WRB-2.0

Since we don't know if the prop sounds will affect the bass at the time we approach them it's. good idea to consider it would, quite is usually better than noisy. Shaks are very sensitive to electrical current, they have nose sensors to detect it. It is not uncommon for some sharks to swim up and check out the zinc plates on boats and motors. I had a musky swim up to the trolling motor and bite it while it was running slow, thought I hit something looked down and there wad this big musky a few inches from the prop and musky bit it agian....mean fish! Jay Yelas won a Bassmaster Classic in a river area below a dam, his biggest bass came when cast into a boat wake after the boat buzzed passed within a few feet of Jay and the bank he was fishing. The prop noise didn't deter that bass. These are exceptions, not the general bass population. Tom

There are several factors to consider, the mood of the or activity level and white noise surrounding the bass. Bass that are conditioned to outboard motors and trolling react differently than bass living in a quite zone. Example the marina area, bass living in and around marina's the white noise doesn't bother them as much, they have become conditioned to propeller sounds. Inactive the propeller sounds don't appear to affect them, they don't move away from it. Bass that are in an alert state are aware of propeller sounds and react by moving off at times and staying in cover at times, they definitely hear you coming from a very long distance as water transmits sound waves better the air. We have poor hearing compared to bass with 2 hearing systems. Tom

Validated by whom? The studies were published, Nature and Science Journals, accepted by fishery biologist and management organizations across the country. What science community are you suggesting should approve a published paper? We just need to agree to disagree on this topic and move on. Tom

you clearly stated 42 years, go back and retread #118. You didn't mention worms, colors or mfr's. we are both suffering from old timers. What is important we both fished 42 years with the same type of lures, worms and jigs, on similar structure with success!Tom

Aaron is extremely detailed in his presentation techniques, if he says he is casting further with braid as a filler, he is! Light weight spools cast further, everything being equal, it's the law of physics inertia, spool start faster and slows down without over running the line. If you are worried about the backing getting loose, cover the backing braid with a wrap of Teflon plumbers tape. Tom PS, Aaron just won AOY for B.A.S.S. Elites.

Braid is lighter weight than mono or FC, spool weight affect casting distance. Novel way to reduce spool weight. Tom

TW has all the A-rigs at 80% off, about a week ago now, so hurry while they last. Tom

You might want to research Mike Lembeck and Larry Botroff, both fishery biologist in the San Deido area who's bass behavior studies are accepted by the science and fishery management organizations.The University of Illinios study referenced by David Phipp and his research teams study report appears to have been performed without bias. I have no idea if the science or fishery management accepts this report. Both reports were offered to satisfy your request for studies performed in the wild on wild largemouth bass verses captive tank fish. You state that you have fished TB with the same lures on the same structure for 30 years successfully. I doubt that you are using the exact same lures, same types, different manufactures, sizes snd colors. My experience is similar, except the lakes I fish are much smaller, 2 miles long where TB is over 50 miles long. The jig I use is the same jig, the same colors bucktail hair and the same colors of pork trailers with the same shape, since 1971. Knowone else fishes the lakes with this jig combination and it has worked for me for over 40 years. So we agree that some lure classes work for decades. The more a lure replicates natural food sources it will continue to catch bass. If the anglers uses actual heathly live bait, the general bass population would never stop eating it. Tom PS; take a look at Science has lost it's way, LA Times.

The goal is to catch bass, use what works for you. Do you fish or with a partner? Sometimes it's good to fish with other anglers to get a barometer of how well you are doing. Getting out fished is a good incentive to make a few changes. Tom

Slowing down is slower than you normally fish. How much time you spend in one area is another definition of slowing down. Retrieve speeds are relative to the lure you are fishing, the slowest being dead sticked or stopped for awhile. Casting and retrieving a jig along the bottom, you only need to be concerned with the depth the bass are actively feeding. Your sonar unit is a valuable tool to determine what depth the bass are at. No reason to waste a lot of time working a jig inch by inch in unproductive water; the bass are at 20' and you are inching it along in 10'.....waste of productive fishing time. When or how do you know when to slow down...trail and error. The right pace is when you get strikes. Tom

Welcome FalconB and hope you feel comfortable enough to share some of your bass fishing knowledge and experiences. Being from the west coast we are used to extreme water level fluctuations and they have lasting impact on fisheries, mostly low spawn recruitment due to sparse shore cover. The Texas boarder lakes have low water problems, due to drought conditions, Okeechobee not affected as much. The original question was timing a pre spawn bite and my response was Falcon may have a longer time period or window of opportunity than Okeechobee and touched on the live bait factor. Tom

The Ridge lake study, Sam kindly posted a link to a article briefly giving some highlites on, was a 20 year study over several generations of bass susceptibility to being caught on lures. If you are thinking about a specific lure or lure classification, you are correct. However if bass didn't get conditioned to certain lures, we would simply fish with the same lure. This begs the question of why have thousands of lure choices for bass, when they have no memory? The answer should be obvious by looking at your tackle box.Tom

There isn't any question that the male bass has a longer time period guarding the nest site that it picked out and cleaned out to get ready for a female bass. The females role usually includes selecting a nest and male bass to spawn with, she doesn't just swim up and start depositing eggs. The ritual includes accepting the male bass, cleaning out the nest until it satisfies the female, this also helps to loosen eggs in the ovary sacks and can cause some tail damage. The male and femal are now together around the nest site. All this activity takes a few days. When the female is ready to drop some of her eggs initially, the first spawn, she rolls on her side and starts to drop eggs, the male moves in and drops melt on the eggs to fertilize them. This goes on for about an hour, then the female moves off a short distance to recuperate and watches the nest for any intruders. If this was her final egg laying, she moves off and doesn't return. When bed fishing it's common to see 1 smaller size bass on nest because the male doesn't leave until the fry are ready, then the male often attackes his own brood! It's also common to make a cast to the male on the bed and have a bigger female,that you don't see, charge in and nail your lure or bait or you catch the male, put it in the livewell and the female comes back to guard the nest. These are common tactics in bed fishing. The statement "the female leaves" is true, but not absolute in the definition. Tom

The Ridge lake, Illinois bass study Born to be Caught is hard to dispute. Tom

Dobyn's rods are backed by Gary, where else can you pick up the phone and talk to the owner, who is a top pro tournament bass angler? Dobyn's customer servive and warranty are second to none for off the self bass rods. Tom

This I are 2 schools of thought on this subject. Crappie anglers often keep 1fish in the water while catching school fish, the belief is a released fish will kill the bite. This thinking is also believed with tuna anglers on a school of fish. The other thought is a school of inactive fish can become active when one member of the school strikes, string off a chain reaction of feeding. I have experienced both, fishing shutting off from a released fish and fish becoming active from a caught fish. My practice is to keep fishing where they are biting and try not to release a bleeding fish in the same area. Tom

Jennings Ultra Sport 30 is accurate, batteries last about 5 years. Tom

The 68 Hudd ROF 12, is a very good swimbait, about $20. You may need to go to the Huddleston site and get on a wait list. Tom

Spinning or baitcasting rod? What reel and line type do you use? You need a basic med/hvy fast action bass rod, some mfr's call this a 3 power, fast action rod. Lots of off the self rods available, suggest that you go to a tackle store, take your reel and check out rods for yourself. Tom

Go online and search "Born to be caught, bass study" 20 year lake environment study by the U of Illinois.Tom

Swimbaits mimick real prey so the size, shape and color schemes should be similar to what the bass are keying on where you fish. There always will be exceptions and a trout swimmer works occasionally were no rainbow are present. You are better off using size and colors that are what the bass recognize. 5" to 8" are reasonable size swimbaits where you fish. Big worms can work everywhere. Tom

Years ago or decades ago now, I fished a wide range of live bait for bass. Crawdads, water dogs, Canadian night crawlers, mud suckers, chubs, shiners and Threadfin shad. When bass were active, swimming around or patrolling the area, they would strike live bait immediately as soon as they detected it. The opposite was the case when the bass were suspended in an inactive state. If there was a school or group of suspended bass it could take 20-30 minutes of the live bait swimming or moving around near them before one bass might wake up and take notice, swim over and strike the bait. This act of striking must set off some pheromone, the entire bass school would wake up and come over to the area of the strike, then it was wide open fishing as long as you had the live bait that started to feeding spree. Someday someone will study the trigger mechanism of pheromones from baitfish or predator fish, it's an odor response. Tom

Sevenstrand Tackle Corp makes wire leaders, the Sevalon nylon jacket is popular. American Fishing Tackle is another wire leader mfr, Surflon is their product. Sevenstrand is made in USA, American is imported. You can use crimp sleeves, size A3 works good for 40 lb., I this for adding stinger hooks to some swimbaits. Go online to locate local supplier. Tom

Falcon and Okeechobee lakes are not known for giant bass, bass over 15 lbs., both lake records are in the 15 lb class. What these lakes were known for is a good population of 10 to 12 lb bass. Okeechobee DD bass are caught during the spawn, very few after that time period. Falcon has or had a much longer time period for catching DD that extended year around, that may be the problem, over harvesteding. Boom and bust cycles are well known with big bass populations.

The only reason to use a high visible fluorescent line is to allow you to see the line above the water or where it enters the water, water clarity has little to do with this. Night fishing with black lights, florescent line glows and very easy to see. Since we don't know what bass see under water regarding colors, choose a color line you are comfortable with. Tuna anglers, tuna have big eyes and phenomenal sight capabilities, use pink colored line with good success. I fish in clear water lakes and used clear, dull green and blue tinted line, FC and mono with equal success. Line diameter is far more important to me. Tom