WRB-2.0

Why 10 lb braid? Must be fishing a spinning reel! Braid isn't that good in sharp rocks and dragging a bullet weight can wedge into rocky crevices. You might want to consider a finesse C-rig, don't use a swivel or braid and go with 8 to 10lb FC line. Top Brass Pro-Jo weight is harder and larger than a lead weight, the hole doesn't pinch closed in rocks, slides through well. Use the glass bead as a weight stopper by pegging it or use a Carlonia Keeper stopper. Tie the hook directly onto the main line, 1 knot. The old egg sinker will also go through rocks fairly good, better than a bullet weight, you might want to give the egg sinker a try. Tom PS, what weight sinker are you trying to use?

Stunting doesn't create a midget bass species. Stunted bass usually have large size heads with skinny bodies due to lack of protein to gain weight. A pond with an over abundance of 1 year class can deplete the smaller prey fish, however the few adult size bass will thin those out in time. A hard freeze will also impact a pond, however there is a population of adult size bluegill and should be some larger bass.Lets give this guy a chance to try out what has been suggested and learn what happens if he shares it. Tom

When you make a cast the worm and weight are together, as the weight sinks the worm separates from the weight as they both sink to the bottom. If you keep a little controlled slack you will see the line go slack when the weight hits bottom. You should be able to feel the line go slack and see it go slack regardless of the bottom softness, type of rod or line. Every time you lift the weight off the bottom the worm moves against the weight and let it sink back down, the line will go slack agian, even in weeds. The line going slack is line movement, a good rod will pick up this line movement. If the bottom is hard or rocks, the weight stops with a thud, the line jumps slack similar to a bass strike. You should be able to see and feel what I have described using 3/16 oz weight, unless it's very windy. Tom

My first experience with lakes that had both pike and muskies was Lake of The Woods in Ontaario.. Being a bass angler I found the big muskies where big bass should be located, musky was the top dog there. The pike tend to be more od a school fish and roamed around more, however also used the prime outside weed edges, reefs, points and island ends where wind current or raising or flailing water levels tended to stack up the baitfish. The locals didn't think Lake of the Woods had any big LMB, only rarely caught any, mostly Smallmouths. I started to see some LMB along the inside weed breaks, open water between the weed beds and shoreline in shallow water. I caught several 4 to 6 lb LMB with soft plastic worms T-rigged along the inside weed breaks, knowone was fishing for them!Striped bass are school feeders and faster than LMB and also tend to take over the best feeding zones. If lakes have stripers, the big bass tend to be tighter structure or cover. The bass will mix in with stripers feeding on big schools of baitfish, but they have a hard time competing with a school of big stripers. Tom

If you want to fish a frog, go for it. Might want to consider a white or white/chartreuse color frog that mimics threadfin shad in the bushes. Tom

Giant bass are top predators where they live and tend to repeat feeding habits and locations seasonally. Like must predators they are dominate where I fish, unless the lake is shared with striped bass. Casitas doesn't have stripers, Castaic now has stripers, but not when I was catching giants there. This is important because you need to know what fish is dominate, allowing the bass to go where ever it wants to go. With practice you can look at a good topo map and have a good idea where pre spawner's and spawner's will be located based on the type of lake and prey available. To answer your question, I always approach a spot thinking there is big bass in the area. This means you do not want to alert the fish to your presence or spook them, they can be very wary, a learned response is they stop feeding and move into deeper water. Slow down a approach with stealth, like you are stocking a trophy animal, because you are! I try to visualize the bass looking for prey, then present my lure to mimic that prey anticipating the strike. If anything feels odd, I crank the reel a few turns quickly and set the hook if there is any resistance. This is my normal approach to high % locations, I only meter the area with sonar after I have fished the spot to determine if any bass are there or suspended nearby. If I meter bass, then I return anywhere from a few minutes or hours depending on what I metered. I usually have a milk run of known spots and fish each one with the same approach, if knowone is fishing the spot. Keep in mind these lakes are small and high pressured by knowledgable bass anglers, often a few pros. There are very few secrets today, so you just blank out the other boats and keep focused. Bad weather is your freind during pre spawn, it keeps a lot of anglers off the water and quites down the ecosystem. Fewer boats increases your odds and the bass tend to stay active for longer time periods. Every giant bass that I have caught wasn't a loner, it was feeding with other big bass, unlike the popular thinking big bas are loners. If you catch a big bass, keep fishing! Tom

Reading and answering several threads regarding bass behavior a common theme keeps being repeated, find the baitfish and you will catch bass. In my opinion this is a misconception, find the baitfish and the bass should be close is closer to the truth. Just because you locate bass doesn't mean you can catch them on lures or live bait at times or under some circumstances. There is a population of bass in nearly every lake, pond, river that can't be caught on lures outside of the spawning period. Some of this bass population are very difficult to catch with live bait, they are uncatchable at the time you are trying to catch them. Another misconception is bass see colors like we do. We are nearly blind underwater without the aid of a swim mask and added light. Bass vision is a topic of speculation with little good science to support facts being stated. The bottom line is; bass see differently then we do, so keep an open mind on this topic. The next time you are on the water bass fishing and get skunked, remember we all have this happen sometimes. Enjoy your time on the water, you never know about tomorrow. Tom

Jeff, thank you for posting that ugly photo. I am going by the statement made in rigging RsgeTail Thumper worms; my Pb is 14+ lbs. Like to read Big O's commits, he is a good big bass man and can give some good advice to those trying to catch these giant bass. Tom PS, that's a giant smallie in your a avatar, details?

There are a lot if dedicated trophy bass anglers around the country. California, Florida, Texas are 3 states that have or had giant bass populations, bass over 15 lbs. the bottom line is you must have giant bass populations is good numbers to be able to catch numbers of these very rare bass. You can spend a life time trying to catch a DD bass and not achieve that goal if the lakes you fish never produce bass over 10 lbs. Fish Chris is another member of this site who consistantly caught giant bass, Big O is catching lots of DD's and just a matter of time until that elusive 15+ strikes. Big O is spending lots of time targeting big bass and that is the key; gotta fish for them where they live. I started fishing for the world record bass back in the 50's when I read the story about George Perry's 22.25 world record from Montgomery lake, GA in 1932. The summer I graduated from high school, packed up my car and drove from California to Georgia's Montgomery lake to fish for WRB, the lake wasn't there anymore, dried up! So I fished Florida's lakes and rivers for a few weeks and learned something; summer wasn't a good time to fish for big bass and Florida had lots of bugs, snakes and alligators. At the same time period Orville Ball was stocking Miramar and Upper Otay lakes in San Deigo with FLMB! Returned home, went back to school and keep fishing for that world record bass, came close and believe I had potential fish hooked, just didn't put one in the boat....still trying for a 20+! Tom

This question is common on this site, do a little research. Lots of varying opinions on hook sets, pick the answer you are comfortable with. My opinion; bass don't have hands and hook sets are free...faster is better with jigs, T-rigs you can sometimes get away with a short pause. Snap set is good when casting a short distance, longer cast the reel & swep works good. Tom

I generally agree with Matt on this, the maker knows his lure and wants you to catch fish with it! You can however upgrade snaps. The exception being I don't like snap swivels, too heavy, too long and too obvious to the fish. I also use snaps on Huds at times, black color cross-locs, because the hook eye is often covered with plastic and I can tie a more reliable knot and like the action with a strong light weight snap. Tom

+1You need a rod with a small fore grip to hold the rod like this. Feel; how do you think we old timers can feel very light jig strikes with over 90' of line out on a cast? The line must move to feel it, no rod made has better sense of feel then your thumb and finger tips. To "feel" line move on the rod blank, the line either moves enough to slide through the guides or pull on the rod tip. Light weight high modulus rods help, they are not close to being as sensitive as your fingers. I was given 3 new state of the art rods without foregrips and couldn't fish with them by palming the reel like today's anglers hold rods, so I sold them. Tom

Find the baitfish, the bass will be close is true everywhere. The problem is you locate the baitfish, see bass feeding on them and they do not react to lures. This happens when bass are focused on a abundant baitfish like threadfin shad for example. You either net shad and fish live bait or try spoons or A-rigs etc. Dropping water levels usually pulls bass off the bank into deep water, raising water they move up. Fall can be boom or bust, you need to be versitle and mobile willing to search for moving bass and try different lures. Tom

When I use a snap it's Berkley Cross Loc, size 3 for crankbaits, smaller swimbaits, size 6 for the heavier swimbaits 2 to 8 oz. the cross loc will not open from big fish biting on it or come open by mistake, if you snap the clip properly! Tom

You are located in Indiana right? A 10 lb bass would be considered a giant, 8 lb a trophy size bass. I doubt that this small (2 acre) lake/pond has the forage base unless there is a feeder stream replenishing the prey source. Big bass become cannibals eating those smaller 10" bass, so a 6"" to 8" bass colored swimbait or wake bait would be the first choice. The swimbait will get any follows to take a close look and you will see them if looking closely. Another option is fish at night with 10" worms, T-rigged. Don't expect more than 1 big bass per acre that is catchable, so very few in this lake. There could be a dozen in the 5 to 6 lb range. Tom

That is my 18.6 lb FLMB from Casitas back in '81. Hair jig w/ pork trailer, 12 lb Trilene XT, 4500C, Lamiglas jig rod. This bass was a pre spawner in 17' of water off a major point. Made a long cast and she ate the jig on the fall. Although it's tail was so worn, it did jumped a body length out of water...spectacular! This bass also made a run under the boat and out the other side for nearly 20 yards. I thought this bass was a world record bases on the head and shoulders until it was in the boat. Very exciting bass, old girl that had lost some weight but still had a lot of grit. A rent boat angler took the picture as I was getting ready to release this bass and didn't get a copy until several years later, otherwise no picture of this bass. Tom

With the outfit you have, it's not going to be able to fish a traditional jig well due in part to the rod not being stiff enough and the reel drag designed to work with 6 to 8 lb mono line. Bo suggested braid, not sure the reels bail roller can withstand abrasive braid or the spinning s guides, good if they can. You can fish jig trailers rigged with a sliding sinker, T-rigged, might be a better choice. Tom

Another reason to use pork rind, it hangs in there and doesn't get torn off....just couldn't help myself from making this commit! Now all you need is a 5" pork beaver. Tom

Out west we have tuna anglers called long rangers that spend $$$ for light weight spools for big game salt water reels. Light weight high strength to hold 400 to 600 yards of braids with a 100' top shot of mono or FC line. Take a look at Accurate, Avet and Okuma Makaira off shore casting reels. Carl Newall started the light weight composite spools to replace Penn reel spools back in the late 60's to meet longer casting demands of long range tuna anglers. Different world, same casting issues.Tom

Clear sapr varnish (Varathene) or lacquer should work good.Tom

For 90% of my jig fishing I use my own jigs. Special application jigs I use NuJigs in brush and Scroungers* for swim jigs. Any jig is only as good as the hook used, always use jigs with high quality premium hooks. Tom * make my own Scroungers from the original (change the hook) and they are hard to find today.

All 5 giant bass listed are jig fish caught between Jan to Mar, pre spawner's, that is when the girls are catchable out west. The mount is my 19.3, the live bass photo isn't very good quality, although it's somewhere on this site. Butch gets his bass into the boat a lot faster then I can, much heavier tackle. These giant bass are strong and will jump occasionally. I fish with light line 10# to 14# FC with a 5 power jig rod, Daiwa TD HTSA older reels that I plan to retire this year and my own hair jigs with custom pork trailers. The depth is usually about 12' to 20' range, casting around 90' to 120', due to clear water and wary big bass. I use my reel and sweep hook set, only way to get a hook set at long distances. Lot of hours between big bass strikes, decades on the water. Keep attention to details, knots, hook points, line, best rods you can afford and smooth casting retrieving reels, a high quality FC line. Don't loose focus on each cast, it can be exhausting trying to keep your concentration. Good luck. Tom

Butch Brown's PB is 19.3 lbs to the best of my knowledge.My top 5 are; 17.4 Casitac 17.4 Castas 17.6 Castiac 18.6 Casitas 19.3 Castaic Butch catches close to a100 DD's a year, since 2000 and I am lucky to 5 a year since 1995. Next time I talk to Butch will ask him how many 17+ he had caught, my guess a lot more than I have! Tom

Butch is fishing his signature DEPS side swimmers the past few years and doing good, trying to duplicate his annual catch of over 100 DD bass using Huds. We have gone through a 5 year period of not having regular planted rainbow trout in some SoCal lakes, including the lagoon. The lagoon gets an occasional plant in the winter months, not like the in the past when plants were weekly. Casitas doesn't get any DFW stocked 6" to 12" rainbows anymore and that has had an impact on our trophy bass fishing. In about a month it should be swimbait time again out west and Butch will be making more videos! Tom

Fishing deep rocky structure with sparse cover I use 7/16 oz hair jig year around to depth of 35'. The only reason to go heavier is wind in water over 20'. Change the fall rate by changing line diameter; 10# to 14# FC and trailers between 3" to 5" pork or soft plastics. My "heavy" jig is 5/8 oz when I lose contact due to wind. The lesson to learn is; stay with 1 jig weight and brand to learn the "feel" of the jig under various conditions....this will improve you strike to hook up ratio. I have fished the same jig, weight/design, since '71. Tom