WRB-2.0

When bass first move up onto flats near spawning areas in 1' to 6' of water they are catchable with nosy faster moving lures like a chatter bait or lipless crankbaits. Tom

Try soaking over night in warm water in a sink with 1/2 cup of baking soda. The tackle bag can then go into a warm water clothing washer cycle and air dry. The nylon Plano boxes will clean up after soaking with a little effort using a nylon scrub brush and warm water with Simple Green soap. rinse well with warm water. Dry with paper towels, do not put nylon boxes in a hot dishes washer. Tom

Yo-Zuri make 2 Hybrids, the original and super soft, the new line cost about 2X the original and is more manageable, less memory, then the original. Yo-Zuri is one of the line manufacturers that understates their line strength; labels 12 lb as 10 lb, when you compare line diameter verses pound test. This practice is becoming more the norm today, it gives the angler the feeling that the line is stronger and it should be, it's 0.002 or 2 lbs larger and stronger than line labeled accurately or what we were used to for the past 25 years. At the end of the day select line you have confidence with, that is the only measure that matters. Tom

Round wooden tooth picks were thie original method to peg weights, if it worked without any issues it would still be the method everyone used. There are reasons why rubber stops are used; they do not damage line and they can be removed. The reason I prefer the Peg-it style rubber "tooth pick" is no line damage, can be removes and I use the cut off piece to lock my soft plastics to the hook eye by sliding the peg through the hook eye, cut off about 1/8" on each side, then insert the hook eye onto the soft plastic nose. Can't do this with a bobber stop! Tom

Bass do age, grow old and suffer damage along the journey. The 1st small bass looks like a male with eye desae. The added torn lip bass could also occur from ripping themselves free from lures when the bass gets into cover etc. Tom

Top brass Peg-It II works good. Wooden tooth picks will flatten and weaken mono & FC line. Tom

Who's navy? Aircraft Carriers have been nuclear power for over 50 years, unless you are talking about the smaller flat tops. Jet exhaust is a mixture of unburned fuel and sulfuric or nitrous acid, that could be a health issue; serving in the military is dfeinately hazardous duty. Tom

Use the Internet and look up lead positioning; Mao Clinc etc. Continuous exposure to lead particulates (dust) or fumes from melting lead can be harmful to children and some adults. Don't worry about handling your lead fishing terminal tackle or unpainted lures like jigs. If it worries you, wash your hands. Tom

Making a long cast and retrieving a jig requires keeping in touch with a jig because big bass tend to spit out a jig quickly. T-rigged plastic worm, the weight isn't attached to the worm and hook and bass tend to bite and hold onto longer, giving you a little more time to react. When my line is closer to the boat, the line at steeper angle down in the water, then I use the rod more like a T-rig. Usually I don't retrieve a long cast jig all the way back to the boat, just through the zone I believe where the bass should be located or high percentage strike zones. Tom

+1Tom

I believe few anglers that have compared a Alabama spotted that are river bass sma eas smallmouth bass simply have never caught a heathly 3 lber to make a comparison. Kentucy spotted rarely grow to 3 lbs and don't fight like the Alabama spot, as KVD made reference to and he should know. Check out the New Melonies lake record spotted bass caught 2 weeks ago, beautiful bass. Anyone who thinks a big spot is fat and lazy doen't know how power the Alabama spot is. Like any bass the tackle needs to be appropriate to the size of fish fighting against it. A 5 oz swimbait stuffed down the throat of a big bass on 30 lb Xheavy 8' rod doesn't give the fish much of a chance to fight. I have caught a lot of 15+lbs LMB on 10 and 12 lb standard 4 power/ Med-hvy bass tackle that fought very hard and jumped completely a body length out of the water, the fight cover over a 50 yard stretch of water! Catching a ripe spawner's full of eggs or a post spawner half alive is far different then catching a healthy bass. Tom

Are the bass busting shad along the brushy shoreline areas or out away from the shoreline? Your lake has threadfin shad and the bass push the school into a tight ball and any shad profile lure works; Open water; 3/4 oz spoons like Kastmaster and Hopkins Shorty in chrome with white/chartreuse chicken feathered size 2 treble works very well, shad colored Splash-It surface popper fish fast, shad colored crankbaits, Jerkbaits, soft plastic Flukes, tail spinners like Little George and Sworming Hornets. In the brush a white weedless bronze Eye style frog. Swimbaits like 4" BBZ, Roboworm s Shad swimbait, Huddleston Deluze shad swimbait, Basstrix 5" shad paddle tail hollow body swimbait. Rocket Shad single spin spinner bait, any shad colored spinnerbait......most of your tackle box could work. Split shot reaper or a 1/8 oz dart head with a shad worm, take your pick. Tom

There was modern bass boats when Murph wrote this book, he was a trophy bass angler targeting the biggest bass in the lakes he fished. He designed anchors, how many bass anglers even have an anchor in their boats! My point is; take from this book what works for you, not his exact presentation techniques but his knowledge about bass habits and behavior. Tom

The reasons for the very thin Teflon tape are; no adhesive, very thin and weak, light weight and very smooth. The tape is only there to hold down the line on the spool so it doesn't spring loose during the cast as the spool speeds up and slows down. 50 yards is further than you can cast and more line you need when bass fishing. If for some reason more line needs to come off the spool while fishing the Teflon tape tears very easily and removes without any sticky adhesive. You do this during the learning to cast period or when trying out different types of line you are not used to casting, like braid for example or mono and FC, training wheels so you don't blow up the entire spool of line. Tom

When comparing the fighting ability of a bass you should use a measure to compare against like pound for pound. Also take into consideration the health of the bass, water temperature and current. Spotted bass come in two different species; northern or Kentucy spotted bass and southern or Alabama spotted bass. Smallmouth are one species, so it would be fair to compare Alabama spots that grow about the same size as smallmouth bass. A 3 lb smallmouth verses a 3 lb spotted bass in the same ecosystem and health would pull against your medium light tackle about the same, the smallie would jump higher and more often. Fighting power is nearly equal, acrobatics the smallie wins. Tom

To prevent the deep backlash from reoccurring; after you respooled the new line onto the bait casting reel, with the reel on the rod, line through the guides, tie the line to something and pull off about 50 yards of line. Next wrap tape evenly over the reel spooled line, make 2 wraps so the spooed line covered with tape*. After taping rewind the line back on the reel. This will prevent the line from loosening deep into the spooled line and help prevent backlashes. Tom * Teflon pipe tape works good.

Don't use any oily or greasy attractants on the hair. Deer hair will stick together just like human hair does when wet with oil or grease on it. In fact you should wash the hair jig in mild unscented soap in warm water and blow dry it before fishing with a hair jig. If you want to add scent use a scent impregnated finesse soft plastic worm section about 3/4" long on the jig hook under the hair to help flare the hair out, then nose hook the trailer. If you are flipping or pitching the jig into heavy cover, use a pre scented (not a scent you add) soft plastic trailer and run the plastic up the hook shank under the hair. You can use a crushed fresh garlic clove mixed in your jig trailers for scent without matting the hair. Remember real pork rind trailers are ideal for hair jigs. Tests your jig in the water next to the boat; the hair should flare out and move with slight jig movement, that is the appeal to bass, hair looks and feel alive to bass, but not of it looks like a oily greased mop. Tom

The definition of both lures has become blurred with the wide variety ans use of both. Jig is a hook with a heavy molded on to it and there are over a dozen popular shapes and styles. Most angler are thinking of the jig & pig; Arkie style heavy head with a crawdad type trailer. Texas rig; sliding bulled weight above a worm hook, the hook rigged into the from of a soft plastic worm or creature to be weedless. If the bullet weight doesn't slide and pegged to stay against the weight it's a Florida rig or a heavy pegged weight a punch rig. I fish T-rig when; the terrain has less slope or flatter with isolated brush or weed cover, this is worm water to me. Steeper rocky areas with simile cover is preferred jig & pig water. Both during the day light hours, at night there doesn't seem to be any different in regards to what the bass want where. Heavy shallow cover I prefer the puch type rigs. Tom

The view point to look at unconditioned bass verses conditioned bass makes the point. There are a lot of conditioned bass, every public lake sees a lot of fishing pressure. Not so many opportunities to fish for unconditioned bass that have never been caught before, unless you know someone with a private lake that doesn't get fishing pressure or a new lake stocked with bass and not fished for a decade. I have had several opportunities to fish virgin bass lakes and they bass populations are very aggressive and stupid easy to catch. DVL or Diamond Valley Lake in California was well stocked with several year classes of FLMB and the lake opening was postponed for 7 years . When DVL opened the bass fishing was beyond belief, 35 lb, 5 bass limits was the norm for about 6 mounts. C & R was encouraged and bass anglers released the bass they caught. After 6 months the bass became a lot harder to catch, now after 8 years the lake is like any other bass lake, good days and tough days with occasion big bass catches. The unconditioned bass became conditioned to lures. Tom

Go to a 3/16 oz bullet weight. If it's windy it is very difficult to learn to watch slack line. The deal is "controlled" slack line. Here is how I fish a Texas rigged worm; Don Iovino products Brass n Glass, go to his site. Don has a line of Top Brass weights custom painted, tempered glass faceted beads in a wide range of colors. Find Don a call and ask him what is working at Bartlett. Rigging; Weight first, bead second and hook is tied on. Brass weights will slide on the line with vert low resistance, the glass bead makes a clicking sound as the weight hits it, attracts bass. Cast out and watch the line, it will jump slack when ithe weight hits bottom. You can also watch the V the line cuts in the water and it will stop when the line hits bottom. Let the rig sit on the bottom for a few seconds. Lower your rod tip down towards the water pointed at the worm, reel the in the slack, then raise the rod until it is at 10 o'clock and stop and let the rig sink and stop and rest on the bottom again. A strike will feel will usually feel like a tick on the line....lower your tip down, reel up the slack and set the hook. Tom PS; read the pinned jig fishing on the top of this forum page.

Cruisers can be maddening because those females are not hunting food, they are late pre spawner's. Fortunately there are deeper pre spawner's around that are still on the chew, so go fishing out on the points near the bed sites and along the deeper break lines. Also fish the areas where you see cruisers very early morning and late afternoon, often the hungry pre spawner's are up and catchable. Stay with the traditional swimbaits in egg eater profiles like bluegill or crappie, wakebaits, crankbaits, big worms or Senko's, jigs and buzzers very early. Tom

Put tension on by lifting the rod to a 90 degree bend, no further, you don't want to damage your rods.1 pint of water (16 oz) weighs 1 pound, if you want to use dead weight, however a scale is easier. You will be surprised how much 3 to 4 pounds loads up your rod! Tom

Do you know what the hottest artifical lure ever made was? It's not a soft plastic of any kind, it was the Finlander lure known as the Floating Rapala. This lure hit our shores in the late 50's and caught every type fresh water sport fish across North America! The original came in one size (F11) and one color; 4 3/8"long and silver foil with a black back. The original floating Rapala didn't cast well with bait casting, but trolling was popular and mono line was just coming into it's own. The tight flashy natural swimming wiggle action mimic a live baitfish like no other lure before it. Amazing lure that bass will still strike today if you use it! It took about 15 years until the bass became conditioned to Rapalas and new sizes and colors were made to continue it's appeal....to anglers! Bass still like the original F11 because few have seen one today. I fish hair jigs with custom pork rind trails for the same reason, few of the bass where I fish ever see them, unless they see mine, and yes they still work as good today as they did 50 years ago. Knowledge isn't passed on through the genes, the ability to learn is. Don't confuse instinct with learned experience. You can't teach a non bird dog to hunt like a breed with with hunting instinct, they are hard wired to hunt and some are better then others. Tom

I use 6 lb FC on a bait casting 2 power rod to drop shot to 40' with a 1/4 oz sinker often. Spinning is faster, but I don't like to use braid with spinning and the line twist issues are more of a problem with spinning. Lighter weight 1/8 to 3/16 oz, 3" to 5" soft plastics, I go to spinning and deal with line the issues. Tom

I believe you have been given good advice. Looking at the photo of your reel spool it is over filled and the line coming off the spool is twisted and twist can cause loops. Line twists occurs because the spool is stationary and the line gets wrapped around it without being able to rotate. This happens when you spool the line and hold the line tightly between your finger tips. Twists also occurs if the line comes off the filler spool incorrectly. You can tell if line is coming off the filler wrong by watching the line; if it coils between the spool and rod tip, it is coming off incorrectly. When you over fill the spool the lines memory causes it to spring off the spool, line should not fall off on it's own when you open the bail! Running the line behind a boat moving slowly without anything tied on the end, allows the line to untwist, then winding the line back onto the reel without adding additional finger pressure, the line will respooled correctly. You need to do this periodically. Tom PS; TangleFree line conditioner is great at reducing line memory and provides lubrication.