soflabasser

We have heat advisories as well in South Florida but it hasn't affected my fishing since I focus on low light conditions like I described in my last post. Does every single body of water you fish have alligators? How about fishing in a park without alligators or another lake where they get rid of the alligators? South Florida has millions of alligators but you will rarely see alligators in many of our urban waters since they take the alligators out as soon as they are seen in many of our urban waters. There has to be a couple alligator free bodies of waters where you live, I recommend you find them and consider fishing them at night, dawn , dusk, cloudy conditions since its not safe to fish in the middle of the day with the high heat, high humidity , and high UV index we are having now.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum.

Its hard to say if a body of water is truly fished out or not unless you have a Fisheries Biologist study the place for the number of largemouth bass in a particular body of water. Maybe the bass are not biting since its a highly pressured lake or maybe most people are fishing at the wrong time of day with wrong techniques.I often fish bodies of water that many think are fished out yet I catch big bass out of these same bodies of water. As for fishing too much, I don't think that's possible if you only fish 1-2 days a week.

South Florida has also been extremely hot/humid for the past couple months and we recently had a day where the heat index hit 111 degrees. Most days the temperature is +90 degrees with +100 heat index values.There's plenty of alligators in South Florida and I beat the heat by fishing at nighttime, dawn, dusk, cloudy days,etc. I also bring lots of water to make sure I stay hydrated.

Sounds like a good idea.

A good gps free camera to make fishing videos.

Nice tiger muskie

Yes bass can get quite big in small waters if all the proper conditions are met and there are lots of people who catch +8 pound bass in ponds most people would drive by and not fish thinking the pond has no big bass in it.

@bcosselman September is only 2 weeks away and the peacock bass fishing is extremely good right now so you should have a great time when you come here. This past weekend alone I caught several peacock bass, with the biggest one measuring 22.25'' in length. I am fishing canal systems in Miami Dade County and Broward county.Use the techniques I mentioned earlier and you should do well.

Looks like most bass fishermen favor the topwater bite and I agree as well. Nothing in bass fishing compares to having a trophy bass blowup on a topwater and then catching that bass!

I see this question often presented in different ways. Its like they think they are going to hit a home run knowing the exact lure a certain member uses. It takes more than that to be consistently good at bass fishing!

LOL

All the knowledge in the world won't help much if your not willing to put in the time and use it.

@pondbassin101 That's why I mentioned fishing at dawn, dusk, nighttime,coudly days, and other lowlight conditions a couple responses above. The bass are still biting good, you just have to fish at times they will bite best and figure out what the bass want. I have been catching lots of quality largemouth bass in the 18-22'' range as bycatch while fishing for peacock bass and bullseye snakehead, would do much better if I was specifically targeting bass.

By far my favorite technique to use is topwater, but I will use whatever is needed to catch a big bass. I tend to fish more often on low light conditions such as dawn, dusk, nighttime, cloudy, rainy days, etc.

Welcome to the forum. A good setup for panfish is a 6'0''-6'6'' medium action rod, size 1000-3000 spinning reel, and 6-8 pound test mono. You can get a lighter setup such as a ultra light if you want.

I agree diving makes you a better fisherman. I have freedived a lot of lakes in South Florida and learned a lot about where bass hide, at what times they eat, what they eat, etc. It's a shame that most bass fishermen don't get into freediving, its awesome sport.

Congratulations on your home state PB bass.

I tend to mostly use soft plastic frogs, hollow belly frogs, and spinner baits when fishing for snakeheads. You can catch them on other typical bass lures as well. I highly recommend you give snakehead fishing a try, they are biting very well right now and fight much better than a bass of equal size. My biggest snakehead to date was over 10 pounds and fought just like a decent sized snook going to the mangroves. Besides, bass fishing all the time can get boring quickly and the big bass are more likely to die when released in the summer than during cooler weather( high water temperatures can increase chances of delayed released mortality in fish like largemouth bass).

Welcome to the forum

Wont be surprised if a decent hurricane hits one of the South Eastern states this year.

Nice video! You can learn a lot about fish while diving in their natural habitat.

Most exiting moment in fishing for me is when I spearfish( in the ocean while freediving) a fish I consider challenging followed by catching a big fish on a topwater lure.

Well over 60 species of freshwater fish that I can think of this moment. Have caught more species of saltwater fish than freshwater fish.