WRB-2.0

Finesse isn't always smaller lures, it is precise presentations and attention details. Tom

Your lake is popular with local derbies which means you are sharing the water with experienced bass anglers. If 50 boats are fishing maybe 25 good spots, there are very few unknown spots. So assume those others anglers are fishing the well known lures and colors. For example black-blue jigs and watermelon red flake worms and Senko's. If you are fishing the same colors and presentation as the other anglers, why do you believe you will out fish them? The answer isn't how smart the bass are, it's how smart you are that will determine success. The old saying 10% of the bass anglers catch 90% of the bass is as true today as it was 50 years ago! Separate yourself from the anglers by using techniques and lures the other are not using. Hint; 95% of bass anglers fish within 20 yards of the bank, look over your shoulder and discover un pressured bass. Tom

You use a swim jig where and whenever you use a spinnerbait.Swimbaits are slower moving and mimic larger or slower moving baitfis. Apples vs oranges. Tom

1,500 acres is about the average size lake in SoCal with year around fishing pressure. Finesse fishing tactics were developed to cope with this type of fishing pressure we call freeway fishing do to the very high traffic. LMB can be very selective when they are not actively feeding, add fishing pressure and they get tough to catch. I have referenced Don Iovino's book several times because he is a expert finesse angler and his book Finesse fishing and the Sonar connection is a good read. Tom

True jig being a jig with a skirt, then a false jig must be a jig without skirt! Interesting concept. False jig with a craw falls faster and goes through cover easier and has a smaller profile than a true jig, often triggers strikes when bass are keying on any of those characteristics. Tom

Nice boat! I will guess you have a sonar unit, trolling motor with transducer up front, standard bass boat set up. The lake looks about 1 1/2 long, small lake, but big enough to take some time to learn.1. The spinning outfit may be need to change the line to 8 to 10 lb line. Spinning can be used for several soft plastic finesse presentations and I recommend reading Don Iovono's little book on Finesse fishing and the Sonar connection. My favorite rigs to teach new bass anglers are; Slip shot and drop shot rigs using spinning tackle. Slip shot or finesse C-rig consist of; sliding 1/8 oz mojo weight. Glass bead, Carolina keeper or pegged glass bead, size 1 Gamakatsu light wire worm hook (49410-25, 25 pack). Roboworms in 5 1/2" curl and straight tail oxblood/ red flake and MM III colors. You can drag this rig all around the areas I suggested at the depth you meter fish marks or 1' to 25' up or down hill. Weedless hook (T-skin hook) the worms. Drop shot, 1/4 oz drop shot weight, size 1 Gamakatsu or owner drop shot shot hooks, hook about 10" above the weight. Use this rig where you see fish marks near the bottom, straight tail Roboworms above. Nose or wacky hook the drop shot worms. 6" Senkos wacky rigged, (o-ring) with weedless wide gap size 2/0 Gamakatsu or Owner hooks. Nail weight with 3/32 Eagle Claw or Lunker City. Jigs with your casting outfit; Start with a spider jig, 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz plain-black football weedless heads with GY 4" hula grubs in dark watermelon green, red/blk flake. These are all bottom bumping rigs. If you need to use faster lures, stay with jerk baits and lipless cranks for the next 2 months, but try to fish the slow bottom rigs more often. New lakes have lots of brush and the bass grow fast. Enjoy you're time on the water with your new boat! Talk to other anglers and watch them to learn how they are catching bass and share your success with them. Good fishing. Tom

Learning boat control and bass fishing at the same time by yourself is a challenge. You will save a lot of time if you can get a knowledgable bass angler to fish with you. We can give you some advice on where and what to fish, can't help you control the boat. What type of tackle do you fish with, be specific as you want; spinning or bait casting with XX line, rod is XX ?? The reason is to suggest the lure types and presentation techniques. It's going to get easier as the water warms! Bass are predator fish and eat smaller fish ( bait fish), crawdads, worms, frogs, etc. soft plastics appeal to several prey types, move slowly and taste/ feel alive to the bass. Faster moving lures are more impulse strikes, last second reaction by the bass. Tom

The Daredevil IMP 2/5 oz spoon has a long history of catching bass. This spoon is available in chrome and is an excellent structure spoon, change the hook to a Owner or equal chrome size 2 treble. Tom

Sunline Shooter Deifer mono maybe the answer to swimbait anglers. The 22 lb is 0.015 D great strength to diameter ratio, eliminates knot issue we fight with FC line. The one thing you want with swimbaits is ease of casting long distances. Braid creates big problems casting heavier lures long distances do to severe backlash when they occur. FC stretches and breaks, you lose the swimbait and bass. Mono is your best bet and any good casting line should be OK. I use inexpensive Trilene Big Game 25 lb for larger 3-8 oz swimbaits and respool line after every 3rd outing I use it. Swimbaits 1 1/2 oz or less you can use a wider variety of lines without concern, I use 15 mono. If you try to hook set using the rod at distances over 30 yards,you are going to have issues, use the reel, then the rod after the line is tight...sharp hooks work! Tom

Prayers sent for Mark and his family. Tom

Since you are exploring this break might as well meter all of it looking for bass or baitfish. The zig zag approach works good, just remember the sonar cone is only 1/3rd the depth in diameter: 8' = 30" dia., 22' = 7' dia area your sonar see's clearly. The deeper 22' water is easier to survey than the shallower 8' water. Get yourself a couple of marker buoys to mark things of interest like big arches (fish) or the top and bottom of the break. You will have plenty of time to fish after you know what the structure looks like and where the bass are holding on this structure. Make a map, note any isolated features, brush, rocks, whatever so you can fish them later. What lures you use depends on the cover and (in Florida) cover is important on this break! As the water gets warmer a thermocline may develop and the bass may not use the deepest water. Tom

Was there any ponds in the area before the dam was constructed that had bass populations?Otherwise most states stock fingerlings, no brood stuck because the adults tend to eat the fingerlings. If they stocked 6" bass, then there maybe some brood stock. 3 to 3 1/2 year old bass would be about 2 lbs to 2 1/2 lbs, you may want to down size your lure selection to 5" to 6" worms, 1/2 oz lipless crankbaits to start with. Tom

Salt water fishing a break line is usually a quick temperature change or thermal break and can a change in water color, green to blue water for example. River anglers use the term break line for current breaks. We can confuse you beyond recovery. Break line to most bass anglers is a quick change in water depth. Everything Catt mentioned are break lines. A quick change is also relative to surround lake bottom contour; 1' change can be a break line if the surrounding bottom area is flat, 5' to 10' quick depth change on a fast tapering structure is also a break line. Soil breaks are easy to see above water, not so easy to determine underwater. Weed breaks are usually visual. Tom

The primary secondary point between Mustang and rocket coves is where some bass will stag when the water temps are between 55-60, then move into the shallow areas of both coves to spawn. The major point area between war eagle cove and wildcat coves should be good now and after the spawn depending on the wind direction. I would learn these two areas first. Tom

$260 retail, if you can get this for $150 go for it!

Ro,o, should used Creek Chub Injured Minnow instead of that knock off Crippled Minnow! They are still plugs to me. Tom

Raising water levels flood new feeding zones! Bass usually move up when water raises and pull back when it falls. Spring up Fall down is an old saying that means the direction the bass are facing. Generally the larger bass tend to stay near ingress areas where the water is flooding and don't move too far back into new areas. You only talking about 2 weeks, think early pre spawn, maybe water temps rising about 10 degrees. Tom

5" and 6" Senkos 5" curl and straight tail Roboworm, oxblood small red flake, drop shot.GY twin tail 4" Hula Grub on 3/8 oz GY football jig, cast and retreive like a T-rig 5" or 6" Basstrix Hollowbody Paddletail swimbait on keel weighted 5/0 hook. Brush hog, T-rigged. Tom

Most rivers flow north to south and man made reservoirs are dammed at the narrow deepest area of a river valley, thus the south end is deeper water, the north end shallow. Shallow water warms faster than the deeper water. The north west area usually get the longest period of sun light to warm the water. Hope that helps! Tom PS, most bass jargon comes from the heartland of bassdom, big reserviors.

The longer handle aides in casting, you simply tuck the handle under your fore arm during the retreive and it's out of the way.Tom

Read Bill Murphy's book In Pursuit of Giant Bass.Your question requires a book to answer. My big bass lures are; pig & Jig ( real pork trailers & hair jigs), big soft hand poured plastic worms 8" to 13", both hard and soft 6" to 12" swimbaits, wake baits and big top water lures. Tom

River bass fishing up north is very different from reservoir bass fishing below the Mason-Dixon Line. Smallmouth spawn starts around 58D ends about 65D and river bass live in constant current conditions. You need to study and learn current breaks, seems in the water where current is slack between faster moving water. To spawn, bass need the water to be still or very slight current protected areas with gravel bottoms in rivers. The Niagara river has fast moving current, the deeper holes should hold pre spawner's, look for protected current areas near the deeper hole areas where the water is about 2' to 4' deep, sandy-gravel type bottom with good sunlight. Tom

If this lake was man made there will be a topographic elevation map file before the lake was made. You need to go to your county office and request the map. Try to get at least a 5' or less elevation map. The surrounding terrain should also give you clues to what is under water and the lake bottom looks like, it doesn't change because it is covered with water. Tom

What is called a Devils Horse today was actually a series of Smithwick lures back in the 50's & 60's when I fished them. The pencil type floater with props on each ends has become the "Devils Horse" of today, however was the least productive of the series! For me the larger size (900 series) Buck N Bawl was the most productive and had 1 small rounded prop in the tail end, sat in the water nose up and could be double jerked so it would dive under water a few inches then jump to the surface. If you can get your hands on a Buck N bawl change the hooks, it's a excellent lure. The PA Scooter is another Devils Horse, similar to the Buck N Bawl, (1100series) longer and slightly thinner with similar action and can be walked. The PA Scooter is a big bass lure and also needs the hooks changed on vintage lures. For numbers of bass the Buck N Bawl in shad color is hard to beat. Tom

The Heddon Crazy Crawler is still in production, originally came out in 1940. The early Crawlers were wooden, I believe they changed to plastic in the 50's. The Crawler is made in several sizes from musky to smaller bass sizes. I am sure a collector can indentfy the date your Crawler from the hook style and hangers. Tom