WRB-2.0

Tyler type the word "Oldschool" in the search tool and read Oldschool horizontal jigging . How you fish a Football jig is important, good luck with your jig fishing. Tom

Just looked at this thread, did you go yet? Tom

Everything on the site is a knock off of someone's products! Before you buy, you should know where the lures are being made! Tom

I posted a thread Oldschool Horizontal Jigging, Sept 15. Take a few minutes and locate the thread and read it. Tom

How much do you want to know; Larry McCain a tool maker that worked for JPL in California make the first football jig mold that I am aware of back in the mid 60's. The football head shape was designed to prevent the hook from rolling over and snagging in rocky areas when the jig was cast and retrieved similar to a Texas riigged worm. A plain painted black football jig can be used with a Yamamoto Hula grub, single or twin tail, 4" pr 5" grub, this combination is a good choice for casting and retrieving a jig. Yamamoto makes an inexpensive football jig, about $4.50 for 5 each and I would recommend the 3/8 or 1/2 oz size with Owner or Gamakatsu 4/0 hook. A bait casting reel with 12 to 14 lbs FC or hybrid FC line , medium heavy 6 1/2 to 7' fast action worm/jig rod. Several of the sponsors on this site offer football style jigs with skirts and they are as good as the hook they use. If I had to pick one color it would be purple/brown or PBJ combination and crawdad color trailers. Tom

If the original bag is a zip lock bag to start with and some are, no reason tomake a change. However if the bag is heat sealed and you must cut it open, then a good quality zip lock bag is a good idea to help preserve the worms. When you do change bags, keep the original bag label to identify the worms. Tom

You could go to a larger size Splash-It that may entice the bigger spots to strike the fast moving surface lure. You indicated you tried the A-rig without success, have given a shad colored 5" or 6" swimbait a try? Big spots will eat swimbaits! The aggressive spots are striking the Pop-R type lure and their fight is attracting the other bass. The other bass don't disappear, they return to where they came from and should be still exited and looking for another baitfish, that is when the swimbait could work best. Another thought is a 6" Lunker Plunker fished fast like the Pop-R type lure. Unlike the Spook that moves side to side a Plunker is more forward movement and could trigger the bigger bass. The next option is a structure spoon with feathered treble, fast and flashy, one of the most effective shad lures. Tom

George isn't a newbie bass angler with a PB at 5-6 lbs! He is asking how to consistantly catch bass year around and for any bass angler to become consistant, you need to understand basic bass behavior and seasonal period locations. No lure or live bait will work fishined in the wrong place at the wrong time and a wide variety of lures will work fished in the right place at the right time. Tom

Bill Dance is a very good tackle salesman and puts pro in promotional angler! Bill got me on the sonic battery powered jig and weight kit, can't remember the name? I thought this concept could work for night bass tournaments, spend a lot of time trying it without success. Got me hook, line and sinker with that device!

Are you using a Pop-R or a Pop-R type lure? what type of bass? Spots, smallies or LMB and what is the bait fish these bass are schooled up on? Tom

Roboworms Don Iovono products Uptom's Customs. Tom

I have been painting bullet weight for decades and painted bullet weights are a common commercial item. Lead, brass and tungsten painted basic black, purple and brown are most common. Bullet weights are also available powder coated similar to jig heads. Spray painting with enamel is easy, if you want to paint your own. Use bare wire , run the wire through 10 to 12 weights and twist a loop on both end to keep the weights on the wire. Hang the wire with the weights and spray paint them, let dry and untwist one end to remove the weights. Tom

Can you say "temper managenet"! The guy managed to lose his temper over nothing. You are lucky he didn't jackknife his rig across the entire ramp before you had a chance to luanch. At least you had enough space to load and leave. Thanksgiving Holidays; we are greatful you had a good day on the water. Give this guy his space, he might do something really stupid next time. Tom

If you have a bowl shaped small lake with weed beds dying off the bass should be where the warmest water is located. A deeper water break could be as little as a 1 foot break line. I would definitely work the outside edges of the weed beds and spend my time looking for any rocks near the deeper water areas. You might want to try a small crankbait that runs about 7-8' and crank it down, then slow it down with a stop and go retrieve. A weedless rigged drop shot would also be a good choice, with a 4 to 5" worm. If you are looking for bigger bass, a 4" or 6" Trashfish or similar swimbait would work, swam along the outside break line. Tom

Fresh water gets denser until it reaches 39.4 degrees F, then it gets lighter and floats on top until it freezes at 32. How much cold water affects fall rate is marginal, unless it's frozen! Tom

Line diameter and line type; FC, hybrid, mono and braid all have different sink rate based on how much line is on the water. Braid and mono both tend to float and act like a float slowing the lighter jig sink rate a lot. The line diameter also affects the sink rate,the lighter jigs, everything under 1/8 you are more than likely using line less than 8 lb test. FC line sinks fastest, hybrid is next with mono and braid being slower, everything else being equal. If you have a swimming pool near you, test the fall there, most pools have the depth marked; ,3', 4', 6', 8'. Just use your own count like 1 one hundred, 2 one hundred etc, then you can use the same counting method when fishing. Contrary to popular belief 50% of the jig strike occur on the fall! So learn to watch your line where it enters the water and makes a V as it sinks. The V is your strike indicator, when it stops or moves to one side a bass has the jig in it's mouth,. Your line may jump slack when it hits bottom or when a bass stopped it. If you know the sink rate, you should know when to set the hook.....it takes a lot of time on the water before all these factors become second nature and you instinctively "know" the difference between the jig hitting bottom and a bass strike. Just remember swings are free and hook setting is the best teacher. Good luck. Tom

Any jig is only as good as the hook used to make it. Good quality jig hooks cost about .35 each, the average BPS or other discount house the hook cost less than .05 each, you get what you pay for with hooks. You can make up your own jigs with good quality hooks for about $1.80 per jig or purchase complete good quality jigs from site sponsors for under $4 each and I recommend one of those choices. Tom .

Finesse simply means Precission presentations, it doesn't mean slow fishing! Aaron Martins is one of the best finesse bass fisherman on the planet and he has ADD and learned to concentrate on the details that make finesse presentations affective. The classic A personality is driven to make changes, tinker with their tackle and try lots of techniques, whereas the B personality tends to follow instructions dot to dot and be satisfied with a lure or presentation that worked ounce. Tom

You can purchase plain or painted jigs with Owner or Gamakatsu hooks from Gary Yamamoto and Barlows Tackle for examples, then purchase skirts separately from Barlows or a similar outfit. GY sells 5 jigs for $4.50+. Need to check Barlows skirt prices, 5 for 3.00+ est. = about $1.80 per jig for good quality. Tom

VMC makes a good quality replacement treble hook for Rapalas, go to their site. Black nickel or red nickel have the same corrosion protection, so It is your choice! I given the red treble hooks a try and still use them on the lures that have been changed, results...no difference IMO. White rear treble hooks do make a possiitive difference, but require you to paint them. Tom

George, The Okuma is a spinning reel, the US Reel SX810 maybe be a spinning reel? You have a boat, but probably not a bass boat. You have been studing bass fishing, but have not had much success catching bass. You are in overload, relax! To catch bass with any lure the bass must be in the area you are fishing and I realize it's a problem knowing where to start! Let me see if I can help to make this easier and not more complicated then it is. Bass location is seasonal, it is now winter in most areas for the bass. This means the bass are in deeper water now and deep water is nearly always in the 1/3rd of the lake near where the dam is. This is the area where you need to fish until it starts to get warmer in about 3 to 4 months. So let's fish in the deeper area. What you can use with your spinning outfits are soft plastics, like the Senkos you like to use. Senko's have a lot of salt inside the plastic and they tear easily, the salt is what makes it sink. Yamamoto makes a soft plastic called a fat Ika, this is a better deep water soft plastic, then a Senko and can be fished a little faster. Take a look at the Gary Yamamoto site for info on the Fat Ika. What I suggest for you is a finesse C-rig called a slip shot rig.and You use soft plastic worms, size 2/0 Owner 5100 or Gamakatsu 11 light wire worm hook and Top Brass Prov-Jo 3/16 and 1/4 oz weights. The weight is held up the line away from the hook with a Carolina Keeper about 18", if shore fishing and can be adjusted easily to make it longer or shorter. The color soft plastics for cold water should be darker tones. Purple with red flakes and some brown works very good. You can look at Don Iovino worms or Roboworms 6" curl tails on Tackleware House. You can also use grubs like Yamamoto 4" single or double tails on the same slip shot rig. This gives you soft plastic choices that will catch bass in deeper water fished from shore or a boat. The spinnerbait is better when the bass are more active in shallower water, if you it now slow down the retrieve so it runs deeper. Good luck, enjoy your time on the water and the bass will start to cooperate soon! In about 3 months the bass should move into the middle 1/3rd area of the lake, then the Senko and spinnerbait are more effective. Another 2 to 3 months (March or April) the bass move again into protected shallow water areas to spawn, the Senko is very good at this seasonal period. The next 2 seasonal periods are summer and fall. Bass can be everywhere then so all your lures and presentation learned so far will continue to work for you, if you can locate where the bass are and how deep to fish. By this time next year, you will be sharing your advice on how to catch bass. Tom

Bass fishing should be fun, so you should use lures and a technique that you enjoy fishing with, not something someone else is skilled with. I have a few questions before making any suggestions; 1. What type of rod and reel do you own? 2. Do you fish from shore or a boat? 3. What lures do you like to fish with? Tom

The IGFA could open the door to a new world record largemouth bass by simply recognizing that FACT that northern (M.s. salomides) and Florida strain (M.s.Florides) LMB are TWO different fish and establish a record for each species. The easiest field identifier is the lateral line pour scale count: NLMB have 68 ot fewer pour scales, FLMB have 69 or greater number of pour scales. You can count lateral line pour scales while the bass is alive and laying on a wet towel and I have done this many times! IGFA has already established the FLMB records, both the Kurita and Perry bass are FLMB, leaving open the world record for NLMB. Tom

Pork rind lures date back t the early 1900's and jigs even further back dressed with feathers, we are talking true antique lure when you fish a jig n pig. The jig I fish with dates back to 1971 when the mold was made, I fish this jig dressed with deer hair and a Pedigo pork trailer design that dates back to the 50's, nearly every time I am bass fishing for 43 years. I have lost count on the number of DD bass caught on this old hair jig with pork trailers. Tom

Micro-Light! Tom