WRB-2.0

Don't know anything about this rod, called a MH with heavy stats! You don't need 20 lb FC or 50 lb braid for MN bass that may weigh up to 8 lbs. You need heavier line so you can get lures through cover like weeds. If that is your goal go with straight braid, leader in weeds isn't needed unless you need to break off the line for some reason. FC or mono will not cut through weeds, braid does! Tom

The photo doesn't have any tangible clues to length and girth and that is the only method to judge weight without actually weighing the fish. You or your friend need to measure the fish and then we can estimate it's weight. Tom

Dr Kieth Jines "The Scientific Approach to Catching Bass". *expensive Bill Murphy " In Pursuit of Giant Bass". * inexpensive These should keep you busy for awhile. Tom

Mac Weakley foul hooked Dottie....bed fish that should have been the new world record bass. Snagging bed fish is illegal in some states and should be illegal everywhere! Tom

What comes to mind isn't the scenic moments without friends and family to share them with. From the Canadian wilderness lakes to latitude 22 Baja all have moments that were awesome. It's often the first time we see nature at it's best that leaves a clear picture in our mind. A family of otters swimming up to the boat in the Canadian wilderness lake wondering what is that on our water! Thousands of birds crashing into baitfish being fed on by marlin and tuna as the sun rises or sets in a green flash in Baja sunset. We are blessed to have these special moments. Tom

Bass will abort the spawn and do if the water temps are not warm enough when the eggs are fully formed. The problem with cold water is the eggs will not hatch or take too long to hatch. The temps we post 62-67 for LMB are average for the majority of the bass population, not a absolute range. Nature being what it is isn't exact, some bass don't spawn, some may spawn in the fall. Tom

Name brand, why? A custom rod using a ”name brand" blank maybe far better.If this angler is flipping a 8' X heavy is good, pitching a shorter 7' med-hvy maybe the right choice . Few if any on this site has caught more bass on jigs than I have and my rods are not name brands. I rarely flip or pitch jigs and that is why the question was asked! Tom pS; Sam not picking on you, the generic answers are this site are getting to me....need a break.

Let's focus on the guy in MI with his pre spawn? Tom

Like the bass you holding in the avatar!

All of CA's lakes that have recorded giant bass catches are public lakes, come out and catch them, lots of folks have tried! To answer to the question about planted trout, the trout are planted in SoCal in the winter months when the water is cold enough to support trout in the reservoirs that have bass populations. Most trout plants stopped about 5 years ago in the bass lakes because hatchery raised trout are considered a non native fish where native salmon or steelhead may have existed before the lakes were damed. Lake Hodges 20.4 lb FLMB, no trout ever planted there. No it's not close to being the same as Schwartz feeding program in private small lakes. CA doesn't hold the all tackle world record, holds a few line class records accepted by the IGFA. Tom

Let's break down spoons into 3 categories used for bass fishing. 1. Structure spoons fished vertical. 2. Flutter spoons fished horizontal. 3. Weedless spoons fished horizontal. Which type of spoons are you asking about? Tom

How do you plan to fish jigs, heavy cover with braid or casting with FC line?Tom

I see that Gizzard shad survive in Southern Wisconsin, the extreme northern edge of their range so you are correct. Young Gizzard shad are bass forage, adults are too big. Largemouth being more prevalent than smallmouth in Wisconsin does surprise me! Tom

The Japanese bass 22 lbs 4 oz is tied with The Georgia bass 22 lbs 3 oz, there is a 2 oz rule, must be 2+ oz heavier to establish a new world record. We know for a fact what all the details of the (Kurita) Japan bass is, the (Perry) bass remains questionable, all hearsay, no facts. Tom

Your partner is nuts!

If the water clarity is decent you should be seeing bass cruising the bank, both smaller males and a few females, keep mind in your pond has a limited number of adult size bass. My advise is make a change to your presentations. If you are not using finesse presentations, start! Split shot or drop shotting with 5" and "6 worms; curl tails with split shot and straight tails with drop shot. Tom

The Tatula requires a little more break until you get used to less line friction through the level wind T wing. When you get the reel dialed into lure weights or wind resistant lures you should be able to cast longer distance with less effort using the Tatula. I have not tuned my new Tatula's and they cast very well out of the box. Like any new reel you should check it out for quite bearings and smooth operation. Not familiar with the Patriarch reel. Tom

The northern water are different than waterways below the Mason-Dixon Line where water doesn't freeze in bass lakes. Your area the bass have a much shorter growing cycle and pre spawn to spawn period is a shorter time frame, the seasonal transitions happen faster. The water gets colder quicker (fall-winter) and warms slower (winter-spring). Other differences are smallmouth bass are more common than largemouth bass, different bass with different prey and location needs. You don't have any shad, you may have herring and gobies depending on the lakes, Young of last years bluegill, crappie, perch, suckers, catfish and various minnow types like chubs make up the baitfish, crawdads are nearly everywhere and available year around. Terrestrial critters may not be a prey source for pre spawn, most all prey types are near the lake bottom and that is where you should focus your attention. Warm calm days bass will move up in the water column, cold windy days the stay deeper and this will continue for a few months until the bass start the spawning process when the warms to about 58 degrees for smallies and 62 degrees for largemouth. All the various bottom bumping lures work in cold water, slower moving mid water lures like jerk baits and smaller size crank baits work as the fish move up, the hard lures are better in light wind. Tom

Don't wait too long to take care of severe back pain. The feeling of numbness in your feet is telling you the nerves are being damaged, they don't recover. When you loose the ability to balance because you lost feeling your walking gait suffers, you stumble and end up injured. 2 years ago I finally had to have spinal surgery, recovery is slow but you do recover. Now I am back to hooking up the boat and fishing, life is better not perfect, getting older isn't easy. Take care of your back sooner than later, life is too short to live in severe pain. Spring is a good time to shore fish, pick warm calm days and the bass will come to you. Tom

Take Catts advice. My advice is don't bother with overthinking spinnerbaits and buy good quality like Nichols spinnerbaits. Tom

Bank fishing in the spring is a good time to bass fish. The old saying "spring up" is worthwhile remembering. The Bottom lures like soft plastic worms and creatures presented with T-rig, finesse C-rig or regular C-rig and drop shot rigs all work well. You simply work the deeper rocky areas using a Mojo style sliding weight, the T-rig with standard bullet weight, the drop shot with a round weight. The weights heavy enough to cast (1/8, 3/16, 1/4) too heavy will hang up more often. Fan cast the areas and work slowly, you have lots of time. Your map isn't a spot, it's a section of the lake that has several points and coves. I like to start at the base of the points and work back into the coves, fish the entire shoreline this time of year. Don't know anything about your tackle, so limits other lure types to suggest. Enjoy your time and catch lots of bass. Tom

You are talking about the Laz-troll by Byrd Outboard Motor co, MO, they closed in 1989. There are some exceptional electric OB's on the market, however bass boats use Motorguide and Minnkota today because the are very reliable and high thrust power. Tom

The reason I hook set or more accurately initiate the hook set by reeling the line tight quickly is the fact you can't move enough line at 90+ feet away from the boat using the rod without the line being tightened first. A rod might be able to move 3 to 5 feet of line at 90+ feet! it the rod tip is down near the water surface and you whip back over head. I can recover 7 to 9 feet of line faster by cranking the reel handle 2 to 3 times, catch up with the bass if it has swam towards me and then use the rod to complete the hook set. The reel is more than a line holder, it's a line management system. Been using this hook set over 30 years, in fact first wrote an article about this in 1986. Faster line recovery helps making this type of hook set and the primary reason I gave the 8.1:1 a try out. I don't fish any faster than before, it's not my style, more of a saturation presentation when casting jigs and soft plastics. I still use my round reels for swimbaits and big deep diving crankbaits, it's good to know the R-100XS can be used if I want. Tom

Is that when the FLMB stocking program started in Texas?San Diego city lakes used small 5 acre ponds (1959) where lake Miramar is now located to raise fingerlings to bass about 5 per pound, then transplanted those into Upper Otay to grow to about 2 lbs before stocking Lower Otay for public fishing. The food base was all natural, whatever was available in the ponds and Upper Otay lake the normal prey sources were threadfin shad, bluegill, crappie, crawdads, no NLMB to spawn with. The goal wasn't to raise giant bass, they wanted to increase the average size bass from 2 lbs to 3 lbs, for the recreational angler, they had no idea at that time the FLMB would grow to be giants at the start of this program. Tom PS, Texas has excellent fishery management folks and you are fortunate to fish there for 4 decades.

Not sure how Daiwa over came the issue of high speed gearing that doesn't over load the crank shaft when under pressure from crank baits. Every high speed reel I have used in the past the cranking force loaded like a bicycle in high gear going up hill, you wanted to down shift to a lower gear. Burning a lure back faster is what nearly everyone thinks of with high speeds, however you can crank slowly effectively with this reel, that is what surprised me. One reason a low profile reel may need higher speeds is the spool size doesn't maintain line per inch recovered like larger diameter spool round reel. The 8.1:1, 33" drops to 28" @ 40 yds of line off the spool or about 6.7:1 ratio. Spool fill levels are important when figuring reel ratio. When you fill a spool the line tightens with use and the fill drops down about 1/16" spool diameter, affecting the ratio of line recovered. Tom