WRB-2.0

I mainly use the slip shot rig or as it has become known as the finesse C-rig. This is a scaled down C-rig and doesn't use any swivels or multiple knots to fail. The slip shot rig is make up around the mojo style tubular shaped sliding weight, a tempered faceted glass bead, a rubber Peg-It or Carolina plastic keeper and light wire hook. For spinning outfit the line is light 6 to 8 lb FC, 1/8 to 3/16 oz lead mojo or brass Pro-Jo weight, 8mm bead, Peg-It II rubber pegs, size 1or 1/0 Owner #5133 hook. For baitcasting I use 12 lb FC, 3/16 to 1/2 oz Pro-Jo black brass weight, 8mm bead, Peg-It II and Owner #5133 size 1/0 or Gamakatsu #011 size 3/0 hook. Spinning for smaller finesse worms 4" to 6" or 3" reapers and grubs. Casting for larger worms and creatures and Hula style grubs. You can easily change the "leader" length by adjusting the pegged glass bead or Carolina keeper. Strikes are easier to detect with this rig and you rarely snag the rig so badly that you break it off. This is an excellent rig to teach bass fishing to inexperienced anglers or just catching numbers of bass. Tom PS; the Yamamoto single or double tail 4" Hula grub is an excellent post spawn rig, looks like a small bit size school of fry.

If you plan to have 1 swimbait rod go with the rod that will handle the larger swimmers; 7'11" heavy. You standard 4 to 5 power bait casting rod can handle the smaller lighter weight swimmers under 1 1/2 oz. The reel needs to be able to hold 25 lb Mono or FC for the larger swimmers. It's nice to have a dedicated swimbait combo and I would take a look a Shimano round reels like a Cardiff A in300 or 400 series Tom

Pistol grip short handle spin cast outfit, the last time I knew anyone used that combo was Woo Davies with his Zebco 808! You can snap cast a spin cast reel and that motion will blow up today's bait casters just like it did 25 years ago! The retrieve ratio and drags on the best spin casters is slow and poor at best.How you have managed to bass fish with a spin cast combo all theses years is amazing. A good friend of mine uses the same stuff and when I took him out to teach him some basic bass fishing presentations he was lost, the reels tangled up a lot under the spin cast hub, the line capacity was minimal and the drags simply didn't work worth a hoot. Bo used one of my spinning outfit and learned to cast effectively and catch bass within a few hours. Today Bo only fishes with spinning tackle and loves it, you might want to considered a medium price range Shimano Sedona spinning reel and medium heavy 6'6" spinning rod. You can snap cast the spinning outfit and not have any issues back lashing. If Gary Yamamoto can bass fish using only a spinning outfit...you can. Putting a entry level bait casting reel on your older pistol grip slow action rods will work, just not as well as a spinning outfit....IMO. Tom

The tighter the wiggle the better they seem to work for me. The longer bill version goes through brush good as long as you keep is moving forward. Don't be worried about running deeper a slower it can cover a lot of the water column. Tom

Get yourself some 1/4 and 3/8 oz Scroungers, fish it year around with the JR Fluke. Tom

It sounds like DVT to the rescue, give them call!Tom

Besides keeping a spare parka in the boat or vehicle, what is it you want help with? How to fish in stormy weather, fishing a low pressure system during what is more than likely spawn or post spawn? Tell me where you fished that Rapala and what model Rapala? Tom

If the bass 4-5 lbs they are doing OK. I have no idea what you mean about V vs U shape? Big head skinny body, how about measuring length ang girth or post a photo. Tom

If you fix the rod tip by replacing the tip guide you void your warranty, wild card is now useless. Did you mail order the rod? Or buy it off the shelf? Either way contact whomever the retailer is, they may be able to solve the problem due to the fact you never fished with it. The $100 Loomis replacement "warranty" sucks, you shouldn't be worried about what to do, the rod should be replaced with no questions asked, it's a new rod! Tom

Very few of us have the skills or camera available to take good pictuure, Fish Chris is a skilled photographer and angler and knows how to take great photos! Getting the lighting perfect that shows off the fish colors and no shadows, poor back lighting etc, etc. Big regrets I have looking back was having no camera and trying to find a passer by to snap a photo of a big bass and rushing too fast to get the bass released back in the water. Today we have decent digital phone cameras, now all we need is some big bass to take a picture of. Take your time, keep the bass wet, you may never get a second chance! Tom

The best time to learn any new presentation or technique is when there bite is good. The slower presentations like the slider jig work because you are targeting less active bass and bass are only active about 10-20% of any given 24 period, it's during the active period when faster moving lures work best. The logic to put away a technique or lure presentation that works in hope to find active bass that will respond to a faster lure may work for some, however fishing all day and catching nothing isn't any fun and can be very frustrating. Most bottom lures are slow moving and boring to fish, unless you are catching bass! Here are a few other boring bass catching presentations; Slip shot or finesse C-rig. Nail worm. Drop shot. Waky rigged Senko. Teaxs rig worm Spider jig (plain football jig w/Hula grub) Swimbait. A few reaction lures that work when bass are more active; Buzz bait Spook or Sammy Wake bait Finesse A-rig ( smaller version of standard size A-rig with 3" to 4" swimmers) Crank baits. Splash-It's or Pop-R Lipless crankbaits.. If you are shore fishing pick 1 or 2 that can be fished with the tackle you are carrying, boat you are unlimited. Good luck. Tom

To answer your questions in regards to being able to look at a northern strain LMB and tell the difference from a Florida strain LMB the answer is yes, but it takes a close look and examination. Northern LMB and Florida LMB are both black bass, 2 different strain with different genetic make up. Looking at the bass up close you will notice the lateral line scales have a hole in each scale that runs along the lateral line. If you lay a live LMB flat on a wet towel to keep the bass wet and fold one wet end of the towel over the basses head to keep in calm and the gills wet, you can count the number of lateral line scales quickly. Northern LMB have between 59 to 68 of these scales. Florida LMB have between 69 to 73. You will not be able to tell if the FLMB is a pure Florida or a inter grade mix with both NLMB and FLMB genes. However over 68 lateral line scales tells you it's a FLMB. It's been my experience fishing for giant FLMB for over over 40 years in SoCal deep structured lakes the FLMB behave differently than NLMB. It's true some FLMB grow faster then NLMB, but not all, only a small percentage of the females will achieve 10 lbs plus weights, however a higher percentage than NLMB. FLMB over 15 lbs are very rare, 15 lb + NLMB are as rare as 20 lb+ FLMB. FLMB are more selective feeders than NLMB and generally less aggressive when striking artifical lures than NLMB. I am not sure why FLMB seem to be more wary then NLMB, my guess is the FLMB is genetically wired to seek larger bait fish then NLMB and to find the preferred prey they had to learn to leave the shoreline cover and feed on pelagic fish located more in the open water main lake basin. Rarely will NLMB feed on larger prey fish like stocked rainbow trout, where FLMB prefer the 8" to 10" size fish. FLMB loose this wariness at night and are just as aggressive striking lures in the dark as NLMB. There is a reason FLMB are not widely distributed and that is cold water tolerance; FLMB can not servive in water temperatures lower than 45 degrees. It may be true that far north NLMB will live longer then FLMB due to the short growing season where NLMB in lakes freeze over. The life span for both NLMB and FLMB in California is about 15 years for both strains of bass. What conditions allow a FLMB to grow to giant size is year around feeding opportunity and abundance of food during the first 2 years of their life, a FLMB can attain growth to 4 lbs in 2 years, NLMB max out about 2 lbs during the first 2 years. This spurt in growth gives the FLMB a big advantage and can feed on anything they want sooner than NLMB that can take 4 years to grow to 4 pounds and start feeding on a wider variety of prey. Good luck. Tom

Trying to learn to jig fish a with medium spinning tackle is difficult for several reasons, but can be done and you can catch some bass, the very aggressive bites. You will need to use 10 lb line. Cast and receive this jig like you would a Texas rigged worm. The only difference is you need to strike immediately. Because your rod isn't as strong as it should be to get a good hook set you need to whip set into a little slack line to drive the larger diameter wire hook into the basses mouth. You should also sharpen your jig hook. A fine flat 6" file and tough up the hook from the barb toward the point on 3 to 4 sides. The hook point should stick into your thumb nail or at least scratch it easily. Good luck. Tom

If it is that big, it's a bass bed. Look close at the bed and notice the tell tale light colored pebble, just off center about 3 o'clock, this is often in a bass bed and is usually what we call the sweet spot where the bass will not tolerate anything near that spot. Tom

Looks like a bed site to me, however can't tell from the discription the size? Remember we are not the only predator bass contend with, blue herons or osprey can easily grab a male bass off the bed site in water that shallow. Bass are only on a bed site until the eggs hatch, about 10 days on average, so it could be abandoned by now. Tom

What do know about bass seasonal periods? Have the bass spawned yet? Tom

The leading edge of a cold front is actually the back end of a low pressure area, the low has passed, the weather is clearing!So what are you asking about, how to fish an approaching low pressure front or a cold front which is the approaching high pressure system. The approaching low pressure is usually associated with cloudy weather falling barometer that creates lower light conditions that benefits bass fishing. The approaching high pressure or cold front is usually associated with high wind, bright clearing sunny conditions and raising barometer. I believe this is what you are asking about because cold fronts are generally tougher bass fishing conditions for most bass anglers. The reason is most bass angler fish shoreline shallower water zones that are affected more by the bright windy conditions. Under these conditions it's usually better to fish deeper water that isn't affect by the frontal conditions or fish deeper into cover where some bass tend to go under the brighter light windy conditions. Tom

Should be easy to see the bed sites in a lake with little cover, go sight fishing. Tom

As the old saying goes "give it an hour, it will change". Enjoy the time you have and adjust to the weather, you can't change it unless you move Tom

Since bass do not live in air, the air temperature has little to do with the water temperature at the depth the bass are living. The critical factor with water temperature is the content of dissolved oxygen (DO) the water contains during hot or cold seasonal periods. The water temperature bass prefer is 70 degrees and they will seek that temperature as the water warms by staying deeper. 85 degrees is about the upper limit for bass as DO levels fall below 3 mg/L and 39 degrees the lower limit as the DO rises above 12 mg/L Wind and green aquatic weeds increase DO levels during the day light and one reason bass will move under weed mats that provide cooler shaded water and with good DO levels. The bottom line is it can be too hot for bass anglers to be active, the bass can move to cooler water. Tom

On average after reaching 2 years old (12", 1 lb), female LMB with good food source can grow between 1" to 1 1/2" inch and 3/4 to 1 lb per year for about 6 years, then they either die or slow down growth rate. An old female would be 15 years and about 28" long. Northern LMB gain about 50% less weight then Florida strain LMB. Male bass tend to slow down growing at age 4 and top out about 4 lbs, 22" long. Giant bass are rare and attain exception growth rate the first 2 years (3-4 lb, 15"-16"), this allows the bass to feed on more and larger prey then other juvenile bass. Because these rare bass are larger they feed more and grow faster if the food source is high protein and abundant. Giant bass must have a great food supply early in life and a good food supply to sustain growth. Tom

I would look at the Okuma Guide special heavy 7'11" rod and Shimano Cardiff 400 reel combo for about $400 with a swimbait thrown in. This outfit works great for dual purpose bass swimbaits and musky lures to 5 oz.. For line 25 lb Big Game works good, unless you are worried about the toothy musky biting the lure off, then go with 65# super braid or a steel leader. The most productive musky lures that I used are the Marathon Musky Hawk inline spinner and the old Suick. For combo lures use a 8" Slammer wake bait or a 68 ROF 5 Huddleston. My PB musky was 37 lbs caught on a 1/4 oz hair jig, not your typical musky tackle, but the average musky where I was fishing ran around 15 to 20 bs with occasional 25-30 lbs class fish; lake of the Woods, Ontaeio Canada. Good luck! Tom

Wow, it's RageTail or go home on this site, taking support your sponsors to the extreme. Strike King doesn't developed a lures on there own, they notch off and mass produce someone else's designs and have for decades. Yamamoto's twin tail grub is as good as any soft plastic jig trailer and has caught a lot more bass than other Trailers in this category. Tinkering with different lures is a big part of bass fishing, use your imagination and don't get into the heard mentality. Tom

You are confusing a skirt tied full verses tied long. Mop jigs can be made with silicone or living rubber, usually frog hair living rubber verses larger diameter round living rubber used for puff jigs. Nothing breaths better than hair tied full. What triggers most bass strikes is convincing the bass the jig is alive and life like suttle movements, not big movements that can spook a bass. Picture this: the jig falling down through the water column, the skirt tends to tightened becoming more streamline, the trailer is doing most of the swimming movements. If the bass strikes on the fall, it's the trailer that attracted the strike. The next moment of truth is when the jig hits the bottom. The trailer stops moving, the skirt at this time should flare out and breath on it's own, the trailer should also slowly rise. This life like movement is when most big bass will strike before the creature can escape. Tom

How many bass anglers have ever caught either category, especially 5 bass limit that exceed 25 to 35 lbs! Whomever voted for catching a bunch of juvenile size bass over catching a 25+ lb 5 bass limit in a few hours, may never caught big bass! I can't recall how many times I have caught a lot bass, 10 per hour or more, but I can recall 35+ lb limits because they are rare and don't happen every year. Tom