WRB-2.0

You shouldn't lump both Kentucky /northern spots with Alabama/southern spots together, same in name only like NLMB vs FLMB. A mature male Kentucy spotted bass may never reach 12" length, the females 15" and these northern spots are very aggressive and prolific spawner's. CA has a few lakes with Kentucky spots and a winning tournament weight is often less than 8 lbs for 5 bass. CA also has several lakes with Alabama spots and the world record spots from lakes Perris, followed by the current record from Pine Flat, may be eclipsed by Pardee, where spots over 8 lbs show up each year. Lake Perris no longer has a spotted bass population, displaced by FLMB and red ear sunfish; the FLMB eat the young spots and the shell crackers (red ears) eat the spawn. Not all spotted bass are pests! Tom

Two delta anglers come to mind; Dee Thomas and Andy "Cooch" Cuccia. You can talk to Cooch via his web site, suggest hiring him for a day. Dee has a few books, several magazine articles on fishing the delta. The CA delta is a river tidal area, actually several rivers and a massive tidal area that is too big to learn in one trip, it takes years to learn and the reason Cooch is my choice to teach you the basics of tidal bass fishing. Tom

Spotted bass, there are a few posts in this long thread. Like LMB, spots come in 2 species; northern or Kentucky and southern or Alabama. Spotted bass were river bass that have transitioned to being lake bass when the rivers were dammed back in the 30's for power generation and navigation. Spotted bass are very similar to smallmouth bass, the southern spot and smallmouth are about the same size on average, the northern spot is about 1/2 the size. Spots are very aggressive bass, stronger fighters than LMB, however not as aerobatic as smallmouth. Spots tend to prefer soft plastics with highlighted tails like green with chartreuse tail or brown with pink tail. Crawdads and small bait fish make up the major diet source. Spots like to hang around deeper water with rocks, similar to smallies. Spots also roam a lot like smallies. Spots will declaw a crawdad by hitting the claws and shaking the crawdad, before engulfing it. This trait can lead to missed strikes thinking a bluegill is striking the worm or jig and hook setting too quickly. Tom

Awesome Vedio MacP, thank you for sharing it! There has been and continues to be some excellent mice and rat lures. Heddon field mouse lure is one of the oldest. The Watson Wrat is one of the first, that I remember, made with hair that was a full size rat that bass anglers fished with. Jerry Rago's first swimbait was a wooden full size rat jointed wake bait. Rago was a member of the Brown baggers, a group of trophy brown trout anglers that also included Alan Cole another early swimbait angler that help to start the big bass swimbait era. Big browns are a lot like big bass, top fresh water predators. It's no surprise that the Watson Wrat and Cole plugs became good Musky and pike lures. Rats were very popular up to about 4 years ago out west and then died off until again this year. This may have been due to the college Bassmaster final win with the anglers using a DEPS rat swimbait, El Raton. This year Bass-A-Thon or BAT featurd about 6 new rat swimbaits, out numbering trout swimmers, rats must be popular again. Another vintage terrestrial lure is the Jitter Bug, the musky size wooden lure has long been good for big bass. Buzzers are another terrestrial lure that we think of as a baitfish lure, but is it? Tom

I believe most bass anglers think of bass prey as being aquatic critters and over look terrestrial critters. We think of baitfish, crawdads, leaches and amphibians like frogs that start out as aquatic and morph into terrestrial animals. Aquatic critters live under water, terrestrials live above water. Some terrestrial insects that make up part of the basses diet start out underwater as larvae and end up as flying insects like dragon flys. What sparked this thread was a question about the size of top lures. Top water lures can represent terrestrial critters like frogs, rats, mice, worms, snakes, lizards etc.Top water lure can also represent wounded baitfish. Tom

Strange thing about most animals, including bass, is they can't determine their size verses the size of other critters. It's the reason a small dog attacks a big dog. With experience a bass can determine size when it gets very close and abort the attack at the last moment. Bass difinately develop a prey size preference when feeding on a specific prey type. This may seem contradicted, however we are talking about fish, not people and predator fish behavior is never predicable. Top water lures also tend to represent both aquatic and terrestrial critters. The spook may look like a wounded baitfish to the bass angler, however could be anything that is swimming on the surface that looks like prey to the bass. Tom

Bump this reply up and ask if you took the time to read what is in the site archives regarding your question.Most replies tend to support sponsors, nothing wrong with that. There are dozens of good jig makers available, what counts is the hook used, the head style, the weight, skirts materials and trailers. The most popular hooks are Mustad, Gamakatsu and Owner. Head style depends on where the jig is fished, heads have specific shapes designed to work in certain cover or structure...no panacea head design available that works for everything. Common head designs are; Arkie, brush, football, round and bullet. Arkie and brush heads are good for heavy cover, football and round heads are good for rocks, bullet heads are good for weeds/grass. All these usually come with a fiber type weed gaurd, optional when fishing rocks. The weight depends on depth of water, current and cover. 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 and 3/4 oz are popular, with the 1/2 oz being universal. Skirt materials; most common are silicone and living rubber. Colors; black, brown, green and combinations of those 3 colors are popular and work good everywhere crawdads are located. Trailers; lots of good choices to select. Trailer size runs from 2" to 5" for most weedless jig presentations. The exception is shaky and dart heads with a worm trailer, no skirt. Good luck with your jig fishing. Tom PS; will answer specific questions regarding jig fishing.

The round or flat curved belly are 2 piece mods when injected molded. Bears Baits makes good home injection mold kits, check with them. My guess is the injection mold folks want to get some of the hand pour business away from Roboworms, etc. If you perceive a difference do to the flat vs round bodies, buy a set of each. I personally don't see an advantage, more to do with softness, floatation color, length and tail type...we have a lot of hand pours to choose from, no need to make my own. I get my custom worms from Don Iovino and Josh Upton. Bears molds look good and I have heard good things about them. Good luck. Tom

Check with Barlows Tackle, $8.58/50ea, $153/1000ea.Tom

Actually the lake Perris Sotted bass came from Friant Dam, Merced river in CA that were gifted from Alabama back in 1903. The spotted bass population collasped due in part to extreme fishing pressure, introduction of red ear sunfish and competing Florida largemouth bass population, that today is doing very well, 18 lber caught last spring. Florida LMB have been in CA over 50 years, spotted bass and NLMB over100 years, no bass are native west of the Rocky Mountains.CA's tiny deep structured trophy bass lakes have zero bass population management outside of fishing regulations state wide for 5 bass limits with 12" minimum length. A few lakes have slot and 3 bass limits based on local requests from fishing organizations, need to lobby our fishery people to reduce fishing pressure. Keep in mind the initial FLMB came from Cypress Gardens FL back in 1959, all other FLMB planted in CA lakes came from those initial transplanted bass. Nearly every lake that received the FLMB from Upper Otay in San Diego had a robust population of northern strain largemouth bass prior to introducing the Florida strain. The NLMB and FLMB integrate quickly and this impacts the gene pool, not loss of pure vigor, it's loss of pure genes. The bass in CA have the option of going into deep water in our drinking water storage reservoirs where water temps tend to be near 70 degrees for over 9 months, this factor lengthens the FLMB life spand to nearly 15 years, longer growing period than in their native Florida waters.

We tend to lump all bass into 1 category; northern strain largemouth bass. Forgetting that there are several fresh water bass species that make up "bass" and the term "big" differs with each specie and region. Every waterway that contains a population of "bass" also has a small population of the biggest bass in the lake, river or pond. If you catch a 6 lb bass from a lake where that is as big as it gets, that is a "big bass"! If you fish a lake with a high population of 12 lb bass and a few over 15 lbs, a 6 lb bass isn't a big bass, it's only average for that lake. Tom

Flat belly worms are usually hand pours, not injection molded. The price difference with a injection mold would be related to the number of molds being sold, not the CNC machining. Tom

Bed fishing with live shiners is a big part of the Florida bass guide business, the bed fishing pressure is intense. Tom

The weekend angler that catches their personal best bass will more than likely keep it, few actually release them. The weekend tournament bass club angler never releases a big bass until after it has been weighed in. Bragging rights creates an atmosphere of showing off the big bass to friends and photographing the bass several times. Big female bass kept in a livewell for several hours have low percentage of survival, for sake of argument more than 30% do not survive. The problem is very low population of big bass exist in every bass waterway, compared to the general bass population. Successful spawning recruitment is dependant more on stable water levels and weather during the egg incubation period than from egg eating predators like carp, salamanders, bluegill, green sunfish, crappie, crayfish, chubs, minnows, etc. Over harvesting the general population of mid size adult female bass would be rare and these are the bass that sustain a fishery. Tom

Catt answered the 3 points in question. I will add that you must fish for big bass to consistantly catch them. Most bass anglers go fishing to catch bass and hope a big bass strikes the lure or live bait they are using...this is not fishing for big bass. Understanding the bass in the lake, river, pond that you fish is important. Understanding the population density pyramid is important; the highest density is made up of first year bass population, fry, fingerlings and 1year old bass, about 1/3 rd of the total population. The middle third is made up young adult female and adult male bass. Keep in mind this is a pyramid where the middle third is smaller size than the base. It's this middle population that makes up the majority of the bass that are caught by bass anglers. Now lets go to te top third of the pyramide, at the very top represents the largest bass, a small population of big female bass. You are fishing for a small population of mature adult female bass, that are wary by nature because experience has taught them survival skills. The fact these big females come into shallower water to spawn ounce a year makes the more catchable during the pre spawn and spawning cycle. Low light periods or low traffic, rain or night are good times to fish for big bass. How you fish depends on what you fish with.Where you fish depends on where the big bass are located. When you fish is up to each individual. The more time on the water will increase your odds to be there when the big bass are active and catchable. Location and timing is important, the right lure in the right place and time = success. Tom

I was discussing trophy size female bass being caught, put into a livewell and mishandled or over stressed and the bass either dies or looses the eggs for the years spawn. Understanding the difference between a lake that has a stable, sustainable adult bass population verses a lake with marginal bass populations is important when discussing affects of over harvesting big female bass. Smaller trophy bass lakes need a few spawning sanctuary areas off limits to fishing to sustain a good big bass population. Larger lakes or lakes with light fishing pressure that have spawning areas that see a minimum of bass harvest during the spawn are not affected by bed fishing. Tom

Bed fishing is the number 1 reason Florida will never produce a world record bass, no closed sanctuary water and the use of live shiner fishing during the spawn. Giant bass are most venerable on beds during the spawn, 99% of these bass are caught during the pre spawn to spawning period everywhere. C&R works only if the bass is handled properly and that doesn't happen often when it's a near record or PB size bass. Does bed fishing harm a fishery? It can on trophy bass lakes. Tom

Gary Dobny's won the 2009 US Open using LC Gunfish top water lures and small LC crankbait, you might want to ask Gsry's advice which rod he recommends. Tom

Uptom's Customs, Iovino and Roboworms are floaters, injection molded high production worms tend to be neutral and salt impregnated worms will sink. Custom Lures Unlimited still makes SuperFloat worms. Tom

Fish finders today are more than depth sounding sonar units, they provide GPS location, way points and navigation maps, plus they can offer side scanning or 360 scanning depending on how much money you are willing to spend. Your first priority is being honest with yourself and determine how you fish, then what your needs are for the sonar unit. Whatever you choose, try to get on the water demonstration, in store similators are designed to sell units. You are going to spend a lot of fishing time learning how to use a sonar unit. Last years big change was touch screens, the units stayed nearly the same in regards to performance. Both Lowrance and Hummingbird are discounting the manual key operating systems for touch screens, good savings on key operating units. Tom

Drop shot weight is tied or attached to the end of the line, the drop shot hook is tied directly to the line above the weight. The worm is nose hooked or wacky hooked. Casting from shore the hook should be about 24" above the weight.Hook; Owner mosquito, Gamakatsu drop shot, both size 1. The hook point should be upright. Weight, 1/4 oz round drop shot weight, several mfr's. Cast let sink to the bottom, lift the slack line until you feel the weight, then simply hold the rod tip upright for about a minute, then drag the weight about 1' and repeat. You can shake the rod tip lightly into the slack line to add a little action if you like. You can also use a 1" pear shaped bobber and 1/8 oz weight, adjust the bobber for different depths. Tom

Upton's Customs, now available from TW, makes a high floatation hand poured trick worm called a Dragon Tail in 6" and 9", check them out, good worms. Started fishing Josh's 9", 13" and 16" worms several years ago and they work good. Tom

I will repeat this agian; fishing rods can only transmit vibrations from line movement, the lure weight only reduces the amount a slack line and water drag coeffient on the line. You could hit the lure with a hammer and fell nothing if the line has slack and doesn't move under water, vibrations are not attenuated up the line in water. The line you use has more impact on how well a rod transmit line movement through your fingers and hand holding the rod. How much advantage a high modulus light weight rod offers verses a lower modulus heavier weight rod becomes an individual interpratation and how much money you are willing to pay for that difference. Tom

www.bearsbaits.com/ home injection molded soft plastics, good product. Tom

Just open my tackle boxes and all the wooden lures are no longer made from swimbaits to crankbaits (plugs). Structure spoons like Wards Champ, Megabait jig spoons and Haddock coffin spoons. Too many soft plastics brands to mention by name. You can find some of the discontinued lures on eBay or other sites for a price! Storms original Wiggle Warts are a hot item today for example. Tom