FD.

I always take the boat out of the water and park it next to the cabin or camper. It only takes minutes to launch and I like my stuff close.

You do what you want, but I have never had any problems. I have stayed in the camp ground and cabins during holidays and tournament weekends. I have heard of 1 break in at the motel but that's it.

Contractor - Underground utilities and General Site construction

Taken from the FWC website: "What is being done about Florida's aquatic weed problems? Federal, state, and local agencies spend millions of dollars each year to control aquatic weeds in Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been designated by the Florida Legislature as the lead agency to control aquatic weed problems in public waters. The Invasive Plant Management section administers funding programs for this control and issues permits for private and commercial aquatic weed control. Also, there are laws restricting the importation and cultivation of foreign aquatic weed pests to prevent the establishment of new weeds. Research on the chemical, biological and mechanical control of aquatic weeds presently is conducted by scientists at Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Army Corps of Engineers and many of Florida's major universities." Here is the link to the whole document. http://www.myfwc.com/WILDLIFEHABITATS/InvasivePlants_faq.htm#140

Steve The FWC has a questionaire online where they ask about spraying and aquatic vegetation. Since they asked for my opinion I felt it necessary to "expound" on my answers. :

If you are driving over on SR 60, make the first left past the Kissimmee bridge down to the boat ramp and fish under the bridge with a crank or a big worm.

The fish were in the thick grass mats in 5-6 ft of water this weekend. They should be moving shallow as we speak.

Yep, they are very efficient. Most of it is gone. I wrote the FWC complaining about it. Lot of good that will do.

start here http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass-fishing-articles.html#techniques then, go in the back yard, find something about 2' high to stand on and get several buckets as targets, and practice, practice, practice. Use just a 1 oz bullet weight to practice with in the beginning.

I had a buddy catching them yesterday flippin the matted grass and doing well. With the water warming everyday, I would be looking shallow with a frog or skinny dipper.

give us the link to that tourney.

I use google earth to get coordinates of things like that.

I had almost forgotten the taste of a pepsi in a glass bottle. There was always a bottle opener in the glove box of the family boat. Good memories.

Davenport is about as far away from the salt water as you can get in Florida. About an hour and a half to Daytona or Cocoa on the east coast and the same to Clearwater or Saratota on the west. All of them have the "party style" charters that supply everything for around 40 bucks a head. I would not put down a deposit because that time of year the weather is pretty volatile and you might want to choose your coast based on wind direction. As for fresh water Winter Haven is only a few minutes away and most of the lakes have a city park and boat ramp with a small pier and rest rooms. Lake Hartridge is my personal favorite. Other things to look at, St Augustine, Cape Canaveral, Air boat tours out of Camp Mack (Kissimmee) would all make a nice family day trip.

how about a skirt, bullet weight and a bobber stop?

Bingo!! The dancing girls are a little scary 8-) but they have about everything else. and plan a trip to the fishermans candystore on Sr 60 across from Walmart in Lake Wales.

There are about a dozen mom and pop shops around. Depending on which lake I'm headed to determines which one I will stop at. I always buy something whether I need it or not. They are a valuable source of local info and I always look to see which baits are in low supply.

What lakes are you fishing?

I agree with Hot Rod. 2 years on trolling and maybe 3 on a cranking battery.

I don't fish in a club anymore but here is a listing of most the area tournaments to choose from. http://www.theledger.com/section/sports09 scroll down and choose the upcoming tournaments link, it's updated every week or so

Grape hammock has a cabin for 10 grapehammock.com Camp Mack also has a big cabin campmack.com I have never been inside either of these but their other stuff is nice and both are within 100 ft of the rental docks and are great places to stay if you are hard core fishermen.

Middle of the chain - http://campmack.com/ South end - http://grapehammock.com/ North end of Toho to south end of Kissimmee is a 45 min ride with 1 lock thru.

try going to bed in time to get plenty of sleep before you need to get up.

You will be fine Andrew. They will have to eat by Thursday or Friday. Call me when you get here.

When I say short strike, I mean they are getting the fluke behind the hook. When you see it in the water you will understand. I am using a Kissimmee blue (dark blue/green glitter) gambler fluke. That is the deadly color for flipping on Kissimmee.