Big Mike in Fl

Baste that turkey!

HOLY POO!

what I use is 90% of the time white, at night, probably black (tho I don't really fish at night) and on occasion, chartruese. I don't really use any other color than those two

I hear ya, I'm yearnin for a BPS closer to the stick marsh! 8-)

lake washington, west of melbourne has wood all the way around the south and western sides. and its a great place to fish...if you like catching GAR...seriously, the bass fishing in washington has sucked in recent times. Miami garcia, south of the stick marsh has a canal that runs to the stick marsh, all along that canal are stumps and laydowns as well lake gentry, south east of st.cloud has a lot of cypress fields, but I'm not sure how deep they are. those are what I know about.

probably flip a creature/craw bait into HEAVY cover. I read somewhere that dead vegetation hold heat, thus holding fish if a front came through. dunno if thats true or not, but its something to consider if in that situation.

I believe at times color is CRUCIAL, and yet at other times, ti means nothing. There have been days when my buddy was catching on watermelon/red fleck senko's, and I couldn't get a bite on smoke shad. just the other day, I was tearing the fish up on black/blue swimsenko's and he couldn't get bit on a watermelon to save his life...switched to black/blue and he caught almost immediately. but, there are other days when it doens't matter. my advice is to get a few colors of each lure you plan to fish, make them varying colors (I don't consider watermelon red, and watermelon black to be very different) for example, my senko colors are baby bass, smoke shad, watermelon red, red shad, and black/blue. there are a hundred other colors between senkos and knock off brands, but between those colors, I can usually find something that works. use the guidelines of dark water, dark colors. clear water, natural colors muddy water, dark/bright colors and I'd say you'll be ok, without loading up on twenty colors.

since I consider myself an excellent dog walker, I'll chime in. I throw spooks on a 6'2" MH/F shimano convergance...its a cheap rod, but works WONDERFULLY. though this rod has a quite stout tip, I feel like it walks easier, as less of my twitch is absorbed in the tip. with a slight bit of slack to the line, I start slowly twitching, between each twitch I bring a 1/4- 1/2 turnof line, keeping the slack in the line. it's the quick snap of the limp line that jerks the bait back and forth, so remembering the slack is important. once you have the basic twitching down, you can increase, or decrease the amount of twitch you apply and amount of line you take in to get it to walk different strides. contrary to what I've heard, I believe bass prefer a steady, constant walk.(Snook, Redfish and other saltwater species are a different story) I don't vary my retrieve between speeds in the middle of the same cast, but instead walk each cast at different speeds till I get a hit. then I try to keep that pace, every great once in a while I'll give it a pause, and definitely if I get a bust that doesn't hook up. Good luck, hope that helps

Parent's......(my mom) does this regardless. My sister's name is Shandra. When she yelled at me I was "Shan -BRENT!!" and my sister was "Bren-SHANDRA!!!". ;D b yes, I get called Jerry all the time... and sometimes I'm called fred (my only brother is named Jerry, I have no idea where the fred comes from)

I fished a tourney on toho about a year ago, we had trouble with the big motor and were only able to fish wherever the trolling motor would take us, anyway, an old timer was fishing at the end of a rock jetty, not far from the boat ramp...he proceeded to land 5-6 fish that had ot be between 2-3 lbs, right in front of us. I guess it was his hole, and he knew it well, because we only picked up one barely 14" fish right there.

what about damian? (I might not have spelled that right) its not too common,but also not unheard of.

1. ozark shad super spook jr. 2. white 1/4 oz booyah buzzbait with clacker 3. zoom horny toad/ stanley ribbit frog 4. spro bronze eye jr. frog

well, first of all, almost all of the water I fish is 3-4, at most maybe 5 feet, and I'm 6'4" so I don't have to worry about swimming it, but more walking it. my bigger problem would be the gators. I know they'd see my lineman sized self as an all you can eat buffet my fishin buddy and a game warden got into it one day because an inflatable isn't considered as one of the legal floatation devices unless it is actually on the body, the game warden, trying to be a smart *** asked what my buddy would do if he fell out of the boat with out it on, to which he replied "STAND UP!"

hey everyone, I'm interested in joining a particular club in St. cloud florida, I live in Palm Bay,and have a couple of buddies who fish in a club out of st. cloud. it is a team club, and my friends are on a team, so no room for me. I'd like to join the club, but don't have a boat. the club meets at a cafe the morning of a tourney and the lake is decided that morning, which I like because it evens the playing field a bit as far as prefishing goes. their next season starts in may, and I'd like to start fishing then, if I can find someone to fish it with, so is anyone interested??

X2

got to orlando BPS at 9:15 because I took the wrong exit off of I-4...all sold out, 200 in 10 minutes > > > > > with a limit of one a piece wound up getting two bps extremes, hope they are ok, they were my back up plan

I can't believe no one has said florida yet...I love being able to work a spook in december! or catching an 11lb lunker in a small pond in the woods in march ( my avatar) yea, it gets hot here, but when the fish are biting, you don't care as much. stick marsh, toho, george, etc etc etc...and lets not forget the big O...

Now that's funny. Been there a few times. The thing that I am really good at is dodging baits that coming flying back at me after setting the hook on some monster water. I'm not so good at that...last year on an awesome topwater bite, I got a spook in the nipple when my cousin missed a fish....can you say ouch?!? :-?

That's why I'm getting there right when they open

I'll be picking up a few this weekend at the sale, its a great deal and I need a few reels. I have two of the accurist cx's (the next model down) they have done real well for me, they are getting worn now, but I attribute that to poor care(leaving in the bed of truck, dropping in mud, poor upkeep etc etc), which I won't be doing anymore. so my opinion is try them out, I'm going for them.

Walkin' the dog. I can work a spook for 6-7 hours straight, and down here in florida, there are many days when I do it too!

I havn't been on the marsh in a while, but with the winds we've been having, I'd imagine its muddy. went to garcia saturday, the day started off slow, couldn't find the fish, but when we finally did, they lit it up. caught bedding fish by reaction strikes on several different baits on the flats in 3-4' of water. Good luck if you go

1. People (usually airboats) who run full bore right between the bank I am fishing and myself (I've come dangerously close to taking out eyes with spooks out of anger before) 2. people who park right in front of the boat ramp because it looks like an empty spot - hey geniuses, there is a reason why everyone left that spot open. 3. people who drop their old dead soft plastics on the ground at the tie up area, while I like having a little insight at what everyone else is using on the lake, there are almost always trash cans RIGHT NEXT TO YOU! 4. agreed on boats coming to close to shore anglers...I've gone into the water after them before 5. agreed on not keeping bass...I'd rather be able to catch them again, I'll go buy some grouper or snapper if I want to eat fish. 6. people who continually ask me if I've found a job IN THIS ECONOMY...you just asked me two days ago, are you serious? 7. people who pull out in front of you when towing a boat or other trailer... I know you think I might be going slow, but it also cuts down on my stopping power and cutting me off isn't the brightest move in the world 8. Tailgaters

George is a great guide, I've seen his posts on other boards and heard reviews from clients, however, I'm not in any position to hire a guide financially, and I frequently fish the stick marsh and garcia and others for free, I have a good friend with a Ranger that we fish from frequently. now George, thats not to say that if you needed soemone to fish with I wouldn't join ya also, thanks everyone for the replies, I do fish creatures and craws occasionally, with limited luck, but may give the jigs a chance,if nothing else to widen my experiences

hey everyone, just started checking out this site, it's very informative and look forward to contributing. I live in Palm bay, Florida, just north of the stick marsh, and feel pretty lucky to be able to fish it, as well as Garcia and many other awesome fisheries around here. in my ever present attempt to grow my fishing knowledge and skills, I've been reading up on Jig fishing, this is not a technique I've ever tried fishing, and with everything I've been reading, I'm not noticing much in the way of florida jig fishing, are therea lot of guys here in florida who Jig fish, or is this more of a northern thing? just wondering, I'd hate to waste my time. anyway, looking forward to lots of info, and if anyone is ever looking for someone to fish with, let me know, I don't have a boat, but I do have a tow vehicle, and all of my own gear,plus an open mind, and knowledge of some local lakes.