WRB-2.0

UndervGeneral Bass Fishing forum, post #11.Tom

Transporting live bass is illegal in some states, check with your local Fishery resource folks. The reasons are several; transferring diseases and unwanted predators into another fishery can create problems. Tom

This is a long thread and did read most of it! Your problem isn't lure or lure presentation technique....it's location for the seasonal period. The easy spawner's , both pre spawn and post spawn have left the area you are fishing at the time you are fishing there You are a bank angler, the only way you can fish deeper water is relocate to deeper water where the majority bass are now located. The deepest water in any made made reservoir is at the dam. Take a look at the lake map and determine where the major points, the points where creek arms are located that you can get to from the bank. Fish those points and areas inbetween the points. Since you can only carry a limited amount of tackle start with soft plastics that you have. Rig these soft plastic worms, creatures, crawls etc. with a slip shot rig. All you need to do this is add a Carolina Keeper or pegged glass bead on the same outfit you fish Texas rigged worms with a sliding sinker. Add the keeper between the hook and weight and adjust the stop anywhere from 12" to 24". Make fan casting patterns to cover the area before changing presentations. Your other option is to fish at night if that is feasible and safe. I would use the same rig and add a buzz bait . Tom

The pics what we call out west a ganion rig and it's used for making bait like mackerel or larger flies with circle hooks baited with pieces of fish or squide for very deep water (300 to 600') rockfish fishing.I mentioned in the new techniques post that fresh water drop shot was originally called down shot or stacking and used multiple hooks tied directly to the line and often used a small jig as the weight. This rig was standard during the 90's, the single hook drop shot rig followed the multiple hook stacking rig. Tom

If the bass are holding at the depth, suspended of deeper water I would pass them up and make note they are there for a later time. If the bass are on structure or in deep cover like wood, then several lures come to mind. Jigs; Dart head with curl tail worm. Matty, football head skirted jig with a tail spinner for the trailer. Jig n Pig. Scrounger head with Sluggo trailer. Under spins like Sworming Horents or Blackmore horse head with jr fluke trailers. Deep diving crankbaits Slow rolled spinner baits. Structure spoons. T-rigged worms with brass n glass. Swimbaits This depth is normal for me, the stained water isn't. Good water clarity you can use nearly everything including top water. Tom

See my post on New Techniques thread.Bass Elites have been restricted from using dual or multiple lure rigs. If 2 or more lures are legal in your state and your tournament rules don't restrict them or you are not a tournament angler, use your imagination. Tom

New that is old: Drop shot, originally known as stacking in fresh water , ganion's in salt water or dropper rigs. Japanese brought this back to life about 1990 out west. The first drop shots were called down shot rigs or stack rigs because 2 to 3 drop shot hooks with worms were normal, not just 1. The first secret rig was using a small spider puff ball (living rubber round head jig trimmed in a ball shape) used for the weight. Nail worm, originally a straight tail worm with a nail inserted into the worm nose and wacky hooked. The nail worm dates back at least into the mid 70's, then forgotten until about 5 years ago. I have posted this rigged many times, however little feedback. The modern rig uses R2Sea tungsten nail weight ($$) and worm saddles for wacky rigs to save the worm/weight isn't lost with each bass. The worm nose is cut off square about 1/4", weight inserted into the nose, the hook about 1 1/2" back, 6" straight tail. This rig is used on 6-8# FC line to depth of 20' with 3/32 oz weight. Lead nail weight are less expensive by Lunker city and work OK. This rig has won a lot of $$ out west. 3 way swivel rigs is another old timer that is being used around the country by tight lipped anglers. Heavy 1 oz fish head jig with hollow body swimmers on the shorter dropper line and with a variety of floating lures on the longer line. Crankbaits, jerk baits, use your imagination. These are 3 summer presentations that you should give a try that your local anglers may not know of or have forgotten about that will put bass in the boat everywhere. Tom

Sam the reason for my question was to determine what Curved knows in regards to commonly known techniques or presentations. For example Scroungers are well know and rarely used. To use your statement that bass anglers do not share what they think is a secrete is human nature and a lot of site members hang around in the background hoping to mine just that; a new presentation to try out. Tinkering around with particular lure is a big part of bass fishing because bass respond to such a wide variety of lures and presentations. Tom

What techniques or presentations are familiar with? Tom

I agree with Catt on the strike; engulf the jig or worm into the back of the mouth to crunch it and kill the critter by flaring the gill covers, opening their big mouth pumping water and the jig or worm in. If you don't feel or see the line move or stop, you miss the strike. To me jigs are smaller and the weight is part of the hook, so the whole jig goes into the mouth of LMB. If the jig doesn't feel right to the bass, it's rejected just as quickly as it was engulfed. A worm rigged with a sliding sinker the bass usually gets just the worn without the weight into it mouth and a soft plastic worm feels real. With a worm the bass will actually eat and swallow it if you leave enough slack in the line, this rarely happens with a jig. Tom

Active bass will engulf the small 4" Senko in a heart beat. That fact you were casting creates slack in the line in the wind. You have 2 choices; go up in Senko size 5" or 6" and/ or used a heavier weight to reduce the slack in the line. Good first outing with the drop shot rig. You will get the timing down with practice Tom

I agree the 68 ROF 12 is a excellent choice in the smaller pure swimbaits. The 68 isn't easy to come by, the price is in the $20 range. I also would not fool around modifying the 68 or 6" Hudd, it is small enough for 4# + bass to get inside their mouth, as bass usually strike a swimbait by the head. Every swimbait angler I know start out fishing them too fast. Make a short cast and watch the swimbait closely, it glides through the water with a natural tail swimming action, slow is better than even a moderate retrieve.....slow swimmer catch bigger bass, and that is why you should be fishing a swimbait. Casting retrieving a swimbait for hours takes a lot of dedication, you may not get any strikes the first few trips. Fish high % big bass locations; major points, under water islands or humps, larger bait migration routes. Don't waste your time pounding the bank and hoping to find a big bass. Swimbait fishing is like worm and jig fishing, slow down. When you do get a strike, don't panic and rip the rod back too fast, instead reel faster to load up the rod before hook setting. This gives the bass a moment to turn with the swimbait and get a good hold of the head into it's mouth where the hook can make contact into mouth tissue . The standard 6" ROF 12'is a good swimbait and you fish it exactly the same....slowly, it's not a crankbait! Your tackle should be OK, a little too fast action, a good swimbait rod will be easier to cast for hours. 20 lb mono like Big Game or similar line cast very well and works good for then 6" or 68 Hudds. Don't over look Little Cripper 6" Trash Fish. Good luck. Tom

Wrong Mojo rig, this another thing about bass fishing, the termology differs regionally.Look up split shot rig, the round split shot is replaced with a tubular slip sinker made by Mojo tackle and called a Mojo weight. As I mentioned there is a Vedio on this site to tell you how to fish it. It's usually fished with a spinning rod/ reel due to the 3/32 or 1/8 oz weight, light line 8# test and size 1 or 1/0 light wire hook like Owners 5100 and 6" straight tail worms. The rig is cast and slowly dragged over the bottom or top of submerged weed beds. Tom

The Tilley hat is a high end item, very good if the weather isn't too hot or humid. Sundays Afternoon brand is an excellent sun shade SPF 30 rated and very light weight,. I own both hats and usually choose the Sundays Days full shade hat in navy blue with flat black under the bill. The white with black is another good color combo, except I just can't seem to keep a white clean very long when fishing. I will not go out in the sun without sunscreen on my face and arms and hands because I hate to wear gloves and take off my hate when running the boat at higher speeds. Tom

well since I don't know what the weed cover is like, more than likely coontail and junk weeds that can make fishing deep divers difficult, unless you have some rocky areas. Crankbaits get expensive fast, although fire tiger color or perch colors tend to work good in your area, so stick to those. Try getting yourself a few Scrounger head jigs and you can use your worms for trailers, instead of deep divers. Scrounger swim like a crankbait and go through weeds or rockes very good Deep is about 15 to 20 feet in your nick of the woods. Tom

I see you are from central MN where the majority of lakes are natural, not man made impoundments. LMB tend to avoid deeper water off shore in natural lakes because the forage fish are usually dermasil and live close to shore and you may have pike or musky dominating those areas. Unless your lake has a population of pelagic prey fish like cisco's, white fish, etc that are off shore bait fish, no reason for the bass to venture too far away from the shore during the summer period. I would make an effort to get good maps showing the depths of your lakes you fish and an inexpensive sonar unit that will tell the depth and show you the depth of any baitfish in deeper water, otherwise you are wasting a lot of time fishing blind. The summer thermocline is also a major factor, so don't fish deeper than the bait fish are holding. Night fishing is always good during the summer, bugs can be an issue in MN! Start by looking at your map and fish the deeper water near shore, like points and any islands connected to the shore with under water saddles, summer bass love that type of deeper structure. LMB suspended off shore are not active bass during the hot summer, the bass suspended near cover are usually catchable, check Glenn's Mojo Vedio, good presentation for your natural MN lakes during summer days. Tom

You really have to work at snagging a Texas rigged soft plastic worm to point of breaking it off. The biggest problem is usually not inserting the worm onto the hook properly of using too large of hook for the worm body diameter and using too heavy of bullet weight. For example most 6"soft plastic straight tail worms work well with a 3/0 size premium worm hook, lots of choices. I prefer straight shanked Gamakatsu 464 for this presentation with a 3/16 brass painted bullet weight. The eye of the hook should not be inserted more than 1/8" into the worm head, the hook point should be skin hooked to cover the point. If you feel the weight stop keep slight pressure on it and wait a few moments to determine if the pressure is a bass or a limb, limbs don't move! If it's not alive, then drop a little slack into the line a jiggle it until the weight comes free. Weedless Arkie style jig heads or brush style jig heads are both ideally suited to work through brush or trees. Agian heavy weight is doesn't work well, try to use 1/4 to 3/8 oz jigs, avoid using bulk type trailers with appendages, keep it streamlined to slide through the brush without grabbing stuff. A 4" soft plastic worm with the tail split about 2" makes a very good brush jig trailer. Good luck. Tom PS; a lure retriever is a heavy weight with sash chain on a cord that slides down your line, snags the treble hook type lure and you pull it free with the cord. This doesn't work with single hook lures, those you donate.

It depends on a lot of factors, the type of lure, the distance between you and bass, the activity level of bass. Remember Jay Yelas fishing a Classic several years ago when a pleasure boater in a pontoon boat ran about 5 feet from him, then turned next to the bank Jay was fishing and ran over his spot? Jay laughed and just kept casting to the same spot that still had the boat wake prop wash on the water and caught a 6# bass that won the tournament for him. You never know how bass will react to surface disturbance. If you know the bass are spooky, then make as quite cast as possible with lure that are not designed to make noise. You can be casting a buzz bait in a foot of water and get strikes and sometimes need to cast up on the band to make a silent enter to catch bass. When I am casting a jig over 90 feet, I try to stop the jig in the air and feather the landing instead of letting the jig hit the water out of control like a rock. I think that is important to control the lures landing. Tom

Finesse C-rig should have a sliding sinker, otherwise it's a variation of the split shot rig. I call the finesse C-rig a "slip shot" rig and have been fishing this rig over 35 years....a long time! I started out using a small black Sampo swivel, bead and bullet weights when teaching my daughter and son to bass fish. The reason I used a small swivel was to help reduce line twist when the rig was reel in too fast that caused the reaper or small worm to spin. The problem with the swivel rig was I was tying too many knots every time my kids broke off a rig before they learned the difference between a rock and a bass. When I discovered what is now called a mojo cylinder weight, I also discovered pegging a bead for a weight stop. My kids were better anglers now and learned to retrieve the rig slower, so removing the swivel and they could tie 1 knot, the hook and make the rig themselves, that was about 1980. I don't like a mojo style weight less than 3/32 oz because you loose feel of the weight in water deeper than 10'. 1/8 to 3/16 is all you need with line weight to 8 lbs. I use the same rig baitcasting to 1/2 oz Pro-Jo weights. The slip shot rig consists of; mojo lead weight or Pro-Jo black brass weight. 8mm glass faceted bead, Peg-It and light wire worm hooks; Gamakstsu or Owner. I prefer straight shank style hook in size 1 to 1/0 for line to 8 lbs. up to 30 hook and 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 oz weight for baitcasting. Roboworms in 4 1/2" to 6" straight or curly and 3" reapers. For deep structure rocky lakes longer leaders between 14" to 30" with the weight on the bottom works very well, dragged slowly along. When you feel a bite stop the retrieve and let the line load up with a rubber band pull, then reel and sweep set the hook. Good luck! Tom

Describe your reel, spinning or casting and the model number. If you are using a spinning reel, the spool diameter is more than likely too small, you need a very large diameter spool similar to off shore spinning reel used in the ocean. If the reel is a bait caster, the spool diameter agian has an affect on high memory filament line, mono or FC. The tighter you wind larger diameter line around a small diameter spool the more memory it will retain, because the line takes a set with time under pressure. FC line is water proof, meaning it doesn't absorb water or most fluids, including KVD line conditioner. KVD will coat the FC and aid in lubricating the line, however it will not stress relieve the high memory tensil properties. I use Sunline Shooter in 25 lb on my Calcutta 400 reel for heavy swimbaits when fishing the winter months for the deeper running swimmers. Cold winter temperatures also affect FC and or mono line. To manage the 25 lb FC I use TangleFree line conditioner and keep the 2 oz bottle in the vest pocket so I can apply it as need while fishing. TangleFree works better for me, reduces memory and allows water to stay on the line longer, this keeps the line down on the spool longer. I apply the TangleFree about every 30 minutes of casting time. Standard size bait casting reels with spools less the 2" diameter, the max FC line I use is 15 lb, too small of spool for the 20 or 25 lb FC. Tom

You shouldn't be fishing the A-rig where you need weedless hooks. Tom

The goal is moving enough line between you and the fish with enough force to penetrate the hook past the barb. How you do this depends on how far away the fish is from you and at what angle the line down into the water. This really doesn't have much to do which direction the rod tips is traveling as long as it is moving the line with quickly applied force. I only use 2 hook sets; the reel set followed by a firm rod sweep after the hook has penetrated the fishes mouth tissue. The snap set when the line is 45 degrees downward to straight down and not more than 30' away, by snapping the rod quickly into slightly slack line. Unlike most bass anglers I prefer the reel set about 90% of the time. I always reel set swimbaits of all types because they fill the basses mouth with soft plastic and by reel setting you put far more force to the hook then any other type of hook set. Tom

Define what you are calling a "seabed"? If you mean "clam beds" and not zebra or quagga mussel beds, then yes, fresh water clam beds have always been good areas. Tom

Take a look at Persuader Lures weedless spoon, good choice weedy areas with some open water pockets. Tom

Just a few side notes on the Mojo rig, Top Brass fishing makes the Peg-It, BPS sells a knock off. A good friend of mine came up with the mojo style weight to resolve the problem of larger diameter split shots hanging up, so he made the longer smaller diameter cylinder shape weight back int he 70's. Larry McCain was also the same angler who came up with the football head jig back in the late 50'a. Larry moved to Arkansas when after retiring from JPL as a tool maker. Hope you are well and still fishing Larry. You can make a rubber strand tool with thin wire, bend it back on itself about 3" long, then crimp a bullet weight on in a vise, the wire ends opposite the bent end. After you crimp it, then open the middle so it has a diamond shape opening. Push the bent wire end through the weight hole, insert the rubber strands and pull them back through the weight hole like shown in the video. We fish this rig a lot in deep structure rocky lakes, the only difference is a longer leader length 14" to 30" depending on the basses preference. Tom