soflabasser

Fished a location close to Lox recently and caught lots of quality sized bass with a few big ones. Fishing will only get better the next couple months.

This month alone I met 2 fishermen that recently moved to South Florida from Michigan and Illinois. They both mentioned to me how they went on vacation for years in Florida before moving down here and how much they hated the bitter cold winters of the north. Have spoken with many other snow birds that moved down here and they all share the same feeling. Our summers can be very hot and humid, but that is far better than the bitter cold winters of the north. At least we have green grass year round and we don't have to spray paint the grass green like they do in areas with severe droughts.

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Sounds like my type of fishing, since the reward can be a trophy bass.

The weather in South Florida is very good now. High 70's to mid 80's and the bass fishing is on fire.

You would think you died and went to Heaven if you fished the glades when the conditions are just right....I have caught up to 4-8 bass a minute and +100 bass in less than 6 hours while fishing in the glades from land. Heard of reports of people catching +200 bass in a single day in a boat. These bass will hit almost anything, including a bare hook worked quickly. Yes, South Florida is a fisherman's paradise and the best place in the U.S.A for a multi species fisherman.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

I caught 5 citation sized peacock bass (biggest was over 6 pounds) this past Saturday on my +20 year old medium action Ugly Stick as well as other quality sized peacock bass and largemouth bass. I easily whooped those fish and use that same rod for inshore saltwater fishing for snook, tarpon, redfish, jack crevalle, etc. I figure that if this rod can handle +40 inch snook it can handle any largemouth bass, regardless how big it is. I also have a couple 8 foot heavy action ones and the oldest one is +20 years old. So far it has done a excellent job in helping me land sharks( tigers, bulls, hammers, lemons, etc) and land fish while deep dropping. They are good rods that can take the abuse given by those who fish hard.

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I have bass fished in several states and have noticed that many of the techniques I use in South Florida work well, even in northern states with bitter cold conditions. Local information is good if you get the information that is honest from a highly skilled fisherman in the area, not so much from other sources. In the end what matters most is time on the water spent wisely, that's what gets you the most consistent good catches of big fish. That's another good lure to use in rivers in the fall.

I caught some nice smallies recently while on vacation in a northern state on crankbaits and swimbaits, so you can try those out. Jerkbaits, chatterbaits, and soft plastics can be good as well.

Virginia isn't too bad compared to more northern states. I recently was on vacation up north and got to fish in 35 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures with wind gust of +30 mph. From my understanding the wind chill for those conditions is 21 degrees...thats something I won't miss much. The ''fall clouds'' (dark ominous clouds that cover the whole sky) where very gloomy and I can see why so many people from northern states go to Florida for the winter and eventually move down here. I did get to catch a couple nice smallmouth bass while it was snowing and liked it, so I will still consider going ice fishing for one of my future trips up north.

Heres some simple advice for catfishing; Heavy action Ugly Stik Reel of your choice thats strong enough to reel a good sized fish and has good line capacity Catfish hooks in sizes 1/0-8/0 20-30 pound test big game mono, heavier if needed various sizes of sinkers to keep bait on or near bottom Fresh cutbait or live bait depending on what they are biting on a particular day Carolina rig, knocker rig, and Santee Cooper rig are proven presentations for catfish.

Make Youtube videos of the otters you see since their are people who like seeing videos of them.

Must be hard water season already

Those are wise words indeed. That quote comes from a movie named ''A League of their Own''. The quote is ''Its supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The Hard...Is what makes it great''. This is true, at least for many of us who enjoy catching trophy bass in highly pressured waters that most people give up on.

Butterfly peacock bass are by far one of my favorite freshwater fish to catch and they are worth traveling for. They fight much more than a equal sized largemouth, smallmouth, muskie, and most freshwater fish I have caught in my travels. The only thing that can top a butterfly peacock bass pound for pound in freshwater is probably the speckled peacock bass in South America that can surpass 30 pound in weight and are often caught over 20 pounds.

I released all the trout, did have some salty looks from other fishermen that wanted to keep my trout but I rather release the trout so someone else can have fun catching them. Could of easily caught +50 rainbow trout if I wanted to, but I was also fishing for smallmouth bass and was able to catch a few.

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I recently came back from a vacation up north and caught a bunch of smallies on small crank baits and small swimbaits in a river, so I would say these 2 lures are worth a try if you are fishing in a river.

I don't pay much attention to the local reports in my area since most peoples reports are all over the place. Some say the fishing is good, some say the fishing is bad, but somehow I manage to consistently catch both quantity and quality when bass fishing.

I would strongly recommend Florida, especially if you want to target big Florida strain largemouth bass in its native habitat and have much more species of fish to catch(both in freshwater and saltwater). 5-7 pounders are relatively common if you use the right techniques and lots of Florida fishermen catch +10 pounders every year, with many of them over 13 pounds(especially in Central/Northern Florida). We recently had a young man catch a +16 pounder in Central Florida, so our bass fishery is very healthy when it comes to big bass. You can check TrophyCatch catches and see for yourself the hundreds( if not thousands) of fishermen that catch trophy size bass. The Everglades is a amazing fishery with very good for numbers of bass. I have had several +100 bass days there from land in the Everglades and I know several boaters who have had +200 bass days when the conditions are right. The fishing is only getting better in Florida since our state highly regulates trophy bass and the vast majority of bass fishermen release the bass they catch.

Congratulations on catching 300 bass so far this year. You have plenty of time to reach 500 bass this year if you want to.

Last week I caught 38 rainbow trout( including a beautiful palomino trout) and my better half caught 4 for a total of 42 rainbow trout in less than 6 hours of fishing in a pressured body of water where they stock trout every Fall and Spring. This was in a northern state and it was my first time in my life that I have fished for trout. It was a lot of fun and I will consider making another trip up north for these fish. I used 6 pound test line and found that small inline spinners to be a very productive lure for trout.