WRB-2.0

If you don't learn from your time on the water, nothing can help you! However fishing memories to me is fishing the wrong places that you caught bass seasonally. Best example is the spawn when bass are shallow for spawning not feeding.anglers do very well in the spring fishing shallow protected areas and stay there all year. On the other hand is using your experience to locate bass where they currently are active. Thursday I going fishing with a friend in his boat on a lake that we haven't fished in 3 years. Everyone tells me the lake is 30' down and fishing is slow. I know this lake and will use my memory what the lake is like is like 30' low in mid October. Check the surface temps, look for a thermocline to determine if there is one and what depth the baitfish are at. With that info and my experience we will go fishing, but not at the same places we fished 3 years ago in the the early summer. Tom

Memory gets a little fuzzy, Bobby Murry, not John. The anglers could pre select 10 lbs of tackle and did not know where they would be fishing, Murry packed what he knew well....spinnerbaits! Most of the spinnerbaits back then were single spins, Stan Sloan was the first I remember who used tandem willows. Today if you tried a spinnerbait at Mead, you would be the only angler fishing it! I have spent about 45 years fishing giant FLMB in gin clear water with sparse cover, over 60 years bass fishing. Best 5 bass limit is 62lbs, several 50 lb limits, lots of days blanked on the on the same lakes, we call it fishing for a good reason. Tom

While I agree with the gin clear water and spooky bass behavior in general terms, bass have away of not behaving like we think they should. Lake mead is a very deep gin clear bass fishery with few shallow areas to fish, the banks are steep because it's a canyon classification resevervior. Mead has little cover, almost no weeds, sparse salt cedar bushes in a few spots depending on water level. The first mystery lake Bassmasters classic was held at Mead and won by John Murry fishing the bare banks with a spinnerbait, 5 1/2' pool cue rod with 20 mono. Knowone who knew amend would have tried a spinnerbait with heavy line, but that is what Murry always used, always fished shallow water. Dee Thomas, the father of flipping, learned to bass fish the CA delta where the water isn't clear and has extremely heavy cover everywhere. Dee was winning a lot tournaments in NorCal, we knew he couldn't flip our gin clear SoCal lakes and catch anything. Dee came and kicked arsh, catching heavy limits in isolated spots with sparse cover in our gin clear lakes. Dee's quote "shallow bass are biting bass" has worked for flippers and pitchers all around the country. Doesn't work for me to fish tight to cover in clear water, I do better making long casts and fishing in low light conditions. Tom

Greasing drags will ruin them, keep them dry and clean, then you don't need to know what material or type of lubricant. Drag disks are not expensive, bad drags can ruin your day. Tom

I am not a fan of glass/ composite rods that try to be 2 rods in 1, ends being a compromise that does nothing well. Treble hook lures the rod helps braid from tearing out hooks during the hook set and fight, single hook lures you lose hook setting power. My guess is you need to recover more line during the hook set to overcome the rod tip bending. Reel faster and swing harder during your hook set. I believe a standard med/hvy fast action rod with 30 lb braid would work good by adjusting the drag to about 3 pounds pull force. Sharp hooks are essential. Tom

Every trophy bass lake has boom & bust periods, fish them at their peak! Sugar lake hmmmmmmm! Out west we are in the down slide, we need rain, with the exception of the CA delta, it's still on for numbers of 7's & 8's, occasion DD, check Cooch's fishing blog. Tom

I use a salt water popping rod for both small and medium size crankbaits and structure spoons, Loomis PR845C, they make spinning rods PR844S would work if you want an excellent long distance casting rod. This blank is different from fresh water blanks, more parabolic to achieve longer casts, yet very strong mid section for good hook sets at a distance. Specific salt water rods have metal hardware that doesn't corrode, unlike fresh water rods using anodized aluminum hardware to reduce weight. Most salt water rods are made for larger, stronger fish. You don't need a salt water rod for fresh water, unless the blank suites your needs, like the one mentioned. I am not familiar with the Falcon in question. Out west we use Seeker, Shimano and Daiwa salt water series and Okuma rods for most of the salt water fishing. Tom PS; Classic Pooping Rods-Loomis

Did you watch the Falcon lake tournament vedio posted in the Okeechobee vs Falcon ? The pro bass anglers could not keep some bass from jumping. If a bass wants to jump it will and it makes bass fishing exiting, enjoy it. The key is getting good hook sets, so explain how you set hooks and tackle being used. Tom

I don't have a dog in this fight, the debate between these lakes boils down to windows of oportunity to catch quality bass or a shot at DD. Okeechobee is well known for big bass with shiners or beds, if that is your goal, this is the lake for you. Roland Martin knows Okeechobee better than anyone, has a fishing lodge there, his PB was caught at El Salto! Falcon's bass have been pounded the past few years, gets commercial fishing pressure with gill nets on the Mexican side, however still has a good population of big bass caught on lures over a 3 month window of time, wider window of opportunity of time than Okeechobee. Then you could broaden your horizons and go further south to Baccurac or El Salto! Tom

You are beating a dead horse, the swimbait is only 3.5" long and one photo has a good shot with the swimbait, easy to make a length estimate. Keep in mind LMB adult size fish, the head from the tip of the jaw to the gill cover is 1/3rd the body lentgh. Average hand is 4" wide, average thumb less than 1", this bass is close to 21” long, +/- 1", 5 to 6 lb bass. To be 8 lbs it needs another 3", .I'am not that far off!This is still a big bas for NY. Tom

Doesn't help, was hoping it was a Rago 6",swimmer. That's for the input.Tom

What swimbait did you use? Or how long is it? Maybe I can use that for a reference. Tom

You don't need a tape measure with you, although it would help! Use you line to measure the fish with. A length of line from the closed mouth to the center of the tail= length, cut off and save it. Wrap another line around the widest area, cut it off, put a overhand knot in the middle = girth, save it. Length X length X girth divide by 1200 = weight in pounds. Best estimate without any way to validate length; the bass is 21" long, about 5.7 lbs. Tom

Give up the length girth numbers! Tom

That is a lot of hardware being tossed into shallow water brush. If your Boo rig doesn't do it, give a pearl white hollow body frog a chance. You will miss a few strikes and stick some. Tom

I agree with DVT on this, slower action rod for crankbaits will cast easier, more accurately than a fast or X fast graphite rod design for soft plastics using a bait casting reel. Fully realize you are in a kayak and number of rods are limited. My suggestion is focus on the crankbait rod, it will work good for smaller crankbaits, top water poppers, spooks and flukes, lighter weight spinnerbaits. I use Loomis PR845C, GL2 series. Tom PS; this is also good spoon rod!

If your drag is not working smoothly, change the drag disk, upgrade to Carbontex or similar drag. Tom

Micro guides, both Fuji and Kigan are top of the line, can improve casting distance by preventing line slap against the rod blank. Rods usually have a standard stripper guide (1st guide close to the reel) than 1or 2 medium size guides, followed by micro guides. The only problem I have is trying to run line through micro guides in windy weather low light conditions because they have very small guide rings or tiny holes for my tired old eyes. Tom

Like Catt I always have jigs and worms tied on and fish them during the outing. Unlike nearly everyone else's relies I use structure spoons often during the fall and winter periods. It's fun to fish cranks and spinnerbaits, more fun to catch bass. Tom

Shaw Grigsby made a good living "sight fishing" bass, not just bed fishing. Sometimes they bite, sometimes they are spooked. Our local lakes are extremely clear water, so sight fishing happens nearly year around. What amazes me sometimes is how hard it can be to see these bass on rocky structure, they blend in to the background unless they move. Tom

Aaron Martens fishes Megabass rods for long time, back when he lived in CA, they have always been $$$. Aaron won angler of the year for 2013, making Megabass rods more popular. Tom

This is a very common combination. We used to call a skirted jig with a soft plastic worm trailer a bum, as in hobo, not today's slang. The popular worm back in the day was a Superfloat worm and split the tail about 3". Tom

Two weeks ago at Castaic LMB were feeding heavily on Threadfin shad and there was a tournament going on at that time. The tournament anglers had a tough day, the live shad anglers loaded their boats with quality bass. Talking to one of the best pro anglers in this TX, told me this story; we in the back of a cove with bass ripping the shad and couldn't get bit. A boat comes in with live shad and they had doubles hooked up immediately and caught limits in a short time. What made this more frustrating is the bass were around their boat within a few yards. Sometimes bass get so focused on certain prey fish they will chase the bait up against a boat. Like musky that follow a lure to the boat, bass will also follow a swimbait all the way to the boat and stay there! These bass see you, just so active chasing prey and don't seem to have any fear of you for some reason. The same bass may get spook from a shadow at other times. Tom

Taking a closer look the the original ? location, Miami, FL, this is more than likely tidal flow in a corps of engineers channel. The bass would be LMB and like all fish they prefer to face into current. Man made channels were not engineered for the benefit of fish, so little mid channel structure elements other than a smooth bottom. The channel sides and vegetation over hanging become places where the bass can ambush prey. Channels were made to straighten out natures zig zag waterways for ease of navigation and increase water flow between lakes or rivers. Tom

Some good points, fishing memories is almost always a big mistake. We talk about fishing outside water and over 90% of bass anglers will never go further away from shore then the distance of a cast. I talk about seasonal periods a lot, few anglers consider how this affects bass location. The biggest misconception is the belief you can catch bass when they are inactive. Tom