WRB-2.0

How about using the rod Jordan Lee used to win Heavy Hitters $100K using a frog for under $50! On sale at TW. Tom

Suggest 7 lb Sniper and prefer using 5 lb Maxima 5 lb Ultra Green copoly. Tom

Most of the pontoon boats have a canopy to shade the passengers. If the guide had the boat sideways to the wind and waves the pontoon could roll over. Why a skilled guide would get sideways and his passengers not wearing PFD’s makes him liable imo. Tragic accident condolences to the families. Tom

Tinkering ( modifying) with bass lures is a common practice. Adding colors to lures is probably the #1 modification. Tunning the lures is #2 as few come out of the box with the action we are looking. #3 is changing hooks size, color, style and adding dressing like feathers. #4 changing ROF (sink rate) by adding weight. #5 changing sound like running silent or adding rattles, Very few bass anglers use a lure out of the box, tinkering is a big part of bass fishing. Tom

Irod IRG804SB is ideal 8” Hudd swimbait rod. Dobyns DC806SB is a higher end rod, excellent choice. What reel and line do you plane to use. Tom

A properly tied fishing knot should be 100% knot strength of the line. This means the knot doesn’t fail the line breaks away from the knot. Fluorocarbon line doesn’t have 100% strength. For this reason anglers keep trying to find a knot that is reliable and yields 90% knot strength, so far that knot doesn’t exist. Tom

The current 22.312lb world record LMB caught legally in Japan’s Lake Biwa by Kurita was on a live bluegill. Ethical? Depends on your moral compass and beliefs what is right or wrong. Tom

Nope and don’t plan to tire it! Tom

Spawning can be life threatening when bass are shallow water from predators including man. After the spawn or post spawn the bass are tired and more vulnerable to injury and a few older bass don’t survive. The bass in the photos has puncture wounds from either a heron or other predator imo. Tom

Babe Ruth you got to be kidding! The only thing I may have in common with the Babe is we drank too much. Never gave this threads topic a thought. Rock Clunn comes to mind as a bass angler with similar appreciation to keeping in touch with our surrounding environment on the water. Any success Catching those green fish was a result staying focused on what is going on and listening to our intuition. Tom

Just following this thread that started out about a ? about prop pitch, aluminum vs SST and boat speed. The OP has a stock 17 P aluminum 4 blade prop that came with his 75 hp Merc 4 stroke on a aluminum RT178 boat. The boat isn’t made for speed as it’s a modified V flat bottom Jon type bass boat. Trying increase speed requires a prop designed to run in the water with this type of hull bottom. The stock aluminum 4 blade has the correct Pitch, rake and cup to run wet a SST prop if equal numbers may add a few mph because it has less flex. The boat is pushing a lot of water instead of running on a small pad surface and that reduces speed. IMO increasing HP is the obvious method to increase boat speed with possible going up to 18P SST prop. Tom

It’s up to you to maintain spooled line tension. As correctly noted loose line indicates the spool in turning faster then the line is coming off. Line memory creates the line to spring loose. Using smaller diameter line reduces memory with mono, copoly or FC single filament line. Nylon mono line tends to wet and wet line will stay tighter then dry line. You can help the line to stay wet by using a line conditioner. I use use Tangle Free in warm dry weather to help wet the line. Casting motion to let the rod load up to launch the lure slows down the reel spool start up speed along with slight thumb pressure to keep line smoothly coming the spool. The rod has a major affect on bait casting reel performance. Practice, practice, practice to develop good casting motion. Tom

A few decades back falling barometer pressure was sold as a measure of fishing catching activity. We now know lower barometric brings cloudy and possibly rain from a low pressure system. We have good weather forecast with visual satellite images tracking weather systems. No need to watch your home barometer to know a low pressure system is approaching or a high pressure cold front is following the low pressure. It’s common knowledge today how high & low pressure systems affect fishing. Tom

I have brought up a bass named Moses a few times. This bass changed how I fished for a lifetime. I triton catch Moses for 2 summers at Big Bear lake and finely caught the big bass. I was so excited and ran with the bass back to my grandma’s cabin to show off fish. Gram told me to clean the bass and we would have the fish for dinner. It broke my heart to clean Moses and the experience changed how I would fish forever. Tom

Very few aquatic plants in Wolford, the prey source was planted rainbow trout, Threadfin Shad and crawdads. The boulders were isolated about 100 yards off shore I believe they offered an ambush site. The majority of bass caught off the boulders were by anglers using live crawdads. Tom

Lake Wolford in San Diego county has 2 big boulders (bus size) side by side creating a tight space between them. These 2 boulders have always produced big bass for decades. The bass sit tight up against boulder near the bottom. Tom

Put blue ice in a towel and cover the reel/mono line with towel to keep the reels cool Tom

What does black with blue trailer match?….nothin but is the #1 jig color combinations for decades because bass eat it! I prefer to match a color in the jig skirt because it looks good to me, sometimes the bass agree. Tom

Transitioning technology Mfr’s offer a bridge from older to newer. When everyone had a 12V TM the 24V had a switch 12 or 24V, same today 24V to 36V. You have the 24V battery so use it and upgrade to 36V when needed. More power throughout the range is more efficient and there when needed. Tom

I would put them away and buy todays reels that have better performance, instant anti reverse and 1/2 the weight. The pre 2000 Ambassador made in Sweden will always retain market value. Tom

Right now during the Memorial Day sales is a good time to buy higher end tackle. ALF I believe has great deals Dobyns rods. Price is something only you can decide on. Tom

I don’t know what drove me as a younger man but had to know why, it’s who I am. Tools to help answer questions were very limited when I started bass fishing and knowledge of habitats and bass behavior was nearly non existent. The Fish Lo K Tor flasher was the 1st techy tool I bought into. The 2nd was my Dark Ind analog instant read thermometer w/50 probe wire. I used the flasher to help understand top maps and habitats. The thermometer allowed me to develop an understanding bass body temperature was the same as the water at the depth the bas acclimated in. This allowed me to understand bass location by seasonal periods a big step towards solving the why of bass behavior. The paper graph recorded what the flasher displayed allowing a deep study of the days outing and how bass related to structure elements. Sonar became an essential tool in my early years of fishing both fresh and salt water. I would say a 10 ATS scale, when was active fishing. Tom

Single axle with full size Goodyear Endurance tires can easily handle the weight of 19’ glass bass boats. The advantage of single axle trailer maneuverability can’t be overstated. The caddy must be on flat solid surface to push by hand and will not slide random tires, you need space to turn the trailer. The advantage if random axle trailers safety when towing if you loose a tire. Aluminum trailers offers weight savings if overall towing weight is an issue. Tom

Current is one of the most misunderstood factors in bass fishing. Our small deep structured lakes can have current without water flowing in or out! Wind pushes water and moving water is current, it’s not as visible as river current, it’s still current. Current is a negative to bass seeking spawning areas, it disturbs the egg hatching. Current is a positive to for feeding as it positions and activates prey and the bass hunting it. Tidal current is the most complex to master as it constantly changing directions. Ideally you want your lure coming to the forward facing bass not creeping up from behind. If you don’t recognize current it’s a crap shoot where to position your boat and where to cast your lures. Tom

Every bass is different regarding post release stress. Big bass suffer from being caught because we want to document the catch. On average about 3% tournament caught bass put onto livewell don’t survive the stress. Bigger the bass the more it gets handled. General rule is keeping the bass out of water longer then you can hold your breath increases stress levels. Shore angler reduces your ability to release big bass after trying to photo and weigh the fish. Just because the bass managed to swim off doesn’t indicate how stressed it was. Tom