WRB-2.0

If it moves in its own in the bass world it’s alive. With that said I have fished do nothing worms or French fries that have very little movement but bass ate the. So far poop baits haven’t found their way into my tackle bag, too many soft plastics that work better. Tom

Offered you a premium $200+ 1/2 price rod in excellent condition and you turned it down🤯. Tom

If you are a tournament bass angler any lure that you believe gives you an edge is priceless. Recreational angler just want to catch the 5 bass limit the cost is relative to your budget. Where I fish the FLMB bass are high pressures by good bass anglers, so price depends on if you can catch bass. Tom

Like everything you get* what you pay for. Quality underspin uses a spring keeper, ball bearing swivel, split ring and premium hook. Tom * if you get all above.

I use custom Super Pork pork rind jig trailers on my hair jigs, the combination has the texture and movements giant bass will strike. For general jig fishing Yamamoto twin tail, Hula grub and Berkley Chigger craws work for average size bass. Pig blanket is essential using pork trailers to keep them wet when not in the water. Pork rind moves in cold water plastic tends to stiffen changing its action. If you are satisfied catching average size bass and prefer more movement plus colors plastic is the way go. At this point in time pork trailers a no longer popular, simple colors and messy to use, but I use it every outing. Tom

Welcome to BR, where are you located? Tom &

It’s in the low 80’s today and Nov 4th is the end of daylight savings time. We could use cooler weather! Tom PS 🙏for the folks in Jamaica cat 5 Melissa @ 185mph!

Lew’s patent for his BB1 reel wasn’t to make a lower reel it was to move the level wind further forward away from the spool to improve casting distance. The fact the BB1 set lower on the reel seat wasn’t a patent claim. Palming the reels also started with the BB1 design. Tom

The longest swimbait rod I used was 8’ Dobyns 806 I am not a kayak fisherman. Tom

Round bait casting reels came before low profile casting reels. There a limitation to reel size with low profile reels, 100 to 300. The size range suits bass anglers. I used both, choose round reels for strength and low profile for lighter weight in 100-150 size. Tom

We ya in 6 months😎 Tom

Order the replacement treble hooks! Tom

I can see that fishing from a kayak. I like Irod Jr 7’8” swimbait rod standing in a bass boat and whip the rod tip downwards not sitting in a kayak. Tom

Chartreuse / pearl white is a staple spinnerbait color for decades. Chartreuse / blue was also very popular bluegill color that has falling off the radar but still works good. Tom

Jason Lucas fishing editor of Sports Afield magazine in the 50’s was my mentor via pen pal in the mid 50’s. The 2 Langley reels shown earlier are the 2 reels Jay referenced for me to buy as a teenage bass angler, the rod was a feather lite Connolin glass, line Ashaway 10 lb braid. Light weight reels, my Target and Lure Cast weigh 4 oz & 4 .25 oz, light weight by today’s standards. My early years bass fishing were BF and as time passed became heavier reels and rods but preferred smaller size casting reels and 10-12 lb mono/FC. Now I have gone full cycle back to modern BFS and love it! Tom

You are trying to increase a fast 18” or so chop crank but a good rod snap along with the reel crank will move the glide like you are looking for. The Calcutta 300 isn’t a high speed reel at 5.8:1 but does a good enough IPT after casting to perform well. The IPT using 200 size reel drops 40-50% after making a cast, the reel spool capacity is too small. Tom

Use your rod to input glide base action. Tom

I should note that I still have my jig & worm rod and diving crank bait rod for larger heavier lures the basic bass tackle has a place in my fishing. What I am saying is the spinning finesse tackle has a smaller niche in my bass fishing. I am not suggesting putting away your standard bait casting tackle, but BFS is exciting to use for the average size bass most of catch day in day out. With BFS a 3/16 oz finesse jig can catch more bass than my 1/2 oz favorite bass jig and have more fun doing it. Tom

What a rod weighs has little to do with the rods power rating; ie M or MH! The basic reel weight to casting rod weight is 2 to 1 or 8 oz reel in 4 oz rod. Lighter will drive the cost up. Casting reels under 6 oz and rods around 4 oz works good as a combo but will cost you more. Rod length adds some weight. Tom

You standard all around MHF casting rod works good. If you are not ripping the trap through grass the MF rod will cast better. Tom

Lots of video’s on modifying Jitterbugs. To add split rings you need to use screw eyes and remove the original hook hangers. Bending the lip edges inwards first more cup is common on the Musky size Jitterbug. Fun lure to tinker with. Tom

Today using a bait casting reel for finesse bass fishing is called BFS Bait Finesse System reel, rod and light line. I Will go out on a limb and credit Don Iovino as the Father of Finesse bass fishing using modified Ambassador 2500C reels and his design Doodle rods from Phenix and 5 to 8 lb Maxima UG copoly line in the 70’s as the father of BFS. I never got into the early bait casting finesse fishing but did get into modified 2500C reels so I could make longer cast to 50 yards. Like 90% of bass anglers I choose spinning tackle for light line light weight finesse fishing for 50 years. When becoming a back seater spinning tackle line twist became an issue and started down the rabbit hole using braid with leader. Casting accuracy and strike detection became an issue with braid w/ leader for me. 2 knots with light line is another issue to over come. My fishing partner was using BFS tackle and no issue with casting accuracy and distance that I couldn’t match. So started using BFS tackle and instantly being bait caster solved all my casting accuracy issues and zero line twist. More time in the water catching bass and the bass were super charged fighters on light BSF tackle. My 1st combo was Ark Limited Ed BFS reel on Falcon Cara BFS 7’2” rod ( actually a ML rod) Good combo but being ML doesn’t cast the very light 3/32 oz (under 1/8 oz) lures and good as a Light BFS rod. My 2nd combo is Phenix BFS 7’1”light rod with Shimano JDM Aldebaran BFS reel. Both combo’s using 5 lb Max UG line. I can say the Phenix/Shimano combo is phenomenal. If the bass you catch are between 2 to 3 lbs on average BFS is a game changer. My 1st bass on the Ark/Cara combo was a 6 lb striper that took over 5 minutes to put in the net. The reels drag operated perfectly and rod has enough backbone to control the striper but strong fish on light line BFS tackle or spinning tackle. I am now a BFS angler and hope more members join into the fun. Tom PS, Glenn, getting into the BFS boat?

Small lake under 20 acres the LMB will be shore cover ambush bass. FFS would be of little help to locate bass in cover and the few that maybe off shore. I have been using sonar ( flasher to state of the art ) since 1960 and have decades of experience reading single returns. It takes a lot of sonar reading skills to take advantage of FFS, it’s not for everyone. Example watching MLF the only 2 teams that effectively caught bass off shore were Jacob Wheeler/ Connel and west coast anglers Brent Ehlers/ Lucas. Nearly every team tried but ended up fishing heavy shoreline cover to catch enough bass to make over the cut line. Seeing fish react to a lure watching FFS and catching it is a very different skill set. Tom

Staple color combination for over a century. Today the few red head white body lures that are popular is “clown”. The color combo doesn’t sell anymore but the bass still strike it. Tom

8 lb Big Game is .011 dia. Sunline Supernatural 8 lb is .009, 10 lb is .010 dia and . 12 lb 011 dia. Take you pick. Tom