WRB-2.0

The majority of my rods are custom made using Lamiglas XMG 50 series blanks. Lamiglas stopped making the XMG 50 series about 3 years ago, at that time it was the state of the art. Lamiglas may be reintroducing this blank under the Infinity name, not sure at this time. The NRX was introduced about 2 years ago at $475 as I recall and very similar to the Lamiglas XMG 50 series blank. I wanted to add 3 more rods 2 years ago and seriously considered the NRX rods, fished with the 844 and loved the rod. I didn't go with the NRX for one reason; $100 return policy. Looked around and discovered a custom rod builder that used Lamiglas rod blanks and knew of a blank very similar to both XMG50 and NRX; scrimless, light weight and strong. The rod builder was also the Kagin guide distributor that Dobyn's use. The rod builder offered a lifetime warranty, 30 day free trail with satisfaction garrantee, so I ordered 3 rods; 2 at 5 power for jigs and 1 at 4 power for worms. To my surprise the rods are more than expected, same weight (3.8-4 oz) as NRX and exceptional quality, under $250 each delivered. The rod maker is ALX, contact Alex or contact the sites rod builder Delaware Tackle for his custom rods. When you get into rods over $200 there isn't any reason to go with off the self rods, unless you need to touch and feel before buying and I recommend each angler to pick up and check out a rod before buying, if they are not sure what the rod feels like. Tom

Very light weather system moving through from the Pacific across Arizona shouldn't be an issue, unless the area you fish is subject to flash flooding. Rain water doesn't harm your tackle. The cloud cover usually makes the bass more actives. Stay dry and good luck. Tom

You are right; I will give you the Hickory shad, the herrings are a stretch. We have American shad that are similar to Hickory in some rivers and they are big enough to be considered sport fish by fly fisherman, too big to be bass bait and not found in lakes. You have the Great Lakes and Altlantic ocean and I did think of Alewifes!Shad to me are Threadfin, bass size prey fish, Gizzard shad are bass prey when juvenile size. Tom

Shad are not located in NY, why paint your lures a color of bait fish the bass are not eating? Baby bass are everywhere so do your best to create a baby bass lure, both smallmouth and largemouth. Alewife and white perch also come to mind. Slender body lures don't make good sunfish or bluegill replicas. Tom

A quick look and I would say this is the XMG 50 series rods being reintroduced as Infinity. IF this is true the Infinity /XMG is a wonderful rod. Keep in mind a 5 power in this rod blank is close to Xheavy or 6 power for most other rods. Tom

There is a good article in the March 2013 BASS Times; Cast a mile like KVD that is worth reading. Longer rods between 7'6" to 7'11" designed to cast lures between 3/4 to 1 oz with flexible tips, line between 10 to 12 lbs, clean reels with larger spool diameter filled with line and clean reels with good bearing. Learning to load the rod fully with your casting motion is critical to casts over 40 yards. The article goes into how to adjust your reel properly and use your thumb to feather the line coming off the reel. Tom

Both octopus and squid hooks have been around over a century , along with circle style hooks in kahle designs. West coast live crawdad anglers have been using the down-drop-stack rigs since the 60's and salt water anglers far longer. The Japanese popularized fresh water down shot rigs and western tournament anglers adopted it back in the early 80's. if there is a guru in tournament bass anglers it would be Aaron Martens, who learned how to fish this rig out west as a teenager. Owners mosquito hook is a octopus hook, Gamakatsu drop shot hook is a octopus hook, both high strength light wire hooks. Circle point style hooks prevent gut hooking, but you need to give some slack line so the fish can get the worm completely inside the mouth before making a sweeping or lift and reel hook set....do not snap set a circle hook. Tom

There is a big difference between fishing off shore and fishing deep water. There are deep water areas next to the bank in most lakes within a casting distance. When you move further away from the bank you start to lose the ability of knowing exactly where you are relative to underwater structure elements. This is when a sonar / GPS unit becomes important tool; you know where you are and can return to that spot via way points. Without GPS you can use triangulation by lining up shore objects; the power line pole, the green house with the white window frame and the yellow boat dock for example. Buoys with weighted line attached are handy to toss over to mark a spot; use 2 buoys on each end of an underwater hump or submerged island for example. The drop shot rig and a jig are 2 good deep water techniques to use in deep water off shore or near shore. Lots of choices as I mentioned in my 1st post on this thread. So far no response, so can't help beyond general comments. Tom

When you step back and look at your lake, what do you see? Do you look only at the shoreline out to a casting distance or do you see the entire lake, the surrounding terrain? Is your lake a natural lake or a man made impoundment? How long and wide is this lake? Does the lake freeze in the winter? Do you a sonar unit? What other fish are in your lake? Today most lakes can be looked at from a over head view point and with topographical elevation maps that help to solve what the underwater areas may look like, where weed beds, docks, depth changes are located. Deep water is a relative statement, bass do not have limitations to water depth as long as the water has enough dissolved oxygen to support them and a food supply is available. There isn't any reason for bass to be in deep water unless the water is comfortable temperature, offers sanctuary, food and has good DO levels. Bass locate in deeper during the winter to find warmer water and food, move towards shallower water as the water warms , then move into wind protected shallow water to spawn, move around the lake to locate good food sources and comfortable water temps, then follow their food source as the water cools in the fall. Lures depend on what prey the bass are targeting, what depth, type of cover and structure the lake offers. Bottom contact lures like soft plastics , jig, structure spoons, diving lures swimbaits and spoons all work. Tom

The basic bass behavior is simple; eat and rest. Every bass angler knows bass must eat to survive, most believe all they need to do to catch bass is put the right lure in front of the bass and it will strike it, not true. Bass must eat to survive and must rest in a safe place to survive, most anglers do not consider this fact. Both eat and rest are biological factors to consider. Feeding bass are active bass, resting bass are inactive bass, both biological factors that directly affect how each and every bass angler needs to consider if they want to be successful consistantly. Bass do not move very far to find food to eat, find the food source, the bass will be close. Find the resting (suspended) bass and those bass will become active feeders sometime during the day or night. Focus you time locating bait and bass, then determine where those bass will start to feed on the prey. Most of us need time on the water at a specific lake to figure where active bass will be located and what those bass are feeding on. When we figure it out there may be a pattern or several patterns to active bass locations. Some biological factors are; water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, depth of light, prey type, bass age and spawning activity. Some environmental factors are; weather conditions, wind, rain, lightning, air temperature, aquatic weed growth, tidal flow or current. Some man made factors; boat traffic, angler fishing pressure, construction, water contact sports etc. All the above can affect how and when bass become more active feeding or inactive and resting. Tournament anglers who can make the right decision on the water during the time period they have to catch bass are successful, the others are not. Recreational anglers are not handicapped with time restrictions and can choose when and where to fish. Both groups of anglers need to figure out what the bass are doing and where they located to put together a successful pattern or what spot to focus their efforts on; abundant food close to the bass. Tom

If your state requires a biologist to examine the fish to determine if it was caught legally, is the species claimed and weight including measurements, then keep the fish alive or on ice, depending on your personal beliefs. Otherwise the catch isn't certified and only rumors will surround the catch. California has a long list of both state and world record bass being released before being certified. Mac Weakleys Dottie 25.1 lb bass tops the list. I don't know anyone who has released a uncertified potential record bass that is happy about it in the long term. Releasing a healthy giant bass that falls short of record size makes sense, releasing a valid record bass before it can be validated doen't make good sense. Tom

California the NRX and new 2013 model GLX price is $525 and $425, my local tackle shop who keeps between 25 to 30 in stock is my source.Tom

Swimbaits are not a good search lure and pounding shoreline areas in hope of finding swimbait fish is a low % technique. The water you fish the bass are in pre spawn, so target pre spawn areas. Clear lake and the Delta are not trout waterways. Clear lakes hitch population is way down and hitch locate near stream inlets, so use hitch type swimmers In 6" to 7" sizes. The delta has herring, stripers, carp, small bass, bluegill, green perch, etc. I would keep to carp, baby striped bass or baby bass color schemes and 6" to 8" swimmers on the delta. Bump the bottom occasionally, tidal times are critical on the delta. The strike to solid hook sets is a concern. Your tackle or hook set technique may be the problem. The fact you get good numbers of strikes is good. My problem in hook sets was setting too quickly, it's similar to a top water lure; let the bass turn before setting. Tom

They already did as far as I am concerned. A friend has 9 NRX's and can't afford 1, lots of folks are brand and model fanatics and as long as they keep paying the price will keep going up!Tom

March. Retailers expect the next shipments to arrive with $50-$75 price increases for both NRX and GLX.Tom

You are not asking about swimbaits, you are fishing the A-rig with swimbaits. The A-rig is best when used to target suspended bass feeding on baitfish. A-rigs work well with smaller size swimmers 3" to 5" that look have colors like the baitfish that school. The trend is more attractors are working better than 3 swimmers only. The CA state law allows only 3 lures with hooks, no limitation on attractors. Some rigs have up to 7 wires, some wires with blades midway between the lure attachment, more flash the better. The jig heads used on A-rig swimmers are light weight with over size hooks, not your standard dart heads. Clear lake is a good A-rig lake, the Delta is better using larger size single swimbaits like that move a lot of water due to the off color water in most areas. Tom

P-line FluoroClear and YoZuri are both hybrids; mono with Fluorocarbon outer jacket. Copolymers are a blend of 2 polymers; P-Line CCX is a copolymer line. The advantage of FuoroClear is better knot strength and less memory than 100% FC line, with some of the same light refraction quality....good line choice, but not a small diameter line for it's pound test. Tom

Sometimes you can lead a horse to water, it's hard to get them to drink. Good luck. Tom

In the first place I wouldn't be pounding the bank, about the only time I do that is when the majority of adult size bass are up next to shore; dusk, dawn and at night and during the spawning cycles.Alewifes are pelagic fish so I would spend a lot of time fishing deeper structure 10' to 30' with jigs, worms, swimbaits and spoons. Need to check out the color of the Smith Mountain alewife, blue/green/gold, similar to hitch? I would add longer thin body baits like a Scrounger jig with a soft plastic trailer in alewife color scheme, like to fish 3/4 oz Scrounger with 6" Sluggo for a trailer, jigs and structure spoons on deeper structure. Tom

Check the label or research the line diameter, not advertised pound test. The depth a lure can dive is dependant more on how far you cast, it takes about 10 yards for most deep divers reach diving depth, then the rod angle is trying to left the the lure towards to surcease as you retrieve it. If you cast 30 yards, 90', that leaves about 10 yards at depth, then 10 yards moving upward. The difference between. FC line and mono of equal diameter in lure diving depth at the 30 yard distance is minimal, maybe a few inches. If you can cast mono further than FC without nay backlashes, then mono is a better choice than FC line. I use easy casting 10 and 12 Trilene big game or deep diving crank baits and buy it in 1/4 lb spools. This line casts great all day long without any issues casting 40+ yards, long accurate cats are important fishing clear deep structured lakes, it gives the lure more time at depth. I also respooled after a few days of cranks and the line is reasonable priced. Tom

The NRX blanks, without guides, reel seats and handle materials is extremely light weight for the length and power rating, about 1/2 the new GLX rod blank. Loomis is very conservative in rod design, uses premium cork, moderate weight reel seats, foregrip and guides, the result is heavier finished rods then competitor rods with minimum handle materials, lightest weight reel seats and guides with single foot wrapped for all the guides. Heavier rod blank with lighter hardware and no foregrip. The bottom line is how the rod feels with a reel mounted, the balance is critical and Loomis top end rods are the standard that everyone else tries to live up to. The new GLX are $425, the NRX are $525, both are going to have prices increase very soon. Why not publish the rod weights? This PM BS is unreal. If you know the weight, post it! Tom

So this tells me you target mostly water depths between the surface and 10', that restricts you to the bank, from shore or a boat. This also restricts you to targeting active feeding bass with the reaction baits and neutral or active bass in heavier cover when pitching larger soft plastics.Your question was about colors; shad that are pelagic during bright sunlight periods use the shore brush to hide in at night, leaving in the morning and return at dusk. Bluegill are always near the shoreline, crappie when spawning, baby bass and other young of the year fish during the summer, crawdads, frogs, worms, etc. If you add planted trout, blue back herring, threadfin shad during daytime and look outside in main lake or major creek arms the color selection broadens. Everyone on this lake more than likely fishes with green pumpkin red flake soft plastics and pearl white with light blue and chartreuse spinner baits and crank baits. Since the shoreline bass have seen these lures all the life your odds of catching them on the same thing everyone else is using is lowered. Instead of green pumpkin soft plastic try purple as the base color with green and red flakes. Reaction lures you still need pearl white but as a highlight color or belly color with light green, blue and chartreuse in the mix. Crankbaits red and browns should work. Because the shad hide in brush dawn and dusk I would also use a pearl white weedless frog to fish in the brush. Everyone else uses frog colored frogs and the bass in this lake are looking for shad, not frogs! So you now have bluegill colors, crawdad colors and shad colors that work well in shallower water. If you decide to try swimbaits, then choose colors close to rainbow trout, blueback herring and shad. Good luck. Tom

Where I do 90% of my bass fishing there isn't much cover for bass to get into, a few trees and some brush. My tackle is geared to effectively present the lures I am fishing from 5 to 6 lb FC for small finesse presentations to 25 lb mono for heavy swimbaits and rods to match the line. The only time I fish with braid is flipping or pitching very heavy cover to control the bass so it doesn't wrap the line around everything down there. I have caught the majority of my giant bass on 10 to 14 lb mono or FC line with 4 and 5 power rods. A few DD bass on 6 and 8 lb spinning tackle. It's foolish to use too light of tackle in heavy cover. Tom

Jig and worm fishing with bait casting I ALWAYS run the line coming out of the reel under the tip of my thumb and over the tip of my index finger and watch the line like a hawk. Everyone that said no must never fish at night or they are missing about 75% of the jig strikes. Since I almost always fish in my own boat, the only time anyone gets in the front is when I ask them to take over the trolling motor while I am looking for something or re rigging. If I am teaching someone a specific presentation I let them up front so I can watch them closely or point out fish. Tournament anglers that bed fish often are both up front looking for fish and double teaming bed fish. Tom

Lets get the emotional and promotional factors out the question. Monofilament made from Nylon generally referred to as mono is a hygroscopic polymer, meaning it absorbs water and is subject to UV and temperature degradation. Sun light affects mono, so does temperature above 105 degrees F below freezing. Monofilament line made from fluorocarbon polymers know 100% fluorocarbon is not hygroscopic and doesn't absorb water or other liquids and isn't subject ot UV degradation or temperature degradation we would normally subject it to. What breaks down monofilament line is pressure for a period of time. Knots put a lot of pressure during the time it's tied. Casting puts pressure on the line, the line deep in the spool has a constant force on it. When you pull hard on the line it can yield and stretch the line. Monofilament line needs to be changed when it has lost it's knot strength or impact strength. Tie on a lure give a few hard pulls being carefull not to hook yourself. With practice you will know the difference between good and bad line. Braid isn't affected by any of the above factors, however wears out and weakens from use. Same test as with monofilament lines. Functional test the line, if it feels weak, change it. Tom