WRB-2.0

The Salt river chain of lakes were stocked in the early 80's with FLMB. The coldest water that a Florida strain largemouth can tolerate is 45 degrees at the depth they in. If the lake doesn't freeze over and has deep water that not below the 45 range, the FLMB can survive. How big FLMB will grow depends on the available prey types the bass feed on; lots of high protein prey and they grow to be giants. Tom

The UltraSport 30 from www.jsport.com is in your price range, very accurate and can be IGFA cerified. Tom

If a body of water is large enough to support a bass population, it more than likely also has a crayfish population that provides a source of food for those bass. It would extremely rare if the pond in question doesn't have crayfish or crawdads as they are more commonly known as. The bass were planted by someone and that person also planted forage to support those bass, otherwise those bass would die off. If you want to know, put out a trap. If you don't care, then don't bother. Crayfish can't fly; the birds that feed on them like herons do. Baby crayfish hang onto the mothers undershell and it's common for birds to carry a crayfish from one body of water to another as they eat and discard parts of the crayfish like shells with baby crayfish attached. Crayfish have been around for thousands of years and are wide spread around world. If something looks like food to a bass, they only way they can test it out is to bite it, they don't have hands. If you make the lure look interesting to the bass and it may give it try or it may not. Tom

The important features of the umbrella rigs are the durability of the components; the wire should be stainless with high memory, the head should be light weight and strong, the swivel clip should be high quality like Berkley cross-lok or equal. The last I looked nearly every major lure maker offers the umbrella/A-rigs. Yum and Luck E Strike for example make a moderate priced umbrella rig in the $15 range. Remember the umbrella is like casting a rake and will snag everything, so use heavy tackle and superbraid or will loose the rig quickly. Tom

From you opening statement you should be looking at casting jigs verses flipping or pitching jigs. The casting jig fished in deep clear rocky structure lakes is a lot like a Texas rigged soft plastic worm and you can fish it with similar tackle and presentation techniques. The football head is a good choice; 3/8 oz with a 3/0 hook and 1/2 oz with a 4/0 hook, head painted brown. Yamamoto's football jig with Owner or Gamakatsu hooks are very good and about .80c each. Also suggest starting with Yamamoto's 4" double tail Hula grub, this grub comes with a spider skirt. Lots of colors to choose from; the basics are green with black & red flake or cinnamon with black and blue flake. Rod; med/hvy 7' fast action or heavy fast action casting rod and reel with 10 lb FC line for med/hvy or 12 lb for heavy. It's cast and slooowly retrieve along the bottom structure; drag about 6 inches, hop about 3" to 4", let pause and repeat. The big difference is the strikes; smallies may peck at the jig, set when you feel light pressure. If you are missing hook sets try watching the line for any movement and set instantly...it's a trail and error timing that changes every outing. Depth is always the key issue' 1' to 25' covers the active feeding zones. Tom

Loomis bass rods are one of the best on the market and priced accordingly. What sets Loomis apart from most rod makers is they are USA made with lifetime warranty. There are a few others like Lamiglas that are made in the USA, most other however use rod blanks and components made off shore with a minimum of assembly in the US. What sets a high end rod apart from a discount house rod is the rod blank, reel seat and guides, plus the customer support and warranty. Excellent custom rod maker is ALX rods; Alex uses state of the rod components and offers lifetime warranty. What you want with a bass rod is ease of casting the lures you fish with, proper guide placement to maximize casting distance and fish fighting, light weight rod blank and top quality components. In general a rod that works well with a Texas rigged worm works for most other bass lures. Jigs can require a specific rod and crank baits with treble hooks cast and hook set better with a more parabolic rod that loads more of the rod length. Loomis GLX844 is a good all around rod for example. Also look at Dobyn's rods, Gary has good rods and great service support; 704C is equal to the GLX. Rods are personal items and only you know what feels right to you. Tom

I have a great deal of respect for Bill Dance and I am sure he read or heard this "fact" somewhere. The facts regarding how predator fish like bass actually "see" underwater is still being researched. A lot has been written with little proven facts and a lot of unknowns to be clarified. I also fish for marlin and tuna and the research on how these predator "see" may help lead to how bass utilize their eye sight to successfully catch prey. Bass tend to avoid water temperatures over 85 degrees for example, doesn't contain sufficient DO levels to support them; the 90 degree part of his statement is questionable. As water get warmer over 80 degrees, it also support lots of suspended organic material that tends to cloud the waters clarity, defuses the light and that can't improve vision underwater. If Bill is thinking the basses eyes function better and are more sensitive to light in warmer water, doesn't explain that big bass ,with long life experiences, are more aggressive sight feeders in cooler 55 to 70 degree clear water. The first B.A.S.S. lake Mead event was won with white/nickle spinner baits in shallow clear water by John Powell, nowone believed back in those days bass would be up in gin clear "thin" water becuase the bass don't have eye lids! The bottom line; Bill's statement isn't supported by experience or facts. Tom

I don't have a dog in this fight because I am not a tournament angler anymore. B.A.S.S. has made some good and bad decisions over the 45 years that I have been a life member, banning the A-rig from Elite events ranks near the top of the bad decisions. Most of you may not remember that B.A.S.S. banned flipping from their tournaments when Dee Thomas won events. B.A.S.S. made the 8' rod rule and added the rod must have a functional reel. Dee got together with Fenwick and return to B.A.S.S. tournaments with his flipping stick, Dave Glebie joined him, followed by Gray Klein and flipping/pitching became a main stay with the tournament anglers. Banning the A-rig, a castable umbrella rig, along with banning any other multiple lure rig, will not last long. Like flipping the anglers will adjust the presentation and B.A.S.S. will adjust their rules. The A-rig is here to stay. Under the new rule a twin spin (Shannon type) spinner bait with 2 wire arms and blades would be legal. The number of attractors is not controlled, like a 5 bladed safety pin spinner bait is legal. The next generation of tournament A-rigs will more than likely evolve to a single hook lure with several attractors on multiple wires. Where B.A.S.S. draws the line is anyones guess at this time, but it's been my experience they will change and allow versions of the A-rig. Tom

Do you have any idea what is the preferred ph or DO levels you want to monitor? Fresh water bass survive within a DO level of 3 to 12 mg/L. DO variances from day light to dark is about 2- 5 mg/L. Oakton 300 is a reasonable priced ph./ DO portable meter. If bait fish are present so are the bass, a good sonar unit is far more useful than any ph/DO meter. Tom

You have to be prepared before you start fishing and have a certified scale, camera, tape measure, cell phone and numbers to contact, plus be able to keep the bass alive outside of the live well until the fish can be examined. Very difficult to keep big bass alive in a standard size 15 to 20 gallon live well for more than an 1 hour. Proper DO levels and water temperature plus the negative stress of being caught and handled. I use a custom 10' weighted stringer with polyeurthane coated sst wire and safety clips that doesn't harm the bass and keep the fish in the lake. It comes down to how much you want the record verses releasing a healthy bass, difficult decisions to make. Tom

Every bass tournament angler; bass between 15" to 18" make up the vast majority of $$ bass in tournaments. Need a accurate scale to determine weight less than an ounce, measurements are not that accurate, just ball park weights. Tom

Terry Battisti sent me a formula for bass over 27" (15 lbs+) that takes into account the body mass of giant bass, will try to locate it. The bass under 18" usually have a girth less than 70% of the length; my formula works good for girths that run between 75% to 90%, less accurate outside that range. Tom

Water temperature at the depth the LMB are at is what you measure, not the surface water. Your first indication is bass roaming the spawning areas, no beds. The second is smaller males working on beds sites, but not staying there. Shortly after the males start to hold on bed site, the females move up and the 1 st wave starts, generally about 62 F water temps in 3' to 5' deep, near the 1st full moon cycle. The spawn should continue for about 2 months or when the bluegill start to spawn. Cold windy weather with abort the spawn until the weather settles back to being stable. You are better looking at noon in calm weather, than at night. Tom

The L x L x G / 1200 is a formula that I came up with after weighing about 100 bass in the 10 lb range and is good as the measurements made within 5%. If anyone has the second B.A.S.S. Times issue it's in there. LMB less than 18" length or over 27" may require different formula's to be within 5% factor. The length measurement should be with the bass laying on a flat surface, mouth closed and measured from the tip of the closed mouth lower jaw to the center of the tail. The girth is measured around the widest body area, dorsal fin down. Keep in mind this is an estimate and actual weight must be on a certified scale. Tom

You fish with your sonar a lot during the cold water period looking for the depth the bait is holding a bass near the breaks. Bass suspended off the breaks in deep water are not active, near the structure they are and those bass are more active. If you don't get bit on the traditional jig, use your shaky head or drop shot rig and fish it deeper on 8 lb FC line anywhere you meter bass at the depth you see them. Tom

My advice is to fish the lower 1/3rd of deep structured lakes. The Lakes in NC Texas are experiencing a drought with very low water levels and this helps to concentrate the bass in the lower 1/3rd where they would normally go anyway. Jan is usually he cold water period in Texas, Feb can signal the start of pre spawn migration; the deeper water where major main lake points intersect any river channel or humps in 35 to 60 feet will hold bass. If the lake has any wood cover in the deep water zone at those depths, spend your time in those areas. Deep structure spoons, jigs, worms, 6" swimbaits should all work. Watch for diving birds and spoon those fish. Work the deeper breaks with the jigs, worms and sloooow deep swimbaits. Tom

Bass are bass wherever they may be located. Bass being cold blooded are directly affected by the water temperature; the bodies are the same temperature as they water they are in. Cold water slows the metabolic rate down and they need less food, but still must eat to survive. The optimum water or body temperature for bass is 70 degrees, the minimum is about 40 degrees the maximum about 85 degrees. Cold water you want to get the lure close so they don't need to chase it and offer high protein prey looking lures. Cold water bass will eat lures of all sizes presented to the bass as an easy meal. Like any other seasonal period; the lure should look and act like the prey the bass are targeting. Tom

Big bass is a relative term; 6 lb smallmouth or spotted bass, 8 lb northern strain LMB, 12 lbs Florida strain LMB is the general nation wide bench marks. 3 lb to 4 lb NLMB is average size adult female nearly anywhere. If you are not catching 3 lb to 4 lb on occasion, you need to fish deeper and slower or at night with lures that represent the primary forage; crawdads and baitfish. I believe OH Ivie is near DFW and has produced 16 lb LMB. KVD caught an 11 lb LMB during a tournament within a few miles of DFW airport. Where I fish the lakes are small and within 40 miles of Los Angeles. Castiac is a few miles off interstate 5, these are high pressured lakes that produce giant bass, but not for bass anglers who don't take the time to learn how to fish for big bass. Tom PS; "In Pursuit of Giant bass" Bill Murphy, a good book to read on this topic.

The old rule that 10% of the bass fisherman catch 90% the bass rings as true today as it did 50 years ago. IF you want to catch big bass you must learn to fish for them. Within 80 miles of DFW you have several world class big bass lakes. Tom

The full moon phase is important during pre-spawn and spawning period and again during summer nights. There are 21 lunar nights in each moon cycle, the 5 night period; 2 nights before and after the new and full moon are considered active period. The fall and winter the new moon night cycles are good to plan your trip around. Tom

My PB was caught March 1993 from lake Castiac. The day was light rain and light wind, 2 days before the full moon, ideal conditions for giant pre spawn bass. I was fishing a major staging point that I had fished earlier at dawn without any success and returned about 9, slowly worked my way close enough to where I thought a big bass may be located and made a long cast about 90' with my hair jig/Super pork trailer. The bass was in about 17' of water when the strike occurred; a nothing strike the jig just stopped falling sooner than expected. Reeled the line tight and sweep the rod back into a solid hook set. The bass made a short run then came up and head shaking half body jump and dove back down into deeper water. I knew the bass was a giant, but was surprised when she came into few about 6' deep below the boat and turned to make another run; I was sure this bass was in the 20's and a possible world record. She turned out to be 19.3 lbs on a certified scale; 28.5" long with 28" girth. Tom

I have always had an interest in how much my fish weighed, so I bought a accurate lab quality spring scale over 50 years ago. Today I used a digital certified scale and weigh any LMB bass that may be near or over 10 lbs, spot or smallie over 5 lbs., helps to keep me focused on trying to catch big bass. It can be difficult to estimate bass weight; accurate scale makes easy and it's fast. Tom

For some like Butch and Mike Long this decade has been good; Butch made his his catches between 2008-2010. I didn't make the needed changes or spend enough time on the water. Now without trout plants our giant bass populations are crashing. These big bass are getting extremely rare and it's difficult to keep ahead the curve. Good luck and catch some giants. Tom

I believe the California record for 5 largemouth bass limit is unoffical at 72 lbs., need to refresh my memory and look it up. Butch Brown posted a 65 lb 5 bass limit on U tube caught at Lower Castaic. My best 5 bass limit was caught on the upper Castaic lake back in 1991; 11.3, 13.2, 15.1, 12.0 and 17.4 total 69 lbs. Windy rainy cold day and all these were pre spawn bass caught off 1 spot on jigs. I don't believe we have any lakes in CA with good populations of giant bass anymore. The best 5 bass limit during a sanctioned tournament was 62 lbs., from Casitas, all swimbait bass, caught by Danna Rosenberg and forgot his partners name. Tom

Largemouth bass are members of the sunfish family and have a hard time surviving in iced over lakes. Target some other species when ice fishing and give the bass a break until the ice thaws. Tom