WRB-2.0

The vintage diving crank baits never ran as deep as advertised. Deep divers were 1/2 to 3/4 oz or heavier. Medium divers generally 3/8 to 5/8 oz or heavier. Never used anything lighter weight between 1960 to 2000. What book ? Tom

Naive to think tournament anglers are honest with money evolved. Tom

The old carburetor type Merc 2 stroke V6 was 300 running hours before checking out the compression and rebuild carbs. Water pump impeller should be changed annually. Tom

What size tubes and the weight? Line you use? Tom

Fire Tiger Rapala are good for both Rainbow and Brown trout out west and we don’t have any yellow perch. The color is bright with high contrasting vertical stripes that Smallmouth bass also like, killer color up in Canadian lakes. What bait fish does Fire tiger replicate only the predators know! Tom

Rinse thoroughly using DI (deionized) water to neutralize any salt residue. I was thinking the OP let dry after the alcohol cleaning process without DI rinse, bearing are still contaminated. Tom

Every tournament that I have been in the boat get inspected for mandatory safety items and each storage compartment is opened and checked. How does the crook launched his boat and/or his kayak without someone seeing what he is doing? The fish photos on the measurement board doesn’t show the angers body or legs…are the officials blind! Tom

The lure I referred to is no longer available. The X100 is very close. Tom

“Old School in 2006” that is a oxymoron ! Tom

My Hair jigs are no longer available. Tom

We know who has the brains in the family😎 Tom

The Iovino hand pours offered in sizes and colors that were unique like 3” Tiny Weenie, 4” spade tail, 6” Reaper etc. Rhythm & Blues was his signature color. Tom

Keep in mind the SIC guide ring is held in place with a metal guide frame. To damage the SIC ring you must 1st damage the guide frame. If you toss your rods down the guide frame can be bent, usually towards the rod blank and that doesn’t crank the SIC ring. Banging the rod tip hard against something harder can crack the top guide insert or break the rod tip off. If you use braid it’s abrasive wearing a groove in softer guide ring materials, SIC solves that problem. Tom

The 60’s worms were straight tail starting with Crème worms who invented the soft plastisol worm in the 50’s. The early worms were 6” long until Steimbredge introduced the Flip Tail 8” worm followed by De Long 10” straight tail Otay Spl. Curl tail I believe Mr. twister was the 1st retail curl tail in the 7O’s,Bass Assasin the 1 st ribbon tail in the 70’s as I recall. We boiled the DeLong worms because they were like tent pegs out of the bag! The Texas rig with bullet weight was used with Crème worms. Split shot rigged DeLong worms were “stitched” retrieved. The biggest/longest hand pour worms were Uptom Custom 18” Dragon tail. Don’t know if Josh is still in business? Tom

Smitty’s worms or Zanks who poured “neon” worms. Tom Mann’s made 2 types of worm's; Jelly worm 6” to 12” and Sting Ray worms and grubs. The Sting Ray had a broad flat tail, the Jelly Worm a spear tail. US Bait Co. John Pasalich* has the Flutter Craft tooling and will make custom colors. Tom *858/395.0198

Rapala still offers a wide variety of fire tiger color lures. Tom

We kept a 9’ 9 wt fly rod with Sage reel with a drag using anchovy streamer flies on our off shore tune/marlin boat to catch Dorado ( Mahi-Mahi) occasionally for fun and dinner. Dorado on a fly rod are amazing fish that run fast and make high spectacular jumps. The reel needs a drag for big fast game fish, fresh water bass imo are not power fast swimmers and drag is optional. Tom

Try Siebert Outdoors. Tom

Bulldog1935 is a good source of information concerning this topic. I fly fished since a teenager and spent a lot of time back packing into the Sierras fly fishing for Golden Trout using 5 power rods and cheap reel, the cost more then the reel. I also used the same fly rod reel and line occasionally for bass fishing. My choice of flies were appropriate for my rod, reek, line etc. caught hundreds of Smallmouth bass to 4 lbs in Ontario Canada using my trout fly rod reel using dry flies and wooly buggers. The Mcginty bee size 10 was very effective and used a tapered tiplet 3 lb test. Smallmouth love flies! IMO your 7 weight rod is more then needed unless you plan to cast big bugs/poppers. Tom PS, I was told a 9 wt rod was needed for bass…..BS.

U.S. Bait Company Frank Pasalich 858/395.0198 custom and Off the shelf soft plastics Tom

Bass anglers out west where finesse bass fishing started around 1970 with Don Iovino and Dick Trask started using 5 lb Maxima UG copoly line with highly tuned bait casting reels and custom Phenix rods. At that time no over the counter finesse bait casting rods or reels were available to the general public. What was available were spinning rods and reels capable of effectively casting light line and finesse lures. Daiwa came out in the 90’s with their Pixie and Sol casting reels for light line and lures but very few casting rods to take advantage of these reel. A small cult of finesse bait casters stayed underground until the Japanese developed specialized light line bait casting rods and reels. BFS is mainstream in Japan and just coming known in the USA and no longer a underground cult group of bass anglers. Join the fun! Tom

Amazing what people will do to cheat! Tom

Ask! Tom

When I was younger living at Big Bear lake in SoCal the weather at 7,200 feet gets cold, the lake freezes over. We nearly always had frost on the boat dock at the marina where I worked in the summer! The afternoon temps were in the high 80’s in the summer. I worked wearing a T-shirt because being acclimated to the climate. We called it having thick blood! Customers would come wearing parkas all bundled up and shivering early mornings and there I was in a T-shirt. You can’t acclimate to cold weather over night, it takes about a full season. My point is we are all different with different reaction to both hot and cold weather. Now in my 80’s I bundle up warm when frost is on the dock! Tom

The recommended lure weights are not minimum or maximum weights the rod can perform casting. The are simply suggestions to determine ideal lure weights to use by the mfr. The MH rating is another subjective value has no real performance what the rod power is. The action listed is another subjective value, no standard used how much force is applied to bend the upper section of the rod. The only way to know is pick up the rod. Put reel on it and run line through all the guides. Pull on the line using a few ounces of force and look how that rod bends under a light load. You are putting a light load of a few ounces far above the lure rating on the rod and the force doesn’t harm the rod because it’s a static force need to bend any rod. Casting weight 50% heavier than the mfr suggested rating you simply slow down your casting motion into a lob cast. Tom