WRB-2.0

Weedless spoon works good swimming across the weed mate ,open water pockets and edges. TW has Bagley weedless spoon on clearance. Attach soft plastic using Owner CPS spring. Tom

Your honey hole dried up! Most bass weigh less on a scale…. Texas rigged worms, lizards and creatures is all you need. Tom

I do have loyalty to the original small company that developed the lures. Very few small businesses are still in making their lures becoming a brand of a large company. Disloyal to brands and loyal to originals, Tom

The Shimano SLX MGL 70 is a bargain at it’s price point. Tom

I serviced my reels until they became so sophisticated and needed specialized tools to remove bearing etc. I had a very skilled reel technician locally and had him clean and tune my reels ounce a year. Today I only have 2 baitcasting reels and only lube the spool end shafts and level wind. When they need service probably send them to Mike at DVT, no locale technician anymore. You all should do the same! Tom

Post catch mortality has always been misunderstood and mis estimated imo. I killed my 1st big bass as a kid because excited to show off my catch. My grandmother made me clean and fillet the bass I had tried to catch over a 2 year period. I failed to realize Mosses had become such a challenge to catch the fish was like a friend. The impact was I couldn’t keep any big bass since, a personal catch and release ethic dating back into the 50’s. Proper handing starts with the hook set and ends with healthy release, livewell are coffins imo. Very good article and hoped more would be discussed on nets. We bass anglers don’t have the skills or tools to lift bass out of the 2 handed and hold onto the rod without loosing the big bass. A net solves this problem but creates loss of slim coat. I like the MLF weigh and release but proper handling is missing. Thank you for sharing, Tom

A debate on what 1/2 jig weighs is another topic. 1/2 oz equals 17. 175 grams technically. Most jig mfr’s weigh a jig by the molded metal around the hook excluding everything else that makes up a jig; hook, skirt, weed guard etc. what is a jig without a hook… a piece of metal! So to the OP consider 3/8 oz jig as your choice with a MF rod. Tom

Thank you for the correction, had Tatula 7’1” MHXF and deleted it.

ALX Zolo Dream 7’ MF, 1/4-3/4 oz finesse jig rod. 1/8 oz w/ soft plastic will be OK with the reel you have. Check Alex for a sale price. Tom Correct rod discription

I avoided Owner cutting point hooks when they 1st came out thinking they would tear out. Gamakatsu were needle points and worked good. Don’t recall when I started using Owner cutting point hooks but my fears were unfounded, good hooks that actuallly have a needle point that transition to a knife edge. Owner also offers needle point hooks. Tokar are a true knife edge cutting point hook, haven’t used it so no experience. Tom

I have used black-purple-brown coast to coast, Mexico and Canada. It maybe because those colors are present in bluegill and crawdads. I started using that combination in hair jigs because I could change pork rind colors black, brown or purple without changing jigs, the combination worked with my pork trailers. PB & J doesn’t include black. Tom

I will add you need purple in jig skirts and trailers when fishing water with clarity over 5’ deep. Green pumpkin is a good choice in soft plastics and silicone jig skirts. Can’t over look black/blue in low visibility water or night, it’s #1. My personal choice is Black-purple-brown combinations in jigs because it works where I bass fishing. Tom

It helps to read the OP’s opening statement. Tom

The OP is looking for a rod without threaded reel lock nut and a fore grip, Victory has a cork fore grip, not short but the index finger can touch the rod blank. Longer rods are not good casting into the wind you want the cast to stay low and not sail in the wind. Tom

I have the SC Victory 7’3” MXF rod mentioned above with Vanford 2500 reel. You are using is too large diameter for your application IMO. I use 5# Maxima Ultra Green copoly .008D or 7 # Sunline Sniper .008F FC, both about equal knot strength.

Read my replies in page 1, defined semi slack line. Type of line is a personal choice. FC line has less bow on the semi slack line and the bow concave vs convex for mono and braid. Tom

Let’s put your budget at $50 to give you upgrade budget. IMO there isn’t any reason to buy locally if the boat you choose has a dealer in your area. Cost to ship cross country or you tow it home from out of state. Lots of bass boats are available do to the economy today. Anglers Marine in Anaheim CA for example has a good inventory of excellent condition used bass boats in your price range. Rick Grover Owner 714/666.2628 is worth a phone call. Tom

It’s been about 4 years since I posted my 1st experience fishing with a boat that had FFS-Live Scope stating it is a game changer and every tournament angler must have this to be competitive. Time has proven my point. You can’t put the cat back in the bag FFS-Live Scope will only improve. Is it good or bad for tournament bass fishing is a mute point as the majority of bass anglers with bass boats already have this technology. Ban FFS-Live Scope is like banning trolling, it only affects the pro anglers fishing tournament the weekend anglers are already catching bass with it and they put far more pressure on bass populations then the pro’s do! Tom

When you factor in that $4 in 1980 is equal to $15 today the average $9 crank bait isn’t unreasonable considering the treble hooks are already upgraded. Everything is more expensive since 2020 do to inflation. Tom

Glenn are talking about Marabou jigs, hair jigs or a combination of marabou feathers and hair? Marabou today comes from turkey rump feathers, originally from the Marabou Stork. Back in 60’s we called them Marabou jigs, no confusion! Mid swimming a marabou jig be prepared to catch some big Crappies. Both the hair and Finesse jig articles very informative and well done👍 Tom

Both Bomber and Norman lures were my favorite crank baits until Pradco purchased the companies and moved production to Mexico. Pradco decided to remake multi cavity tooling changing the lures design slightly. Why the larger complies make design changes is beyond comprehension and never works out in regards to fishing catching ability. Rapala bought Storm and remade the Wiggle Wart tooling, now the Warts run true but it was their random hunting action that triggered strikes. Don’t know if the gen 2 Bomber A’s are good? The original 6 & 7A’s catch bass but you need to upgrade the treble hooks, $4 lure becomes $5.50 lure. Tom

Welcome from the left coast. Tom

I am a jig junky and it’s hard for me to give up and use what the bass want to eat. What I do is have 3 different rods rigged with #1 my favorite hair jig w/pork trailer, #2 living rubber jig w/soft plastic craw trailer, #3 5” wacky rigged weightless Senko or if the bass are in cover a T rigged w/sliding sinker with a worm or creature. Having the choices rigged and readily available allows trying different options without moving to another location. Let the bass choose in lieu of force feeding them something they don’t want. Tom

2 different situations. Lower unit Bond strap vs Sonar interference. If your lower unit bond wire burned it wasn’t caused by a sonar ground wire shorting to the aluminum hull. More then likely a loose bond wire connection, the 2 grounds are not directly connected. Peace, Tom

Stainless steel wire is a poor choice it’s about 40X less conductive as copper wire. Use insulated 16 gage stranded copper wire. Tom