WRB-2.0

You can join, go to a few meetings and get an idea how the group interacts with new members from others in the club. If for whatever reason you are not confortable, quite and try another club. Bass fisherman can be extremely competitive within a club, the top 10 scenario, that never share anything in fear of someone beating them out of their ranking. Secrets, secrets, if the club has this type of pecking order, bail out fast. If the members on the other hand enjoy mentoring new members, good community feeling and you feel welcome, give it a try. Tom

Medium/ heavy only defines the rods power; 3 power. What is missing is how the rod bends, ie; fast action is a typical bass rod section. Fast means the upper 1/4th of the rod bends when it loads up under average lure weight. Try using a crankbait rod that is a slower action rod, about 1/2 the rod bends, more parabolic bend. Tom

Almost everything comes under a bell (Gaussian) curve where 10% on both ends represent the minority and 80% in the middle of the curve represent the majority. When we say the pre spawn, spawn and post spawn, we mean the majority of the bass behave in this manner. You could say the early and later bass are in the 10% minority category. The "spawn" is the time period when bass are spawning, laying eggs and egg laying for the majority happens over a 1 to 2 week period, once the female makes her egg laying run. How long eggs take to hatch depends on water temps; longer in water 60 degrees, shorter in water 68 degrees, this affects the male guarding those eggs more than females laying them. In most lakes it takes about 2 months to complete the spawning cycle for the majority of the bass. Because the spawn doesn't happen all at 1 time, there are waves of pre spawn, spawn, post spawn bass mixed together to complicate the definition further, however easy for the angler to tell the difference; pre spawn female bass are in deeper water, fat and full of energy, spawner's and post spawner's are not. Tom

All bass are individuals with different physical make up, most fight for their life, a few surrender without a battle, true of all animals. Tom

Good quality products and they catch bass. I have higher strike ratios with his crappie year around, bluegill in the spring. Crappie are a softer and easier meal for bass to eat than bluegill, bluegill are more popular. Tom

The key to landing trophy size fish or any hard fighting fish is learning to control it at all times. If the fish runs around in an uncontrolled manner, the fish is in control. If you are in a boat, you need to keep the fish in front of you, your in the front so control the boats position. If you are a back seater, the front angler needs to help by controlling the boats position to keep the fish under control. Sometimes you must follow the fish to keep it in front of you and under control. This applies to every strong game fish from Marlin, tuna, musky or bass. Lose line = lost fish, tight lines = caught fish. Everyfish is a little different, bass do not have good endurance or long hard fast runs, they pull hard and turn quickly and can jump out of the water, a minute long fight is about all they manage....give them a minute if that what it takes to control them and land them. Big tuna and marlin can take hours, so a minute or less shouldn't be too hard to manage. How you choose to land your fish depends on what you prefer, me I like to land bass by hand, unless using multiple treble hook lures, then I use a knotless net, when boat fishing. Tom

Feeding and weight gain go together. Bass are cold blooded animals, their metabolism, the rate they burn calories, is controlled by water temperature. In the summer and fall the water is warmer and bass gain weight per calorie slower because the are more active burning calories chasing prey. During the pre spawn the water temps are colder, bass need less food to maintain weight, however they are driven by biological need to store the maximum amount of food so they can survive not eating during the spawn. For this reason bass are at the heavier weight and most active feeding period. Calling the pre spawn the time bass are developing eggs is like calling the post spawn the time period before bass develop eggs for females or melt for males; pre spawn summer, fall, winter, spring. I will respectfully disagree on that theory. Tom

Getting into thermal dynamics and understanding the heat transfer of conduction, convection and radiation thermal effects of heating or cooling of lake water is a complex study. Water volume, clarity play a roll; deeper water by volume requires more energy to affect heat transfer. Clear water with little or no suspended particulates to heat or cool transfer heat slower than water with particulates. The sun heats water via thermal radiation, the earth by thermal conduction, the core water column heats bad cools via thermal convection, all 3 play a roll. Streams or rivers flowing tend to mix the water temperature, this water flowing into a lake is usually similar to the lakes surface temps, unless the surface is frozen. Water coming up through the earth, springs, tend to be the same temperature as the earth the water is flowing through (about 60 degrees). Spring water cools warmer water in the summer, heats colder water in the winter. The ideal water temps for bass is about 70 degrees, they can tolerate about 40 to 85 degrees depending on DO level. Tom

Prey and eggs weigh the more, pre spawn. How many record class bass have been caught in the fall....none.Tom

While I agree on most of what Catt has written on this thread, agree with pre spawn being the seasonal period the adult bass feed more than any other period, including fall. Pre spawn is the period when the adult bass move from their winter locations, the cold water winter seasonal period, to stage before spawning. The female bass may be developing eggs for months prior to pre spawn, however egg development alone doesn't signal a seasonal change. Bass movement/ location patterns in conjunction with warming water temps signal the bass are in transition from winter to pre spawn, similar to the summer to fall transition, when water cools. In my region pre spawn starts when the water temps start to approach 55 degrees (not surface water, core water temps) and the bass have move up between 35' to 20' on major and primary secondary points. Depending on our weather, this movement starts to occurs between late Dec to early Feb in SoCal, about 4 to 8 weeks before they start cruising the spawning flats. Post spawn females are in poor physical condition, some die, so they are not feeding heavily, they are recuperating. Juvenile bass feed heavily during the summer period, this time is critical growth period if these bass will grow to adult size bass. Tom

Mosquito fish, Gambusia Affina, are small minnows used to abate insects in ponds, not a regulation that I am aware of ? if there was we would have it! A pond is a pond, no agreement on when a pond becomes a small lake or tank. Tom

It begs the ? What is a swimbait, when boot tails worm are now called swimbaits. Tom

An then there are those big double buzzers. Tom

Here is the thing with hooks, they get dull, some start out that way. Before the Japanese introduced premium sharp hooks, all we had was EagleClaw and Mustad hooks that needed to be sharpened out of the box. Hook sharpeners and files were standard items that bass anglers used daily and we caught lots of bass. Daiichi, Owneer, Gamakatsu changed the definition of sharp hooks to "sticky" sharpe hooks out of the box.the hook hones and files got put away and forgotten, big mistake! Premium hooks get dull with use and can be resharpened or should be resharpened. When a "sticky" sharp needle point hits a rock, it flattens the tip...dull premium hook! You can sharpen hooks with a simple hook hone. If the hook point does't make a line on your finger nail, sharpen or change that hook! Premium hooks use state of the art metals, heat treated to maximum strength with forged or flattened wire at the hook bend to improve strength, all good technology. The points are extremely sharpe when new, they can and will get dull. Tom

5 set ups, presentations/ techniques right!1. Jigs 2. T-rig 3. Swimbaits 4. Crankbaits 5. Finesse soft plastics Missing 6. Top water 7. Jerk baits 8. Structure spoons 9. C- rigs 10. Spinnerbaits. Now I need to figure out what to put away, some of the top 5 or add some of the missing. I think I will go fishing and forget this game. Tom

Jig weight should be with hook and weed guard, less skirts or trailers. Agian like nearly everything in fishing NO standards and this also applies to the hook Break down the presentation technique; casting horizontal or flipping/ pitching, letting the jig fall vertical. A compact jig head with a weed guard like the Arkie or brush jig works good fished vertical. Grass heads and football head work good fished horizontal, cast and retrieved. The casting jig has more space between the hook point and back of the jig head, longer jig. I would start out with 1/2 jig, fish it until you know how fast it falls, how it feels under the conditions you fish. You can slow the fall rate with bulky trailers and skirts, speed it up with streamline trailers and skirts. The versitle color combinations are purple/brown/black (peanut & jelly) and purple/green (June bug). These colors work everywhere, give about a year before broadening you selection. Tom

You need to rethink the rod with braid. X fast should be moderate fast like a 2 power drop shot rod, your rod sounds like a 3 power XFast and may tear out mouth skin hooked fish...not much give in this set up. Another option is a1.5-2.0 drag tension. Tom

Could be a fall turnover, did the lake have a sulfur like smell or something rotting? Some lakes have aeration systems located in deep water at the dam to help prevent oxygen depletion from sediment debris. 2 things kill fish, sudden 10+ degree drop in water temperatures or DO levels less than 3 mg/L. A turnover usually doesn't cause sudden very low DO levels, 67 degree surface water shouldn't indicate a sudden 10 degree or more water column drop in temps. Did the lake level drop quickly? Sudden drops in lake levels will bring out crawdads and artificially create a turn over. The crawdads also eat the dead shad. Tom

Thank you all for the kind words. Catt is the best source for night bass fishing tips...Liston to his advice, I do! I believe the ? Was regarding a small 7 acre pond, more than likely fishing from shore. We have a lot of night fishing advice on this site with lists of needed details. Tom

The summer period tends to be the most productive, although we don't have a bug issue where I fish! Night fishing will improve your skills. Make sure you have a good light, difficult to see what you are doing or going. Hard to beat a T-rigged Power worm or buzz bait, KISS, rules the night. Enjoy yourself, take a cell phone, be careful. Tom PS; get there an hour before dark, the bite is usually good until an hour after dark, then slows down before it picks up agian.

Cody is a good young bass pro and doing well out west. Very hard to get a Shimano sponsorship until you get some recognition. Shimano had a few issues with 2013 Curado reel, believe the E series is good. Daiwa's Tatula looks impressive, should be a good strong tournament reel. Who's rods are you looking? I recently bought ALX rods, used Lamiglas and Loomis for 30 years and like ALX jig rods. Give Alex at ALX a call he may be interested in helping you. Tom

Erwin, you are new to tournaments in a state and lakes that have some of the best bass anglers in the country. Are you talking about weekend club events or cash prize events? If you are putting $$ on the line, you want reliability, trouble free casting performance. 3 outfits is the minimum, you may need back ups for each rod/reel combo you use all the time. My advice is avoid discount house (BPS) brand names and put your money into reels with good service reputation like; Ardent, Daiwa, Lew's and Shimano. Rods; Dobyn's, Lamiglas, Loomis and St Croix. Models depending on your budget. The line, hooks and lures should also be premium quality, losing keeper bass and equipment failure is costly during a tournament. Tom

See FC brand preference thread on this forum page.

If you are fishing a big bass tournament, for example, the lure of choice would be designed to catch larger bass, not a general use lure designed to catch average size bass, unless you had experience otherwise.I have caught DD bass on wooden Lunker Punkers, this is a big bass lure. Buzz baits have caught more big bass than the other top water baits listed. All top water lures, like other lures, will catch the occasion quality bass, at the right place and time. I don't consider frogs, spooks or poppers big bas lures, they catch a lot of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 lb bass. Didn't see any big wake baits like a Slammer for example. Tom

I fished Sunline Shooter since the mid 90's and tried various other brands over the years, nothing has compared until this year. Blackwater Toray FC, Solaroam Bass Hi Clas is a better line IMO; knot strength, abrasion resistance and ease of casting Tom