WRB-2.0

The only jig I know of that meets all your requirements is Gary Kliens Rattleback Weapon jig, hard to find and I believe Iovino still sells them. Another excellent all around rock and cover jig is the *** football jig. The site sponsor Siebert Jigs are a high quality jig, not sure if they will accommodate a rattle collar?, you need a double step skirt collar design jig. Gary Yamamoto makes an excellent plain football head with wire weed gaurd and either Owner or Gamakatsu hook option, perfect for GY Hula grubs that I recommend for both entry level or seasoned jig anglers fishing deep rocky structured lakes. Tom

Definitely not integrates between FLMB and NLMB, undetectable from visual appreance with the exception of lateral line pore scale counts, plus F1's are not anymore or less aggressive than pure NLMB or FLMB. What Dance may be referencing to is cross between Spotted bass and Smallmouth bass which can be natural hybrids when they share the same ecosystem. The spotted-smallmouth hybrid is useually referred to as a meanmouth bass. Tom

Bass suspend about 90% of the time, it's the reason they have air bladders. When bass are resting, not swimming, they are suspending at various depths depending on the depth they are acclimated to. During the turnover the bass will be at similar depths they were before the turnover, they slowly reaclimate to new depths where baitfish are located. Are you calling bass suspended in the mid water column "suspended"? Bass suspend in the mid water column off shore to rest throughout the summer months, inactive and difficult to catch. After a turnover the bass may suspend off shore for a longer period of time and remain inactive until everything settles down. I know from personal experience the bite is difficult to figure out right after a lake turns over. Tom

Which one?Buck n brawl, PA-Scooter, etc. Devil Horse top water lures came with no spinners, 1 rear spinner, front and back spinners, a deep diver Digger and a lipless Water Gator. The Buck N Brawl is still good, need to change the hooks on vintage wooden lures, if you fish them. Tom

I don't use the search tool on this site because it doesn't narrow the search field down. Now that Glenn suggested using the gear, that will narrow down the search field and helps. Knowing how to navigate the site may seem simple to folks that are computer savvy, for those of use who aren't, it's hasn't been easy. For example the current thread about thermoclines, how many times has that topic been discussed? Lots of times! I decided to go ahead and posted a few replies and it was interesting to see some very good input from newer members, the old timers mostly sit back and don't feel like repeating themselves again and again. Tom

Find the depth the baitfish are at, then decide where to start fishing. You should have a shad population in GA lakes, look for shad schools, look for birds that feed on shad. The bass should be close to their prey. Tom

Turnover Lakes that ice over may have a turnover when the ice melts and in the fall, lakes that stratify durning the umber may turnover in the late fall. A turnover means the upper layer of water quickly mixes with the lower bottom layers. This occurs because the upper layer out weighs the lower layer and the layers switch places; the bottom water comes up to the top. When this happens bottom decaying debris come up along with a distinct odor of rotten eggs or sulfur smell and floating pieces of decaying stuff. The water then continues to mix for about 2 weeks until it is homogenous or the same temperature top to bottom. Most bass lakes cool slowly in the fall and turnovers may not be abrupt, however a turnover occurs. How does this impact bass fishing? The water temperature changes, the DO level change, the baitfish and other prey all relocate because their environment has changed. After about 2 weeks the lakes settles down and bass can be anywhere at all depths depending on the prey distribution, aquatic growth, wind and water temperature. Tough sledding during turnover periods. Tom

Rolo, We have one lake in SoCal that reports the oxycline depths at various areas throughout the lake. Big Bear lake located at 7,000 feet altitude has both a good trout fishery and decent smallmouth/LMB population. The lake is a little over 7 miles long. the dam biult in 1890 and raised in 1903, old lake and not deep, about 35' aversge, 70' at the dam. BB freezes in the winter and the water may reach 70 degrees mid summer. This lake fits your thermocline-oxycline definition being 2 separate depths coming together late summer. BB also has a aeration system at the dam and tends to have strong westerly afternoon winds to help with aeration. Large weed beds in shallower areas. Most of our bass lakes are highland class, deep structure lakes that are far different than Big Bear. I believe BB is similar to lakes in the northeast. Tom

To me water temperature is important to cold blooded fish like bass. Water temperature impacts their annual life cycle, spawning and natural distribution. For example Florida strain largemouth have a lower tolerance to water colder than 45 degrees and that limits distribution. Look up Cold Shock and the stress that sudden water temperatures have on fish in general. Large die offs have occured as a direct result of sudden cold water thermal shock, it can be very stressful to warm water fish like bass. To say bass will not seek cooler water during the summer if DO are OK and prey is available differs from my experience. Small bass may not relocate, some big adult bass will move when water temps approach 80 degrees or more and move deeper to the thermocline depth. Cooler water can absorb higher levels of DO then warmer water, plus pelagic fish tend to be deeper near the cooler water. Keep in mind that cold water heavier until is 39.4 degrees, then it gets super saturated with DO and becomes lighter' floating toward the surface and freezes at 32 degrees. Tom

MacP a picture (illustration) is worth a thousand words, looking forward to seeing what you add to this thread. The pH factor was a major issue during the early years of bass fishing and Dr. Loren Hill included a pH meter in his Color meter back in the 80's. As a baseline drinking water is neutral pH at 7 and what most bass learned was their lakes water was close to neutral pH 7, between 6.5-7.5 nearly everywhere. Lakes around industrial areas that suffered pollution from burning fuels with high levels of sulphur producing SO2 or nitric acid NHO3 has mostly disappeared by 2000, due to stronger laws. Again a good sonar unit indicates where there is life zone, the pH becomes less important with today's bass anglers. Tom

Some smaller and medium size lakes use aeration systems to pump O2 (oxygen) down in deep water by the dam or deepest water area to off set the affects of DO loss due to decaying matter. Aeration system tends to mix the stratified layers in the deep water areas, breaking up thermoclines artificially. High winds can also mix up water temperature by up welling the deeper water and mixing it with warmer upper layers, lots of factors in play. High wind often bends the thermocline where it's shallower on one side of the lake and deeper on the opposite side of the wind, thermocline depths vary to different locations. What fisherman are really interested in is the life zone depth, often synominous with a thermocline layer depth. With a good sonar unit you can set the gain manually to show the dense colder water verses the lighter heavier water, this shows up as a dark line or fuzzy darker zone, depending on how abrupt the temperature transition is. If you also watch for suspended fish they are often near the temperature break and this is the life zone you are looking for. You may not meter a thermocline, but should be able to meter fish at the same depth around the lake. Setting the sonar gain by increasing power until the screen shows clutter, then backing off slightly to reduce the background clutter, but do not eliminate it. The gain should be high enough to show baitfish, some clutter and water temperature changes, this takes some practice. Bass are warm water fish however warm comfortable water tends to be lower in DO levels, so bass go deeper into cool water about 65 to 70 degrees during the summer if they can because cool water holds high levels of DO and attracts baitfish. Shallower water with good green vegetation also cools the water and the vegetation produces DO during daylight, bass like to locate under weed mats for the same reason as deeper water; comfort and food.

For purposes of fishing we are discussing lake stratification layers of water with at least 4 degree change in water temperature with a few feet of depth change. The top layer of water in the summer is warmer, as the water gets deeper it cools, if the water get colder quickly, with a few feet 3' to 5' for example, a noticeable change called a thermocline layer. The thermocline layer can lower the dissolved oxygen (DO) in lakes where the depth of light is poor and prevents green aquatic growth. Green weeds produce DO, decaying organic matter like dying weeds absorb DO. What this means is a lake can have clear water and a thermocline with weed growth below the thermocline depth and still have good levels of DO to support fish. Lakes with poor water clarity where the sun light cannot penetrate deeper than a thermocline layer may have poor levels of DO that doesn't support fish life. Fish can't breath oxygen (02) it must be dissolved (DO) in the water, DO is measured in ppm or mg/L, most game fish need 3 to 12 mg/L, lower or higher they can't survive. The water needs to be fairly stable with little current flow to stratify, otherwise it tends to mix preventing quick temperature changes. Most reserviors are built for water storage, flood control, navigation, power generation or a combination. Most dams discharge water from the bottom and this may not create enough current flow near the surface or near the thermocline layer, if one exists, to change water temperatures or disrupt the thermocline. In very clear water lakes with deep weed growth can have multiple thermocline layers. For example a thermocline can develop in the summer where the water temperature changes quickly at 15' to 18', lets say 80 degrees changes 75 to 72 degrees at 15' developing a thermocline and changes again at 35' to 40' from 65 to 60 degrees for a second thermocline. Bass can be at 40' or deeper if the DO levels support them. Tom

You would know if the line was the cause. Could be you are bumping the spool release or reel handle by mistake during the cast, that can stop a spool! If the line wraps a micro guide, happens with braid, but you should have a spool over run when that happens. Tom

Don't have the time to dicuss this now, however searching the web under lake stratification, terms like epilimnion, metalimnion, hypolimnion will open the door to this discussion. Things to consider are the differences between large and small natural lakes verses man made impoundments (reservoirs) and rivers. Tom

I spent a lot of my youth fishing gravel pit lakes, lakes formed as a result of escavating sand and grave. There is usually a road bed entering the pit creating a shallower area on one end. Are you shore bond or using a boat? Tom

Look Don Iovino products, call and ask what the number is for clear. Tom

Off topic; today they are called "clown", little different but still a red head with silver-white body.Red head Pikie minnow, wooden Bomber, Lucky 13 come to mind. In deep canyon lakes like Colorado river chain; Powell, Mead, Mojave, Havasu, LMB often cross deep open water and found far off shore feeding on Threadfin shad, bass are adaptable to the environment they live in. If close to shore areas provide all the basses needs, food and shelter, no reason to migrate long distances. Seeding a good area with transplanted bass isn't anything new to tournament bass fishing. Western Bass and a few other organizations use a release boat with large livewells that open at the bottom to spread out tournament caught bass around the lake, to reduce the impact of seeding the Mariana's. Tom

Spent some time visiting the Daiwa display at this years BAT and they had both right or left hand Tatula R to cast with. When you first pick up a Tatula reel it looks wider than other reels in the 100 size group. The reason is a wider spool designed to prevent line digging down into spooled line. The Tatula level wind has a higher travel speed with narrower line guide to spread out the line more, preventing line digging in. The wider spool on a traditional level wind creates line whip exiting the reel on a cast, the T wing eliminates that problem. I was impressed with the Tatula R smooth retrieve and casting. The reel balances perfectly with rods on the 3.8 to 4.2 oz weight range when loaded with line. I bought a Tatula R 100HS and so far impressed with the performance. The high speed 8.2 - 1 was a concern I had and only fishing the reel will tell in time. I am using this reel jig fishing this winter with 10 lb Sunline Super Sniper green FC. The fact I make long cast over 100 feet on aversge and fish deep clear water rocky structure, the higher retrieve ratio may help with hook sets. If this reel fishes as good as it performs, I will buy 2 more. Tom

Looks like I am talking to myself on this thread. Continuing the thought process on terrestrials the spring of the year brings baby critters in contact with water where bass live. Struggling to swim or just the fact baby birds are small size makes them especially good meal for big bass. A few good lures available for imitating birds are Persuader Baby Mallard duck and Flip The Bird lures. Bass that live near bull rushes or tullies see a lot of black birds, swallows or martins and baby ducks. This is a good time to consider bird lures. Summer nights are the time for rats and mice near shore, these rodents are everywhere and can swim, so they have no fear of water and bass cruise the shallow areas where these rodents are located. This makes rats and mouse lures very effective after dark. Tom

Getting old and not being able to enjoy fishing all day or night. Stop whining and go fishing! Tom

Booby and Garry Garland were from Arkansas and was making crappie jigs when Bobby moved to Arizona and started fishing bass tournaments on the Colorado river lakes.Bobby made a bass size crappie jig and called it a Gitzit, the first Gitzits were translucent smoke color, no glitter in the 70's. Bobby made a jig skirt called a spider, basically a long crappie jig tube with legs on both ends used with a single curl tail grub, the forerunner of Yamamoto's Hula grub. Tom PS, trivia; Larry McCain another Arkie, worked at JPL in Pasadena CA, made the first football jig and mojo weight molds back in the 60's. Larry moved back to Arkansas and retired there.

Gitzits were the first bass tubes, made Bobby Garland, then Garry Garland, now Canyon-Plastics, both the Garlands are gone now. Give the Gitzit tube worm a try. Tom PS, TW has Gitzits.

Soft plastics tend to fall out of favor more often or faster than hard lures. If you are a tackle shop owner and the bass tubes are collecting dust, would you order more? You can find some great lures in the discount bargin bins in tackle stores because those lures have lost there appeal to fisherman or every local angler already has them. You couldn't give away a black neon tube in our local stores! The only time anything black sells is during the summer night tournament season. Black-blue popular in the mid west to east is a poor color choice out west. Every bass lure that I fished with has become obsolete within 10 years, that is over 5 generations of bass lures. Do you remember Tora tubes? Does the name Gitzit mean anything? Tom

The problem I see with this report is no baseline, we don't know where the bass that were tagged came from initially. The % of bass re caught by non- tournament anglers doesn't indicate if the bass were caught by tournament anglers fun fishing or pre fishing. The assumption made is the bass were initailly caught outside of 1 kilometer of the marina area, if the bass were caught inside the 1 killiometer area, then those bass were not relocated. Marinas are built in bass magnet areas due to the prefered terrain a sheltered launch ramp area provides the same terrain that bass prefer to reside in. Most marinas were fish camps prior to becoming public luanch ramps or marinas. When bass are cuaght outside the release area, then transplanted inside the marina and that area provides food and shelter, why would a bass leave? I have always fished marina areas when fishing a new lake or a local lake long before tournaments became popular and still do. Today the weekend angler or local bass angler more than likely owns a bass boat with a livewell and releases the bass they catch at the launch ramp. The bottom line is; fish the marina area! Tom PS; re reading the report there was an attemp to record initial catch locations, no tabulated data that identifies the catch sites verses the released sites. All the bass were released 300 ft from shore, New Hampshire law.

"What are you waiting for, bass don't have hands".