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Over the past couple weeks I have been fortunate enough to land 2 Florida Trophy Catch Program fish. For those who may not know that's a program FL has that rewards you for catching, documenting, and most importantly releasing trophy bass 8lbs+. Each category qualifies you for different prizes on top of a Bass Pro Gift Card (Lunker Club: 8-9.99lbs $100, Trophy Club: 10-12.99lbs $150, Hall of Fame: 13+ $200 & free replica) & there are certain rules you must follow FL fishing license is required. This is an awesome program to help the conservation of big bass. Both my fish came from the same spot just different area. Both were caught on a senko during the hottest part of the day, each time the temps were creeping towards 100°. This was the first one. I caught her by myself and had my gopro recording. This one was my favorite catch in my bass fishing career. Went fishing this Sunday with my girlfriend and I told her that if I caught a big one at the spot we were going to that she would fall in the water getting it jokingly and she laughed at me. Reason why I said that is because I fell in landing my buddy's 9lber, my other buddy fell in landing his brothers 7, and my fishing partner Jermaine Davis fell in when he caught a 5lber by himself lol. So long story short she fell in the water while landing my 8lber. I have the whole thing on gopro and she will not let me show ANYONE the video so I took screen shots lol. Even though I have caught bigger this was by far my favorite and most memorable moment bass fishing simply because I shared it with the mother of my son and the woman I will spend the rest of my life with... She's a keeper! If you have Instagram check out my page: ak_86 Tight lines!

For you guys/gals that are newer to bass fishing, I want to give you a little input. You absolutely do not need to have the best fishing equipment on the market to catch a bass. Instead of spending beyond your means, just get the best that you can afford. Most of the equipment made nowdays is pretty decent so you will be just fine. JT Bagwell @BagwellFishing

Not that exact blank but other NFC HM models. Nice blanks for sure but over priced imo and supply has been a problem.

When I fish, I like to be on the lake before daylight and I almost always fish all day; sometimes until after dark. No one I know likes to fish that long... I fish alone 95% of the time. Sometimes I go back to the dock to pick up a friend's 10-year-old girl to fish part of the day. Tight lines, Bob

Either a Zoom finesse worm in black grape, or an 8" Mann's jellyworm in grape.

Have you tried to tighten the nut down that holds the handle on?

Everything with a single hook from weightless worms to jigs. Spinning reels don't get backlashes, that rod can probably throw whatever you want it to.

Okay,,, On the otherhand ther is some GREAT gear to consider if you want to up your game. Most of "fishing" is fishing and has verylittle to do with "catching": Better gear is simply more fun to play with.

Save your money, make a fishing fund, heck even if it's $20 a pay. My biggest reason for buying higher end gear is because it will last the ages. That $60 baitcaster you bought breaks down the road in two three years so you buy another and so on and so on. Spend the little extra, buy of quality the first time and it will last. I have old Chronarch 100b's that have been in my line up for nearly 10 years.

Another Curado joins the fleet.

Ever open your tackle box and wonder this? I have a large tackle box that I take on boats. However, when shore fishing, I prefer to carry a smaller tackle box, a two-drawer Plano. The top is filled with worm hooks, bullet weights, and topwater lures. The middle drawer is packed with crankbaits. I keep my jigs in the bottom, in a small drawer I bought. Now, here's the thing: I use my crankbaits for maybe 1% of my fishing. I have no idea why I have so many in there, but I can't bring myself to remove 'em! I think I'll swap spots with the jigs so I have easier jig access, but dang -- I can't figure out why I carry so many crankbaits with me! Josh

CONGRATULATIONS!

Same here....add the DT Fat 3 to the that. It caught me tons of fish, but they are fragile..................which is an undesirable quality of a squarebill.

They are going down here too, and the talk is they will be down 60-70 cents per gallon over the next month or two. Will believe it when I see it though.

Hmmm...noticed prices going down in this area!

Wow, you have a couple of nice ones right there!

When the water's cold is the time to get football spots at LOZ!

Dang! No summertime skinny fish there!

DD22, anything in the DT lineup except the DT4 or DT6 although I no longer buy them because of breakage issues, Rapala Rattlin Rap.

Between those 2 I'd go with the loomis.

i will forever use this knowledge throughout my life passing this on to others

Or is it 7'(3') = 21'squared????

The lakes I fish are small between 1,000 to 3,000 acres or in length of miles between 1 1/2 to 4, by classification they are highland reservoirs, the primary function being water storage and flood control. These lakes are all deep structured with sparse cover and vary greatly in depth and pool size during each year. Each lake is subjected to weekly bass tournaments, there are lots bass boats fishing everyday, year around, so they are highly pressured by knowledgable anglers. Just wanted to clarify where I fish maybe different than fishing larger impoundments with vast amount of different terrain and cover. Daily bass patterns regarding prey type, location change from seasonal time periods, weather, boat traffic, time of day or night. Having fished these lakes for decades it's easy to think you can pre determine what the bass will be doing at any given time, big mistake. My routine when launching my boat is checking the marina for indications that might prevail during my outing to locate the bass and determine what they are doing. First you need to catch a few bass to develop a daily pattern, not always easy. For me my sonar unit is a valuable tool helping to see what is going on under the water, how deep the baitfish are and if any bass have passed under the boat, don't have side scanning sonar. If I catch a bass, that 1 bass tells me what it wanted and where, catch another it helps to fill in the puzzle, that puzzle is a pattern that I keep repeating if successful, if not it's not a pattern that is working for me. For example Thursday the bass were feeding on shad located in isolated weed patches on flats near rocks in 5' to 8' of water until about 10A, hitting small crankbaits and chatter baits, then quit. I didn't meter the bass on the flats, a splash alerted me to go check it out. The bass moved out to the deep ledge breaks in 20' with large boulders, hitting drop shot soft plastic worms. Monday, no bass active on the flats in the weed patches, no bass metered or caught on or near the ledge breaks. The bass had moved to the points and waited for Shad schools to come by, when a school was near, the bite was on from 20' to 30' drop shot Shad type soft plastics and structure spoons until I went home at noon. These are daily patterns that I was able to put together, other anglers may have found something different. This is typical, constant changes depending on bait and bass location. The OP was stating his pattern was lasting weeks or months, that is why I asked the question, what is your pattern? Bass are not stationary fish, they move to stay close to the food source, except during the spawn when food isn't a priority. Tom

A peacock bass would do repeated surges. A mayan you feel that tell tale machine gun feeling on the rod tip.

Is the rod 10' long?

Lol that ci4 stuff is amazing material.

Manns jelly worm in watermelon chartreuse

I would guess it's not much different from the healing time for humans. Which is 48 hrs to granulation- point when it is most fragile and prone to damage/re-opening- and about 2-3 weeks until it close to normal strength. I have pulled a lot of LMB from the lake recently with jaw wounds in various stages of healing. These fish are beaten up this time of year. Ooops sorry back to fish slime.

I see pros using a BPS Pro Qualifier. That's a less-than-$100 reel.

You can't spell sCRAPple without spelling crap.

I use a double foot stripper guide and sometimes a transition guide as well. Mostly so I can do this.

Great, every time they switch over to winter blends, my mpg's go down.

Awesome catches! Wish we had that program in ok too, ive seen pics of some BIG bass here in oklahoma...on stringers

I just got into bass fishing in the last couple months. The first few times I have been out I have been skunked. I have been reading these forums and soaking up the info. While this is nothing to brag about I have caught fish everytime I have been out since I have been reading these forums. Even though I am only catching 2 or 3 with a best being 6 fish nothing really big either just because this lake is only a year old. Its just the thrill of getting a bass to attack a lure. To everyone that posts up about different techniques and different baits to use thank you! Hopefully I will have a picture worth bragging about soon! Thanks James

By myself ~ I'm fishing alone. With my soulmate ~ I'm Guiding". A-Jay

Just get some of the foam insulation - the gray tube shaped hollow in the middle stuff they use to put around copper water pipes. Comes in 6 foot lengths. This works beautifully and is cheap. Cut the length you need (cuts with scissors or a bread knife)and you can tie wrap it or use a thin piece of wire to wrap it tight on the ends and put it around the rod above the reel or below the reel if you have a split grip pole. One 6 foot length will be more than enough as you only need to use a foot or so to keep your rod & reel floating enough to retrieve it if you drop it in the water. Best of luck to you in your kayak fishing.

A 4/0 hook dangling below a worm. Seems like a lot of hook that won't have any plastic attached to it.

I started to stick my fingers into a walleye's mouth last week to get my Ned rig back. We'd been catching so many fish I think my brain was just on autopilot

Umphrey's Mcgee every time I see them. Umphtastic!! Brendan and the boys never fail to leave me saying "holy s***" for pretty much the whole show...

Dick's Sporting Goods! They have a phenomenal boat sale that goes on around Memorial Day weekend and on through June. They sell kayaks all across the board in price-range at huge discounts.

I'm not one who believes in search baits, but think of every lure as a locator bait. If I'm throwing a crankbait when there's no crankbait bite, I'm not only covering a lot of ground, but I'm also wasting a lot of time. For cold-calling, I'll generally target aggressive fish first and passive fish last. So the baseline sequence would be Topwater - Mid-water - Bottom Needless to say, conditions often change lure selection and if a noteworthy pattern emerges it will get top billing. Roger

Exactly this

One of the few Havoc baits I have not been impressed with. Like Bluebasser86, I could only get them to "back up" with very light line and a tiny hook, not my style. I'd just rather put a nail weight in a 4" yum dinger and get the same action with my regular dock skipping gear.

I've had the rod for a little over a week and rounded up some funds for the reel (which came in today). About to spool her up and go out tomorrow. Really looking forward to it!

Well, it has happened. After starting my Masters degree for teaching almost 2 years ago I can say that one part of my life is ending and another is beginning. I was offered, and i subsequently accepted, a position in an elementary school as a 4th grade teacher here in the city of Richmond. The school is probably the toughest elementary school around as it basically serves 4housing projects. I was told by a few teacher friends that it is a tough group of kids for sure but the administration was good. I had an initial interview with the assistant principal which went well and then a follow up yesterday with the same assistant principal and 2 of the teachers. We had a great conversation and i felt that the support system would be there, especially since i am a new teacher and in a tough school. Anyways, just thought i would share with all of my virtual friends on here. I am sure after a few weeks i will post up some more of the crazy stuff i will see because from what those teachers told me, something ridiculous happens every single day....

I live five minutes from the lake and would like to fish with you guys at the fish off, if that would be alright. I have a trolling motor powered flatbottom so I would likely just be beating the bank near the boat ramp

Can't eat in the morning, never could. I used to bring a sandwich, some cookies, fruit and anything else Mrs Mike would throw in. Now I just pick up one of those lunchable things with the cheese, crackers and ham. 2 bottles of water and I'm good. A lot easier and less messy, especially in someone else's boat. Mike

I take a Cuban sub, Lance peanut butter crackers, a banana, and several Snicker candy bites. For drinks I take Gatorade, Tropicana lemonade, and a can of Coke-Cola in my small cooler with ice. But sometimes I bring half that stuff back home. BTW -- has anyone ever heard it's bad luck to go fishing and have a banana in your boat?

For me, going fishing is an all day thing. I'll get breakfast on the way - generally a slice or 2 of Casey's breakfast pizza and coffee. Cooler has water, ice and a few beers. I will stop and buy a sandwich for lunch somewhere, either Walmart or Caseys and put it in a zip lock bag in the cooler. Lately, a V-8 has hit the spot as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack. After I get off the water and get all loaded up, I check my blood sugar and that kind of lets me know what I can have for supper. There are great BBQ and other styles of restaurants on the way home.