WRB-2.0

Bob Lane has been running the PP Move TM and loves It. Claims it’s super quite, very powerful cutting through vegetation and has unique self guidance features and compatible with Lowrance units. If you are a pro angler using PP products why not! Tom

You can exchange the VTC73HXF for VTS 74HF rated 3/8-1 1/2 oz lures. Call St Croix Customer Service, I believe they still have $35 fee? Tom

Looks like a DD14 except 2 1/2” long in Bomber A series Christmas Tree color. Welcome BR, are you asking a question or just making a statement? Tom

Back around 1990 I had 2 of my International 30W 2 sped off shore reels spooled with Fins original 65# PRC braid and topped off with 100’ of 50 lb Soft Steel Mono. This gave me 600 yards of line for big marlin and tuna on the smaller reels. I had a partial spool left over and used it for fishing the Delta and Clear Lake frog fishing and punching heavy cover. 65# braid was .012D and easy to hold with my fingers without braid cuts. I still some of the 90’s Fins braid, never faded very quite braid. Can’t needing 65# braid for bass fishing for it’s strength but the .012D makes easy to handle. Tom

Iovino’s “doddle slide”, he made a video of the glass ‘n brass presentation. I just shake the reel handle to achieve shimmy action to worms and jigs. Tom

Finesse C-rig I call a Slip Shot rig. You want to use mono line as it doesn’t sink and drag on the bottom. Spinning Slip Shot rig: 1/8 oz to 3/16 oz Mojo cylinder weight. 8 mm faceted glass tempered bead, color of choice. Rubber Peg-it or Carolina Keeper, prefer the Keeper. Owner #5133 size 1/0 or 2/0. 6 lb to 8 lb mono line. weight...bead (pegged w/ rubber Peg-it) Carolina Keeper ( If bead isn’t pegged). Hook, Palomar knot, about 24” to 30” below Keeper or pegged bead. Casting: Same rig components except 1/4- 3/8 oz cylinder weight. Owner #4107 Cover Shot hook 3/0. Soft plastics, try to use hand pours of floating types* Double Z and Roboworm. Spinning; Roboworms 4 1/2” to 6” straight or curl tails. 1/0 for 4 1/2-5”, 2/0 for 6”. Weedless Texas style rig worm skin hooked. Casting; 5” to 6 1/2” Craw worm, Double Z High 5 Chobee Choker, 7” to 7 1/2” curl tail or straight tail worm. 4” Yamamoto Hula Grub #221 or smoke w/black flake. Colors your choice, I use Oxblood lt/red flake, MMIII. Tom

You can go nuts changing crank bait colors, almost as bad as soft plastics but more expensive! If you are fishing along it becomes intuitive when to change colors. Fishing with a partner it’s easier, change when the partner is kicking you butt. I try to use colors similar to what the primary prey the bass are eating is. Shad, then Shad colors, crawdads then crawdad colors, crappie or Bluegill then those colors. Depth and size are important imo. Tom

Here is how to solve your question. St. Croix Trigon JOC68MXF......6’8” Medium XFast rod $175. Shimano SLX MGL 70...7.2:1 reel $150 Sunline Armilo Deifer 13# mono...$21 10% off total @ ALF Tom PS, keep your current rod/reel combo.

Enjoy your boat and time fishing with your family. Tom

Rocky structure lakes and sinking braid don’t mix well. Floating braid is a little better around rocks until you snag a jig then it tends to break off just jiggling the jig loose. If the line doesn’t break it’s frayed badly and you must re tie. Braid with leader = 2 knots, no way around that. Tom

No reason to use braid unless you are fish heavy aquatic plant cover. I used mono for about 40 years and FC for about 20 years. Straight line no leader. I don’t like FC line knot strength but do like it’s low coefficient of drag cutting though water resulting in better jig feedback and strike detection do to less bow in the line. I use 12 lb/ .011D Tatsu or Shooter. Tom

I did a lot of river trout fishing decades ago and would see trout suspended in the current! How do they do that? So studied current factors and learned those trout were using seams in the current were faster moving water transitioned against slower moving water creating nearly no current. If you look closely the shallower water near a tapering bank has small ripples and the faster moving deeper water is nervous uneven looking. The “seam” is where fish like to suspend waiting for food to come by. The seam current break is often over looked by anglers conditioned to obvious whirring water and eddies. Tom

Paddling a canoe upstream interesting. I would think larger size brown bass would be located where a good food supply is. The River meanders from Coriolis effect the water wanting to turn right undercutting the bank then deflecting left snaking back and forth unless the current is fast and banks are very hard. The undercut banks are good hiding places and usually have big rocks to deflect the current. This would be 1st areas to target. Any big boulders or lay downs are obvious spots. I would think closer to the dam would be good area. Good luck, Tom

Never tried it ion silicone and doubt it would work. Warm water don’t boil the water. I would paint the head and change the skirt. Tom

Take it to your dealer and the TD’s professionally installed, saves a lot of time and head aches. Tom

Reel Daiwa ExcelerLT EXLT2500D. $79.97 Rod 13 Ownen Black 3, 7’1” Medium Fast, 3/16-5/8oz. 109.97 Tom PS, clearance prices on Tackle Warehouse.

Butch is focused on matching the hatch in his area that met the trout in the lake he is fishing. If you watch the video he explains he would make baits almost weekly to match the different sizes and colors the bass preferred....details. Tom

Whatever you choose you better like to cast it because cranking requires hundreds of casts. The rod should be moderate action with lively tip that moves with the lures action. I prefer composite/glass blend 7’ for shallow to medium divers between 1/4 to 3/4 oz lures. Deep divers longer 7’4” rod for 1/2 to 1 1/2 oz lures. My favorite crank bait rods were* Loomis Popping rod PR845C and custom Lamiglas. * no longer available. Imo you don’t need expensive crankbait rods they just need to perform for you. For Example Lew’s KVD composite crank bait rods are good, but I don’t like large diameter blanks they have. I like Dobyns composite crank bait rods but no fore grip. So custom crank bait rid made with Dobyns blank would be my choice today. Tom

Big bass don’t get big and old by making mistakes. These special bass have big eyes to see prey and predators under all types of lighting conditions. Bright sky with the sun over head helps the bass and and angler see better. Poor light the bass have the advantage over their prey and anglers can't see Into water. Under poor light conditions big LMB are more likely to be active hunting and may make a mistake striking lures they avoid during good light conditions. The exception is bed fish that not feeding but focused on spawning. Over head light gives the angler sight fishing the advantage of seeing beds and big bass around the bed. This is the time big bass are vulnerable and less wary, easier to catch. Caught lots of DD bass bed fishing in the late 60’s to earlier 70’s and stopped because it wasn’t sporting imo. To answer the question never caught a giant bass mid day under blue sky conditions. All the bass listed 17+ lbs were caught before 10 AM under poor light conditions. Active feeding periods tend to be about every 4 hours for individual bass so mid day is a very real possibility but imo poor light conditions plus very low traffic increases your odds. Good weather increases boating traffic where I fish decreasing mid day success. Tom

Lots of bolts that should be sealed with 3M 5200. Remove every bolt and apply sealant and re tighten. Tom

How did I think this was a Clear Lake point? Thingamajig wires crossed up somewhere? Tom

If you are a fisherman you need to learn to tie reliable knots. Fresh water bass fishing isn’t that difficult regarding knot strength verse forces needed to land any size bass. Salt water off shore game fish like Marlin, Tuna, Wahoo are another story and the knot must be perfect to withstand fish that can pull you out of the boat and run several hundred yards without slowing down. Practice your knot tying until you tie it perfectly every time. The advantage the FG main line to leader knot is it’s small diameter size when finished. Difficult to tie the FG knot under fishing conditions on the water so I don’t use it. Tom

Excellent video, thank you for sharing it. The video captures Butch exactly who he is kind and a good friend to everyone, that is Butch the kid I knew grew up to be The Man he is today. Tom

Give St Croix a call and ask what the Max Marshall was designed for! MHF with 3/8-1 oz lure rating sounds fairly universal to me. Tom

You need a 50 amp circuit breaker for each 12VDC battery. Consider a Perkco battery switch. How do you charge the batteries? Tom