WRB-2.0

Where you live there are world class bass fishing oportunities; the delta, Clear lake and Several deep structured lakes in the foothill areas, Berryessa being one of those. The delta is a river or several rivers coming together that have tidal influence and very heavy cover that bass relate to. Clear lake is the largest natural lake in the state, also with large areas of weed beds and some deep structure areas. The foothill lakes are deep structure reservoirs and are the most common type of bass lakes in Califirnia. It can a life time to learn to fish these very different types of bass water but they all have one thing in common; basic bass behavior based on seasonal periods. Take some time and determine what prey the bass prefer where you fish and the locations they feed at. Each body of water will have a lure color and depth preference during each seasonal period and making notes can help but no specific lure is a panacea to catching bass consistantly. The reason I can tell you that bass in Berryessa at this time of year are located down in the lower 1/3rd of the lake feeding on shad schools and spoons are a good lure choice is Berryessa is a deep structure highland bass reservoirs and that pattern is happening on all those types of lakes with shad populations when the water temps are in the low 50's. Tom

Consistantly catching predator fish like the 3 most popular fresh water bass doesn't require any angler to out smart the fish, it simply is being at the right place at the right time with a lure or bait the bass will strike. The beauty of bass fishing is these fish will strike a wide variety of artifical lures, that is a blessing and curse. Being at the right place can be dumb luck and nothing wrong with that, or using your large highly developed brain and learning something's about basic bass behavior. My friend Bill Murphy would put it this way; bass eat in the kitchen where the food is. Understanding that you can't catch bass that are resting or sleeping in other areas of their house is important and knowing it is easier to catch feeding bass in the kitchen is essential to consistantly catching bass. Bass, like all predators, are never far from their food source. Before you start out to catch bass each trip, first determine where the bass should be located based on seasonal periods, this makes it easier to locate their kitchen. Good thread! Tom

It's easier to make a larger swimbait then the smaller version. When 8" to 12" multiple jointed hard swimbaits came out they worked great fot big bass, however big swimbaits have a limited market place. Every big swimbait maker has tried to miniaturize their designs and few have succeeded. The soft swimbait market is a lot easier to produce good small swimbaits, so you need to look the two types separately. A very good high end soft small swimbait is the Huddleston Deluxe 68, difficult to find and pushing into a standard size swimbait. In the self rig soft swimbaits the Little Crippers Trash Fish is excellent. Matt lurescmakes several good 5" swimbaits. Basstrix paddle tail swimmer is good. I don't have a good recommendation for a 6" hard multiple jointed swimbait, there are some on the market, very expensive. The BBZ series can be good, if you get one that swims good. The Triple Trout in 7" is good, but not in the small swimbait category. R2Sea's S Waver is not a swimbait, but a glide/wake bait, good lure to consider. Lots of choices. Good luck! Tom

This only reason to weigh a bass is to determine weight and you don't need to weigh every bass you catch unless it's a big bass or you are tournament fishing and need to cull a bass. If you have a knotless net, weigh the in the net and subtract the net weight as others have already suggested. Putting the scale hook anywhere in contact with gills may be harmfull and can be fatal to bass. Poking a small hole through the thin underside of the mouth is better than harming gills. Boga grip type scales does less damage then scales with hook type hangers. The knotless net or catch and release bag are your best choices. Tom

Little Crippers 6" Trash Fish hss a proven big bass catch record. Berkley has a knock off Sick Fish in smaller 4" and 31/2" sizes, I don't know if the 6" is planned. Tom

Older cork handles and foregrips where made with better grade of cork then is available today, or the past 10 years for that matter. High quality, high density cork is expensive today. Most bass rods use whatever cork is available and use fillers to make it look good. If you clean your corks handle with any solvent like WD-40 it may attack the filler material. First try mild soap and warm water and a soft rage, this will remove most of the darker coloration and your corks looks good and is functional. Trying to restore the cork further requires light sanding with fine sand paper. The Mr. Clean Magic a eraser should also be good, I would avoid the WD-40. Tom

I use a StowMaster tournament landing net. Had this net a at least 7 years without any issues to date. Tom

Berryessa is a big lake and has a lot of coves along the main lake basin area. Right now, with all the rain I would focus on the lower 1/3rd and the main lake points in that area. This are will also be the late spawn area, the north end starting eariler, so from a tournament point of view you will need to check the north end for spawning sites also. You have big LMB in Berryessa, both swimbait and jig fish. Right now get yourself some Rapala ice jigs and 3/4 oz Megabait structure spoons and work over the deep bait bass. As I recall the main basin has some farmhouse foundations and it get like the north sea in the wind. It's cold in SoCal the next few days and fishing will be tough, then it should be a good pre spawn bite for a month or so! Tom

Mustad 32798NP-BN or similar hook, good choice for a shaky head and you are offering satisfaction or return, who else does that!!!Tom

March is 2 months away and more important 2 seasonal periods away in northern CA. Your fish now are in 25' of water and in winter transition to pre spawn. I do not know what lake you are fishing, spots are not normally a Clear lake bass! By March the bass should be transitioning to full spawn depending on the weather, so look for spawning areas, then back off or out and find secondary points nearby, the bass should be staged there in March. Now the bass are more than likely located in the main lake basin area feeding on baitfish, locate the bait, the bass will be close. The next stopping place for the transitioning bass should be major main lake points, then they move into the creek arms or large bays and stop on secondary points. The staging secondary points are the points that divide the bay or creek arm into branches, flats or protected coves, that have deep water leading to them, like a creek channel. Study your topo maps, shouldn't take too long to identify those secondary staging points near traditional spawning areas. Tom

ALX builds my custom rods, google them, and talk to Alex. Tom

Color may not make a difference to a very active bass competing for prey with other bass and if those are the fish you are able to catch, you are missing a lot bass that are not so active. Bass are very active maybe 5 to 10% of the time and those are low odds! Paying attention to details can be very important, so use painted bullet weights or jig heads that are rigged close to soft plastics. The basics colors are black, brown, purple, green and pearl white. Use a color that is predominate in the soft plastic and it will make a difference in your strike ratio. Tom

The Sick Fish is a copy of the Little Crippers Trash Fish, Berkely has a agreement and Reese worked on the deal. The mass produced Sick Fish isn't the same plastic as the low production Trash Fish. The Trash Fish is a great swimbait because it can be fished extremely slow or faster and have good swimming action. If the Sick Fish can duplicate some of the Trash Fish action it should be a good lure at a reduced price. Tom

Dee Thomas, the man who introduced flipping to pro bass fishing fished out of a 14' aluminum V hull boat and flipped setting down on a 2 X 6 attached to the gunnel! So much for conventional wisdom that you need to stand on the front of a carpeted bass boat to be successful at flipping or pitching. Dee still sits In a front pedestal seat in his bass boat and catches a lot bass. In a canoe you are lower in the water, but I think you could make a seat that attaches to the gunnel similar to Dee's old tin boat. You could learn the loop cast like Hank Parker often uses on his TV programs; that is the casting technique I use most of the time when I want to keep the lure near the water surface and make shorter accurate casts. Tom

My guess is few anglers today actually flip , most use a modified pitch presentation. The flip presentation doesn't use the reel at all, only the rod and this is why the longer rod is an advantage. The original flipping rods were 12' to 14' long. If you are fishing heavy shoreline cover like weed mats, bullrush, tullies etc., and the target spot that is about the size of a dinner dish, flipping is the best presentation. However if you are targeting targets 20' to 30' away from your boat bow, then pitching to the spot works far better. In fact a soft and accurate loop cast works great in lieu of pitching if you are moving slowly and targeting specific spots with 1 cast instead of saturating the target with several pitches. The bottom line is; use whatever rod you cast that presents the lure effectively to the small target area. You don't need to rip the bass out of the water to catch it. Tom

As suggested a simple balance beam should work; 3 pennies= 1/4 oz 4 pennies = 3/8 oz 6 pennies = 12 oz Approximate weights, close enough for fishing jigs. Jig weights are usually rated without skirts or weed guards. Tom

Sunline FC does stretch, it has a higher yield strength so it take more tension to stretch it. I have been using Sunline for over 10 years on jigs and other bottom type presentations, but not for crankbaits. The reason is cost and knot strength issues. I use 12ib Berkley Big Game for crankbaits and buy it in 1/4 lb spools because it cast very well, has good knot strength and the lower cost allows me to respooled line often. Where I fish there isn't a lot of vegetation to rip through, deep clear rocky structure lakes, so this works for me. Tom

During the cold water period of winter the deep water remains warmer then the surface water. Underground spring water will be the warmest natural water coming into the lake during the winter. The shallowest volume of water will warm faster the nearby deeper water. Shallow water that isn't subjected to wind creating upwelling current will warm faster then areas where wind is present. Darker color bottom or rocks have very little thermal heating affect. Bass stage in deep water near traditional spawning areas, where there is abundance of prey available. Tom

I believe the Zero Gravity jig has a lot of merit under the right conditions where bass want the profile this offers; head size, hook size, trailer size but falling at 1/3 rd the speed of a traditional jig. Shallow night fishing shoreline brush for example, this jig will crawl through limbs and over rocks and stay suspended and fall slowly giving the bass a chance to easily strike it. This is a specialty lure for specific applications. The problem is it looks like a traditional jig and most anglers will try to fish it like a heavier jig and loose patients fishing with it. This reminds me of the Schurmy shad spoon; aluminum spoon that looks just like a heavier Hopkins shorty structure spoon. The Shurmy shad is perfect for shallow basis working shad schools as the shad leave shore cover, it swims and looks like a shad and falls about 2/3rds slower than other spoons. Today only a few anglers who know about the Shurmy shad use them and catch a lot bass, same for Zero gravity jigs. Tom

Don't feel like you are alone with the promise of buying a lure that will catch a lot of bass, every angler on this site has bought lures that fall short of expectations. When the A-rig first came out tackle shops couldn't keep them in stock, the newest panacea lure that had the promise of not only catching bass but several big bass on 1 cast! The hype is now gone, however A-rigs do catch bass and like every lure it must be fished at the right time and place to work.Unless you have a bass boat or fish from a bass boat that has electronics to locate schools of bass on baitfish, the A-rig is a low percent lure to cast and retrieve. A-rigs work where bass are feeding on schools of bait fish at the depth the bass are feeding. If you are casting from shore you are better using 1 of the swimmers you fish on the rig. Tom

When you say a Texas rig worm today there could be a few different definitions and variations. To me a T-rig is a sliding bullet weight and worm hook tied to the main line. The worm is rigged with the hook point inserted in the worm nose to the hook bard (1/4") the is pushed out out of the worm body, rotated 180 degrees, the hook pulled until the eye is just inside the worm nose, then the hook point is inserted into the worm body so the worm is straight on the hook; classic T-rig. When this rig is cast out the sliding sinker moves away from the worm sinks to the bottom, the weight hits bottom before the worm. The hook also weighs the worm nose downward and unless you dead stick the worm after the cast the is moving slowly by the time you start your retrieve. The retrieve varies a lot, but the rod lift from 3 o'clock to 1 o'clock pulls the line, the weight slides down to the worm moves forward. Most strikes occur during the fall through the water column, with the worm off the bottom and nearly weightless. Tom

I posted that Dobyn's 764CB RM is a good all around crank bait rod. The is a $250 price range crank bait bait, 7'6" for the deep divers between 1/2 to 1 oz cranks. Lew's Fritz series crank bait rods are also good for a lot less $$, not in the same class as the 764CB RM however. A few years ago I picked a Loomis GL2 PR843C from a clearance sale that I use for smaller crankbaits 3/8 to 1/2 oz. This isn't a traditional bass crankbait rod, it's a salt water popping rod that works for small crankbaits and a good structure spoon rod! Tom

There is a super floating worm that was reintroduced by CLU the DJH floating worm. Mister Twister also offered a super float curl tail. I still use the original super float works good as a jig trailer at times with a split tail. The super floats are closed cell foam soft plastic worms and float like a cork! Tom

Roboworms and Iovino worms both float well. The nail rigged worm set up properly will stand on its nose tail up. You cut off 1/4" of the worm nose flat, insert a lead or tungsten 3/32oz nail weight onto the flat nose and wacky hook the worm about 1" back of the nose with a light drop shot hook Gamakastu or owner style octopus, size 1. Gamakatsu #11 size 3/0 should work for worms 6-7" long, straight shank will improve your strike to hook up ratio. Not a fan of using braid direct to T-rigged worms, unless the cover is heavy and water off color, but 20# braid is small diameter and should be OK. Prefer 10-14 lb premium mono or FC for T-rig worm fishing. Tom

First things first; do your worms float on the water surface without a hook? If they don't they will sink and lay flat on the bottom with the hook sideways. Worms with good floatation the tail will float upright, the heavy style wire hooks will lay on the bottom sideways at rest. Adding a glass bead bead between the weight and hook helps the worm to separate a little from the weight and tends to float upright a little easier. Using a lighter wire worm hook will also help to prevent the hook weighing down the worm head and laying flay on the bottom at rest. Shaking the worm instead of letting it lay still is your best bet, along with the glass bead and lighter wire worm hook, if keeping the worm off the bottom is an issue. Tom