hawgenvy

My Christmas Pig. 6 pounds, 3 oz. Caught at sunset today from the bank on a Livetarget Trap

Last month I was fishing the bank one evening at a little golf course pond. I looked down and this little puppy was right there, just three feet from my feet. I think he may have been attracted to the lure I had just retrieved. He stayed perfectly still while I got my phone out for a photo. Here in Florida, I'm sometimes hesitant to reach below the surface for a stuck lure, or a golf ball.

All bass baits work well in Florida. But keep in mind when choosing which baits to bring, that, especially in S Fl, there is heavy vegetation in many areas, and open water spots are often shallow, and bottoms are usually grassy or lined with algae muck.

I've developed over the past few months a sickening addiction to $25 Megabass Ito Vision 110 jerkbaits. It's maybe a matter of confidence or imagination, but when I tie on other brands, I don't catch as much. It all started when I was dazzled by a Sexy French Pearl at Dick's. Now it's my disease.

Wow, thanks! That's exactly the OPPOSITE of what I thought!

Thanks, folks. I've been looking around for lures that kind of look like Mayans. Maybe something striped and red or orange on the bottom would work. Or maybe tossing a red craw-colored squarebill around areas where bass and Mayans coexist might get some extra bass bites. Would love to catch a big snook on a live Mayan. Bluegills are illegal as bait in Florida, but not Mayans, though.

When using shallow moving baits like squarebills, jerkbaits, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, etc., the increased density of fluorocarbon makes it easier to keep the point where the line enters the water further from the bait. So with FC the wake of the line at the water's surface is less likely to spook the fish ahead of the lure. I personally use a lot of Invizx in 10, 15, and 17. But mono or braid for topwater or heavy cover.

I enjoyed reading, and I thank you for, your good report. Glad you got into some bass. Now I want to get back out to the Glades -- seems like you did a lot better than the guys on Okeechobee lately. This year is upside down. And it's funny how those birds eat rubber. Happens in the parking lot at my office, too. Wiper blades are like chocolate bars to buzzards. They could possibly drink turpentine without ill effect.

My Xmas gift is going to be catching a double digit bass at next month's local club tournament. That'll keep a smile on my face a lot longer than any gift I'm remotely likely to get. Of course, objectively, a DD is also very unlikely. But it's optimism that keeps me on the water tossing plastic thing-a-ma-jigs all day.

Thanks, guys!

So...I have been catching (in south Florida) lots of Mayan cichlids lately. Not deliberately; they've just been hammering my chrome 110 mm jerkbait. Many are pretty big (up to over a pound) and put up a fight. They are like bream on steroids. But they have a dramatic color scheme: dark back, laterally they have dark bluish vertical stripes over an orange background, and a red-yellow belly that extends rostrally to an incredible brilliant red-orange chin. Bass probably eat the juveniles, though I have not seen them do so, nor have I seen caught bass bass puke them up. One could theoretically use them as live bait as they are not a game species. But I would be more interested in imitating the appearance with an artificial bait. Right now red craw and perch patterns are the closest, I think, commercially. I could certainly paint a soft swimbait or add a red trailer to a jig, or draw on a crankbait with a sharpie, to make it look Mayan. Anyway, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF MAYAN CICHLIDS ARE ROUTINELY EATEN BY SO FL BASS?

Ought to be better this weekend. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

Here in South Florida today it got humid and drizzly late afternoon and the one to two pounders went crazy for my chrome jerkbait thrown from the bank. Caught twenty bass in an hour. But the Mayan cichlids were snapping at it too, and I kept catching them -- unwillingly. One was hard to calm down to unpin, which resulted in a treble hook in my finger past the barb (ouch!). Meanwhile, I was getting bit on the big toe by a couple of fire ants, and a little gator was pursuing me all over the place. Anyway, I made it home safe and sound and the main thing is that I didn't lose my $25 Megabass jerkbait. Tomorrow should be a good day for bass catching -- that is, if that someone special will let you out of the house for a few hours on a holiday to do it.

Have caught many LMB, and flounder, in the same water, surrounded by flying mullet. In the gulf of Mexico, when the river is high. In Venice, LA. That's diversity, too.

I hope you stop the bashing, man. Live and let live.

Yesterday evening I fished a Missile Baits D-Bomb for the first time. At 5:15 I caught an 8 pound bass. At nine PM I ordered 50 more D-Bombs.

I think it's pretty easy to become dehydrated when out bass fishing. Out in the sun without shade, your mind fixed on catching the next bass, unless you are consciously making an effort to drink, your urine is going to become concentrated, and that's when crystalline substances in your kidneys are going to aggregate. Bass fishers are undoubtedly at high risk for kidney stones. In general, lemonade is the best liquid for stone formers to use for hydration, because citric acid is a natural inhibitor of calcium oxalate crystallization. Use Crystal Lite or something like it if you're watching your carbs.

If you've had 20 stones you should have a really thorough work up followed by a common sense strategy to reduce future risk. A thorough work up will include at least one 24-hour urine study, as well as specialized blood tests and chemical analysis of the stone. Treatment can be tailored to the identified cause of the stones and will take into account your willingness to vary your dietary habits or to take certain medications or mineral supplements long term. The only generic strategy, applicable for almost all stone formers, is to drink enough liquid to keep urine pale (or sufficient to produce 2000 mL per day of urine) and to, importantly, reduce sodium intake. All other suggestions, and there are many possibilities, depend on the type of stone and the metabolic defect responsible for its formation. But just about every situation of recurrent stones can be ameliorated after thorough evaluation -- if there is a motivated patient. And it is well worth the effort to find a urologist who will be thorough enough. And there is nothing like having twenty stones to provide sufficient motivation. Good luck! PS: I am a urologist (and avid bass pursuer). PSS: if you're not peeing off the side of the boat at least three times during an all day outing, you are not drinking enough water.

Except for deep cranking, where you want leverage to slowly and steadily wind in a high resistance bait, I like a high speed reel. To keep pressure on a bass speeding towards the boat. To race back my lure to re-cast to the productive area. To take up slack for a hookset, or to keep the big one pinned when she shakes her head in the air. And I have no trouble slowing down the handle on an 8.3:1 reel when finessing a jig or worm, or when working a swimbait, spinnerbait, or frog.

Best bass fishing in S Fl is November thru April. Except for the first two days after a cold front.

Sorry, man, love watching elite level ping pong. But if there were bass fishing, I'd sure watch that too!

Nice fish, beautiful day. That fish is 6 pounds, 2 ounces.