WRB-2.0

The difference between west coast slow and the rest of the country is; west coast we stop the trolling motor and make several casts at different angles on a known spot. We often refer to this as a milk run, hitting several spots and making casts. Most of the country bass anglers put the trolling on a setting and fish while the boat is continually moving...too fast for most swimbait presentations. The big difference between Matt and Me is I use jigs to saturate a spot more often than T-rig worm is because the presentation I use for jigs is faster than I fish a worm and have better success for big bass with jigs. Matt makes excellent swimbaits, however this topic is about hollow body swimbaits, not small swimbaits in generally. +1 on 'Matt's trophy bass skills, we both fish similar lakes. Tom

Do it all the time, right hand bait casting, left hand spinning, but not comfortable switching either one. You might to check if you are right or left eye dominate, before changing a bait casting outfit from right to left. I don!t need accuracy with the spinning outfit and do with the bait caster. Tom

Most crank baits are not UV stabilized plastics and extended hours in direct sunlight may fade the paint and also weaken the plastic....a double edges sword! Action is far more important than muted colors with crankbaits, no 2 crankbaits have the same identicle fish catching appeal. This is an old trick that's been around for decades with no lure maker offering muted painted series crankbaits to date. On the other hand brighter crankbaits with more flash has gained in popularity. Tom

Very little response to this thread. The jig skirt is a major component and well over 50% of the anglers, who purchase jigs, make their decision based on what they hear or read someone said or reported they cuaght the bass on. When you considered the vast majority of bass anglers never tell the truth in regards to what they actually catch the bass, making a decision based on what another angler said is questionable. A pro bass angler is a promotional angler, his or her job is selling you lures and tackle and that should be another consideration when choosing lures. When you look at the simple jig, a weighted hook, the number 1 selling jig skirt is silicone skirt material in black with blue highlights, number 2 is silicone skirt in green pumpkin with red flakes. Silicone skirts have the least water resistance and movement of the top skirt materials in regards to catching big bass; living rubber and hair out perform silicone in the number of big bass per hour fished. The color black is also a low color choice for soft plastics fished during the day time and the color combination black with blue highlights doesn't match the hatch across the country in regards to the color do crayfish, outside brackish water ways. The color green pumpkin has some merit when considering matching crayfish and some baitfish. What I believe a jig skirt does for a jig is creates life like movement and contributes somewhat to the shape or profile of the jig or what is referred to as bulk. A good jig skirt should be capable of attracting the bass to the lure and inducing a strike .....without a trailer! A good trailer should also be capable of doing the same as a good skirt....catch bass without the jig skirt. The combination of both elements are a very effective skirt and trailer is the jig you should be fishing. If you believe you must have a trailer to catch bass on the jig you are fishing with or the triler must be combined with a skirt to catch bass, you should reconsidered both. I believe the #1 color combination black and blue works across the country because of the number of man hours this jig is fished and is a low % color combination in normal light conditions. My most productive skirt color is based on brown with highlights of purple and black. This color combination is also very good when combined with trailer that are one of the colors. Green can be substituted for black; brown, purple and green and this is my second choice or first depending on water clarity and seasonal periods. My top choice for skirt materials is deer hair and second is living rubber. Both are low in popularity because they are drab and don't contain colorful flakes or stripes....which help sell the jig. Tom

Maybe we can hear from a few jig makers why they make their jigs with a specific skirt. The history is jig skirt materials is interesting, here are a few; Deer hair, feathers, natural rubber, vinyl, monkey hair, synthetic hair, living rubber, Mylar, micro rubber frog hair, silicone strips, etc. Tom

7 + lb smallie! Tom

The thought that bass hold tight to cover and do not leave when you are dropping a lure on them isn't always true. Bass often get spooked off the cover on your first pitch and return a few minutes later and reposition on the sme cover. If you are making several pitches, make them from a different angle, the bass may react . Tom

If you have a boat with a sonar unit you can determine if a thermocline exists, no thermocline indicates the water column isn't layered and a lake must layered in temperature breaks to turn over. Not all lakes turn over. If you are metering fish at all depths, without seeing a thermocline, this also indicates the water column is fairly uniform water temperature and the lake is stable and hasn't turned over recently. The water color isn't murky and doesn't have an odor is another indicator that the lake hasn't experienced a recent turn over. If you are catching fish it doesn't matter, if you are not; it makes a good excuse. Tom

I have been fishing swimbaits for a very long time and every swimbait has a unique action depending how fast or slow you retrieve them. Hudds are designed to be fish very slow with most of the lure action coming from the tail swimming. Your only problem with a soft swimbait like a Hudd up north is toothy predators like pike tearing them apart. Tom

Reading several threads on this site the replies about bass jigs regarding skirts the commits related to skirts are interesting bad differ widely, so what you thinks a jig skirt does to cause a bass to strike? We know a skirt adds color, size and movement, but why would a bass prefer a silicone, living rubber, deer hair, or features? What was also interesting to me is how many replies stated that they use hair jigs without trailers! A jig without a skirt is nothing more than a weighted hook, what do you believe the skirts adds? Tom

You are teaching someone how to bass fish as a bass club member, right? Does your club allow the use of live bait? If not why go there. To teach you should be capable to teaching the skill. My son wanted to learn how to golf, so I paid for golf lessons, why teach him my poor golfing skills! You need to pre fish and know where the bass are located, don't try to teach when the bite is tough! I did teach my son how to bass fish when he was about 3 years and another 100+ 5 to 7 year olds Indian Giude kids how to bass fish successfully without using live bait. Your spinning tackle is perfect for the technique and presentations I like to use to teach new anglers to bass fish; slip shot rig and small soft plastics like reapers or 5" finese curl tail worms*. The slip shot rig consists of a mojo cylinder 1/8 oz weight, a small black swivel and size 1 premium light wire worm hook*. This is a finesse C-rig when you use a swivel, I prefer to use a Carolina Keeper and glass bead for the slip shot rig, however with a beginner using a spinning out fit, the swivel is needed to reduce line twist. You want to start with a 18" leader length to make casting easier. With a boat you can locate bass on your sonar unit, try to find bass areas with few or no weeds, points are a good location. Ounce you determine where the bass are located and depth the bass are at, you simply drag the slip shot rig through the area on the bottom, slowly. You can use the trolling motor to control the speed and where the rig is going until a few bass are caught, then let the angler cast and slowly retrieve the rig along the bottom. I use night crawler color worms (oxblood red flake) and shad color reapers, skin hooked....simple and very effective. Tom * Roboworms and Gamakatsu #11

Bassrrix created the hollow body swimbait along with several other hollow body soft plastic lures that all work extremely well. The 6" paddle tail is the most popular and comes in enough color combinations to work anywhere bass live. You don't need special swimbait rods for the 5" and 6" hollow body, however you do need heavy enough jig or worm rod rated for 1 oz lures and 20 lb line; medium heavy to heavy, 6 1/2' to 7' worm or jig rod works OK. Moaner's kneel weight swimbait hook in 5/0, 1/4 oz works good. The big difference with any swimbait is a very slow retrieve and the vast majority of bass anglers simply can't learn to slow down and properly present a swimbait. My suggestion when starting out is not to start fishing a swimbait until you have gotten the urge to cast and retrieve lures and cover water, swimbait are a saturation presentation where you spend a lot of time in a small area. To fish any lure slowly you must have the mind set were you know bass are located where you are fishing, how deep the bass are holding and what those bass are targeting in regards to baitfish. Good luck! Tom

Depends on the jig type. A plain head with a Yamamoto hula grub,,single or double tail works good. A shaky, wacky or dart head with a worm, no skirt works good. Hair jigs tied with rabbit fur or marabou, work good without added trailers. Cold water jigs, the trailers can be very short, giving the jig a smaller profile, it's has a trailer, just a smaller than used in warmer water. Tom

Bill Murphy, In Pursuit of Giant Bass. Tom

If lure manufacturers offered lures that looked like a bait fish without eyes they would go out of business. Glass eyes were offered on wooden plugs as far back as the 1890's. Predators target bait fish by striking the eye end of the bait and some bait fish have evolved to have false eyes on the middle or back of the bodies; threadfin shad for example. Jigs with eyes.....if the jig mimics a bait fish, eyes help convince a bass the lure is real baitfish. Tom

I started this thread because of the general lack of concern for this storm, it's seemed last years storm that didn't live up to the hype was creating a false sense that Sandy would be similar. Sandy was massive and had another artic storm approaching, a very differ situation and potentially very dangerous as it turned out to be. Members needing help, we are here for you with our prayers and support. Tom

The USPS is unreliable, UPS is reliable with accurate tracking. Never ship anything of value via USPS. It can take up to 3 weeks to ship USPS, so wait 4 weeks and then apply for your $100. Good luck! Tom

Lizards have been around about as long as soft plastic worms and I consider a lizard as a creature bait and can be fished anytime a creature works. The classic lizard bite is during pre spawn to spawn because bass at the time target egg eaters like salamanders. During the spawn color doesn't make any difference, it's purely kill the egg eater. Lizards are also a good night soft plastic, they move more water than a standard worm and have a profile that appeals to bass. T-rig and C-rigs both work with lizards. Tom

Eyes are very important to lure designers trying to minick baitfish with eyes. We have holographic eyes, yellow, red and black eyes, eyes that look down and bug eyes that bulge out. I have had days where ghost shad crankbaits with yellow eyes out fished the same lure with red eyes and vises versa, trout swimbaits with gold eyes verses yellow eyes, holographic eyes verse standard painted eyes. When you are fishing alone it doesn't make any difference, however when your partner is catching them on a certain eye color and you are not, then eyes are very important. Now we just need to figure out what the bass like best and know one knows for sure! I do know that jigs and worms do not need eyes...unless.... Tom

Let's define heavy fishing pressure; small lakes less than 2500 acres that receive several hundred tournament bass clud and derby anglers every weekend year around and define SoCal bass fishing. High pressured bass see every lure several times during the life time and most are caught several times. So how do you complete with all the other skilled bass angers and catch these bass consistantly? Finesse fishing was created in SoCal due to this problem. Finesse can be described as presenting a lure precisely or presenting a smaller lure on lighter line precisely. The answer to your problem is learning how to finesse fish when the bass are not active feeding. To be successful you need to learn where to fish during each seasonal period. Tom

Simply read what the manufacture advertise the scale to be; within 1% or 2% etc. Digital scales rely on battery power and batteries are not all equal in power or shelf life. 3 factors to consider; scale accuracy, battery type and life and temperature all affect what the weights your scale displays. Tom

Why do you blame the slow fishing on turnover? First there must be a thermocline layer established to turnover and without a boat and a good sonar unit, it's difficult to know a thermocline existed. If you smell a sulfur like odor and see floating patches of lake bottom scum or debris and off color water, then a turnover may have occurred. There is nothing you can do until the water column settles down and the bass and prey fish re establish new locations and feeding patterns. Dieing aquatic vegetation is normal as the seasonal period transitions from fall to winter, that isn't a turnover. Being shore bound makes it difficult to move around easily or fish the steeper deeper water areas and that is where you should start. Tom

I fish in SoCal deep rocky structure lakes for trophy bass, so my jig choices are selected to catch big bass in clear deep water with sparse cover. I use a 7/16 oz custom jig, stand up style not too much different from the Seibert Outdoor jig. The big difference is NO fiber style weed guard, because I would rather loose a jig then miss a big strike! A jig is only as good as it's hook; never, never, never use a jig with a dull hook, a weak hook or a undersized hook, cheap jigs will cost you big bass. Here is a little tip; 90% of jig anglers miss detecting a big bass strike! The reasons are; undersized dull hooks and weed guards, when casting a jig and retrieving it. I fish hair jigs or living rubber skirt jigs year around. Silicone skirts work for average size or tournament size bass, look great with all the colors available. If your goal is catching numbers of bass, then soft plastic trailers and colorful silicone skirts work. Your jig should be about 4" including the trailer, during the colder water periods, this means smaller 3" trailers extending behind the hook. Tom PS; the Nu jig is the only jig design I know of that can be fished in both heavy cover and deep structure lakes, with it's unique weed guard and head design.

I see you are from NorCal and the jig style is dependent on what type of jig fishing you plan to do. If you are flipping or pitching vertical presentation in heavy cover at the delta, you need a Wadda jig or a Nu jig or similar jig that can be worked in tulles and weed mats. However if you are fishing deep structure lakes with sparse cover and deep rocky structure you should consider a jig designed for casting. So....where are you fishing? Tom

Turn over means there isn't a thermocline and the water column is mixed equally from top to bottom. Pit lakes a small and usually deep with sharp angles banks, if not vertical. The fact that the pit is a lake and not a hole in the ground means it has a water source that keeps it filled. The water source is a key element and during the cold water period is a source of warmer water. The other key structure elements are the road beds where the escalation equipment used to enter and leave the pit, any rock piles of boulders that were too big to move and the perimeter of the pit banks where vegetation and any wood cover will be located.. The bass will still roam around the banks and located in the deepest areas where the warmest water is. Fish the pit the same as before the tourn over, except the bass can now be anywhere. Suspending jerk baits may be a good choice to locate bass. firetaiger color should work. Tom