WRB-2.0

The 1 thing bass anglers like to do is talk about bass fishing, the best place to do that is on the water. The second best is in a bass fishing tackle shop. This is where you go to meet other local bass anglers....go there. Meet some new friends with boats. Tom

You are right it's unfair to make a statement about a products that I am not familiar with. I am familiar with the differences of injection vs hand poured plastisol. Proof is in the pudding and you have proof! I fish a lot with big worms with good success and will give this worm a try. Peace. Tom PS; the old Flip Tail was a soft segmented tappered injection molded worm that worked very well. This worm looks to be rectangular or oval cross section and more tapered than the ads reveal.

I am not a fan of using spinning rod/reel combo for casting and retrieving bass jigs because it's difficult to keep in touch with jig by using rod feedback alone. There are a few exceptions to that are lightvweight dart and shaky head jigs that weigh 1/8 oz or less. You are currently fishing a T-rig with craw trailer using a keel weighted hook and your tackle maybe OK for that type of presentation. The problem with a walleye action rod is the action is slower than a faster action bass worm/ jig rod and lacks the needed quick hook setting power. Your bait casting reel is OK if it is a good smooth operating reel. What you need is a good well balanced worm/jig rod. For general use a 7' medium heavy (4 power) fast action bait casting rod rated for 1/4-1 oz lures, 15-20 lb line. I don't know what budget limits you may have, good rods are in the $150 to $500+ range. The more expensive rods have top quality components, life time warranty, exceptional customer service and weigh about 4 oz or less. I use both Lamiglas and ALX custom rods and recommend looking at ALX off the self Zolo-B series OBC-4-85F.

We have written a lot about fall the past week,take few minutes and read several posts. Northern natural lakes are different from southern man made impoundments. The differences are primary prey source and how fast the water cools down. Small shallow water cool fast, deep large bodies of water cool slowly, size and location matters during the fall. If the prey source is shoreline type bait, crawdads, insects, frogs etc, cooling water affects these prey type quickly as their cover dies off, the prey moves to greener pastures, the bass follow. Young of the year bait has matured and grown in size and darkened in coloration. The bass are moving and looking for prey, active bass react to brighter colors, less active bass to darker colors, so you can use a wide color and lure selection. Faster moving lures should be brighter like fire tiger, reds that trigger strikes in natural lakes. Slower moving lures should be darker than normal, instead of pumpkin with red go dark watermelon with purple for example. Tom

The first jigs I used in the 50's were all black, a black hair jig called a Doll fly with black pork trailers and caught bass year around. Today I only use a black jig at night and during mid winter when fishing 35' to 40' of gin clear water. Tom

To understand bass behavior you should have at least a grasp on seasonal periods and forget about human behavior, we are not related! Bass like nearly all fish are cold blooded, the water they live in controls the body temperature, unlike warm blooded animal where the body temperature is controlled by the blood temperature as a heat source. Bass prefer warm water verses cold water and 70 degrees is about ideal, lowest temp is about 40 degrees F, upper limit is about 85, with short term excursions a little colder or warmer. Dissolved oxygen DO limits about 3-12 mg/L, colder water holds higher concentration of DO, warmer lower levels. Water reaches it's highest density @39.4 F, then gets lighter with very high levels of DO and floats on top of the 39.4 water or warmer. When the water freezes @ 32 F the lake ices over. For sake of this discussion there are 6 seasonal periods in the basses calendar: Winter. (40-55) Pre spawn (55-62 F) Spawn. (62-65) Post spawn. (65-68) Summer (68-80) Fall ( 68-58 F) There are 2 major transitional periods; winter to pre spawn and summer to fall that affect bass migration from colder to warmer water (pre spawn) and warmer to colder water ( fall ). Think of these transitional periods as coming and going; pre spawn the bass are coming into shallower warmer water to stag before the finally move into spawning. Fall the are leaving their summer locations and moving deeper and will stage in similar locations before scattering into deeper water. Bass tend to be very aggressive feeders during transitional periods, it's all about timing and locationing the preferred prey source. I like to fish jigs during these transitional periods because crawdads are a prime prey during these periods and swimbaits because larger high protein baitfish are also preferred at this time. You have a lot of lure choices. The key element is going to be at what depth and each lake is different regarding at what depth is optimal. Tom PS; temps at the depth where the bass are located, not surface water.

To be honest I don't like the design; thick sigmented body with a curl tail. This type of worm tends to be stiffer due to the injection molded plastisol is harder than hand poured. GY make a 10" cut tail that is popular and Uptom's Customs has a hand poured that works good. Tom

Depends on what use the sun glasses are used for most of the time or if they are specific application lens. I prefer dark grey to max the glare cutting off water and for general day time use while driving etc. Dark amber high lights green colors under water, light amber or more yellow tone enhance light for better vision during low light periods or cloudy days. Blue enhances vision in foggy conditions etc. Tom

Transition periods are usually no longer than 2 or 3 weeks, less than a month, in most lakes. Late summer is usually a continuation of summer, days getting shorter, however the day and night temps not dropping quickly, the core water temps staying fairly stable. Once the water temps start to drop into the 70's, the fall transition is starting, the baitfish start to migrate into deeper water or to warmer water depending on the type of bait, pelagic like shad, herring, Cisco etc or shore oriented bait. Crawdads also start to migrate towards clay and rocky areas. Key to catching bass is locating them where they are active feeding. I use my sonar a lot year around and tend to move around more during transitional periods to establish depth and locations. Tom PS; a good rule to remember regarding baitfish and bass migration; spring up and fall down.

Not a fan of off set wide gap hook for worms; Gamamkatsu #484 or Owner #5103 in size 4/0 or 5/0 depending on big worm diameter. Tom

I rarely drag a jig slowly along a flat soft bottom, it's not jig water to me. If the bottom has a slope, then I will work a jig by retrieving it mostly with the reel and keeping the rod tip pointed at the V where the line enters the water. The speed depends on what the bass react to; usually start with 1 reel handle turn and pause until the line jumps slack when the jig makes contact with the bottom, then shake the reel handle a few times and pause agian to watch the line with the line over my index finger for strike indication. Depending on the angle of the slope; light slope maybe a 1/2 reel handle turn and use the rod to lift the jig off the bottom or over some obstickle, however I prefer to keep the rod tip low as possible so I can make a fast reel/ rod sweep set if I think the bass may have picked up my jig, a lot of rocks are bass! Tom

You can fish a drop shot similar to split shot if you use a longer distance between the weight and hook, about 18" to 24" and go up to 3/16 or 3/8 oz weight. With this type of drop shot rig you cast it and slowly bounce or drag the weight back to cover more area. The vertical drop shot is more traditional and I prefer the hook about 8" to 10" above the weight and use 1/8 to 3/8 oz weight depending on depth and wind with 6 lb FC on spinning tackle. My favorite drop shot baits are Basstrix Flash minnow, 4" Roboworms FX series nose hooked with size 1 drop shot hook, 4 1/2" to 6" Roboworms weedless rigged with Owner Down shot hook (5133-111 size 1/0). When drop shoting I like to jiggle the slack line against the weight and keep the weight on the bottom. Keep in mind Aaron uses very light line ( 2 to 3 lb) with light weights, 4 & 5 lb is heavy for him! Colors, stick with what works for other soft plastics. I use shad and night crawler colors when drop shotting and fish between 6' to 35' depending where the bass are holding near structure. Tom

Worm hook sizes aren't standardized! What is important is the diameter of the worm body where the hook is placed, length beyond that point doesn't matter. General rule is the hook gap should be 2x worm body diameter. Tom

What is your idea of "far" in yards or feet.Tom

The clicking sound that some rattles make can be an advantage and there has been a lot of innovative rattles over the years. The most popular are glass and aluminum cylinders with various size BB's that are attached with a collar to the jig skirt or inserted into the jig trailer. There has been a few electronic rattles powered by tiny hearing aid batteries on the market. The up side is adding sound to get a basses attention, the down side is the sound alerts the bass that it isn't something to eat. The sound needs to be right, whatever right is to the bass at that moment. When I use a rattle it's the collar type with 2 legs with the rattles on each end. The leggs help to keep the jig head standing up with the hook upright. The inline type collars just add weight to the hook and can cuase the jig to roll over, not good. I will use a jig with rattles at night and another without to determine if the bass prefer one over the other. Tom PS; crawdads don't breath air or make air bubbles. The Alkaseltzer trick has been around for decades and used mostly by bed fisherman by making a pocket in a soft plastic critter and putting a piece of seltzer tab into the pocket. Just slice open the soft plastic and push the piece into the opening. Works best with lizards and a side slice behind the front legs.

Adult Gizzard shad get over 20" long and can weight over 4 lbs, where Threadfin are smaller, adults rarely exceed 7" long. Both shad species have similar water temperature tolerance. Threadfin are phytoplankton eaters, Gizzard shad eat zoo plankton and other small aquatic critters. What can save the shad population from deing off in lakes that freeze for a short time period is spring water that is 60 degrees year around, one reason bass go deeper during the winter to seek warmer water and a food source. Tom

There are several varieties of minnows in most lakes like Silverside that look similar to "shad", about finger length and slimmer shape. All minnows school for safety and will puddle or dimple the water surface feeding, jump or flip out out of the water. The easiest way to know what the bait fish are is look at them or ask your local lake biologist. Shad, both Threadfin and Gizzard low water temp limit is 45 to 42 degrees, colder they die in mass and this not uncommon if the water temps drop. Tom

Mostly the differences between a natural lake populated with FLMB and the heartland of southern bass fishing where traditional NLMB dominate bass tournaments. The only time big O is a topic is the pre spawn-spawn peroid then it becomes a side bar during the balance of the year, just like western bass fisheries that have FLMB populations. FLMB in our western deep structured reservoirs go deep after the spawn, in Florida they spread out, no deep water to hide in! FLMzb Tend to prefer outside deep structure breaks,the NLMB preferring close to shore cover breaks in lake they both live and eventually cross hybridized into 1 species; F*. Tom

Gotta enjoy reading the terms given to old colors. Sapphire blue is what we call neon blue for about 35 years! Zank or John Viazonko is a local team tournament western bass pro who invented adding "neon" coloration to soft plastics. John "Zank" Viazonko dominated WON bass team tournaments for years and should be created for his neon soft plastics. Tom

Fishing is a sport that it fun to share with a freind and unless I am seriously concentrating on catching giant bass using jigs during pre spawn, I usually fish with a partner. Jig fishing during pre spawn can be very exciting however is very boring for several hours or even days, so I rarely fish with another angler because I lose concentration and mt patients. Tom

Braid verses quagga or zebra mussels doesn't work well. Casting heavy 3 - 5 oz swimbaits with braid can get interesting when you backlash! I don't use braid anymore for swimbaits. Don't get to fish heavy cover often, most lakes in SoCal are deep rocky structure with sparse cover. When I fish the Delta or Clear lake braid is the way go and haven't broken any bass yet using it so far..... Tom

I use 2 different hook sets for T-rigs and jigs depending on how close to the boat I am fishing and if the line is vertical or horizontal. By vertical I mean straight down or out to about a 45 degree angle. Horizontal I mean a cast away from the boat more than 30' or 30 degree angle or less. The vertical hook set is a snap set by dropping the rod tip down a whipping it back into slightly slack line. The snap set will drive the hook through any basses mouth if they are not too far away from you. The horizontal hook set uses the reel to take up all the slack line, my rod tip is pointed at the jig ( I usually use this hook set with jigs) I crank the reel fast and when I feel some slight resistance then make a hard sweep set. Rarely miss getting a good with the 2 hook sets. I missed a lot of big bass using the snap set when casting a jig over 30 feet until developing the reel/ sweep set several decades ago and contribute the horizontal hook set for whatever giant bass I've caught casting jigs. Hook setting has a lot to do with sharp hooks, rod power and line strength. When using finesse tackle the rod, reel drag and line are selected for lighter wire hooks, it's balanced to put the force needed to drive the hook home. When fishing baitcasting tackle with 4 to 5 power rods, heavier line and hooks, the same hook set force works so I don't change hook setting motion because the tackle is balanced to get a good hook set.

Focus your efforts on smallmouth bass and use high % lures for smallies. Soft plastics that are 3" to 6" long rigged; split shot, slip shot, drop shot, Texas rig. Tubes, Smallie Beaver, finesse style worms like Roboworms in crawdad colors. Jigs; 1/8, 3/16, 1/4 oz dart head or shaky head with the soft plastics above. Smaller spinnerbaits 1/4 oz and inline spinners like Panther Martin in Fire tiger colors. Jerk baits like LC Pointer 98. That should keep you busy and catching smallmouth. Unlike largemouth the Smallmouths are not home bodies, they roam a lot and prefer deeper rocky areas in lieu of te more protected cover areas that are classic LMB locations. I wouldn't pass up a current break, all predators rest in current breaks, just don't spend a lot of time fishing only the current breaks or shaded areas. Location, location, location the 3 most important things you need to know about bass. When you discover where they, you wil start catching more. Tom

The "shad" that makes up fresh water black bass diet are Threadfin shad and young of the year Gizzard shad is most waterways, both have limited range north of the Mason-Dixon Line (where lakes freeze). If your lake doesn't freeze or stays above 45 degrees, it is possible to have a shad population. Some folks refer to herring as "shad" so it can get confusing. Tom

Off the topic, tournament fishing should be all about catching bass, otherwise you are donating your money to someone who is.Tom