WRB-2.0

What hook do you use? A list size by weight would help!Tom

10 years ago is 2004, 95% of my standard use lures are older than 2004! 20 years is 1994, 80% of what I fish with on a regular basis are at least that old. My jig mold dates to 1971 and fish this jig every outing, hair jig with pork ring trailers. The oldest lure I still use are twin spins w/ football jig head and vinyl skirts with pork trailer, 1968 design. Use musky size wooden Jitter Bugs that date back into the 60's at night. Scroungers that are 80's vintage. Several wooden swimbaits that late 80's to early 90's like Huddleston wooden trout. This list is too long to post. Tom

Make a reservation to be sure you have a boat when you get there.Tom PS, I use a padded reel caddy, reel wraps and put each reel in gym socks for extra pads. Don't forget, polarized sun glasses, sunscreen and wide brim hat! Good fishing. Tom

4" PVC tubing with end caps works well, wrap each rod with a towel to keep them from vibrating or rattling tight enoug they don't slide inside the tube. 3 rods, with 2 handle ends at one end of the tube, allow 2" end clearance to add paddling so the tips don't break. The airlines charge $25 today. You can also buy a rod carrier from Cabelas or BPS. E soft carry bags should not be used for airline or shipping. Tom

A one piece rod is stronger, lighter and more reliable construction than 2 piece rods. If you don't need a shorter rod to transport, buy 1 piece rods for bass fishing. Tom

None of the above for musky....too fragile, especially the S-Waver. My suggestions are based on personal preference. 21st Century Triple trout in 7" and 8" slow sinking swimmer. Black Dog Lunker Punker in 6" and 8" surface MS Slammer in 8" wake Tom

The heart land of bass fishing is Arkansas, Alabama and Texas. Hard to best Texas if cost of living and good bass fishing is your goal, plus good employment opportunities. The down side is the state is full of Texans. California has good trophy bass fishing, however unmanged, high taxes, high unemployment, high cost of living, the best climate of any state, low water levels and no bugs. CA is called the left coast because it's full of bleeding heart democrats. Texas is your best bet for good bass fishing. Tom

There are only a few places aquatic plants can't root; rock and clay. Sand, gravel are small pieces of rock and clay is tiny pieces of rock that soil can mix with. If bass have a choice they spawn where rock, gravel, sand or clay are available in wind protect areas. If there isn't any prefered bottom materials, then bass make do with whatever may work, except mud or muck that creates silt to kills the eggs. Depth of light is important, beds are in water that light can penetrate to keep the water warm. The beds will be at least a foot deeper than the lowest tidal movement. Out west we have extremely clear water and beds can be 15' or deeper, rarely less than 3'. Beds in a foot of water the small male is subject to birds eating it, like herons. Tom

Reading Buck Perry takes you back into the 40's and 50's before personal sonar units were available and an era when nearly everyone trolled diving lures. If you don't know what the depth the bass are in ( no sonar) the only method to explore depth is with different diving depth lures. The problem Perry solved with his lure design was a lure that could run different speeds and maintain the same depth. What did change was the lure size and colors. If you were trolling crankbaits where could you troll them without snagging all the time? The answer is; in open water without weeds or other cover to snag. You follow the weed break line or structure depth that allowed your lure to swim freely or occasionally bump bottom at a speed that allowed this to happen. Put the lure where the bass are located in front of or slightly above them and they will go strike it. If your lure is running underneath the bass they rarely go down to strike a fast moving lure like a crankbait" Depth and speed was important to Buck Perry's presentation with trolled Spoon Plugs. Tom

Jeff, the key with Scroungers is a little change is pace using reel cadence, not rod action and to increase speed when you feel bumps. What happens sometimes is the baitfish follow the Scrounger, when a big bass shows the bait scatter and the bass chases the Scrounger down that is trying to escape. If you stop the retrieve, everything stops and turns away. Good luck with your trip and looking for a teener! Tom

The Extreme Custom Tackle Scroungers with larger hooks look good, with 1 exception; the trailer collar tube is smooth. I would prefer the collar tube be smaller in diameter and ribbed to hold soft plastic. If someone made the oversize hook like the Extreme back the early 80's would have saved me from modifying them, thank you for the link and will give them a try. Tom

20-25' is about average depth from pre spawn to late fall out west, as noted this isn't considered deep water in clear deep structured lakes. Structure spoons, jigs, T-rigs, drop shot, slip shot, swimbaits, slow rolled spinnerbaits, Scrounger jigs, etc. Tom

Back in My of '91 fishing lake Castaic and using a modified* original Scrounger I had my best ever day bass fishing in regards to number of 10 lb to 12 lb bass caught in one day; 18. The modification was cutting off the original 3/0 Mustad hook at the hook bend, straighten the hook shank, cut the lead back on 3/4 oz to about 1/4" behind the collar, the head now weighs about 1/2 oz. Next step was add 6/0 round bend straight shank worm hook by wrapping tight with 25 lb mono and covering the wrap and hook shank with super glue. I used 6" trout color Sluggo, the wrapped hook shank held the Sluggo from slipping. The trick is to get the Sluggo on as straight as possible to the Scrounger has a tight wiggle. Fished in about 20' depth parallel to major points. Cast, let sink to depth then retrieve with steady pace until you get bumped, then reel faster. If interested I could email a photo of modified Scrounger. Tom

The Classic anglers are really upset with the locals at this event, no respect, no sportsmanship given. If the the anglers leave a spot it's fished immediately, and the locals get on the spots early in the morning...before start times. It's public water, however is the crown jewel of our sport. IF B.A.S.S. never returns it will be too soon! Tom

That is amazing detail! Tom

The Bassmaster Classic is going on right now in these exact conditions, 58 pros will demonstrate their tactics on the water....watch and learn.

Try online "reel service-Pflueger-bait casting" a few video's are available. Tom

Look at the definition of "meander". The discussion is on rivers that have been dammed and the river bed covered with water. The bend is the S curve; top of the S is inside bend, bottom of the S is outside bend for sake of discussion. The base of the inside bend generally will have more undercuts when the river was flowing, the outside bend acts like an underwater point and that is where most active feeders will locate; on the top of the outside bend. Tom

We may be whipping a dead horse on this topic by now. Bringing braid into " does color really matter" topic is on topic. Braid is a solid color and 50 lb braid is .013 +_.001diameter, same as 12lb mono/ FC, thus comparing apples to apples regarding size. The majority believe FC is the lowest visible of all fishing line, lower refraction of light, therefor the hardest line to see underwater for fish. Braid comes several colors from black, green, yellow and white, FC/ mono colors are similar with blue and red tones added. Just for fun lets keep track of the Elite anglers fishing this years Classic at Gunthersville*. Gunthersville is representative of the majority of bass reservoirs in regards to water clarity. What do you all think the pros will spool up and compete with; braid, FC, mono or braid w/FC leaders? What colors and line size? My perdiction is: Swimbaits, Crankbait, Jerkbaits, jigs and worms using 12- 15 lb clear FC, no braid or mono. If the bite is tough they will drop shot using 6-10 clear FC on spinning gear, no braid , possible braid w/leaders. Tom PS, the lateral line is used to detect distant underwater sound vibrations, early warning system. Bass are primarily sight feeders, big well developed eyes to determine what the prey is. Hearing is used for close proximity sounds. I don't believe line plays into any of the senses, except sight. * late Feb, winter to pre spawn transition, few weed beds.

Bass have such a small brain and too stupid to avoid danger you should be able to catch them using 50 braid without a leader. Why would any bass angler use Fluorocarbon line? FC stretches about equal to premium mono, braid doesn't stretch. FC line has low knot strength and problematic breakage, braid doesn't. FC line is stiff compared to mono, braid is soft and extremely flexible and doesn't impact lure action. If bass are too stupid to recognize line every pro bass angler would use braid and nothing else. The reason I don't use braid is because strike ratio to man hour has proven to me that bass where I fish aviod lures when using braid under good light conditions. I do not know one trophy bass angler who fishes with braid tied direct to lures. You must get bit first before catching these stupid big bass. Tom

Rolo I believe you may know what Doug Hannon's thoughts were on the topic of bass line awareness. Animals that have survived over decades of hunting pressure learn to avoid hazards that are fatal, the ones that don't are eliminated from the gene pool. It's about intelligent brain memory or critical thinking skills they do not poses. If your fishing goals are aimed at catching young adult bass, there is a big population of bass to target. When you target the big bass the populations drops to less than 1%, the bass that have learned to survive fishing pressure by avoiding anglers and there lures. I referenced Bill Murphy, Bob Crupi and Danny Kadota because these anglers were legendary giant bass anglers who fished with live bait. I could add ChrisFish, I don't recall his name, however he is another live bait bass angler who learned the importance of using light line with live bait. Why use live bait as a bench mark? To eliminate lure variables. These anglers didn't start out using light line, they changed because of better strike ratio per man hour fishing, they had to use light line to catch these wary giant bass. I had to do the same and it made a big difference. You can put the percentages in your favor or not, it's your choice. Tom

Season is going great the one lake that I can fish is about 3 weeks from spawn, doesn't get much better. Tom

Bill Murphy was a one of the best bass anglers that I knew. Bill was a detailed analytical thinker and didn't believe anything without a lot of field experience to support his techniques. Bill believed that line diameter and color is a very important factor to being successful at catching giant bass, it's hard to argue with success. When you are trying to get a wary bass to eat a live bait, you want that bait to appear as natural as possible, hooks and line are not natural so you want to minimize the impact they have. Bil Murphy, Bob Crupi, Danny Kadota are names who all believed that both line color and diameter have a major impact when fishing live bait. Bill went as far as camouflaging the hook and line by adding random marks on the line to break up the silhouette and painting hooks the color of the bait. Bill fished mostly with 8 lb mono dyed with coffee. Butch Brown is another believer in line color and size, even using big swimbaits, Butch paints his hooks. It's been my experience that line color and size can have a major impact fishing jigs for giant bass, most of my bass were caught using 10 lb olive green mono. Today I use clear FC in 10 lb or 12 lb depending on several factors like depth and light. If I could use heavier stronger line I would and do at night. Big bass have big highly developed eyes and good eye sight, they see our line, we hope they will strike anyway. Tom

When bass are active the line size and color mean little, when active feeding they are not line shy most of the time. However.......when bass are not active and more neutral in behavior line color and size can be the difference of catching and fishing. A good freind of mine uses high visibility yellow braid and jokes the bass can follow it to his lure and he catches bass. I use low visibility FC line the smallest diameter practical and usually catch bigger bass. Take your pick, only the bass know for sure. Tom

Depends on where you fish, type of lake or river. Most lakes with lots of surface cover have mud bottoms, aquatic roots need soil to grow and bass relate to cover in those lakes. Deep structure lake have little areas that may provide soil where aquatic grow prevails, bass don't relate to cover because the cover doesn't provide prey a place to live, may provide a nursery for juvenile bass to hide after the spawn. Most bass anglers see articles illustrating a Lunker bass jumping out of the Lilly pads, classic bass advertising! Shallow natural lakes and some low land reserviors have Lilly pads, unfortunately those areas are limited. Lay downs and tree stumps are also shoreline cover that bass may relate to in some lake classifications. Shoreline bass anglers are the majority, however in deep structure lakes without docks, shoreline anglers catch fewer bass, structure anglers rule. Tom