bigbassin'

I've heard Florida strain bass only live between 5 and 8 years on average so I would assume it's possible after 6 if the forage, cover, and structure are perfect.

I'd start with where the creek channels intersect. After fishing that I'd flip the grass line parallel to the creek channel. From there I'd look at where the grass line meets the trees.

From what I've always heard, shiners are basically a necessity to catch them.

So I'm hoping some Florida guys chime in and say 50+ days aren't that common out here because y'all are making me question my fish catching abilities... I consider 30 fish great, but am more than happy with just 5 coming out to over 15 pounds combined.

In my experience, the place doesn't have to have shiners for them to both work, and out fish every bait/lure I've ever thrown. Plenty of spots that I've fished have only produced a couple of bass under a pound in 5+ years throwing every lure imaginable, but as soon as shiners hit the water it becomes an absolute pig factory. With that being said, to get the most out of shiners the area has to be just right, you can't just throw them wherever and expect to get hit. For example, the places where the shiners really excel for me is areas with a relatively small strike zone where you can let the shiner stay in one place and call the fish, such as a grass cut or where brush and grass meet. If you're shore fishing in tight quarters, they also work really well on depth changes where you don't have access to several different angles to target the change. On the other hand, when fish can be more spread out, such as grass flats or lily pads, lures tend to work much better for me as you can cover more ground.

I'm personally a huge Lew's fan so I'm glad to see the bb2 was mentioned several times, I'll also checkout a few of the others. Thanks for the input.

I'm not sure if any are still available, but when St. Croix changed the Mojo bass rod this year they put the old models for sale on their website for $90, and it was a $130 rod. I've got the 7 foot medium-heavy spinnerbait model, and I've got no issue throwing frogs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and t-rigs on it.

If I'm making long casts, I use casting gear because I'll get wind knots every couple of cast on spinning because of how I work the fluke. If I'm skipping docks though, I will use spinning because it's just easier to do, plus I have less line out so I never get knots from the line twist.

Does anyone use low-profile baitcasters for swimbaits, or is it basically a given they should be thrown on a round-profile reel?

The only swimbait I've thrown is the spro rat so I may be biased, but that thing flat out catches fish. At the current moment, it's my top producing lure for numbers this year, and has also caught my number 2 and 3 largest fish of the year.

Maybe it's just a Florida thing, but I've never seen, or even heard of someone throwing the keitechs down here. On the other hand, RI skinny dippers and Gambler big EZs seem to be a staple in most angler's arsenal here.

Depending on the cover you could go as low as 3/4 ounce, I personally use a 2 ounce pretty often in thick stuff, and I know people that'll go up to a 2.5. Your favorite craw/creature bait is a pretty standard bait selection, however I've seen people punch worms, paddletail swimbaits, grubs, etc.

I can't give much advice, however I can tell you that far more people probably started fishing as millionaires than finished as one. Considering KVD is the all time money leader with only 6 million, and Greg Hackney is no slouch, but has less than 2 million in winnings, even becoming a top pro won't make you completely rich. Combined with the fact I've always heard 1 year in the elites will run you around $100,000 after expenses, I'm imagining most those guys aren't all that financially set from tournament fishing alone. With that being said, if you have the money/sponsorships to afford to compete at that level with the assumption you won't win anything from tournaments, I know I would love to give it a go. From a sponsorship standpoint, I'm imagining investing in a decent camera and film editing software, mixed with maximizing your exposure on social media with professional photos and videos will go a long way. And you've got to consistently finish well in tournaments.

Well my buddy got one 3.5 pound peacock, but the rest of us were unable to land any. I missed one that absolutely blew up on my jerkbait, I've never seen anything like it in freshwater. Basically charged at me from the back of a dock slashing back and forth on the surface. Unfortunately this put a ton of slack in my line so I wasn't able to get a good hook set. Also caught about 20 largemouth between everyone, with 4 over 4 pounds. My best 5 coming at 16 pounds, and the average being around 2 pounds. Didn't see as many gators as we were expecting, as we only saw one, but it was a good 8 footer or so. While we didn't get as many peacocks as we were hoping for, it was still a great trip. Thanks for the all the tips.

Personally I've always found chicken liver to be the best bait for cats. I Carolina rig my bait with about 3 foot of line between the hook and and a 1/4 ounce sinker. I keep the line tight until I get a hit, drop the tip down to give about two feet of slack for the fish to play with, then set the hook once the fish takes up the slack.

I had a buddy absolutely crush the fish on one of these one day so we both went and bought 3....1 year later and we haven't caught a single fish on them since.

A green pumpkin chatterbait, white wake bait, weightless fluke in watermelon red, and a 1/8 ounce t-rigged junebug paddletail swimbait would be my go to lures. I'd fish all of them through/over the grass.

If the water is above 55, a bomber shallow A over grass works wonders for me. What lure is that?

I always go with a 4/0 ewg Gammy or Trokar, and sweep set. I find sweeping harder than you typically would with a crankbait, but softer than say a swim jig gives me a very high hookup ratio.

If it fits in the basses mouth and they're hungry, they'll eat it. When's the last time you saw a wild buzzbait swimming around?

Take your favorite "baby" sized paddle tail, favorite regular sized paddle tail, and your favorite craw and you've basically got swimjig trailers covered. You can also rig the craw both horizontal and vertical to get different profiles.

While fishing today, I saw a huge bass, 5+ pounds laying on its side at the base of a submerged log. I took a few casts without it moving, then it immediately righted itself and took off. Have any of you ever seen anything like this? I assume it was either sleeping, or possibly laying eggs, although I'd think it's a bit late for that here.

Looks like I'll have to buy some jerk baits then, I don't ever throw them in the heavily stained waters around me. Thanks for the tips y'all, I'll make sure to let you know how the trip goes.

I'd be pretty happy with a couple like that, especially if a couple nice largemouth are caught as well. Were you using hard jerkbaits like South FLA recommended,or soft plastic jerkbaits like flukes?

Do you think it will be that bad on Ida? I've never had gators mess with me while kayaking before, they typically swim away from me, but I've also never fished near an area called "Alligator Alley."