WRB-2.0

Your problem is the bass are not active when they are very cold. Unless this pond has a warm water source like underground spring, the small volume of water is the same temperature top to bottom until the water gets about 39 degrees, then the colder water floats to the surface and freeze at 32 degrees. The cold blooded bass slow way down and don't need much food to survive during the winter cold water period, they rarely eat anything. Basically you are trying to catch bass that have no interest in lures 99% of the time. Things will change when the water warms up to the upper 40's. Tom

In a small pond environment anything that I disturbs the norm can alert bass that danger may be close by. Bass are part of the food chain for predator birds until they grow large enough or adult size where most birds leave them be. Some ducks are fish eaters, other are eat aquatic weeds, snails and insects. Bass survival instinct to use caution around large water fowl. Ounce the bass become accustom to the ducks and accept them as being a normal part of their pond, then they would accept large size ducks. However, in the spring when ducks have broods of ducklings, the small size ducklings become part of the adult bass diet! Tom

Not all micro guides are equal and the rod construction makes a big difference in casting distance. Kigan micro guides used on some production rods like Dobyn's and some custom rods are excellent. Guide placement is critical and a big reason why a custom rod out performs off the self rods. Faster taper rods reduce casting distance compared to slower actions, the more parabolic the better a rod will cast of equal rod length. The first guide must be positioned and the right size/height off the rod blank to alien properly with the reels line guide and reel seat. Braid has a lot more drag going through guides then mono or FC. A good line dressing can help with FC line, braid usually has a Teflon coating to reduce drag, mono wets well and works OK without a dressing. Casting in cold temperatures can stiffen the line and ice the guides. Micro guides would not be a good choice in cold climates, the reduced guide diameter freeze easily. The trend in high end production rods like Loomis GLX and NRX series, the most expensive off the self rods, are micro guides. Tom

Look ago the moon phase for each mouth; Jan the full moon is 27th, lull lunar cycle is 28 days. The next 3 months is most of bass land will be winter transition pre spawn to spawn and 5 day period, 2days before the full moon, the full moon and 2 days after are your high % days on the water. Trying to figure out exact hours is impossible due to weather factors. Your guide is you, look around the surrounding ecosystem; active Amina's,, are the deer, cattle etc up on their feet and active, the water birds feeding then you know the bass should also be active. Tom

By river bass do you fish for LMB, smallmouth or spotted bass? Color is usually not the primary factor, locating active bass is a primary factor. Here is advice that is true for all predator game fish, including all 3 bass species mentioned; don't leave the area where you have caught fish to find more fish. Bass by nature tend to group up when feeding, so the odds are very high that there is more than one bass where you caught that one. When you catch the first bass, try a different color of the same lure before leaving. If the new color doesn't work, then try the original color to determine if the first color still works. Then try a different lure in the same area and repeat a few colors. It's a lot easier to change colors when bass are biting. In a river LMB prefer slack water areas, both smallies and spots like current areas and limits the type of locations each bass prefers. Tom

The best way for you to reduce stretch with any monofilament (single filament ) is to increase the line diameter, otherwise the % difference in stretch between brands is minimal. There are only a handful of line extruders in the world, the various labels relate to proprietary additives for individual brands. Top water lures work better with mono that tends to float in the 12 to 15 lb range or larger. Jerk baits may run a little deeper with smaller diameter FC line, still the 12 to 15 lb is a common size for jerk baits. If you use 10 lb line and it starts to stretch at 3 lbs of pulling force, the difference between brands is in ounces. If you use 15 lb line and it starts to stretch at 5 lbs, you gain 2 lbs before it stretches. One reason reels should be set with a drag tension that = 1/3 rd the line pound test is to prevent line stretch. Super braids have very little stretch at 50% of pound test rating, if low stretch line is the goal. There are a few line stretch test on the Internet if you search for it. Tom

Give it a try. The problem with most crankbaits is balance, so you will need to experiment with hook sizes. My question is; why? Are you having a problem loosing bass hooked on traditional treble hooks? Tom

KVD line dressing is applied hours before using the reel each trip and I haven't had good results with it.I use a product called TangleFree, it comes in a 2 oz squeeze bottle that fits in your pocket and can be applied during the use of the reel and keeps FC line wetted and helps to reduce line memory, staying on the spinning reel spool and bait casting reels. Berkley Vanish was one of the early FC lines and had several problems prompting the introduction of 100% FC. I don't like Berkely's FC line because the diameter is one size larger; 12lb is labeled 10 lb so anglers think it's strong line and this is common with FC line. Sunline doesn't miss label their line, however it's expensive! Hybrids are are a good compromise and P-line FluoroClear is a good hybrid line. Make sure the spinning reel spool isn't overfilled; should be about 1/8" below the rim. Tom

The marina looks good! Small cove shouldn't take too long to check it out. The breakwater rip rap at the marina should hold some fish year around. In a river bass could be anywhere. Do you fish from a boat? Tom

Learn to use the index finger with the line over the tip so you can feel the lightest bite. This takes a little practice with a spinning reel to get the bail in the right place. When bass are striking and not moving off with the worm, you feel what can be decried as a rubber band bite or a light spongy feel, just firmly lift the rod up, if you feel weight reel fast and that should set the hook. Leaving a little slack in the line with the weight on the bottom and lightly shaking the slack line against the weight is a good presentation technique and generates a lot of strikes. This is why keeping in touch with the worm with your finger tip is important. Tom

I would select a swimbait; rainbow trout, Huddleston 68 ROF 5, 7'10" medium hvy swimbait rod like Okums and round reel like Shimano Cardiff 400A with 20 lb big Game mono and fish that. Second choice would be a big soft plastic worm like 9" Uptom's Custom dragon tail, cinnamon/blue neon and slip shot rig it on 10 to 12 lb FC hybrid like Fluoro Clear, 4/0 Owner 5100 or equal hook, Top Brass Pro-Jo 1/4 oz weight, pegged 7mm glass bead about 10" above the hook. You can fish this with a standard med/hvy bass outfit. Fish these until you see spawner's. Target the inlet and outlet areas and any deep water zones. Check the trout planting schedule and fish those days and the next day after. Tom

Bass Fishing SoCal's deep structured lakes from shore during the winter cold water period is difficult. There are very few public waters available near your location that have a good LMB population. So where do you fish? Tom

The St Croix Mojo Big Cranker is a glass 7'8" rod and should good, heavy action, so definitely change to premium mono or FC line with lipless crankbaits, unless you are ripping through weeds and this time of year that would be unusual. Tom

That is what I call a general use "trout" rod, good all around spinning rod for price. I started split shotting and drop shotting with a similar Finwick rod several years ago and gave the rod to my son and did well with it. The higher end rods are lighter weight and you do get better feed back with them, but they cost a lot more.Enjoy your new rods, they should be good. Tom PS ; don't take "trout" as being a negative, it's not met to be!

Should be a good, just set your drag at 2 lbs and trust it. This should prevent over zealous hooks sets breaking your line or bass breaking off near the boat. You can learn to back reel on stronger fish, it takes a lot of practice.Tom

Lipless cranks are problematic for poor hook sets in cold water. This reason is the treble hooks tend to get only lightly skin hooked because bass often strike to injure the shad before returning to eat the injured bait fish. Changing the hooks to wide gap round bends one size larger than stock hooks help. Some lipless anglers will remove the rear treble and go 2 sizes up on the center hook. I think your primary problem is the rod and line you are using. If you own a slower action crankbait rod med/hvy glass or Eglass rod and change to FC or Premium mono 12 lb line, your odds will go way up. Also set the reel drag to 3 to 4 lb tension. You are ripping the hooks out on the hook set, so just reel and sweep the back and let the reel drag do it's job. Tom PS; if you have gizzard shad, think about a 5" flutter spoon.

It's winter nearly everywhere bass live, water temps dictate seasonal periods, my guess your small lake has cold water, less than 50 degrees. This means you slow down and fish water by the dam area. Jigs are good worked down hill in the winter and fish it deeper than you normally would. Soft plastic trailers are not very soft in cold water, you may be better off trying a pork rind trailer like Uncle Josh #32 crawdad or #11 frog in black. Black works very good in most cold water conditions and you can use a black trailer on a different color jig; brown, purple , blue all work, all black is your best choice. 1/2 oz is a good general use size jig, avoid using a jig with dull hooks, use a jig with a premium hook, 4/0 is good size for 1/2 oz. Read the pinned jig thread on top of this page. Tom

Megabait Luna jig is actually a structure spoon, 3/4 oz in Black shad or chartreuse. The Champ 3/4 oz, chrome by Ward. Blade runner Duh 3/4 oz in black shad ot pearl white Cripple Herring, 3/4 oz, pearl white. I change the hook to size 2 chrome with white/chartreuse feathers by Iovino. Most of these are available from TW, google the others. These are all vertical presented structure spoons for lakes with deep schooled Threadfin shad. You can cast spoons past the bait school and let them fall on controlled slack with the reel in gear and the spoon will drop through the school and swing back toward the boat, set the hook when it stops falling or any bumps. Vertical jigging is similar; drop the spoon straight down on controlled slack, watch it on the sonar, set the hook if it stops. If it doesn't get bit on the fall stop it when it's just below the bait and left & fall about 1' to 2' several times, retrieve and repeat. When you hook a spoon fish, lift the rod tip high and keep reeling, bass shake off spoons easily if you give any slack. I use my med/hvy crank bait type rod for spooning with 12lb FC. You want a rod with slower action so the hook doesn't rip out. Tom PS;,Acme Little Cleo and Kastmaster, and Hopkins Shorty in chrome 1/2 or 3/4 oz are very popular spoons that work good, change the hooks to size 4 on the 1/2 oz, size 2 for 3/4 oz, chrome or feathered premium treble.

If anyone is thinking about Loomis rods they are going up 20% soon! The new GLX look and feel good, about $450, the NRX's will $600 after the price increase! A recreational angler can get by with a good 2 power or med/light "trout" rod or standard action, you don't want a fast action rod with clear water drop shot that uses 6 lb line small octopus style hooks. If you tournament fish A specific drop shot action 2 power rod 6'10" to 7'3" from a rod maker that has good customer service and style you prefer within your budget. The Shimano CUSDX72M, Dobyn's DX702SF are both popular out west. Tom

Just put the tapered weight into the fishes throat about 1/2", the air bladder may prevent any it to go further, deep enough so it doesn't fall out. I have used this weight method for at least 20 years and it works good. I have a 16 oz torpo weight for bass over 5 lbs.The Aussie weight in the Vedio looks good and need to check those out, 20 oz should be good for bass anglers. Tom

That look like a good design and would work great! Thanks for sharing it.Tom

Your problem isn't about lures it's about location and feeding activity, know one can catch bass that are inactive. Some believe you can tease a bass into striking and that rarely occurs outside of guarding a spawning bed or home territory. When bass are inactive or resting they have no interest in eating anything. You can put a live minnow or crawdad in front of the inactive bass and it will ignore it. Bass in the wild often have baitfish swimming within inches of them with no fear or interest, the prey recognize the predator is inactive. When the bass starts to become active the prey disappears, or hides, they sense danger. If you are trying to catch bass when they are inactive for whatever reasons, you will fail. However being at the right place when those bass become active, then you should succeed. Yes, you need the right type of lure that the bass are looking for, presented at the right depth, so they have a chance to strike, but several lures usually work when bass are active. River bass are not as affected by weather changes as bass in lakes. The water is moving, the bass can't go extremely deep, the water temperature remains fairly consistant unless very cold run off enters the river. You are better off using high % cold water lures at the right depth then changing to everything in the tackle box. Tom

The depth change the bass experienced may have been greater than the depth you hooked that bass. Largemouth bass do not have swim ladder vents so they can't release the gas pressure in the bladder when it expands from abrupt depth changes. If the bass was acclaimated to neutral buoyancy at 45' and swam up to 30' to feed, the depth change was only 15' for example, the bladder expanded within a comfort zone. However you hooked this bass and brought it to the surface and the bass experienced a total depth change of 45' expanding the bladder beyond the point where the bass could easily swim back down into deeper water. Poking a hole in the air bladder with a needle releases the gas and the bass can easily swim down, however the hole must heal before the bladder can hold new digestive gases to refill the bladder and until that happens the can't rest and suspend at any depth. Fizzing isn't good for bass, it's better than letting the bass struggle and staying on the surface belly until birds get to it. You can return the bass by placing a torpedo shaped 8 oz weight that is tied on another line, place the weight into the basses throat and lower the bass down, then reel up the weight, leaving the bass it the depth it was caught. Tom

All bass anglers do not speak the same language, some terms are regional. Lake for example, seems simple to define but there are natural lakes and impoundments or reservoirs. Lakes that are reservoirs are further classified by the terrain where the dam was constructed; highland, hill land, canyon, flatland, lowland etc. Bass location differs with the type of the body of water they live in and the anglers terminology changing with each lake classification in addition to regional terms describing structure and cover elements. Most terms come from tournament bass anglers located in the south, including Texas. Most of the bass lakes in that region are highland, hill land reservoirs, so the terms start there. If you live and fish outside of that region the terms can sound like a foreign language. Grass is a good example, everywhere outside of the south, grass are weeds; aquatic vegetation. Bass are largemouth unless are brown or spots. Creeks are underwater stream beds. Creek arms are flooded canyons with a small river or large stream bed. Channel is the river bed or steam bed that has carved out the valley floor before it was flooded, not to be confused with a man made channel. You could write a bood on bass anglers terms and never be able to get agreement regionally on the definition. Tom

Good question, from a material stand point FC line has superior shelf life than mono (Nylon) line. The biggest degradation factor with mono line is temperature extremes, it degrades above 105 degrees or below freezing, FC withstands temperature higher and colder than anglers can tolerate.What kills FC line is being fished, not from the elements but from being over stressed being stretched. FC line does not recover when stretched and weakens as a result of having a reduced diameter after you pull on the line with enough force to yield the line. The fact that most FC line is expensive most angler will not change the line often enough or retie knots as often as they should. Tom