WRB-2.0

Why do lures move in water? the water is moving or the lure is displacing the water and creating positive and negative pressures as it moves. We bass anglers know this movement by watching lures wiggle or swim with a side to side motion. The lure movement is another important factor because water movement created by the lure is picked up by the bass lateral line sensors/nerves and tells the bass something is nearby and moving. To bass anything that creates pressure waves gets it's attention. Sound makers like rattles within a lure doesn't produce a pressure waves, it produces sound waves that is picked up by the bass ears, it hears the rattling sound. Most prey produce some short of under water sound, all moving prey produce pressure waves, both are important to the bass to detect and locate visually what is nearby. I don't know of any lure that can reproduce the sound prey makes, that is something for the future. We do know that the pressure waves can very greatly between lures of identical appearance and one reason some lures out perform others from the same manufacturer; another factor to consider. Tom

The lures density or weight is only 1 factor on how fast it may or may not descend through the water column. For example a lead spoon may in fact float like a steel ships hull or sink rapidly like a torpedo sinker, shape and water displacement are factors to consider. I fish with custom hair jigs that glide and swim down through the water column that have 5/0 hook and weigh nearly 1/2 oz and use 4" x 1" custom cut high floatation pork trailers. It's misleading to make statements that hair jigs with pork trailers fall faster than other materials, alot depends on the fullness of the skirt and trailer affecting the water resistance. Zipper shaped worms that weigh the same as straight body designs sink slowly due to the surface area. Another factor is the line drag resistance can and does affect how a lure performs. Tom

If your goal is to catch bass anglers, then you need whiz bang state of the art lure design elements. If all that builds confidence and you use the lure for longer periods, then perhaps state of the art design will improve your catch per hour rate. Bass on the other hand relate to their own life experiences to survive. To catch bass consistently you must make the bass bite the lure and then recognize the strike in time to hook the bass. There has never been an artificial lure that will fool a bass more often than the live bait they are currently eating. We bass anglers tend to target the aggressive bass that will react to artificial lures. The problem with that is bass are not active very often during any 24 hour period. What I have learned about lures is; they must be easy to see and locate for the bass to commit to striking. The lure should be able to get near the bass without alarming it. My top big bass lures are; jigs, swimbaits and big soft plastic worms. These lures are at times eaten dead still, falling down through the water column and moving slowly and naturally within the water column. Tom

Yes. You can't compare a large deep structured reservoir to a small pond in regards to bass numbers and growth potential. A small pond located in a warm climate with ideal forage could be excellent, however located in a cold region could be void of bass due to freezing for long time periods or poor forage. The large deep structured reservoir would have favorable conditions regardless where it is located within the bass range. Tom

If the lake is new, new dam flooding lake bottom that has been groomed for sustaining bass and planted with good balance forage fish and bass as fingerling's; look for very good bass fishing in 4 to 6 years and peaking at 8 to 10 years. Tom

Discribe your tackle by make and model #; rod, reel, line, knots, hook size & types. What is light tackle to one angler is heavy to another and there isn't any standards for rods, each mfr has there own set of numbers. In General; bass don't have hands, if your line moves or you detect a strike...set the hook instantly. The exceptions; large soft plastics, smallmouth and spotted bass sometimes need a little time to get the lure in it's mouth. Some top water lures it's good to let the bass turn before setting. Keep the bass coming towards you, they instinctively head for safety. Learn to control the bass at all times and keep the bass in front of you and follow it around the boat if necessary. At the end of the day some bass win the battle. Tom

The lures design can dictate where and how it should be fished successfully, however there are no fixed rules. Crankbaits with deep diving bills and hanging treble hooks are designed to be fish where the open hooks don't snag often. Rattle traps without the bill can be ripped through snags a lot easier, then a crankbait with a bill. Both have similar reaction strike frantic motion with similar presentation techniques. Jigs with a heavy Extra strong wide gap hook and weed guard works good in heavy cover fished with strong line. Jigs with light wire hooks, no weed guard work poorly in heavy cover and far better in more open water areas with less cover and fished with lighter line. Both are jigs technically, but presented differently. The list of lures go on and on as do the techniques and presentations. Fishing a crankbait on a C-rig or drop shot rig or using it as a jig trailer wasn't what the lure manufacture had in mind when developing his lures. Bass anglers like to tinker and that's what makes our sport interesting. Tom

Catt is the one who should answer this, he spends a lot of time night fishing. I wear my clear prescription glasses at night, polarized sun glasses during the day. There are several hats available with LED lights built in or clipped on styles that work well, depending on the bugs where you fish. Your depth perception is poor at night and it's easy to cast beyond where you plan and get snagged. Eye safety is important, so wear glasses. Tinted glass may reduce the available light and that may further open your eye pupil, reducing your ability to focus and your depth perception to near zero at night. Tom

Older GPS = sketch pad and triangulate landmarks and take a few pictures. I am still amazed when low water conditions allows me to see what was actually underwater verses what I thought that good spot looked like. Example; before lake Sherwood was drained to repair the dam, I knew where one large oak tree stump was located in the middle of the lake near a channel break, my secret honey hole. I was shocked to see that my stump was actually a row of 5 stumps about 50' apart and the break had baseball size rocks for about 100 yards and explains why I didn't have trouble finding that stump. Before refilling the lake, the bottom was re contoured and the stumps removed....I fished Sherwood over 30 years not knowing what was actually underwater and now it's gone. Today we have excellent sonar and GPS to help see underwater. Tom

A tidbit about spawning bass; they tend to go back where they began. It's a common belief that bass just move up and spawn at whatever convenient location that suits there needs, not always true. If the water has returned to the levels where you caught your big bass before, they should be nearby, if they are still in the lake. I tagged some bass years ago and to my surprise they returned to the exact bed site year after year. Good luck! Tom

I think of pre spawn as the time between cold water winter period and actual seeking out beds. The first or major wave of pre spawners takes place as the water temps raise from the low 50's to the low 60's, at the depth water where the bass intend to spawn. Changes in water temperature during this time period will shut down the spawn until the conditions warm back up. The calendar has little to do with pre spawn/spawn, unless it happens to coincide with the proper warming water conditions. Out west we typically get about 3 spawning waves, sometime less depending on weather conditions. This year looks like an early pre spawn/spawn cycle and more than likely late on the east coast. Keep in mind it take boths male and females to spawn and males don't have full milt sacks or females have rip developed eggs year around.

Surface water temperature has little to do with the core water temperature where the bass live. A 5 degree water temperature change is a major change to cold blooded bass; 10 degrees is fatal. WRB

The adult bass are going to survive OK, it's the recruitment or survival rate of the spawn that will be impacted with low pool conditions. For baby fish, including baby bass, without cover they become prey quickly. The result is a loss of a few year classes. After the lake refills, the recruitment explodes with the new cover and small aquatic creatures to feed on. Over harvesting a small lake is a big problem for the larger adult size bass, there are only so many the lake can support and it will take time for those bass to be replaced by mid size bass; 2 to 3 years. Up and down cycles are normal and your lake should be good again soon. Tom PS; does this lake have cormorants? Cormorants can really impact a small lakes fish population at low pool and should not be allowed to stay around for long time periods.

Rivers & smallmouths; similar to fishing lake rip rap except current becomes a major factor. Fish the wing dams where you see current current breaks and fish a little deeper with smaller lures then you normally target LMB with. Good luck. WRB

If you are asking about man made rip rap being broken rock used to protect the water from damaging the bank above and below the water line; Reservoirs; start by fishing close to the shoreline as if walking the bank about a boat length out and make casts parallel and slightly outwards, then move out and make casts about 45 degrees towards the bank. Let the bass decide how they want the lure presented. Rip rap is basically open water and the bass will be active feeding if located there. Your highest percentage lure is a crankbait, type depending on the depth of the bass. If you see cover near rip rap such as a shaded bridge, tree, dock, isolated piling or structure that gives a bass a place to hide, then consider using a slower presentation like underspins or round head light weight jigs. During the winter or cold water period structure spoons can be good on deep under water rip rap areas. WRB

Trends change due in part from other angler having more success by changing their presentation or techniques. Looking at another site the list of the top 5 money winning techniques in 2010 were; 1. crankbaits 2. dragging jigs & tubes 3. flip or pitch 4. swimbaits 5. finesse The traditional lures like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, T or C rigged worms, Senko's, top water lures including frogs, jerkbaits had a very low % of success in winning tournaments. The type of water fished has a big influence on techniques however more anglers are learning that bank pounding techniques have a lower success rate than fishing outside structure and breaks. WRB

When you think of Master Award programs In-Fisherman comes to mind. The In-Fisherman program is regional, not state by state and today most programs are based on the In-Fisherman's requirements. Texas Share a Lunker is an exception and for LMB only over 13 lbs. California doesn't have a fresh water trophy fish or master angler award program to the best of my knowledge. WRB

He is not trying to earn a merit badge. This would be an eagle scout project so he has to do some kind of service project. So that research might help figure out what needs improvement but in end he is going need to actually do some type of improvement. OK, doing research is a learning process and studying the ponds predator prey base will lead to a plan to improve the pond through proper management. Does this meet the leadership service project requirement to become an Eagle Scout? Accept my apology for using the term badge and demeaning the achievement becoming an Eagle Scout.

Bob Lusk is the best resource on this site in regards to your inquiry. You could also earn your badge by researching what prey is actually in the ponds you are fishing. Bass eat a wide variety of creatures during the life cycle and only target larger bait fish as adults. If you add bait fish that compete with the baby bass, then you compound the problem. Balance is the name of the game in a small ecosystem. Try making up fish traps and crayfish (crawdad) traps, looking under logs and rocks for darner nymphs (dragon fly larvae), frogs, salamanders, worms, etc, Make up a list. Catch and examine the stomach contents of the bass. Try to determine the age of the bass. Lots of things you can do to earn that badge you want. WRB

The depth of the water is a big factor; the deeper the lake the longer it takes to cool. A large shallow flat area, like a bay, will heat and cool faster then the steep deep area around a dam for example. Bass being cold blooded animals will seek the warmest water available during cold water periods, ie; the dam area during winter and may move to that shallow bay during periods of sunny warm days that slightly heated water and return to deeper water when the bay cools during severe cold periods. Think of water as being a heat sink, the deeper it is the longer it takes to cool it down. WRB

You are right, lakes that don't have pelagic bait such as herring, shad, specifically threadfin shad, the bass locations are different. Lakes with primarily demersal bait fish, the bass will stay near cover where that type of bait fish lives. Crawdads and other prey such as frogs tend to also stay close to cover or rocky areas that offer a place to hide and provide their food source. The only time shad are close to cover is during night and low light time periods, otherwise the threadfin shad are off shore following their food source phytoplankton. Gizzard shad eat both phytoplankton and zoo plankton and other small aquatic creatures and tend to stay close to cover for longer time periods. Deep water in lakes with only demersal baitfish is not a good bass location; any area where weed/grass cover, tree's, brush, rocks and docks are the locations the sunfish, bluegill, young of the year carp or bass, suckers, sculpin, chubs, frogs, crawdads, salamanders, worms, larvae, small animals like mice should be located and the bass will be close. Crappie are pelagic fish, spawn near shore cover, then move out into the water column and come back to cover to feed. If your lake has a crappie population, then the bass may move off shore to feed on them. Most bass lakes have a combination of both types of bait fish; pelagic and demersal. WRB PS; Bass Angler magazine is new and Bass Anglers Guide magazine are other good publications to consider. Bill Murphy's In Pursuit of Giant Bass is one of the best resources for information regarding bass fishing with crawdads.

You can catch active bass on slow the moving lures you mentioned, what is important is where you are fishing those lures. If you consider that bass are active about 10% of the time each day, then you are presenting lures to inactive bass 90% of the time. The key to catching bass is locating active bass and presenting a lure that resembles what they are feeding on or looking for. It's the difference between fishing like KVD or Denny Brauer, they both know where to use what type of lures and when to use them; KVD prefers fast, Brauer prefers slow. We all pass up bass during a day's outing, hopefully we find bass that are active. WRB

I do not know or have never met Doug Hannon, however do know people who vouch for his honesty and successs. There is a big difference between FLMB and NLMB growing over 10 lbs and a bigger difference for smallmouth and spots growing to double digits. If you fish where double digit bass are common, your chances of catching them is better. Doug Hannon is a highly skilled bass angler that fishes small isolated lakes with big bass populations, his numbers over a lifetime could easily be what he claims. If you add 5 lbs to a FLMB it is about equal to a NLMB; how many 15 to 17 lb bass has Doug caught? I believe Mike Long may have more in that weight range. The reason for a high interest in giant bass or world record bass peaks during winter when everyone has time to ponder and pre-spawn is approaching where these big bass live. Good luck to everyone. WRB

Yao Ming from China; Chinese are normally short, Yao's parent were tall; 6'7" & 6'3". Nazi Germany tried to create a super race based on genetics and given several centuries it may work; Darwin theory of natural selection. The reason FLMB grow larger is they are a different species from NLMB. WRB

Yao Ming from China; giants can happen regardless of their parents size. Nazi Germany tried to create a super race based on genetics and given several centuries it may work. The reason FLMB grow larger is they are a different species from NLMB. WRB