WRB-2.0

Your jig/ worm rod is good. Tom

Interesting study. You are going to fish a pond, how big is this pond and what are the prey types available for bass. You are going to fish all seasonal periods; cold water, pre spawn, spawn, post spawn, summer and fall. You may want to document the surface water temperature and the water temps at the depth you catch bass.* Get yourself a digital temperature probe to measure both the surface water and the basses internal throat temps right after you catch it.* body temp = water temp at the depth it was when caught. Pond bass. Slip shot rig, 1/8 oz mojo weight. Shaky head jig, 3/16 oz Drop shot rig, 3/16 oz. Texas rig, 3/16 oz Weightless rig. Soft plastics. Rage Tail or Yamamoto single tail grub, pearl white. Shaky Jig. Roboworm 6" straight tail, Aaron's magic. Slip and drop shot, Shaky jig. Rage Tail, 5 5/8" Cut-R, watermelon w/red. T-rig and slip shot. Zoom Brush Hog, watermelon /red . T-rig, Shaky jig, weightless. Yamamoto Senko, watermelon / red., weightless. These give you 4 variables. The slip shot rig is good finesse rig for ponds; Mojo. wight, Carolina keeper to hold the weight up line about 18" to 24", Owner 5100 size 1/0 works good, same hook in size 3/0 for T-rigs and weightless. Good luck. Tom

I believe your lake has both Threadfin and Gizzard shad populations, shad are predominate forage where they occur. The pan fish or bream as you call them are good forage if bluegill, green sunfish, crappie, perch are the only prey fish available. Shad school and are soft easy to eat and swallow for bass and other predators. The bream type of fish become a good choice during the spawn, bream eat eggs, a natural enemy to bedding bass. Next are crawdads, so crawdad colors can be good choices. With lipless or deep diving crankbaits where you fish, shad colors would be my first choice, crawdad colors second, bream colors last. Bottom soft plastics; crawdad colors first, green colors second, shad colors last. Tom PS, you have the Classic on your lake next month, should give you lots of info.

Use a Okuma heavy 7'11" guide select swimbait rod for the 8" Huds, the Cadiff 300 works good if $$ is an issue. 20-25 lb mono works good with 8" Huds. Tom

That was way back in 1983, 14 lb 13 oz and I'm sure with all the line class record chasers it wouldn't last long. Still have all IGFA stuff as memorabilia. I have no idea what the current line color trends are today.Tom

My first experience with the IGFA was submitting a line class record for California Yellowtail caught during a charity event for the Balboa Yatch Club fund raiser about 30 years ago. The fish was caught on 4 lb test Maxima and submitted for the 4 lb line class record. I received the line class record for the next higher line class 6 lb, because the line tested at 5 lb breaking strength and the fish qualified. That record was broken the following year in New Zealand! Dwight is spot on, but it's hard for anglers to test breaking strength without a certified Instron machine. Pink Ande was popular back in the 90's out west for the tuna anglers. Tom

If the fishing line industry used line diameter or wire gage standard, we would not be fooled by labels understating the break strength. I believe this trend of understating # test strength started with FC line knot strength problems.Easy fix was use 10 lb line and label it 6 lb. in most bass fishing application line diameter isn't a big issue, until you fish clear water and finesse lure presentations. It bothers me that some line mfr's think bass anglers not smart enough to read labels. Line labelled accurately are now called small diameter line, like Sunline or Toray FC. It is what it is. Tom

The requirement for IGFA certification is the line break strength equal the line label # test within a specific %. Ande is popular with salt water anglers seeking WR because it is certified. I believe Maxima may hold more fresh water WR. Line like YoZuri that breaks over 25% higher than label strength can not be IGFA certified. The process is you send the IGFA 100' of line used to catch the fish you submit for WR, they test the line for line class records. How many BR members use Ande line or even know of it? Berkley Trilene may be the most popular fresh water monofilament line and they have the same problem of strength higher than labeled. Tom PS; all tackle world records line break strength isn't an issue, just line class records.

There are a few on the market like Owner Ultra sled head and bullet head Jigs. Tom

Where I Ilive and bass fish the water clarity is about equal to a swimming pool for about 8 months. During the summer the water sport activity tends to stir up some bank errosion and algae blooms will lower the water clarity to about 8 to 10 feet, still very clear. Bass tend to spawn in 6' to 15' of water here due to boat and fishing pressure, rarely will adult size bass move up into 3' of water to spawn, 6' to 8' being the average. Going with small lures may seem logical, however small size interest juvenile size bass more than larger adults. Since these bass are use to boats they learn to avoid them, long cast become a standard practice, low light periods and light rain days are preferred, nights would ideal. Going ultra light with small lures doesn't always fill the bill. Tom PS, power plant lakes are a wild card.

Thank you Roger. Planning on putting the boat in the water tomorrow. Batteries are charged, the engine started, wipe off the dust and getting the tackle together. The weather out west is warm and shouldn't be too windy. Our lakes are way down due to drought conditions, fishing should be pre spawn 20' to 30', just takes awhile to get in tune of what's going and remembering what a bit feels like. Tom

Green neon pumpkin or Aaron's Pro magic in 6" and 7" for shaky heads. Go on their site and check the colors, lots to choose from.Tom

Roger, couldn't see the forest from the trees until you pointed out movement verses migration. Sometimes it takes a diiferent few point to see things clearly. Hope the upcoming season is enjoyable and good fishing. Tom

A limited number of Abu Garcia fresh water reels are made in Sweden, a few are assembled there, the production reels are manufactured in China. It's getting difficult to find any reels made in the America! Both Avet and Accurate are off shore salt water reels made in California, not sure about Penn? Tom

It's a common situation called being front seated. Communication usually solves the problem, talk to your boater before the tournament. Tom

Ty Ono of Jackall lures worked with Greg Stump of Roboworm to develop their soft plastics in Japan, good products. Tom

Go online and send Greg your thoughts, Roboworm been in business making worms over 25 years, automatic machines even longer.Tom

Kind of difficult to accept that you already have late stage pre spawner's with all the cold weather Texas had recently. Water is the surface water temps? Forget the cruising bass you see up in shallow water, unless those bass respond to lures like a Senko. The clearer the water the better for swimbaits. I would fish the deeper water areas near the shallow spawning bays, like major and secondary points with bluegill profile swimbaits like a Matt's hard or soft bluegill. Also make long casts with both jigs and big worms. If possible fish low light periods. Try to get some bottom contact with the swimbaits, deep and slow works and a wake bait can also be good near the first break. Tom

Evaluate line by it's diameter, not advertises # test. YoZuri 6 # test has the diameter of most 10 # test, it should be stronger! You could go to 4 # test YoZuri line is about the same diameter as the 8 # test you use now. Tom

Roboworms are not injection molded in mass production and bagged separately. This is the reason you can't buy Roboworms in bulk quantities of 100 for example. The Roboworms are poured into 10 cavity mold, the 10 worms are bagged directly from the mold, heat sealed and labeled. Automated poured worm, very different then a injection molded worm that is weight counted and hand packaged, like Zoom and Yum worms.Tom

Roboworm is a hands free robotic operation, the bagging is part of the automated program.Greg Stump, the owner of Roboworm is a tournament bass angler, so yes they know how their worms are used. You shouldn't add scent into bags of worms and store them, ruin the worms and bags. You can take soft plastic worms out of the bags and lay them striaght in worm boxes like Plano etc., or keep them in the original bags in a larger Zip lock bag. Tom

Good reply Catt, couldn't agree more! Tom

What is the definition of copolymer fishing line? Polymer is 2 monomers blended, a copolymer is 2 polymers blended, coextrusion is 1 monomer or polymer extruded over a core of another monomer or polymer. YoZuri is a coextruded line, not a copolymer; fluorocarbon extruded over Nylon and why it's called a hybrid. P-line CXX is a copolymer, 2 grades of Nylon blended. Tom

When you compare hook sizes how do you determine it's size? Answer, the mfr's label. There isn't a standard to measure hook size because each style hook is different and each mfr determines what the size is. Comparing sproat worm hooks to round bend to straight or off set or wide gap should clearly illustrate this fact. 2/0 wide gap off set may be a larger hook then a 5/0 round bend. Mustad 4/0 round bend may be larger than Gamakatsu or Owner 5/0 round bend....no standard! How could anyone contemplate 1/2. Sizes? Tom

Roger LMB can't go from being in deep in deep water to shallow water on a daily basis is true due there their swim bladder expansion can only adjust to 1 atmosphere in a 24 hour period. The bass suspend over deep water down about 30 feet, then " move" to shallower locations in about 10 feet of water and return back out to their deeper water holding areas more than ounce a day. There isn't mass migration of bass moving long distances every day, the do this in seasonal steps. For example nearly all the LMB are in deep water during the winter or cold water period, then nearly all the LMB migrate or move up in the water column as it warms town in shallow water. I have witnessed very large schools of smallmouth bass move across deep clear water at Crow lake in Canada during the late afternoon into shallower water to feed. Also watched the same type of movements with large schools LMB on lake Havasu move across the lake one side to the other, about a mile. These bass are not down deep, they are about 5' to 10' down crossing water well over 100' deep. The difination of bass migration could be better defined as movements, however Buck Perry choose to call the movements migrations. Tom