WRB-2.0

Don’t get to target smallmouth often where I fish, the population is a lower % then LMB In SoCal lakes. If you fishing in less then 6’ of water is protected wind current areas with gravel bottom between January and April catching Smallmouth they are probably in the spawn cycle. Catch & Release is so dominate today the impact of catching spawn cycle bass is nil. The old bathyscopes are popular for River Smallmouth anglers. Tom

What battery brand, size and type? Tom

Night fishing in SoCal is limited to 1 time a month maybe 2 if you fish a night tournament. The bass are not conditioned to boats running around at night and tend to more aggressive predators. We get 6 hours to fish starting about 1/2 hour before dusk fishing the late evening bite. The 1st hour of total darkness tends to slow down leaving about 3 hours of night fishing. I had good results using crawdad color deep diving crank baits, rat lures waked along reed walls, always use my hair jigs with 4” pork trailers and worms between 7 1/2” to 13” T-rigged with bullet weight and glass bead same as day time. total baroness I prefer black with blue neon soft plastics. I am old school line feeler to detect strikes night or day. If using a Senko type stick worm go up to larger size 6” to 7” it’s easier to detect strikes when the bass has a mouth full of soft plastic. Tom

Reel Magic can negatively react with most reel gear grease and some reel light oils gumming them up. If you use Reel Magic be prepared to clean and lube often. Tom

If you use what everyone uses where everyone fishes how do you expect to catch bass everyone else is targeting? Do any of you own any reapers? Have you tried to drop shot a reaper rigged flat side up and nose hooked? Tried Split or Slip Shot rigged a reaper? Few soft plastics can out fish a 3 1/2-4” Shad color reaper. Anyone using 1/8 oz dart head jig with 4 1/2” curl tail Aaron Magic? My guess is know one tried this. Tom

You really want every other brake on. Adjust the spool end cap tension knob with your lure tied on, loosen until the spool lets the lure fall and hit the ground without over running. You shouldn’t be able to backlash severely with this setting. Your casting motion needs to let the rod launch the lure, slow down the forward rod motion. Now is the time to:train your thumb! Keep the thumb slightly above the free turning spool of line to smooth out any loops building up, then stop the spool slowly with light thumb pressure . Practice until you achieve the casting distance you want. Fluorocarbon line is dry and water proof, you need line additives to wet the line keeping the FC from springing off the spool. KVD is popular, I use Tangle Free, avoid Reel Magic. Tom

Spring doesn’t mean much to bass as it runs 20 March to 21 June covering the most of the spawn cycle and early summer transition where I fish. Pre Spawn is usually sometime between. Early January to early March or the very beginning of the Spring calendar. Fishing is usually good during the Spring Calendar period except this year will the high volume of rain and run off. Some of the higher elevation lakes in California are just now ice free, very late seasonal year in 2023. Tom

Fins Spin5 is excellent quite round color fast braid for spinning reels made in the USA. Tom

Shimano ZDS 1610M should work for you. Tom

You don’t want to lip bass over 4 lbs damages their jaw when thrash to get away. Holding bigger bass by the jaw side works better for me. Don’t why you all think bass a docile when lip gripped this hasn’t been my experience with some bass. Tom

Line wrapping around the rod by bow stringing and spin the rod helps to present line tangling with adjacent rods. The rod sleeve insures the line stays on the rod and prevents tangling in storage plus cushions the guides a win, win. Reel projection covers for storing rigged rods with reels during transportation works good. Alternative is gym cotton shocks or simply cushion using bath towels to layer and protect the reels in a rod locker. No protection = broken guides and scuffing damage. Tom

The rod has more to do with successful hollow body frogging then the reel imo. Any aluminum from reel with the gear ratio and line capacity with .015D line from Daiwa, Lewis, Shimano should work within your budget. So....what rod do you plan to use? Suggest Irod IRG 754F gen3 with Curado 200K Tom

Wahoo are the worst. Mako the nastiest teeth. Big LBM bass settle down belly up for not held by the lip. Tom

Remember those who served ??Be safe this weekend. Tom

^^^this^^^ Tom

I am not a run & gun bass angler but try not to waste time on bass that are uncatchable. Look at the entire water column from the thermocline depth to the surface with structure elements that hold bass. Cover on good structure elements is a plus and isolated cover is better. Nearly every bass boat approaches a spot the same direction and spook off or shut off the larger wary bass. Angles are important, the direction your lure approaches a bass can make a big difference, bass don’t react well to lures coming from defined them. Try approaching from the opposite direction everyone does or from next to the shore and casting out or parallel to where the bass are located. Sometimes it take several angles to get the bass to strike. A Senko will usually out produce a Fluke for example but it’s a slower presentation. Jigs usually catch larger size bass then soft plastic worms, both target less active bass. Bass striking faster moving lures are willing to chase that lure down, active feeders. Good time to try a few other other lures or colors to dial in what the bass prefer. Tom

Fins braid is quire, color fast and polyU coated, several types to chose from, original PRT is green. Tom

Yes and use Owner Hyper Weld snaps/clips. Tom

Welcome to BR! Going through your tackle bag of lures rarely works imo. The time to experiment with lures is doing a active period when the bass are striking lures. When bass are neutral or inactive lures are less an issue then timing being at the right location at the right time. It’s my belief that each bass is active about 20% of the time during a 24 hour time period. Neutral mood about 20% and inactive about 60%. Both active and neutral bass catchable, inactive active are very difficult to react to lures. You're better off determining where active bass are located then camping on inactive bass, unless your are willing to wait 3 to 4 hours. Tom Tom

St Croix Premier offers a cork pistol grip series made in USA. Tom

Blade baits like a jackhammer and a Scrounger jig can be worked any depth and nearly weedless may be a better “crank bait” choice in Florida. Tom

Way back there was a Aerospace Company (Westerngear) that I visited in NE North Dakota. My 1st engineering job was designing ejector bomb racks that Westerngear was manufacturing, so I was the designated technical support. Traveled to North Dakota several times, nice folks living in some of the harsh climate in the country. Towing is 70 mph but not fast enough! Tom

My Rushmore, the bad lands and some interesting terrain instead of dirt until you get to Fargo. Tom

You can get by with your MH bass rods and 7:1 ratio reels with braid for diving crank baits. Medium heavy moderate action rods cast easier and less stress to treble hook lure from tearing out near the boat. Braid line you will need to less drag force to keep the trebles from tearing out. Diving depth is usually over rate by lure mfr’s, deep divers to 12’ is easy to accomplish, Medium divers to 8’-10’ is doable. Hold the rod tip up high with slower retrieve and lower with faster retrieve changes diving depth a few feet. 12 lb Big Game is a good cranking line, inexpensive and change it as needed. 5.8:1 gearing and 7’+ MHM rods makes cranking diving lures a lot easier. Tom

Lucky Strike is available from TW. Tom