WRB-2.0

Could have been a case of being wired and not letting the bass take the fluke and turn with it. Tom

The fact I have learned about FC line is NEVER keep a lure tied on for more than 24 hours...retie it.Regardless of the knot used FC line looses strength under time with pressure of a knot, FC cold flows. Lets say you tied a perfect FC knot that has 90% knot strength, that = 13.5 lb strength with 15 lb Line. 24 hours later theat same 90% knot is down to 60% = 9 lbs line strength for 15 lb line. That may seem to be enough strength and is unless you happen to add the pull force quickly like a hook set, then knot failure will occur. I lost several big bass learning this lesson and started to test FC line as a result using a very accurate Instron tensile testing machine at work. Retie often it's inexpensive insurance. Also check your hook points often, that is also free, dull hooks lead to missed hook sets. Tom

Reel setting is faster, you get the hook point into the basses mouth, then a firm rod sweep finishes the hook set. Never give the bass a chance to spit out aj jig by waiting to swing for the fences, that is a marginal hook setting technique. Tom

To clarify which guide you are requesting start the count from the reel seat end of the rod; guide 1 is the first guide. Most rods with micro guides will have the first 2 or 3 guides larger sizes, then the guides are the same size up to the tip. Are you saying the guide foot slipped out from under the wrap? If that happened it may not be as easy as glueing in a replacement, sometimes the guide foot will not slide into the original opening. Good luck! Tom

Daredevil spoons should not spin, it should wobble and give the appearance of s spin. When a spoon spins it will twist your line severely. The bass size is the 2/5 oz Imp. Tom

Spooks with rigid hook hangers don't walk as well as free hanging hook models. Sammy's sit lower in the water, the tail sits deeper and can be walked faster and still not move forward as fast as a spook. The Zip N Ziggy is a smaller dog walker that works very well throughout the retrieve. The question is; are you missing fish? Do you see followers turning back? Most of the time when fishing from a boat, you have covered the close water already with previous cast, so don't waste your time fishing it all the way back to the boat, unless it's the first cast. Tom

When I am targeting giant bass fewer variety of lures are used and a limited color range. Rainbow trout size and color swimbait in light and darker color and 6" or 8" for example. I rig up 2 sizes. I also use jigs when targeting giant bass and only 2 color combination and rig both of those. I change the trailer colors to match 1 on the colors in the jig (hair) skirt. Big plastic worms, I only fish 1 or 2 colors during an outing when targeting giant bass. The fact is I have a lot of confidence in the lures and color selection and know these work. This allows me to spend more time fishing, less time changing lures. When I fun fish, then it's my time to experiment and play around with a wider variety of lures, presentations and colors. I do this to determine what is working best on that particular outing. After I have figured out what is working, then I will stick to those lures until they stop working. I am not a shoreline pounder, I locate bass before experimenting with changing lures until I get those bass to react. Blindly fishing and changing lures in hope to find something that works is counter productive to the goal to catching bass. Tom

Top water lures come in 10 basic types; chuggers, poppers, props baits, dog walking, buzzers, frogs, Jitter bugs, birds, wake and surface spoons. Some are weedless, some are open water lures. When and where you use a top water depends on the type of water you are fishing and the weather conditions. It also depends on how much surface disturbance the bass prefer. When the water surface is calm a slower less surface disturbance usually works better than a noisy lure. When the surface is broken up by wind, the noisier and faster surface lures tend to work better. The pace or speed the lure is retrieved depends on the type of prey the bass are targeting on the surface. Surface lures that replicate fish are usually fished at a faster pace then lures that resemble other surface critters like frog or bird that tend to more slowly or stop and go. Most anglers work Spooks, Sammy's,chuggers and prop lures too slow in light windy conditions where they excell. Colors; start with something that is similar to the prey type being targeted by the bass. Tom

I would suggest a 703; 7' fast action 3 power/medium hvy casting rod rated 1/4 oz- 3/4 oz, your basic all around bass rod.Tom

If you are watching the rod for movement to indicate a bass strike you are missing nearly every strike.If you like the look of a brighter color rod or help see the rod, then go it, W&M Skeet Reese Honeycomb series is bright yellow, Shimano makes a white rod. My choice is low light reflection and dull muted colors like dark gray for bass fishing. Bright rod colors and shinny light reflecting finish, bright guides bothers my eyes at the end of the day because I am watching and feeling the line very closely. Tom

My advice is do not get stuck on specific colors when fishing underwater lures. 2 colors jump out; black and blue jigs and watermelon red flake soft plastics. Very popular and best selling colors. My theory on popular colors is the majority of anglers are fishing the same colors and those anglers will never know if another color is out producing there favorite. Bass have extremely acute vision and can be very picky about colors and we have no idea what that color is without trying several combinations under the conditions of the time we are on the water. Experiment with colors until you discover what is working and change when is stops working. Tom

The science in how bass see is evolving. Bass have better vision then they have been given credit for and may see in spectrums the human eye can't see unaided. When you consider that bass can easily see prey that has evolved to be camouflage to blend into the underwater environment under all lighting conditions you start to realize what anglers know about their eye sight is limited to personal experiences, which may or may not be helpful. Bass can see in very low light and what we see as darkness, the bass see very well. Bass also have the ability to change the flicker rate to slow down fast moving objects to see it better. The bottom line is; experience with your color choices until you find a color combination the bass prefer and this can change hourly. For example black is considered a good night color due to contrast and it works, however black is not always a good night color. The best starting color is usually something that is close to the prey the bass are feeding on. When that doesn't work it's time to experiment. Keep in perspective that vision is 1 of the basses senses, detecting movement via vibrations by the lateral line nerves is also highly developed in bass. Tom

If you rig a Texas rig with the weight sliding freely on the line as a T-rig is designed to do, then there is a big difference. When you cast a t-rig the weight separates from the soft plastic during the fall down through the water column, allowing the soft plastic to be weightless or very little weight other than hook weight and line drag. The weight gets pulled against the hook when you retrieve the t-rig, however a bass can still strike the soft plastic without engulfing the weight, this gives the bass time to eat the soft plastic weightless, The weight separating from the hook can be a disadvantage in heavy cover and this is where pegging the weight comes into play. A pegged weight becomes a Florida rig. The advantage of a jig is standing up the soft plastic trailer and better feel of what the soft plastic doing, however the bass feels the weight as it goes into it's mouth during the strike, so you must hook set faster. Tom

The term reaction bite was coined by Rich Tauber during 1982 US Open at lake Mead when told the audience how he caught his winning bass; it was a reaction bite. Tauber was fishing a Spook in gin clear deep water and the bass would come up 25-30 feet to strike the Spook and knowone else was on that pattern. The term has since been redefine many ways, Rich meaning was getting active bass to react to his Spook by calling them up from deep water. To me a reaction bite is just that; getting active bass to react to the lure. Trying to tease an inactive bass into striking isn't what I would define as a reaction bite. What you are doing under those conditions, when bass are inactive, or not actively hunting and feeding prey is working different angles to get the lure to approach the bass from a direction the bass believes is normal for the prey type your lure represents. Tom

Cut that number in 1/2 and invest in higher quality. I own and fish with about 20 rods and use 3 year around; 3, 4 and 5 power rods in fast action. Rods rated by power are Dobyn's, Loomis, Lamiglas and ALX, 4 excellent brands with lifetime warranty. Rods rated by line weight, lure weight, bending rate are called medium, medium/heavy and heavy fast action. A 3'power is between medium and med/ hvy, good all around bass rod, 4 power is equal to med/hvy and good for worms and light jigs to 1/2 oz, the 5 power is another between med/hvy and heavy, good for jig jigs 1/2 to 1 oz and other heavier lures. I would stay with one rod maker for the 3 rods mentioned and opt for longer rods in the 6'10" to 7'3" range. More application specific rods would be a cranking rod for the big deep divers; 5 power moderate action E glass in 7' to 7'6" range. A swimbait rod like Okuma Guide Special 7'11" heavy. You can use the 5 power jig rod for pitching and frogs. If you are into finesse a spinning rod in 3 power will do about everything. St Croix and Shimano would be a good choices if you opt for the rods not rated by power. I am currently using the 3 rods from ALX in 3,4 and 5 power and they are superior to most rods on the market today and in the $175-$225 price range. Take your time and look at all the above rod makers and any others that offer life time warranty. Tom

Making your jigs isn't inexpensive; you need a mold, lead, hooks, weed guards, skirt materials and skirt collars or wire and paint. Buying components gets expensive fast because you don't buy anything in quantities less than 25 each. Hooks can cost .25-.35 each in qty of 100 for example. If you know exactly the head type and weight, the colors and hook style and mfr, then it makes sense as long as your time is free. Tom

Trigger sticks first introduced by Fenwick came out in the early 70's, Dee Thomas 8' flipping rod was a trigger stick.We fished with pistol grip rods and Eagle Claw 5'3" to 5'5" with cork handles and fore grips were type hot ticket before the graphite rods hit the market. Agian Fenwick lead the way with HMG rods, followed by another west coast rod builder Phenix they became the tournament rods out west and offered 6' to 6'6" bass rods in the mid 70's. I put away the pistol grips in the mid 70's. The pork rind we all used out west was Pedigo who made 4" lizards that were 3/4" wide with a split tail in purple, brown and black colors. Pedigo pork rinds were great, soft and high floatation. Uncle Josh bought Pedigo in the early 80's...too bad as UJ never continued the line. SuperPork come out in the mid 80's with a soft super floater pork rind and I had Robin make the old Pedigo lizard for me and was back in business, until last year when SuperPork closed. Uncle Josh rinds are in consistant in texture and don't float well without a lot TLC. Tom

Preferred prey types during each seasonal period. Deep structured lakes with both dermasil and pelagic baitfish; Winter-pre spawn- fall Shad and herring family of pelagic baitfish, crayfish, trout, suckers, sculpin, crappie, green sunfish, bluegill, young carp and catfish, variety of minnows, leeches and worms. Summer Add terrestrial insects, larve, frogs, salamanders, lizards, small snakes, small birds, mice, small turtles. Bass prefer what is abundant and provides high protein for the effort of spent finding and eating the prey. Instead of launching the boat and pounding the shoreline with your favorite lure and location, take some time out and determine what the bass are actually feeding on and where they are located during the time period you are fishing. As you can see the summer period offers the bass a wide variety of options for prey types, both dermesal (shoreline prey) and pelagic (off shore prey). Shad are pelagic baitfish that hide near shore during low light periods (night), then move off shore with the sunlight. Most pelagic baitfish spawn near shore, so the shoreline becomes a feeding zone during low light and during prey spawning cycles. Prey that school are preferred by bass because of the high quantity offers easy food source. Prey that doesn't school become targets of opportunity. Bass have good vision in low light, so those periods offer the bass an opportunity to feed on prey that can't see the bass easily. Good luck. Tom

The reason the bass calendar is made up in seasonal periods in lieu of months is because they are stages in the life cycle. It's these stages that makeup the basses habits, what drives the fish to do what they do or locate where they can thrive, not just servive.Pre spawn is a transitional period to the spawn, it follows the cold water winter period and what identifies this period, besides staging near spawning areas, is the movement upward or vertical from deeper cold water towards warmer shallower water. The spawn is obvious, you can see bass spawning. Post spawn is another transitional period that is different from the pre spawn. It is obviously a resting period and what is not so obvious is the bass are moving agian, this time more horizontal, not vertical into deep water. Instead the movement is towards their summer period areas. Summer follows post spawn, the bass have scattered into several lake zones depending on where the prey is located and where the bass can set up a home zone.. Movement during the summer period tends to be mostly horizontal, bass in deep structured may move more vertical depending on the thermocline depth or if the water is subjected to current. The surface water is too hot in most lakes during the summer, so the bass tend to locate where the water is cooler and prey close by. Fall is another transitional period, the summer locations are experiencing a water temperature drop, the prey is moving so the bass follow and start to move horizontal as summer transitions to fall, then deeper as fall transitions to winter the cold water period. During the spawn prey isn't the driving force, however prey is the primary reason bass locate where they do during every other seasonal period. To fully understand bass habits where you fish, you must learn about the preys habits....bass are never far form their food source. Bass seek a comfort zone near prey. The water temperature LMB prefer is 65-75 degrees, this is why they will go into deeper water looking for cooler water during the summer and warmer water during the winter. Good luck. Tom

For the 8" Hudd you need a rod rated for 5 oz lures,; 6 power or heavy, but not a flipping rod because they don't cast well. The Okuma Guide special in heavy action is a good rod for the money, Dobyn's 806 ML is very good, the longer 867 is a 8 1/2' 7 power rod that will easily handle the 8" Hudd or heavier jig end wood swimmers. I use an older Lamiglas 796 (similar to 806) for 8" Hudds and Okuma guide MH-7'11" for the 68 with Calcutta reels, 20 lb with the Okuma and 25 with the 6 power rod. If I had a longer boat to store the longer 8' + rods, that would be a better choice for 8" Hudds or heavier swimmers to make longer casts. Tom

I fish hair jigs year around, it's a misconception that living rubber and silicone skirts are only good in warm water and that hair jigs work better in cold water....nonsense! A skirt is a skirt and the hair is just a jig skirt. Most hair jigs today are made for smallmouth bass and walleyes because anglers still believe they work for those fish. If you put the hair jig away, it can't work in your tackle box. The jig & pig was the original ball head hair jig with a pork trailer that pre dates the Arkie head jig with vinyl skirts that also used pork trailers. The key word with hair jigs is pork trailers. Both the bucktail hair in combination with natural pork trailer taste and feels alive to bass, especially big bass. The down side is pork dries out easily, is messy compared to soft plastics and hair mates in contact with most commercial attractants. I see sponsor NorthStar offers hair jig selection. Tom PS; the 19 lb bass in my avatar was caught on a hair jig with a pork trailer!

The Josh eel wasn't a split tail pork trailer, those were called lizards back in the 60's-70's. Uncle Josh made and still makes the Black Widow eel, a pork eel that is 6" or 9" long. We fished these on a football head jig with a vinyl skirt. The secret lure called "the Thing" was a 9" eel on a twin spin spreader type spinner bait. The Thing still works good, very slow vertical falling jig bumped along the rocky deep structured lakes.

It depends if the reel contains galvanic metals that react to saltwater. Die cast aluminum for example is a poor choice, machined aluminum alloys with anodized coatings are excellent. All composite are excellent. Chrome or nickel plated brass part in direct contact with aluminum is galvanic; reels sets, screws, spool shafts etc. It really depends on what components the reel is made of, not always the price point. If you rinse your reels with fresh water, recommended, don't do it under high pressure...lightly rinse the reel o you don't force water into the inside of the reel. A light spry with WD-40 after a light fresh water rinse is good. For the reel nd rod guides. Tom

The differences are; premium hooks, optimized balance, weedguards designed for the jig head style. Any powered coated jig head will chip, the paint is harder then the lead. If the jig lasts long enough to get banged up, don't bother touching it up, bass could care less. I would also check out TW and get a couple of Don Iovino's Nu jigs with hand tied skirts. Buy a few from different North Star and Siebert, fish them, then stock up on what works for you. Tom

The cut off bent treble that goes under the Hudds head skin can tear out the skin instead of pull out cleanly.The advantage is bass don't skake out the hook, like they can with the standard top hook. Tom