soflabasser

I set the hook when I feel I am getting a bite but I do not do any exaggerated hooksets like some bass fishermen do. I don't even do exaggerated hooksets for snook and snook are far more powerful fish than any black bass species. I save that energy for the gym when it comes time to barbell curl some heavy weights. A lot of the big bass I have caught have given small taps so its not always small sunfish biting. Downsizing a lure does seem to work if I am fishing a area with lots of small bass.

Welcome to the forum. This fish is a rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris).

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

A lot of people break their rods while high sticking, especially graphite rods. I have never broken a rod on a fish since I do not do exaggerated hook sets or high stick a with a graphite rod. I have caught plenty of big bass from heavy aquatic vegetation so I know from personal experience you do not need to break a rod on a big fish if you know what you are doing.

Berkley Big Game Mono is also my favorite monofilament line for both freshwater and saltwater fishing. It is cheap, has great abrasion resistance, and of good quality.

Both the Ugly Stik and Lighting rods are good rods for the money but I prefer the Ugly Stick since it can take much more abuse and last longer under hard fishing compared to the Lighting rod.Choose a Ugly Stik that fits your needs the best based on the way you fish.

Really? Guess I was a ''skilled bass angler'' when I was a boy since I was skipping docks by the age of 10-12 years, which was +2 decades ago.I am in South Florida and I am sure there where plenty of other bass fishermen skipping docks before me. I agree with you that skipping docks is nothing new and I am sure people have been doing it for several decades.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

A lot of people go fishing right before a hurricane or tropical depression hits,at least here in Florida.I went fishing last Saturday and caught a 31.5 inch keeper snook since I knew bad weather was coming.I will not be surprised at all if there are many people fishing the beaches now in Northern Florida/Georgia.

Peacock bass have teeth similar to a black bass but they are much harder to lip and keep still. They do not know what quit means and they will give you a worse case of ''bass thumb'' or ''bass palm'' than a black bass.

I am amazed how accurate mankind is getting at predicting the path of a hurricane. Definitely a big improvement compared to 2-3 decades ago. There are other hurricanes in the Atlantic at this moment in time and hurricane season is not over until November 30. Hopefully the other hurricanes steer away from us.

That is a beautiful smallmouth bass you caught @Dwight Hottle, how many inches in length did it measure?

Interesting subject. There is always 2 sides to every story and I am sure both fishermen and dock owners cause problems to each other. I would say that the bass fishermen are most likely more problematic since they destroy property (bumping boat to dock, lines tangled in dock or other private property, lines tangled underwater, messing up the paint of the dock,hooks leaving holes in boat covers, leaving a mess, hooks embedded into ropes,leaving lures with lead in the water,etc).

You will be surprised at the amount of out of state people that come to South Florida to fish for peacock bass. It is a multi million dollar industry in South Florida and lots of people spend hundreds if not thousands to catch their first peacock bass. I am fortunate to live in South Florida and have fished for peacock bass for over 23 years now, but I still plan on visiting the Amazon for speckled peacock bass and other exotic fish.

Good analogy. I prefer peacock bass over smallmouth bass since peacock bass are much more beautiful, more exotic, and pound for pound stronger than a smallmouth bass (based on my experience on catching both species). Come to South Florida we have a thriving peacock bass fishery where there are many reports of 6 pound or better peacock bass. Puerto Rico, Panama, South America, and some South Eastern Asian countries have peacock bass as well.

I prefer monofilament line over flourocarbon.

I use the uni knot with Big Game Mono and it does great for me.

What lure you are using, how you are fishing it, what depth you are fishing in, and where you are fishing is far more important than what line you are using. I catch big bass on a consistent basis and many of those bass are caught on braid in clear bodies of water. Other presentations I use mono and I stopped using fluorocarbon a while ago since I did not see enough of a difference to justify using flourocarbon.

The Everglades canals are a great place to catch largemouth bass but most of the bass are dinks with few bass caught over 8 pounds. Yes you hear of the rare 10-13 pounder caught once every couple years but most of the Everglades bass catches are under 4 pounds with a 5 pounder being a ''big bass'' at this moment in time.You can check other online reports and you will see this as well.You will be better off fishing Lake Okeechobee, Lake Istokpoga,Stick Marsh,etc if your goal is to catch a bass over 8 pounds. With that said the Everglades canals are one of the few public bodies of waters where you can catch +100 bass from land in less than 6 hours of fishing when the conditions are right.

Welcome to the forum

I started bass fishing over 23 years ago and now I fish for many species of fish both in freshwater and saltwater.

I do not care what the ''pros'' think is the best line since the best line they recommend is often from a company sponsoring them.I do not care about tournament bass fishing and care about catching lots of bass, especially big bass.With that said my favorite monofilament line is Berkley Big Game Mono since it has very good abrasion resistance,of excellent quality, and cost much less than other lines.

I fish a couple lakes where jet skis are not allowed and they are some of my favorite places to fish. My uncle use to fish and even dive off his jetski over 20 years ago.He liked it but we both preferred fishing and diving off his boat.