Kodiak Zach

LOL, I don't think it would work on the BASS tour and I certainly don't think it takes much skill compared to tricking them into eating a soft plastic or other lure based on presentation. However, it does take a little bit of skill to get these very overpressured fish to actually bite as well as actually land the fish. You have to make sure your drag is set right, you have to have the right size hook (too little you miss, too big they won't hit the fish), right size line (bigger than 15-lb line, they won't hit the fish), and are able to pull a fighting mad 8-lb bass in on 15-lb line and a 2/O hook before he runs under the dock and breaks you off. But I agree, the 5.5 -lber my other son caught was on a Senko so it took a little more skill. Nonetheless, I am trying to keep the sibling fishing rivalry going so 8-lbs is the new mark they are both trying to beat All I am trying to do is exploit the fact that I have monster Bass in my back yard and this is helping me to 1.) Get my kids hooked on fishing and 2.) Get some good pics for their fishing scrapbook. If I can do those 2 things without destroying the fish or harming the fishery, the Bass and Bluegill all get fed and we all win. Thanks for the kind comments gents!

Took my 2 sons out to play basketball this evening. After that we were sufficiently tired and headed back to the house. It was still light out so I figured why not wet a line too? So I rigged up real quick and took them at the lake behind my house. I lost 2 Bass last night but was determined we were going to land them tonight. Started out by catching some bluegill for bait and we threw them out on a 2/O Owner hook freelined. We then proceeded to chum the water with bread. Almost immediately the water starting boiling as the bluegill came up to eat the bread, the Bass started picking them off. There is nothing calm about the feeding frenzy that ensues when the bread starts hitting the water. Well I am busy rigging up the other pole and Zachary sees the freelined bluegill get destroyed and the line starts zinging out drag. He picks up the pole and starts reeling the fish back towards the dock and about a minute later he put an 8-lb bad boy on the shoreline. Here are the fish we got tonight: The new record between my two sons was reset tonight when my 10 yr old "one-upped" my 8 yr old. The old record held by 8yr old was 5.5-lbs. The new record as of tonight is 8-lbs for my 10yr old.

After a week of hardly anything, the Bass'in is starting to pick up. I don't know if it had to with the full moon or the hot weather, but fishing during sunlight hours sucked last week. Well I found a magic bass lure in Wal-Mart in Alabama a few weeks ago, but been having problems finding it down here in Florida. It's a soft plastic jointed shad on a jighead and it seems to be able to pull the bass outta the depths as they sit in deeper water during post-spawn. Of course the Senkos are still working too. Pulled a couple this afternoon outta my lake, and a couple last night outta the pond in my backyard: Also, my neighbor across the street has been trying to catch a bass for 6 months now. Finally, last night he bucked up and asked me for some advice. First I helped him set the drag on his spincasting reel since he only had 10-lb mono. Then I showed him how to tie a knot on his crappy size 2 eagle claw hooks. Then I told him to catch a bream. Once he had the bream, I showed him where to hook it and told him to toss it in and hang on. Almost immediately after his bait hit the water, BAMMM a bass smacked it. They were biting like everything was the only bait in the water last night. His drag starts zingggging and he starts freaking out like a little girl screaming "What do I do?! What do I do?!?" I coached him through playing the fish and walking it around the dock to shore and within about a minute and a half he had this baby outta the water: It was funny because he was afraid to lip it and when the fish started freakin out he thought it was gonna eat him. I told him to man up and lip the fish and control it for a pic. Needless to say, he was stoked! He is now making plans for a trip down to Bass Pro to buy a good spinning outfit and gear now After he had his fish I repeated the methodology and caught this one almost immediately. When my bream hit the water I jerked it up to slap it down and this little chunker literally came outta the water to inhale my bream:

Just got back from a week in Alabama. Sadly, I had to go up to bury my 93 year old Grandpa who lived a long and good life. Among other things like teaching me to fish when I was my kids age, he was a great man of strong morals and a role model to anyone who is married (he was married 73 years). Grandpa (or Pop as I called him) was never rude to any person, even the black folks he picked up every day to drive to and from the cotton fields to work - he was friends with all of them, even when hatred and the Klu Klux Klan filled Sand Mountain, AL. Pop hated to see any creature on God's earth killed. From ants to snakes, he was a true conservator of wildlife and an all round exceptional human being. Realizing it was probably going to be my last trip to those parts of Alabama, I figured I'd better make it a good one after we laid him to rest. Here are some pics from the trip: Getting ready for the funeral: Lake Guntersville Lodge at the State Park after the funeral: Deer at the lodge: The day after the funeral I fished my uncle's 3.5 acre pond and it truly is a slice of heaven. I caught 26 Bass the first day in 3 hours, with 8 of them being over 4-lbs. The biggest one that day went 6.5-lbs. The next day I took my kids back and we all caught 8 fish each, my biggest being 8-lbs and 23 inches: What I was more excited about however, was my son's biggest Bass that he caught entirely on his own that went 5.5-lbs. He caught hooked and landed this fish on his own and started frantically waving at me across the pond to come over and see it. All fish were caught on Senko worms and we went thru 2 bags of them. Some were Pre-Spawn and some were Post-Spawn. Here are a few more pics of some of the fish we caught: The blood on the last fish was from Jasper, a Black Lab who jumped in the pond and tried to eat every lure I cast, and every Bass I hooked. That Bass was the first one I hooked and the dog came flying out of nowhere and jumped in the water, promptly engulfing the fishes head with his jaws. I quickly learned to steer my fish away from him because he meant business. Jasper was without a doubt the most fish'inest water dog I have ever met. I will miss you POP, we all will. Thank you for all you taught us!

Anyone tried these yet? Saw them in a Wal-Mart in Alabama last week and picked one up. Wish I would have loaded up on them. Brought them back to Orlando and promptly hooked 2 of the biggest Bass I have ever caught out of my back yard pond. The baits seem to be awesome, but the hooks kinda suck. I have never seen big 6-7 pound bass immediately come flying out of the water to shake that hook, even when I was trying to steer them down by keeping my rod tip low and pointed at the water >

Been still using the Zoom SuperFlukes with success. Last night I landed 3 out of my backyard pond in about 20 minutes. 2 of them were approx. 2-lbs and the last one was about 4 to 5-lbs. Here are a couple pics: My question is, how slow do you fish them? I think I have been fishing them too quickly. Last night I really made a point to fish them extremely slooooooow. But I am curious if you are fishing them weightless like me, how long after you first cast them out until you make your first pop/tug on the line? I'm fishing in about 4 to 6 ft of water. How long do you wait between popping the bait again and do you pop it one time or two before you let it float back down?

Went to Gander today and compared them side by side. The Curado, Chronarch, Calais, and Core seem to be what I am looking for. The Citica 100 was just not smooth enough and the spool was barely the width of my thumb. I fish almost daily so it looks like I need to pass on the Citica. I also checked out the Steez, and even though I can't see myself buying something besides Shimano, that would definitely be the one if I did.

Gonna break down and buy one before the rebate is over. I think the $109 deal from Bass Pro for the Citica with a eXtreme series rod is the way to go, even though I'd rather have a Curado. What are the main differences? Is the Curado worth the extra money?

Interesting little critters:

All depends on where you plan to fish? if it's the Everglades, yes.... ;D

I have a couple bald eagles fishing my pond in the back yard. I have seen them pull 4 pound Bass outta there like it aint no thang! Lucky there are still plenty left. Any other bird and I'd be real pizzed, but the eagle's you gotta cut some slack

LOL Mike! As for me, after 3+ years on FloridaSportsman someone had a slip of the tongue mentioning this place and I was lucky enough to see it mentioned before the Mods poofed it.

Googled up the location of 2 ponds by my work a couple days ago. Hit both of them for lunch time. I was in hawg heaven when I walked up on both of them as they both had all of the characteristics to be extremely productive. Much to my dismay, both appeared to be "dead" with no signs of fish in either one of them >

Thanks guys! My wife told me she was gonna get me a bottle of Sunblock to keep in my truck. I told her it still wouldn't have helped since we took my buddy's truck to the lake ;D

I've noticed over the last couple of weeks the Bass are starting to move off the shoreline to the deeper water 10-ft out. So I've had to switch up tactics to get them since they aren't falling for the Zoom Brush-Hogs dragged across the edges. Been using the Super Flukes and getting them pretty regularly, but you have to be patient as hell to fish them and get used to replacing them every time a fish hits. Went out in a canoe this weekend to fish an undiscosed 14 acre mini lake. What a special place it was with over half the shoreline undeveloped. Me and my buddy Scott caught around 80 to 100 Bass in 2 days of fishing. My biggest 2 were 7.5-lbs and 5.5-lbs both caught off the reeds. Only got a pic of one because it was so hard to do anything in the canoe without feeling like we were gonna tip over: I've never in my life been so sunburnt that my muscles underneath the burn feel like someone hit them with a sledgehammer. Oh well, chalk it up to lessons learned the hard way to get some Bass. Also caught this one in the pond behind my tonight on a Strike King "King Shad": So the question is, are the Post Spawn Bass really worth a sunburn like this one :'(