WRB-2.0

Butch Brown uses 20 lb (.016d) Seaguar InvisX buys in the 3,000 yard spool. His reason is the line sinks about the same rate as the lures he uses eliminating bow in the line. The down side to FC line is it can break if any damage occurs to the line. 3,000 yards spool Butch changes his FC line often. I used Sunline Defier Armilo 25 lb (.016d) Nylon line for about 5 years without loosing any swim baits. Big Game 20 lb is .018 dia, good line but Armilo* performed better. * no longer available🤬 Tom

Breathable vented engine covers that you leave on while operating is what I was talking about. They are new to me. Tom

How soon I forget! Today there some nice tight fitting engine covers I see on the boats. Tom

I kept a water stray bottle and clean rag to wipe the entire boat and engine down after spraying hard water spots before leaving the lake. Easy to keep the engine and boat clean before it dries. Tom

Agree, straight long handle or split grip casting rods the hand on the butt doesn’t change the casting mechanics with the hand controlling the reel. 2 handed casting allows you to increase rod tip speed by pulling the butt end back during the forward rod motion. Tom

Graduate to using soft plastics stating with a wacky rigged Senko. Tom

The 90’s era Force was made by Mercury. Tom

That train left the station, good while it lasted. Tom

My casting learning curve was using pistol grip rods with knuckle buster right handed reels. As a result I don’t palm a casting reel.Cast right hand and switch to left hand to retrieve, automatic. Tom

The Threadfin Shad spawn happens in SoCal around May so the schools you are seeing in September are probably 2” Silversides and like small shad bass get focused on tiny baits they are hard to catch on artificals. The Megabass Karashi is working on light 5-6 lb line during this period in SoCal if you want a hard lure. Tom PS, DVL has some big bass and stripers that eat Karashi!

I used Ducky water spot remover for decades on my/Black Merc cowlings. There was a guy who would wipe down cowling at tournaments and hand out small spray bottles of Ducky, that is how I got started using it. Tom

Thank you for sharing your memories. Tom

The mistake I see a majority of bass anglers doing casting with bait casting reels is improper wrist rotation. Your wrist and thumb on the back cast swing shouldn’t go beyond your ear and the thumb should be facing towards your ear. The forward cast motion is mostly in your wrist with about 45 degrees forearm movement and your wrist stays knuckles up, thumb should still be in the same position where the cast started. Most anglers today rotate the thumb to 12 o’clock position during to forewarn cast with the spool parallel to the water surface. Rotating the thumb up puts a lot of force on your elbow tendons and slows down the rod tip. Your index finger should always be holding the rod finger trigger grip during the casting motion. Tom

When I think of BSF Bulldog1935 comes to mind. Short rod the most important component next to the blank is the rod handle design. Gary Loomis Edge rods in the Blackwidow series offers rods with 1/16-3/8 oz drip shot series that meets your goals. Gary’s primary rod business today is suppling rod blanks to custom builds, his off the shelf rods suffer delivery as a result. Your rod builder could contact Gary for the perfect rod blank for your needs. Tom

Like everything it depends on the material of the collar. It’s very easy to toadd a quick 1/16th tie or wrap wire. Tom

I fished a local private lake a few years with lots of floating docks. The key to skipping into small low openings was skip the lure about 10’ before the opening in lieu of a few feet. Seems counter productive but the lure continues under the dock further that way. Tom

Suggest buying a few different jig types and use them to determine what works where you fish in lieu of jumping into making up a bunch. Casting and retrieving jigs from shore means you mostly working uphill is not ideal. Lighter weight is your friend 1/4 and 3/8 oz with Yamamoto Twin tail 4” grubs. Tom

2025 been fishing twice🫩 good results and looking forward to few more trips. Lot of travel this year on a 30 day cruise, good trip😀. The down side my wife’s niece passed away living alone and wasn’t discovered for 3 weeks. We were notified during our cruise and working through forensic cleaning 😱 and getting the condo ready to sell. Up and down year so far. Tom

I am using size1 Owner hyper weld lock snap, very light and strong. Tom

I can see how FFS impacts suspended off shore fish and those fish have been in a sanctuary zone for decades or since trolling because a lost art. I would think Lake Trout would be more of a concern than Muskies that tend to locate in cover. Thinking as a purist using a canoe and fly rod is the ultimate method of catching sport fishing. Adding sonar and modern tackle is what the vast majority of recreational anglers fish today. My 1st experience using FFS was an eye opener, we couldn’t get bites at our normal spots and my partner has FFS installed on his boat so we turned it on looking at the area we fished, nothing was there. We then slowly moved the boat bow in a 180 degrees arch and found fish suspended 150’ off shore at 20 ‘ deep. Didn’t know what the fish were so I made a cast with a spoon watching the fish on the screen react, instant hook up and they were bass! We catch several good bass after that using FFS and I posted this 4 years ago….if you are a tournament bass angler you need FFS, it’s a game changer! Now recreational anglers have FFS, the cat is out of the bag, no putting it back! Tom

When 18 years old you think differently, death is a horrible result of a mistake. 🙏for him. Tom

🙏 for his family, loosing your child is life changing 🙏 Tom

Okuma X series is in your ball park, check them out! Tom

Look up Denny Brauer video he invented the solid body flipping tube. Tom

Electrofishing isn’t sport fishing it’s a biologist tool to study fish population density. Where is electron fishing allowed by recreational anglers? I m not a fan of FFS but you can’t put this technology back in box. Tom