing what I’ll be dealing with. Kind of excited to see what does or doesn’t pan out…

As a very general rule of thumb, the 1% light level zone is usually 3 to 4 times secchi depth (roughly how deep you can see a bright white/chrt bait). As a starting point, my first approach is to stay above that level when searching for bass (fish down to that level). Lake to lake variability can be pretty wide though, especially when dealing with different species (spits, SMB, LMB).

Yep - if you can’t fit everything in your pants pockets, shirt or vest, you’re bringing too much tackle

One last trip to the closest pond under some scattered cloud cover and a nice NNE breeze. Temps today much cooler, floating around the mid 70s. Went with the finesse jig for a changeup and caught half a dozen - nothing big.