WRB-2.0

What about Bait Finesse do you not get? You don’t Need a reel to flip cast. Skipping I get. Heavy cover = heavy strong line and rod, again not finesse. Tom

When the OP discusses he must be referring to Braid on spinning reels. The big difference and cost factor today is weight, rod weight and reel weight balanced. The St. Croix Marshall Victory rod suggested is very light in weight at 3.5 oz, and a Swiss Army knife for versatility. The OP is. Kayak angler that sits down, flipping and/or pitching requires standing up or sitting up high enough to be accurate. Toss that presentation out for now. The roll or loop cast can be very accurate sitting, but the rod tip needs to be appropriate. If Daiwa reels are in the mix the SV spool and TW reels are good. If Dobyns rods are considered the DC 734 works, Tom

Tying a Palomar to a multiple treble hook lure requires and loop big enough to pass the lure through without twisting that loop and snugging the looped line tight without over heating. For this reason a San Diego Jam knot is far easier to tie using the lures weight to create the knot. 2 knots shouldn’t over tax the simplest mind. Tom

Monofilament line like Nylon and copolymer are easy the tie reliable knots. Fluorocarbon line is very sensitive to tying knot effectively without damaging the line during clinching the knot tight. Braid doesn’t break at the knot but can slip loose. I have been using both the San Diego Jam and Palomar knots before they had those names. SD Jam knot for lures and Palomar knot for hooks and clips. Tom

Left hand bait casting reels you turn the reel handle with your left hand, Right reel with your right hand. Spinning reel casting is often a faster snap cast motion. Bait casting requires a slower casting motion loading the rod to launch the lure. The snap fast casting motion is what often creates a backlash. It’s in the wrist keeping your elbow down near your side. It’s not a baseball bat swing! Enjoy? Tom

The local lakes I grew up fishing as a young teen were public are now mostly private. Lake Sherwood now a gated community. West Lake private and patrolled. Bouquet Canyon now a guarded, water supply lake. Rail Road Canyon, now a private community. Vail lake now closed to public fishing. Irvine lake, open for shore fishing only. Matillija dam was breached, gone. Bard Reservoir near me closed water supply. Livingston Rock quarry lakes, gone. Just to name a few that I have caught lots of bass from years past. Tom

Since you like Shimano and St Croix suggest; Shimano SLX XT 150 reel...$130 St. Croix Victory Marshall 7’3” MHF rod....$200 American -L EGACy Fishing offers 10% off first time buyer discount and may offer 15% off during a sale. Tom

I am ”Oldschool” my original site name. A work college of mine would get together on our annual original bass tackle outing. Still have my Langley Lure Cast 330 reel from 1955 and a pistol grip Eagle Claw 5 1/2 foot finder glass rod from the 60’s with Ashaway Dacron line. We used Heddon Wooden Corbra, wooden Jointed Pikie, Bomber 300 in Christmas trees and orange black Craw, Heddon Darters, Wooden Jitter Bugs, Sonics and Eppinger Imp spoons w/white bass pork strips, Shannon Twin spins etc. We always caught bass and had a memorable day in the way. If you can get a partner to share fishing old school tackle and lures do it! Tom PS, can’t believe left off Smithwick 3” Buck N Brawl, favorite top water lure and still have one.

If your friend is still around have him go with you. Exchanging the battery is a lot easier then trying to refund it for credit. The positive post grounded over heating it. Tom

Cocoon wear over dark grey polarized sunglasses worn over your regular polarized sunglasses will cut down the glare. Clip ones may also help, Tom

It’s a tire issue. Change the tires to higher speed rating. We a 55 mph max towing speed in California. Leave a little earlier and travel at safer speed. Your kayak is very light compared to max rated trailer load. Tom

OP was using a 4/0 wide gap, mis spoke about the #4. Tom

ACouldn’t determine the hook wire diameter? Big hook for small finesse worms imo. I use Owner 5133 size 1/0 for 4”-5” and 2/0 for 6” or fat body small finesse soft plastic. If you want to keep the worm head from sliding down use rubber Peg-It through the hook eye after tying on the hook. Finesse worms snip off the ends about 1/16” each side of the hook eye. I think snipping off the CPS spring shorter will help much, give it try and set the hook harder. Tom PS, 5133 size 1/0 is .033D, size 2/0 .037D.

What type of soft plastics are using? Tom

Charity night bass tournaments with my late son, no stress and lots of quality time enjoying those events. Tom

Polar Bear Plunge....each to his or her own. 70 degree water feels cold enough! Tom

Big difference between a lead bullet weight and brass or tungsten with a larger ID hole that allows the weight to slide on the easier. The free rig weight has nearly zero line friction. Floating hand pour soft plastics may fall a little slower with a hook then a sinking soft plastic but both weighted down and pulled down to the weight when moving the lure. A floater can be worked in place up and down without moving the weight. Creature baits with flapping claws fall slower then soft places without appendages regardless if T-rig bullet weight or free rigged. Definitely worth giving it try. Tom

The bottom line to me is this; if the soft plastic floats off the bottom the the free rig should work OK. Tom

Big swimbaits, Glides or Wakes sold them and no longer have the tackle needed to fish. Don’t have any chatterbaits, spinnerbaits or buzz baits today. Drop shot and slip shot rigs are a mainstay where I fish if you want to catch bass. Haven’t used a traditional C-rig in decades. No deep diving crank baits or tackle to use them with. Don’t have a boat so can’t troll or anchor. Haven’t fished with live bait in fresh water in decades. Kind of old you know! Tom

I don’t know how many BR members have bass fished using live crawdads? Back in the mid 60’s when FLMB started to grow to giant size the primary bait in San Diego lakes was live crawdads fly lined no weight. We dyed live craws in food color and often removed a big claw by pinching it until the crawdad released it’s arm. No arm , 1 arm or 2 arm crawdads all worked at times. When nose hooking a crawdad with 2 claws the Bug tends to hold onto the line instead of trying to escape and didn't walk along the bottom. Removing 1 arm with the larger size claw the Bug was more lively, kicking more increasing strikes, same with no claws. So it depended on the crawdad behaved. Generally 2 arms with claws worked but not as well as 1 or no claws. Tom

The big difference is line friction going thru the bullet weight vs no friction with the line sliding thru the wire eye. Tom

Before Texas rig with a sliding bullet weight we used Water Gremlin Dipsey sinkers ( a tear drop shape weight with a brass center post and ring eye). The 1st soft plastic worms were Nick Creme Crawler rigged with 2 hooks, a small propeller on a 6” leader. We used a snap swivel to clip on the worm rig leader and a dipsey sinker attached to the clip or sliding above the clip on the main line....50’s era. Todays Free Rig is the same as the 50’s era sliding dipsey sinker rig. Texas bass anglers rigged the bulk Creme worms weedless hooked and created the bullet weight (dipsey without the brass post) to slide on the line. The term Texas rig comes from the weedless hooked worm and some of us old timers include the sliding bullet weight as the Texas rig. The free rig uses a cylinder weight in lieu of the bullet weight and slides freely on the main line without a weight stopped. If you bed fish the Free rig is good. Tom

Grey beard thread 2006! Didn’t take the time to read this thread, from the OP’s ? It’s obvious he was bed fishing. Tom

Owner 4109 size 1 Tom

Columbia, Solumbra and Simms. Any comfortable SP50 works good. Tom