WRB-2.0

My favorite 7 1/2”-10” ribbon tail worm is Berkley Power worms on a T-rig for night fishing. Tequila Sunrise and black w/blue flake Power worm have work very good during night bass tournaments. Our night events start around dusk and last 6 hours. The tequila works before dark and black after dark where I fished. tried lots of other worms with Uptons 9” and 13” straight tails in midnight also a good choice. Sometimes the bass want a ribbon tail other nights a floating straight tail, so try both. Tom

The popular tournament finesse worms were Mister Twister curl tail worms out west on a split shot rig. Dick Trask and Don Iovino were winning the events but Trask had a edge he boiled the Twister worms to make them softer. Trask found another worm maker willing to make worms softer and make a 4” ribbon tail worm Dick named Screamers and was his secret weapon. Screamers disappeared when Flutter closed and Dick passed away. A San Diego worm maker started up and bought the Flutter Craft tooling selling them in local shops for about 2 months then disappeared. Actually the company moved to Texas and last year I found them on eBay. US Bait Company making custom colors in Reapers and Screamers that worked as good as ever. 4” Screamers on a split shot is deadly finesse rig and the 3 1/2” Reapers both forgotten. Tom

More Pike have been caught using a Johnson silver weedless spoon with a white pork rind strip then any other lure. White is a basic fish belly color. Bill Murphy “In Pursuit of Giant Bass” has a chapter on lure colors. Bill was a dental technician an expert on matching white colors. Bill decided to test 10 different manufactures of the same tone of white. The test was to paint 10 of same mfr diving crank bait white from each paint supplier and fish them. 7 of the 10 lures performed poorly and 3 caught bass consistently. All the lures looked the same shade of white to Bill’s trained eye. What was the difference? It turned if under ultra violet light the 3 white lures were the same shade and the other 7 were all different shades. To the bass white isn’t always white. After painting all 10 lures with the most successful white they all caught bass. Proving we don’t know how bass brain interprets see colors, Try the white soft plastics and let the bass decide. Tom

For whatever reason bluegill green colored crankbaits haven’t been a good color for me even when the bass will strike green pumpkin soft plastics. Shad and reddish brown crankbaits have always worked everywhere. Tom

I learned bed fishing in the 60’s that big female bass will strike a live water dog (tiger salamander) if they see even if not near a bed during the spawn cycle. The next best bait was live crawdads both are extremely effective to the degree they should be outlawed. I stopped live bait bed fishing around 1970 because it wasn’t a sport imo, too easy. Jigs are ideal imo because they are compact, big hook and look something threatening to the bed bass and takes some skill to catch the bass unlike live bait. Spinnerbaits with big willow blade has worked better for me to get big females attention then a buzzer. A white jig in the bed has been the easiest to see and most effective on the bed lure over the years in the past. Tom

You have a boat use your sonar to search for bass and bait fish. The 1st things I want to know are what is the water temperature and how deep and what are the prey the bass are feeding on. This information should be found in it near the marina you launch your boat at. I never pound the shore line hoping to find bass unless that is where the bass are located, Tom

Should heard the warning alarm! Some anglers disable the alarm when mixing oil to gasoline manually. Tom

No but the DC does reduce casting distance. IMO learn with baitcasting reel properly adjusted to reduce backlash and promotes correct casting motion. Start with a Medium power fast action rod using 1/2 oz casting practice plug, 12 lbs Big Game mono line and med range reel like Shimano SLX 70 MGL or Daiwa Tatula SV TW. Tom

Very important not to get out of bed and start your day without stretching for about 20 minutes, legs, lower back, crunches and shoulders. Tom

Oddly I haven’t ever been asked to see my hunting or fishing license by a game warden, The local DFG warden kept his boat at the landing I worked on at Big Bear lake and they check licenses all time out in the water, never me. I have always had my license all these years since 16 years old, you would think someone would have asked somewhere! Tom

Catt has always recommended to fish a T-rig at night to teach you to focus on feel without the distraction's, he is right! I never gave the night strike feel much thought because my strike fell was well developed before night bass fishing. A light tap at night feels like the bass is trying to take the rod out of your hand you are so focused. When I was tournament night fishing always stared out with a crank bait before dusk, a big wake bait or double buzzer at dusk, then settles down to worm and jig fishing, my strengths until lines out. Although I have fished all my life tournaments always keyed me up and using moving lures at the start helped to settle me down and focused on what I do best. Tom

It’s called a practice casting plug, no hooks. Tom

Fins 10 lb Spin5 braid is .004D or 25% smaller the Suffix 832 8 lb. Suffix braid is one of the largest diameter super braid per lb test on the market. Why use bright color leader? Bass are not line shy it’s a non issue, trout are extremely line shy fish. Tom

You can use 65# braid as a light weight backing and save a few grams. Tom

Irod IRG754F Magic 7’5” HF frog rod/ multiple use 1/2- 2 oz @$150 Tom

I retired at age 72 because I thought my skills were needed… wrong the company is doing great without me. Enjoy your retirement nothing in life is guaranteed. Health has a mind of it’s own. Tinkering with lures is different then making them for a living. You are a young man with decent pensions you earned, enjoy life. Tom

I can’t remember all the different bait casting reels I have owned and caught bass with? The strongest by far was the Shimano Calcutta 250 used for swimbaits. All my bait casters could cast my 7/16 oz jigs 50 yards easily when tuned. So it comes down to which bait caster did I catch the majority of giant bass on! 18.6 lb was a tuned 4500C. 2 ea 17.4’s, 17.6 and 19.3 lbs were using Daiwa TD HAiA’103 tuned reels. PB musky 37 lbs on 2500C reel. Those reels are not near as good as today’s reels but they win. Tom

Bass between 6” to 10” are Juvenal from last yeas spawn and will strike anything that moves, forget them, Using a crank bait when the adult bass are not willing to strike is practicing casting! If you want cast and retrieve try a swim jig like a 3/16 oz ball head with a Keitech 3.3” baby bass. You work the entire water column until you find adult size bass, Tom

Feeling a bass strike soft plastics underwater starts with your finger tips or seeing line movement and ends in the grey matter between your ears. The rod can only dampen the line moments you feel at your fingertips, can’t attenuate it! A soft heavy fiberglass rod dampens feedback more than light high modulus graphite rod but can see and feel line movements regardless of the rod type. I watched kids catching bass using beer can with discarded mono line plastic worms. I have caught thousands of bass using a tubular fiber glass rod decades before graphite rods became available. Line can make a different but you can see and feel all line types move. FC line has less drag going through water vs mono/copolymer line. small diameter braid without slack has good feedback and it floats making braid a good choice as a sight strike detector with zero feel feedback. line isn’t a major factor if you can feel lure. Time on the teaches that grey matter between your ears what your finger tips and eyes are telling you to set the hook! Tom

Worms over 7” on length get T-rigged usually 3/16 oz to 3/8 oz depending on depth and wind. I use my jig rod/reel/line. prefer a T-rig flatter sloping terrain with brush and a jig when the terrain Is steeper where I fish. Excellent night rig always use it or jigs because they work and don’t snag easily Tom

So glad to read about good news Andy. Kay and planned a trip with our son to Japan catch a Viking ship to cruise the Alaskan Aleutian islands and down the inside passage to Vancouver in 2019. Our only son Tommy was diagnosed with stage 4 renal and passed away 5 days after his 37 bday on 22 Jan 2020. Kay has suffered greatly loosing our son affecting her health. 6 months ago see was diagnosed with Waldenstrom Macrohlobilinrmia (WM) blood cancer. We kept the trip scheduled and she has been stable but weakened. Friday her heart went into atri flutter with high pulse rate, she has atrial fibrillation for several years. Today she spent 4 hours getting treatment and wants to go on this trip, so we are going on a hope prayer. Life is precious enjoy it🙏🏻 Tom

When Berkley introduced Vanish it performed so poorly they had to reintroduce as Improved Vanish the fishing market hasn’t overcome being poisoned with vanish. Berkley then introduced 100% Fluocarbon line that is .001 to .002 larger in diameter per lb then both Seaguar and Sunline FC line. Basicaly labeling 12 lb test line 10 lb test and fooled some anglers. Both InvisX and Sniper are formulated to be main line with less memory for improved casting. Leader FC has higher memory and more abrasion resistance. You use Sniper for leader especially if it’s also your main line. Mono has better knot strength and abrasion plus less expensive. Tom

Contact Mike and ask him. Tom

Look at flat field with an oak tree in the middle, where do you think the birds will be..,,in the tree of course. Same applies to bass they will be located where food and shelter is. Buck Perry is considered the father of structure fishing and he refused to use any form of sonar relied on maps and visual terrain while trolling his Spoon plugs. When I met Perry in the 60’s he told me sonar units are worthless, I was shocked because my Flasher was very helpful to locate structure elements that held bass. Tom

Siebert our site sponsor offers hand tied Arkie style jigs with premium hooks, the most important component on any jig. Custom or off the shelf jigs with fiber guard and colors of choice. What more could you want? Tom