WRB-2.0

1. Do not peg the sinker, free sliding or a free rig. 2. Try putting slight pressure on the line between your finger reel in free spool to determine if the bass is dropping the soft plastics. Line still moving reel to engage and set the hook. Getting bites is hard part and you are doing that. Tom

Welcome to BR, Happy Holidays ahead. Tom

If I had a Hammer....Peter Paul & Mary. Tom

Not a BFS casting rod. Tom

Should in the spawn cycle. Tom

Owner #4109 Weedless Wacky Jungle hook size 1 for 5” Senko’s. Trim off the weed guard wire about 1/8” makes it a little stiffer for heavier cover. Tom

Males vs Females in the bass world the males are 1/2 the weight of the females of equal age. I caught 1 LMB that biologist Larry Bothroff confirmed as a male was a Northern LMB that weighed 7 lbs and 26” long. Larry said at the time it was the biggest male he had examined. The bass was from San Vicente in 1968. My PB NLMB is 12 1/4lbs, 28” long from Casitas in 1971. Tom

It’s been my experience that bass tend to group by size, shorter the length the more bass the same size will be together, longer the grouping has fewer and fewer bass until there isn’t any longer bass in that ecosystem. Example is last spring when Big Hands (Jeff) was kind enough to take me out with him. We got on a excellent bite catching about 30 bass all ranging between 19”-20” and few under 17”, Big group of 4lb to 5+ lb bass. They were like cookie cutters the same year class feeding as a group. Back in the early 90’s We has year classes in the 24” to 28” size that weighed 10 lbs to 20 lbs, nearly 100% girth to length bass. My PB was 28 1/2” long with 28” girth a giant massive body FLMB. This size the group is maybe 3 bass in one area. We had wolf packs of 24” 10-12lb bass back in the day that hunted trout as a group. Those days are gone. Tom

Length X Length X Girth divided by 1200= weight in pounds. Length measure mouth closed to end of tail. Girth measured around the widest area dorsal fin down Average body LMB girth is about 75% of Length, heavy body about 90% of the length, girth matters. Tom

Go fishing bass again during pre spawn with jigs. Tom

Learn to fish jigs in rocky areas in the lakes you fish. Read my horizontal jigging article. Tom

For me the worm strike is easier to detect than a jig strike more often. Totally agree both happen with the engulf meant with LMB but worms are long soft and skinny compared to a hard jig with trailer that is shorter. Why?...don’t know, but big bass almost always engulf and don’t move other then crunching down to kill the crawdad, no need to crunch down and kill soft plastic worms, eat and move. I agree if you are a good worm fisherman you should also be a good with jigs, just set the hook faster. Tom

Sometimes it’s a half court buzzer beater, if you never take the shot it can’t go in. Tom

Send your reel to Mike at DVT. Dan at ReelEx is retiring...he was the top Shimano tech in the country. Tom

Dream week👍

Been using typo maps, reservoir construction photos and original Lowrance Green box since early 60’s, never blind always had targets to cast to. About 3 years ago had my 1st on the water experience with Live Scope FFS and started a thread on this subject stating it was a game changer because it is! Back in the day using a flasher, maps and memory I had outside structure fishing to myself, everyone was casting to shore targets. Slowly bass anglers learned that outside structure bass were generally bigger bass. Today nearly every boat bass angler using sonar knows about outside structure fishing. What FFS Live Scope does is locate bass everywhere including hiding in shore cover like brush or under docks, you know where the bass are, no longer blind or guessing. There isn’t any turning back technology. Tom

Ship the prop along with photos, call for turn around time and price. Most good prop shops have a loaner trail prop to answer your questions. Tom

The LMB in the State of Washington are Northern strain that tend to avoid baitfish over 5” long. The vast majority of young of the year baitfish are under 5” long, Sunfish family and crappie around 3”. Bass eat a wide variety of prey including young of the year catfish, carp, suckers and adult size fresh water Sculpin and crawdads. Keep in mind fish including bass can not judge the size of themselves or the prey the see and often make mistakes trying to swallow prey too wide. Tom

FYI Smoooth Drags, Inc. sells all the lubricants Cals Gear grease and TS321 ( 1 oz bottle) and State of the Art drags washers. Tom

In every population of Bass there are groups that are very catchable or aggressive a wider time period then other bass. The “other” bass range from uncatchable to difficult to catch on lures and have learned to avoid fisherman. Live Scope FFS finds these “other” bass letting the angler to Target them instead of passing by. Not only does the angler find them Live Scope indicates if the bass is interested in the lure or not. Now that the angler knows where the bass is he also knows if the bass is catchable or not and continues to try different lures. Keep in mind Live Scope scanning FFS is new and still being refined. What we see today will be improved tomorrow. How will this play out in the future isn’t known, but I can tell you fewer catchable bass will populate our lakes. Tom

Repairable! Tom

The SST prop is repairable by a good pro shop. Another option is most pro shops have used repaired props for sale at a reasonable price. Tom

The rod is more important then a good performing reel imo. 6’8”-6’10” Medium Fast labeled for jerkbaits or poppers work good. Braid and treble hook lures can be a problem with hooks snagging the line. 12# Big Game is good mono at lower price, 11# Armilo Nylon mono at higher price point.

13P” 3 blade is normal. Tom