WRB-2.0

Look at My Jumpsuit.com Tom

I am Oldschool! #1 lure for me is my hair jig with Pedigo style pork rind 4" lizard; over 300 DD bass, top 5 rivals anyones top 5: 19.3, 18.6, 17.6, 17.4 & 17.4, hows that for going old school! Musky jitter bug, wood Bombers, Mud bugs, Smithwick Paw Scooters and Buck n' Brawl top waters, Bomber model 7A's, giant 12 to 16 T-rigged worms, twin spins, the list could go on and on. Tom

Look at Cabelas catalog for livewell cooler conversion kits. Tom

The B.A.S.S. tournament rules allows the use of a trolling motor to control the boats movement and maneuver the boat. Everyones knows the difference between manuever the boat and boat control to stay withing casting distance or to stay on top of a deep water structure. When you cast behind the boat and maneuver away from the lure, you are trolling. Trolling doesn't mean that you are effectively moving the lure, it means you have a lure in the water and intentially move the boat away the lure in an effort to catch fish. How effectively you troll doesn't matter, the fact is your are trolling. The problem becomes detecting trolling; back seater often "stroll" soft plastics along the bottom, behind the boat and use the boats movement to move the lure. The back seater lets line out, moves the lure a few feet, lets more line out and continues to repeat this drag-pause until the line is out 150 to 300 feet. Strolling became chronic out west during the 80's and you will be DQ'd today in most western tournaments if someone protest. I think we have dragged this far enough. Tom

Every fresh water bass tournament org prohibits trolling. Casting a lure behind the boat and then moving the boat away from that lure when it is behind the boat is trolling. You can agrue that you are letting out additional line, but you are trolling as the moves away from your lure under power and if fishing a bass tournament should be DQ'd. Tom

How deep can a diving run without being weghted? about 18-20 max depth. 300 yards of line doesn't get the lure to run any deeper than 150 feet of FC line. The line drag prevents the lure to run deeper, unless the line is heavy like lead core or monel wire line, then you can get the lure down to 50 to 60 feet with 200 feet of line. There isn't any bass tournament rule that would prevent using lead core or wire linning if you could cast heavy line. You can't cast lead core or monel wire, so it's common practice to troll or "long line" as it was discribed at Lake Douglas. Tom

Long linning as discribed during the Lake Douglas event is a form of trolling and the angler should have been DQ'd. You are not allowed to move the lure with the aid of the boats forward motion; it called trolling in bass tournament rules. Making a cast, then moving the boat away from the lure is trolling. You can argue that the line coming off the reel spool isn't moving the lure, but you would be wrong. The water drag on the line will move any lure and gives it some life like movements, attracting bass to strike. Moving the several hundreds yards takes time and during that time period the lure is swimming with the line drag; you are trolling the lure. When the boat motor stops the baot still moves forward until it comes to a complete stop, continuing to move the lure. You start your retrieve taking up several yards of line bow in the water and could not feel a bass at the end of the line until all the line is tight, the bass may have hooked itself via the line drag and you are just catching up to the fish that you may have hooked while the boat was still moving forward, clearly trolling. Strolling was at one point in time known as dragging; moving a soft plastic lure along or near the bottom with the aid of the boats forward movement, sometimes controlled with the trolling motor; strolling is also a bass tournament rule violation for most professional bass tournament circuits. Fun fishing or trophy fishing the angler can do whatever is legal within the states regulations; long linning, trolling, strolling is legal everywhere to the best of my knowledge. Tom

You maybe thinking of Woodchoppers lures, Ozark Mt AK. Tom

Your rod needs to be able to control a big bass under the conditions where it was hooked in. If you are flipping or pitching into heavy cover then heavy action 8' flipping rods with 50 to 65 lb briad is good. Lighter cover you can get by with lighter tackle and still control the bass. With heavy tackle set the drag with a scale at 6 lbs, no heavier than 8 lbs. 8 lbs is the max weight a fresh water heavy flipping rod can lift*. With lighter tackle set the drag not to exceed 1/3 rd on the equal mono line strength, don't use braid strengths. Always keep the rod up and loaded with tension and keep the fish in front of you. Bass can't fight very long, about 2 minumtes max. Take a deep breath, slow down and enjoy the moment, it doesn't last long before the fish of a lifetime is in the boat. Tom * i gallon of water = 8 lbs.

Pond bass grow up to be adults by avioding life threatening events like being caught. The big bass you hooked on a Senko may have been a bed fish, at least you know there is 1 big bass. Another habit the adult size bass in ponds have is patrolling their domain...they cruise a lot and make regular milk runs to feeding areas. You might want to find a good advantage point a spend some just watching areas you can see well, during mid day light times. You are going to need to be low profile and stock the bigger bass like the trophies they are. Soft plastics like a fat Ika, light weighted Texas rigged 10" Power worm and a buzz bait fished during low light periods; early morning or at night should work for you. Tom

The 18.8 lbs bass is the certified weight; 18.2 was the hand held scale weight. Butch brown's 19.3 lb Castaic lagoon catch on video was May 2009. George Coniglio's 19.8 lb Mission Vejio bass was over shadowed by Dottie in 2006 The Lagoon and Mission Vejio are tiny lakes under 500 acres, Perris is drawn way down and less than 1500 acres. The lake only of any size producing giants is New Melones in NorCal and a 17.4 lb bass was caught April this year by John Liechty Most of these bass you don't read about, some make the news. Spotted bass were introduced to CA in the 1930's, Friant Dam Merced river. The current world record came from that stock at Pine Flat lake; 10.27 lbs, April 2001. The Perris spots also came from the Friant stock of Alabama spotted bass. The spotted bass demise at Perris was a combination of over harvesting and Redear sunfish raiding the spawning areas. There hasn't been a report of spots at Perris in over a decade. DVL was supposed to be the new giant bass lake in CA and the striped bass may have ruined that potential fishery. Tom PS: Falcon lake record is 15.63 lbs, Amistad is 15.68 lbs, Texas state record is 18.18 lbs from lake Fork.

I used the Mason-Dixon line to make a point; above latitude 38 the water temps are too cold in most states to support FLMB populations and without FLMB or intergrades with a high % of FLMB genes, largemouth bass exceeding 10+ lbs are extremely rare fish. Northern strain LMB over 10 lbs are about as common as FLMB exceeding 15 lbs and that is 50% less weight. Chris; Clear lake may not be the best choice in NorCal for DD bass, the Delta may have a larger population of DD's due ti it's size, Clear still produces 10 lb+ LMB during tournaments. The reason I picked Clear lake is the local guides fish live bait for their clients, it's a big lake that can handle the pressure better than most of our tiny trophy bass lakes. Rolo; CA is producing 18 to 19 lb bass every year; 18.8 lb was caught last week at Perris lake, weighed on a certified scale. Any FLMB over 15 lbs is very rare anywhere; Falcon and Amistad haven't produced a bass that big yet! Like Chris mentioned 10 lber's become 7 lber's real fast on a scale! Tom

Did anyone read the title of this post "best northern lake to break 10 lbs". Tom

Clear lake CA is 38'57" latitude the Mason-Dixon line is 36'30" latitude, making Clear lake over 150 miles north of the north/south dividing line; it's your best choice by far!!......for a northern lake. Tom

The type of rod is important when trying to cast surface lures that weigh less than 1/4 oz. The average med/hvy fast action bass bait casting rods (4 to 5 power) do not cast light lures well. You are better off with a rod designed for crank baits; medium action (2 to 3 power). The fast action tip starts the spool too fast, a slower action (more parabolic) allows the reel spool to start slower and helps to prevent back lashing. Also a more streamline surface lure like Owner's Zip n' Ziggy will cast further with less effort. Adjust the spool tension knob so the lures weight drags line off the spool and doesn't fall too freely. Use premium mono; 10 to 12 lb, not FC line. Mono floats and will give you better lure control than FC line that sinks. Tom

Didn't see this thread until now. There was a good surface going on at Perris, but a 18.8 lb giant on a Chug Bug... amazing. Just goes to show that a bass of a life time is just one cast away and you never know when it could happen. Perris at one time held the world record spotted bass and yes some CA lakes keep tabs on records, most are unofficial. Tom

Catt gave you good advice. There is a difference between structure that makes up a lake bottom under water and structure that holds bass. Your sonar unit will indicate the depth of water and suspended objects within it's signal return field; it's up to you to determine if the structure you found is worth fishing. The next problem to solve is where the structure is located so you can return to fish it another day. Without GPS you need to observe where you are relative to visual land marks. Tom

Hard bottom areas surrounded by weed beds. Weeds can't grow on shell beds, sand or clay this is where you to concentrate your efforts. The edges are where bass will be looking for prey. Tom

Average girth bass that is 23.5" long (17.5" girth) should about 8 lbs! Tom

You always have your fishing line to measure bass with; run the line from the tip of the closed jaw to the center of the tail, cut it and keep it. Then run the same piece of line around the bass at the widest area with the dorsal lin down and tie a simple overhand knot where the line comes together to indicate the girth. Save the line in your pocket and measure it later. Length X length X girth divided by 1200 = weight. Better then trying to make a wild guess later. There isn't any way to determine what your bass weighed from the photo. Tom

You perfectly described largemouth bass spawning; Dark lateral line and white bellies. When bass are in the egg laying phase of the spawn cycle, they will not bite and no interest in anything other then spawning. When selecting bed sites or protecting the bed before and after the eggs are laid, then you can make the bass garding the bed site strike, but not eat your lure. Typically the spawning cycle; pre spawn/spawn/post spawn can last up to 3 months depending on weather conditions,and water temperatures where you fish. Tom

This must be the most repeated question on this site. Try searching the site for dozens of threads that have discussions on this exact topic. You can't hook set too fast using underwater lure presentations. If you detect a strike, set the hook before the bass detects you and spits out you soft plastic worm or creature. Tom PS; exception; spotted bass and smallmouth sometimes pick up a crawdad soft plastic by the claws, then you wait a moment.

There is a lot of dynamics within every waterway LMB live in, however water temperature is a very important factor to consider. Why? bass are cold blooded animals and the water controls their body temperature; it's the same as the water they are in. The metabolic rate or need for food is controlled on the water temperature. The basses survival depends on staying in water that will have the right dissolved oxygen levels; not lower than 39.4 degrees or higher than 90 degrees; DO levels 3 to 12 mg/L. Starting at the winter seasonal period when the water cold; 39 to 50 degrees, then transitioning to pre spawn; 50 to 60 degrres, spawn; 60 to 67 degrees, post spawn; 67 to 70 degrees; summer; 70 to 85 degrees, Fall; 70 to 55 degrees. The ideal water temp for LMB is 70 degrees with DO level of 8 mg/L. The above temps are based on the depth of water the bass live in, not surface temps. Tom

When bass are transitioning from late pre spawn to spawn, the first sign is seeing female cruisers and spooky males selecting bed sites. The females can be caught by fishing the deeper breaks. If the males are not holding on a bed site, they haven't made a commitment to protect it. The best way to know is wait until the bass returns and try something smaller like a 3" tube or 1/8 oz jig and have patients. If the bass runs off every cast, try a different bed site. Your best bet however is targeting the bigger females in deeper water, the ones you can't see. Tom

Always good to learn about off shore structure and buck Perry can be credited for educating anglers on migration routes and structure elements. Today with good sonar/GPS and maps, most the structure elements are well known. Bass behavior during seasonal periods are less known by the average angler and you also need to learn where bass locate to be successful year around. Perry lake looks like a deep structure lake with threadfin shad population and a good crawdad population, those 2 prey sources are the key to catching deep structure reservoir bass. Determine the depth those prey sources are during each seasonal period and learn small sections of the lake well. Tom PS; if you are interested in learning bass behavior try Bill Murphy's book In Pursuit of Giant bass, a good book on deep structured lakes and bass behavior.