WRB-2.0

There are swimbaits and wannabe swimbaits, soft swimmers, hard hand made and mass produced injection molded hard swimbaits. Big,medium and small swimbaits, lots of choices and easy to make a mistake. Are you willing to invest in specific rods for the heavier swimbaits over 2 oz? If not; My suggestion would be to start with Black Dogs G2 bluegill wake bait or Matt lures 5" soft bluegill slow sink. You will need a med/ hvy or hvy swimbait rod for the larger heavier swimbaits. The top soft small swimbait IMO are Little Crippers 6" Trash Fish and Basstrix 6" Hollowbody swimbaits. Both these lures started the small to medium size soft swimbait era and have lots of knock offs, the real thing works better. Large keel weighted hooks in 6/0 work for both and these can be fished OK with heavy frog or jig rod. Swimbaits are not crankbaits, this is the mistake most anglers make, chuck and wind like a crank. Swimbaits are like fishing a top water except underwater; slow and steady is best most of the time with a few pauses and jerks to change pace. Be patient and give them a full days work out. Have a good and safe Memorial Dat. Tom

Need to know length and girth to estimate weight; L x L x G / 1200 = weight in lbs Use your line to measure the bass and save the pieces to measure later, if you don't have a tape measure or scale. Length; measure bass laying flat from closed mouth to end of tail, Girth around the widest area with dorsal fin down. Tom

Working at a boat landing as a teen part of my job was showing new anglers how to rig their tackle and what to use and where to use it. What you learn is some folks need and seek help, others avoid it. If someone ask or shows an interest, then volunteer your help. Unsolicited advice is often taken wrong and can create animosity. Tom

How would you handle a fish with sharp teeth, treat the bass the same when it has sharp treble hooks in it's mouth. A good knotless net works, holding the bass belly up in back of the head works, Boga style grips work, hand anywhere in the mouth doesn't work every time and accidents are painful. Tom

Skin cancer can and does kill a lot of people every year. The best way to apply a good sun SPF 30+ sunscreen is before you leave to go fishing. Wear wide brim hat and SPF clothing to cover as much skin as possible. Reapply sunscreen as needed about every 2-3 hours during mid day bright sun. Does sunscreen on lures turn off bass? Does it matter? If this worries you than keep a small spray bottle of green soap and a wash rage in the boat and wash your hands after applying the sunscreen. You should wash your hands after handling fish attractants. Wash with soap and rinse with lake water. Tom

The action extra fast isn't a good choice for what you plan to do and 3 power rods are under powered for your application. 4 or 5 power in fast action is correct, 7' to 7'3" is the length range unless you are primarily flipping, then a 7'6" would be easier to use. Tom

Current WON has a fish report; early top water bite, 8-10' during the day, decent bite. Tom

The water levels are way down at Naci, Antone and No concessions at Marg. The only lake currently worth fishing is Lopez. Sounds like the ocean was a bust, too bad, timing is everything. Tom

NLMB vs FLMB Prior to 1967 the California LMB state record was 14.7 lbs. 1959 FLMB were transplanted from Florida to San Diego CA as fingerlings into a closed lake to public fishing, Upper Otay. 1965 FLMB from Upper Otay were moved to Lower Otay open to public fishing. San Diego city lakes were also stocked with the Upper Otay FLMB in 1966. 1968 through 1971 the CA LMB record fell nearly every month from 14.8 lbs to 21.15 lbs over a 4 year period, the difference was Florida strain LMB. Same lakes, same climate, same forage base, different bass. FLMB can't survive water temperature lower than 45 degrees and that limits where they can live, they can't live in northern states. Someday bass anglers will figure this out, NLMB grow about 50% less in weight than FLMB. It's insane to judge all LMB as equal, a 7 lb NLMB is equal to a 10 lb FLMB, lower your goal for NLMB or raise the bar for FLMB, the both can't be the same! Tom

Line size and type should be selected for the type of structure and cover you fish. What is important is you are in touch with your lure and can control the bass. Big bass that you catch rarely study your lure/ line combination and strike within a few feet from where they are located. Clear water is another definition that differs regionally, 3-5 or 8-10 or deeper. Where I fish most of our lakes are deep structure water storage reservoirs with sparse cover, rocks and a few stick ups. Depth of good bottom visibility averages 8 feet or more. The big bass are wary of boats do in part to fishing pressure and survival instinct and tend to stay below the visual depth of light. What all this means you can't sit on top of these bass and catch them so longer casts are needed. My choice to catch big bass are swimbaits, jigs and big worms most of the time. Swimbaits, depending on weight/size: 15 lb for 1-2 oz and 25 lb to lb for 3to 8 oz, premium mono. Jigs and big worns (9" to 13") day time; 10 to 14 lb premium FC, night 15 to 20 premium FC. Be alert when the lure first hits the water or within 5 feet of the bottom and within 5 feet of the retrieve, 90% of big bass strikes usually occur within that window. Tom

Tackle Warehouse is Roboworms largest customer domestically, Hook Up Tackle carries a wider variety of colors. The best selling color is Morning Dawn. I was surprised thinking the east coast anglers are into greens. There are several Morning Dawn colors variations used for Spotted and Smallmouth bass. Sometimes we tend to forget that not all bass are largemouth. I have been using Baitball the past few years with good success when shad are up. Tom

Speedbead is right on target, you must fish for big bass to catch them, few bass anglers have the dedication to pursue big bass, it's not for everyone. There is some luck involved, mostly lucky enough to be able to fish and pursue giant bass. Bill Murphy's book In Pursuit of Giant Bass is a good source to learn big bass habits, start there. Tom

Very lite tackle for bass fishing, too lite for any weight over 3/16 oz.My suggestion is a drop shot or slip shot rig with 4 1/2" Roboworms. Get yourself the following from Hook Up Tackle, currently offering 20% off. Size 1 Owner 5133 down shot hooks. 3/32 oz mojo sliding weight, 3/16 oz Owner drop shot weight. 4 1/2" baitball and morning sunrise straight tail worms. Carolina Keepers, clear. Drop shot rig, use the Owner 3/16 drop shot weight, tie the Owner 5133 hook about 12" above the weight with Palomar knot, weedless hook the Roboworm. Slip shot rig, use the mojo style slip sinker, add the Carolina Keeper about 18" above the 5133 hook, weedless hook the Roboworm. Use the Morning down early and late, the baitball anytime. Cast either out and slowly work along the bottom, bounce slack line against the drop shot weight, drag the mojo weight. You should consider getting a med-light 6'6" rod and use 6 lb line Good luck. Tom PS, night fishing go with darker colors and 6" worms.

Pro staff on various tackle companies get stuff to fish with about 2 to 3 years before it is released to the general public. The big reason is to give pro staffers an edge in tournaments. Some colors are never released on sites like Tackle warehouse due to regional preference in colors. Can you guess what Roboworms best selling color is nationwide? Tom

I was having lunch today with a few local pro bass anglers and the topic came where to find "staff color" soft plastics when you are not on the pro staff. The site The Hook Up Tackle was talked about and it turns out this site has nearly all the hard to find Roboworm colors, check it out! Tom

In past I have used 1/128 oz Turner Micro jigs about 1/2" and 16" dinosaur swimbaits. Currently fishing with Keitech 2" little spider on 1/8 jig and 16" Uptom's Custom worms, heaviest Black Dog 12" swimbait. Tom

Agree trophy status should be regional like In-Fisherman did with their program.A Lunker LMB was 7 lbs back in the 70's for B.A.S.S. "Lunker Awards" program. I have tried for decades to get IGFA to add 2 separate species for Florida strain LMB and Northern strain LMB, 2 different bass and can be field identified with lateral line scale counts, FLMB have 69-73 lateral line scales, 17-18 scale rows below the lateral line. NLMB have 59-68 lateral scales, 15-16 rows below the lateral line. Tom

Line is the most important connection between you and the fish, choose carefully. The past few years there has been a lot of improvement in fishing line, it's a changing state of the art as mfr's learn more about high strength polymers and fibers. The problem we have in America is we chased production and development off shore. DuPont gave up their facilities and sold off some equipment to the folks at Vicious. My favorite FC was Sunline Shooter between 1988 to about 2010, then changed to Blackwater Hi Test Bass FC until they went nuts with doubling the price, great line. Now I am back to Sunline using new Super Sniper FC. Not a fan of braid for bass fishing where I fish, deep structured lakes with sparse cover. Tom

It's going to get hot fast in Phoenix area soon! Can't help you with private ponds because it's been a long time since fishing there. There is a small lake near Tempe on the Salt River with decent bass fishing, Temp Town lake. The nearest decent size bass lake is Saguaro. What type of tackle do you have? Please be specific so I can make a few suggestions as to what to use. Tom

Along with price comes customer service, availability, taxes and shipping cost. Hard to beat Ron at Valley Sports on all of the above, low price to your door on time. Tom

Memorial Day, good luck!

It's easy to remember your first lure, rod/ reel comb, Thank you.Tom

The vintage Arbogast Hawiian Wiggler #3 is a weedless spoon, looks like a Johnson Silver Minnow with a skirt.

The #3 is a weedless spoon with a rubber skirt, look it up.

Do-It molds #473498 football swing jig. Tom