Tom was the first member of the community to reach out and respond to me. He helped me understand what I had been doing wrong with a particular technique and even offered up some tried and true tricks.

He sold me a massive bundle of plastics in 2020 or 2021, and after let me know they were his sons who had passed away. I still have so many of those, I doubt I’ll ever be able to go through them. I’m saddened I never told him how much it meant to me during COVID to have access to baits I needed when so much of the world was alone.

In the years since joining this community Tom has always been a presence, a voice, and a mountain of experience. He was real and kind in the way so many of us aren’t. The world is a little bit dimmer without him here.

On 1/12/2026 at 5:49 PM, TNBankFishing said:

Tom was the first member of the community to reach out and respond to me. He helped me understand what I had been doing wrong with a particular technique and even offered up some tried and true tricks.

He sold me a massive bundle of plastics in 2020 or 2021, and after let me know they were his sons who had passed away. I still have so many of those, I doubt I’ll ever be able to go through them. I’m saddened I never told him how much it meant to me during COVID to have access to baits I needed when so much of the world was alone.

In the years since joining this community Tom has always been a presence, a voice, and a mountain of experience. He was real and kind in the way so many of us aren’t. The world is a little bit dimmer without him here.

Reading Tom’s post over the years, he was greatly affected by the loss of his son, and that never changed. The only certain is, they are together now, and probably talking fishing, on a beautiful lake!🙏💎

R. I. P.  Tom Prayers to his family .

Haven’t logged in for about 5 months decided to hop on and saw this. Very sad to read both him and Catt have passed on this thread.

Condolences to both families and I wish them the best.

Always thought both of them seemed to be true anglers and outdoorsmen, strive to be half as accomplished as either. Really going to miss their perspectives and knowledge targeting bass.

Man, I live under a rock anymore. I'm just learning of both WRB's and Catt's passing. They made this place better, and despite not knowing them personally, I'm positive that whomever lives they touched, they also made those better too. RIP both of you.

My Condolences and prayers to his family.

It has only been since Tom left us to fend for ourselves that I realized there was a pattern to my responses to other members questions. It usually went something like this:

• A member posts a question

• I read the question and think, "I have some good advice I can offer in response" so I formulate a response in my head.

• I read everyone else's response before posting MY response just for my own knowledge.

• I find that Tom has responded and, upon reading his response, I find that he is giving the same general advice, but with more detail and probably something else I hadn't thought of.

• I abandon my initial response and, instead, I post part or all of what Tom said with some kind of genius addtional comment like "^^^what Tom said^^^".

Now it dawns on me that a good portion of my responses to other member's questions tend to be something I learned from Tom's posts years ago. Thank you again, Tom, for sharing with us. You left an enduring gift for all of us.

R.I.P. WRB. Your catches and contributions were legendary.

I’ll miss Tom’s responses on here. When he spoke, I listened.. and he was usually nice enough to answer any question I had..

I'm honored to have gone fishing with Tom a few times.  He was a positive and generous person to be around - always happy to share what he had and knew. A good memory is that whole day we had with Big Hands fishing at the tules, including the double up in the picture below.  Many have learned so much (and will continue to) from his thoughtful contributions here, and his presence is sorely missed.

Sorry to hear of this. I noticed his absence after my return. So I went looking. I always had a great deal of respect for Tom's opinions. He shared his knowledge with me many times.