WRB-2.0

I thought B.A.S.S. was wrong banning the A-rig back in 2012 Elites and haven't changed my mind on this lure presentation. There has been a lot of development on various A-rigs, difinately a step backwards for FLW. Tom

Try a finesse C-rig using a 1/8 to 3/16 oz mojo cylinder weight, spinning tackle with 8 lb FC line,no swivel, use a pegged glass bead for the weight stopper. Use 4 1/2" Roboworms curl tails with size 1 Gamakatsu #11 worm hook. Colors; oxblood w/red flake or MM II. Standard C-rig, try using a 4" Yamamoto Hula grub with 3/0 hook, smoke w/ black & silver flake, looks like a small school of bait fish. Both rigs are good deep clear water presentations. Tom

The smaller the line diameter the harder it's for the bass to see. 1lb line would be ideal if we could control the bass where we hooked it. The problem is we can't control bass that tend to be in cover or near structure elements with 1lb line. I use the smallest diameter line that is strong enough to cast the lures I use, set the hook and control the bass so I can land it. This is why I prefer small diameter FC line like Sunline or Blackwater. Yo-Zuri hybrid is one of the largest line diameter for it's lb test on the market; 12 lb is 0.013D, equals other brands 16 lb line! I would go down to Yo-Zuri 8 lb for a spinning reel = 0.011 or other brands 12 lb. I use 10 lb FC often when jig fishing for giant bass, not because it's more sporting, it's so I get get strikes, can't catch them if they don't bite! Tom

You can research lake turn over, should be several threads discussing this phenomena. Most lakes that freeze will have 2 turn overs, when the lake thaws and in the fall when the cools before freezing. Lakes that don't freeze tend to have 1 fall turn over. The easiest way to tell when a turn over occurs is by smell, the bottom decayed debris floats to the surface and smells like sulfur. Fishing is usually slow for a few weeks after a lake turns over, until the bass readjust to the different dissolved oxygen levels and water temperature. Cold water is heavier than warm water and heavier water sinks down towards the bottom. Water is at it maximum weight at 39.4 degrees, colder it starts to float until it freezes. When the summer warm water is cooled during colder nights and day time air temperature, the water cools, pushing the warmer water down until the weight of the cooler water turns the lake over. All the water mixes together, bottom cold water with all the thermal layers inbetween. Tom

There a lot of states above the Mason-Dixon Line that may never produce LMB over 12 lbs because of the shorter growing periods, freezing water temperature and no Florida LMB strains can survive there. If your lake doesn't have 12 lb + bass living in it, no chance to catch a 12 lb bass, if it does the odds are better. I know a lot of good bass anglers that have not caught a double digit LMB in CA. The odds that 10% of the bass anglers catch 90% of the bass is fairly accurate. 1% of the 10% catch 90% of the 12 lb+ LMB may also be accurate. When you take into account 60 million anglers fish each year, 46 million buy fishing licenses according the ASA, American Sportfishing Association. How many of those are bass anglers isn't defined, lets say 10% or close to 5 million. How many DD bass are cuaght each year? Maybe a 1,000 or less.. Your odds are about 5,000 to 1 if you believe every angler has an equal chance to catch a DD bass. Tom

I like 3/4 oz pearl white or pearl/ chartreuse structure spoons with size 2 white/charteuse feathered Owner treble hook. Check TW for Duh spoons or similar profile. I like to make loop cast to lob the spoon so it makes a softer landing the far side of the shad school and let the spoon pendulum down through the shad school on controlled slack line, set the hook if the line stops. Yo yo the spoon back at the depth slightly below the school depth. Tom

Shimano rods are on the light side of the ratings, a 4 power Dobyn's is closer to a Shimano heavy than a MH. Call Gary Dobyn's and ask him what he recommends for you. Gary may be pre fishing the US Open at Mead, his son can help with this question. I would go with the 734 if your fishing 3/8 and 1/2oz jigs or T-rigs. Tom

Small bass or schooled bass often strike and run to get away from other bass. Adult size bass rarely run away until after you stick them and it's against the force of the line pressure, not necessarily into deeper water, most of the time it's towards the surface to shake out the hook. If you are fishing close to shore or on shore, the bass can't swim shallower, the escape route is up to the surface or out away from shore and the line pressure. Tom.

Lets recap this thread; You can't catch bass on jigs. You are fishing a new small lake from shore and have no idea where the bas are located. Why would you use a lure you are not familiar with, in a lake you know nothing about? Jigs are not good search lures,they are good saturation lures when you know bass are eating crawdads. We do 't know if this lake has a crawdad or bass population. If you want to learn how to fish jigs go to a lake known to be a good jig lake and start there. I rarely fish jigs from shore because they are not the lure for shore fishing. T-rigged worm is a far better choice, if you want a bottom bumping lure. A buzz bait or spinner bait would be a good choice for a search lure to determine where bass maybe located. After you have located bass and caught a few, then try you jigs in that area. Tom

Are you fishing from shore or from a boat? Tom

Not if you fish in the wrong places! Right lure, right presentation in the wrong location doesn't work.Move to a new location with steeper clay banks, deeper water or points and your luck should change. It's the late summer to fall transition period a lot places now and the bass are on the move. Tom

Are you catching bass in the same place you are jig fishing? Jigs are not a magic panacea to catching bass. The fact is a jig can be very challenging to learn to fish. Strike detection is the most difficult to learn for nearly all bass angers and location being essential; can't catch them if they are not there! Tom

Your best option is fish with an experienced bass angler who can teach you how to control the boat and this takes practice.when shore fishing you are stable standing on the ground, in a boat you are not as stable and must concentrate on fishing and stability. Boats open up location areas you can't fish from shore, however bass are not everywhere. Locating bass is essential to catching them for both shore and boat anglers. A boat gives you more choices where and how to fish. Tom

Getting a lot of mixed messages! How did you find the shad, visually or sonar? And what time of the day, early morning or mid day? When shad are hiding in cover during low light periods you watch for feeding activity. Bass can be very selective when feeding on shad, sometimes only live shad will work. When the shad are schooled in a ball during mid day, it's because they are being pursued by predators like bass. When you see this it's usually best to use structure spoons when the shad school approaches areas where the structure creates a compression zone; deeper water getting shallower; hump or point. Search the site for spoon fishing presentations. Tom

Dobyn's rods are not the lightest rods on the market, designed to be well balanced with reels. Balance and durability are Dobyn's hallmarks, his reputation is built on customer satisfaction like Loomis rods. I know nothing about Ducketts other then his first generation Carrot sticks were nothing but hype and don't know anyone who fishes them. Try the rod before you make a decision, your freind may be only looking at rod weight weight for example, not overall fish catching performance. There are a lot of good rods on the market today. Look at the cost of ownership; lifetime warranty, rod replacement cost. If you own a first Gen Dobyn's rod it was made by Lamiglas, still in business, warranty still good. Ducketts........?? Tom

My 1st DD LMB was caught Easter vacation back in '57 at lake Havasu on a live water dog; 11 lbs and may still be the lake record. Stopped keeping track of 10 to 14 lb LMB in '73 when I logged my 100th from Lower Otay. My best single day was 18 LMB , 10 bs class was on a Scrounger w/Sluggo at lake Castaic in May of '91. Started keep tract of 15+ lb LMB in '71, currently 17, top 5 LMB are:17.3 lbs, 17.4 lbs, 19.3 lbs from lake Castiac 17.4 lb, 18.6 lbs from lake Casitas All top 5 caught on hair jigs during pre spawn, and during the 5 days around the full moon. The fact I fished that week, every year when the water temp 58-60 degrees coincided with the full moon phase could be a big factor. Have not caught a LMB 15 lbs since 2006. LMB 10 to 12 lbs were not uncommon at the lakes I fished, 15+ lbs are rare. I don't consider FLMB strain to be a trophy unless it exceeds 15 lbs in CA. Tom

The average bass weight for most CA lakes duringbthe day is 3lb for tournaments, the few exceptions being Sacramento delta and Clear lake where the average is about 5 lbs.In-Fisherman was the first national magizine that published in 1975 seasonal periods that used the term pre spawn. Prior to that time very few bass anglers considered seasonal periods, other than the spawn. Every lake has it's own activity rythym that varies hourly, impossible to predict without spending time fishing a particular lake. I don't believe moon phase alone affects daily rythym outside the spawning cycle. The moon affects all water by gravitation pull. What the bass are feeding and where that is taking place exceeds moon phases during seasonal periods outside of time bass are spawning. Tom

When I a lot younger in my 20's or earlier I kept detailed fishing logs on each days outing to determine why bass did what the do and when the most active periods were. I would catch bass and put a thermometer probe down the throat and log body temps, depth the bass was caught out of, lure, location, weather and moon phase and shore bird or animal activity.I did this between 1962 to 1972' 10 years. A pattern developed that stood out; the biggest bass were caught the month before they spawned and those bass were caught the week of the full moon 10 to 1. The water and bass temperature was between 58 to 62 degrees, the average water depth was 15' and the shore animals were active. The only other time of the year that bass behavior was predicable was the spawn that followed about 1 month later, if the weather continued to warmer. The most active times were before the sun raised more than 30 degrees above the horizon, the moon over head. In California we couldn't bass fish after a 1/2 after sundown, no night fishing was allowed back in the 60's. Night bass behavior was an unknown to me until the 70's. nights around the full moon were better bass fishing then any moon phase during the summer months when our lakes were open weekends to night bass tournaments. 30 lb., 5 bass limits were common when tournaments were hels the full moon phase, 15 to 20 lbs, during all other moon phases. The bite generally peaking when the moon was raising or setting, minor periods at night. My experience; all other seasonal periods have little predicable bass behavior based on lunar cycles. I was not aware of Ben Franklin's Poor Richards almanac written 200 years earlier back in the 60's, would have saved me a lot of time and effort. It's like reinventing the wheel. Tom

Ocean City Black Diamond All Coast, can't tell what the fresh water bait casting is from the photo. Looks a little rusted. Tom

Only 30!

We have a population of very water LMrB iin DVL, Castaic and Casitas year around in 60' to 90' of water. These lakes have aeration systems that create multiple thermoclines layaes and draw water from the bottom of the dams. For this reason it's always good to survey deeper water with your sonar to determine where the actually are. Finding very deep water bass doesn't mean they are catchable or if they will survive being caught. Very interesting find, was this a natural lake? Tom

Here is the real deal; you can catch active bass and can't catch inactive bass. IF you could predict when the bass would be actively feeding, would you ignor that prediction? There is no doubt in my mind that during pre spawn big bass are more active the days around the full moon and followed by the days around the new moon. The active periods coincide when the moon is at mid point (high noon) on the horizon, the sun near the horizon (within 30 degrees). These periods are short time periods,, you need to be where the bass are located, using the right lure at the right depth. Put all this together and your odds go dramatically. Tom PS; your odds of catching bass on the water are 100% better than mine writing this setting on my arsh!

It's interesting to read back through this thread; vast majority ignor solunar tables or disregard them. Doug Hannon, the late Bass professor believed in his tables, I developed my Cosmic Clock and Bass Behavior prior to Hannon and based on Lunar-solar affects. Between Doug and I, we have caught hundreds of DD LMB.....maybe you all should rethink how you approach your time on the water! Tom

Make sure you tie down the rods in the shipping tube and wrap the rod tips with foam or bubble wrap to prevent damage. You can buy a telescoping rod tube, if you plan to ship rods or travel on vacations etc. Tom

Pure science is always changing with new information and solunar tables are not purely scientific. What isn't in question is the moons affect on waterways like tides. Tidal cycles are a primary factor for the aquatic lives living in tidal waterways, ocean coastal zones. The full moon has a long documented history on the behavior of animals. Putting the two factors together, tidal and moon phase = lunar tables. You can ignor the behavior patterns of animals and the tidal affects on aquatic life and go fishing or take advantage, it's a choice. During pre spawn through spawn I keep tabs on lunar cycles and weather that affects water temps and spawning behavior. During summer nights I also keep tabs on lunar cycles. I prefer the 2 days surrounding the full moon and max/min tidal cycles and try to be on the water during those high % time periods. The bottom line is;.go fishing whenever the opportunity is available. Tom