WRB-2.0

Basically the same locations you find them during pre spawn, except the smallies will be roaming or and looking for prey in the 8 to 10' break line; or deeper; larger bolders and any isolated stumps. Good pair of plorazed glasses and watch for any bass interested in your lure. Multi bass fishery. The LMB should be a little tighter to cover, same areas as the smallies but shallower and bright green heathy weed beds should hold the LMB. Cloudy days both bass could be roaming looking for bait fish,,Crawdads appeal to both bass; I prefer the more compact finesse jigs for smallies and larger trailers for LMB, both will react to a drop shot 6" finesse worm. A spinnerbait is a good search lure and often works very well in the fall, just work it deeper and slower; Indiana blades help to reduce speed and work the 5' depth zone so you can see it and watch for followers. Tom PS; keep in mind that fall can bring on the dreded turnover; if your lake bottom debris floating and the water smells a little like sulfur, change lakes for a few weeks or move to the opposite end and check that water. Lots of adjustments ongoing during the fall, once it settles down, some of the best fishing can be on tap.

A real test for the PH meter is just around the corner for most deep structured bass lakes; the fall turn over. You don't really need a PH meter to see floating bottom decayed debris a usually can smell the order, but the PH will definitely show a drastic chance. What you do with this this information is really the crux of how usefull a PH meter is to a bass angler. You can survey the lake looking for neutral PHmor do why I do....change lakes for about 2 weeks until the water settles down and the bass feel better. Tom

The PH range for the sunfish family, including bass is about 5.5 to 8.5, a wide range. The more acidic the water the lower the PH, the more alkaline the higher the PH and as noted 7 PH is neutral. The vast majority of water storage reservoirs will have a PH close to 7, small ponds and natural lakes with a lot of weed cover may get down to 5, deep rocky structure lakes on the Colorado river may reach a PH of 8. Some Florida natural lakes have a PH of 6.5, not considered ideal, but the Bass manage to grow well. If there are bluegill or other sunfish present in the water, the PH supports bass. The presence of baitfish is the key to locating bass, not the ideal PH levels. Today's bass anglers rely on sonar to locate bait fish and bass; PH, DO, water temperature are important factors, however seeing the bait fish and bass confirms where the bass are located. Tom

Thie lunar effects of bass feeding activities is primarily at night during the summer period, minor effect during the day light. The full moon period or 2 days before and after have a major affect during pre spawn and spawn periods. I haven't experienced full moons increasing feeding activity any other seasonal period, except as noted during summer nights. If you are fishing tidal influences water, then the moon can have a direct effect on tidal feeding activity. Tom

2 acres at low water pool may not be enough to sustain many adult size bass, due to the lack of cover for the bait fish, Crawdads and whatever else the bass have to eat. Swim bait like Matt Lures bluegill or crappie would be a top choice, the bass are going to be very hungry and susceptible to being over harvested. Tom

What makes anyone think bass know what month it is? The basses calendar is controlled by water temperature and changes to their habitate and need to procreate. Shorter length day light time has a direct affect on both water temperaVtures and vegetation growth. The prey that use vegetation to survive and use as a sanctuary must relocate when it starts to die off and the bass being a predator keep close tabs on their food source. If the water temperatures are in the mid 70's and cover is still supporting prey, no reason for the bass to move or start making a transition to the fall period. When you no longer see bait fish around cover and the water temperatures drop into the 60's, then the bass should be in transition and moving. If the summer thermocline has broken up due to a combination of colder nights and day time wind, bass and baitfish can be difficult to locate until the ecosystem settles down into the fall and winter seasonal periods. Southern deep structure lakes have shad making it easier to pattern than northern lakes with dermasil cover type bait fish. Crawdads are the equalizer and a good time to focus on jigs. Tom

Time under strain creates a condition known as creep; the polymer compresses, the knot loosens. FC creeps and does not recover after, one reason knot strength is lower then nylon monofilament. You combine the fact most superb braids are Teflon impregnated to reduce drag and wear, knot failure is. common problem. Re tie your knots at least 1 time every outing, never leave knots over night. Some coat the knot with super glue, however the keystone in the glue can weaken the FC polymer and doesn't adhere to the Teflon coting on the braid. If you see any shinny spots or flat spots on the FC after tieng. Knot, cut it off and retire. The best knot strength you cn expect ith FC line is about 80%, 75 is about average, after taking a Set for 24 hours the knot strength will drop off to less thn 50%.......so re tie often! Tom PS; if FC line didn't have knot strength issues, there wouldn't be so many solutions to resolving knot failures, it's a problem and knots like the Albright take care to tie properly. I would change also change the leader each outing, pro's respool line every night, expensive, but a lost big bass is money!

It's hard to argu Rick Clunn's success, harder yet to accept unconventional thinking. Zen is eastern and I don't mean east coast of the North America. We have a lot to learn from other civilizations in medicain and nature. The American Indian developed an appreciation for their spirite, becoming one with their environment. Zen is Ricks way of being focused or in the zone. With the pressure of catching bass for a living, being focused on what is going on around you helps to figure out the activity level of the ecosystem and knowing when the bass will be active and where and eliminates a lot of distractions. Watching the sun rise and the activity in the water and animals around the shoreline to determine if the ecosystem is active is one of the joys of fishing, staying in tune takes a lot of dedication and practice and Rick Clunn is the master. Tom

Bass, like almost all fish are cold blooded animals and the water they live in dictates their metabolic rate, the amount of food they need to consume to grow and thrive. Warmer water within the basses comfort zone, the bass will be more active and their prey more available. Life is easier for bass during the summer than during the winter and they eat more. The logic that bass are bass are more active during the summer is true. If you can locate active bass, then use lures that will appeal to active feeding bass. The problem is bass are only actively feeding about 10 to 20% of the time during a 24 hour period. That means the bass are inactive more time than they are active, year around. Inactive bass may not react to the prey around them or your lure. It's during the transition period from being inactive to becoming active, that bass may prefer slower moving lures that look like an easy meal and strike when not feeding and this occurs about far more often, then bass chasing faster moving lures or prey. Tom

With today's precision reels you can use whichever you prefer. It's all about balancing the rod power and flexibility to the lure weight and line diameter. Few bass anglers will invest in high quality bait casting reels and 1 or 2 power slower action rods required to effectively cast lures less than 1/8 oz. Open face spinning reels and medium action bass rods are less expensive and can easily cast the lighter weight and less aerodynamic lures, with less casting skill. I use spinning reels/rods for the lighter weight applications and drop shot presentations whenever I need line size 6 lb test or less. 8 lb and up, bait casting is my go to technique. My advice; do not compromise on quality, buy the highest quality rods & reels you can afford. Tom

This year di not strat off very good for me, although some new swim baits like little clippers 8" Trash Fish and 2 new smaller Garbage minnows have promise. I received the new swimmers nd experimented rigging with a modified butch Brown head treble hook rig using a short a wire on. Owner CPS nose insert inserted spring, super glued in place and duded a 3/32 oz nail weight under the he'd mounted sie 1 treble so the lure was balanced and swm properly. Never got a chance to fish this rig, my legs became very weak, unable to hook up the boat! I have a condition called spodylolothesis were my L5 vertibrea is bone to bone to the til bone (S1) and the vertibrea is broken in half from an old gymnastic injury that self fused. Apparently the vertibrea broke loose and started to crush the spinal cord/nerves and surgery became a high priority. We have one of the best spinal surgeons at Cedars Sinani, Dr Dlemarter, and I was lucky that he was available. My fear was being able to walk, let alone fish again. It's been 3 weeks and I can walk unassisted; no walker, no cane and very little pain. 6 months should put me into my favorite pre spawn period and be in better physical condition then before all this started. Also discovered ALX rods, Alex made up 3 custom jig rods for me on blanks equal to Loomis NRX series, and if you need a good jig rod contact Alex, his custom rods are about $220 delivered ith a life time warranty. I did get a chance to fish with the new rods they are very well made, the guides micro are placed for maximum casting distance and I believe superior to the NRX rods for less than 1/2 the price. The wether should be settling down with the monsoon season tapering off, so get out and catch a few for me! Tom PS; thought this was. PM to Raul, didn't relealize it was posted in the thread, apologize if the ALX reference was not for a site sponsor and details about my recent surgery wasn't met to detract from the weather topic.

Get your self an anchor and about 50' of 3/4" anchor rope. Mark the anchor rope every 10' from the anchor; 1 stripe for 10', 2 stripes for 20' etc. Quitly approach the point, slow down about 150' off shore and ease the anchor down to the bottom, let put another 15' or so rope nd tie it off. You wnt to end up about 90 to 100' off shore in front of the point, so you can cast towards the shore and make fan cast to cover the area. You cn pull in some anchor rope or let more without lifting the nchor up and be able to fish froma stationary plate form. Double anchoring; anchors from the bow and stern give you more boat control, 1 anchor should get you started. You can move the bot closer to shore nd cast out, move up wind nd cast back, etc. This take more time then using a trolling motor, but a lot better than being on the bank. Tom PS; If you are fishing from shore, the sme location; points surrounded by deeper water should hold more adult size bass from late summer through winter.

So to recap you have a boat (pontoon) and a older sonar unit, so you are not shore bound. The shore cover like lay downs can hold a few summer bass, mostly young of the year or juvenile bass and occasional auldt bass my move onto shore cover. During the hot summer days most of the dull site bass seek deeper structure or cover, at least deeper than 8'. Check out the cover you like to fish, but if nobody is home move to deeper water up near the dam area, if the lake is a man made reservoir. Spens some time fishing the major points, those long points that are at lest 100 yards long. Also get yourself a bag of Carolina Keepers, plastic weight stopper that you can easily change the T-rig into a Carlonia rig by adding the keeper between the eight and hook. Place the keeper about 24" above the hook to hold to bullet weight from sliding down, works very good. Next you need to down sie the worm to. 6" curl tail and size 1/0 worm hook. Slow down and cast or drag this rig from the point bank down s deep s you cn feel the weight making contact on the bottom and work all around the point, both sides. Good luck. Tom

Don't hesitate to net work veterans, your local congressman, representative and write to George and Luara Bush and express what career field you are interested in perusing. LMCO in Fort Worth and L3 are a possibility, the Texas Fish & Game or whatever it's called and boarder patrol could be a potential career fields. You are are healthy, educated and have a desire to work and we all owe you a chance to establish a new career. Good luck and and I sincerely hope you find work soon! Tom

Any sharpe hook, single , double or treble can contact the line if the lure is attached to the rod hook hangar or rod guides. If you keep the lure tied on and use the hook to attached it to the reel, rod handle, rod blank or guide, the line next to the lure can contact the hook. One trick that helps is to pull the line between the rod tip nd the attached lure like a bow string about 4" away from the rod about 1/2 way between the rod tip and lure, then spin the rod a few tunes to wrap the line around the rod nd guides to hold the line tight and keep it away from the hook point. Using a lure wrap also helps to prevent line damage from hooks. It's a common problem over looked by lots of anglers. Tom

Before you start to pull out line after a backlash, first put light thumb pressure on the loose spool line and reel line back on the reel. Next make an easy lob cast short of the back lash, then keeping thumb pressure on the spool carefully pull out the loops without putting much pressure on the line while dropping the loose line in the water. Reel the loose line back on the reel while running the line between your index finger nd thumb to feel for any flat spots or damaged line. If you can feel a flt spot, the line needs to be changed. A good line dressing like TangleFree or KVD helps tp reduce backlashes and so will a good casting rod that isn't too fast action. Another over looked problem is hook damage to the line when the lure is stored on the rod. The hook points and barbs are very sharp nd can cut the line when in the rod locker or on the boat deck due to vibration. Ron your line between your finger in the re where the hook cn contact the line occasionally. Tom

Can you meter a thermocline? My guess it's near the 18' depth. Suspended bass are resting bass or inactive bass, you are better off spending your time locating bait fish and fishing isolated structure and cover at the depth the bass are located. If you want to try to get the suspended bass to bite, try 5" curl tail finesse worm (Roboworms the color of the bait fish) on a 1/8 oz dart head with 6# FC and slowly work it through the bass. Tom

Rip rap can be very good both early and late or during low light periods when Crawdads are active, the primary prey that use the rock to hide in. I look for transition areas in the rip rap; any patches of soil where brush or weeds are rooted, edges where the rip rap starts or ends, any other structure like a big boulder or a culvert pipe, gully or channel or bridge piling near the rip rap are all sweet spots that hold bass anytime. A round head light weight 1/4 to 3/8 oz jig that works through sharp rocks, Senko or Fat Ika looks like it's trying to hide in the rocks, deep diving crank bits are good lures around rip rap. Tom

This Is an older thread and MattLures tried to explain basic taxidermy. The replica mount is a fiberglass mold of an actual bass that had measurements a close as possible to the bass you want a replica mount to represent. A good taxidermist receives hundreds of frozen bass from anglers who want a mount, very few bass are so unique that the taxidermist needs to make a new mold, most of the frozen bass end up in a dumpster. A new mold or modified mold to have the exact same physical characteristics as your fish. The fiberglass replica therefore has the same shape as your original live bass. The taxidermist adds glass eyes, artifical gills, inside mouth parts, etc, to both skin mounts and fiberglass mounts. The fiberglass molded replica has no color, usually white and must be painted, this is the difference between a good mount and a poor mount; how good is the artist who paints the mount. The skin mount has several issues to resolve; removing all the soft tissues that will degrade in time, the skin and fins are removed and pickled to preserve. The fish head must be hollowed out and all tsoft tissues removed, including the gills, eyes, then the skull is preserved and some shrinkage will occure. A manican is selected that has similar measurements of the fish you sent and various padding is added to fill out the shape. The skull is attached to the skin is stretch around the manikin and sewn together, the mount is now similar to the fiberglass mold fish, except not nearly as close to the original fish due to all the steps required to make the body shape. The fins are flattens out nd dried into shape and the mounts now needs to dry out before it can be painted. The skin has little color, mostly gray. Just like the replica the skin mount needs glass eyes nd mouth parts, gills etc. The finished mount now relies on the skill of the artist to paint it. The difference between. Skin mount and a replica is this; replica's are fiberglass and last forever, skin mounts deteriorate, how long they last depends on the skill of the taxidermist. I have 1 replica bass mount that represents my giant bass; 19.3 lbs, (1994). 3 skin mounts; 10.2 lbs native rainbow trout (1959), 12.2 lbs northern strain LMB (1971) and a 37 lb musky (1976). All 3 skin mounts are in some degree of degradation. The replica bass looks like it did the day I picked it up...perfect! The key to a good mount is the taxidermist you select and the skill of the artist who paints it. Tom

This thread covers several topics that books have been written on. Keep in mind bass fishing term defintions vary regionally. Structure; permanent features that make up the lake bottom ; dirt, sand, gravel, rocks boulders, dams, channels and man made features like pier post, cribbs etc. Cover; vegetaion that grow or float on or in the water column and trees that provide shade in or near the water, man made docks, walk ways, etc.. Your the bass are northern strain largemouth and small mouth bass. The 2 bass are vary different in behavior and habitate, they both like to feed on Crawdads and dermasil bait fish and may also target pelagic bait fish if the lake has them; herring, aliwifes etc. Up north the LMB tends to be cover oriented, the small mouth structure oriented, but they will over lap. The Small mouth bass are more mobile and roam a lot in schools, LMB are less mobile and tend to stay nearer to cover. Barometric pressure changes affect the weather and lower light period give the bass an advantage to feed, brighter light can give the prey an advantage to see the bass easily, so the bass tend to use cover or structure shadows to conceal themselves to ambush prey. The biggest barometric affects re very low pressure that brings in cloudy or storms and very high pressure that tends to create high winds and bright conditions. The bass are conditioned to barometric changes, it's a normal factor in their life cycle. It's a lot easier to catch active bass and more challenging to catch inactive bass and bass are active only about 20% of the time during a 24 hour cycle. Look for and target active bass with faster moving lures, then slow down and use slower moving lures when the bass are less active. How do you when to do what; look around for signs of activity and feeding fish, every lake has a different time schedule and that is something only you can determine with practice and time on the water. Tom

Be glad it' only rain that keeps you on the couch. Aug 7th I had major lumbar spinal surgery to repair my shattered L5 vertibrea and fuse it to the S1 to stop further spinal nerve damage. I will be couch fishing for several months and driving everyone nuts. The monsoon season will pass soon, your lakes haven't had any fishing pressure and must need the water, be greatful. Post some pics to remind me what a bass looks like when you get on them. Tom

Fish can loose up to 10-% of their body weight when dieing and dehydrating. The proper way to handle a potential world record is to weight it alive and get it examined immediately by a local official This can be very difficult task to accomplish, but with cell phone a lot easier today then in the past. A potential world record fish should be wrapped in a wert towel, placed in a cooler or box and packed in ice to reduce dehydration, body fluids and stomack contents as it dies. This gives you the needed time to have it weighed and certified properly. As bass anglers we tend to be wired to catch and release bass and focus our efforts on keeping the fish alive until it can be certified, this really complicates things. If I had only practiced my own advice years ago! IGFA record fish must die, unless everything is in place at the marina when you arrive. I carry a certified scale and have a camera, but often fish alone, so 2 witnesses and a biologist to examin the fish must be pre arranged. The witnesses can be anyone that verifies the weight and measurements, you need the phone number of the local fish & game biologist or official to validate the catch, look at the tackle, check your liense etc, before releasing the bass. Tom

Out west clear deep structured reservoirs are common and fishing the thermoclines a standard practice. Douglas brings to mind the controversial long lining presentation that borders on trolling. If you are a recreational fisherman, why not troll? If for some reason you think this isn't your cup of tea and would rather crank and wind, then your options are limited to targeting closed lipped suspended bass, that suspend to rest and are inactive bass that take a good deal of patients to trigger strikes. Dee Thomas who popularized flipping opened up western bass anglers who were so focused on targeting deep structured bass and forgot a basic bass behavior; shallow bass are biting bass! Dee won tournaments all around country fishing no deeper than 6'! Keep that fact in mind. The best deep structure pioneer tournament angler was another western bass angler that most have never heard of; Dick Trask. Trask popularized the split shot and dart head jig presentations and he won western tournaments for several years targeting those tight lipped suspended bass. The key to both Dee Thomas and Dick Trask was precise presentations using excellent boat control and knowing where to target the bass they intended to catch and they both were in no hurry to move, they strained out every possible bite from the bass they located. The tighter or closer bass are to deep structure or cover, the greater you odds are to get strikes. My all time favorite deep cranking lure isn't a crank bait, it's a modified 3/4 oz original Scrounger jig with the original 6" Sluggo. This Scrounger/Sluggo combination needs to be rigged so the lure wiggles like the original Rapala a tight wiggle. You cast past the suspended bass or deeper structure, let it sink deeper then the bass and crank it back through the bass, this lure rarely will hang up. I like to use a cadence of 3 cranks pause 2 cranks pause 3 cranks and vary the cadence until I get a reaction from the bass. If you are good at keeping the bait exactly near the bass, then Trask's 5# line with 1/8 to 3/16 oz dart head with 4 1/2"vto 5" soft (today's Roboworms) curl tail worm in smoke and an accent color to match the bait fish like a neon blue blood line, will work. The sme worms on a split shot rig (3/16 oz round split shot) about 18" above a light wire size 2 # 11 Kamakatsu worm hook. Work the split shot throught the suspended bass or nearby structure at the samei depth of the suspended bass, few bass usually move onto nearby structuure that are more active fish. Your other option go shallow and flip/pitch into shadow pockets that may have some floatsum or a stick or 2 that an ambush bass may hold under or next to. Good luck. Tom PS; power generation reservoirs the bass become dependent on current flow to move bait and trigger feeding cycles where current moves water. This is more reason that during slack water period, the shallow bass my be your bet bet to find active biting bass. Keep in mind I am a deep structure angler and tend to fish swim baits, jigs and use structure spoons often and because my confidence level is high with thise presentations, that is how I would start fishing and go to finesse or shallow power fishing after my preferred techniques didn't work out.e

California is the most regulated state in the country, however we do not have a power boat regulation to operate water craft on inland waters. US Coast guard requires PFD 's, fire extinguisher, operating running lights, however no training is required. A 16 year old without a drivers license can operate any power boat on inland waters. The parents of the under age operator is liable for any damages after the fact. Any adult can purchase a high performance power boat and operate it without any training. Drunk boat operates can get a ticket for driving a power boat and some lakes can ticket operators breaking posted boating rules, speed limits etc. No boater safety training is required on CA inland waters!. The result; weekend fishing on public lakes near populated areas can be risky to say the least. Mix tournament bass boats with the general boating public with unskilled boating and gets interesting on the water and at the marina's. Tom

The lure in the photo is a umbrella rig and the 2 hooks are not on 1 lure. The rig should be legal in Arkansas, but may not be a legal rig according to the IGFA, under the trap hook rule. It is very frustrating trying to get a certified weight, when a certified scale isn't available at the marina or a nearby market or postal service that has large enough scales. At least the angler was willing to kill the fish to get it weighed, although stripers die easily after being caught. For the record I am a former line class world record holder, botched at least 2 LMB potential line class records and know exactly what is required by the IGFA and it's not an easy task! Sounds like a lot of people made honest mistakes and I hope common sense prevails and Arkansas comes around and validates this striped bass as a state record. The IGFA will need to rewrite a new rule regarding multiple lure / Umbrella rigged and make it retroactive for this catch to become certified. Good luck with the effort. Tom