WRB-2.0

My advice is start with the 68 Huud, if you plan to use 20 mono and forget about the braid with a leader. Butch Browns rig works good, if you don't mind tearing up several Hudds, gets expensive. Try the Hudds without a stinger first. If you need to add a treble hook to the Hudd, use the belly hook hanger. The 8" Hudd is safer to cast with 25 lb mono. Tom

You might want to consider another presentation for the worms or a modification to increase your catch rate per hour. I fish deep structured lakes and don't use the traditional Texas rig in water deeper than 20 very often. When bass are on deep rocky structure I change to spider jigs, dart head jigs, shaky head jigs, drop shot, slip shot, nail weight worms and a doodle rig. A noodle rig is a modified T-rig known as Brass N Glass: adding a faceted glass bead between the weight (painted brass) and the hook. I also lighten up on the line to 8 to 10 lb FC, 3/16 oz weight unless it's windy, then 1/4oz.. It's important that the sinker slides freely on the line and lead doesn't, tungsten also works good. The technique is similar to a T-rig except shorter casts and more vertical. Instead of dragging and hoping, you shake the weight against then glass bead , pause and move the rig about a foot and repeat shaking. The nail weight worm is deadly on steep walls; 3/32 oz tungsten or lead nail weight. Cut off 1/4" of the 6" worm nose to insert the weight. Wacky hook, (Owner with worm saddle) the worm about 1 1/4" back of the worm nose. Use 8-10 FC line. Most strikes will be in the fall or with foot after hitting bottom. This rig works down to 20 to 30 feet. 1/8 to 3/16 oz dart with curl tail worm on 6-8 lb FC. Spider jigs are simple; Yamamoto Hula single or double tail grubs on football head jig, 3/8 oz with 4" or 1/2 oz with 5". Fish the spider jig like the T-rig. Tom

Most or I should say nearly all bass anglers miss both jig and T-rigged strikes on the fall, unless they use light weights. Take the Senko for example, works best weightless or with very little added weight and the majority of strikes are on the fall. The reason is the soft plastic falls slower and the angler is closely watching for strikes, plus the bass has time to eat the falling soft plastic or jig. The trend today is heavier weights to punch through cover, very heavy wire hooks and 65 to 85 lb braid. Unless you are fishing heavy cover, you do not need braid to fish jigs or T-rigs, no advantage other than personal preference and that is important. Unless the bass are guarding a net, you should expect to catch bass the cast as the worm is falling through the water column. If you are missing these strikes, you are missing bass, unless you are fishing very shallow water less than 3' deep. If 99% of the strikes are on the retrieve your weight may be too heavy for the depth of water, unless it is windy. You should target the 25% range for strikes on the fall, 50% on the first hop and 25% on the retrieve with both jigs and T-rigs. The reason is bass are not bottom feeders, they are sight feeders and prefer to strike prey off the bottom. Like everything in bass fishing there will be exceptions when bass will strike dead stocked jigs and worms, just not often. Tom

Unless you are using spinning tackle or fishing heavy weed cover there is little reason to use braid with a FC leader. The reson you don't feel anything on the fall is you have lost all contact with the worm. Braid floats on the water surface creating bow in the line as the worm sinks, plus you are stripping more line off the reel while this going on. Unless you are fishing a very steep drop off into deep water (25'+) no reason to be stripping extra line and lose all contact. A little higher arc in the cast achieves the same goal and you can lower the rod tip to create a little more slack if needed. I would use the 12 lb FC without the braid and keep in touch with the line at all times. Tom PS; use V the line cuts in the water as a strike indicator as the worm sinks.

You pay a premium for lightweight rods and reels that are reliable and durable. Don't confuse a lightweight state of the art reel as not being strong, the strength come in good engineering design and materials. Lightweight also has advantages in the ability to feel what the lure is doing...if the rod and reel are balanced. Balance is when the rod doesn't feel tip heavy or but heavy when holding the rod as you grip,it to fish. A cheap lightweight or heavy reel that isn't durable is simply a cheap reel. Tom

What you need to focus on is how much line is retrieved with each reel handle turn. The spool diameter determine how much line is retrieved for each spool revolution. Reels with larger spool diameters like round reels can retrieve 28 inches of line for handle turn and be 6.3 to 1 ratio and a smaller low profile reel can retrieve 28 inches of line and be 7.0 to 1 ratio. Speed is relative to your presentation techniques and the speed you prefer to fish. Tom

Your winter bss where on steeper banks, now transisitioned to spawn or post spawn by now. It's all about location and being bank bound makes changing locations a task, especially if the water is on the raise. The rule of thumb is; bass move up with the raising water and pull off the bank when water falls. You are fishing a big highland power generating reservoir, difficult without a boat. The bass should still be in the creek channel arms about half way. I would try to locate some secondary creek arms points and fish those areas. The ideal secondary point is a primary secondary point where the creek arm divides into 2 more arms. Tom

First I want to let you know that my sat map didn't allow me to look at your lake in any detail.Yes a boat makes a lot of difference, you can go anywhere and set up your casting angles to optimize the presentation. From shore all the angles are casting out and retrieving back to shore. When you are learning to fish soft plastics keep to 1 or 2 presentations until you are consistant at catching bass before adding other presentations. Depending on the depth you are fishing and the wind conditions, you want the weight as light as possible and still feel the bottom. With a boat you don't need the weight as heavy to cast, you can move the boat, making shorter casts. Not knowing the depth to fish, which is critical, I would cover 1' to 20' until you start getting strikes, then focus on the depth the bass are more active in. Tom

One more question; what type of tackle do you fish the soft plastics with? If you re using bait casting or spinning with a worm rod from shore I would use a finesse C-rig or what I call a slip shot rig. The only difference being the line and weight size. For casting a 3/8 oz Top Brass Pro-Jo weight painted black, 8-10# FC line, Glass faceted 8mm bead, Peg-It II rubber peg and size 1/0 Owner or Gamakatsu light wire worm hook. Spinning use a 1/8 oz Pro-Jo eight, 6-8# FC, size 1 hook. Worms; casting use 6" curl tail, spinning use 5.1/2" curl tail, color Roboworm Oxblood w/lt red flake and MMII. Both are high% colors this time of year. Peg the weight about 24" above the hook. Rig the worms weedless and skin hook. Bites tend to feel like a rubber band pressure. The retrieve is simple; slowly drag the weight about 1 to 2' using the rod, reel in slack and repeat. Fish major and secondary points and fan cast the entire point area. Points near spawning areas are best at this time. Remember the worm is weightless to the bass, you feel the sinker weight, any thing the pulls back is a bass, set the hook. Tom PS; Iovino products carries the Top,Bras painted weight and Peg-It. Don't worms are also good, his Honey worm is hot now.

William Harsha lake?Tom

I use soft plastics to teach new bass anglers how to bass fish, because they are very effective in regards catch rates per hour fishined.If you are not catching bass using soft plastics it is because younre not fishing the right locations, can't catch them if they re not where you are fishing. Post the lake you fish, the name and state, we can put you where you need to start during this seasonal,period. Tom

If you let the weight settle down into the rocky crevices....it gone. I would suggest a nail weighted worm rigged wacky style, 3/32 oz is perfect for 6" worms. Tom

Not an off set. Take. Look at True Turn MC35. Tom

There isn't any reason to use braid with swimbits in open water areas. I use Berkley Big Game 20 lb mono with swimbaits under 2oz, cast better than braid and more forgiving in a sitting position. Not familiar with the rod, but if you like it, go it. Tom

The shaky head jig is a specific style; stand up ball head and variations of that design. Most shaky heads use a spring keeper to hold the head of a worm. These are not you standard "jig". The stand up head is designed to "standup" the hook off the bottom, hence the name. These are casting jigs. The Texas rig is a sliding bullet haed sinker and worm hook. When you peg the weight it becomes a Florida rig that for some reason has lost it's identity. Tom

Just mark up your spots of interest on the paper map, then locate the spots using your sonar via old school method; landmarks. Lexington reservoir off 17 is a small lake, it shouldn't be too difficult to find the ares of interest. When you find the spot, way point it on the GPS. The coordinates could be Loran C in minutes.seconds? Good luck, some big bass in that lake. Tom

The superbraid hooks are made from heavier wire; .047-.062 wire for standard heavy wire hooks and .078-.094 for superbraid flipping Hooks, some offer welded eye. The style (shape) and size of the hook is a separate issue. Gamakatsu #304 and Trokar TK130 are both designed for flipping heavy cover with soft plastics keepers, both are straight shank compact hook designs for verticle presentation. EWG style off set hooks tend to rotate flat inside the basses mouth when the bass bites down hard, the shorter straight shank hooks tend to stay upright during the verticle hook set used when flipping Tom

Do you have any soft plastic worms? If you have some 6" straight tail worms you can make a good jig trailer for use in cover like weeds. Cut off 1 inch from the nose end of the worm. Using a fillet knife split the worm tail end about 3 inches down the center of the worm so you have 2 tails. The easy way to do this is lay the worm straight on a flat cutting board and push the knife blade edge straight down, instead of trying to slice it. Make up a bag of 6 to 10 tails and you are set for the day. Simply thread the worm onto the jig, cut off flat end first about 1 1/4" up to the skirt collar, expose the hook and you are ready to go fishing. You can also shorten the worm to 4 inches and run the hook out between the split tails. You can always make the 4" out of the 5" when the 5" get toren up form use. Learn to shake the jig by bouncing the rod tip against slack line when the jig is sitting still, big hops can work at times, smaller 6" hops are usually better and it will force you to slow down.....key to successful jig fishing. Tom

How you hook a bass tells you how aggressive the bass was when it strikes the lure. Jigs are small compact lures and bass tend to strike a jig to kill it, they does this by engulfing the jig into the back of the mouth and crunch down with the crunchers located in the back of the mouth. If you hook set at the moment the bass is killing the jig, you hook it in the rough of the mouth. 2 other factors in play; the angle the jig is down and how far away it is when you make the hook set. The more verticle the jig is; straight down or about a 45 degree angle out, you are pulling the jig upwards and this also tends to hook the rough of the mouth. The more horizontal the jig is or further away the angle tends to be parallel or down at a angle less than 30 degree from the water surface, the less likely you will hook the bass in the rough of the mouth, unless you hook set immediately and what you should do! Tom PS; you can kill a bass with a hook through the brain , it's rare but it does happen.

The spots should be done with the spawn and schooled up on outside structure areas. Spots are a lot like smallmouth bass and tend to roam more the LMB, and they are active more often. Out west in our gin clear water lakes the spots are usually deeper then LMB and prefer jigs and soft plastics in green with chartreuse tail tips or ambler with orange or pink tail tips. I would look for grey granite rock on steep breaks or points and meter the area to determine at what depth the spots are holding, then work those areas with shakey head jigs or drop shot worms, straight tails with a 1" split. 6 lb FC line on spinning tackle to start with. Tom

Old Glory was flying high after 9/11, everyone was a patriot. My tour of duty was back in '67, people were wearing or buring the flag and I will never forget being spit on at the LAX airport. War changes people's values, they soon forget what freedom means and stop respecting each other, let alone our flag. Dust Old Glory off and and fly her high with pride! Tom

The snap swivel hangs down and your Rapala is over running the line tangling the hooks. If you read the Rapala package, they suggest how to tie on the lure. A light weight thin wire snap without the swivel works on some diving models of Rapalas, the light weight Original Minnow doesn't work well with the way you are rigged. Tom

The best way to keep jig out of the rocks is never let it sit still and fall down into the crevices. No head design can help you if the it's wedged into the rocks. Without a boat to help you get an angle on the wedged jig you are out of luck or a jig. Lighter weight jig helps verses a heavier jig; say a 3/8 vs 1/2 the 1/8 oz can help a lot in preventing snags, but you still need to be able to keep in contact with jig under the conditions you fish in. Fishing a jig from shore up hill in rocks takes a lot of practice and jigs....not easy! Tom

You are missing nearly everything in regards to basic bass behavior and seasonal periods. Tom

Old rule of thumb is; spring up, fall down. How steep of a drop off are you talking about and how deep water does it drop into? Every point can be considered a drop off as it tapers down into deeper water. A verticle drop off would be a cliff or ledge, so the type of drop off will usually determine how you can effectively present a lure to the bass. If the bass are holding on the top at a specific depth, then your casts should be retrieved paralell so the lure stays at that depth the majority of the retrieve. If the bass are deep enough where your boat doesn't disturb them, then a verticle presentation works good. Tom