WRB-2.0

A Texas Rig being a sliding bullet weight with worm hook rigged weedless style soft plastics to me is a T-rig. I say this so we are on the same page. 90% of the time I use a 8mm tempered glass faceted bead, 3/0 straight shank worm hook for hand pour worms between 6” to 7 1/2” long. Bigger worms or creatures 4/0-6/0 hooks. A 3/16 or 1/4 oz brass painted bullet weight or 3/8 oz tungsten weight weight depending on depth and worm size. I prefer hand pour soft plastics because they tend to float tail up. Not a lot of variables T-rigging. What I call worm water is soil with wood with some rock transitions, aquatic plant growth and more gradual sloping structure. I fish T-rig worms with rod lifts and shake on the pause, clicking the weight and bead. Jig fishing I do 90% of the time “Horizontally”* casting and moving the jig along the bottom structure with stop and go retrieve shaking occasionally. Jig water is similar to worm water except steeper sloping rocky structure. Jig fish more often then T-rig, T-rig when the bass prefer it or the structure looks and feels right to me. Tackle Custom ALX casting rod 5 power fast action, line 12# FC. Tom *Horizontal Jigging, In-Fisherman

Northern Largemouth Bass. Tom

Looks like Washington Huskies Vs Alabama Tide, no big 10 this year. Cheer for the Huskies👍 Let me know if you want a few jigs for NLMB where you fish Kate, Tom

Top water walking lures, poppers and jerk baits. Also good for finesse T-rigged worms. Tom

The modern topography maps using elevation lines in 1 to 5 foot increments may not be available for smaller isolated natural lakes. Try looking for US geological bathymetry sounding maps, they exists for most smaller inland lakes. Tom

You can turn off both mag and centrifugal breaking systems if you want free spinning spools. Daiwa’s technology has a patent and soon will time out, then you will see this system in more reels because it works. Casting into the wind isn’t for everyone without braking. Tom

What creatures? Smallie beaver for example is wide double body or something smaller in diameter requiring a smaller hook. The issue with a Free Rig is the weights ring inside diameter can and slip over the hook eye. Ideally you should use a soft be capable to float the hook or be neutral buoyancy. Hooks with head keepers are too heavy imo. Nose hooked would be a better choice then weedless hooked and more appropriate using 6# line. If you want weedless Texas style hook then Owner Down Shot #5133 size #1 or 1/0 is very strong light wire hook, you need to peg this hook so the eye doesn’t go through the weight. Another option would be Owner Cover Shot #4107 size 1 or 1/0 with a keeper. Tom

Lews custom Lite series crank bait rod CLMC2, 7’4” 3/8-1 oz lures, $150 Tom

Common Cents System by Dr. Hanneman. Google it. Tom

I have 2 Tackle bags for 5ea flat 3600 size boxes plus 2 side poaches and 1 front compartment. Both bags are identical 1 with Cabelas logo and the other Plano logo. Both the bags are over 20 years old and going strong. I use 1 bag for all my terminal tackle, hooks in 4600, weight is another 4600. All the miscellaneous tools, sun block, attractants, lubes, line conditioner, spare line etc. the other bag gets my lures, worms, jigs, trailers, pork bottles, whatever I plan to use on the outing. Tom PS, I like to lay the boxes flat. Also have a Albacor back pack that holds 8 ea 3600 boxes used for storage and swapping out boxes in the smaller bags.

Garcia ABU Ambassador reels in the 50’s to current reel have always had centrifugal brakes. Tom

Buy a reel you don’t know what to use for and looking for rod to use with it. Most bass anglers use BFS combo to replace a ML spinning combo. Bass fishing lures under 1/16 oz (1.7 g) are uncommon, a few not many. Rods with lure ratings between 1.7 g to 2.7 g should cover your needs. Line is usually small diameter braid under .005D. Good luck, Tom

I don’t like to needle (fizz) bass because it’s a wound that must heal before the air bladder is functional. Every winter seasonal period I see dark colored zombie bass swimming about 5’ down that have been fizzed by other anglers. Sick bass. The best method is sinking the bass down quickly after catching it in water over 40’ deep. I use a 8 oz torpedo sinker clipped onto anther rod, put the sinker into the basses throat and lower it down, then lift up on the sinker and the bass is released at the proper depth. Easy! Tom

For decades the aerospace company I work for used AlCOA 6061-T6 aluminum bar stock by the car load. Before I retired in 2015 ALCOA started using Russian (Rusel) made bar stock and we had to qualify our QPL military products do to stress cracking from foreign produced alloys. 6061-T6 is more gummy alloy then 2024-T3 for example or 6262-T9, none are not as dimensional stable then 7075-T6. The issue with 6061-T6 is who is sourcing it today. Can’t trust certs from China or Russia and counterfeits are common today. Fishing reels are not a critical component so it’s Academic discussion. Peace, Tom

I rediscovered Screamers ( 4 1/2” ribbon tail) by locating the original tooling owned by US Bait Co. Screamers were originally marketed by local bass pro Dick Trask who won more tournaments out west during the 80’s to 90’s then anyone else. Dick mentored the late Aaron Martens for example. Screamer on a 1/8 oz dart head or split shot was the “secrete” bait for a long time. The second old timer I dusted off was 3 1/2 Reaper custom poured by US Baits* in Purple Thunder color. Tom * Frank Pasalich 858/395.0198

Action. Mod, fast, xfast? Big deep diving crank baits, 1 oz footballjig w/trailer, medium size soft 6” swim baits, Spro rats, 5”-6” spoons and use Sunline Armilo 22# /.015D or 25#/ .016D Nylon mono. Tom

Back in day we didn’t have bilge pumps. Leaving the drain plug out met running the boat bow up and putting the drain plug in from in side of the boat when all the water ran out. Sometimes with race boats the stern is only a few inches about the water and any waves would fill the stern with water, so same routine run the boat to drain it and install the plug. Tom

1st mono, copoly and FC line all “stretch” about the same %. Larger diameter line will feel more stretchy do to more line drag creating more line bow. What is your idea of a “reaction” bait. Tie the line to a light weight snap like Owner hyper weld, for freer lure action. Tom

Nope

I bumped up this topic in the Marine Electronics forum posted 10/14/2021 or over 3 years ago before this topic became hot discussion, worth reading imo. My statement was this technology is a game changer didn’t take much fore sight to make. Knowing exactly where the bass are located at what depth plus “seeing” their reaction to your lure is something we never had before outside of bed fishing. Bed bass are not feeding or suspended, they are guarding the nest. Tournament anglers are mostly skilled bass anglers that know the lakes they fish well. Knowing exactly where the bass are located and their activity level make catching the bass a lot easier and that is exactly what FFS sonar Live Scope does. For tournament angler pre fishing you can use your time locating bass without catching them, big advantage over anglers guessing where the bass are located. FFS doesn’t guarantee catching bass but it saves time and time is a critical factor for tournament anglers. My opinion is this if you tournament fish buy and learn this technology to be competitive. It’s your choice not a rules committee. Tom

I don’t know what the % is boat vs bank anglers using lipless lures, maybe 90 to 10% boats? Boat anglers can retrieve a snagged treble hook lure by jigging it free or using a retriever. Cutting off the the leading hook into a double didn’t work well for me and stopped that years ago. Lipless usually snags twigs and easy to break off or jigging free most crank baits. Tom

I don’t get a chance to fish heavy cover as our lake are deep rocky structure with sparse cover. When I fish lakes with weed beds in Canada the bass were located on the inside weed line or near that, the outside edges belonged to Musky and Pike. When fishing heartland lakes years ago I found good size bass preferred cover where isolated rocks where under heavier weed beds or on the outside near deeper water breaks of channel swings. Clear lake patches of weed beds with a variety of different plants was the key and the Delta is more about weed beds up against tules near tidal current breaks. Cats approach seems to me the most logical technique. Tom

Most entry fee’s are paid by a sponsor, not necessarily out of pocket. No sponsors then fee’s will be out of pocket. At best this format is a losing proposition for the pro that may win 1 or 2 events a year. We have had sonar units as long as tournament have been held since 1968. Tom

Bumped this older thread because of the 2021 dated replies are worth reading. Tom

Yes he did after 3 hours going in circles. Without cell signal a simple water proof compass works anywhere. Tom