WRB-2.0

Hand made 3:16 lures have a waiting list and cost over $300! The original wooden Huddleston trout have been sold for over $1,000 and sold for $60 when they first hit the market. Tom

1 from Japan...22 lbs 5 oz is the world record! Tom

What you use really depends on the type of bass you have in this lake, largemouth or smallmouth bass. The cover you re targeting sounds like LMB and you didn't describe any structure like bottom features; sand, gravel, rocks, channels, dam, rip rap, perminate boat docks or boat houses, pilings etc. Weed breaks and lay downs are shoreline cover elements that attract LMB, outside or off shore structure tend to attract the more roaming smallmouths and larger LMB. For the shoreline cover you mentioned; Top water Chug Bug and Spash-It worked along the breaks and lay downs. 3/8 oz swimming jig in Charteuse/green/blue skirt with green pumpkin 3" curl tail grub. Broken back Rapala in fire tiger. over looked lure good for small lakes. Texas rigged 6" finesse worm, 1/8 oz sinker, 2/0 worm hook, color of your choice. Tom

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fish/Resources/BlackBass/history.asp These are the California official state bass records, bass that were weighed and authenticated by the DFG. Dottie the bass reported to weigh 25.1 was never officially weighed or examined at that weight. Bob Crupi's 22.01 falls into the same unofficial category, both bass released before officially weighed and examined. Bass anglers have a long history of fudging weights by adding items inside the bass or the scales are not accurate. The bottom line is giant bass over 15 lbs are extremely rare fish and over 20 lbs, all we're caught in California and 1 from Japan....22 lbs 5 oz, the current world record largemouth bass. If you don't have FLMB strains in your lakes you have 0 chance of catching a world record LMB! Tom

There isn't 1 northern strain largemouth bass from any state that exceeds 17 lbs! Any LMB that exceed 17 lbs has Florida LMB genes. California's state record for NLMB, before FLMB were introduced was 15 1 oz., after FLMB were stocked in 1959 that record fell until it reached 22.01 lbs (Crupi). It's all about genes, available food source with ideal growing conditions and sanctuary areas to escape fishing pressure. Tom

Bo James Nu jig with the dual weed guard design should be a good choice for the all around jig, when he gets it on the market. The Nu jig is unique in the fact it solves the problem of having a hook exposed and set back fat enough to get good hook sets when casting a jig and being able to go though heavy cover without hanging up. To date no one jig can do this effectively. This jig has been tested by some of the best jig anglers and Bo has incorporated inputs and should have this jig ready to go soon. Bo intends to become an advertiser, so I it's ok to mention this jig. You have advertisers on this site that have excellent jigs to select from, high quality with premium hooks that should perform well; try a few different designs and go with what works where and how you fish. Tom

If you are setting the drag on a bass reel the maximum tension you should set is 8 lbs and that is for a heavy action rod. Use 1/3rd the line strength of mono or FC line, not superbraid, is the proper drag setting. If you are thinking about a good spring scale, then a 10 to 12 lb range scale is ideal and accurate. All digital scales are dependent on battery life for accuracy. Tom

I rarely reference anything published in Bassmaster magazine due to the articles are nothing more than product promotions. However the Dec 2012 has an article with Mark Davis on winter crank baits that is a must read. Mark Davis doesn't over promote tackle and focuses on the details that are important and you can apply to other lures. Because planted rainbow trout are a prime food source during the winter where I fish swimbaits are always a lure I use. jigs are my favorite lure year around and winter is a good time to jig fish because crayfish are another prey the bass are keying on. We also have threadfin shad so the shad crankbaits are a good choice, however I prefer using structure spoons when I locate bass feeding on shad schools. If nothing else works the drop shot or slip shot finesse worms can save the day, if I want to just catch a few bass on light tackle. My day is usually spent casting swimbaits and jigs because winter is a good time to catch big bass. Tom

If you have a small specialty tackle store near where you live, please support them. Today with online buying the mom and pop tackle stores are going out of business daily. Where I live we had J & T Tackle shut the doors a few months ago. J &T was a mom and pop bass angler hang out that had all the top end state of the art bass tackle and local hand pours, swimbaits, rod and reel repair and warranty service. J & T supported and sponsored local bass tournaments and is the shop that Aaron Martins got his start. The online stores put these small shops out of business because bass anglers tend to be short sighted, using these stores to touch and feel products, then go online and purchase the products at 5 to 10% less. When the shop is closed, the same anglers wonder what happened and don't have a place to hang out or get their reels refilled with line, repaired and complain about shipping cost for rod warranties and lose contact to what ts going on at the local lakes or what is new. The fallout impacts the local hand poured products because their primary source of retail outlet has dissapaered. The larger chain sporting goods stores may have one person in the store who may have some bass fishing skills, usually a local tournament angler who works there, however these stores are there to turn a profit and must compete with Bass Pro or Cabelas and online stores, the tackle is purchased from large distributors, so they must rely on what is in distribution and rarely have current state of the art products. The big box stores have their own distribution and the sales people rarely have any fishing skills. Tom

DVL has been getting stocks of brown trout and since DVL was built in a dry valley without any historic streams that never had native trout eons ago, so it can receive trout plants. The problem with DVL in regards to producing a WR LMB is competition with stripers. DVlL may be pased it's prime year for producing giants consistantly over 15 lbs and hasn't produced 18 lb bass, let alone a 20+. The CA FLMB reach prime weights at age 11 to 12 years old and start to lose weight from old age 13 to 15 years old, their maximum age under ideal conditions. DVL is definately a contender and so is Castiac lagoon, due to the fact trout stocking has resumed there. We have a lot of lakes that are producing 12 to 13 lb bass, the key is 18+ and the only 2 lakes to do that this year was Perris and Shadow Cliff. A13 year old caught an 18.9 lb bass from Shadow Cliff! Tom

This is the premier bass seminar event for SoCal each year and nearly every bass angler in the area will be there, however due to recovery from spinal surgery I will miss this yers event. There is always a few BAT special edition swimbaits available at this event, so check them out and do not pass them up! Tom

You are going to need a lot of football jigs if you plan to flip or pitch them into heavy cover. The Arkie and brush (alien) heads are better suited for heavy cover, the football better for casting. However your question was about skirt colors and that choice should be to get the bass to strike your jig, not what is popular regionally. Not knowing where you are located limits suggestions. Crawdads change colors to match their surroundings, but 90% of the crawdad color is brown, so brown should be a major color consideration. Brown with purple highlights is choice #1, Purple is a combination of red and blue, high visibility color and common for both crawdad and bluegill. Tom

Unless California resumes stocking rainbow trout into lakes that have FLMB populations, the possibility of a world record bass from California is a very low possibility. Butch Brown catches more giant bass each year than anyone and his PB is 19.3 lbs,. authenticated or officially weighed 20 lb largemouth bass are extremely rare. California is the only state to produce 20+ lb FLMB with the one exception of the Goerge Perry WR form Georgia in 1932. You never say never, look what came out of Japan, the probability is very, very, low that a new WR LMB will be caught. My PB is 19.3 lbs and believe I had 2 that were over 20 lbs that got away. I haven't seen a LMB that exceeded 30" and that is the magic number. The Karita WR bass 22.3 lbs., and Dottie were 29.75" long with girth exceeding 28". My 18.6 & 19.3 were both the same length; 28" with 28" girth......2" length could = 5 lbs with these giants, if they have the right food source! Tom

I mentioned this just the other day, when I launch my boat there are 4 rods out and ready to go; a jig rod, a worm rod, a swimbait rod and 1 other rod depending on the seasonal period. I keep another 12 rods combos in the rod locker for a total of 16. During the day my goal is to have 1 rod out, the 1 that is catching bass! Tom

I cast right handed, so that factor doen't change. I have been casting bait casting reels since the mid 50's when these reels were only made with handles on the right side to take advantage of the handle being positioned at 12 o'clock to aid in casting distance with the spool shaft riding on the bearing on the opposite end...the old knuckle busters! Reels have gone though a lot of design changes with multiple bearing, however still cast better with the handle upright. The biggest downside for me is in the way I hold my rod, hand mostly in front of the reel, so I can run the line between my thumb and index finger. 60+ years of training my left hand and finger to send feed back to my old brain can't be undone in a few years and why change when it works for me! I can keep up with anyone that I have ever fished and catch my share of big bass. If you are a jig angler or other soft plastics that require instant feed back that a bass has the lure in ti's mouth, you will never realize that fact faster relying on your sensitive fingers, instead of the rod. If you change to the left hand reel; try to learn to feel the line as it comes off the reel, this will improve your strike to hook set ratio, right or left handed.. Tom

The classic Carolina rig or C-rig to me is a sliding egg sinker, bead, swivel, leader, hook with soft plastic worm or creature. The classic Texas rig or T-rig being a sliding bullet weight, hook and worm or creature. I can't remember using the classic C-rig, however often use a finesse version I call a slip shot rig; sliding mojo style weight, glass faceted bead, rubber Peg-It or C-Keeper, hook and soft plastic worm or creature. The difference being no swivel or leader. I do fish the classic T-rig, however usually use a modified version called a doodle rig; add a facetted glass bead and use brass painted bullet weight. The added bead clicks when the bras weight hits it and has proven for me to be far more effective than a plain T-rig. I mostly use the slip shot or finesse C-rig with spinning tackle, 1/8 oz Pro-Jo weight (brass painted mojo) 7mm glass facetted bead pegged as a weight stopper, light wire premium worm hook and finesse worms. If the bite is tough or I am teaching a new angler to bass fish, this rig works great. The C-rig or slip shot rig works good fished a bottoms that have a gentle slope with breaks tht drop a few feet, not steep banks or deep cliff drop offs. The T-rigs can also be affective in similar areas and works OK on the steeper breaks, althought I prefer a jig when the structure has sharper and deeper breaks. Tom

When I am bass fishing from my boat 3 rods are always rig just before launching; 1. Jig rod with a hair jig tied on, 2. Swimbait bait rod with a Cross-loc clip tied on and 3. Worm rod brass n glass (3/16 oz ) and 4/0 worm hook tied on. These are my go to outfits year around. I may add a crank bait rod to the mix if prior outings had a crank bite, a spinnerbait, buzzer in the summer or a spoon rod during the fall-winter periods. I am first and foremost a jig fisherman, however a swimbait is often what I cast first, because any active big bass will strike a swimbait or look at it more often then any other big bass lure. I always fish the same area with a jig, if the area is good jig water or the a big worm or creature depending on the structure and cover. The fact I catch 80% of my DD bass on jigs, not swimbaits or worms, is the reason I spend more time fishing jigs. However, if I am fishing from shore, my first choice is a big worm. Tom

I think we have been spoofed, hook pointed down, line and sinker, we swallowed it all! Or.....he is using a trailer hook up side down? Tom

There isn't any scientific proof that moon phase has a direct affect on bass feeding activities and a lot of reports to prove that point of view. There is little scientific proof that bass behavior is based on any repeatable pattern, other than they spawn each year. IF you ask a successful trophy bass angler what days they choose to be on the water fishing, given the fact they can choose which days they want to fish and days around the new and full moon will be a factor. Bass are animals and every animal is affected by moon phase and gravity affects. Gravity directly affects tides and fish like grunion run to spawn on the high tide of the full moon, like clock work. LMB make their first major spawning run during the first full moon period when the water warms to 62 degrees, every year. The best pre spawn week to fish for trophy bass is the week before the full moon prior to the first spawning run. No science to prove what I just said about LMB other than several hundred DD LMB that I have caught during this period. The best days are low light days with light rain for pre spawner's. Summer full moon nights are the times night tournaments are schedule if possible because of better win weights than any other moon phase. Could all this be physiological, could be as there isn't any other scienintifc explanation. Tom

Bo gave an answer so maybe there is a straight hook style football head jig on the market. There are football style slip sinkers. Maybe he is referring to curl tail soft plastic trailers with the curl pointing down? The traditional football jig uses a 90 or 60 degree bend jig hook and the football shape head always positions the hook upright, with the line tied to the hook eye. Tom

We should ask what you mean by light weight lures. The dividing line between bait casting rods, not reels, is lure weights under 3/16 oz or line strength under 8 lb. A 3 power rod is far more common than a 2 power rated for 1/8 oz lures; Dobyns 682C or 702C. When you go up to 3/16 oz then several rod makers make 3 series. RW suggested a 3.series rod for example, that can be used with most light weight low profile bait casting reels. 6 lb line with 1/8 lures with a 3 power rod works good IF you have very good casting skills. 8 lb with 3/16 oz lures with a 3 power rod is easy to cast with modest casting skills. Tom

10 lb test line (mono or FC) is hold be strong enough to get a good hook set with hooks up to 3/0 IF you don't rely on the rod to apply all the force to the hook. The Compre series rods have a lower power rating than makes, medium light deoesn't tell what power rating the rod is. I believe If you learn to reel set and use a firm rod sweep, you would eliminate. Most of the hook setting problems. I use 10 lb mono/FC line often with jigs that have 5/0 hooks, the rod is 5 power and lure 1/2 oz, and use the reel set with rod sweep on giant bass...10 lb line isn't the issue. Tom

With 6 Lb mono/FC line and a bait casting reel to cast effectively you needs a slower action rod with less power; medium action 2 power is ideal for 1/8 to 1/4 oz lures. The rod needs to be able to bend under the weight of the lure at 1/2 the length of the rod to start the spool to rotate at the proper speed, then the lure must continue through the air with enough energy to pull line off the spool to archive distance. If the rod is too stiff and the lure too light the spool starts faster then the lure speed and you have a backlash as a result or the lure only travels a short distance. Spinning reels have a stationary spool, can't backlash, the casting distance is only affected by line friction and lure weight, the rod stiffness isn't a major factor as it is for bait casting reels. Tom

Ambidextrous people have balanced right and left brain hemisphere, a right handed person is left brain dominate and you can't change that. The reason I mentioned checking your eye dominance, right or left, is important to determine if you can learn to be efficient with the opposite hand.. You can get this by holding your arm out straight in front of you, raise an index finger upright and using both eyes align the finger on a distant object. Next close your right eye, if the object is still aligned you are left eye dominate. Now close your left eye, the object should move to the left and that where the object actually is! The opposite is true for right eye dominance. With a lot of practice you can become fairly good at casting with the opposite dominate hand, but the target will always be to one side of where you see it and must learn to compensate. Most anglers change to the left hand casting a bait caster so they don't need to change the rod back to the left after casting. This has a few advantages, but not enough to off set the disadvantages. Tom

This jig has a "keeper" as you call it. The other jigs are very compact design for dropping the jig straight down into cover. You could nose hook a trailer or as suggested superglue it in place. Without the skirt, the compact jig can be used with wacky rigged Senkos. Tom