WRB-2.0

Very few "pro" bass anglers are able to make a living by bass fishing alone. Anyone with enough money can pay the entry fee and fish as a "pro" in local tournaments. To be considered an top 100 or elite bass professional you must earn that title. Unlike most professional sports bass anglers do not need to be in top physical condition, just in good enough shape to fish effectively. To be a successful pro bass angler you should be a good spokesperson and able to promote yourself and sponsors products. Promoting products does take some inherent skills and lots of practice in front of an audience. Classic example is Aaron Martins; Aaron is a natural born fisherman that had to work very hard to overcome both shyness and become good at public speaking, he has succeeded. Tom

The only advantage a tungsten offers for a punch weight is smaller size compared to lead or brass. Brass is hard and gives you the same bottom feed back as tungsten, is larger in size and less expensive. If you can fish lead where you are, then lead is a good choice; heavy and the least expensive weight. The only punch weight worth the extra money is Miller's brass punch weight. Otherwise use Top Brass painted weight and peg them for punching. Tom

Since the thread is still alive; 7" Senko rigged with an o-ring and Gammy #3056* size 3/0 on 14# FC. Sometimes will add a 3/32 oz nose nail weight if fishing water deeper than 15'. Tom * 5" w/ size 1/0, 6" w/size 2/0.

You handle enough bass you are going to get hooked. I remember when the Daiwa TD Minnow first hit the market with those needle sharpe hooks. The bass would somehow get all 3 sets of treble hooks in the mouth or on the side of the head. Trying to unhook a TD minnow from a lively bass without getting hooked was a learning experience and everyone who fished them had the same problem. I rarely rod lift a keeper size bass or use a net and lip most of my bass, with the exception crankbaits at night is always net time. One night I was lipping a 14.2 lb LMB on a crankbait and the fish jerked free of my hand on the lift, the loose treble hook caught the top of my hand with the full weight of a hot bass trying to get away. The nerve damage to my hand is still a poblem decades later. Use caution and common sense, one laspe and your can get hook badly. Tom

This is one topic that really ticks me off; bouncing bass into carpeted bass boats. If you have abosultley no regard for basses life after you catch it, then bounce on the carpet. This all became popular when B.A.S.S. outlawed nets in some ill thoughtout practice that somehow bass being bounced would be less stressed than being netted or lipped. Yes a heavy 8 power swimbait or flipping rod can easily bounce big bass with the proper technique, the qestion is why do it? The Basses slime coat is it's protection agianst desease and boat carpets remove this protective coating, not to mention the fish flipping around on the carpet after being banged onto it. Tom

The only time any soft plastic aggressive trailer swims on it's own is when it is moving through the water column, otherwise it sits still with little or no movement. The reason a good soft high floatation pork rind trailer works so well is; it moves falling through the water column and sitting still. If I want a baitfish appearing jig or faster moving jig trailer; use Yamamoto's Hula grubs, both single and double tails. For crawdad jigs worked on deep structure use soft pork rind trialers year around. Tom

Roboworms were developed for the split shot market long before drop shotting became popular. The reason; Robowrm is a high floatation and soft with life like movement and consistant coloration. Shakey head jigs work well with worms having the same features. Roboworm may be the best soft high floatation worm, but not as durable for shakey head jigs as the less expensive mass produced injection molded worms like the Kut tails. My favorite for shakey heads are both Roboworm and Iovino's straight tail 6" with 1" of the tail split. Roboworms curl tails are also good on dart heads. Tom

I know, thanks for sharing the clip. My comments were in response to an earlier webertime post about the Eel river. Without flood control dams on major rivers in CA, the river would cause major flooding of the central valley. Cal Trout does a good job of managing wild trout streams and we have some few old dams that cause problems that are being removed. Happy Thanksgiving. Tom

The Eel river is a wild river and protected by both state and federal wild river status, no dams to blow up. Enjoy the sand bars, they are natural to this river system. Tom

Dark purple and dark green combinations with vertical black stripes and junebug trailers are popular tilopia jig colors. Tom

The older wooden lures you have still in the original boxes are valuable and easy to sell. The lures out of the box are not as valuable and more difficult to sell. I would keep the boxes lures and fish with the lures out of the boxes. Antique lures, those made before world war II with glass eyes are true collector items and worth saving. How valuable are lures? Your memories have value to you. How much money are they worth? nothing until you actually sell them. It is up to you what you decide to do with your stuff. If you don't need the $$ why sell them? Tom

It would be nice if we all left and gave the US back to the indians. Dams are built for multiple reasons with flood control and drinking water supply topping the list. Tom

Conventional thinking is to use spinning outfits with lures under 3/16 oz, however with todays close tolerance reels, like the reel you have, you can go down to 6 lb mono or FC without any casting problems. Match you 200E7 with good premium 6 lb mono and a 3 power 7' medium fast action casting rod like Lamiglas* XL-703 ($110) and you can cast 60' OK with small crank baits. Spinning outfit requires both a rod and reel; 7' 2 power like a Lamiglas XL-702S ($110) and Shimano Sadona 2500FD reel ($50)and 6 lb Trilene XL mono ($7). Tom * good quality USA made, life time warranty, any good rod brand with similar specs will work.

1. LMB are sight feeders if the water is clear enought for them to use thier eyes to advantage. 2. Bass have a very highly developed sense of feel; they use thier lateral line like a giant ear to determine what is moving in the water within several feet. I have watched bass swim over 50 feet to look at a lure that had landed on the water surface, they didn't see it land they felt the vibrations from the water surface disturbance. 3. We don't know much in regards to how bass see colors underwater; we do know that color can be very important at times and not at other times. 4. Think of a bass as you would a cat; both are predators and react to unexpected movements. The bass either reacts instantly or you may need to tease it into striking...trail and error. A fast reaction can mean other bass are nearby and the strike is a competitive reaction. Tom

There was a time when our CA sport fishing license fee ($42+ today) went to fund sport fishing programs. Today the fee goes into the general fund for everyones use. To say California is in a sad state of misappropriated funds would be an understatement. Now our new DFG director is a humane society memember and using the infighting between various delta fishery users as a means to divide and conquer; the salmon anglers agianst the striper anglers, etc. The end game is the peripheral canal project, the end users are big agriculture corperations, the SoCal public water users are a smaller factor. The delta smelt is a pawn as is the sport fisheries in this high stakes game of water supply. Due to the delta smelt 1/3rd of the water going south has been shut off tp further pressure politicans to approve the PC. Now the DFG has joined in to add more pressure...it's all a BS politics. Tom

Fishing a bottom bumping swimbait uphill through brush from shore is a big problem regardless how you rig it. From a boat you can move and present the swimbait at different angles, from shore your options are limited. To help you need the proper rod; 7"6" to 7'9" medium heavy or heavy swimbait rod with 65 lb braid tied direct to the swimbait, no leader is needed. The longer rod will help in 2 ways; max your casting distance and allow you to lift the rod high and gently giggle the swimbait out of a snag...DO NOT Rip it out until it's your last ditch effort. The swimbaits weight helps to dislodge the snag, when the lure comes out of the snag reel the line to take up any slack quickly...strikes often occur at this time. Rigging; the standard hook allows the swimbait to roll on it's side without snagging. I would look into adding a wire weed guard pianted black or dark green. If you prefer the nose hook rig take a look at Mustad W3551 size 2 on the rig you have developed. I believe the ROF5 68 slow sink fished in the water column, not allowed to bottom bump should work. Dead sticking and waking a floater like a 10" Triple Trout when the water is calm is your best choice. Tom

Deep, if you want to talk to Butch directly and ask how he would rig the 68 to fish from shore PM me. Tom

Conventional wisdom can get in the way of finding what the bass prefers at that particular time you are on the water. More bass are caught on black & blue because 90% of the jig anglers are fishing with that color combination. Keep in mind that 10% of the anglers catch 90% of the bass and you want to be in the 10%. Unless the crawdads or other bottom dwelling critters the bass are eating are black, then try to match the color of what the bass are looking for; set out some traps and catch some crawdads. Take a look at them in a glass jar in water alive. Use those colors and add a highlight contrasting color mixed in. Brown with black and purple is a good color for example in clear deep structure lakes. Tom

You only need a jig with a fiber brush type weed guard when fishing heavy cover and they come in several grades of stiffness. No weed guard is best for getting a hook set. Adding a weed guard should consider the type of jig fishing you plan to do. Open water deep rocky structure may not require any weed guard or simply adding a 1 1/2" piece of soft plastic finesse worm on a hitchhiker type spring attached to the jig hook eye. This is the type of weed guard I use 90% of the time. Another variant is the split wire or plastic V weed guard, good for light cover. The most common type is the multiple strand fiber weed guards used for heavy cover when flipping or pitching jigs. Good quality production jig is Denny Brauers Stike King Pro model jig, out west the Wadda jig is very popular. Years ago back in 71' Bill Haddock designed a jig that placed the hook between two fiber guards*, this jig was excellent and ahead of it's time. Several theories on weed guards; the guard will cause the jig to roll over sideways and prevent the hook from making contact to the upper mouth area. The head will force open the mouth causing the hook to miss making any contact. Take your pick. The fact is largemouth bass rarely nip at a jig with it's lips, they engulf it to the back of their mouth where the crunchers are locating to kill it. If you hook set at that moment before the bass spits the false creature out quickly, you get a good hook set. You can't hook a bass that has spit out the jig. *For anyone interest in the dual weed guard design jig Bo James in AL has one on the market. For the 10% of the time I need a fiber style weed guard I use the Wadda jig and separate the fibers into a V shape and cut off the excess fibers about 1/8" above the hook point. I also reel and sweep set a jig, unless fishing vertical like flipping/pitching, then I tend to rod set. The most important element for any jig is the hook; size, type & sharpness. Tom

Good thread and excellent lure size presentation. Lure profile isn't always 2 dimensional, it's 3 dimensional and moving. The side profile with swimbaits is important due to the slower swimming motion allows the bass to look it over from below or trailing from behind or attacking from the side. Swimbaits that are heavy and sink would difficult to swim uphill from shore. The lighter the weight and slower it sinks will keep the swimbait suspended and out of the rocks. Butch's rig uses VMC's because they bend easily, you can use a small torch and heat a Gammy or Owner to make the same bend. From shore I would suggest using a giant worm 12" to 16" with a light weight and work it uphill, can be just as effective as a swimbait. You can also work a wake bait like a Plunker or a surface swimbait effectively from the bank. Tom PS; this years BAT is the 19-20 Nov with lots of new toys .

Bass are fish and fish can't determine their size verses the size of other fish until they are very close. This can explain why smaller bass will strike a lure larger then they are and why big bass will sometimes strike lures they can't swallow. I look at these events as very low percentage, they are mistakes the bass made. FLMB are a different bass than NLMB and have different genetic wiring and prey preferences. FLMB prefer larger long bodied, fine scaled, prey fish like the golden shiners they evolved eating for centuries. NLMB prefer shorter prey fish like young of the year bream or minnows they evolved eating. Both will strike big lures at times, FLMB prefer them when the large lures look like big prey fish they are looking for. Having the experience of catching both big FLMB and NLMB from the same lakes has proven to me that FLMB prefer to eat planted trout and NLMB rarely eat planted trout in those same lakes. There is no doubt that both FLMB and NLMB will eat smaller prey. My PB for both NLMB and FLMB were caught on jigs with 4" trailers. Keep in mind that a 10" worm is skinny and can easly fit into an average basses mouth, it's not just length it's the profile length and width that matters. Tom

Quick look at Google maps indicates you are in KS and this is a small 1/2 mile long lake. When a lake turns over you can smell and see the decaying bottom debris floating on the surface. Wind can turn over a small lake that is ready to turn over. The result is low DO levels for a week or so until the lake settles down. This small lake has a lot of public docks and I would imagine everyone fishes them. If you have a portable sonar unit, you should be able to locate some brush piles and isolated structure or rock piles and those would be a good target. Try drop shotting a finesse worm in whatever color you prefer using. Tom

Now that we know (I should have asked in the first place) you dragging a "brush" jig using basically a pitching rod and 3/8 oz jig, what I initially posted is still good advice. Brush jigs; arkie style jig head with weed guard is a compact jig designed to be fished vertically or falling down through the water column. The hook point is close to the lead head because the head is molded back of the hook eye to accommodate the weed guard. When a bass strike this jig hook setting can be done by lifting rod upwards, the hook is driven upwards. when you cast a jig away from you horizontally or drag it along the bottom a distance away from the boat, the arkie style compact jig becomes very difficult to get a good hook set, due to it's compact shape and head deign. A football jig by design puts the lead head under the hook eye, the hook point is set back about 1/2". Football heads snag in brush because the hook is back further. However, this is a big advantage when casting or dragging along the bottom. The hook point being further back in the basses mouth helps to set the hook. Take a look at Yamamoto's football jig heads, both the wire type weedless and standard without weed guards for fishing chunk rock. A bag of 5 plain football heads with Gamakatsu hook are about $4. Paint thead and add whatever trailer you prefer. Tom PS; your 7 1/2' jig rod is longer and heavier than need for casting a 3/8- 3/4oz jigs. 7', 4 to 5 power or heavy worm/jig rod would be lot easier to fish with if you have one.

Double tap jig bite; tap 1 the bass spitting out the jig, tap 2 your partner tapping you on the shoulder and telling you to swing. Tom

You will miss about 90% of the strikes on a jig if you react to a strike as you did. Largemouth bass strike a jig that acts like a crawdad by engulfing it, quickly opening it's mouth and vacumning in onto the back of it's mouth where there is a set of crunchers. If the jig doesn't feel right the bass rejects it quickly. The tap you felt was the jig hitting the crunchers and you had about a heart beat to set the hook. When you lowered the rod the jig was spit out. Unlike a soft plastic worm that feels right to a bass, the hard jig doesn't and bigger the bass is the faster it will reject a jig. Learn to watch your line where the enters enters the water; line movement indicates what the jig is doing. Smallmouth and spotted bass will sometimes peck at a jig to remove the claws before engulfing it, so with these bass you can sometimes hesitate until you feel slight pressure before hook setting. Takes practice to develop the right timing. Try setting the hook setting a jig by cranking the line tight before sweeping the rod back, it's faster and moves more line. Tom