rabidsquirrel

My current setup with the Shimano Curado 71HG: ***..-feeshin' OmenBlack - 7'3" Medium, Fast Tip 10~12lb Co-poly line #2 EWG Superline Hook and a Zoom Fluke (Weightless other than the heavier hook) all four centrifugal weights flipped on/out (I.e. away from the rotational axis) and the fine tuning brake dial is at about 3.75 Your mileage may vary... Crank all the brakes to just about maximum and work your way backwards - lightening up each in very small increments That's what I had to do to get a feel for the right settings on that reel. It's an awesome reel once you get it figured out.

My wife got me the 71HG for my birthday. This is a great reel for really light baits (Weightless Senkos and Flukes, etc...)! Make sure you dial in the brakes way more than you normally would for most reels. Monster back-lash on my first cast. Felt like a fool. Fixed it and lashed a few more times (Less severe) before I really realized just how low mass and free spinning the spool is. Get one and apply the brakes liberally until you get a handle on how it handles... Hehe. It's an awesome reel. I would have ordered the XG (Wife ordered it as a surprise), but the HG still works just fine for what I do.

In addition to what has been mentioned above - try a zoom ultravibe speed worm (Watermelon Red and Junebug); these can be deadly in small, lightly pressured FL ponds.

Do a forum search for Hillsborough River... There are a few posts I made a while back when I was 'new to the river' - I.e. hadn't launched or fished it before. In fact, here's one of my older posts: What to throw - When in doubt regarding color, go with June Bug. I've had success throwing swimbaits (Bitter's Naked Swimmer and Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers), ribbon tail worms, zoom ultravibe worms, and hollow bodied frogs. I know guys catch them with the old school Rapala F11S (Original Floating Minnow with 3 trebles - Silver with Black Back) in the river as well. Let us know how it goes! I've not been out there in a while!

Nitro 911 CDC w/ 225HP Optimax Pro XS Fill Up = ~$160 (55 gal + 1.5 gal of DFI oil at $45 per gal) This is misleading, b/c most trips/tournaments I'm burning less than 10 gallons of gas and .25~.5 gallons of oil.

While I generally agree with what SirSnookalot says here, I would add a caveat. The fish - E.g. bass, are almost always biting something somewhere. Tournament fishing has taught me that. You have got to constantly experiment with lures, colors, presentations, depths, cover types and/or locations until you find a pattern that is producing. There is almost always a pattern that is producing somewhere... I can't tell you how many times during tournaments we've struggled, trying a variety of things, only to come across another competitor that tried something we didn't and stomped us at weigh-in... I've been on the other side of that equation too. Figuring out a pattern that no one else was on. When you do that, it is often lights out for the competition, and it feels great! The point I'm ultimately trying to make here is that even though SirSnookalot's overarching theme to his comments - "Sometimes the fish just aren't biting", does apply in rare cases, I'd say it isn't applicable 98% of the time. In other words, Don't Give Up! I know that it can get tiresome when you are beating your brains out, tying on 20 different lures, running to different spots, all in 100 degree heat (I.e. down here in Central Florida), but if you truly want to be successful, you gotta do it. No excuses. My rule of thumb these days is if I haven't gotten a nibble in ~20 casts, I need to change it up somehow - could be a different color, lure, depth, cover type, etc... After re-reading your initial post, it is going to be tough for you on a paddleboard, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. More experience will help you tremendously. More 'good' experience translates to doing the painful stuff I stated above. You'll figure out producing patterns faster with additional experience. The learning curve is daunting, but that is what makes it fun and worthwhile. Consistently catching quality bass is very difficult. I don't care what anyone says.

We'll be at the one on Lake Harris Chain in Florida... It'd be good to meet some forum folks there!

Were they on beds yet? Fish seem to be on beds in a few of the ponds in my neighborhood. We're heading out to Kissimmee this Sunday - we were shooting for tomorrow morning, but the forecast sucks (HIGH wind 20-30mph)... Hoping to find some bedding bass on Sunday... Nice fish, BTW!

Most ponds in FL are legal to fish unless it is private property. If there weren't any signs or fencing, you were within your rights to fish it. However, arguing with Johnny Law isn't wise, even when you are in the right. Few people realize that most newer developments treat the ponds/lakes on within as public waters. If a community has a CDD, those bodies of water default as 'public' - unless they have specific policies against fishing. I'm on my community's CDD board. We are a gated community, so getting in is unlikely unless you reside there or are a guest of a resident. If you are going to fish ponds within developments, make sure you are doing everything 'right' like having a current fishing license, catch & release, etc... You want to do this in case someone does call the cops. Unless there are posted signs saying no fishing, you are generally OK, and the cop won't be able to do anything to you. Even if you know it is OK, don't fish behind someone's house unless you know them and have gotten their permission. Otherwise you might have your fishing briefly interrupted by some irate owner, or the police. Many of the owners don't know or understand that there are public easements around the ponds in most newer communities that have a CDD. It's just less of a hassle if you know the owners on near that pond. I may have rambled a bit here, but hopefully most of you get where I'm coming from. TL;DR - It's always good to get permission, even when you don't technically need it.

I know you said 'living' people, but since we're in the realm of fantasy, I'd have to say my grandfather on my mother's side. He died before I was really grown enough to take fishing. Mom says that I inherited this 'sickness' from him. The relatives have said that he'd go out from dawn to dusk fishing. Sometimes he'd go out for days. I know that we'd have gotten along great.

I'll echo what A-Jay said. I want to catch 'better' fish. I'm fishing local tournaments these days, so being able to consistently put some size in the boat is what I'm after... The next part reads more or less like, "Quickly dial in a major pattern". I want to be able to quickly figure out the primary feeding patterns that day on those waters.

The title of this thread had me utterly confused...

There has been a trend over the last few years of resort courses promoting fishing on their courses to their guests. There are a few courses down here that promote it. For example: http://www.saddlebrook.com/package_spring_special.html I hope we see this trend continue.

I've T-rigged a super fluke with a light weight and had success. It was even during a tournament - caught a nice 4lber and a smaller 2lb fish. It can definitely work, but I don't do it all the time.

I've found that the chartreuse with black back color combo is a great all round choice. It works in the majority of fishing situations down here in central florida. If I remember correctly, KVD won a few tournaments in Florida using that specific color option.