WRB-2.0

I reduce my lure choices down to a few after dark. Texas rigged plastic worm with brass & glass bead or rattle in the bullet weight. Jig & pig Deep diving crank bait. Buzz bait. Spinner bait. I change to heavier line then the day time. The reason is it's more difficult to tie good knots and make accurate casts when you can't see well and the bass are not line shy at night. During the summer night period the bass where I fish tend move up from deeper into water between 1 to 12 feet deep in rocky brushy areas and outside weed lines. WRB

I don't select any specific lure until determining where the bass are. The first thing is to use your electronics to determine where to fish. Once you know the answer to that question, by eliminating where no fish or bait are, then it's a lot simpler to select a lure that should work, that you haven't already tried. If I had to pick only one type of lure it would be a plastic worm of some type and color that works on the specific lake at that time of year. Some days you just have to keep fishing until the bass become active and start to bite. It's not about the right lure, it's more about the right place and time. WRB

The jig is a simple lure; a hook with a molded metal head and one of the oldest that dates back centuries. The first jig was a simple ball head that more than likely was a modified musket ball mold that someone fitted a hook into. The jig and minnow, a ball head jig with a live or fresh dead minnow has caught more fish then all other designs or combination combined. Is the ball head the perfect jig head design? Today we call the ball head a shaky head or wacky head. Early fishermen added a short tubular metal extension to hold skirt material like marabou feathers or deer hair, the combination became known as a doll fly or crappie jig, depending on the size. The ball shape started jig designs and soon the head started to be customized to elongate it for more weight; the banana head, widen it to add weed guards; the arkie head. Bass fishermen liked the arkie head because this design allowed the jig to be fished in heavy cover where bass live in southern reservoirs, becoming the perfect jig for flipping or pitching. Out west the ball head was elongated sideways to add weight and keep the hook upright; the football or barrel head jig with a wire weed guard. The western reservoirs are mostly deep clear rocky lakes that the football shape was twice as heavy as the ball head and worked good in the rocky bottoms. The first football jig that I know was made by a JPL machinist named Larry McCain and marketed back in the late 50's by Bill Haddock. Today the football head has become popular; is it the perfect jig? The footballs wide head design tends to get snagged in wood and wedged in rocks. The arkie head works better in wood, the ball head slides between rocks better. The bottom line is; there isn't one perfect jig head design and today we have dozens to choose from, all specialized to perform well in specific applications. The perfect jig head for me is my own design that dates back to early 70's, is similar to Bobby Garlands spider jig; combination of a football and ball head. The perfect rock jig, poor heavy cover jig. WRB

See Locating big summertime bass by PithNbass on this page. Scale the worm size down to 5" & 6" , hook to size 1, slip or split shot rig. WRB

Pit lakes are different then most any other type of bass water. There should be a road that leads into the deeper areas and piles of rocks and gravel etc. The shoreline is more like fishing walls, except it should have weed beds around the perimeter. I agree with Matt, fish during the low light or at night, if the bugs allow it. A low swimming wake bait or bluegill swimbait, worked along the shade breaks or weed line should work. You stated you don't like live bait fishing because it's boring, which could be the key to your success; slow down. I haven't fished live bait for decades, but fish lures as if they are livebait. Day time; Try anchoring, I know it's boring to sit in one place for over an hour, this will slow you down. Locate one of those outside humps and anchor back about a long cast away. Next, modify that Carolina rig by removing the swivel and heavy weight. Get some 1/8 oz mojo weights, Carolina keepers and light wire Gamakatsu straight shank size 2/0 worm hooks. Set the weight keeper up the line about 18" above the hook. Use 6" or 9" straight tail, start with black or dark purple plastic worms. Use 8 to 10 lb mono or fluoro line. Cast out on top of the hump and slowly drag the worm back, stopping about 15 seconds about every foot. Slow and boring until that 10 lb bass picks up the worm. WRB PS: we call this a slip shot rig, you can pinch a split shot on the line, slide the #7 round shot up the line and cut off any damaged line, then tie on the hook and you are split shotting. I prefer slip shotting, both rigs work.

Weekend tournament bass fishermen deal with boat traffic all summer. The fishing is easier and generally better during week days or nights, for me. I fish outside main lake structure most of the time during the summer period and avoid weekends if possible, due to boat traffic. If you put yourself in traffic lanes you are asking for confrontation with other boaters or a possible boating accident. Do you recall Jay Yelas winning a classic a few years back by catching a 6 lb bass in a boat wake caused by a boater that buzzed him? Boat traffic bothers fishermen more than it does the bass. WRB

Fishing jig is rocks; 1. Use the lightest jig that you can fish effectively. 2. The best head design for broken rock or baseball size river rock is the round or pea head. Next best is the stand up spider jig head, followed by the football head. 3. Try to keep the jig moving slowly up and over and through the rocky areas. The jig head snags between the rock crevices, when the line drops between the rocks and lets the jig settle into the rocks. 4. Work the jig down hill, not up from deep to shallow, shallow to deeper water or parallel with a slightly down hill movement. 5. Use a high floatation trailer. The trailer should float upright when the jig is setting on the bottom. Freeing a snagged jig in the rocks is possible; first try not to pull hard, instead left the rod tip high overhead and whip it so the rod bounces the line. If that doesn't free it, try a different angle by moving the boat about 30 feet away form the snagged jig in the opposite direction. When you are 180 degrees around from the original direct and whipping the rod doesn't free, it's time to pull hard and hope it doesn't break off. The type of jig you use and the retrieve technique is key to not loosing jigs all the time. Flipping style arkie jigs with weed guards are a poor choice for casting and retrieving in rocks. I rarely use a weed guard with fish deep rocky structure lakes, prefer to use a Hitchhiker spring and 1 1/2" segment of a finesse worm to protect the hook point. WRB

The In-Fisherman Master Award program qualifying weight for largemouth bass is; 6 1/2 lbs or 22" length, smallmouth; 5 lbs or 20" length. Florida strain largemouth bass; 10 lbs or 24" length. WRB

Any time you are holding superbraid with line pressure and the line moves, it will cut you. Bass are not too much of a problem, but fast running salt water fish or stripers are. If you snag your lure and try to rip it free, you can cut your fingers for example. It could also be that you are not flipping, but pitching and not holding the line. WRB

#3. Winter, pre-Spawn, Spawn, Post Spawn, Spring transition, Summer, Fall. Pond, natural lake, deep structure lake, shallow weedy lake, river. Top water is better when and where....summer, ponds,natural and shallow lakes, rivers. Bottom running lures are better when and where.....all the time, everywhere. WRB

Studies were made that showed severe slime coat and scale damage was resulting form bass tournaments where landing nets were being used. B.A.S.S., being a conservation minded organization adopted the no net rule as a result of the study. Slime coat damage leads to deceased fish. Since that time net companies developed knot-less nets and rubber nets that eliminated most of the slime coat and scale damage. There isn't any reason for B.A.S.S. to continue the no net rule, other than TV ratings. ESPN purchased B.A.S.S. and changed the organization into tournament TV rated sport and it's more exciting to watch bass being bounced, lost at the boat or if lucky and hand being hooked. It's all about ratings, nothing about proper handling of the bass. WRB

File it under "no good deed goes unpunished". Secret lures can be found in the discount bins of most tackle stores. WRB

That is your opinion! mine; gray is grey. So IMO or IMHO is redundant when expressing your thoughts on a message board, didn't know that fact and try to keep that in mind. WRB

Nice bass, congratulations. Poor picture, too bad, need a flash, looks like I took it. If the measurement is mouth closed, agree the bass is about 9 lbs, (9.2) unless it's a heavier bodied bass then the dark photo shows. Try to wrap a piece of line around the bass next time for a girth measurement, then it's possible to calculate the weight more accurately. I use 75% of length for girth for LMB in your area, could be 80% and that changes the weight to 9.8 lbs, very close to a 10. WRB PS; L x L X G/1200 = weight in lbs

B.A.S.S. at one time had a lunker club that established minimum weight to receive membership and a decal. In-Fishermen still has the Master Angler contest for various specie of fish including largemouth and smallmouth bass for each region of the country. Bass are bass; we generally default to thinking a bass is a northern strain largemouth bass. Smallmouth and spotted bass are also very common "bass" and each should be in it's own category when considering how big is big. WRB

We use a product called Kendall Flex-wrap, 1" blue for wrapping fingers to prevent line cuts out west. The tape is self adherent, water doesn't loosen it and easy to use. WRB

True, what works in one lake doesn't work in another a mile away. The reason I don't like to fish jigs in soft bottom ponds is because plastic worms work far better in weedy ponds, unless it's a deep rocky pond and even then a worm is less likely to hang up. If the angler is fishing from a boat, he or she can flip or pitch the jig vertically into cover and lift the jig or hopefully a bass back out. If you are fishing from shore and cast into a small open pocket of a weed matt that is 30' or farther away, you may not get a jig back out, let alone a bass, unless you plan to swim and dig it out. Water clarity has nothing to do with fishing jigs or worms. Deep structure lakes are different than shallow flat bottom lakes, where ever they maybe located. WRB

It always makes me smile when fishermen say a jig looks like a crayfish and hops off the bottom. A jig is about the same size as a crayfish or crawdad, but doesn't look or act like it. Try looking at a crawdad and a jig side by side in an aquarium, they don't look alike, act alike or move in the same manner. Bass may have a small brain, but they know exactly what a real crayfish looks and acts like. Big bass hit artificial lures for reasons we may never understand fully or need to know. The lure looks right to the bass and they decide to strike it. The only way a bass can strike a lure is if we put the lure in the right place at the right time and the bass decides if it something of interest to eat. I catch most of my bass on jigs that have landed on the bottom and started slowly moving naturally along the bottom with stops and stops, no hops. I'm not trying to trigger a small bass into striking and fishing for large adult bass that tend to eyeball whatever they eat very closely, if the jig jumps off the bottom, they leave. WRB

A Rare Chance for a World Record; Book#64, 1985, Dec/Jan, pg 134-144. Horizontal Jigging; Feb 1995, pg 144-147. E mailed copies. I do have the original Segment 1, Study report 1, it's 45 pages and could scan it, not a booklet. WRB

In-Fishermen started in 1975, B.A.S.S. started using C & R in 1973. Contributed articles to In-Fishermen back when it started, Linder's are good folks. WRB "Rare Chance at a World Record". "Horizontal Jigging".

Keep in mind that bass are a lot like a flock of sparrows, spook easily, but return when things quite down. The big bass more than likely returned to the exact same ambush site after you left. Next time, sit down and watch the pond for clues what the bass may have been feeding on. Give it maybe 10 minutes and cast back to the same spot. It becomes a choice of how much tackle and weight you want to carry when shore fishing and what lures have the highest % to catch bass. I consider myself a good jig fishermen, however when fishing ponds, plastic worms are my first choice because they are a lot easier to fish in a pond and will catch any size bass. If you are just practicing and want to learn jig fishing, go for it. Start with a lighter weight jig, like a 3/16 oz sled head, paint it black. For the trailer use Yamamoto single tail 4" hula grub in dark green w/black and red flakes. This jig doesn't have a weed guard, you hook the grub like a worm. The color should work well as it looks like both bluegill and crawdad. WRB

Fishing ponds you are more than likely fishing from shore. The traditional (pig & jig) is a poor choice, IMO, to be fishing from shore. The plastic worm or soft plastic creature are far more versatile and effective small lake or pond lures. The reason is the bullet weight slides through the cover easier without loading up with weeds. If you still want to try a jig, use a grass jig that has bullet shaped head like Owners Sled head with a soft plastic craw type of trailer. If the reason to try jigs is to increase the size of the bass you are catching, then the plastic worm would be a better choice in a pond. Big bass are more wary and you need to use darker colors, longer 7" to 10" worms and keep out of sight of the bass you are trying to catch. Night, very early morning or late evening is a great time to fish ponds for larger size bass. You can fish the jig and Texas rigged plastics with the same tackle and technique, when fishing a pond. WRB

In Mexico they use soda or beer cans to hold the line and cast like a spinning reel with the line coming off the bottom end. Round split shot with a night crawler or plastic worm will work, it has for generations of young fishermen. Good luck. WRB

The lures you mentioned still work today.The french lure was more than likely a Finland lures called a original floating Rapala. The hot dogs and dough balls tend catch carp & catfish mostly. You can bass fish from shore, form a wooden pram, aluminum rental boat or $50K bass boat, the don't seem to care. The big difference today is the number of fishermen and women that have good fishing skills and tackle are greater than 50 years ago. Most bass fishermen today catch & release the bass, so the bass tend to be conditioned to avoid the most popular lures. The older lures work, the bass haven't been seen them, so go out and give it try. WRB PS; remember bass look bigger through the eyes of a 10 year old.

Bouncing bass is a newer concept in bass fishing created by B.A.S.S. when they eliminated nets. Swinging a 2 lbs bass is easy with most med/hvy, fast action bass rods, IF you use the fishes forward momentum to get it airborne. The rod may break under 2 lbs of dead weight. Trying to swing a 4 lb bass requires the bass to nearly jump into the boat with the rod assisting the forward motion. Do you have any idea what a boat carpet does to the basses slime coat? If removes a major amount of slime and the bass is subject to all kinds of bacterial diseases as a result. If you swing and catch it, without hooking yourself, that works. Why not use a good quality net on bigger bass, less damage to the bass and you don't loose the bass, hook yourself or break your rod. Don't believe you are fishing a B.A.S.S. tournament, take an extra few seconds to land the and handle the bass with care. WRB