WRB-2.0

You own a bass boat buy a battery load tester $30 or less. Good news, enjoy you day on the water? Tom

Soft plastics like worms, grubs, creature baits the natural colors are popular. Faster moving moving lures contrast and flash are popular. Top water lures mostly frog colors. Swimbait that closely look like actual prey fish are popular. All the above are popular with bass anglers. The big question is what do the bass prefer. Welcome to the bait monkey forum? Tom

It sounds like the OP has adapted to back seating and enjoying the club experience?. I count on 1 hand how many times being a co angler during a tournament and agree with nearly everything suggested by Mike L and others. Since selling my boat 2 year ago I am now a back seater and suggest you keep your tackle to a minimum along with minimum tackle and stay organized. Since I am just out for a day on the water fun fishing, no pressure to catch bass. Co angler doesn't have that freedom, but if you adapt the goal to enjoy the day on the water you may surprise yourself and be a productive partner. Tom

Using our Calendar term spring means nothing the cold blood bass. To bass winter is the cold water period 50 degrees or less. The water column warms the bass start to change and transition towards pre spawn regardless wherever they are located. The deepest or warmest water is where the bass stay to survive the cold water winter period. Often in ponds without a inlet the water supply are springs. The bass migrate towards spawning areas and stage nearby. Your 1st task is locate where the bass spawn because that is where they will be as the water warms above 58 degrees. The islands are good staging areas in this pond and will be good during the post spawn through summer warm water periods. Tom

The Yamamoto Slink O is a floater! Tom

Don’t get to hung up on “wake” baits. You can wake any floating shallow diving bass lure. The Wooden Heldon Pikie was a good wake bait, joints model a “swimbait”. The Rapala Shallow Fat Rap with the L shape Bill was and is a excellent wake bait. Tom

SoCal highland deep rocky structure lakes big flats don’t exist outside of silted in river beds from soiled rain runoff. Never metered or caught bass in silted bottom areas that were not feeding on shad schools. FFS and LiveScope technology will play a factor locating bass where they are on big flats with isolated cover, a stump or boulder. Tom

Don Iovino Craw jig trailer are being closed out at TW as Don isn’t making soft plastics. Last chance to buy Iovino hand poured soft plastics. Tom

I was a Pieces Bass club in 1969 when Harvey Nushland* was president of the club. Bill Murphy was a founding member. Anchoring was being developed that allowed the anchored boat to be trolled back and forth about 75’ with long anchor ropes about 100’ bow and stern without lifting the anchors. Everyone back then thought Florida LMB wouldn’t Strike lures and used live bait like crawdads, salt water mud suckers, water dogs, Canadian night crawlers and golden shiners. Anchoring was perfect technique for live bait fishing. San Diego city lakes and county lakes had a 10 hp outboard engine limit and the aluminum boats didn’t have livewells, we used Coleman 55 to 80 qt coolers with aeration spray plumbing to put bass in when traveling. Stringers with a 1# weight were used to keep the bass in the lake alive and heathy while fishing. Still have my “alive stringer” and used it for decades. We had club tournaments and released healthy bass after weigh in long before B.A.S.S. started releasing bass in lieu of fish fries. The bass on Murphy’s book were alive. Bill passed away May 2004, respect his memory. Tom *proud to be a Silver Eagle member

Did you contact Dobyns? Tom

Excellent lure....you might want to check the value in box!!!$$ Tom

TT gave The One a good review for what it’s worth. Tom

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Don’t over look Jackall 4.8 Flick Shake worm wacky hooked with #1 Mosquito. My favorite is watermelon candy, works everywhere and not expensive. Tom

NorCal Foothill lake P————, Lure looks like a jig to me. Fantastic Smallmouth limit! Tom

Neutral meaning you drop in water and it doesn’t sink or float. most hand poured worms tend to be neutral buoyancy or float but not float up like a cork. I use these 4 brands; Roboworms Iovino worms* Jackall Flick Shake worms Uptons Customs** All fit into the neutral buoyancy category. *not sure if Don is making worms today, need to talk to him. Update...Don is out of the soft plastics business....TW is closing out his soft plastic now! **Josh Upton product is hard to find today. Tom

Yes, 2/0 for 6” Tom

At that time period the early 80’s I’am not a traditional double tandem blade spinner bait angler I am a twin spin angler. I make my own wire frames and use a 5/8 oz football jig with vinyl skirt and Pork rind trailer starting with PVJ purple vinyl jig with purple pork rind twin spin. Cast to a tree and let it fall until it stops and start the retrieve. This works. My partner is casting and retrieving with no success. Tom

I was having lunch with the Action Tackle hangouts and was invited to fish a tourney at ”Antone” (San Antonio) because his boater had problems. I agreed and told this guy not too familiar with Antone other then the north end river end and south dam area. He says we got the bit wired on spinnerbaits in Harris arm. Harris arm is near the launch ramp and sounded good to me. Everyone takes off up and down the lake leaving Harris arm alone! Perfect we race onto the Harris and it’s a forest to standing trees. I see 2 cows standing in the middle of the arm and I’am WOT! Shut it down immediately. Ask where is the spinnerbait bite? Answer his partner scouted it out. Put the TM down and move out to the end on the point the cows are a standing on. The channel drop off 30’ with a few trees on the end. We won that tourney at that spot. Tom

Our lakes only have trees that are indigenous underwater. Oak tress range from scrub small trees to Sherman oaks over 100’ tall. Oak trees and most hard woods don’t decay under water. Pine , Sycamore, Cottonwood trees are also indigenous and they do decay underwater. Willows and cedar are smaller and last a long time underwater. We don’t have a lot of standing timber in most SoCal lakes with the exception of oaks trees. Harris creek in lake San Antonio is a exception, about a mile long stand of standing oak trees populate this creek arm. 90% of the bass are located where you would expect them of the trees are not there; channel swings and points. Tom

Before retiring 5 years ago the company had a lab that I could use during lunch to tensile test using a Instron machine, very accurate. The Instron recorded elongation (stretch) yield ( starting to stretch) and break strength. The factor the impacts line strength more then anything else is rate of pulling force. For example setting the rate+of force at .25” per second the data is very different from 2” per second. The slower rate tends to cause line breaking at the knot or mandrel. Faster rate the line tends to break away from the knot or mandrel Testing mono/Copolymer lines strength is alway related to diameter not labeled strength. Line with the same diameter varied very little between premium mfr’s, tested wet or dry. Elongation varies more then break strength and knot strength dependent on not flattening the line tying the knot. Fluorocarbon line varies between mfr’s with Seaguar and Sunline being very consistent breaking close to labeled strength and same diameter, Sunline Shooter FC having slightly higher knot strength, close to 80% vs 75% for all other types using Palomar, Trilene, Improved clinch and SD jam knots. Palomar having widest variances if not tied carefully or twisting the loop when tightening. I didn’t test braid because rarely used it other then 65# Fins PRC as filler line tuna fishing and straight without leader at the Delta and Clear Lake heavy cover presentations. I didn’t keep the data because it was for my information choosing line and knots. Tom PS, the strongest FC line tested per diameter was Toray Bass Hard (Blue) @ $35/85 yards in 2015, Shooter was $35/300 meters.

I used Dacron braid in the 50’s long before “super braid” spectra came out in the 80’s. The knot used back in the day is the braid knot a double line clinch knot that doesn’t slip and as strong as the line. The diameter of the hook being used also affects knot strength. You test line knot strength with the same knot you fish with and skilled tying. Tom

Your cranking battery operates the engine functions. If the OB cranks over the cranking battery isn’t dead! To start check the battery charge using a load tester, Harbor Freight sells Chicago tester that works good. A simple 110 V meter that plugs into your power receptacle out where you plug in the onboard charger solves that question. Does your cranking battery have a on/off 50 amp switch? If the battery is good then your trim problem my not be electrical, could be a hydraulic issue. Tom

Our lakes have Threadfin shad as “bait fish” so targeting bass feeding on baitfish schools it’s as simple as locating Western and Piedbill Grebes feeding on the same shad. I used my sonar to determine what depth to target, that it’s as simple as selecting structure spoons, tail spinners or ice jigs to catch those bass. I love to fish jigs year around so fishing known structure that hold big bass without driving over the area with sonar and check it when you leave. Tom

The reason I ask the above question regarding rod and line helps to answer the question is the Tranx worth it? Tranx is a excellent reel but do you need it for medium diving cranks baits is my question. Simple answer is no you don’t need a strong bait casting reel as most 150 to 200 size 6.3:1 ratio reel works good enough. Tom