WRB-2.0

How many members of this site can honestly say they have caught a 10 lb plus LMB, close to Wisconin? My guess is zero! You go west to California, south to Texas or Mexico, or southeast to Florida where DD bass are available.! you can fish a lifetime anywhere else and never catch a 10 lLMB. Tom

Be carefully not to mix different scents or add scent too far ahead of time; use as needed on soft plastics. Natural fresh frozen garlic clove is about the size of a sugar cube and 1 cube in a zip lock bag works great. Off the self scents; a small amount applied to the worm front end is all you should need. Tom

Trader Joes sells frozen freeze garlic in the frozen veggie section in little squares 1 sqaure is perfect for a bag of worms. Tom

If the soft plastic has a built in scent like Berkley Power or Gulp don't add to it. If the soft plastic doesn't have scent added, then add a scent known to work; Bang, Hot Sauce or Mega Strike, pure anise oil or garlic are all good. Tom

I agree Mattlures, the reel set combined with a rod sweep works when you have made a long cast over 25 yards. The difference being the rod position; try to keep the rod tip low and towards the lure. I first described this technique back in '95 In-Fisherman article Horizontal Jigging. Tom

Your rod more than likely has Fuji guides; metal frame with ceramic ring that works good with the abrasive braids. The super braids are very small diameter compared to mono ro FC line and as noted the bait casting reel will cast easier with line diameter about 0.012 or equal to 15 lb mono, ie; 65 lb braid. Your rod however can not handle more than 6 lbs of line tension, which is a lot force. Set your reel drag with a spring or digital scale so you don't break your rod. The reels level wind guide may not handle braid, it must be tempered steel or the line will cut into wire line guide. Two concerns; the rod guides and the reel level wind to check into before using braid. If you spool braid on top of filler like mono; tie the lines together and tape over the filler before spooling on the braid. 60 yards of braid is a good length and eliminates deep backlashes. Tom

The thermocline layer can be very dense and easy to see on your sonar as a dark line or less dense and shows as a faded gray zone a few feet thick. What is easier to determine is the life zone where suspended fish, both bait fish and game fish are located. If you don't meter any fish below a certain depth throughout the lake, that is a good indication of the depth of a thermocline. When setting your sonar sensitivity, use your trolling motor transducer if the console TD is shooting through the boat bottom; set it about 90% than go up or down a few % until the screen clutter background clears up a little and the thermocline should become apparent as a line or darker area within the water column; usually between 20 to 40 feet is most deep structured lake during the summer. Tom

The fact you are ancored with your family requires you to keep out of boat traffic lanes. IF....the point near the blue map pin is out of the boat traffic, I would locate at the base of the V on the fish tail looking underwater flat in about 18' of water. Have the kids swim between the shore and the baot, you fan cast a C-rig worm. Good luck and be safe!!! Tom

The only factors that limit the depth a bass will go is: very cold or hot water or a thermocline where the water makes an abrupt temperaute change within a few feet; If there is a thermocline layer developed it also reduces the DO levels below that layer. Bass are rarely located away from the food source; find the prey and the bass should be close. Tom

Learning to use deep diving cranks in clear water is no different than what you are used to doing cranking weed breaks. Clear water is usually associated with sparse weed beds and more rocky areas with brush. Active bass, the bass you want to target with a crank bait, are going to be keying on whatever baitfish is the common where you are fishing. My guess would be threadfin shad, so a shad color 5/8 to 3/4 oz deep diver is your 1st choice. 2nd would be a larger 3/4 to 1 oz in the same colors; pearl silver with purple/blue back and some gold highltes. Start with points that drop off into a channel and any area where chunk rock transitions to clay with some brush. Humps, saddles between islands are always good in the wind. Go down in line size to 10 to 12 lb and use divers that run 15' to 20'. (DD15 & DD22). Don't forget about structure spoons if you meter schools of shad. Good luck. Tom

Today anyone starting out would get confused with all the conflicting information available on bass fishing forums .......too much information can overload weekend bass anglers. You live in northeastern region, what type of bass are you trying to catch; LMB or SMB? Type of lakes you fish? Tackle (rod, reel, line), do you own and bass boat or shore fishing? Can you answer those few ? Lets see if we can get you back on track and start catching some keepers regularly. The best bass anglers can't catch inactive bass and they don't waste time trying. The key is fish for catchable bass with presentations that are work under the conditions where you fish and that is why I asked the above questions. Time on the water may help if you can determine active feeding cycles and seasonal bass locations. You can spend a lifetime fishing at the wrong locations or at the right locations at the wrong time and never become consistant at catching bass. Tom

I have no idea where to start because you don't have any regional information or type of lake you are fishing. You approach surveying structure with sonar based on the type of structure ot cover you are looking at; the forage base (type of baitfish) and depth you expect to locate the bass. Depth is a key factor and first piece of information you should try to solve; this eliminates a lot of water. I always start metering the marina where I launch; lots information is there, plus anglers bring bass back to marinas to release them. As far as outside main lake structure areas you first need to study a good map; paper or electronic and note structure elements at the depth the bass are reported to be using, before you start metering the structure. This will save you a lot of time. What you can determine in the marina area is the depth the "life zone " is active; look for fish marks, both baitfsih and other fish. As mentioned the thermocline is a big factor if the layer is well defined; no baitfish will go below a thermocline and that is part of the life zone and depth you are trying to determine. If baitfish are near or on outside structure; fish the area! No sonar can pick up active bass that are not within the sonars return cone area and bass have a habit of moving away from approaching boats. Tom

Go online and look at ALX rods, American made lifetime warrenty, 30 day free trail period and give Alex a call. I use ALX rods since Shimano purchsed Loomis and Lamiglas hasn't come out with state of the art rod blanks for long time now. The ALX rods today use a blank very similar to Loomis NRX series for 1/2 price with state of the art guides etc. You want something rated 3 power with a fast action between 6'6" to 7'3" depending on your personal preferences. Tom

It looks like 2 small lakes separated by a bench near your take off point. The bench would offer sloping sides on both sides like a point and deeper water like a submerged dam and should hold some bass. The next best area is at the far upper end where Cottage road makes a sharp turn as a reference. There an under water point that has a 15' flat top area surrounded by deeper water, this is a classic structure element that holds bass where ever you find it. Tom

I will add this thought; don't over think bass fishing, instead enjoy your time on the water. Tournament bass anglers are confined to where they can fish, the times they can fish and rules about what they can fish with. Study tournament anglers if that is what you plan to do. Catching bigger bass is all about knowing where they are located and what they are feeding on. I will suggest 1 book to read; In Pursuit of Giant Bass by Bill Murphy. Tom

Catt is the true expert on night fishing and maybe he will see this thread give you some pointers. What I have learned over the years about bass fishing after dark is to keep everything as simple as possible and as organized as practical. It's easy to break or lose tackle when it's dark, so put away what you are not using at the moment. Make a list of what you need;PFD's, extra clothing, bug spray, extra flash lights, high power beam light and whatever you like to use to light the area around the boat; black lights, under water lights or area flood light. You may need an extra battery to run the night lights and add a jumper cable. Cell phone, GPS and know the area where you are going to fish very well. You may not use an anchore during the day, at night it can help you to keep on outside structure in the wind. If you are fishing deep structure lakes, the bass tend to move up into shallower water if prey is availble shallower. Lakes with shad populations for example, the bass will go into cover looking for the shad at night. The most predominate night prey for bass are crawdads in deep structure lakes, so jigs, soft plastics fished near or on the bottom will produce well. If the lake has a good frog population, frog lures work the hour before dark and after night fall. Whenever I fish a tournament that is late evening to after mid ngiht, it requires several types of presentaions. Dusk bass are usually very active; swimbaits, crank baits, chatter baits and buzz baits are my go to lures during that time period. About 1 houir after dark things tend to change and the bass roam more, thats when I go to jigs and T-rigged big worms; I like to fish jigs where it's rocky with spasre brush and worms where the cover is thicker or the bottom is softer. I look for transition areas where the structure makes changes; gravel changing to sand or mud, rocks mxed with clay, deep breaklines, isolated cover like wood or weed beds, etc. Go with heavier line than you normally use during the day time. Try to fish lakes with good water clarity. Colors vary with every lake; so keep an open mind.Jigs and worms I like darker colors, reaction baits I use the same colors as daytime. Good luck. Tom

This lake is a lagoon or esturay wirh a jetty/channel directly connected to lake Michigan and looks more like a 1/2 mile wide and 2 miles long approx. The sand beaches look man made for recreational use. Sand is tiny pieces of rock or clay and weeds can't root well other than the natural bottom soil areas. What does this tell us? The best shoreline cover areas are at the opposite end of the jetty area and the best place for weed growth; ie young of the year bait fish that hide in the weeds. I would say the 1/3 of the lagoon opposite lake Machigan and the jetty are and deepr weed beds and the boat docks is where the LMB should be located. The smallmouth bass should be nearer to the jetty; both inside the lagoon, the channel and the outside jettey rock rip rap. Alewifes are pelagic bait fish and more than likely not year around residents of this lagoon which means they come and go through the jetty channel and the larger predators should also be patrolling channel outlet and any deep weeds beds near that end of the lagoon. The center zone of this lagoon will hold every type of predator that roam the weed break lines, so this area is a hit or miss area. This lagoon is perfect for 5" tom 6" weedless swimbaits in alewife coloration (herring will do). The rocky jetty area you can use tubes, 1/8 oz round head jigs with a grub like a smallie beaver or crank baits and jek baits. A buzz bait early and lake in the day aound the weed beds and a drop shot rig with 6" worm along the weed breas and pockets. Pike like anything flashy moving fairly fast, like the buzz bait, flutter spoon and larger jerk baits. Musky like swimbaits and larger lures, plus the buzz bait. Tom

The only mistake you may have made was your timing; fish the clear water during low light late afternoon and the murky water during the mid day early afternoon. You learned where the bass were in the clear water, they should still be there. You lure selection was OK, you fished a little faster than the lack of bass activity that was apparently happening at the times you fished; easy to catch active bass, difficult to catch inactive bass. Bass become active for about 20 minutes or so each 3 to 4 hours...being at the right spot at the right time makes bass fishing a lot easier. Tom

4 lb Kentucky (northern) spot is a big spot! You may have Alabama river (southern) spots where you fish. Both smallmouth and spots prefer current or moving water and deeper rocky areas than LMB where both species co-exist. However LMB will locate in deep rocky structure zones if there is an abundance of baitfsih or crawdads available. Spots are far more aggressive than LMB, so I would slow down your presentations and up size the lures. 5" to 6" swimbaits, jig and craw w/5" trailer, larger crankbaits, longer soft plastic worms etc. Fish deeper weed breaks and slower, thats my suggestion. Tom

The trailer in the above photo's is known as a frog, a soft plastic copy of the pork frog designed to be nose hooked and not threaded onto the jig hook shank. The pork frog will last all day, the soft plastic may last a few casts. Soft plastic trailers with a round worm or grub type body can be threaded onto the jig hook shank and kept in place with gel type super glue or a barb molded onto the jig or on the hook shank. Today you have Hitchhikers or Owner CPS springs that will hold soft plastic trailers very well and can be attached to the jig hook eye and the jig hook point into the soft plastic body. Tom

As a general rule (bass can't read) smaller bass usually will not target a crawdad as prey. The more you make your jig act and look like a real crawdad, the size of the bass you catch should be 3 lbs and up. If your jig has the profile of a bait fish or other criitter other than a crawdad, then smaller bass can get very aggressive and not be turned off by the crawdads claws. If using a soft plastic grub or beaver type of trailer, then can expect young adult 2 lb bass. Location may be your problem; fishing too shallow where the smaller bass spend most of their time. Tom

Always amazes me when bass anglers get worried over rainy weather. The rain shouldn't be a negative, it washes prey into the water and generally actives the entire ecosystem. High wind; now that can create problems. If the weather is normal, a little rain isn't going to change the bass location very much. If the rain was a big storm and the lake level raaised a few feet and the core water temperaures dropped and the water is muddy as a result, then the bass will be affected. Go fish the lake you have the most confidence with and like to fish. When the bottom is weedy a heavy jig isn't the answer; go with a lighter 1/8 oz grass jig (bullet shape ot round head) and use a wider bodied trailer like a beaver or twin tail hula grub. You also split shot the beaver or hula grub without a jig head; use a 3/0 off set hook and skin hook the grub. Tom

Smallmouth bass are not usually going to be cover oreinted bass, they prefer deeper rocky areas. Fishing from shore also limits where you can fish and what you can present effectively. I would start near the dam, first major point on the west side if possible, if not the opposite or both of the dam corners and the dam face. Since you are casting away from shore, I would approach the point or dam so I can cast from the bank towards the submerge deeper sloping bank and work the lure as parallel as possible, then fan cast the area. My first lure choice would be a 4" to 6" Little Cripper Trash Fish swimbait is Ayu color for your area. If there isn't any weed cover, you could also try a hard jerk bait like a Rapala Husky Jerk in perch color. If some weed cover is in the deeper water area a buzz bait worked along the break line could produce in the morning. A Smally beaver T-rigged with 1/8 bullet weight, 3/0 hook and a split or slip shot rigged 5" Roboworm in oxblood/red flake would be my go to rigs the rest of the morning, if the first choices didn't work. Tom

The lake needs to have shoreline cover; weeds and brush to attract night time prey to hide in. Sparse cover, the bass tend to target other night prey like crawdads. What is better to use than a jig to imitate a crawdad? Where I night fish it's a deep structured rocky lake and rarely use top water lures 1 hour after dark. My lure choices are; T-rigged Uptons or Power worms in 10" to 12" black or black grape w/blue neon bloodline, blacl/purple hair jigs with pork trailers and Norman DD22 crank baits in black or red/black. The top water I will use is a double buzzer. Keep it simple at night and you will be rewarded! Tom

Jump in the water is fine. it's a hypothetical lake located in NE Ohio, no FLMB or Spots, he noted LMB and Smallmouth bass. Reserviors tend to be 2,000 or so acre rocky highland types. Tom