Book excerpt: With more than 650 tips total, the Almanac is an indispensable reference that will help any bass angler improve his or her fishing success quickly and significantly. An easy-to-read reference and guide, the Almanac is loaded with detailed illustrations and photographs. And it's packed with tips and tidbits that the author has picked up over a lifetime of bass fishing. In it, Weiss examines all types of bass fishing, including: largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass biology; tips on reading maps and using sonar; habits of bass in natural lakes, man-made reservoirs, rivers, streams, and strip-mine pits; how weather affects bass; tips on selecting rods, reels, and lines; how to fish live and artificial baits, jigs, soft plastic lures, weedless spoons and jigging spoons; trolling tips that work.