WRB-2.0

Yes, thousands of times and rarely loose bass, this is how I normally fish jigs...horizontally casting. If you learn to position your rod pointing the tip towards the jig instead of raised upward, there will be little slack line to recover. The reel set and rod sweep technique works good with standard speed reels. I don't own a high speed fresh water casting reel because there isn't a need.Tom

Have you ever heard of Dee Thomas? Dee is the father of the flipping presentation and he didn't use a reel. Go online and look Dee up! There isn't any logical reason to use a high speed reel to jig fish, jig fishing isn't a reaction presentation. Top water,no reason for a reel faster then 6.3 to 1. Tom

Humps are what I would define as outside isolated structure that provide adult size bass a sanctuary. These areas are bass magnets because they get little fishing pressure from the anglers focused on the shoreline. Tom

With 4# line you are in the realm of ultra lite bass fishing. My question is why? Fishing from shore with ultra lite limits what types of lures you can present effectively and if you are successful, the size of bass you land. A long 9' medium action rod will cast further than a 7' medium action rod, the problem is finding enough clear space to use a longer rod when casting from shore. Compromise is what you must do. Add weight to your lures. Trout anglers know how to cast a long distance with tiny lures by adding a clear water filled casting bubble, that is 1 method that works. When you are talking about rod sensitivity it gets lost on 2 power long rods with 4# line, I wouldn't waste money on high end rods using ultra lite 7'+ rods casting from shore. Tom

This site has Strike King Rage Tail for a sponsor, you will get a lot of suggestions mostly due to sponsor loyalty and it's a good product.Yamamoto single and double tail grubs in 41/2" or 5" with a wide color choice and work good. I am not a fan of oversize claw trailers, they catch more anglers than bass. If you pitch into heavy cover the more streamline trailers tend to slide through weeds better; single tails, beavers, pit boss types. Casting and retrieving the double tails swim better. Sometimes a contrasting trailer color works better than matching, experiment. Tom

What type of shad does this pond have? My guess is it doesn't have any shad! 1 acre is slightly smaller than a football field, less the end zones. If this pond had 20 adult size bass it would be over populated. Bluegill love meal worms. Tom

You didn't say what rod you are using? 8 lb line is too light IMO with deeper diving crankbaits, I use 12 lb Berkley Big Game for the deep divers with a med/hvy crankbait rod. The key to a good hook set with crankbaits is keep reeling during the rod sweep and don't stop, you want the rod loading all the time. With 12 lb, set the drag @ 3 lbs for crankbaits. When you see the bass near the boat determine how well it's hooked and back off the drag if needed. Tom PS; just read your last post about the spinning outfit. Deep divers on a spinning outfit creates lots of line twist and the drag slips easily on hook sets. With the 8 lb line you may need to learn to use your index finger against the spool during the rod sweep to prevent the spool slipping, then release the spool during the fight.

It's rare for a pond to have a shad population, however we are talking about Texas where ponds are called tanks, small lakes are often called ponds. Remember summer is the period when the lakes ecosystem is alive with young of the year fish of all types and it's the growing season for predators that need a lot of protein. The bass will eat themselves fat, so lots of baitfish is good. Try fishing at night with a buzz bait or big soft plastic worm. Tom

Bucktail jigs.... In the bass fishing world we can them hair jigs and site sponsors offer a line of hair jigs. Making your own lures or tinkering with lures is a big part of bass fishing because bass will strike a wide variety of lures. Jigs are a simple lure to make or you ban buy plain unpainted jigs and tie them with various skirts materials from silicone, living rubber, deer hair or bucktails, rabbit fur, feathers, artifical hair, etc. Like any jig a hair jig is only as good as it's hook! Don't waste your time and efforts with cheap jigs that have low quality hooks. Largemouth bass prefer a jig with full skirts, most hair jigs are tied tight or skinny profile, you want the skirt (hair) to puff out and breath in the water. Tom PS, the bass in my avatar was caught on a hair jig.

Most high quality baitcasting reels maximize the drag at 8 lbs tension, the reason is anything heavier may break most fresh water bass rods. For a reel drag to perform properly with higher drag settings, meaning 8 lbs of smooth drag tension tension without changing tension is state of the art, locking a drag down can ruin the clutch mechanism. The easiest method to add drag tension is using your thumb. Tom

Reading this thread is eye opening! Can you say the blind leading the blind...just pulling your chain. Night crawlers, are you talking about Canadian night crawlers that are about 6" to 8" long and 1/4" in diameter? Soft plastic worm hooks are too big for live night crawlers. All you need is a size 1 Owner circle hook #5114 (octopus style) and either nose or tail hook the crawlers and fly line the worm without out a weight on 6 to 8 lbs mono line. This style hook will prevent gut hooking, as bass tend to swallow live bait very fast. Go online and look at Barlows Tackle catalog, click on hooks...this is a good reference guide. Tom

LMB, 16" Worm King Dinasaur swimbait I have several 12" swimbaits. Musky lures I fished with are not larger than LMB swimbaits, Teedy, Booby's are about 12", some of the inline spinnerbaits are about 14" long, but don't weigh over 3 oz. Marlin lures can be the size of boat bumpers or over 24" and weigh several pounds! Tom

You could be right!

Fluorocarbon line is generally equal to premium mono or copolymer line in diameter and line diameter is what the fish see, they can't read labels. The following are Sunline FC line diameters that I use for comparison to other brands. 2# = .0050 4#= .0065 6#= .0075 8#= .0093 10#=.0102 12#=..0112 14#=. 0122 16#= .0130 20#= .0148 When making comparisons to line strength verses advertised or label # test, compare apples to apples. Line makers who label their line 4# test that have a diameter greater than 6# test is common practice today because they can claim the line is stronger and it should be because it is 6+# test labeled 4#. Tom

Negotiator 7" side swimmer, need to look into that, thanks. I have had good results in the past with 7" Triple Trouts when the larger hard jointed swimmers didn't get results. I know Butch signed a deal with Roman with a 12 side swimmer, now all we need is stocked hatchery trout to resume agian, so we can get back to using swimbaits! Tom

Swinging bass in the boat is wrong on several levels, #1 is it can kill the bass you want to C & R, maybe not right away it can take several weeks for the bass to die of injury to it's slim coat from carpet damage. When the Fenwick rod co started rated rods with power numbers in the 70's the numbers indicated the maximum pounds the rod could lift in dead weight; 3 power = today's medium, 4 = med/hvy, 5 = heavy, 6 = X heavy or flipping. Dead weight isn't live weight! Live weight varies greatly, the fish can propell itself out of the water if you time the lift correctly, if you don't the weight can increase with the fish shaking in mid air and if you miss swinging the fish into the boat the increases rapidly....lost fish and broken tackle. I blame B.A.S.S. for promoting swinging bass into the boat with their ban on nets and wanting bass TV coverage to look more macho. Tom

Is your dad still available to fish with? We all started out as new anglers at some point in time and most have similar stories to tell about not catching bass. 2 things to remember about bass fishing; 1. it's easy to catch bass when the are active, difficult when they are not. 2. Location, you can't catch bass if they are where you are fishing. Tell me something about your tackle; type of rod, reel and line you are using. Do you have a baot or shore fishing? Without disclosing where you are located, can you give us a regional area, like northeast or southwest? Welcome to bass fishing, sounds like you have the interest to learn to bass fish, so lets get you back on the water and catching a few. Tom

The original shaky heads were ball head jigs "doddled" in the 70''s, I know because I fished that presentation for decades! Spot remover made the flattened ball head jig popular, the flat spot helped the jig to stand the worm upright. Sieberts ball head shaky jig looks good to me, over size 4/0 premium hook 1/8 & 1/4 oz. Tom

VMC also makes some good replacement trebles, the replacement Rapala series trebles are light weight and good for Torpedo's. I believe Heddon uses a low end Mustad treble on their legacy lures...horrible hooks. Tom

Vikingbear8 Nice variety of swimmers. The Lunker Plunkers and rat are wake baits, the SWaver is a jointed glide bait that is hard to pigion hole as a swimmer. The legacy joined plugs like the Wiggle Fish and Jointed Pikie minnow would fall into today's swimbait category: they swim at very slow retrieve speeds. One of the first swimbaits was the Saasy Shad soft plastic boot tail type swimmer that dates back into the 70's. You could just as easily ask what is a crankbait? When started bass fishing in the 50's crankbaits were called plugs. Tom PS; is that a Mother side swimmer?

I suggest the Yamamoto Hula grub weedless jig 3/8 oz with 4 1/2" twin tail Hula grubs for learning to jig fish with type 1 jigs. Go online to Yamamoto tackle ...jigs and Hula grubs. If you are fishing more open water areas the Gamakatsu 1/8 oz Dart head jig works very well with 5 to 6" curl tail finesse worms like Roboworms. There are several good shaky head jig, Picasso makes a good shaky head. I believe both the site sponsors make excellent jigs when you are ready for skirted jigs. Tom

The torpedo is a class of top water lures called jump baits. The action that triggers strikes is making the lure jump like a baitfish trying to get away from a bass. The retrieve takes practice: similar to walking the dog with a more forward pull...side to side and jumping forward. Tom

$500+ you better go where you can touch and feel the rod for yourself! The NRX 3 series is about a 1/2 power stronger than previous Loomis rods. 89 = 89 inches or 7' 5" a long rod to transport in a vehicle, otherwise a good choice for fishing at water level. Fishing from a boat we are standing 18"+ above the water level, the rod length is less of an issue. Tom

You can rig several swimbaits weedless. Tom

It depends on where you fish, the cover density, the activity level of the bass, day or night, and the prey type the bass are targeting....lots of variables, The question about bottom bumping lures would indicate casting and retrieving verse flipping. If you are fishing more open water zones with good water clarity, then it will make a difference if the bass are looking closely at the lure presentation. Back when I was bait fishing with live crawdads and water dogs there were times when 8# green mono would out fish 8 lb clear mono. Fishing live shad you sometimes had to go with 6 lb to get bit. It's been 40 years since I have bait fished, however there are days that I go down to 8 lb FC from 10 lb FC to get a jig bite where I fish. The same lake at night you can fish straight 50 lb braid and do well and most of the time I use 12 to 14 lb FC, never fish direct braid during the day. Tom