WRB-2.0

Not a grub but a 4” ribbon tail worm on a Gamakatsu Dart head jig. I use 4” Screamer* in Shad** color on 1/8 oz dart. Reason is the thin long tail swims in cold water or any temperature water. Tom * US Bait co ** smoke with fine silver, gold and standard black flake.

Shimano Tranx 150 is very strong aluminum low profile reel and weighs 6.5 oz, 13 lbs drag, line capacity isn’t great but 105 yds of 40 lb braid is decent. Tom

Standard size 17” x 9 1/2” x 4” deep. TBNation has tray on sale now. The problem with cup holder in the bow is don’t forget whatever you put in it, it becomes ballistic at speed. Tom PS Spot Lock is a game changer

The Daiwa Elite has 11 lb drag, more then enough for fresh water bass fishing. 8 lbs will break most frog rods, need more then 8 lbs drag use your thumb. Tom

Forget the tray with cup holder or any made from plastic. Use a aluminum black anodized tray with drain and SST screws. Your front deck isn’t long enough for a large tray, get a model made for your TM foot control peddle that comes with a pattern for the cut out. The only question I have is why dis you wait so long? Tom

The Cotton Cordell plastic Big O looks just like the photo posted. The Fred Young original Big O was a hand carved wooden lure and expensive back in the day. Tom

Gas stations had Heddon knock lure kits and those 2 bottom lures look like they came from a knock kit. Heddon Injured Minnows didn’t have a screw eye hook hangers or come in spook colors to the best of my knowledge. Didn’t see the Cobra mentioned. Tom

The top minnow lure looks like a 4” Heddon Cobra. Tom

My Musky story was titled in the Nestor’s new “Antique Net Ruined”. My farther in-law Jim had a wonderful sense of humor, loved that man. Jim’s birthday was July 4th and the family spend the warm months at their Lake of the Woods home. 1976 I caught my PB 37# Musky on Dominium day during a party for my father in law. One of the party goers was Millie who wanted to get back to her island before dusk so Kay and I gave Millie a ride back to her island. I had taken a bass rod rod with a 1/4 oz black hair jig with me and decided to try for a Smallmouth on the ride back to the party. Across from Millie’s island was another that had a float plane hanger that I wanted to make a few cast to. What I hooked wasn’t a Smallmouth, it was. 37 lb Musky! Very exciting fight with jumps waiting to get bit off any second but beyond all odds the Musky came to the boat and Kay netted it. We lifted the Musky into the boat as the fish went through the cotton net into the boat. We were both excited and decided to run full speed back to the party to show the fish. Everyone came down to the dock and lots of pictures taken but the Musky didn’t make. The PB Musky was mounted and still have it. Tom

It's not the total weight of A-rigs, about 1 1/2 oz total, it’s the bulk and air resistance requiring loading the rod and making a long lob cast. If the rod is too stiff it. doesn’t load up to help launch the lures. I used the IROD suggested and it works good, my XH swimbait rods we’re very tiring to cast A-rigs, great for 8” Hudds and 5 - 7 lures. The Musky rods I used in Canada for about 20 years casting Musky lures I learned from experience were too stiff to use for bass swimbaits. Musky rods need more power to get hook sets on big tooth fish. Tom

Fresh water sculpins are common in west coast rivers and lakes. Roboworm makes a 4” sculpin in Oxblood w/light red flake, perfect on a split or slip shoot rig. Tom

IROD IRG783SB is rated for 1-4 oz lures Fast-Mod action, 7’8” And excellent A-Rig/ Medium size Swimbaits like Hudd 68 (2 1/4 oz) etc, $150. IQ804SB, 8’ with cork handle similar to above and made for A-rigs plus same 1-4 swimbaits. $205 Tom

I am not familiar with that rod so can only suggest trying it. Most Musky rods have heavy lower 2/3rd of the blank closure to XXH swimbait rods. The heavy overall weight and longer rod may wear on you faster then a rod designed for A-rigs or MH 5 power swimbait rods. Tom

Return the new rod with photos or contact the rod builder to find epoxy compatible with the composite and whatever they used. Tom

There isn’t anything I need at Walmart unfortunately. I don’t have anything against the company but they don’t carry anything I need, especially in Sorting Goods. Tom

When I was 34 discovered my LDL (17) was very low and gall bladder plugged. Instead of surgery my DR put me on a “if it taste good spit it out” diet. 3 months the gall bladder was working normal. Since that time my diet has been low carbs, low sugar, good red meat in lieu of hamburgers, grilled fish, pork and chicken. Body fat and weight gain hasn’t been an issue. When you eat food with fat or carbs save them for special meals. The Mayo suggestions are spot on👍. I live in hilly mountainous terrain and always must walk uphill returning home, keeps my legs shape. Really need to get back to weight resistance training instead of drinking wine after dinner. Muscle mass is heavier then body fat so weight alone doesn’t mean healthy, just haven’t gained weight but may gained fat. My blood work gets checked every 6 months and prone to being diabetic, so far haven’t joined that club! Happy New Year all, stay in shape. Tom

The combo you are looking at is good and the reel is on sale, the 2500 reel. Line is on sale Seaguar TactX 15 lb braid with 8 lb FC leader. Suggest using mono that you may already have filling the spool about 1/2, followed by braid to within 1/8”-1/16” from the spool under the lip. Put the braid in fairly tight. Tom

No experience with Weise. The brand advertises being lighter weight and compared to Iconic 12V 50AH @ 24 lbs the Weise is 17 lbs. my guess the weight savings is due to thin light case and less internal materials. Weise claims 8,000 cycles, but the case list 2,000 cycles and doesn’t recommend TM use, sonar is OK. Tom

Every spinning reel will twist line regardless of the price, it’s the mechanics of the reel. Spinning reels have a fixed spool with a rotator and bail the wraps the line onto the spool. Every bail rotation is 1 line wrap onto the fixed spool and 1 line twist. Spinning reels come down to drive train strength, weight, spool length and drag breakaway force and smoothness, you pay more money for each feature. The smaller diameter of the spool the more memory the line retains using mono, copolymer and FC. Braid being multiple braided strands of fiber ( yarn) doesn’t retain memory but goes twist. Spinning reel spool diameter is larger then baitcasting reel therefore higher IPT (inches of line per handle turn). Inexpensive reels use heavier and lower quality parts, you pay for both. Braid to leader = 2 knots but reduces line twist. Tom PS, Smooth Drags makes High quality Drags for a few dollars for nearly every reel, very important component in spinning reels. Tom

Bass boats are low free board for good reasons but not for safety in rough white capped water. Longer bass boats are not any higher off the water same low free board, but a little wider and heavier as the length gets longer and those factors helps stabilize the ride. The pitch of waves over 3’ high varies with each lake and wind condition. High waves with short pitch are different than high waves with longer pitch another factor to consider. The 18’8” boat w/175 hp verses 19’8” boat w/200 hp (Z18 vs Z19) isn’t a big deal in rough water, a 21’ with 250 hp does make a difference. If the OP’s garage can handle the 21’ boat and engine then shop around for it, if not go with the boat you believe is right for you. I fished both lakes Mead and Mojave on Colorado River with a 18’6” boat w/175 hp engine for years, also had to find shelter and stay over night do to high wind and big long pitch waves. Be safe! Good luck with your decision, Tom

Iconic Marine Deep Lithium 12V, 50AH Battery is currently on sale* for $350. 24.3 lbs, 11 year warranty, free shipping. For a canoe you are loading unloading the battery for every trip and a light weight battery is ideal imo! Tom PS you need a battery charger designed for lithium deep cycle. * Lithium Hub

XBig swimbaits sold them along 8’ rods and 300 size reels when I sold my boat. Sold all my deep diving crankbaits rods and reels because it’s difficult to use them from a back seat. minimalist today and use all of the few lures I can carry in 1 tackle bag, mostly jigs and worms a few structure spoons, jerk baits, smaller crank baits and top water. Tom

When I had boat standing on 1 leg and operating the TM with the other while leaning against the pedestal seat in waves for 10 hours was tiring. Lifting the TM can get tiring. 95% of bass fishing is from the pointed end of the boat. Wiping down the wet boat bow to stern and engine at the end of every trip takes some energy at the end of the day then keeping alert driving home in traffic tired me out the past 50 years. Yeh the boat is stable in calm water, something we have about 1 hour a day. Try doing that for 3 days or night consecutively and it tires out a 50 year old. The way I bass fish is grinding every second on the water, mentally exhausting. This isn’t kicking back drinking beer, not if you want to be successful. Tom

When you get older trying to increase strength is very difficult. Keeping yourself fit is more about stretching exercise in lieu of strengthening exercise when reaching retirement age. Fitness starts when you wake up the 1st thing should be stretching about 20 minutes before starting your day. When I was in my 70’s a gym routine to keep fit included warming up using various equipment like tread mill, spin bike, elliptical etc. This was followed by a routine using several planned weight resistance and ended with a stretching exercise. Being a gymnast as my muscular strength was good but tendon connection were poor. Covid ended the gym exercise routine and still trying to keep flexible but my skeleton; hips, shoulders, spine limit what I can do. Falling off a 8’ ladder last summer hasn’t helped. Still trying to stretch every morning because when you stop stiffness over takes you. I walk nearly every morning, the neighbors dog, about 2 miles weather permitting. Still agile enough to fish all day, get in and out of boats, but very stiff the next day. My goal now is to be able to tie my shoes. Tom

Good observation. Very active bass especially feeding school bass will strike nearly anything when the bass is feeding. The key is location active feeding bass. In the above situation the bass ate a jig hitting the surface in a school of baitfish, that bass would strike nearly any lure under that particular situation. Right now I am debating with myself what jig to send to a friend who fishes bass that are not school feeding baitfish and may not be focused on feeding on crawdads. The jig needs to appeal to a wider variety of prey types. In this situation the jig needs to look like several different prey types to the bass and be able to have movements and coloration to fool the bass into striking. A swim jig is the obvious choice until you consider the may not be willing to leave it’s ambush area to chase down a faster moving prey. So I want a jig that stays in the strike zone, has natural movements and doesn’t snag in cover. In this situation a living rubber skirt jig with a double tail soft plastic that swims naturally in lieu of frantically looking like a small bluegill would be a good choice. The presentation needs to be accurate target casting close to cover weed lines. Tom