WRB-2.0

Acetone is a keystone base solvent that may damaged plastic bushings and drag components. Alcohol is safer. Tom

Very unusual presentation, dragging any soft plastic with a fly rod on a C-rig! The fact you can get a hook set is amazing, unless the bass are swallowing the soft plastic lizards. Tom

Persuader makes a baby mallard duck lure that works good when baby ducks are on the water the spring. Tom

Misconception #3, disagree; breaks can be structure elements like soil changes and there can be thermal breaks depending on where and how you fish. Tom

If you look at the Owner jig picture attached the hook eye line tie has a shield to deflect weeds from wedging between the head and line. Agree a bullet head is a good grass jig choice and a punch rig is one of the better designs, the jig posted by the OP , has merit. Tom

Agree with Catt and disagree that "we" don't talk structure on this site. Structure is the entire lake bottom; including soiland soil changes, rocks, shape changes or contours, man made dams, bridges, culverts, pilings, anything not growing or floating that makes up the hard elements of the lake bottom. Points are one of the most common and visual structure elements, however it's the isolated structure elements that attract the most bass. Large boulders or a rock pile, saddles, benches, slides, fingers, revines, ditches, foundations, that can make up isolated structural features on the point or near like humps, channels that are adjacent or connected to that point separates a good point from other points. Being a bank angler limits where and how you bass fish. Being aware of the lakes or rivers topography is important to every bass angler. Catt has posted several detailed posts on "humps" try the search tools. Tom

Looks like TW only carries the 6", 9" and 13" , go online for Upton's customs web site for the longer worms.Tom

Pro bass angler can mean promotional bass angler. KVD wants to sell his signature lures and hooks!VMC and Mustad dominate the treble hooks supplied on original bass lures, both are good quality. What KVD suggests is up sizes the front treble hook from size 2 to size 1, for example and use his signature KVD hooks, to improve hook set ratio and putting a few more bass in the boat. Tom

The issue is line # test needed to get a good hook set with a spinning reel on medium rated spinning rods. If you use 10 # mono, about right for the tackle you have, you may miss a few spinnerbait fish, but should be able to cast OK. The f13 is a good size for bass and will cast further than the smaller trout sizes. I would fish with what you have, experience will tell you what needs to be changed. You have your plate full at the moment, enjoy your outings when you get a chance, the new family should be your top priority. Good luck with everything in 2014. Tom

I have some pork jars that are over 30 years old that still look OK. Uncle Josh tends to get stiff and may need to be tenderized so they float and be flexible. The easy way to tenderize a pork trailer is with a hobby size rock polisher/tumbler. The cheap method is using a meat tenderizing hammer on a plank of wood...messy but works good. To make up additional heavy salt water solution; boil sea salt a cup of salt to 2 cups of water for about 15 minutes. Another tip; put a few drops of pure anise oil in each pork rind bottle. To re dye the pork, use Rit liquid dye, mix 1part dye to 2 parts warm water, put the pork rinds in the dye over night, then rinse, place into the heavy salt water jar. Use glass jars with plastic screw on lids and fill full. Get yourself a pig blanket or foam lined lure saver to keep the pork trailer soft while fishing other lures so it stays wet. The original jig & pig works great....good fishing! Tom

Your medium spinning tackle isn't well suited for very bass lure or presentation, you need to use lures and presentations that work with what you have. My favorite techniques are drop shot, slip shop (finesse C-rig) and spli shot rigs for soft platics. The original floating F13 Rapala is a very good lure on spinning tackle. 1/8 oz mojo weights, Carolina keeper weight stopper, size 1/0 Owner 5100 or similar premium hook, 6" finesse worm like Roboworms, makes up the slip shot rig. Add 1/4 drop shot weight and size 1 mosquito hook for drop shot rig. These 2 rigs will catch a lot of bank bass for you. Good luck. Tom

The vast majority of treble hooks supplied on lures are made by VMC or Mustad. Any name brand lure with trebles made the past decade will have a good quality hook,might not be the size or style you prefer, but they are sharpe enough for general fishing use. Owner or Gamakatsu offer replacement treble hooks that cost more and extremely sharpe and stronger than stock treble hooks. Treble hooks are difficult to resharpen, better to replace them. Single hooks are different, made by more companies from wider range of materials and some are not worth using, let alone sharpening. The better single hooks are usually made of valadium stainless steel, forged, heat treated, sharpened then plated. Touching up the hook point can be done with a fine hook hone or tool makers file. Worm hooks are not worth the effort, however jig hooks or other lures with value can be resharpened. Sharper is better, you will catch more fish using sharpe hooks! Tom

TW carries Upton's Customs, if you want a high end hand poured worms up to 24". Upton's 10" to 16" dragon tails are excellent big bass worms. Tom

The Guide Big bait rod I have is a full cork heavy swimbait 7'10" model that weighs 6 1/8 oz., balances perfectly with Shimano Cardiff 300A. The newer split cork handles may be slightly lighter in weight. These are not heavy rods, they are excellent for casting swimbaits. My other swimbait rods are G. Loomis models that cost 3X more. Okuma's are a good solid swimbait rod, well made with good guides. Tom

Catching bass doesn't dull the hook point, it may fray the line. Hook points are damaged by sticking something that is hard like a rock or something similar. Today's hardened tempered hooks are difficult to sharpen on the water, you are better off changing to a new hook if the point is flattened or dull. Honning the hook point at home is a better idea, unless it's the last hook you have with you. Your thumb nail works good to check how sharp the point is by dragging it across lightly to see if it leaves a scratch. Test a new hook to get the idea of how a sharp point should feel. I check all my hooks often for sharpness and my line more often for any abrasions and retie often, otherwise you may regrete not doing this. Tom

Hildebrandt lures makes a good modern Super Sally. The originals were mostly trolled with a nigh crawler back when trolling was or may still be popular, like walleye fisherman. Al Foss came out with a better casting Sally called a Shimmy Wiggler designed for pork rind followed by Fred Arbogast with the rubber skirt Hawaiian Wiggler #1. Tom PS, Snagless Sally isn't Snagless! I believe the Snagless Sally dates back to 1890.

Curtis, are from the UK? First thing you need to do is tell us what type of lakes to you plan to fish. Deep divers in shallow weedy lakes or shallow divers in deep rocky structure lakes are not very effective. In general the Bill Norman, Bomber make good deep divers that run properly out of the box. The original Rat-L Trap works everywhere. Colors depends on the predominate prey; fire tiger for perch, bluegill and sunfish. Shad colors for shad and brown-red for crawdads are the basics. Size, 1/2 to 3/4 oz works good for most crankbaits. Depth range, shallow= 5', mid depth = 10 and 15' = deep. Very few crankbaits run deeper than 15' although they claim much deeper. Tom

Flipping rods are heavy and stiff, not designed to cast lures long distance. You will wear yourself out trying to cast large size swimmers for several hours. Sensitivity isn't a big factor, casting is the issue. Keeping in touch with what your lure is doing isn't any different for crank baits or swim baits, you need to learn when changes occur to the lure that indicates strikes. Tom

Better off with Okuma Guide 7'11" Heavy swimbait bait rod. The extra length helps to ease your casting the 5+ oz (1-6 oz) lures and controlling big fish near the boat. This rod isn't heavier in weight, except the lower 1/3 is slightly thicker wall section. Traditional musky rods tend to be heavier wall thickness on the upper 1/3rd of the rod for setting big 3xx trebles that some musky lures have. Tom

That would depend on how fast the boater fishes, moving the boat and the type of water; depth, structure, cover, etc. Tom

When this lake gets it's trout plant, it's time to use a swimbait in that area. Milfoil tends to die back during the winter and can't grow in rocks or clay. I didn't find a topo map of this lake, so couldn't locate off shore features like rock piles. Do you have a sonar unit? Start your jig fishing at the corners of the dam and then move around and fish every point. Depth breaks with rocks create areas that should be free of milfoil. The key to fishing jigs in rocky areas is to keep the jig from settling down into crevices and wedging into the rocks. The weed gaurd will keep weeds off the hook, not from wrapping around the jig head or line tie. You fish slow, but don't dead stick the jig in the rocks, dead stick in clay areas. If you have a sonar until, look for the depth you see fish, it maybe 5' or 20' that should be the depth you expect strikes to occur most often. Points are good to fish because you can fish close to the bank and out into deeper water without moving your boat and cover a good size area. Good luck. Tom

Are you fishing from shore or a boat? Parker canyon is a small lake of about 125 acres, deep rocky structure with planted rainbow trout. Your question is about jigs, you may also want to consider a Huddleston 68 ROF 12 in rainbow trout. Do you know if this lake has a crawdad population? Some AZ lakes don't have any crawdads! Winter is winter, except you are located near the Mexican boarder at 5,000 ft elevation. The water is cold enough to stock trout, than it's cold enough to fish jigs slowly. It is difficult to fish jigs uphill through rocky structure, if fishing from shore. Tell us about your tackle; rod, reel and line you plan to use. Tom

You want to be convinced a specific color works, just have a partner kick your arsh with a color you don't have! Tom

Thank you, haven't visited the site and will soon. Happy New Years. Tom

That may be true in Texas, however "neon" in CA was a blood line created by John "Zank" Viazanko by using butterfly or moth neon powders mixed into hand poured soft plastics worms back in the early 70's.Zank later perfected a commercial neon powder and start selling his hand pours. Tom