WRB-2.0

Thank you A-jay. Interesting thread that has covered a lot of philosophy and some differences between bass species. The title could have been the science of bass and man behavior. Put another log on the fire and enjoy the Holidays. Tom

The Hula grub is a spider jig trailer. The original grub and spider collar was made Bobby Garrland before he came out with his Gizzit tubes. Back in those days we had the collars made from soft plastic for the skirt and added the single or double tail 4" grubs to stand up or football heads and they worked good in western reserviors. Gary Yamamoto tooled the hula Skirt and grub as one piece making it easier to use. The 4" and 5" Hula grubs are very easy to fish on 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 oz plain football heads and GYC makes a good jig head with Owner ot Gamakatsu hooks at reasonable prices. Fish a spider jig like you would a T-rigged worm; cast and hop along the rocky hard area bottom or sloping banks etc. you can also swim the jig. Tom

Looks like a horse head jig modified to add a worm keeper in lieu of a swivel for a blade. Can't see the photo clearly! Tom

Unless your scale is Lab quality it will be accurate with 2%. Spring scales read by an indicator aligning engraved lines, parallax of alignment isn't very accurate. Digital scales rely on battery power, as we all know batties fade voltage with time, as the voltage drops, the scale accuracy changes. Scales that use high end lithium Ion batteries will retain accuracy longer than traditional cad/nickel batteries. Scale accurate to 1% across their linear weight range are 2x more accurate than most 2% scales. Check your scales advertised accuracy and keep the batteries at maximum voltage. Tom

Take a look at the Owner bass hooks page, Twistlock with CPS, several excellent illustrations and hook styles to choose from. There are other good soft plastics besides Strike King Rage, Gary Yamamoto products for example. Innovation Beavers have 2 tubular body sections held together, you place the hook point through the center between the 2 body tubes. Brush Hogs have a flat oval body body shape, the hook point goes into the flat bottom of the oval, appendages attached to the narrow sides. You can make a knife cut about 1/2 through the thick body creatures where the hook bend is located to improve hook sets. The only method to garrantee the creature will stay upright with appendages out the sides is use a plan stand up style shaky head jig. Weighted keel hooks also help. The standard t-rigged Brush Hog with a sliding sinker work good, don't over think it, just fish them. Tom

Sow Belly by Monte Burke is another book to add to the list. Tom

If a femal bass isn't sick, they produce eggs throughout their adult life cycle. Spawning is hard on the older females and it can kill them, usually by bed fisherman. You read a lot of misinformation regarding big bass. It was believed that Florida LMB only lived 10 years max, not true, they often live over 15 years, if they have cooler water in the 70's during the summer period. Tom

The Henshaw book was new, not a first edition! I am only 70. Besides me, you are the only other bass angler who has mentioned Robert Lincoln Page book, Jason Lucas gets mentioned in Ken Cook's web site. I have letters from Jason Lucas, he took the time to write to a kid in California back in the 50's.Tom

Most LMB reach a maximum weight then start to decline as their health fades. This bass may be at her prime condition now and may weigh a pound more during the late pre spawn period next year. Tom

It's difficult to accurately age a bass with using scale growth rings due to several environmental conditions, good enough for an estimate. It will be interesting if the other biologist are within a year. Cold water fresh water bass live longer than those in warmer water climates, the oldest known I believe was 26 year old smallmouth from Mass. It does some skin and nerve damage extracting pore scales from a living bass and pore scales have the easiest growth rings to count. Tom

Too many factors to list because how a rod feels is an individual interpretation. I find Shimano may feel a little rigid without a reel mounted, when fished they feel under powered for the rating, compared to higher end rods. Rod sensitivity is over stated, none can feel anything, only transmit line movement to your finger tips. High modulus light weight graphite rod blanks are one component of a rod, the reel seat, handles, guides all combine to make up a good worm/ jig rod. Tom

Your question will be moved to the fishing tackle forum and there you will find several l o n g threads regarding jig questions. Tom

Top water like a LC Sammy or Spook and a buzz bait. Tom

It really depends on the type of skirt material, standard or fine cut silicone or living rubber. Flare can be achieved by how tight the skirt material is held to the jig collar and if a flaring umbrella is used to flare out the skirt. Tom

If you used a 3/16 oz sliding bullet sinker and 6" to 7" curl or ribbon tail soft plastic worm like Berkley's Power worm and fished it slowly, bass will eat and swallow this worm if given slack line, hard to miss.Better yet, get some Carolina Keepers and place the keeper about 24" above the hook to hold the weight like a finesse C-rig and slowly drag that along the bottom, good rig for your tackle set up. Tom

Repair the hole! Tom

Bill Dance death grip!

How soon I forget.

Matt, when are you going to make up more of your hard gills? Tom

TW's sale on Daiwa T3B @ $125 is your best bargain. Tom

The lower water temps that Threadfin shad can tolerate is 44 degrees, not sure about the larger gizzard shad. If the run off is colder than 44 degrees, the shad would die off and the bass may not move up, otherwise they could. Tom

Nice collection. Black Bass Fishing by Robert Lincoln Page,, Outdoor life fishing editor the same time period of Jason Lucas was for Sports Flield, the 50's during my teen years has some wonderful folk art sketches, love those! Iovino's book on Finesse Fishing and the a Sonar Connection is a must read for anyone interested in structure fishing. Don is still active with Lowrance pro staff. One book not on this list is Sow Belly by Monte Burke, interesting history of giant bass. Tom PS, Old, I bought those old books new!

The most important drive animals have is to procreate or continue on their species, everything else is secondary. Spawning is critical for adult bass, they will find a way to lay and fertilize eggs every year, if possible. Nothing in nature is absolute, the spawn for largemouth bass begins as the cold winter water warms up to 62 +_2 degrees at the depth the bass spawns and continues as the water warms to 67 +_ 2 degrees. The major population start around the full moon cycle. Spawns on larger deep structure lake can cover a 3 month period. Did I mention nothing is absolute! A few bass may be off by several months and spawn in the fall, unusual but a few bass have spawned in some lakes. If the weather has radical cold fronts or severe low water drought pull downs, most bass may abort the spawn that year.After the spawn or post spawn bass scatter into their summer period locations. Some bass summer near shore in and around cover, some move out into deeper water off shore structure, other move back and forth daily from off shore to near shore at night to feed. None of the summer bass do anything in mass, like they do during the spawn. Tom

You shouldn't be concerned this time of year with spooking shallow water bass, if you are, then you are fishing in the wrong places. Keep a low profile or stand back away from the bank about 5' and make your normal presentations. The bass should be in at least 5' of water in your area. Tom

You can't compare largemouth bass to smallmouth, apples and oranges. Smallmouth roam far more then largemouth in the same lakes, as do spotted bass. The lakes I fish there are groups of LMB that stay within several hundred yards of the same structure areas year around, except the spawn. The big females tend to return to the same areas to spawn if the water levels support them. Mark Lemback's tracking studies were consistant with obsevations and also revealed some unexpected results. For example most of SoCal bass lakes have off limit or closed to fishing areas within 1/4 to 1/2 mile near dams. In lakes that had closed seasons , usually due to duck hunting season, bass that moved onto the closed areas would move out during the closed season, then return the day the season reopened.. Some of the bass stayed inside the closed areas year around and spawned on whatever would hold a nest, certainly not ideal spawning areas. Dottie for example was one of these sanctuary bass that left the dam area to spawn outside of the closed area and returned after spawning. Bass definitely move around on an individual bases,not in mass. Tom