FD.

If I'm fishing topwater, every strike gets the blood pumping. If your talking size only, it has to be over 6. 5 pounders are pretty common in the mud puddles I fish most.

I had a skeg (made out of plywood) mounted to the transom using c-clamps. This made the stern follow the bow better particularly in the wind with a bow mounted TM. Leave the battery in the stern and extend the cables to keep the boat balanced.

Ya'll got nothin? Ok, I guess I will have to do it the old fashion way. Upland reservoirs have to be easier to fish than Kissimmee anyway. I will post some pictures.

The family and I are headed to Highland Marina next Saturday for a few days. Anyone have any tips for the middle of June?

A MaineCoon. Ok fine, he is a cat but at 22 lbs he is bigger than a lot of dogs and he has a 60" vertical.

I use a kobalt from Lowes. I use it in my job and it has been in the dirt and mud for over 2 years now with no problem. At around 50 bucks with a lifetime guarantee.

It was good but should have been only two parts. Last night was slow and full of filler.

Glad to see you back brother. Glad to see you are still hanging out with the big girls. I have not seen that pic before.

Here is my setup for the thick stuff. 7'-9" Fenwick swimbait rod. I like a little softer tip to go with the leverage Revo SX HS 65 lb power pro bobber stop, 1.5 oz tungsten punch weight, 3/0 Gamu EWG superline Ugly otter or Mega bug

You are kidding yourself. If it were that easy everyone would be doing it. I have all of the "toys" on my boat. I had to do a list for the insurance company and it comes to over 10K in "stuff" on it. I just topped it off with the side imaging. It makes a difference against your local competition, but not against those guys. I fish with and against several of the Elites and can tell you first hand that it is 99% knowledge and 1% equipment.

She was 14 on this trip. The was the largest of 3 that were over 5 lbs for her this spring. We went this morning but got chased away early by the thunderstorms.

Yeah!

Bingo. I fish this color 10 times more than the other 100 options I have in the boat, combined. Mostly in a 8" vibe tail. You can fish it 10 different ways and it is effective in all of them.

Pretty much a standard practice for me in the heat of the summer. A booyah swim jigs works but you get hung up a lot. My normal setup is 65 lb braid on a 7-11 swimbait rod. You need the extra height and leverage to get them out. A bobber stop, 1 oz tungsten penetrator weight, 3/0 gamu EWG superline hook and an ugly otter or similar beaver style bait. This is a heavy, yet compact presentation that you can get back in as deep as you dare. If you get a fish hung up in the back, pull your trolling motor, and either push pole or grab a handful of bull rushes and pull your way in. It can be a frustrating technique but the rewards are worth it if you stick to it.

Come to Kissimmee and I will get you on the water.

Let me know which lake and I can get you more specifics. If you want to catch the large fish around a dock you need to do something that no one else does. Everyone throws soft plastics and you will catch some but the best way I have found = Crankbaits. Buy some cheap Strike King, Bandit or Bomber shallow running cranks that you are not afraid to loose or break. Firetiger or Chartruse is going to work the best in stained water. Pitch, skip, pendulum swing it. What ever it takes to get it under. I use 15# big game on a medium rod for this. And it works. For example: Sunday, TStone and I fished a tournament. Our second spot was a particularly nasty bunch of shallow wood. It eats crank baits. We pulled up, cranked up 2 keeper fish, got hung up, went in to get a crank and then left to let things settle down. We come back about an hour later and there is a boat on it. They are throwing jigs, t-rigged worms and such. We start to fish about 100 yards away and are watching them waiting for them to leave. 30 min later they decided there were no fish and left, so we moved down and about the 3rd cast with a crank, boom, 3 pounder on a kvd 1.5 chartruse. If you are fishing a central Florida public lake, then the fish are heavily pressured. You have to show them something they don't see 37 times each Saturday and Sunday. This works just as well in a lily pad field, IF YOU DARE.

That article has saved 15-20 fish that I know of. I have taught everyone I fish with how to do that.

Tired today but can't wait for the next trip. Had a great day on the water with TStone. We actually did pretty well in the tourney too. I was punching these heavy gator vine mats after lunch and get slammed, so I pin it to the bottom of the mat. Tommy starts to get ready to dig it out and I say, " it's either a big fish or a small gator" . The look on his face was priceless. I pull a little harder and out pops a 4.5 pounder. I almost wish it was a little gator. The story would have been better.

I don't know what it is, but, here's what I do know. It's 3:18 am Sunday morning. I can't sleep any longer. I have showered, shaved, made coffee, got dressed and now I'm on here killing time because the sun does not come up for 3 hours. I hope this feeling never goes away. I'm going to retie all my rods. Later

Walmart Everstart group 29. I have a 24 v trolling motor that drags a 21 ft stratos around all day with 2 of them.

I work outside and wear moisture wicking long sleeve shirts and jeans everyday. The shirts are so comfortable I bought them for all my employees. When I'm fishing I look like this, always, even on a cloudy day. Long sleeve moisture wicking shirt, buff for the ears and back of neck, floppy hat, buff fingerless gloves, burts beeswax on the lips and spf 50 spray from the knees down applied several times a day. It is not uncommon for me to spend 20 hours a weekend on the water with no sunburn. It not only keeps me cool while I'm outside, I don't fight the sunburn for the next few days. PS - I have my shirts custom printed at ooshirts. Even with the printing they are cheaper than columbia if you by more than 1. The shirts run a little small so order 1 size bigger than you think.

Or a Devils Horse. That is the only consistent bite I have had over the last month. My tourney partner and I went to Kissimmee on Saturday and were greeted with a tough practice day. I caught six fish all day long and he only boated 1. It has been too hot, no rain and the moon was full. That is a bad combination for the morning bite. Hang in there. If it makes you feel any better most of us here have had more ZERO days than the total number of times you have been fishing. It will get better but you are still going to have bad days.

Hillcrest has cabins, boat ramp and dock. Not 5 star but better than a fish camp. No.RV's. The walmart is about 15 min away at Hunt Brothers road and SR 60. I have not seen any "big" fish. I've heard of them from local guys and we have several over 6 but nothing huge.

A couple of things to help you get started. A black/blue flake vibe worm works well when you sit off the shore and cast to the edge of the kissimmee grass and let it sit. If you are in a flippin mood then a fluke in baby bass has worked well. I have also had good success with a buzz frog but that was when the water was up. Also bring an extra trolling motor prop. As evergladesbasser said there are a lot of stumps up shallow, especially on the east bank of the part of the lake that runs north/south.

Bobs Landing or Hillcrest Lodge. They are both on the south side of the lake and cater to fishermen. There are big fish but they are hard to catch, at least on artificials. Most of the +10s are shiner fish.