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I noticed this today as well. I flipped some grass in 3 fow and kind of carelessly tossed it in there. After I took up the slack and engaged the reel I noticed a huge swirl that had came from below the grass and could see the wake heading out towards the middle. Needless to say, lesson learned and missed opportunity on a good fish.

From Michigan, me too!

I went out again for three hours today and went to a different local canal. This canal is a little different as the weeds are thicker and I don't think it's managed at all. This canal definitely had mats that were like canopies over the lanes that bass travel through. Knowing this, I flipped right into the lanes in about 4 fow. I had 4 bites, hooked one that got off and caught one. I starting to really feel when that tick is alive and not just a weed or root, lol at least I think! I did vary pumping from top to bottom, letting it sit, jigging right below the mat and everything in between.

Ha! I lived Fl for almost 12 yrs now. I am spoiled. A 60 degree day makes me shiver. Sunday morning with a temp around 40 when I went out and I thought I was crazy to be there!

Same here, at least 65 pound with punkers for me. Also with heavier rods and bigger baits, I've snapped 30 pound test on hook sets several times resulting in lost baits. 30 pound braid is strong, but imo not strong enough for bigger baits and rods.

I appreciate that really. I thought I was doing horrible out there wandering around aimlessly looking for an area that "looks" good. I also figured that a 30 pound bag that took the win, many others probably weighed in 20 pound bags. You're absolutely right about "ton of water" as soon as I left the canal and hit the main lake I was completely overwhelmed! I had no idea where to start and what to do, I motored around for awhile and the depth kept reading 4 feet, since I could never find deeper water that I was looking for with the cold front I moved back to the shoreline. How far out do you have to go to find 8-10 fow? My little boat was getting bounced around bad Sunday and I'm sure that was a normal or calmer day. I noticed the area I came out to looked like it was just full of eel grass but the water was very dirty. I was thinking this would be a good spot if the water was clean but I have no idea about the bottom composition, although with the grass I think it would be good to hold bass. Now I see why alot of guys out there have 200 plus horsepower motors, it would take me an eternity to travel long stretches of this lake! The cattails looked good but I had no idea where to flip, so I just flipped everywhere when I was on the main lake. I can't wait to start learning this lake although it is intimidating!

Just wondering what you guys do the day of or day after a nasty cold front in Florida. There are alot of variables that one could think of leading to many different answers. I'll start, if it's one of the first fronts of the year I'll start with topwater as the water temp probably wasn't affected too much. I'll then switch to a medium diving crank and target fish that may be suspended. Finally I'll throw a jig and work the bottom as I think fish may have already hit the buffet the day before and hope they won't pass up an easy slow moving jig on the bottom. To get more technical I usually look for the first significant drop off from the shoreline and work this area with the above mentioned techniques.

Thanks for the encouragement! I knew yesterday was going to be bad. I don't know the lake at all but I'm sure someone figured out where they were and caught em. The main lake already seemed pretty choppy by 0830 am and the water looked awful. I could barely see my 6 inches below the surface. I putted around in the main lake as well looking for any type of structure change but it always read the same at about 4 feet. Maybe a significant change were I was could be 6 inches?? I didn't go out too far as the waves were limiting my mobility. Now I see why guys have the 20 foot glass boats!!!! Even the pockets inside the cattails were murky where the water was dead calm.

Thanks man, I've been on the Rim canal before (once) but I figured it would be slow with cold. I thought for sure I'd find some flippin. Hopefully when it's warmer I'll get into some of these schools these guys have wrote about! A 50-100 fish day is something I've yet to experience.

Sorry to hear it was so TOUGH out there. I think that would be an understatement as far as Sunday. I launched out of Moore Haven at 600 am sunday, froze for three hours on the main lake looking for clean water which I never found. Made my way to the shoreline areas and flipped the heck out of it with one missed bite. Made my way back to the rim canal and caught about 6 in the three pound range. Not too impressive for my first time on Lake O. I did find them in the rim holding off the dropoff near the rocky banks. They were hittng the jig on the fall pretty hard and then it died when these massive boats when cruising through and the water around the shore turned dirty. I thought the waves from these boats were going to capsize me! Until then I thought I had a good pattern going. In the rim I saw some nice clumps of hyacinth mats ( I think thats what they are) and thought for sure I'd pull fish out of there but nothing as well. Next time maybe. Anyone do good out there Sunday?

Very important especially if your using braid. Thin wired hooks don't stand a chance! I always use the largest hook that I can get away with. Usually Owners 2X for plastics 4 inches/ 6/0 and 5/0 for 3 inches.

Haha, that fish could've ate the first bass I caught this year! I think it was all of 1/2 a pound.

I'm flippin with a Kistler broomstick right now. I would think that has PLENTY of backbone to get that hook to dig too.

It was a 5/0. I noticed this on two fish that day, may have been more but I didn't catch anymore !

The reason I went to a Gamakatsu EWG is because the first fish I caught on the Trokar I noticed it scraped the roof of the bass mouth from the back up to the front where it finally penetrated the bone. This scrape or drag mark the hook made was easily an inch long and I feel it should have penetrated in the back where it initially made contact. This lead me to believe that the Trokar hook was flexing a bit to much which was cause for concern flippin heavy stuff. I love the bait keeper and I'll try the toothpick and maybe that will help with the bait sitting in place for longer.

Thanks and I appreciate the encouragement! I almost broke down and fished for them using different techniques and I would have but I left everything in the truck and ONLY brought punching gear. It's the only way I'll learn if it's the only option available. I did learn today so I am happy, but like swimbaiting with 8 inch huddlestons, man it can get frustrating.. I figure a large portion of the year here in south florida bass will be holding in heavy cover. That in addtion to lakes getting matted over I figured I had to learn how to do it.

I think you may be on to something I didn't think of. I noticed several times today that one of the claws were tore off after feeling the fish. I figured maybe they were kind of "mouthing" the bait. Thinking of your post, maybe they are getting a mouth full of weeds with the bait and not allowing for a solid hook up. I know some mats are wide open underneath them and some have "lanes" or tunnels fish use to move through them. I'm not sure these ones have either of the two and that may be why I'm having so much trouble. My next time out if I'm not at okeechobee I'm going to try some different mats to punch.

Lmoore, Jfranco, I've been switching from a lazer trokar flipping hook and a 5/0 gamakatsu EWG. I've hooked everything I set on with the straight shank trokar hook but miss alot with the gammie. Do you think that is making a difference or just horrible timing on my part with the missed fish? I prefer the EWG because I can get the bait to sit straighter and it doesn't foul up on the hook as much.

Well it doesn't get stuck right on the top, but it seems it drops a couple inches and gets hung up. I have to shake it a few times and eventually it falls through to the bottom. I also flip into the areas you stated "thinner" but I flip the super thick stuff too just too check if they're holding under there. Not like I'd know yet, because I cant' feel them bite anyways!

I have a couple dirty jigs flippin jigs but havn't used them yet for punching mats. I can give it a try, but with the 1.5 tungsten weight getting stuck on top occasionally I figure the jig would get stuck more especially with the weedgaurd sticking out.

It doesn't seem like I could get it through without it getting hung up. The profile seems it would be too big.

Amen to that! Regardless of conditions I go when I can because you just never know. One of my best days came one day after a nasty cold front.

This^^ ANYONE????

I went out for three hours today after I dropped the little one off at school. Frustration would be an understatement! I had about 10 bites today and I swung on half of them once I realized they were fish and missed them all. The other half once I realized they were fish they were gone before I had a chance. Learning from the posts here did help though, so in all it was a great learning experience as I had more bites today than others! I fished a jig heavily last year and now I feel I am very confident throwing one of those, but the learning curve for me it seems punching these mats are so much harder. I mean that in a sense that with the jig, I developed that "feel" after a few missed hooksets and after catching a couple. It became very easy to distinguish a bite on the jig as with punching I still have not felt the fish hit it. On one flip today, I thought I felt a "tick" that felt "alive" and I held the rod steady slowly and easily holding tension on the line and I felt movement! I didn't reel down as my pole was already just above parallel to the ground at this point and I swung away and came up empty!! That was pretty much the story of the day. I think the mats I'm fishing may not be "mats", it just may be overgrown weeds from the bottom matting up on the surface and that maybe the difference. I can feel all kinds of stuff underneath when I'm pumping my bait. I may actually hold of on Big O until I get this punching thing down as I don't want to waste time over there missing fish or I'll try to get them another way. I did see bass back on the beds, actually a male and female together today.

I may be the odd man out here but I now have switched all my cranks and topwater to Owner ST-41 1/0 2X strong. This has increased my hookup ratio times ten. So far, it hasn't really subdued the baits action and I havn't noticed a decrease in bites because of the big hooks. These have worked so good for me, I've thought about going to 2/0 for deep diving cranks. Every once in awhile the hooks grab each other on a cast but surprisingly not as often as you'd think. Last week out I threw a KVD squarebill with these hooks and fouled the hooks maybe 4-5 times in 8 hours. As stated above smaller lures will probably be affected more with these.