WRB-2.0

Living where water temperatures rarely drop below 45 degrees we bass fish year around. Winterizing boats, taking our batteries out so they don't freeze, are things we only read about. Tom

Xtool Grip N Fish floating digital scale.

Not sure why you think the 5" Roboworms EZ Shad swimbait is too big, 3 lb bass will eat this anywhere. If you want a smaller profile, don't use a bulky jig, Roboworms also makes a 4.25" minnow and Little Crippers 4" Trash fish in a color that works in your area would be ideal with a smaller jig. You should also consider using a Scrounger jig with a soft plastic jerk bait trailer, slimmer profile and very effective combination when the bass want a faster moving lure. Tom

Your goal should not be focused on not getting snagged, it should be on catching bass. A Senko, due to its heavy salt content doesn't float, it sinks as it's name indicates. Expecting the hook to sink a soft plastic without any additional weight added will,take more time then most anglers have and casting from shore will reduce your casting distance and if it's is windy will be ineffective. Trick worms and surface or near surface soft plastics work good when the bass are looking up for prey. It's now fall transitioning to winter, the bass are deeper and moving, not a good time to sit in one spot and fish very, very slow. If you are going try weightless worm, try it, however get yourself some round split shot about the size of a small pea, no ears, and clamp 1 about 14" above the worm; this is called a split shot rig. Good luck with your bass fishing. You have been given some good advice, try everything and you should find a presentation and have success. Tom

Trying to get a different angle by moving higher up the bank and sideways, walking parallel up or down the bank was an option that I mentioned and a few others have noted and is good, but not always possible. Keeping the worm or creature on the hook correctly doesn't help to prevent snagging, it helps getting a good hook set because the soft plastic doesn't slide down to fill the hook gap or cover the hook point with more plastic. Pegging the weight to the hooks creates a more streamline lure that will go through cover better than a sliding weight and will prevent some snags......however you will miss more strikes when casting a distance. A pegged rig is the same as a jig, the weight goes into the baases mouth, the bass feels the weight and rejects quickly like a jig. A free floating worm or creature is more life like, no weight in the basses mouth, so the bass will hold onto to it longer and that increases strike to hook up ratio. I have been fishing jigs a very long time successfully. I do not like to fish jigs from shore because of the uphill retrieve makes it difficult to feel strikes when working the jig uphill in cover, a finese C-rig or T-rig (with sliding sinker) works better for me when fishing from shore. Fan casting by starting down the shoreline in front of you and working a fan pattern 180 degrees. Everyone snags bottom bumping lure, all you can do is try to work it free, easily at first before forcing it free. Tom PS; lure retrievers are not practice for shore anglers. Sliding lure knockers work good used from a boat when freeing lures with treble hooks, not very effective trying to free a jig or worm rig.

There are a lot of techniques to keep the worm head from sliding down the hook. The rigged shown requires a barrel swivel, there are a few wire keepers on the market, they add weight and cost. There are also hooks designed to keep the worm head in place: KVD Mustad and Roboworms Rebard for example. I use a 1/4" piece of Peg-It through the hook eye, then pulled into the worm head, works great. When you peg the weight to the hook as shown, it becomes a Florida rig, good for vertical presentations and not my choice for casting. There is a advantage allowing the sliding weight to slide; the weight separates from the worm on the fall giving the worm freedom of movement. I also like to add a glass bead between the weight and hook, protects the knot and adds clicking sounds. When you snag a T-rig, the weight moves away from the worm and helps to loosen the hook from the snag. Unless You fishing heavy cover, a T-rig will usually out fish a Florida rig when casting horizontal and retrieving from shore. The finesse C-lrig, I believe may be your best choice for shore fishing soft plastics. Tom PS; you can make a quick finesse C-rig when using a T-rig with a glass bead by pegging the bead up the line. Use the thin ends of the same Peg-it you use to hold the worm to the hook eye into the weight and thie rubber will hold the weight against the hook for a Florida rig. I think we are getting into the lure forum.

Where to fish should be your goal, the lure needs to be able to work where you fish it. Top water lures are most effective the hour before and after it get dark. T-rigged soft plastics work in shallower cover areas, down to about 10'. If you don't fish the lure during the day time, leave it home at night. The all time best night lure across the country is Berkely's Power worm, 7 1/2" and 10" in black or black with blue flakes. T-rigs are simple to use, don't snag often. Go up in line size to 15 or 20 lb and use 4/0 hooks with 3/16 oz weight. Learning to use new lure at night isn't productive and very frustrating. Tom PS; like Bo I aml a jig fisherman and that would be my first choice, however a ,cold dark night is not a good time to learn to fish jigs.

Fishing from shore you are trying to work a bottom contact lure up hill through cover ( bushes, logs, etc are cover elements) and bottom structure like rocks etc. try a finesse type C-rig and lighter weight T-rigs. The key to not getting snagged is to recognize a potential snag from a bass strike and not setting the hook hard into the snag. Lift your rod as high as possible, you may need to get higher on the bank, and lightly jiggle the lure free by bouncing the rod tip against a little slack line. You can move sideways to get a different angle, this works at times. Ounce you barry the hook point into wood ot wedge the weight into a crevice, you are out of options from shore, your line either breaks or the lure pulls free. Tom

I am not sure what Culprit worm has a sawtooth tail, Culprite is known for their ribbon tail worms. Zoom makes a gator or G tail worm. Since the bass are going to be eating the worm, you must put the worm in front of the bass. The style of tail is designed to give the worm a life like motion and move water to create vibrations to trigger strikes. No panacea with tail types, only the bass know what they want at any given time.. All mass produced soft plastic worms are injection molded with a durable plastic that has less under water movement than the more expensive, less durable hand poured worms. You get what you pay for. Tom

Technically depressions are a structure element, not cover. The edges are a break, the bottom of those depressions could be filled with muck that robs DO, if the bottom is rocky, then it could hold some prey. If the depression has a spring, very good cold water period location; the spring water would keep the depression warmer. Trust your sonar and survey the spots in deeper water, fish them if you see any signs of fish. Your bass are more than likely smallies where you fish and they tend to roam around a lot, so it may be necessary to recheck those spots occasionally. Tom

Yozoi is a hybrid copolymer line with FC outer jacket, not a true 100% FC line. Hybrids are a compromise, larger diameter than most FC or mono lines per lb test rating, about .002 oversize on average. P-Line FluroClear is a little more expensive, softer and better casting lime, then Yozoi, IMO. FC line doesn't absorb water, mono does and this makes casting FC line more difficult, dry line tends to backlash a lot easier than a line that wets. This means you should use a line dressing to help lubricate FC line. FC knot strength is about 75 to 80% of the line strength, the reason you see so many different knots being suggested. Try a 100 yard spool of both 100% FC and a hybrid and decide for yourself what you prefer. Tom

The Shannon twinspin with the buck tail hair is light weight and falls very slowly through the water column. Shannon also made a heavier lead head model that the hook was clipped onto, the hook had died chicken feathers, the blades a tear drop design. I may have a few in my collection somewhere. We would replace the feathered hook with a 5/0 worm hook and add a 9" Uncle Josh black widow eel for a trailer and slow roll the twin spin along the edges of structure back in the 60's. This combination became known as the "thing" a mystery lure we kept secret. We started making our own twinspins with spreader wires, football head jigs, vinyl skirts and split tail pork rind trailers, this design twinspin I still use today. The key is fish it slowly, let it fall and try to keep the twinspin within a foot or so off the bottom, vary retrieve speeds until the bass react. Twinspins are not like a today's spinnerbaits, they work better with a slower retrieve. I will send a photo of a few home made twinspins.. Haddock lures and Markey lures were the last commercial twinspins of this design that I recall and maybe on EBay? Tom.

I make my own also that I use a football jig and celvis with wire spreader, small swivel clips with Colorado blades. . Tom

ThenHack Attack is a classic flipping / pitching jig designed for vertical presentations. Grass is a term used for aquatic vegetation or weeds is some regions. Brush is wood, underwater bushes with lots of small branches to hand up in. Grass will wrap around the line and the jig, where brush doesn't. A brush jig is designed to go through small branches without getting hung up. A good grass jig wil go through bush when cast a distance and retrieved, a good brush jig may not get through grass without being wrapped in grass. Tom

Books should be selected on what your interest are, there are a lot of bass fishing books out there. Historic books start with the The Book Black Bass by Dr. Henshall. Some early books of interest are Lucas on Bass, Jason Lucas, Black Bass by Robert Page Linclon. Lucas was the fishing editor for Sports Aflield and Linclon for Outdoor Life during the '50's. On the lighter side is Think Like a Fish by Tom Mann, early B.A.S.S. pro and creator of Hummin Bird Electronics and Mann's bait Co. Trophy fishing Bill Murphy's In Pursuit of Giant Bass, is a must read and Sowbelly by Monte Burke is a good read. Bill Siemantel's Big Bass Zone is worth reading if you are a swimbait fisherman. Finesse bass fishing Don Iovino's book Finesse fishing and the Sonar Connection is a must read. Every top tournament bass angler has a book out, take your choice. Tom

Think deeper water in ponds and small lakes. Water cools top down, when the water finally ices over the deeper water is the warmer water, if only by a few degrees. If you know where springs are located, they stay about 60 degrees year around. Fishing from shore limits where and how you can fish, try a finesse slip shot rig. Mojo 1/8 oz sliding sinker, Carolina plastic keeper for a weight stopper, size 1 Gamakatsu #11 worm hook, 8# mono, 3" to 5" Roboworm, they float good. The weight stopper is adjustable, 24" to start with. Skin hook the worms. Substitute brands you like and weight to suit where you fish. Everything else you fish will work. Tom

Too many variables to toss out an answer; type of jig, type of cover if any, type of structure if applicable, lake, pond , river etc, type of bass, type of trailer..... Tom

Like most fishing terms what is the definition of a finesse jig? A dart head, shaky head, wacky or any small jig? The jig head with living rubber trimmed to have a lion collar; Original Skinny Bear for example is a poor choice because the forward facing skirt strands collect moss. The grass jig with protected line tie eye and jig head shaped to slide through weeds is your best choice. Sieverts look perfect! Tom

Rick Tabor, western pro who has won the US Open using a Spook, advocates tying a tight knot directly to the Spook line eye, with the knot high on the eye the Spook has maximum side to side swagger because the nose sits higher, tied to the center the lure forward motion is greater and tied to the near the bottom of the eye the runs with less swagger and glides less. Tying direct lets you have more control how the Spook walks. Rick is also credited for adding split rings to hang the treble hooks, today's Super Spook Tom

Persuader makes a hard top water baby mallard duck that works good, not weedless. Tom

The bird has been in production about a year, prototypes around about 2 years. There is a web site flipping the bird.com with a video. Tom

You need a jig that will slide through the submerged weeds without getting weeds wrapped around the jig head or the line tie at the hook eye. You are casting the jig, so you don't want the weed guard to get in the way of hook point when trying to set the hook. Brush guards, regardless of what everyone is telling us, causes missed strikes. To reduce missed strikes; spread the fiber type weed guard out into a Y, then fan the fiber strands out flat as possible. The fanned out weed guard will help to improve hook sets and keep weeds off the hook. Go with the lighter weight jig heads, the jig should work through the weeds and contact the botttom where the weeds are less dense. 5/16 oz or 3/8 oz is a good starting weight. If you need more weight, just peg a 1/8 bullet weight to the jig hook eye. Tom PS; take a look at the Horizontal jigging thread, some good tips on casting a jig.

I would go with 15# or 20# premium mono (Big Gmae), 1 knot, easier to cast and work the spook. Also go with a Super Spook that has free hanging treble hooks. You can add fly line dressing to about about 18" next to the Sppok, help the float the line and kee it off the water as the lure does it dog walking action. Color depends on the water clarity and prey type the lake has; darker colors for lower light and clear colors for bright sun light and clearer water. Tie direct to a Sppok, no clips! Tom

The VMC 1X round bend size 4 should work, this is the hook supplied on Lucky Craft RC 1.5. The round bends are shorter and help to prevent tangling, and wider gap to improve hooking the bass. Tom

Can better define the water color and clarity....? Can you see a spinnerbait 3' under water and are the gold blades more visible than silver? Tom