WRB-2.0

Fishing deep structured lakes with shad or other pelagic bait is easy, located the bait fish schools. One of the best methods to locate bait fish that use deep water is look for birds that feed on the bait; grebes and cormorants. The deep diving birds have a the ability to know where their food is, so look for these birds diving and feeding on bait fish. Your sonar is the best tool in your boat to locate bait fish schools, use it. Ounce you find the bait, then determine what lure should work..... Didn't I say that earlier in this thread. Fishing deep water blindly hoping to put a lure in front of feeding bass without knowing the bass are there or nearby is like trying to find a Needle in a hay stack and a waste of your time. If bass are feeding on shad schools, a structure or flutter spoon is a good lure to use. If the bass are not chasing the bait fish, but holding nearby, then a drop shot worm or jig may be a better choice when the bass are close to structure. If the bass are suspended at the level the bait fish are traveling in the area, then the A-rig with it's small school of lures can be effective. There isn't a panacea lure to solve any bass fishing situation, you must locate the bass to catch them. Tom

Deep water is relative to regional areas and lake types. LMB go into deep water for a few reasons; comfortable water temperature sancturary and to be close to their food source. Bass suspended in deep water with no food source nearby are usually inactive bass that have moved into deeper for sanctuary and very difficult to catch. Bass in deep water that have prey nearby are active bass and easier to catch. You don't want to fish deep water blindly without knowing why bass are out there. Using a good sonar unit you can survey the deeper areas and look for baitfish, isolated structure with fish nearby, any thermocline that maybe present, and determine what depth the life zone is on the lake you fish. When you have an idea where the bass are located and what prey the bass are targeting, then select a lure and presentation that works good for you and triggers strikes from the bass. A lot of northern cold water lakes are barren in deep water in regards to bass, no pelagic baitfish or deep critters like crawdads living in deep water. Bass can comfortably make a depth change of about 30' to pursue prey or your lure. Tom

The Trash Fish is very soft, yet fairly durable, a unique combination. Result is a swim bait that can swim very slow with a strike reaction from bass or can be swam at a moderate rate when you change cadence and not roll, this makes this swimmer different. Lakes that have perch as bait fish the profile looks like a perch. I have fished the shad colors in 4" and 6" Trash Fish, doesn't look like a shad, however catches bass feeding on shad! Senko's took several years to catch on because they have an action that was unlike other soft plastics and the suttle wiggle triggers strikes on the fall. Trash Fish trigger tikes on a slow retrieve, give this design try, slow it down and change it's pace. Tom

Skeet Reese used the original Little Crippers Trash Fish to help win his Angler of the Year in 2011, Trash Fish work! I haven't tried the Sick fish and tend to stay with originals in lieu of knock offs. Go online and look at the colors available, not by name but by color scheme. Tom

Part of bass fishing is checking out new lures trying to determine what lures are actually winning local tournaments. Any region in the country will have local bass tournaments and it's a cat amd mouse game getting to the truth.....top tournament anglers are very tight lipped about what they are using currently to catch their bass and where they fish. It's easy to learn what caught bass last year! Tom

Most bass boats use Rod Saver straps to hold the rods down onto the deck carpet and I haven't had any issues over the years with this product. For lures rigged on the rods when traveling, use a lure wrap to keep hooks from tangling or getting snagged into the carpet. In the rod locker use the expando type rod socks. I use a bath towel to cushion my reels in the rod locker. Tom

On a wire screw on type worm keeper cut about 1/4" of the worm nose off flat, then screw it onto the keeper. The last time there was a discussion regarding floating worms, I put 6" Iovino, Roboworm and Uptom's, the brands I normally fish with, in the laundry sink with about 12" of water and they all floated on the surface for over 24 hours, not 1 worm sank. Easy test that anyone can do if interested. Give your worms a try with nd without attractant you use, then you will know if they sink or not. Tom

One of the problems with brand loyalty is the brand may no longer be a company, just a trade name owned by another company in the never ending world of acquisition. When I started fishing in the 50's Pfluger reels were made in Ohio and the Pfluger supreme was the top of the line in bait casting reels and came out with a good spinning reel. Shakespeare was another reel amd rod manufacturer that eventually bought the Pfluger name and marketed the trade name to BPS and Cabelas and had the reels manufactured in China and Korea. Being loyal to the once prominate fishing lure company in Ohio with it's wonderful tradition in the industry, now is just a trade name isn't for me. Garcia Abu is similar, however Abu still makes a limited number of reels in Sweden, the vast majority are made in China. My first bait casting reel was a Langley Lure Cast, wonderful small light weight reel that doesn't exist today, the company was bought by Zebco who know makes Quantum reels in Korea. My first rod ws a Conolion make in California, bought by Garcia. My next rod was a Fenwick, also made in California with a Abu Ambassuer 500 red reel, Garcia bought Abu and Fenwick moved their rod business off shore. Next rod was a Lamiglas and Lew Childre BB1 reel made in Oregon by the Shimano bicycle parts company. Childre sold his patents to Shimano and they came out with the Batom series reels. Next reel was Daiwa, made in Califirnia before moving to Japan, still fish with TD103HTSA, excellent reels. Loomis gets into bass rods so my next rod is a Loomis swimbait rod and don't see any advantage over Lamiglas. Gary Loomis sells the rod business to Shimano and Loomis becomes a trade name only. It' hard to be loyal to a trade name, no bricks and motar. Today I still try to buy made in America if possible or at least assembled in the USA. If a product is made in China, I refuse to buy it, got to draw the line somewhere. Tom

Two popular pink colors out west are Roboworms Morning Dawn; pink with neon purple blood line and Delta Dawn similar color with a chartreuse tail tip. Tom

The top of the line in light weight wormed jigs rods is still Loomis NRX, not within your price range. Look into ALX and ask Alex about the rods he made for Oldscholl, NRX performance within your price range. Tom PS; Dobyn's rods are high quality, great customer service.

Brand loyalty is an interesting topic, a dynamic that borders on tribal behavior. Some folks are loyal to Chevy's, others to Fords without any logic involved....same for bass anglers. It may not matter what performs best or catches more bass, it all about the brand used. I fully realize it's important support the advertisers on a forum site, but if you are not sponsored by a company and receive nothing for supporting it, you got wonder why anyone is brand dependent. The only reel worth owning is a Shimano, nothing wrong with Shimano reels, they are a good quality manufacturer, but not the only good reel on the market. Same thing with rods; St Croix are the best!, yes St Croix are a good quality rod maker, their are other very good choices out there! Can you start to her the drums beating, the tribal war is about to start. If anyone looks in my boats stowage lockers you will see a collection of rods and reels of several brands. ALX, Dobyn's Lamiglas, Loomis, Fenwhick, Lew's, Okuma rods along with Ardent, Daiwa, Lew's and Shinamo reels. No brand loyalty because each rod and reel were selected for specific application that work best for me. Same with line, hooks and lures are a vast collection of specific brands that I have confidence in using the product without obligation to any manufacturer or supplier. Tom

I have no idea what your state regs are regarding the use of live bait for bass fishing, check before you try anything. You can drop shot or split shot rig live bait fish or fly line (no weight) them for bass depending on the depth you plan to fish. Modern circle hooks will save gut hooking a lot of bass. Don't over look the lowly live Canadian night crawler 6" to 8" long. With live bait the hook should be small size appropriate for the bait size; size 4 to size 1 should be a good range for line between 6 to 10# FC. Slip bobbers about 3/4" diameter by 3" to 4" long cigar shaped work for suspending the smaller size live baits. The key word is "live" bass do not like dead bait, the livelier the better, so only lightly hook the bait ounce, do not thread the bait onto the hook. Tom

Don't look at super raids for the pound test strength, look at the line by it's diameter. There isn't a fresh water black bass; LMB that can break 25 pound test mono by pull force on it's own. 80 lb braid is useful to handle while flipping, it doesn't tend to cut your fingers as easily as 65 lb braid. Tom

BPS tends to carry regional lures in some stoes including low production and hand poured soft plastics. Just need to check them out. Doug Hannon's snake worm looks exactly like a snake, if that is what you are looking for. There are some excellent custom hand poured giant worms available that catch fish, not fisherman. Tom

The first consideration should be the food source (prey type) the bass are targeting seasonally., then take into the waterways depth, cover and structure elements. The lake structure has not changed unless the water level changes dramatically and that can happen on impoundments where flood control or power generation is the reservoirs primary function. Drought periods also affect water levels. The weed or grass cover is changing and often does from both water level change and introduction of new species of aquatic vegetation, zebra or quagga mussels and grass carp in your lake. The real danger to the bass population is loss of nursery areas for both the bass and prey fish. If the lake prey is predominately dermesal that live in and around shoreline. Deep structured lakes have more variety of structure elements and usually both dermesal and pelagic baitfish. Regardless how deep a lake is it can be subjected to thermal layers, the upper layer being the thermocline during the warmer water periods. Solve the bass location mystery by determining where the prey source is, the bass will be close to their food source. Remember bass are sight feeders and can see better then their prey and this fact is a big advantage during low light periods. Tom

Basses sense of smell, detecting odors in the water to locate prey is a very small factor. Catfish on the other hand have a phenomenal sense of smell and rely primarily in detecting prey by odors. Bass attractants are really masking odors that may repel or alarm the bass at the last second befor striking. You want to create a positive odor and taste and texture. The bottom line; you can easily over due attractants by creating a negative response from the bass. No scent is better than too many different scents. Bass see and hear/feel you soft plastic from a distance and when they get within a foot or so they focus on details, this is the moment a strike commitment occurs, odors are only a factor when the strike has occurred or very close to occurring. Tom

Roboworms Iovino worms Uptom's Customs GY Tom

As noted grease belongs ONLY on round gears. Light oil on bearings and the worm gear that operates you level wind. I have been using BreakFree CLP oil on my bait casting reels for decades because it works very good and prevents wear and corrosion. The bottom line is the lubricants that came with your reel will work OK, if you use them and have your reel professionally cleaned each year. A good reel technician checks for bad bearings and any wear that we often miss when cleaning our own reels and tend to over lubricate them. Tom

I had 3 custom jig rods made a year ago with Kigan micro guides on a light weight scrimless blank. The key to micro guides is using the high quality guides placed on the rod blank correctly. The first 2 guides must be larger then the other guides, placed to prevent line slap coming out of the reel, done properly casting distance is improved and line drag reduced. Micro guides for bait casting rods are single foot and very low to the rod blank, the guide line holes are very small, other than to 1st 2 guides. The small guide diameter creates a challenge stringing at night or low light conditions. The advantages far out weigh any disadvantage. Tom

How can anyone flip 30 to 60 feet, maybe pitch? Happy Valintines day! Now that I got your attention, why would anyone use FC line in heavy cover with it's well known issues with knot strength? You are better off with a premium mono or braid, no leader needed. If you are fishing light cover in clear water then FC line has some meaningful advantages. Seaguar was the first FC line available in leader spools for salt water use in the early 80's and very expensive with marginal performance. Sunline came out with filler spools in the late 80's with Shooter and west coast anglers, including Aaron Martens, started using it. Sunline Sniper came out in lighter # test and I am not sure if 20 lb is available and will check. My history with FC line dates back to 80's and have tried a lot of different brands, Sunline being the line I started with and has remained my choice until last year when the prices went up too much. I now use Blackwater FC; Solar Roam Bass Hi-Class, reasonable price and a good selection of different FC lines. Tom PS; Sniper is available in 20+ lb.

Yes! The reason for bass to venture out into the deeper water main lake basin in your natural lake is to seek warmer water during the winter. If your lake has a population of pelagic prey fish, the bass would follow the bait out into deeper water. White perch crappie are pelagic school fish, however only the adults will move out into deeper water if they have a food source out there.Lakes with a shad or herring population, both pelagic fish, have a bass population the targets those bait fish. Tom

The term Texas rig has lost it's original meaning; sliding bullet shaped sinker and a worm hook and soft plastic worm. The worm is rigged weedless by running the hook point into, then out of the worm nose, them back into the worm body. The sinker "sinks" the worm, the rate of fall dependent on the size of weight and worm. Tom

Like most things there are high quality hand made lures and poor quality hand made lures. In regards to soft plastic worms high quality hand pours or automated hand pours like Roboworms can be custom colors and sizes for specific lakes, these worms out perform mass produced injection molded worms. The down side is they cost more and don't last as long. If you are putting $$ for tournaments and want to be competitive on some lakes, hand pours are well worth it. On high pressured lakes where bass see the same lure over and over again, they learn to avoid it. If you have 50 boats all fishing green pumpkin red flake Zoom worms your odds are low thinking you are better angler than the others and will catch more bass. If you have a hand poured custom color that the bass are eating, you are not competing with the other 49 boats. I fish home made jigs that no other angler on the lake is using, unless I gave someone my jigs to fish. This gives me a big psychological advantage and confidence the bass haven't seen this jig often. I am targeting a very low population of wary giant bass and success comes from presenting these bass a lure they are comfortable eating and I am confident using. Tom

More than likely been looking at flasher type sonar units before most members of this site were born. Started fishing in the 40's at Big Bear lake, the same lake on the news, trolling was popular back then and still is in some parts of the country. Did go to a school house, grades K to 5 in 1 room, only had to walk about a mile and couldn't afford a horse! Finding bass (fish) on sonar doesn't mean they are active or catchable. The big misnomer about bass is you can catch them if you find them; not true! Bass don't alwys stop feeding and move out to off shore sanctuary, they stop feeding and stay where they are most of the time, then return to active feeding about every 4 to 6 hours at the same location. Bass on off shore structure stay on off shore structure, rarely make daily migrations, these are 2 different groups of bass. Tom

The Genesis 2 series are popular out west for application specific rods for $150 price range. Tom