WRB-2.0

You get way off topic when discussing targeting mid lake suspended bass using the deep water as a sanctuary zone verses bass being conditioned to ignor lures by bass anglers who normally fish within a casting distance from shore. The big bass have always moved off shore and that should not be a mystery or new discovery. Before the modern electric trolling motor bass boat, bass anglers trolled a lot and Buck Perry created a presentation technique of trolling at controlled depths to exploit the suspended off shore bass populations. The A-rig or umbrella or spreader rigs all started life off shore in salt water fishing to target suspended pelagic fish like tuna on the west coast and striped bass on the east coast and these rigs date back into the '50,s or earlier. Umbrella rigs with big swimbaits were secretly trolling in SoCal trophy bass lakes in the mid 80's. Pickwicks WR SMB was caught trolling and my guess is today's bass anglers are trolling the A-rig to cover a lot of open water areas where big bass tend to locate. These bass haven't seen any lures very often, unless they move into or closer to shore. The other possibility is Florida strain LMB have been introduced into Pickwick. The A-rig will loose it's appeal as the bass get conditioned to it. Tom

Sure! When you have a group or school of active bass feeding in the same area it's common to caught several bass of nearly the same size from within a small areas. One time in May of '91 I was fishing with a friend in his boat and we were running about 70 mph down the lake and I noticed 3 blues herons on a point standing in the water on the shore line, this was very unusual, heron are solitary birds. I tapped Danna on te shoulder and motioned to slow down, he did. We circles back and dropped the trolling motor about 150 yards away, got out a swimbait, made a cast and immediately hooked a DD bass about 12 lbs. That bite was historic and caught 18 DD bass off that point within 1 hour and all the bass were 10 to 12 lbs clones, a school of big bass feeding on trout. The blue herons were there to pick off the trout the bass pushed up near the bank. This was a wolf pack in the glory days of big bass populations. Never leave bass that are biting just because you caught one! Tom

I know some folks who are absolutely against labels of any kind and take them off everything; cars, clothing etc. What we are talking about having your boat wrapped with sponsor labels and you are not a sponsored angler is an extreme. Having decals on your tow vehicle and boat like Loomis, Ranger boats, Lowrance etc and you are not sponsored by these companies and only associate with the products because you are a bass angler, very common with anglers. I went thorough this phase with clothing having patches on nearly every square inch until I realized how foolish it was. Today I wear plain sunscreen cloths with no big logos except the small tags inside the collars, the smaller the better! Here is where the rubber meets the road; I have every ball of the products I use in the rod locker for 2 reasons; spare cap if I need it while fishing and for photos should I catch a world record bass to have a picture taken I with each hat for no other reason to promote the products for $$$ if the opportunity ever happens.....we all have our price! Tom

It becomes a combination of learning what feels right by setting the drag with a known force. Most fresh water bass rods that are labeled medium heavy or 3 to 4 power may break with more than 6 pounds of force applied to them when bend 180 degrees, a full arch. Rods rated heavy or 5 to 6 power are a little stronger and may break at 8 pounds of force. It's good to know what 3 to 4 pounds of pulling force feels like by using a scale and this usually takes 2 people, one holding the scale and reading it, then other pullin with the rod bent and setting the drag. Ounce the drag tension is set, then pull line off the reel by hand and feel what the force is like when set with a scale. You should also do this before every trip to check out the drag for smoothness, no jerky drag. When you re done fishing for the day, back off the drag setting to prevent it from taking a set. Tom

Today it's the more about the me culture of what can I get for nothing without earning it and this tells you a lot of a person. Integrity is all about having good ethics. There is an saying "we are all whores", just need to determine the price we sellout for. Don't sell out. Why people choose to wear labels to advertise for free may have more to do with recognition that they belong to a certain group, then free advertisement. However at the end of the day you are a free sign board keeping the product out in front of the public. Tom

Round bodied worms yes, flat bodied creatures no. You can skin hook the side of a worm that is over 3/8" diameter, can't do that with thick wide bodied creature baits. You can make a slot for the hook like Flukes have molded into them with a fillet knife and that helps to prevent plastic from filling the hook gap.Bass are creatures of habit and in ponds have a predictable routine so you should be able to put a lure in front of the fish again. Like Matt mentioned make a small change like different tail type and highlites coloration. Bass will drop a jig in a heart beat, but a mouth full of soft plastic they tend to hold in their mouth longer, depending on how active they are. With big worms timing the strike is like timing a top water lure, give it a second more time, unless it's a bed fish. Good hunting, this is what big bass fishing is all about; locating them, then catching them and it becomes a passion. Tom

Like I said in the 1st post; sometimes the bass win!Missing hooks set is missing opportunity. I am not a fan of off set wide gap hooks for 2 reasons; the wide gap hook bend can be flatten between the basses lips easily due to the shape of the hook gap bend and the hook eye is more in line with the hook point. The combination when you make a longer cast is the hook misses the inside mouth tissue a higher percentage of the time on larger size bass. The bigger bass have powerful mouths that bite down hard to kill prey. The. Lips are about 1/2 wide and hard catledge that hooks don't penetrate esily, is better for the hook point to contact tissue inside the mouth and straight shank sprout bend or round bend hooks like Owner 5103 size 4/0 will improve hook sets percentage verses off set hooks like Owner 5140 comparing the same brand. I often fish days ( 15 hours on the water on average) trying to get big bass strikes and missed strikes are costly in time and effort. Sharp high quality hooks, good knots, fresh line, good drags and close attention to details help to prevent missed hook sets and help putting these big bass in the boat. Tom

Technically LMB.live about 12 to 15 years under ideal conditions and they are most aggressive as young adults between 2 to 3 years old and those are the bass most anglers catch. The more aggressive the bass is the more likely it will not survive more than 4 years in waterways with high fishing pressure. The bass that are genetically wired to be very wary and avoid predators live far longer and these are the bass that grow larger and older. In time the aggressive strain of bass get removed form the ecosystem, fewer find each other to spawn and the population tends to become the less aggressive gene pool and harder to catch on artificial lures. Year classes have there cycles and tend to peak and bottom out about every 10 years do to lots of factors. Bass are sight feeders and see your lure in great detail, even moving at high speed because they see movement in slow motion like we see an instant sports replay. They learn to avoid lures they were caught with, if they don't they will not survive very long. A change of color or size is often enough to get a response from the less wary bass. However you need to be more diligent to fool the older wiser bass most of the time. To catch the larger bass you need approach them from a different angle quietly with lures that appeal them, not lures that appeal to you. Tom

The bass that learn from their mistakes grow old, the bass that don't.....don't! Tom

You don't use your reel when flipping! You do use a reel when pitching.The difference between a 7.1 and. 6.3 is about 4" line with each reel handle turn, which means you can retrieve 30' of line about in 10 turns of the reel handle instead of 12 turns and you think that helps how? Slow down and saturate your target area and catch the bass are holding tight to cover, they are not going to chase down your lure. Tom

There is a lot to be learned from big bass lost. Ask yourself what you did wrong, there is always a reason and sometimes it comes down to the bass won that round. There isn't a lot places for a big bass to go in a pond size environment. What other predators are in that pond? The one that got away is goring to be bigger than those you land and some of those bass, if you get a good look at them, will haunt you for a long time, it's part of our sport's lore. With soft plastics there will be evidence how the bass had the worm or creature in it's mouth and how the soft plastic came back on the hook is important. Always check for teeth marks, yes bass have teeth that rough up the soft plastic. Was the soft plastic covering the hook point or bunched into the hook gap and covering the point. Can't get a hook set with hook point covered. It's very difficult to judge the size of the bass or whatever grabbed the soft plastic without getting a good look at the fish. Does this pond have any big snapping turtles, gar or catfish for example. After the hook set? How about getting a good hook set! Go back and catch that bass! Tom

When you use the O-ring rigging the hook is inline with the Senko body. The Wacky Saddle rig (Tackle Warehouse- under terminal tacklr search) keeps the hook sideways to the Senko body and that improves hook to strike ratio tremendously. In cold water the bass may not be all that active, wait longer. If you wait too long the bass will eat and start to sallow or will sallow the Senko more often then they drop it. Circle style wide gap finesse style ( kahle) hooks help to,prevent gut hooking, the opposite problem you now have. Also a good attractant can help in this situation, the bass tend to hold it longer. The good thing is you are in bass and getting bites, just need to time the hook set better. Tom

It really depends on the body of water how wind affects it. If it's safe to launch and retrieve your boat, that is one consideration. If you fish wind blown open water areas, that is another consideration. If the lake has white caps on waves, the wind blown waves are 2' or higher, it's time to find shelter. Tom

Black bouy markers are available. Attaching a glow stick for night fishing is also helpful. If it's not too windy I relay on my GPS during the day, when windy I toss 1 marker off to the side of the structure element to keep oriented without looking down at the sonar unit. The most markers that I have ever used is 2, 1 on each end of the structure, then follow my sonar unit signals to fish. Tom

I don't believe your problem is related to your rig or hook, the bass could be spawner's and not trying to eat your Senko. If the bass wanted eat it you would hook a few by simply waiting longer befor hook setting. The Wacky Saddle is the best type of wacky rig that I have seen to date. Tom

You really need to separate the ponds from the lakes, different ecosystems and the bass behave somewhat differently in each. The core water temperature impacts the bass greatly as the water warms from the cold period approaching pre spawn and spawn.Bass in ponds tend to be shoreline oriented and cruise their domain on a regular routine, so they hunt the shallows and will begin the seek bed sights when the water warms about 60 degrees and spawn as it gets 62 and warmer to 65 in about 2' to 4' of water. Bass in lakes react differently and tend to stay off the banks in deeper water as it begins to warm, they don't cruise the banks until it's very close to the spawn very often. Ounce the bass are up in shallow water they are focused more on spawning more then hunting prey. It's not spring for bass until the water warms above 60 degree. These bass are in pre spawn about now where you fish and the bass are hunting for prey, so anytime is a good time to fish including night. Ponds the bass are located within 20' of the bank most of the time, including nights. You need to offer lures the bass can locate easy at night; noisy large lures that push a lot of water and larger soft plastics. Lake bass are usually out on the first break line and will move up to hunt at night and the same lures should work, just fish a wider area. Remember to stop and pause the lure longer as the water warms and you see bed sights. You can't see bass at night so anticipate a bass near a bed is guarding it. Tom

Do you fish from a boat or from shore?What type of tackle do you plan to use? Tom

When you read through this thread there is some constructive replays and some that are not related to the question or topic and a few off the wall, typical of forums responses. This angler isn't exactly a beginning angler, however his tackle limits how he can fish a jig, we have all been there at some point in time. For example pitching a jig is simply a short accurate cast that limits how much water anyone cover from shore. Flipping requires specialize long heavy action rod, no reel is needed unless you fish a tournament, the 2 presentations are very different, but often used out of context. Jimmy has light tackle to fish his jigs with, the presentations must match his tackle and method of fishing. I fully agree that light braid would be a good choice, if his rod and reel is made for braid, we do not know that from the information given. Braid could destroy his rod guides and reel bale roller for example. Lifting a 2 lbs bass out of the water with a medium spinning rod could break the rod, there are limitations to what can be accomplished, when that becomes apparent, new tackle usually resolves that problem. After a few years we all end up with more tackle than we use and keep looking for more....that's bass fishing. Tom

Fishing jigs from shore in cover (weeds) with spinning tackle isn't easy for a few reasons; you must retrieve the jig up hill or from deeper water towards shallow water and jigs tend to snag easily worked up hill. The other problem is trying to work the jig through weeds without a boat is difficult using a traditional Arkie head style jig with a weed gaurd. You will have more success using a grass style jig with a head that is shaped like a bullet or use a pegged bullet weight and Teaxs rig a soft plastic craw type trailer, this works very good is weeds. Good luck. Tom

I fish giant worms often and you don't need a over size hook! The Delong has a fairly large diameter head and the plastic tends to be tough, not my go to worms. The trick is using a straight shank worm hook like Owner 5103, size 4/0 for DeLong, and rigging the hook similar to a T-rig; the point goes into the head up to the barb, then rotates out towards the belly same as a standard T-rig. Instead of running the point back through the center of the worm body diameter, run through one side so you don't have much plastic in the hook bend, then skin hook the point to cover it. The worm should hang straight. Big bass will strike a big worm by the front end , don't be too much of a hurry to set the hook, unlike smaller worms. Let the bass move a foot or so before reeling up the slack line, point the rod tip at the bass and sweep the rod back firmly. I usually use a 3/16 to 1/4 oz bullet weight the same color as the worm and peg a 7mm tempered glass bead about 8" above the worm to keep the weight above the worm or don't peg the bead. Either way the weight will slide up the line as the worm falls through the water column slowly and swims with a natural movements. Big worms takes lots of patients to fish. Good luck Tom PS; check out Uptom's Customs worms, softer nod great colors to choose from.

Saint Croix list their rod weight, most other rod makers don't. This makes it difficult to obtain accurate rod weight data. From my experience I would estimate a 6'6" medium/ fast light weight bass rod to be 4 oz +/- 1/4 oz. Important factors to consider are; the customer service and warranty the rod maker offers, how the rod balance with the reel and the lure weights. Rod makers that make good quality rods in your price range are; ALX, Dobyn's, Daiwa, Lamiglas, Shinmano, Saint Croix that I am familiar with. Take a look at their sites and then try to pick up and touch and feel these rods with a reel on them. The reel is going to be importnat and reels weights vary greatly! Also weigh your current rod so you have a baseline. Tom

You pay for less weight. What is your budget limits? Tom

Jimmy your tackle is OK, didn't mention the # test of the mono? Any jig is only as good as the hook it has, must be extremely sharp all the time. I have caught a few hundred DD bass using 10 to 12 lbs mono over the past several decades, mono line isn't going to be your problem learning to fish a jig. With the tackle you have use 1/4 and 3/8 oz jigs, the lighter weight helps to keep you from snagging as often. Can you tell use the name brand of your jig and what type it is? Also what type of water are you fishing; a lake, with rocky, brushy or lots of weeds? Jigs are effective if you fish them in the right areas, at the right depth where bass are located. Regardless of what has been posted, jigs are not easy to learn to fish and you will missed most of the strikes until your figure out what a strike feels like. Also what knot do you tie the jig on with? Tom

Good link, thanks!Agree Franco and Long, that is how I do it. If you roll the bass over on it's back, belly up, they settle down fast and it's a lot easier to remove hooks. The head collar grip forces open the month and easy to remove hooks on small bass and toothy fish. Tom

Water temperature at the surface where you measure it is not the water temperature where the bass are located...bass don't live on the surface! Pre spawn everywhere following the winter cold water period is 55 to 60 degrees +/-2 ....at the depth bass are holding in. Holding is the depth they suspend at while resting. The spawn generally starts when the weather stabilizes and the protected areas is about 62 to 65 degrees between 2' to 8'. Smallmouth and spotted bass about 2 degrees colder. There are several waves of spawner's and some females spawn several times within a few weeks time. The late spawn normally ends at 67 degrees due to infestation of bluegill and sunfish raiding the nest sites. Tom