WRB-2.0

Rod technology has changed a lot with graphite materials introduced in the mid 80’s. The terms used today predate modern rod materials plus no industry standard outside of bending rates under unspecified loads; ie subjective! Power initially was lifting a dead weight until the blank bottomed out in pounds 1 through 6 being light to heavy. Rod builders use a bending formula I am sure will introduced. To me it’s a touch and feel evaluation unless I know the rod blank used. Tom

My #1 color was made up because I was using Black, Purple and brown ( barn red) pork rind trailers and decided to make 1 jig with each color in lieu of retrying a different hair jig. The color combination doesn’t replicate anything in nature but the bass are it! Sometimes we get over thinking what a bass see’s we simply don’t know! The late Doug “Skinny” Harris made my hair jigs for several years and he was an artist. Doug came up with Fretiz based on David Fretiz favorite crank bait color. The Shad color was Doug’s attempt to make a trout color, it works during the Shad Spawn. Sometimes we just dumb into colors thinking we are clever. My belief after decades of catching big bass on jigs is color contrast and movements are important to bass! Tom PM your email and will Fisherman articles I wrote on jigs and targeting big bass.

I have 5 favorite hair jig tri- color used over a 50 year time period ( time on the water). 1. Anytime Anywhere*; black back, purple, reddish brown. 2. Spring Craw**; dark brown back, Olive green, light brown. 3. Shad; dark green back, white/chartreuse, white. 4. Fretiz; Brown back, red, chartreuse. (Smallmouth). 5. Black, blue, black, for night bass fishing. * caught 4 of my 5 PB’s between 17.4 lbs to 19.3 lbs. using pork rind trailer on #1 of the 5 jig colors. ** caught a on #2 ; 17.6 lb bass w/ barn red pork trailer. Tom

I have only been fishing jigs since the late 50’s and very familiar with jig hooks made from case hardened wire vs state of the art heat treated hooks that 1st appeared from Japan in the 80’s. Mustard, Eagleclaw* were the only jig hooks until the Japanese hooks were available. Mustard has tried to improve the jig hooks and better now than before the 80’s. You need a diamond hone to resharpen Japanese hooks the metal is very hard. When a case hardened hook is resharpened the metal is now soft and dulls very quickly; the need to constantly resharpen vs periodically checking the hook point. Tom * EagleClaw now make Tokar hooks.

I fish 2 lakes when I can lake Casitas and lake Castiac. Casitas is currently ranked 4th in Bassmaster top 100. Casitas is semi private lake because the Quagga mussel inspection prevent taking your boat to another lake with 35 day quarantine time period. Casitas is only 2,000+ acres, 300 feet deep by the dam with good wildlife and lots of oak trees plus no water contact sports allowed. The bass fishing has recovered from all fires and years of low water conditions, now full pool. Castiac is the opposite of Casitas about the same size and depth but butt ugly terrain a few trees, mostly brown brush and rocks, wildlife consists of coyotes and rattle snakes. Bass fishing is generally good but the Stripe Bass population has ruined Castiac for trophy size bass. Castiac has water contact sports with noisy wake boats and jet skies. Castiac lagoon or after bay is small lake below the dam about 60’ deep, electric only and still has a few trophy size bass with the bank having cattails reeds has more eye appeal. Casitas I would rate 4 stars ( 5 if giant bass show up) , Castiac main lake 2 stars on week days, lagoon 3 stars. Tom

Won ICAST 2025 best in category ward. Tom

So many lures so little time! Tom

A jig is only as good as the hook the most important component! Owner, Gamakatsu and Tokar are premium jig hooks. Cheap jigs have cheap hooks that needs to resharpened constantly because the metal used. You are better off buying jigs from Siebert Outdoors than wasting your money on bargain jigs. Tom

Double buzz bait puts out lots of vibration running slow, good at night. Tom

What makes this a bladed jig combo? Tom

Old thread! Tom

With scales😎

Sounds like a defective rod that should be returned. Tom

Just back off the drag to prevent the washers and disk taking a set. Reset the drag when you plan to use it, always check mine it’s a habit. Tom

My personal favorite smaller size top water is Zip n Ziggy Baby Bass color. Works out of the box, good quality hooks and walks by itself nothing special needed. Tom

It’s usually a timing issue and lure presentation, you can’t make bass bite if they are not active when you are there. Tom

^^^^this is your answer^^^^ Tom

The prey type needs to be abundant and a size the bass can swallow and not choke on the dorsal fine spines. There are several bream species and shad species plus herring and a variety of minnows/shiners. Longer thin profile like herring and most minnows/shiners are easy to swallow soft ray fish. Shad are also soft ray fish a wider body profile and easy to swallow. Bream means different fish regionally let’s just Bluegill, Pumpkin Seed, Sunfish; green, red ear, some perch species and crappie are commonly called bream. Bluegill are spiny ray fish with wide body profile and adults are difficult to swallow. Size is important when discussing bream as a food source for bass over 5” or hand size would be difficult for most bass to swallow successfully. When bass are focused on abundant prey type being available other prey is ignored generally. For example if the bass are feeding on Threadfin shad they ignore nearly everything else at that moment. Tom PS, bass don’t know their own size vs the prey and mistakes can be fatal.

The OP more than likely has spinning tackle and 8 lb mono is a good choice. We don’t know what rod is being used and that is a part of the combo that determines the type and size of lures that can be used. Tom

Lures that you can be effectively fished where you are located. Soft plastics are effective everywhere and an be rigged several ways and catch bass. However soft plastics like worms and stick baits ( Senko s) are excellent to learn to use and difficult to detect strikes. Lures that see the bass strike work good but are limited where you can use them. To eliminate guessing let us know where you plan to fish and what type of tackle you plan to use. Tom

Where did you purchase the Sniper? Take it or send it to the supplier and request new spools after they test the line you returned. A simple test is wrap few turns around each hand then pull to test. You shouldn’t be able to break 16 FC without a lot of effort. Tom

This day and age becoming good at any sport including bass fishing you lots of information available and mentors to help not learning bad habits. It’s like a golfer can spend years practicing bad habits and never become a good golfer. A few days with a good golf instructor at the beginning saves a life time of making mistakes. Learn to cast properly and practice casting. Glenn our BR owner has lots of good instructional video’s to avoid bad habits. Understand bass behavior where you live and plan to fish. I consider myself a good bass angler and had a mentor to teach me how to cast properly and a few lures to start with where I fished. Looking back that early time period built a solid foundation to become a good bass angler. Start off with quality tackle, not necessarily expensive rod and reel but reliable within your budget, we can help you with making this decision. I am an advocate of hiring a good teaching guide when you are ready to sharpen your skills. Tom

Looks like a market looking for a scaled down 35 lb kayak TM with SL! Tom PS, try calling the Trolling Motor Doctor in Long Beach California.

It’s not worth it! With fresh plastisol you control the end result, softness, color, flakes etc. Tom

This the reel I choose w/5 lb UG, works good! Tom