WRB-2.0

When say small high pressured lake, how small and what type of bass fishing pressure? Tom

Tackle tuning time. Cleaning and tuning reels, you can do the basics or depending on skills perform more detailed cleaning., or send out to a good reel service technician. Clean the rods, handles, inspect guides, etc. Sharpen hooks; practice honing until every hook point is as sharp as possible. Most anglers today believe their hooks are sharp enough, every hook that has been fished needs resharpening and most new hooks can use a little fine honing. Re organize the tackle and reintroduce yourself to tackle you have forgotten about. Nothing brings back fishing memories then touching and feeling lures. Cleaning lures, touching up paint chips, doctoring lures with red gill slits, painting rear treble hooks on crankbaits, leave the paint off from the barb to the tips. Lots of things to do to get ready for good weather during winter. Tom

It's true! A jig is a simple lure; a hook with a head molded onto it. The hook is important, most commercial jigs use undersized hooks, a few use good premium hooks. I make my own jigs with premium hooks designed for fishing deep rocky structure lakes that have giant bass populations. The one fact that will garantee is majority of big bass strikes are missed by jig anglers that never knew they were bit. Tom

Live big Canadian night crawler, fly lined with a weedless size 1 Gamakatsu wide gap finesse hook should work a high percentage of the time. No 1 lure will solve your problem. Soft plastic worm, splt shot rigged is as close to a live night crawler as it gets. Tom

Got to love your title, most of us don't need a strategy to get skunked, it just happens! There isn't a lure made that will prevent being skunked. Tell me about your boat, do you have a good trolling motor and what type of electronics are you learning to use? A bass boat is a bass boat for a reason; to allow you to locate bass control the boat position to allow you to present lures effectively. kVD or any other pro elite bass angler can't catch bass if the bass are not located where they are fishing. Your first task with your new boat is learning to locate bass. You do this with your sonar unit and a basic understanding about bass behavior; where the bass should be during any specific seasonal period. It is currently winter everywhere bass live in the USA. Take some time a study winter period bass fishing techniques and location. In a few months, depending where you fish, it will be transitioning to pre spawn, the next seasonal period you need to study. Learning to operate a new boat distracts your concentration or focus on fishing, instead you are thinking about boat control. My advice; put your rods in the locker and enjoy the new boat and learn how to handle it properly and learn how to use your sonar unit. After a few hours driving around and metering serval different areas, including the marina where you launched you boat, you should be able to determine the first piece of the puzzle; how deep the bait fish are located, you may also see a few larger marks that indicate bigger fish. Find a major lake point near the dam area and survey that point from close to the bank out as far as you can, make a turn and follow the opposite side of the point back near the bank, watch for bait fish or larger marks. Repeat the survey on every main lake major point in the 1/3 rd of the main lake basin where the dam is located. Next go into a bay or creek arm and repeat metering a few points. If your lake has river or creek channels near those major points, try to follow the channel break and watch for bait fish. You should notice the depth is remaining about the same every time you meter bait fish, this is the depth you should start to fish. Good luck. Tom

I have no idea what happen to the post I made on this topic? Bass are sight feeders and have eyes near the top of their head to take advantage of prey on or near the surface or in front or above them, they don't see what is underneath or behind them. The basses other primary sense is detecting water vibrations via their well developed lateral line. The combination of sight and vibration detection (underwater sound) gives the bass an advantage over their prey. When a bass is in shallow water, water less than 8' deep, bass tend to be within a foot or so off the bottom, so almost everything they eat is in front or above them. When your lure hits the water within 20' they know it is there via the lateral line or sight or both. If the lure is falling down through the water column and they have enough time to react and are active feeding, they may strike the lure. 3' of water isn't very deep, so the faster the lure falls, the less time a bass has to react. In shallow water you want lures to fall slower to give bass time to react. If the lure hits the bottom before the bass can react, the only option for the bass is to swim over to the lure and strike it on or near the bottom. Bass are not normally bottom feeders due to they way the eat prey; bass engulf prey by vacuuming in the criter, then closing the mouth and crunching to kill it. The heavier the weight, the more difficult it is for the bass to engulf a lure off the bottom. To effectively detect strikes with a jig, you must concentrate on what is going on; you must watch the line where it enters the water and feel the line to detect any strikes. Very few bass anglers are good jig fisherman because they rely on the bass to hit a jig so hard the line movement pulls on the rod tip, these strikes are rare. If you are not detecting strikes on the fall, you are missing a lot of strikes or fishing lures to heavy for the depth of water. Tom

Had a chance to look in the boat for the ?? Top water Sammy type lure and it's a Shad color Vixen, excellent lure. I also discovered another larger top water rainbow trout lure I use a lot called a Pup Fish, both are no longer made. Tom

You can do a web search for water clarity, make a secchi disk and lower it down in the water. OR....tie on a white spinner bait, reel it up the the top guide and lower your rod tip down 3', if the spinnerbait disappears the water is low visibility. If you can see it at 3', then take the rod out of the water, let out 6' of line and lower the spinnerbait down to the rod tip; if you can see the spinnerbait you have good visibility, in regards to bass fishing. If you can see the bottom clearly at 10' you have clear water, 25' gin clear water. Tom

Slip a treble hook into the tube and use it on a Panther-Martin inline spinner for smallies, or on a structure spoon for LMB. Tom

What part of a pig is a craw, the jig & pig comes from a jig fished with a pork ring trailer, not a soft plastic imitation crawdad! Just my end of the year rant for all those who have hijacked the name jig & pig. There is a good thread at the top of this forum "Jig Fishing Questions" with some answers to your question about bass striking lures that fall down through the water column. Bass have their eyes located near the top of the head to give them good vision looking upward for a good reason; to see prey above them, they don't see to good what is directly below them. It is natural for a bass to strike something falling down through the water column. If you are fishing in shallow water, the bass will more than likely be within a foot of the bottom and we see your lure from distance, unless it falls very near them, they only have less than a few seconds to react befor the lure hits bottom. If the water is 10, 20, 30 feet deep, the bass has more time to react to a lure falling down through the water column. In shallow water most strikes occur during the retrieve when you are casting a distance, on the fall if your are flipping a lure a short distance. The best way to increase strike detection in shallow water is use a little weight jig and always watch where the line enters the water and cuts a V. If the V stops the jig is on the bottom or in a basses mouth! Tom

Roboworms makes a wide variety of worm styles in addition to colors. The colors you have work good in off color water. Roboworms are a soft worm and may tear when used on some shaky head jigs, depending on how the worm head is attached. You may have better performance using a drop shop rig or a 1/8 oz dart head jig.IF you have the 6" fat worm, it works better on shaky heads than the smaller diameter straight tails. The Ehrlers Edge is a dark color, the Aaron's morning dawn is a litght bright color. Tom

Big difference between a dog walking surface lure and a wake bait. The MS Slammer is a wake bait, Spooks are dog walking surface lure. My favorite walking bait ?? Can't recall the name, it's a balsa Sammy and need to dig it out and look at it. The original wooden Sammy is a close second. Also like Owner's Zip n Ziggy, a limitle smaller and cast great in the wind. The old Rogue Paw Scooter and Buc n Brawl rear prop baits are excellent, just change the hooks, if you can find them. Merry Christmas. Tom

At your local fly tying shop or a supplier like Barlows Tackle... Specialty hair jigs are home made or tied by a special order custom jig maker.. Good luck! Tom

Merry Christmas to all and a happy New Year. Tom

ALX does make an off the shelf Zolo-B series OBS-82-XF, 2+ power drop shot rod for $185 that is equal, IMO, to the Loomis NRX rod ($525), check them out. Tom PS, I used Lamiglas rods for over 30 years and changed this year to ALX and not sponsored by any rod maker, both are made in USA with lifetime warranty.

The reason I believe Dobyn's SS 692 or SSM 692 is ideal is Gary's lifetime warranty , top quality giudes, reel seat and blank for your $150 budget. Gary is available to discus your fishing questions, few rod makers today offers that level of support. The Shimano and St Croix rods referenced are $250 price range 2X the Dobyn's Savvy series. ALX rods offer far better custom rods at the $200+ price range and Alex makes all my casting rods today that are equal to top of the line Loomis for 1/2 the cost, IF you are not limited by budget constraints. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. Tom

There are basically 2 groups of swimbaits; those that are under an 1 1/2 and larger or heavier swimbait the exceed 1 1/2 up to 7 oz or more. The smaller or lighter swimbaits that are used as fish head jig trailers can be fished standard med/hvvy to heavy jig rods. This category work well for adult size bass generally between 4 to 6 lbs with an occasional bigger bass. Technically this are soft swimbaits or swimming jigs. The other group include trophy bass swimbits, they are too heavy for standard bass tackle and require specific swimbait rods and reels that larger diameter spools with line capacity of 200+ yards of 20 lb monofilament line. The larger lures appeal to the biggest bass in the lake. So really depends on what your goal is; catching good size bass or catching trophy size bass. Tom

The 3 power rods are more towards medium with more tip power, less bend, so it depends on the line you use most of the time. There is a good Aaron Martens article on drop shot Jan 2013 Bassmaster mag. I have a medium 3 power Lamiglas Ecel 703 and has a soft enough tip, but I also use 3/16 & 1/4 pz weights with 6 lb FC line in 15' to 45' of water. The SS693 is a good all around spinning rod. If I was to buy a specific spinning rod for drop shot or light inline spinners, the a 2 power is ideal for the lighter line applications. Tom

Spinning rod with 6 to. 8 lb line Dobyns SS692 under $150 a good drop shot rod. Tom

When you look at a bass notice where and how the eyes are located.....near the top of their head. Bass are sight feeders and see upward very well, they are always aware what is on or near the surface, especially in shallow water. Your decision of what lure to try is up to you, like everything else in bass fishing only the bass know what they may react to at any given time. When there isn't any wind starting out with quieter lures that make less surface disturbance is a good choice. Slight breeze with rippled water, then the poppers and chuggers work well. As the surface gets more agitated your lures should make more noise like propellers or buzzers. To fish heavy weed cover or mats the lure must be weedless. Frogs are made for weeds and so are some weedless spoons, both also work in open water at times. In the spring bass often target baby or small birds like baby ducks and blackbirds, there are some great bird lures available. For open water areas wake baits that run just under the surface work well. Tom

Tinkering with bass lures is a big part of bass fishing, use your imagination and go for it! Pro bass anglers are always tinkering with lures to get an edge over their competition, anything you read may be no longer a useful "secret" for the pro, may help the recreational anglers. Soft plastics are fun to modify, take a look at Wormizer a worm welding kit that comes in usefull to weld damage soft plastics and adding additional tails, appendages, etc. SpikIt dye pens are also useful. Lead or tungsten nail weights come in handy. A sharp thin blade fillet knife and flat board comes in handy to cut or split worms. Sharpie pens work good to add color, dots or stripes. Hard lures like spinnerbaits, crankbaits and spoons have endless modifications that can improve strike ratios. Feather hooks, storm dot weights, colored hooks, craft glitter, blades like Colorado, Indianna, willow in different sizes. Make up a kit with split ring pliers, small needle nose pliers, small wire cutters, filler knife, clear nail polish, glitter, sharpies and feathered treble hooks, plus the Wormizer kit and start tinkering. Tom PS; Shad colored crankbait or jerk baits with white read treble hook.

I wonder how many times this topic has come up....hundreds! FC line is a monofilament, meaning single extruded strand, the difference being polymer; fluorocarbon verses nylon. Fluorocarbon is not stronger than nylon, it' has less light refraction and that is the only reason to consider using FC line. If you are fishing in off color water, FC line has little to offer. However if the water is clear and the bass are line shy, then FC is a good choice. The bottom line is FC stretches about the same as nylon, except FC line doesn't recover; it stays stretched and becomes smaller in diameter and weaker. When you tie knots with FC line you should avoid reducing the line diameter from the pressure of tightening the knot and squeezing line deforming it, thereby weakening the knot. All good FC knots cushion the line and deform it less than knots that apply high pressure. Lubricate the knot to reduce heating and pressure. Learn to tie your knots at home and practice looking for flattened line near the knot. I use FC line because of the gin clear water and use small diameter line to reduce line drag in the water. I also use premium nylon mono line, also small diameter whenever I can; meaning if the bass will bite I will nylon mono, if not I will go to FC. The reason mono knot strength is about 20% stronger pound per pound verses FC line. I use the San Diego knot for FC, it tests stronger and fishes stronger than any other knot with FC line, for me. Hybrid FC/nylon line is a good compromise; better knot strength then FC and reduced light refraction then nylon. Tom

The S-Waver is more of a glide lure like a very slow motion jerk bait retrieve and don't over fish it. The baby bass color is more chartreuse/lime green and is a good color choice for this lure. The Lunker Plunker is another excellent surface fast retreive wake bait you want to consider. Tom

Where I bass fish the lakes don't get extremely cold and freeze, unless they are above 5,000' altitude. My seasonal periods are broken down into 8 seasonal periods by water temperatures at the depth the bass are using; Mid-winter, 40-55 degrees, mid lale location, bass migrate vertical. Late-winter, 55-60 degrees, mid lake location, bass migrate vertical. Pre-spawn, 56-62 degrees, main lake points, bass migrate vertical. Spawn, 62-65 degrees, no migration, wind protected bays, coves. Post spawn, 63-68 degrees, secondary points, horizontal migration. Spring, 65-70 degrees, transition period to summer, vertical migration. Summer, 68-80 degrees, located everywhere, horizontal migration. Fall, 68-58 degrees, main lake/large creek arms, vertical migration. There is a lot more to seasonal periods thn I can list in a short post. You are now in mid winter, the bass should be keying on bait fish schools located in the main lake areas and major points. It's a time you use your sonar to search for bait fish and look for diving birds that feed on bait fish. Good lures are structure spoons, A-rigs, Swimbaits, jigs and drop shot worms. Metering around major main lake points is your best bet and learning to use structure spoons during winter seasonal period should produce bass for you. Tom

The shorter a swimbait is the more difficult it is to get good swimming action at slow speeds. It may take trial of several baby swimbaits to find 1 that bass will strike. There are tricks that cn help like boiling the swimbaitand stretching the tail section about 1/2" so the tail swims at slower speeds. A size 1 Owner stinger treble hook should be OK for the baby Optimum, although I haven't used it. Tom