WRB-2.0

Owner Down Shot hook #5133-101, size 1, works good with Roboworms soft plastics. This is a special off-set light wire hook design for drop shotting a skin hooked worm in lieu of nose hooking. Wacky rigging is another option, however the soft plastic worms will tear off. A bass per worm shouldn't be a problem; if it is use a cheaper high production injection molded worm. You decide; fish for hours without catching a few bass and save lots of worms or catch lots of bass and use up worms. Tom

+1 The only time I use the flat side up is when trying to save the worm for another fish after fishing it flat side down. Most hand pours have belly colors on the flat side. Tom

You can use a 12V clip on flood lamp with 25 watt yellow bug light, works good to light up the bank. You may need a high powered spot light to navigate with like a Brinkmann 12V, very handy at night and good to warn another boat bearring down on you, everyone doesn't watch where they are going. As Catt mentioned, bass are often over your shoulder in deeper water. Tom

My first night night bass fishing was done from shore before owning a boat and the only light needed was a pocket size pen light to aid in tying knots with. Night fishing from a boat I have rigged nearly every type of lights from black lights, flood lights, LED head lamps and underwater lights during the past 40 years or so. It is good to be able to see; tying knots and finding the right lures, being able to cast accurately are good examples. Lights have disadvantages; bugs and night blindness. The question about lights spooking bass? I don't think so. I have had good success with and without lights. It is illegal to run a boat without running lights where I live, so running lights are always on due to the law. I tape tin foil on the white rear light facing the inside of the boat so it doesn't shine into the boat or my eyes. Today I prefer using an underwater light at the transum, it lights up the water about 30 feet all around the boat, you can see fish to land them easily, enough light to tie knots and to cast accurately in all directions. The underwater light attracts bait fish and.....bugs at the back of the boat. I have a habit of using my finger to feel line movement, so darkness doesn't hinder me missing strikes, bats hitting the line fake me out sometimes. Tom

Bass don't get big in small high pressured lakes by being careless and not aware of bank movement. The bass can see you or knows something isn't right. You need to stay away from the area you are fishing or hide good enough the bass can't detect you, then you have far better chances of catching it. Low light or darkness is to your advantage, light breeze to ripple the water surface helps. If the bass is up tight in shallow water, your choices are less; fly lined soft plastics or live night crawler tail hooked as mentioned. Small blue gill swimbait, floater or slow sinking model. Low light & Night; 10" to 12" T-rigged worm like Upton's Customs in black grape/blue neon or the swimbait and a buzz bait all should work. Tom

First; you are very lucky the bass didn't drop the jig before you tried to swing. The fact it was a smallie that tends to peck at some jigs saved you, a big LMB would have been long gone. When casting a jig like a football head; try to keep the rod down and pointed towards to jig, not up at 2 o'clock like worm fishing. Move the jig by turning the reel handle 1 to 2 turns and stop, shake to rod tip and repeat. Use the rod to lift the jig over snags, otherwise keep it down. When you detect anything; a tick, pecking, slack line, line movement; crank the reel fast to load up the rod, then sweep the rod back and continue reeling. This is called a reel set and works very well for jigs becuase you move a lot of line quickly and apply high pressure to the hook. Tom

Lots of factors to consider, it's not all that easy. The basics; line size, worm or creature diameter where and how the hook placed. Texas rigged; 5/16 diameter worm, average for most worms between 5" to 7"; 3/0 worm hook. 3/8 diameter worm, avaerage for 71/2" to 10" worms; 4/0 worm hook. Owner 5103-141 or Gamakstsu 484 or equal, both are straight shank round bend worm hooks. 3/8 to 7/16 diameter creatures and Senko's; 5/0 to 6/0 EMG Gamakatsu #584 or equal. Finesse split shot or slip shot rigged, skin hooked; 3 to 41/2" worms; size 2 Gamakatsu # 011 or Owner 5100. 5 to 6 1/2" worms; size 1/0 Gamakatsu #011 or Owner 5100 Nose hooked; size 1 Gamakatsu or Owner drop shot hook or weedless wide gap finesse hook. Wacky rigged (O-ring) Gamakatsu or Owner size 2/0 wide gap weedless finesse hook. There are so many variables, hope this helps. Tom

Active bass are looking for prey, find the bait and bass will be close by. Structure or cover isn't good without bait at night; bass either wait to ambush or roam to hunt for bait. Do you camp out and wait or move? that is always the question. IF you know bass are there then stay. If you know bait is there, bass should be there; stay. No bass, no bait...move! Tom

You can do whatever pleases you! Suspended bass during dusk are very hard to catch. Active bass that are roaming near structure or cover or located near ambush sites are much easier to catch. Spend your prime time fishing for active bass. Tom

Suspended fish are not always bass and if they are bass they are usually inactive. It is usually better for your lure to be at the same depth or above bass. You can count down the jig and swim it through the suspended fish or use a different lure like a crank bait, swimbait or spoon. Tom

From your initial question it sounds like you are fishing a man made reservoir in lieu of a natural lake and have deep structure available. Water clarity plays a roll on where you can fish and what you can fish successfully after dark. In clear deep structured lakes you can fish nearly every type of lure at night as during the day time during the transition time at dusk. I like to fish outside structure and major points during the summer period during the day about 80% of the time on the water. At night I tend to reverse that and move towards the bank 80% of the time and fish deep shore breaks with nearby cover. Shore can be islands and shallow humps, not always the main lake banks. If I meter out side active bass than I will stay on them. It's been may experience the deeper big bass tend to move up to feed on prey fish like shad seeking night cover for shelter and crawdads, frogs etc that more concentrated in those areas. My number 1 night lure is a T-rigged 10" plastic worm in dark colors; dark purple with blue neon or black with blue or red flakes and rarely fish that worm and color during the day. Number 2 is a jig in the same colors. Number 3 deep diving crank bait in black with red high lights or white with silver high lights. Number 4 is a double bladed buzz bait in black, 5 is a musky size black Jitter Bug w free hanging hooks. If the cover allows and the bass are up tight I like 7" to 9" Senkos in the same colors as the 10" t-rigged worm fished weightless. During the day I fish with a boat load of different tackle, at night I try to keep simple. Tom

Some fresh water lures started as salt water lures; Scrounger and boot tail swim baits for example. The difference is the type of metal and plating used for salt water to prevent corrosion; fresh water hooks will rust. You can and should rinse you rod, reel, any fresh water hooks in fesh water every day after fishing. Spraying WD-40 on the rod guides and reel after rinsing will help. You can fish surf areas and break water with soft plastics; Berkley makes a line of Gulp products that work very well. As mentioned spoons work anywhere, white feathered hooks help and white hair jigs are good. Tom

Take a look at "Best hours for night fishing" thread on this same forum page. Tom

Just looked at this thread and was thinking I've seen that photo before. Reading down the facts come out. They way the photo was taken makes a 16 lb bass look like 20 lber, that is why it's a guessing game to get a good estimate from pictures without a reference ruler and measurements. 16 lbs is a giant regardless where it was caught, too bad she didn't get it offically weighed shortly after it was caught and alive. Tom

The purpose of posting Butch's link was to point out how fast some DD bass jump, not his fishing skills, they are well documented. The smallie that Franco is holding can get more air under it than any largemouth. The point is; not all big bass make lethargic last effort jumps...they sometimes explode out of the water and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. I have been fortunate to catch a lot of giant bass, some make explosive jumps, some never jump, it's the heart stopping jumps you remember most! My point is' don't put yourself at an disadvantage using ultra tackle when big bass are a possibility to catch. Tom

There isn't a lot of time to get ready when a big bass decides to jump. It's my experience they jump soon after being hooked. There is a good vedio of a gaint bass jumping on U-tube; Butch Brown's 19.3. Butch puts this bass in the boat very fast,but it still makes a typical giant bass heart stopping jump! Anyone who thinks you can control a big bass jumping hasn't been frieght trained by one of these explosive fish, it doesn't happen in slow motion. Tom

Each to his or her own beliefs. My experience doesn't support the bright sun light theory that bass see better and are caught more often during mid day. Trophy bass are caught often during the spawning by sight anglers, not because the big girls are feeding or on live bait because big bass can see the difference. Low light conditions; rain, heavy cloud cover, dawn, dusk, darkness of night, help mask the fact that lures tied on line are not real prey. Dusk, the time when the sun is setting, brings out insects, smaller fish start actively feeding and the whole preditor prey cycle ramps up. Dawn is different, everything has settling down and feeding activity for big bass is less predictable; they hunt for prey moving into or leaving shelter areas. Anyway, that has been my experience; very acive dusk bites, less predictable dawn bites and a lot of fishing in between the setting and raising of the sun. Tom

Never fished the tiny Damiki flick Shaky jig, they look like a size 2 drop shot hook. The problem with big bass is they have wide tough lips and the small hook doesn't penetrate anything unless it is inside the mouth in the soft tissue. Very difficult to get a big bass in the boat with ultra light tackle on tiny hooks, it can be done and is done on occasion, everything must go right. I fish custom hair jigs tied on Gamakatsu #114, 5/0 with 10 to 14 lb Sunline FC and consider that light tackle for big bass in gin clear water. Big bass on light spinning tackle happens and you can land some of them. At DVL in SoCal 5 & 6 lb FC leaders with 10 to 15 lb braid is the standard set up...it's ultra light tackle for big bass IMO. Good luck. Tom

13 year old Carson Sims wins $1,000 for big fish on day 1 and donates the check to wounded warriors...class act! Aaron Martens wins the 3 day event for his 3rd US Open title. Tom

It's a good thing that bass can't read. Fishing the transition from light to dark, dark to light is usually good, the bass are more active. Like day time, the night bite has peake periods that differ and very hard to predict without being on the water. Tom

Carson Sims is the youngest US Open tournament angler in history and catching the bigger bass than the Elite pro's. He was paired with Aaron Martens today and when asked if he was excited said "Aaron who"? Tom

Fully realizing you need to get bit before you can lose any bass; consider changing both the line lb test and the rod power rating, if you are catching bass over 5 lbs. 8 lb is 25%+ stronger than 6 lb line, 10 lb is 60% stronger, the difference is 0.001 in diameter for each 2 lbs in strength! The medium power Shimano is light to start with, over rated and more like a medium/light action. Try going up to medium/heavy, far better control. 8lb line and med/hvy rod you can put 2 more lbs of drag tension without breaking off, better hook setting by reel set and sweeping the rod back. Use the sharpest, strongest forged light wire hooks on the jigs. Might consider using 12 lb NanoFil with 12' of 10 lb FC leader for better hook setting and control. Forget about lowering the rod to prevent bass jumping, keep steady pressure, stay in front of the bass and in control, if they jump off they win that day. Tom

Go to the Sure-Life.com web site. I also believe there is a link to a video on this site that details how to keep bass alive in warm water livewell conditions. Putting ice in livewell water works IF done correctly, you can also kill bass from thermal sock if you add too much. A combination of Catch & Release formula, frozen pint water bottles and proper DO levels is needed....the video explains what you need to do. Tom

Use Gamakatsu #744 in lieu of #584. Most premium hooks come in 3 wire diameters; light wire, standard wire and heavy wire. Read the manufactures discription, they state the wire type and intended use. Another factor is forged or round wire; forged hooks are flattened round wire at the hook bend to increase the bending strength. Example Gamakatsu #114 jig hook is a light wire forged hook and strong for the wire diameter used. The #604 is a strong standard wire jig hook for example. Owner makes similar hooks and very strong. Mustads premium black nickle hooks are less expensive and good. Your problem could be a bad batch of hooks. When fishing with superbraids; the drag shouldn't be set any heavier than 8 lbs or you will break your rod before straightening out a good hook. I have caught several giant bass (17 to 19lbs) using Gamakatsu #114 5/0 jig hooks and never had a bass straighten out or open up the bend on a jig. I have damaged hooks on rocks, not bass. Tom

Baby bass or fry are part of the food chain and eaten by all larger predators including other bass. A very small percent survive the first year depending on the water level and cover available. Tom