WRB-2.0

Know your demographic....BR site is one of the most popular available to general bass anglers, we are the demographic to target! Price... This was the topic "what would you be willing to pay". Ray Scott's trophy fishing, this is exactly what is being offered, less the lodge accommodations and bassing's all stars and history. Knowone has a problem paying guides to fish venues like Stick Marsh/farm 13, Baccarac, El Salto, Amistad , Falcon or Clear lake $300 plus a day, but hesitate to pay $100 to fish a private managed area! Weekend tournament anglers often pay $100+ to fish a 1 day event with less odds to return $1.00 or catch a trophy size bass. Roland Marten operated a pay to fish marina on big O for decades, nothing new. Tom

http://www.rayscottbassretreat.com/index.html Pay fishing on private lakes. Tom

In general heavy scale fish like fresh water black bass can not release gas pressure from their air bladders. The surrounding water pressure on the bass keeps the gas in the bladder regulates the size of the bladder; more water pressure the bladder compresses, less water pressure the bladder expands. The keeps it's bladder filled with enough gas pressure to maintain neutral balance so it can suspend with little effort at what ever depth the bass is acclaimated to. It takes about 24 hours for a bass to add or reduce gas pressure in the air bladder. It really doesn't matter if the bass is brought up fast or slow, the bladder expands to the same size. 2 atmospheres or about 30' depth change is within a basses comfort range. The over expanded bladder is usually result of 40' or more depth change. You may hook a bass at 30' bring it and the bass rolls over due to over expanded air bladder because that bass was acclaimated to 45' swim up to 30' to feed, you hook it and the total depth change was 45'. This happens often in deep clear structured lakes at night or during the cold water periods. Fast pressure changes may have a major impact of brain function and there are studies ongoing in that problem, a different topic. Tom

The size and weight of a swimbait determines the type of tackle needed to effectively cast, retrieve and land the bass you are targeting. I will assume you are planning or already have a rod/ reel that can handle swimbaits that wight 2 to 3 oz. The 7" to 9" hard swimbaits are a good choice where pike and musky are present because teeth tear up soft plastics swimmers. Brands to consider; MIke Shaw MS Slammers original and DX, Triple Trout, Matt Lures and BBZ. If big Smallmouths are the bass, then longer thinner profile like trout shapes in perch or hitch colors. For Largemouth both the trout and bluegill shapes work in bluegill, perch or hitch ( alewife-herring-white fish) colors. I would use the 5" bluegill, 9" multiple jointed swimmers. Tom PS; use braid direct to the lure or a wire leader where pike or musky are a possibility.

Ray Scott's bass retreat is a successful pay to bass fish operation, take a look at his venue. Tom

Get Roland a pair of Depends, should set the mood! Tom

Pre spawn I am fishing with jigs, swimbaits, wake baits and big worms. Nights, big worms, jigs, buzzers and crankbaits. Summer days it's mostly finesse soft plastics, jerk baits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, top water, and jigs.. Fall add structure spoons to the summer lures. Winter it's deep structure fishing with soft plastics, jigs, spoons and swimbaits. Tom

If the depth of light is poor or restricted to a foot or so the bass tend to be pale coloration, if there isn't a lot of weed growth. Bass can change coloration to suite their environmental conditions. High levels pH also tends to affect coloration, the higher the pH the lighter the coloration becomes. If you are catching bass with natural color jigs, why change? Try surface lures like a buzzer during low light periods, lots of fun to catch surface bass. Tom

Didn't have time to respond initially when this thread started, however had the same response, too open of a question to answer, but not uncommon from new anglers. My first thoughts when this type question is asked; what type of tackle is being used and what regional area are they fishing. This doesn't need to get too deep into all aspects of bass fishing, just the basics so the new angler can catch a few bass consistantly. Too much info too fast often leads to confusion, so lets take this 1step at a time. If you are still reading this thread, are you willing to tell us about your rod, reel, line and type of rig you use to fish soft plastic worms? The general region like north, south, etc would also be helpful to determine the type of bass you are trying to catch; largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass. Welcome to the site and look forward to helping you catch some worm fish. Tom

Fishing weeds with a heavy weighted C-rig isn't a good idea. You can feel the C-rig weight and have no contact with the long leader and whatever you use on the hook, so you miss most strikes unless the bass eats the soft plastic and swims away with it. Better choice is using a lighter weight like a finesse C-rig or what's called a mojo rig. With this rig you have better contact with what's going on with the hook. Bass don't have hands, if you feel something like rubber band pressure, set the hook. Another trick is shorten the distance between the weight and hook; 18" is better feed back than 30" with the finesse C-rig. T-rig or jig you need to become a line watcher and line feeler, don't rely solely on your rod for detecting line movement. Tom

Looking at a map Occoquan reservoir appears to be a riverine lake with constant water flow and fairly small at 2,100 acres. Lots of points that should intersect the river channel. I usually like to start near the dam and work my way up river, probably not much further than the water color change, depending on water temps and baitfish depth. This looks like jig and crankbait lake during the day and jig or big worm lake at night. Current will dictate the direction the bass are facing, usually into the current. Most of your presentations should be casting up river (lake) and working up and over point ridges and other structure that provides a current break. I know you are saying what current? It's a lake with a dam! Largemouth bass don't like current, unless it brings prey to them. This is a water storage reservoir that is supplying drinking water on a constant basis, so the water is moving slowly, not like a river but some flow towards the dam. Keep this in mind! This type of lake may have multiple thermoclines where bass can be at different thermal depths, this makes it a challenging lake to dial in. Tom

Fall transition; period of time between late summer period and fall. Water temps are cooling into the mid to lower 70's, weeds are starting to die back or change color, the baitfish that live shallow are moving deeper. Shad are moving into creek arms looking for plankton. Crawdads are moving to clay banks. Bass are following their preferred prey. The key to catching during this transition time is being flexible, locating the bait, the bass should be close. Another key element is the thermocline, locate the depth, the bass should be near that depth. It's sonar time, do more searching then fishing, find the bait and bass before blindly fishing and hoping to find bass. Tom

Try night fishing. The lake has a river channel running it's length, get a good map and start fishing the old river bed. Look for rocks, rock piles, big boulders, where the channel makes bends and fish every rocky area you can locate. Fish points that drop into the river channel. Forget about the wood along the bank, water maybe to hot to bass during the day time, OK at night. 4 lb LMB in 4 years is decent growth rate. With 80 degree surface water there should be a defined thermocline, my best guess is around 12' to 16', you need to meter it with your sonar unit. Spend a lot go time fishing structure about 3' above the thermocline layer until the lake rurns over. Stay with crawdad colors for bottom contact lures and fire tiger crankbaits and spinnerbaits, if this lake doesn't have a shad population. If the lake has shad, then locate the shad and fish shad colored spoons and spinnerbaits, along with the crawdad colored jigs and worms. Good luck. Tom

Nostalgia is a big part our sport remembering our youth, first reel, rod and lures we learned to fish with. Some of us keep things that are important to us, the value being in memories. I have my first reel, a Langley Lure Cast, do not have the rod. Have kept a tackle box full of my first lures and occasionally look at them and remember where I was and what I caught on some them. Jason Lucas recommended the reel and I have a letter he sent me where to find a part I needed after Zebco bought Langley reels in the 50's. Tom

6.66 lbs, 21" sounds like a tie or co record. Tom

+1You can talk about how to catch bass, be very carefull about telling where to catch bass. Your small quarry lake is more than likely toast. Tom

Bass anglers tend to see colors a lot different than bass do. The human eye has developed to see above water in good light, we have poor low light vision and can't distinguish colors without good light. We don't need good eye sight in low light to survive, bass do! If a bass had the same eye sight as a human it couldn't find prey during low light periods or at night, the bass wouldn't survive. The term reaction bite is often used to describe a bass striking a bright lure like a spinnerbait, the blades creating a lot flash. What is over looked is the same blades also move the water and the bass sees, feels and hears the blade movement from a greater distance than a jig moving through the water. Active bass will swim a distance to chase down a spinnerbait. A jig on the hand is quit compared to a spinnerbait and doesn't create a lot flash, or move a lot of water, therefor has a different appeal to the bass. A more natural look often works better for less aggressive bass that tend to take a close look at the slower moving quieter jig. The easiest way to create flash and move more water with a jig is add a blade in lieu of a trailer. Brighter colored skirts with a blade work good. A Scrounger jig with it's collar works well as a swim jig, moves water and has a fish like profile. Tom

You all are right DD = double digit as in 10 lbs. there is a thread where DD was talking about 12 lb bass and the In-Fisherman of my era, was 12 lbs for California and Floirda, Texas hasn't come of age back then and Mexico wasn't on their map. Good luck to all of you chasing DD bass wherever they may be located. Tom PS; Catt back Pack your bags, maybe we both can join them in 2014, I am retired then!

Definitely a 10 lb is a trophy NLMB, 12+ lb is In- Fisherman for regions with FLMB, my personal standard is 15 lbs! Love to go to Baccarac and put a 15+ in boat....enjoy tis window of opportunity, it will not last long! Tom

Baccarac was stocked with FLMB that should be 12lbs+ before the bass considered a trophy. Zero 12 lb + bass caught so far! I can hear the profanity as I write this so settle down and listen. A freind of mine guided at El Sato and was surprised that the local guides all fished the shore line cover, not one fished the outside structure like humps! So Don being a structure fisherman started to survey the underwater islands (humps) and caught hundreds od DD bass that were unfished. The hot ticket was deep swimbaits, the El Sato bass had never seen them before.......hint! Tom

Dinks explains a lot!

If FLW's concern was fish mortality that wasn't stated, they stated the 5 wire 3 lure with hooks wasn't working or was too difficult to regulate? Believe me the tournament contestants self regulate or whistle blow. Your standard multiple treble hook lure injures bass, so that argument doesn't apply. Trolling; bass anglers have strolled for decades, moving the boat with the electric trolling motor with lures in the water and that is cheating during a tournament. If the lure is in the water and the boat is under any power, other than drifting, that is trolling and under tournament rules isn't allowed. Weekend bass clubs tend to follow the big tournament rules and this ruling will indirectly affect those anglers. Tom

The bass were not trying to eat the Senko quickly, you set the hook while it was still in the basses crunchers or mouth. If you pause and let the bass turn with the Senko, your odds are better in getting a hook set. The problem is timing, wait too long and you may gut hook, too fast and you don't get a hook set. The wacky rig creates an exposed hook. The wacky Saddle is ideal as the hook is positioned for better hook setting and you can use a circle hook that eliminates gut hooking. Like Bo, I am not a fan of off set EWG hook because the wide hook bend rotates flat when bass bite down hard. Owners 5132 twist lock hook may also help if you prefer a more traditional hook placement, by adding a belly slice to reduce the amount of plastic the hook must penetrate. Tom

Next time this occurs try changing to a wacky rigged Senko. Tom

How are you rigging the Senko? Tom