soflabasser

Congratulations on your first Muskie.

I am located in South Florida but travel for fishing so my exact location changes often.

Welcome to the forum @Ryan Belfor. The most important thing in bass fishing is to make sure you are having fun while fishing. Don't stress the days you do not catch much, it happens to all of us regardless of our skill level. Try to learn from every single fishing trip you have and accept that bass fishing is a sport where you will learn for a lifetime. Try to find a fishing partner that is very good at bass fishing and fish with him/her as long as you can so you can learn as much as possible from them.Be open minded about fishing techniques and keep a fishing log of the places you fish, techniques that worked, when and where you caught big bass, etc so you can get better at reading any new body of water you encounter.

California has good bass fishing but its nowhere as good as it use to be in the 1970's-1990's. You can still catch double digit bass , but nowhere near like the ''good ol' days'' that California use to have. It doesn't help that most of California is experiencing a severe drought that has lasted years and doesn't seem to be going away completely anytime soon. Largemouth bass are now seen as a invasive fish in California as well, so that means the state might not try to improve the bass fishing to its old glory. Sounds like your state has very good fishing and similar to South Florida. I fish places where I can expect to catch 30 to +50 bass in a normal day and I have had several trips where I have caught over 100 bass in less than 6 hours of fishing. Many of these places are in/near the Everglades which is probably the best place in the world to catch a large amount of bass in a short amount of time when the conditions are good. There's also trophy bass in these waters and every year people catch double digits from the Everglades and surrounding areas.

Congratulations on your PB. She's a beautiful thick bass.

There are no native smallmouth bass in South Florida and they can't survive in our warm waters for long even if someone releases them down here from their aquariums. Some people mistake juvenile largemouth bass or warmouths for smallmouth bass but these fish are not smallmouth bass. We do have some bass that somewhat look like smallmouth bass in Northern Florida( shoal bass, spotted bass, suwannee bass ) but these bass are not in South Florida. You will have to drive to Northern Georgia if you want to catch the closest smallmouth bass to South Florida.

Well said. It is very easy to tell the difference on how many species of fish fight. For example, I know immediately if I hooked a snook or a bass depending on how it fights. A snook will give faster, stronger runs, with more endurance than a bass. A bass will pull ok for the first couple seconds, maybe do a couple jumps, and quickly give up. A tarpon is even easier to tell since it will most likely hit like a pile of bricks, do strong runs, and jump multiple times in a fight.

Good thing we do not have many ticks in South Florida since ticks can transmit lyme disease. At least gators can be easily avoided.

Well said! It's disgusting how people take advantage of others in a tough situation like this and price gouge items that are desperately needed. Sadly there are vultures in this society that will gladly take advantage of people in need and sell needed items at ridiculous prices to make a quick buck. It is not right for someone to sell a loaf of bread for $15 or water for $100 a case.

Congratulations on your new pb northern pike.

Very nice. I have done skydiving before its very fun but I am not sure if I would do it again anytime soon. And I agree if you sit you rust.

Yes I have caught many big bass while wade fishing.

Welcome to the forum

Good subject. Here's a couple of my other hobbies; biggame fishing multi species fishing spearfishing lobstering freediving underwater videography/photography powerlifting calisthenics long distance running/swimming/cycling gardening reading I got other hobbies but these are the main ones.

Bass will eat almost anything that fits in their mouths, and frogs are definitely on the menu. My grandfather use to tell me stories of all animals he found in bass and he did mention frogs to me as well as baby turtles.He was raised on a farm and fished for food, so he's probably prepared more bass to eat than most modern day bass fishermen. I haven't found anything inside a bass that can compare to baby turtles or frogs, but I am sure other bass fishermen have stories of even stranger animals found inside the stomachs of bass.

Welcome to the forum

It is very unlikely you are catching spawning largemouth bass in South Florida when it is August (earliest I seen them spawning down here is early November) and you are most likely catching very healthy bass. I have a couple spots like yours where I catch thick pot belly bass year round, and these bass seem to have that frame even if they are small bass under 20''. I won't be surprised one bit if the area you fish have a healthy population of baitfish that the bass gorge on.

Yes I have hiked to some backwood ponds in South Florida and many of these ponds provide very good fishing.

Its official 50-0

One of my favorite topwaters is a Rebel Pop-R.

Well said @padon. Every bass fisherman needs to adapt to the fishing conditions,there is no way around it! I often fish extremely pressured public waters and I consistently catch big bass from the shore since I put in the time needed to learn the bodies of water I fish. One of my best land based catches was a 10.3 pound bass that I caught from land in a highly pressured park from a body of water that gets hit by hundreds if not thousands of fishermen every year and I caught that bass by studying the body of water, knowing bass biology in my local waters, fishing the right lure at the right time, and a whole lot of patience fishing in conditions that most would not like to fish in. I still fish that park every once in a while and release 100% of the bass I catch and treat each bass with respect. I don't throw the bass in the water like so many bass fishermen do, I squat down to the waters level and gently put the bass in the water to make sure the bass swims away strong and I often get in the water if needed to release the bass I catch.

Welcome to the forum @SummertimeCarl. I have fished for bass for well over 2 decades now and feel that the ''Good ole' days'' of bass fishing is right now at this time and it will only get better as time passes. There are more strict regulations on bass fishing now in most parts of the country and people tend to release most bass they catch since most bass fishermen see bass more as a sport fish than a food fish. Most states are actively stocking bass in local waters and studying the bass population in order to improve the fishery. And yes you should not use the excuse of fishing pressure to justify less than ideal catches since many of us fish extremely pressured waters but we often catch quality bass( including trophy bass) since we put in our time fishing and do our best improve our ability to be consistent at catching quality sized bass.

Topwaters will catch fish on windy days, on clam days, and on days in between as long as you use the right topwater for the conditions you are fishing.

Welcome to the forum

You can catch some nice bass very close to the shore when the water in the river is running fast. Look for current breaks, ambush spots, etc...