WRB-2.0

Catch Co. Baby Bull Shad

You rent a Bob Cat tractor for $100 a day to cut in your own ramp. Tom

Above the Mason-Dixon line water tends to freeze in northern States and some have closed seasons. Where I live we bass fish year around and it’s a simple matter to adjust to the seasonal periods. cold water the bass go deeper to find bait and slightly warmer water so sonar and bird watching to locate bait with more vertical lure presentation to catch them. 1 lure over looked is ice jigs, now several are available. Vertical jigging structure spoons is a good presentation. Curious when the OP mentions bear hair jigs, the only bear hair I am familiar with is Polar bear hair, now illegal to use. I use buck tail hair jigs with pork rind trailers very successfully year around. Tom

You may lose strike detection using braid with leader combo using jigs. Strike detection on a tight line will improve but be reduced on slack line strikes. I wouldn’t go under 30# braid of choice on a bait caster and factor in 20% less knot strength at the braid to leader knot. Good luck, Tom

Both the 3” and 3 1/2” Reapers work good, 3 1/2” is my preference in smoke Shad colors. The trick with reapers is hook flat side up. Screamers have a very thin fast swimming tail moving slow, killer split shot worm. The 4 1/2 Flutter tail worm is another good action slow retrieve, very soft tail sets it apart from Mister Twister etc. Finesse being popular today these are excellent finesse soft plastics that work! Tom

Shimano SLX rod & reel combo is at your $200 budget and with Black Friday sales on going should save you 10%-15%. Tom

When Bill Murphy passed away he spending a lot of time exploring what he called the next frontier; open water suspended big bass. Bill used a trolling presentation to Target Radio tagged big bass. FFS has opened this frontier that was an unknown sanctuary for big bass. I 1st opened a post a few years ago after fishing with a partner that had Live Scope and stated this is a game changer, no reason to change my mind. My concern is targeting big bass and over harvesting a small % population of rare fish. You can’t put this genie back in the bottle. Tom

I change rods more often the reels. Tom

Old School western soft plastics that have disappeared from local tackle shelves and still catch bass. When the split shot presentation was a hot technique out west for tournament anglers. Dick Trask was the local distributor and packaged the 4 1/2” curl tail worms and Screamer a 4” ribbon tail in French fry boxes. When Dick passed away the Flutter Craft lures were lost in the haze of time. I found a bag of reapers on a peg at a local shop and the page company was in Poway California. After chasing the Flutter Craft company down learned they were gone about 5 years ago. Last week I found the new company with the tooling in Texas called Artitishable-Flutter Craft Custom Baits. called 858/395.0198 talked to owner Frank Palalich, he has the original tooling and placed an order for Reapers and Screamers.😀 With Don Iovino out of the custom soft plastic business this is good news. Tom

The more dialed I you are the less Tackle you need. My biggest problem regarding tackle is what to leave home and now a back seater need to be a minimalist, it’s not easy. When I had a boat it was my tackle box, easy as had everything with me. Tom

1. Take the spool off and clean the inside. 2. Lubricate the drive shaft with the spool off, use light reel oil. Try rotating the reel handle to feel if it turns and isolates the drive shaft easily. 3. Remove the handle side side plate and drain any water. Put a dab of reel grease on the gears and re assemble. Re install the spool and adjust the drag. Done. Tom

Use a small rubber band under the hook barb and over the hook eye for a weed guard for a ball head. We used to squeeze the round ball head flat on 2 sides with a vice to make a aspirin head. Old School stuff that still works. Doll Fly, the original hair jig was a ball head. Tom

Who knows what a bass see’s and how it’s brain processes it. Tom

Muddy water needs to be defined as we bass anglers can’t agree on anything regarding water clarity. Muddy water to me is brown water with excessive dirt particulates vs strained water being stained like tea, no suspended particulates. If you are looking for slightly warmer water use a thermometer not water color. Whenever I fished muddy water it was due to rain runoff or wave action eroding soil with silt and always looked for clearer water transitions. Wind blown mud line are usually clearer underneath whereas rain silted water is more homogeneous. keep in mind spring water is clear and 50-60 degrees year around, ie warmer winter water. Tom

^^^^last sentence is a death sentence^^^^ Try different presentations and lures during a decent bite fun fishing,it’s how we learn. Tom

Do you have a budget or ball park price point? Tom The VTS610MLFS rod has a noddle tip not suited for finesse jigs imo. The VTS73MXF is rated 3/16 oz but this rods tip will do what you are looking for imo. Tom

The only issue with nail polish is it’s harder then the lead it’s applied onto and chips easily. Tom

Okuma Fuel casting combo is $99 entry level outfit. Do you like the reel and want yo upgrade the rod? What is your budget? Tom

Norco Genius Genpro10x2, 10 amps per bank. Tom

Do you have a budget or ball park price point? Preferred rod length? Your site name 07Rapala indicates a 1/8 oz lure, you want to think about bass size lures F11 or F13.... Tom

Half the boats in a local team event are doing what you did, just enjoying the competition and not serious tournament anglers. Half are experienced club bass anglers out to win and skilled on the water you are fishing. If I am paying to play my goal is enjoy the outing but stay focused on catching bass using presentations I have confidence using. 1. Clean and tune your tackle and use fresh line. 2. Be prepared with back up tackle and lures. 3. Study the lake by researching past event winning catches. 4. Make sure your tackle is organized and boat is ready. Time is limited so wasting it only creates frustration and losing focus. 5. Have fun, don’t get wired over things out of your control. Catch bass. Tom

The number of strands ( ends) doesn’t affect abrasion resistance, the coating on the braid does. 2 knots are still knots to fail. Instead of a hypothetical proposal detail you actual fishing results. Tom

About a decade ago Daiwa introduced Samurai braid, small diameter green and very soft. Straight 10#/.006D Samurai became an instant hit with the local finesse bass anglers using spinning tackle. So I tried it and found the color wasn’t permanent green dye on your fingers wasn’t pleasant. The small diameter 10# braid worked as far as getting strikes and catching bass. The problem soon arose was it frayed quickly against the rocky structure and broke easily if a bass wrapped the line around any wood/brush. Straight braid didn’t last more then a year before FC leaders became very popular. The question at hand is using small diameter braid as a leader to larger diameter braid like 40# main line with 10# braid leader. The answer no, abrasion fraying hasn’t been resolved. Tom

Yamamoto Cut tail😎