WRB

To a fly fishermen a roll cast is a roll cast. Bass fishermen have different names depending on the region your from. The underhand loop cast is exactly what some bass people call a roll cast; the lure is whipped by the rod tip in a circle, then cast to a target in the flat trajectory. Pitching is very similar to flipping, except as you swing (pendilium) the lure forward with the rod, the reel lets more line out. Most pitchers use their thumb to control the cast. Loop casting requires practice, like any other bait casting skill. To slow roll a spinnerbait means to slowly retrieve the lure, just fast enough the keep the blade or blades turning and lure off the bottom. WRB

You didn't memtion what type of fishing you are doing; bass? WRB

Agree with Catt. Start with determining what the bass are eating and match those colors. WRB

I put fresh frozen garlic cubes, available at Trader Joe's, in my pork rind trailer jars. 1 cube equals 1 garlic. You should not add scent to soft plastics that already have a scent molded in; like power bait for example. Soft plastics without scent, you can add whatever you like, just avoid adding different scents. WRB

You fish low land reservoirs or natural lakes that don't have the typical highland or hillland features most bass fishermen have experience with. Pre spawn is the transition period between spawning and early summer. Think of recovery period; pre spawn bass are not happy campers for a about 2 weeks after spawning. Unlike the deeper reservoirs, your spawn period doesn't last for months, it's over quickly for the majority of the bass. By now the bass may be early summer period, focus on those presentations. Early/late low light periods with a few mid day feeding times. During active times, use reaction lures; spinnerbaits, lipless crankbaits, buzzers, jerkbaits, frogs. Inactive periods go the the slower saturation type lures; senko's, soft slow jerkbaits, swimbaits ( slow sinking blurgill or golden shiner), jgs, T or C-rigged or slipshoot worms. Work those channel breaks throughly and learn everything you can about what structure there maybe and target cover near the structure breaks. Structure in your case could be soil changes; sand to clay areas for example. Night fishing; if the critters allow you to be out at night. WRB

You are using premium hooks, rod about right, line wasn't defined. Roboworms are very soft, so you shouldn't have a problem with penetration of the hook point. Two things come to mind; spawning bass don't eat your worm, they kill it or move it and easily can miss the hook point. The second is putting the hook eye too far into the worm nose; it should be flush or only in about 1/16". Too much worm can fill the hook gap. If your worm come back bunched up in the hook throat, you may need to skin hook the worm. Off set J bend hooks don't work well for Texas rigged worms, IMO. The straight shank sproat style hook is better for hook ratation. Keep the rod loaded up and enjoy your fishing. WRB

Good basic article on how to properly handle bass. Keep in mind that this article wasn't specifically directed at bass boaters with live wells, that issue is far more complicated. WRB

Fishing the HBC4 ? WRB

Putting teener's in the boat. LMB over 15 lbs are very rare fish, you can't afford to lose any big bass you hook...period. This is simply the difference between success and failure. I consider myself to be as good as any trophy bass fisherman out there and I have lost few. Lets make that 3 in over 40 years of pursuing giant bass and I remeber every moment in full color. The fact that I have put hundreds in the boat, the 3 misses still huant me. How do you prevent from making a mistake; be prepared, check knots, change line,rod giudes and use only sharp premium hooks. Tune your tackle, reel drags and fish like the next cast is the fish. Position yourself to be able to land the bass, keep it under control and in front of you, every second and put the bass in the boat as quickly and calmly as possible. Giant bass can only fight a few minutes at the longest, stay cool, there will be a lot of time to celebrate or ponder what went wrong. WRB

Bass can easily travel up and down in the water column, they suspend at the depth where their airbladder have reached nuetral bouyancy. Bass prefer to look up and attack from below, but they often follow wounded bait down into deeper water and eat them laying on the bottom. Generally the range is plus/minus 30, meaning a bass suspended (nuetralized) at 30 feet can go up to the surface or down to 60 without much trouble. The airbladder expands too much to go much beyond a 30 foot rise and still be able to eat something. WRB

Interesting, how cold do you think the water was? Threadfin shad, the size big crappie can eat, die off when the water drops below 45 degrees. Sliversides, a samll baitfish similar to Threadfin shad can take a few degrees colder water arounf 42 and the bigger gizzard shad can survive 40 degrees water for short time period. There are all kinds of things bass eat that can damage their mouth tissue, soft tissue baitfish like shad isn't something that should be reddening the mouth. Whatever it turns out to be, seeing red mouth crappie is a good observation and gives some food for thought. WRB

Most of the lakes in SoCal are 100 to 300 feet deep. You simply need to determine at what depth the bass are using, usually close to the initial thermocline layer. Use you sonar unit to meter the thermocline depth or ask you local DFG/DNR person who works at the lake. 35 feet is fairly common depth, you need to figure out your lake at the time period. Fish outisde main lake points, islands and hump that interscet the thermocline depth and you be near bass. Drop shotting is an excellent presentation, structure spoons, underspins and jigs all work well for deeper water areas. WRB

You need to post a picture that clearly shows the entire inside of the basses mouth. If the entire soft tissue is inflammed red, then it's may not be caused by eating crestaceans like crayfish. Rosey lips and crunchers located in the top and back of the mouth will turn redish from eating crawdads. Nest building can also cause some mouth damage, bass don't have hands. WRB

The biggest loss that I have heard of is 4 compete bass rigs, including tow vehicles, to Mexican bandits. Aaron Martens forgetting to check in, lost a Classic. How many rod/reel combo's have been kick overboard or blew out of the boat, can't recall. A few cell phones and complete tackle bags and boxes that were left on the back deck. Yes bass fishing can get expensive when we get a careless. WRB

native Californian, SoCal area. Under the weather or I wouldn't be wasting my time answering this, should be on the water. WRB

The ponds, too small to b a lake, are nearly featureless. They may be over stocked with too many varieties of pan fish. They stock rainbow trout; try a #5, 6" Huddleston swimbait. Otherwise forget about these ponds and find yourself something that can sustain a good bass population. WRB

JC, answered your PM, good luck. Senko's are designed to make slight wiggle movements as they sink using a 3/0 to 5/0 worm hook, no weight. Today Senko's are fished nearly every way possible. The wacky rigged, drop shot technique works well and a small rubber O-ring slid over the worm and back about 1/3rd will save some Senko's from being lost. Think slow saturation fishing a small area. WRB

Call Don Iovino and he will set you up for our local lakes, including the Castiac lagoon; 818/848.6180 8" to 10" plastic worms or 6" & 8" Huddleston swimbaits are good choices for the lower lagoon. PM me and I can give you some specific in formation that will work for both you and your young fisherman. WRB

Fish a 10" Power worm or buzzer at night. Darkness gives you a big advantage fishing a pond. Good luck. WRB

Bluegill wake bait like Tru-Tungsten or if your budget can afford a Mattslures hard bluegill floater. Make sure your tackle is up to speed to both cast lures and handle the larger bass. The bass you watched was telling you what it wants to eat, listen to it. WRB

When you bring up the space for tying in a post or response, it's just outside the box, upper right. "Check spelling" in blue. Hit to check, hit again to resume typing. I see said the blind man, thank you. WRB

Spell check? please explain where it is and how to use it on this site! WRB PS; what do you do with the critically injured bass?

Hopefully my comment is not too far off track from the original post, but when reading this (above) I thought I'd jump in. In terms of dissolved oxygen, the O2 levels are greatly dependent on sunlight penetration, are they not? If you have murky water, for example, and its summer time- sunlight will only penetrate the first few feet of water, so photosynthesis is limited to that space, and the thermocline should also be pulled up closer to the surface due to limited light penetration, true? And, if bass rarely go below the thermocline (baitfish feed on plankton and other things that depend on the sunlight & photosynthesis, better O2 levels, visiblity issues, etc) then, at least in quite stained water, should this not position bass fairly shallow 'naturally' as a consequence? You factor in wind, sprng water, streams, creeks and rivers. Moving water via wave action or tumbling over rocks etc., oxygenates the upper water column. Sun light drives photosynthesis, however aquatic plants consum Do during the night. The water would need to be very dirty to reflect sun light penetration to a few feet, most off color water will still have a depth of light about 5 to 6 feet. If the alke doesn't have deeper water, a lot of low land and natural lakes in Florida for example, restrict the bass from finding deeper water and must adapt to the water they live in. The bass in shallow lakes use heavy weed mates that provide shade that cools the water under them a few degrees. The bass will still seek the coolest water possible, under hot water conditions. If the wind stops and the heat continues to over heat the water, the bass will die off from lack of DO. Threadfin shad eat phyto planton, gizzard shad and some other baitfish eat zoo plankton, vegetable verese animal. Most baitfish eat small water or airborne creatures that live in or near the weed cover. The one constant that you can depend on is; bass will not be far from prey. The thermocline (metalimnion) is located where the upper layer cools about 3 to 4 degrees within a few feet, in most lakes. The idea that lakes only have one thermocline and no DO below that layer can be miss leading. Lakes that have current can and do have multiple thermocline layers with sufficent DO level between. The lowest layer (hypolimnion) will be void of DO. Where I fish the lakes often have 2 or more thermocline layers and bass populations living at those different depths. It's not uncommon for bass to be at 60 feet and 30 feet, moving up to spawn and at night. Like the shallow bass in Florida, the same bass have adapted to the ecosystem. I think we are drifting way off topic. WRB

There is no reason for big bass and carp to be suspended together, unless they are both feeding on the same forage. Carp are very wary fish, much more than bass, and will bolt at any sign or danger; a shadow from a bird for example. I wouldn't bother much with bass that are in plain sight and migrating or cruising. You need to get back far enough so you can't see the bass. Then try presenting whatever the bass are feeding on or a lure that represents the same color and profile. My gues is some minnows or bugs are being pushed down with the current and the carp and bass are feeding on them. Try a small crankbait or Basstrix BaitFry or forget about those bass and target pre spawners that you can't see. I agree; the night crawler will work fly lined! WRB

The surface water temperature doesn't necessarliy indicate the water water temperature down a few feet. Have you swam in a lake and notice how fast the water temperature changes, even down a few feet? Contrary to what most bass fishermen believe, bass can not survive 90 degree water temperature very long. It's not the warmth of the water, it's the ability of water to hold dissolved oxygen at a level the bass can survive. Bass need a minimum of 3 mg/L of DO to survive. 85 degree water is the maximum temperature that will hold 3 mg/L of DO. The green weeds produce DO during the day time and the weed cover helps the bass to survive in warm water, however given a chance the bass will move down into deepr cooler water with higher levels of DO. The ideal temperature is between 65 to 70 degrees with 7 tp 10 mg/L of DO and that is where the big bass will go, during hot water conditions, if they can. What you may have witnessed was a big bass that was in poor health for whatever reason and the little bass were curious and following to pick off any bits and pieces the bass spit up as it swam along. WRB