WRB-2.0

Currently using spinning, let the OP reply! Tom

Down sized a few years ago and kept only what I use, small pile and use all them. Tom

When the OP says his medium spinning works he maybe saying it works to cast the weightless Pit Boss. Getting the bass out of a pad field is another story! Braid will cut through Lilly pad stems depending on how dense the pads are. Trying to convince the OP to use bait casting isn’t productive if he doesn’t like bait casting. Tom

St Croix Victory VTS71MF spinning can easily perform the OP’s task. Tom

Daiwa had a MM Mini series casting reels. Tom

Nice Yellowfin ( Allison) after big cows at night? Best time to is now Guadalupe south. Tom

It rained for 4 days and nights lightly about 5” total, good rain. We have another storm coming from the north this time and forecasting heavy rain and snow, not good after the soaking we had from the tropical light rain. Mud slides to follow🌧️. Tom

If the water you nominally fish in is dirty your reel will pick up the debris when retrieving line. The level wind worm gear needs to be cleaned and lightly oiled, I use CLP Breakfree on the worm gear. At a minimum the spool shaft bearing need to be oiled using reel oil, Shimano or Ardent are readily available and a drop on each spool shaft end is all that is needed as minimal service. Gear grease, no need as long as the reel runs smoothly. Having your reels serviced by a good technician like DVL annually, the reel should outlast you. salt or brackish water is another story and need to be serviced thoroughly. Tom

Eliminates coating the thread wrap, lighter weight and more reliable. Tom

SD jam knot you use the lures weight to tie the knot, couldn’t be easier! Tom

When I was fishing big swim baits tied directly to lure eye using SD Jam knot. When I did use a snap Berkley Cross Loc snaps work good, never had a snap open. Today I use Owner Hyper weld snaps simple light weight and very strong. Tom

What is with the discolored spool shaft, looks like it was over heated. Bearings look dry! Tom

Google can birds and fish see UV spectrum. Tom

My experience with Rebel minnow was they were difficult to tune and run straight, Rapala minnow always ran true. Tom

You have some time to build a dock😎 Tom

Thank you for updating! Tom

Zank ( John Zankoski) came up with neon soft plastics using moth or butterfly dust ( tiny wing scales) that reflect UV and his hand poured worms were excellent. Today they use Neon dye and doesn’t work nearly as well. Tom

You have a walkway that may need to be longer. Pulling the aluminum boat out using a long rope is the easy part. Launching you need to build a portage of logs to roll the boat back into the water with the help of the boys who made the walkway. Hope you get the boat Katie👍 Tom

How soon we forget Tactical Bassin R2Sea DD crank bait. Tom

No longer a spinning finesse bass angler, BFS now! Stradic and Vanford reels were my go too for spinning. Tom

The color topic can be a book in length. decades ago the Black Bass including Largemouth had their eye studied to determine if they can see colors. The bass eye has both rods and cones and can see colors. Hundreds of studies and experiments to determine what colors the bass can see have been done without a conclusion. Why? Know one can determine how the bass brain interprets the color spectrum. Bass are fish that live underwater and using a human interpretation what bass can see isn’t a good baseline. Too many variables but I believe bass can see ultra violet color spectrum like birds can. This allows the fish to see in very low light, something we can’t do. Anecdotal evidence that supports bass can see color spectrum we can’t comes from Eppinger lure co when the EPA forced them to remove lead from the paint they used for decades. The Dare Devil spoons were the companies top selling lure and after changing the color red that “looked” identical their sales dropped off everywhere. The only change was the paint supplier who made the red color. Eppinger studied the original and new red under ultra violet light and the new color was very different. From the study a lead free red identical to the original was developed and sales recovered. Another study by Bill Murphy in his book in Pursuit of Giant Bass, Bill experimented with 10 identical deep diving crank baits. The lures were painted with to Bills trained** eye with white from 10 different suppliers. The lures were trolled and the few that consistently caught bass were studied under ultra violet light each look identical. Bill then painted the unproductive lure with the same supplier white as the productive lures and they all caught bass equally. The only difference is the ultra violet spectrum needed to be the same. Tom *Eppinger study is in Jason Lucas on Bass ** Bill was a dental technian. Tom

Common expression with bass anglers “last cast” meaning it’s time to head back. Then the bass turn on and last cast is forgotten, happens often and may be the reason we say it! Tom

Spinning tackle is your choice sonI recommend clear casting bubble that you add water for more weight and use 2 lb leader with standard size flies for your area. Trout have excellent close vision so:light leader is necessary for smaller flies. Lure you can 4 lb to 6 lb mono or FC line and cast direct no bubble. Any ML spinning rod should be OK. Tom

The most productive hair jig color was anytime anywhere; Black back, purple center and reddish brown belly. I put this combination together to match 1 of the pork rind trailers Iused; black, purple and brown. I did this so I could change trailers without changing the jig. Total stumbled onto this combination in 1971. Caught 4 of my 5 top giant bass on this jig color. Today it’s called PBJ. Tom

Thank everyone for sharing your warm thoughts and suppor I am 82 and thankful for a wonderful life. Cancer is the only thing that has a negative impact on my life, otherwise it’s all been good. I love to bass fish since a a pre teen and that is a lot of years. I get to hold Izzie and she looks at me with those beautiful eyes begging to help her and all we can do is is comfort her. It’s heart breaking but she has given us so much more sharing her life.Thank you❤️ Tom