WRB-2.0

It depends on the type of lake or river. Natural lakes don't have dams or creek channels to speak of. Rivers are a channel. The terrain and use of a made made impoundment determines what type of resevervior it is and that determines what I look for. Where I fish we have mostly highland water storage reservoirs that are very deep, clear water nd mostly rock structure. I will usually divide a reservoir into main lake and arms. The main lake I divide I to 3 parts; the lower 1/3rd where the dam is located, the middle 1/3rd and the upper end 1/3 rd. if the lake has long arms, I divide those where ever they divide into 2 arms. Depending on the seasonal period, I am looking for specific features that should hold both prey and bass. I rarely fish deeper than 40' so I don't waste a lot of time studing water deeper than that, other than to know how the deep water may attract prey or affect current. I also don't waste much time looking at topo maps with elevations less than 5' preference 1' or 2' elevations if available. Tom

Use your 7' medium outfit with the 10 lb for now. You can get a package of small black swivels and make up a finesse C-rig using the 6 lb line as a leader if the water is clear, Perris is usually a little off color this time of year and you are fishing in some brushy areas that tend to hide the line somewhat. The leader length with either slip shot or finesse slip shot should be about 24' long to start with and can be longer depending how you are able to cast...30" would be about max length. The Palomar knot works good with mono line. You want to skin hook the worm weedless similar a Texas rigged worm using the Owner 5133 down shot hook, this hook is extremely sharp and light weight. The presentation is casting as far as you feel like, let the weight hit bottom, the drag the weight about 2', then stop reel in the slack and repeat all the way back to shore. Try to make a fan casting pattern to cover as much as the water in front of you as possible. Bites are often a rubber band like slight pulling resistance called a pressure bite. This is because the worm is floating free behind the weight and you can't feel the worm only the weight. To hook set reel faster and make a hard rod sweep at the same time. Give Don Iovino a call 818/848.6180" tell Don where you are fishing and ask him what colors are working ar Perrris. Tom PS, the 1/2 oz weight is too heavy for both your spinning outfits, drop shot a 1/4 oz, slip shot a 1/8 or 3/16 mojo weight, both will go through rocks a lot better, less snags. Josh Upton makes good worms, his purple thunder should work at Perris, google Uptom's Customs, he is near Perris.

1. You didn't discrbe your outfit other than 6 lb line; what rod model and reel model and specific line, hook sie amd make? 2. Peris has a big bass population that is still in the late spawn cycle, so you should be able to see bass on beds! 3. Your tackle isn't suited for shore fishing in deep rocky structure areas with brush. If nothing else go up to 10 lb FC or a hybrid like FluroClear. 4. With your tackle being medium spinning? Suggest add the slip shot rig to your presentations; 3/16 oz mojo sliding weight, Carolina keeper for the weight stop, Owner #5133 size 1 or size 1/0 depending on worn diameter. The Roboworms are good, Iovino worms are also good and Uptom's Customs are very good. Stick with the basics; oxblood light red flake, cinnamon blue neon, MM11, Aaron's magic, in 6" curl and straight tails. Tom

Jeff nailed it, the stupid hungry bass pattern, we all are looking for one. Some lakes don't pattern, it's a spot lake or a scratch lake, 10 bass on 10 very different lures or conditions doesn't make a pattern, it's a good day on the water. Tom

My routine for getting on the water helps me to get things into perspective for the days outing If you are fishing from your own boat, take the time to determine a few things before putting the big engine in gear. Look around the boat dock or marina for bait fish and bass, both visual and using your sonar unit. What is the water temperature, how deep is the bait or bass in the marina area. This information helps to determine what seasonal period it is for the bass and where they may be located. We all get a little wired anticipating catching bass the first stop, the first cast, so I make a few around the marina to get a feel for casting and the lure I plan to start with. Caught a lot of good bass doing this! My go to lure is a jig or a swimbait, rarely start off with either unless I know what is happening on the lake from fishing it recently. I like to get the wiggles out by casting a crankbait, buzzer or spinner bait around tight shore cover early in the mourning, then get out my go to lures before leaving the area. I also always meter the area I just fished before running somewhere else to determine if there is fish there that didn't respond, so I can go back in an hour or so. Depth is very important when fishing slower, you should know how deep the bass are holding so you don't fish too shallow or too deep. This is another reason I slow down and use my sonar so often. Your goal is catching bass, not making a few hundred casts. Tom

Both those lakes are highland power generation reservoirs that have a lot of tournament pressure from every level of angler...few secret locations. The key with these lakes is having good knowledge how seasonal periods affect larger adult size bass location. Everyone knows about the spawn and where the bass spawning areas are, so pre spawn and post spawn bass location shouldn't be that difficult. However figuring the timing of those cycles for the larger bass is critical. The next factor to become very familiar with is what prey are the bass targeting during each seasonal period. We know threadfin shad are a major source of food, what other fish do these lakes offer bass seasonally?Threadfin shad hide in cover during poor light hours and move out into open water to feed on phytoplankton when the sun bring the plankton up near the surface, the bass follow. When these lakes start generating power, the bass move out near the outside weed and structure breaks, timing is critical. Both these lakes have heavy weed cover the bass use, structure breaks with weed cover during the summer and fall. Check out the winning lures/ presentations used by the Elites and FLW pros, it's available. Spawn/post spawn should be in progress, mostly in the area where the upper 1/3rd meets the middle 1/3rd, check those areas our with a buzzer early and watch for blow ups, then go back catch those bass with a slower soft plastic or jig presentation. Move out on the deeper breaks and try your crankbaits or A-rig. When the sun is over head, go sight fishing for the next few weeks. Tom

The anglers that are versitle are the ones who created and developed the lures or presentations everyone takes for granite. Before Dee Thomas introduced Flipping, no modern bass pro even knew what it was. Gary Yamamoto created the Senko from a Bic pen as the mold pattern and added heavy salt loaded soft plastic so the fat worm would sink on it's own, the shape wasn't designed to have a suttle wiggle that made this so successful. Drop shot came from Japan from a technique known as down shot or stacking, a salt water presentation the Japanese created for fresh water bass. Shaky head jig is a modified doodle presentation that Don Iovino created. Split shot came from Dick Trask, the tried and true night crawler rig used for soft plastic worms. Garry Garland created the bass tube lure, a larger version of his crappie tube that Booby Garland made famous. The A rig a salt water umbrella rig adapted to fresh is being creative. Being versitle is being creative, your own creation not someone's else's. every top pro has a secret lure/ presentation they hold close to the vest...it's money to them. Get out there and create tomorrows future basic lure or presentation by being more versatile. Most of the giant bass I caught are on a jig few have seen and fewer will fish jig horizontally. Tom

Jig has become a word to define a heavy cover jig with a brush style weed gaurd and that's is only 1 style with several head shape variations. Fishing a "jig" in heavy brush, off color water, you need heavy enough tackle ( rod and line) to control a large bass and to set the heavy wire hook these jigs have. Little reason to have a FC leader under those circumstances, unless it makes you more confident. The only time I use a heavy cover style jig is in heavy cover and isn't very often where I fish, unless it's night and bass are in tight cover. Heavy line for me is 14 lb FC, 10 lb FC is standard and I am fishing for giant bass in clear rocky deep structure lakes, with 1/2 pz jig, no fiber weed guard, 5/0 medium wire hook, 5 power rod. Tom

There isn't a lure made that will catchi bass if the bass are not where you are fishing or active. Location is everything and learning where to find active feeding bass is your key to success. By back seating you are hoping the other angler can locate bass for you and that is certainly a risk factor. What type of lakes do you fish and in what regional area, be more than happy to put you some fish locations so you can start catching some bass and gain confidence. Tom

It's human nature to want pictures to look good and that doesn't always happen. Bill Dance is famous for having the biggest s thumbs in bass fishing, not just because of his bloopers, it's the way he holds bass towards the camera to increase size perspective, Bill is an expert. Hands tell the story"; fingers average about 1" spacing when holding fish, basses heads are usually about 1/3 of the fishes length. Tom

The jack of all trades and the master of none applies to bass fishing. Knowing how to cast a lure doesn't mean you know how to catch bass with the lure. You can be very versitle like that Jack and not know how to catch a single fish. For example you are skilled at skipping jigs under docks, casting frogs under tress, walking the dog through a jungle of Lilly pads, flipping a punch rigs into a tea cup at 30' and not catch any bass because the fish are in 35' of water on main lake humps. Being versitle also means knowing where to fish and when to fish there with lures that work at that location. When I first started posting on bass fishing Forums, some anglers would mail me topo maps of the lakes they tournament fished and asked where would I fish on this lake and what would could they use to catch bigger bass at these lakes. Studing the lake map isn't rocket science, bass are bass and relate to specific structure elements seasonally and with that in mind it was fairly easy to mark up the map using color coded highlites to indicates areas that should work seasonally and suggest a few proven presentations that work under those circumstances. Most of the anglers that received these maps back committed they never fished those areas or specific presentations before and some would remarks the areas were well known, but the presentations were new to them. Some anglers did very well and others never responded back. The point being you can fish a lake you have never fished before and do OK, if you know where to start and when. Today more bass anglers know how to read water and fish more outside locations then they did just a few years ago. We all need to be more versitle with both presentations and electronics when fishing deep structured bass lakes. Tom

A few years ago I found Bob Scott's Easy View Tackle System for organizing my bagged soft plastics in my bass boat. Like everyone I also use a lot of plastic boxes and tackle bags, however when you need a soft plastic quickly, this system works for me. Tom

The term pond means different things to different people in different locations. In Texas for example a pond is called a tank. One persons pond is another's small lake! For the sake of argument lets define your pond as being a man made small lake about 20 acres, maybe 12' deep in the center and bowl shaped. No structure features visible, other than bottom contour. The shoreline zone is weed covered, the center being mostly open water. Where are the bass going to be located seasonally? Winter in the warmest water they can find, springs or deepest water. Spawn near the shoreline where ever they is sandy/gravel bottom without any mud or muck, about 1' to 5' deep. Big rocks or any wood is the wild card, plus a rock face dam, if it exists, and man made structure or cover like docks. The balance of the year "pond" bass tend to be shoreline oriented fish because that is where their food source is located. The pond is a fish eat fish ecosystem with whatever else falls into the water or lives in the water. Cold water; start deep and work shallow, warm water; start shallow and work deep. Night surface to about 8'. Use whatever you are good at fishing with. Big bass; use a wake bait, jig or soft plastic big worms. Bluegill profiles and color should work very good. Tom

A friend gave me a Fuego, said he couldn't cast it without back lashing every other cast. It was in perfect condition and I told my friend that I would check it out for him. He was right very difficult to cast, so I took the reel to a good technition and he took a quick look and told me the early serial numbers had defective break disk and the reels were recalled or repaired with a hit. He told me you can put a drop of superglue to hold the disk together and he did that for me. Tried to give the fixed reel back and told my friend what was wrong and he didn't want it back. I fished with this reel about a year and really like it, light weight, well balanced, the stock drag was replaced and haven't had any issues with it. My suggestion is offer less money with the explanation the reel needs to be upgraded with recall kit and the cost is about $50 plus postage. Fuego is a good light weight reel. Tom

You will never know what works best under specific circumstances unless you are exposed to a technique and give it a try. Fishing by myself most of the time robs me of learning from others on one hand, but allows me to perfect a skill on the ther hand. I learned a long time ago not to force feed bass anything, they have a mind of their own. I have however also learned location trumps presentations; the right lure in the wrong place doesn't work nearly as well as the wrong lure in the right location, the right lure in the right location at the right time is the answer to being a successful bass angler. You will never know without trying. When I fished tournaments and caught a good bag of bass, I would think I have this won, however someone or several others figures out a totally different presentations and locations and also catches a good bag of bass and your catch is just average. Sometimes you only catch a few and win the tournament because knowone else figured out anything and that is bass fishing. My late fishing partner would say " fish where they are and if you don't catch anything, then fish where they are not"! Sounds nuts but sometimes works, fishing nothing water instead of bass looking water. Some of my best kept secret spots are nothing looking water passed up by nearly everyone, sanctuaries for big bass waiting for me to find them. Being versitle is a mind set. Tom

Being an Oldschool jig fisherman I agree with Bo, feel the line and use a bait casting reel/rod and line strong enough to handle bass in the type of cover/structure you fish in. At the top of this forum page is a good thread on jig fishing, take a few minutes and read it. Don't be discourage with missing strikes, most anglers don't detect a high % of jig strikes and still catch some bass. The mistakes some jig anglers make are; wrong type of jig design for the presentation technique. Poor weed gaurd design. Dull hook points and wrong style and size of hook for the application. Bass bite the jig to kill it and spit it quickly if it doesn't feel right, you have very little time to detect this strike, unless the bass continues to eat the jig and that doesn't happen very often and you should catch that bass. Tom

Great topic, lets open this can of worms! Is being a versitle bass angler better than being a specialist? When I think of current top Elite pros that are versitle, good with lots of lures and presentations, Iconelli comes to mind. Versitle bass anglers are called junk fishing anglers today. When you think of the top Elite angler KVD name comes to mind, however I don't consider KVD as being as versitle bass angler as Ike. I tend to be a specialist and prefer to catch bass with jigs, swimbaits and plastic worms. Like most bass anglers I can use a wide variety of lures like top water spooks, poppers, chuggers, frogs and enjoy fishing with jerk baits, spinner baits, crankbaits, spoons, Senkos, finesse worms etc. I only go to being versitle when my first choices don't work out. The question then becomes which is more productive, being versitle or being a specialist? Tom

Slip shot rig (finesse C-rig) is a good choice from shore. Spinning tackle with 6-8 FC or mono line, Owner #5133 size 1 down shot hook, 1/8 oz mojo sliding weight with Carolina plastic keeper works good for finesse size Roboworms. Start with about 24" weight above the hook. Tom

Giant bass over 15 lbs are very rare and I have been blessed to fish where these special bass are located, during a time period when populations were at a peak period. This thread should be all about showing PB bass and not a contest, just enjoying and sharing these special bass. Tom

I don't consider a T-rig a light line rig and usually fishing worms from 6" to 16" with hook sizes 2/0 to 5/0, weight from 3/16 to 1/2 oz and always use a bait casting rod/ reel for this technique. I would say 8 lb for a 6" T-rig would be very light , normally use 10 to 14 lb FC depending on cover and depth, during the day time. At night I may go up to 17 lb premium mono. Smaller worms 4" to 6" with 6 to 8 lb FC I drop shot or slip shot rig and use spinning rod/reel. Tom

PB LMB; Lake Castaic CA 3 March 1993 about 9:30A Light rain, light wind, pre spawn. Hair jig w/pork trailer in about 17' on a secondary point. 28.5" long, 28" girth 19.3 lbs. * photo will email a photo, still don't know how to post it! tom18.tiff

My personal sonar units are Lawrance that date back to 2005, the year I bought my last bass boat. LCX-19C console unit and X510C bow unit. These pre date HD and for how I fish and where I fish the units are all I need. I can determine at what depth the thermocline is located, where bait fish are located and separate bass from both bottom structure and cover. To up date these units the cost is over $2,000 and I can get the state of the art at cost! Both side and down scanning would be great. If I was a tournament angler competing for a pay check, I would up grade my units....The only tournament I fish any more are charity night tournaments and state of the art sonar isn't needed for fishing nights or during the day for fun fishing. Color separates targets form cover or structure and is easier to see and clarity is important. Tom

It depends on how you fish, mostly a casting distance away from shore or several hundred yards off shore. My advice is buy the best units you can afford. The larger screen size should be on your console, not a built in small unit. GPS or chart plotting is needed when you are fishing off shore or pin pointing isolate structure or cover elements anywhere. A smaller size unit can be utilized in the bow to help with boat control and keeping on areas you discovered using your larger console unit, both units can be net worked. Whatever you do, consider color units, well worth the extra cost. Technology changes quickly with marine electronics, with your limited budget last years state of the art models can often be found at a sale discount. The first thing is deciding what you need. Tom

The Spro hair jig is only made in 1/2 & 1 oz, different from the typical striped bass buck tail that are tied on galvanized heavy salt water hooks, red tie thread and longer white buck tail. If your question is regarding hair jigs in general, that is another topic altogether. I believe Northstar offers a LMB style hair jig that would be worth trying, proper design for fresh water bass. Most hair jig anglers today make their own due to the fact that hair jigs are not very popular amount the majority of bass anglers. The football head jig makes a good deign for hair jigs The term jig & pig comes from the hair jig and pork rind trailer era, a combination hard to beat for big bass everywhere. Today's bass angler do not like to mess around with pork trailers and the plain dull looking deer hair doesn't sell well sitting next to colorful silicone skirted jigs. Hair jigs are my go to lure year around for 1 reason, they have caught more big bass per hour fishing than any other lure, including swimbaits......for me. Tom

The Spro buck tail is a modern version of a banana head hair jig that has been around in northern states and Canada for over 50 years and used mostly for walleyes with a minnow pinned on. Smallmouth love this type of hair jig, however will catch largemouth! The Spro Phat Fly is designed to be fished very slow or under a bobber as a float n fly presentation. Very light weight jig so use 4 to 6 lb FC or mono and fish it like a dart head. The Phat Fly is artifical hair and fished without a trailer, the larger buck tail is deer hair and can be fished with a 3" curl tail end finesse worm for a trailer. Tom