SoFlaBassAddict

I've got a man made lake for real estate as well. The water temps get pretty hot during the summer as well. Almost up to 90 already this year. I've become such a huge fan of drop shotting because of the depth of my lake (50 FOW in one area). You've got much less water to work with than I do, so that may not really work out as well for you. Bassin_Fin@tic gave you some good advice on the splitshot right. You may also want to try dragging around a c-rig. Like the other people above me posted, night fishing may be the best thing. Cooler water, lots more bearable on you, should be better fishing all around. Either that, or try early in the morning.

I was hoping for some Kings to roll through the chumslick. I didn't even make it out to the deeper reefs. I was heading that way and turned around. Dropped the anchor and hung just off of a reef in like 15-20 FOW. Fished there for like half an hour before I said screw it and went to play around in the bay. It wasn't a great day to be out fishing.

I use those type of bits a lot at work. Great drill bits. They tend to dull a bit quicker than I would like though. I do like the Dewalt Pilot Points a little better for most of the work I do. They seem to last a little longer. Not sure how those would handle the gel coat though.

Try using them when sitting in a small aluminum boat I can feel the vibrations through the hull from a long way away. Does it drive fish away? I don't think so, they sure catch a lot of fish. Nice job, Retrofan. It's such a versatile lure. You can use them in almost any situation and catch fish on them. One of, if not my favorite style of hard baits.

Sounds like you had a good day up there. I tried to do some offshore fishing and got pounded a bit by the 4-6 seas. Last night it was 2-3..... A bunch of topwater Bass sounds far better than catching a bunch of 12"-14" yellowtails...

If theres no real wind, a 1/4 oz would be what I'd start with. I'd step it up to the 3/8 oz if I wasn't getting hits or if the wind picked up a little. Each person will probably say something different though.

Depends on the depth/cover you're fishing.

So I was out puttering around earlier on the boat tossing a bait towards the banks. I was in about 40 FOW tossing shallow. I was watching the electronics when I found this one huge piece of structure out of the clear blue in deep water. I'm assuming it's a large tree. Seemed to look like one on the sonar. It sits in about 38 FOW and is roughly 10'-12' tall. Also has a large boulder right next to it. I'm planning on marking it, tossing out a buoy and then motoring upwind and dropping the anchor to work the area a bit. I'm going to be using three rods. I've got one rigged with a drop shot. One has a deep diving crank for suspending fish (Series 6 or a Norman DD22). The other I'm thinking I'll use something like a large T-rigged worm with a 1/2oz tungsten weight or a C-rig with a 3/4oz weight. Should I go to a larger weight for that depth? I'm guessing that colors should be fairly dark in water that deep. What else would you toss around there to see whats alive? Braided line with fluoro leader on the worm and crank rod (casting). The drop shot is on a spinning rod. Gimme some tips for fishing something like that in deep water.

Water temps up to 82.X today. Peacocks on beds left and right. Several that are guarding fry, some just getting onto the beds. Others that were cruising the banks in male/female pairs. Largemouth aren't on beds anymore, they're starting to school up and swim around now. Theres still a couple here and there though. Just don't catch the second fish off the bed if you do bed fish. They're so aggressive they don't care about the other fish being gone. Gotta leave one to guard the nest at least. Slow cranking a bluegill colored spinnerbait was the weapon of choice today in the shallows blind casting to bedding areas.

Oh theres gotta be a story behind this one...

I honestly couldn't tell you how far I'm actually casting it. At least 100 foot probably more, but thats with a different lure. I use mine with a 7'6" rod though, so I get some casting distance just from being on a fairly long rod. I've got my reel set very loose though. It doesn't backlash at all though, I don't have to really have a thumb on it when it hits the water. Cent brakes have 2 pins out. I believe the magnetic is between 2 and 4. I adjust that as needed. If you drop it just to check the spool speed, it drops very quickly. I'll get a light loop on the spool once it hits water.

I use braid on my PQ without any issue. One thing you may want to check is the centrifugal brakes. I had to drop mine down to none at all, or two brakes on to get some good casting distance. You can also lessen the tension the control knob a bunch with braid.

Bandaids are for sissies! I'll use my staple gun and some hot glue. Finish it off with some duct tape. That stuff works on everything. You and me both. I've seen some bass starting to school up around here lately. Looks like a bunch of them are on the prowl for food again.

Now that would be one ridiculous fight on some bass gear.

I've gone through several packs of them already down here using it like a swimbait. Keel weighted hook and hurl it out and retrieve. Most of my larger fish this year have been caught on them. Smokin Shad has been my most productive color. The Peacocks down here seem to like the watermelon color.

I've never had a problem with lures spiraling on them. Alot of the plastics I use have either a slot for the hook to line up, or a seam you can follow like on the GYCB plastics. Takes an extra second or two to line it up.

Good hooks. I like them a lot better than the Gamakatsu straight shanks. They've got a larger bite on the hook. The local stores that I've been in carry the 3/0, 4/0, and 5/0. Which is pretty much all I use. The Owner website says they come in 1/0 and 2/0 as well if you need a smaller size.

Seaguar 12lb AbrazX. Haven't been able to stick a fish on it yet with the cruddy weather we've got here today. I know I can't break the knot in my hands by jerking the line anymore. I've got a couple of slices in my fingers from the braid actually.

Last week at some point.

Problem solved with the new fluoro. Theres something wrong with the fact that I don't even want to use the line that I got for free. That stuff was pure trash.

Very Rough indeed. The buzzards didn't mind at all though. ;D Those were some happy birds. Loads of fish to eat. And even more iguanas for them to eat. CB Smith Park looked like a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds" for a while.

Yup.

Great picture right there. I've been using the heat shrink barb on straight shanks as well. Much easier to deal with than the toothpick. They hold up surprisingly well also. You just need to make sure that you don't pull the barb too far out after you heat it, otherwise you're asking to get caught up in weeds.

Actually I found his post about the Alberto last night. Plan on trying that at some point. Picked up some Seaguar AbrasX today to try out. We'll see how that goes. The 12lb is the same diameter as that 8lb I had before.

It's pretty clear most of the time. I mean it aint like your looking through a glass of water in the kitchen, but you've got a good 10-15' visibility