WRB-2.0

O-rings do not prevent the Senko from tearing off during fighting and landing bass, been using them for a long time, the saddle works, keeps the Senko in place, the hook positioned properly. This is not for everyone, just those that want to maximize hook set ratios and bass per Senko or worm, like tournament anglers fishing a Neko rig or drop shot.Tom

Experienced bass anglers do not fish memories, they look at the current weather, seasonal periods and try to determine where the bass should be located and what is the prime prey the bass may be targeting. Luanch the boat, check the surface temps, check for bait fish, they already know what the weather is and should have a handle on the seasonal period. I would check the highest % areas first to determine if the bass are active in those areas, the depth the bass and baitfish are holding and select lures that should work under those conditions . Tom

If you wacky rig a Senko or worms there is a great new product called Waky Saddle, available at TW. They make a kit that includes 25 ea for Senkos and 25 ea for worms, check it out. Tom

Bo, just waiting to get a few questions answered before guessing what hasn't worked. Lighter weight jigs are a good suggestion, unless he is already using them?I did read his attachment and this lake has a lot of predators competing for baitfish; pickerel, crappie, some walleyes, red ears and LMB, it didn't mention what bait fish are in the lake? My guess this angler may relate to the shore cover and needs to look outside and fish the deeper breaks during the day and fish at night more. Tom

What size and type of jig are you fishing with and what size and type of trailer? What color worm works best at this small lake? Jigs are not my first choice in areas that have shallow sloping mud bottoms, unless there is some isolated breaks with cover. What is the water color and depth of light? Are you casting the jig or pitching? Tom

Navonics Hot Maps may have the lake you fish. Try googling topographic fishing maps, several choices. Don Ionino's book on Finesse Fishing and the Sonar Connection is available from TW, good hands on book. Bruce "Doc" Sampson puts out a good tutorial on DVD, for various sonar units. Tom

Andy good reel repair technician can replace drags and service the reel.Tom

LunkerCity makes nail weight with a round ball end in various sizes. You can pinch a round split shot onto a HitchHiker. Tom

We actually caught bass without sonar units by looking at the terrain surrounding the man made reservoir. What you see above the water continues under the water and to get a good understanding of what the lake under water looks like is; take photos of the lake at low pool or look at a good topographic map with elevation in 1 to 5 foot increments. Increment is a elevation line for each change. Line shown close together indicate an abrupt change, wider apart indicate a gradual change. You can see these geographic changes above the water and compare what you can see with the topo map to get an understanding on how to read the map. You are amoung the 90% of anglers who feel comfortable within a casting distance from shore. It takes a lot of time to understand bass locations related to structure features and every lake is different and the terminology differs between anglers regionally, no easy answers. You can mount your transducer outside on the transom, level with the water line when the boat in on plane, works good. To

Take your Sahara and others reels in and have them serviced and replace the drags, then all your reels will be like new.Tom

Know one can catch bass if they are in the wrong location, spend more time studing where bass are located, then it becomes a choice of how to catch them. Tournament bass are 3 lber's on average = 15 lbs limit will put you in the money most of the time. A 3 lbs LMB is a young adult bass, usually aggressive and react to a wide variety of lures. Tournament fishing is all about confidence and making the right changes during the time period you have to fish. You need to have at least 5 locations you feel hold bass at the time you will be fishing those areas. Do your own planning and don't listen to dock talk., if spinning tackle is your best method, use it. The biggest issue may be your speed, slow down, finesse is all about precise presentations. Tom

If birds like the lure, you are working it the right way. We have problems occasionally with Osprey's attacking trout type swimbaits when you cast just as the lure hits the water, they time it perfectly and it's hard to see them make the dive, you just need to be aware when they are around. The standard water birds like grebes, cormorants, gulls are usually not a problem. Tom

You often read or hear how long a cast anglers can make as if it's a badge of honor. Like most anglers I learned to bass fish from shore and tried to cast as far as I could . This back in the 50's, my rod was glass and the reel was Langley Lure cast with 50 yards of Ashaway dacron braid. Under the right conditions I could cast all 50 yards off the reel with a #3 Hawiian wriggler spoon. 50 yards or 150' is a very long cast, very few bass anglers cast that far. When jig fishing my average cast is between 90 to 100 feet accurately. I know others can do this, the only other bass anglers I know that cast a jig long distances are Mike Long and John Kerr. Tom

I posted this thread for a reason; you should always make an effort to control the length of your cast whenever possible. Sometimes we have the need to make very long casts to cover more water like fishing a crank bait to get the lure down where the bass are holding. Most of the time we can make shorter cast and should due to missed hook sets. Bank fisherman sometimes need to make longer cast to get out to where the bass are located and believe that is what is needed. This is a big handicap for the bank anglers, due to hook setting issues. Where I fish for bass most of the time during daylight hours, the big bass have learned to avoid boats and lures fished with line they detect easily. At night this is less of an issue. If I make shorter controlled cast with line heavy enough to force a big bass to the boat, you will never get a strike in the gin clear, heavy pressured lakes of SoCal. Using 12-14 lb FC line is considered heavy line by most experienced west coast bass anglers, unless you are casting big swimbaits. To catch big bass during the daytime in SoCal or other gin clear, high pressured lakes, you are faced with being very quite approaching areas where these big bass tend to be located and make a long cast. Using 6-8 lb FC line will get more strikes, however getting a good hook set at 90' to 100' with a jig is extremely difficult and trying to control a big bass after it's hooked is nearly impossible with line lighter than 10 lb. Some days it takes 10 lb FC line to get strikes, however I usually start out fishing 14 lb with jigs and big worms, 20 lb for swimbaits, simply can't cast a heavy swimbait with anything lighter, 25 lb is better if you can get strikes. So with a long cast rod sets are out, you need to learn to reel set and use the rod to complete the hook set. Tom

It far easier to get a good hook set when you are close to the bass verses being further away for several reasons. Less line stretch, the rod tip movement moves the hook faster with less line in the water. When you use the rod to hook set all the line movement is a direct result of how far the rod tip travels, minus the rod bend. For example you swing your 7' rod tip 4' , the slack in the line must be tightened, the line starts to move transferring movement to the lure, then the rods upper flexible section bends reducing line movement and the force being applied to the hooks through the lure. When you make a sort 20' to 30' cast there is little line stretch, little slack to take up and the rod movement transfers to line movement with maximum force and the result is usually a good hook set. When you make a long 90' to 100' cast, everything changes. The 4' rod movement no longer moves the line as far because of the angles are more horizontal, more line slack and drag in the water, plus the line stretch becomes a factor. Your rod hook set is ineffective because little to no movement occurs to the hook with any force. To over come all these issues when making long cast, you need to use your reel to first take up all the slack line until you feel some weight, then use the rod to complete the hook set. Tom

Most hand poured soft plastic worms are not salt imptregnated , the salt is usually sprinkled into the poly bag that contains the worms, or onto the belly of the poured worm. One exception is Roboworms, an automated "hand pour", that uses salt brine mixed in the plastic. The notion that Roboworms, Iovino worms, Uptom's and other hand poured worms don't float is nonsense, they all float. Hand pours may not float like a air filled plastic worm, they still will raise to the surface when submerged without any added weight. These worms will not float a standard wire worm hook, the tail end will still rise off the bottom. If you use a light wire or small drop shot hook, these worms become nearly neutral in buoyancy. High production injection molded worms tend to sink due to the type of soft plastic they are made with. Highly salt impregnated soft plastics will sink; like a Senko! Tom

When you look at largemouth bass closely you see their mouth is not only big, it's hinges at the bottom of their face and closes at the top like a trap door. When their mouth is fully open it's like the opening of a cave nearly equaling the size of it's head. The mouth opening tapers smaller towards the back of it's throat, like a funnel and that is how it functions. Bass don't bite and grip prey with their teeth, lip teeth are tiny and used to act like sand paper to provide a non slip gripping surface. Bass swim near to it's prey and pop open their mouth creating a hydraulic pump forcing water out their gills and engulf the prey as it is sucked into the big mouth and funneled back into it's throat area, then the mouth clamps shut. If the prey is longer than the mouth depth the prey is captured by the gripping lips. Inside the basses mouth is their tongue which is a strong mussel attached to the lower jaw and two rolls of gripping catledge crunchers with teeth similar ti the lips that also grip the prey as the basses tongue presses against the closed mouth roof. Engulf, crunch to kill and swallow, that how bas bite prey. Sometimes a bass will bite with their lips when they do not want to eat it, just give it a warning nip or to pick it up to move it. This is common for spawning bass that are not eating nest intruders. It's also a common practice for smallmouth and spotted bass to grab crawdads with big pitchers to disarm, remove the claw arm, before engulfing the crawdad to eat it. Largemouth bass rarely disarm a crawdad, they just engulf it and kill it. When a LMB sees your jig, it swims close and engulfs it. Jigs are small and fit inside the basses mouth. The bass then crunches down and makes a split second decision; reject it or eat it and most of the time they reject it. When you feel that little tick, that is the jig hitting the back of the basses mouth, set the hook! If you feel like the jig isn't there or becomes weightless, set the hook! If you feel several ticks, it could be any fish biting the trailer or shirt materials, don't set the hook, just give a little line pressure, if you feel any weight, then set the hook. If the basses mouth is open when you set the hook, you miss, unless the line pull direction is vertical. Good luck. Tom .

20'-30" is more of a pitch. The jig looks like a brush head with a heavy wire hook, good for that type of presentation. Photo angles can be deceiving. When a bass hangs onto a jig and continues eating it, very aggressive bite, and one difference between NLMB and FLMB the hook position isn't as critical. Good looking chunky bass! Tom

In California we have the advantage of having both northern strain and Florida strain LMB in the same lakes and can making side by side comparisons of the 2 strains. In addition the 2 separate strain inter grade and their off spring are different than the parents, creating a third variation of LMB, in the same lake. The most obvious is the size of the NLMB verses FLMB. Not so obvious is feeding preference; NLMB prefer dormasel or shoreline prey and smaller size baitfish, whereas FLMB tend to prefer pelagic or mid water column main lake larger size baitfish. Both species will feed on both types of prey, however there is a preference. The FLMB is more cautious selecting prey, where NLMB tend to be more aggressive in striking prey and lures. A bass is a bass is simply not true. First lession is bass are not bass at all, they are sunfish family. LMB are different than smallmouth bass and both are different than spotted bass in where they prefer to locate and what prey they prefer to eat. Tom

Today's mop jig is yesterday's full skirt that uses double amount of skirt materials. The blue/black jig in the upper photo is a silicone skirt, the lower photo a living rubber skirt flared out in water, that is what all living rubber skirts do! What is important is the upper jig is a vertical flipping or pitching jig head/hook, a poor casting jig design, because of the compact design that places the hook point too close to the jig head. Mop jigs work best cast horizontally and retrieved like a T- rig worm or dragged along the bottom. Imagine a bass striking this jig and you getting a good hook set. A football or similar style head puts the hook back 2X further back from the jig head, it's a lot easier to get a hook set with the hook point further inside the basses mouth. Standard jig the skirt is cut off about 3/4" behind the hook bend, mop jig is about 1 1/2" behind the hook bend. Tom

Not able to look at the brand of my digital probe I use, not where my boat is at this moment, however a simple sinking pool thermometer with a string attachment works OK and cost about $10-$12. Tom

2 methods: insert a temp probe in the bass, down the throat right after you catch the bass. The body temp will be the same as the water it came out of. Or lower a temp probe down to the depth you meter bass. Back in the 60's temperature Gage's with 50' wire were not uncommon. Today's bass angler uses sonar to find bass at various depths and don't care why the bass are there, a few understand thermocline layers. Tom

Fish are cold blooded and water temperature controls their life cycle. Weather may alter the spawn and severe water temperature drops, water level changes during the spawn can and does stop a spawn or even abort it. Several waves of spawner's is natures way of assuring survival of the species; all the eggs are not in one basket! Bass up in shallow cold water are not looking for beds, they are either foraging or seeking warmer water. Tom

I agree an educated thumb is the way to go, however you need to educate it first. If you adjust the reel spool tension so you lure doesn't free fall on it's own weight, in fact the adjustment is too tight so lure doesn't fall at all....you can't backlash the reel. You will not be able to cast very far, but no backlash because the spool doesn't over run the line. Next loosen the tension a little more so the lure falls slowly, but not freely. Now you can cast a little further and may get a slight backlash or over run. Next apply a little thumb drag against the spool at the end of your cast...no backlash or over run. Keep loosening the tension a little at a time and practice teaching your thumb to keep the line on the spool from over running, eliminating backlashes. Spool breaks are like your thumb, just not as reliable. Tom

Bill Dance was the first of his bass tournament buddies to recognize that more money could be made with TV then fishing tournaments. Bill was and is a good bass fisherman, however it's his personality that made him a household name. Hank Parker followed Bill's lead and rode his bass tournament success to a career in TV fishing promotions and both are still going strong. One of the forgotten names during the early years of Bassmaster tournaments is Tom Mann of Mann's Tackle. Tom was the most creative of those early tournament anglers. Did you know Tom started up Hummin Bird Electronics! Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston and Roland Marten were a lot of fun to be around, however Tom Mann was the all time prankster and maybe the best bass angler amoung them. Tom