RoLo

Bass sieze whatever looks edible...period. They don't have the time or the ability to think. It wouldn't surprise me one iota if no bass ever mistook a jig & plastic craw for a crayfish. In any case as Roadwarrior indicated, the odds are sky high that crayfish reside in your lake. Bill Dance was once asked, "What does a spinnerbait imitate?", Bill shrugged and said, "I dunno, maybe a Toy Airboat" Roger

Spiderwire? Nah

The cow is fasting during the spawn and is only slightly aggressive (the buck is the protectorate). Since you're dealing toe-to-toe with an individual personality, the lure isn't nearly as important as where you place that lure and how you manipulate that lure. For all lighting conditions I use prescription "dark copper" sunglasses, also called amber & brown. Roger

In the fall, it's very common for schoolies to bust shad on top, and hooking-up during a fall jump can be tough and sometimes downright exasperating. However, "large" bass breaking in "spring" is a whole other ballgame. In my own experience anyway, a big bass breaking in spring is an aggressively feeding bass, and the closest thing I know to a sure catch. If I don't get an immediate response I'll have to assume that it was not a bass (carp, alligator, tilapia, etc). Bass have a relatively short lifespan (5 years is an old bass), as a result, the older and bigger the bass, the smaller the school. Large schools of six-pound do exist, but are chiefly anecdotal. Roger

Am I the only one who would love to stuff a Sock-Wad in the mouth of the insensitive self-indulgent announcer on Whacked Out Sports? It's a great show, but I can only watch it with the sound Muted Roger

"RoLo" stands for Roger & Lois Since 1964, Lois has been my faithful and proficient fishing partner, in both saltwater and freshwater throughout 46 years and 13 boats. Roger

My best suggestion is to switch from hard swimbaits to soft swimbaits (that's why I did). Roger

Tilapia have very tasty flesh, but sadly they're not inclined to strike a lure. I used to believe that tilapia could not be caught, but I was very wrong. Last year, I've seen 'many' large tilapia landed by anglers that weighed several pounds. Tilapia I've seen were caught mostly by redear fishermen using redworms. This year's winter freeze killed megatons of tilapia in central Florida, where Lois and I watched alligators, vultures and wild pigs feasting on dead tilapia that littered the shorelines. This is a darn shame too, because though it is rarely publicized, "tilapia-fed" bass are responsible for some of Florida's heaviest trophies. Roger

For "Carolina rigging", I see no advantage to using tungsten over steel. A 1/2oz tungsten sinker is the same weight as 1/2oz steel sinker, but far more expensive. It's expensive because there are important industrial uses for tungsten carbide (2nd to diamond). Unlike a worm-weight which is actually part of the lure, the sinker for a C-rig is distantly separated by the leader. Although tungsten may transmit the bottom a tad better, most of the 'strike sensation' is lost to the leader. Anglers commonly use 1/2 to 1½ oz sinkers for Carolina rigging, but search me as to why. I'm perfectly satisfied with a 1/4 oz steel sinker for most situations (3/8 oz tops). The C-rig is all about levity and soft presentation which is accomplished by separating the fast movements of the sinker from the soft movements of the lure. If constant bottom contact were the goal, a C-rig would not be the right choice. Even if a 2-pound sinker were used, constant bottom-contact by the lure would neither be possible nor desirable. Roger

Amen! The home of the J-spoon is surface vegetation, where other lures fear to tread. The J-spoon has never been more effective for me, probably because it's not a top-shelf lure. Roland Martin's lifetime best stringer was taken on a 1/2 oz black Johnson spoon & trailer. It was back in the day of the 10-fish limit, and weighed in at 87 lbs! (Santee Cooper). My favorite size is the 3/4 oz spoon, which stabilizes a large grub trailer and bulges a slightly better deeper track through the salad bowl (overcasting is the only drawback). Roger

I've never gone on a BR roadtrip, so I guess that makes me a lousy cheerleader, or maybe not. Any BR member who has half a chance should take the plunge and meet the family. Gosh, we yak back-and-forth here on a daily basis, so it's got to be a blast to put a real face on the names we know so well, to share a round-table and maybe a brew or two. Along with the comradery is the great angling opportunity. The largemouth bass swimming in Pickwick Lake have a greater mean weight than largemouth bass north of the Mason Dixon Line. If that's not enough, Pickwick Lake is World-Class water for smallmouth bass. In 1950, Owen Smith caught a gargantuan smallmouth bass from Wilson Lake just below the Joe Wheeler Dam. Owen's smallmouth had a certified weight of 10-lb, 8-oz, which set the new world-record smallmouth bass at that time. To this day, only two certified smallmouth bass have ever been taken that exceeded the weight of Owen's goliath, and both of course came from Dale Hollow Reservoir. For me, the Wilson Lake world-record was particularly memorable because it spanned the period from 1950 to 1955, when I was just a budding angler (ages 8 to 13). Here's the upshot. The waters of Wilson Lake flow directly into adjoining Pickwick Lake, which as it were is the tailrace of Wilson Lake. Wilson's reputation as a trophy smallmouth fishery began to wane during the 1980s, but about that same time Pickwick Lake was entering its heyday. Due to the natural aging process (eutrophication),Wilson today is better suited to largemouth bass. As a matter of fact, electroshocking in Lake Wilson during 2009 produced 84 largemouth bass per hour, the highest success rate among all 31 electrofished TVA impoundments! Again, this is the same water that flows directly into Pickwick Lake. With respect to smallmouth bass, Dale Hollow and South Holston are two formidable competitors, but Pickwick Lake today still remains a prime candidate for a new world-record bronzeback. Go for it! Roger

I'm with Ring Fry. I believe that rind offers better action in all water temperatures, but still and all, I've been steering away from rind trailer for a long time. Unlike the first rubber worms (technically tough plastic), many of today's soft-plastics stay pliable even in coldwater. Some anglers still use pork rind for largemouth bass in water under 60 degrees and smallmouth bass under 50 degrees. Nonetheless, I believe similar results can be had by switching from a ribbontail or sickletail plastic lure, to a straight inactive tail. Throughout the years, I've probably thrown away more jars of pork rind than I've used. At least, plastic trailers give me the peace of mind to take a long boat ride without fretting about my rind trailers turning to cement...LOL Roger

There's no one best color, because the best color keeps changing with lighting conditions (underwater visibility). Roger

No two ways about it, taxidermy is an art form, a gift that only a few possess. Matt, that reminds me of a fellow here in Florida, who thinks of himself as a taxidermist. His mannikin work is atrocious, and hanging on his wall is a terribly mishapen skin-mounted pike. After approaching the mount I said: "This fish is far from home, there's no pike out here". Well, his face lit up with pride, and he told me that very few people know what kind of fish that is. I thought to myself, jeez if it looked anything like a pike, maybe more people would recognize it : :-/ Roger

It's interesting how different people see the same object through different eyes. Without trying to be critical, the jigs pictured display three features that I personally dislike. 1) I'd rather see the eyelet located on the nose of the jighead where it can easily shed weeds. 2) Big is fine, but high strand-counts make a dense bulky skirt, which I would definitely thin out. 3) The hook is not a "round-bend" hook, but more of an O'Shaugnessey configuration. Rick Clunn once stated that "round-bend" hooks contributed a lot to his tourney successes. Rick claims that slappers (bass that don't engulf) are more likely to get stuck on the outside of the mouth by a round-bend hook. In any case, all my skirted jigs use a round-bend hook Roger

Since the advent of fiberglass replicas, true taxidermists who are capable of doing skin mounts have been in a steady decline, where master taxidermists have become a dying breed. In my teens, I've dabbled in mammalian taxidermy, fish heads mounts & hide tanning (w/ sulphuric acid) This much I can tell you, whether it's fish reproductions or the real deal, your ability to "paint" back the colors is what separates the men from the boys. Roger

We've been flank-rigging swimbaits for years, but it's only been touted of late. As we've learned from the stock market, the consensus is usually late for dinner. Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend any jig that allowed the swimbait to spin. As a matter of fact, I don't even care for too much wobble. The Berkley hollow belly is very weedless and very durable but one beef I have is the tendency for the tail to wag the dog. The 1/2 oz jig helps to tame the overzealous wobble, offers longer casts and also provides slightly better penetration in surface vegetation. For those unfamiliar with the Owner Sled Head (many it seems), it was originally designed for tube lures. The screw-coil on the Owner Sled Head is far superior to those silly screw-lock trinkets they hang on weighted hooks. The screw-coil on a Sled Head is only an adjunct to the hook shank which passes through the head of the swimbait similar to a Z-bend shank. Trust me, there's absolutely no reason for Mendit, Superglue, heatshrink tubing, toothpicks or Quickrete ;D I recently posted the following images in Southeast Bass Fishing, though it can't be seen, the screw-coil is embedded in the rigging: Top View http://216.149.215.9/scans/Swimbait-topview.jpg Side View http://216.149.215.9/scans/Swimbait-sideview.jpg Bottom View http://216.149.215.9/scans/Swimbait-bottomview.jpg Roger

BLee, your opening post covered it well. I normally find launching to be more difficult than retrieving. When retrieving the boat, the trailer is empty and the two upright-guides show me the position of my trailer. When launching however, the boat obstructs my view to the ramp (Rav4 with dark backshield that does not roll down). I actually prefer boat ramps with a hooked approach that give me a view of my trailer, but a ramp with a straight back-down approach puts me at the mercy of the rearview mirrors. As some mentioned, I too prefer to keep my hands on top of the steering wheel at shoulder-height. To clear up some confusion though, with the hands on top of the steering wheel (12 o'clock) the trailer will move in the opposite direction as the steering wheel. That is to say, steering left' moves the trailer to the right', and vice versa. I think of it this way. Whether you're using rearview mirrors or looking over your shoulder, you will always be steering INTO the direction of error. For instance, if the trailer wanders to the right, you steer to the right (clockwise), which kicks the trailer to the left. I believe a common pitfall is not giving the trailer enough time to respond to an adjustment, because over-steering only leads to counter-correction, and a snake path down the ramp. Roger

Yep, that's the one I remember best. Roger

Sad but true. One of the best ways to start is with a "state publication" which deals with the same waterbodies you'll actually be fishing. Local publications may offer info on local drawdown dates, special regulation changes, current pool levels, plant life situations, spray programs, lake catch-rates, et al. Data such as this is far more important than the advent of the next Helicopter Lure ;D Roger

For the past few years, we've been throwing Berkley Hollow-Belly swimbaits extensively. IMO, the two greatest assets of the Hollow-Belly is its exceptional weedlessness and durability. I would sooner stop using a lure before resorting to the use of Superglue. Being in central Florida, we're cranking through surface vegeation all day long, fields of waterlilies, spatterdock, maidencane and hyacinths. During the doldrums, when the bait isn't getting a workout, I've already pitched the same bait for two days running. I rig a 6" Berkley hollow-belly on an Owner 1/2 oz Sled Head, but rather than follow the crowd, we rig the swimbait sideways. This provides unique action, a generous hook bite and more reliable hook-ups. Although a 1/4 oz jig is adequate, I like the swimbait stability offered by 1/2 oz jig. Be aware that the 1/2 oz Owner Sled Head is available with a 2/0 or 4/0 hook. I strictly use a 6-inch Berkley Hollow-Belly on an Owner 1/2oz Sled Head with 4/0 hook. I wouldn't be in a hurry to switch to a solid body, even KVD expressed his preference for hollow swimbaits. Roger

As it is now, I stick myself nearly every time I reach for a Gamee or Owner hook. I have a feeling that a Trokar might finish me off Roger

We've fished West Point Lake quite a bit during the six years we lived in Georgia (1992 to 1998). In drop-off areas associated with the Chattahoochee channel, we've always caught more spotted bass than bigmouth bass. The best action for largemouth bass that we personally experienced was in the headwater section near New River and Potato Creek. Roger

Have checked Navionics for a premium paper map Hotmap of the lakes you fish? Some are navigation maps, not detailed enough and some are 1' & 2' elevation maps. The maps cost about $15 and you can mail order them by lake name. WRB Caveat: Some Navionics High-Def hydro maps with 1-foot increments begin at the 6-foot contour line, which are totally useless in most natural lakes! Roger

By far, my favorite livewell additive is Micropterus salmoides Roger