soflabasser

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Interesting subject. These private water bass remind me of hunting in private ranches where you hunt ''wild'' animals in a fenced in area.

Congratulations

Caught some nice bass, snakeheads, peacocks, and other fish this weekend. Thinking of diving this weekend coming up instead of regular fishing.

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Weather looks good for the weekend. Might do some more snakehead fishing and then start targeting other species for a while.

That's sounds like what some northern folks told me when I told them I wanted to catch my first muskie from land in a weekend.Most told me I needed to hire a guide and even then I probably wouldn't catch one of these fish.These folks where wrong,I ended up catching my first muskie along with other nice fish on my first day of muskie fishing.I did months of research before I even fished for muskie,it payed off and I am sure the OP is doing is his own research.As for catching big tarpon,go to the keys bridges and fish with live crabs,mullets,fish flair hawk jigs by bridges,etc.Haulover inlet is another good spot for big tarpon,snook,there's freshwater canals less than 30 minutes away from here as well.Thousands of South Florida fishermen have caught tarpon,snook,and bass in the same day,it can be done and happens often,especially if you don't mind catching these fish near spillways.A lot of these spillways have a freshwater side and saltwater side,fish both sides for best results...

For small/medium topwaters, most jerk baits, and small/medium crank baits I use a 6'6'' medium heavy action rod. You can choose a shorter or longer rod based on your personal preferences.

Welcome to the forum.You don't need a guide to catch tarpon, snook, and peacock bass, it can be done from land. Find a canal close to a spillway and you will find all of those species and more in the same canal system. Make sure to use at least a 25-30 pound mono leader since the snook and tarpon can quickly cut your line with their mouths and gill plates. 50 pound or heavier mono will be better if you plan on hooking one of the big tarpon or big snook that resides in these canal systems.

How much tackle I take with me on a fishing trip depends on where I am fishing and what I am fishing for. I usually take a book bag with 1 plano box filled with lures, a digital scale, tape measure, couple water bottles, and 1-2 meal replacement bars. Other times I only take what fits in a small ziplock bag. Carrying more than this is just extra weight and I have no problem catching hawgs with minimal tackle.

Good subject. Every single muskie I have caught has been on medium heavy to heavy bass tackle, which is considered light tackle for muskie. You can cast decent sized swimbaits, most bucktails, spinnerbaits, and other lures all day without getting too tired on these bass set ups. Muskie fight hard for the first couple minutes or so, then not so much, so you don't need the same line capacity as if you where targeting a big snook, tarpon, or other strong saltwater fish.

Any well trained spearfisherman can handle a fish of that size, especially if there are no other predators to worry about. I often spear groupers in areas infested with bullsharks, that's much more dangerous than shooting a big catfish. With that said, I would prefer catching a wels catfish on rod and reel and leave the spearing for saltwater fish.

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Bass get gut hooked all the time when using soft plastics, and even the best of best bass fishermen has gut hooked a couple bass on senkos, flukes, worms, etc. Many of these gut hooked bass die after the release and a good percentage of them have their intestines packed with soft plastics. Over time these bass will become malnourished and die from having too many soft plastics in their intestines.There's several pictures and videos online showing bass filled with soft plastics, check these videos out. Setting the hook as quickly as possible helps lower the chance of a gut hooked fish, but that's easier said than done.

Nice Muskie, they sure are a blast to catch on light tackle. Nice catches. One of my dive buddies showed me a picture of a +200 pound Wels catfish that he caught freedive spearfishing while on vacation. He said he gave the fish away to some locals since these fish don't taste good when they get big.

I spoke with a FWC biologist a while ago and he told me its 100% legal to release bullseye snakehead in the exact area they are caught. I have heard they taste as good as saltwater fish, but I don't want to eat them since I prefer eating what I catch from the ocean. I agree that at this point it is extremely unlikely that man can eliminate snakeheads from South Florida. These fish reproduce extremely well in our climate, but a couple extreme cold fronts might significantly lower their numbers. Largemouth bass and peacock bass are known to eat baby snakeheads, so these fish will have a hard time spreading as much as a peacock bass. These fish are a blast to catch and the big ones(+8 pounds) fight like a snook going to the mangroves. Fishing for them is more like hunting since you have to quietly walk on the bank since they bolt off and don't bite if you make too much sounds while walking. I don't mind having a couple lures destroyed by snakeheads since its worth the money to me, and I am sure the tackle stores are quite happy with all the tackle I have to buy in order to catch these fish.

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I live in South Florida and I often fish for bass.I am more of a multi species fisherman with +2 decades experience of freshwater/saltwater fishing, from land, inshore, and offshore.

Happy fathers day

Largemouth bass

Spinnerbaits are one of my favorite snakehead lures and I agree they beat them spinnerbaits pretty bad.The bass fishing is good in the areas snakeheads live, caught a +5.5 and +4 pound bass as bycatch while fishing for snakeheads these past 2 weekends. Caught other bass between 1 to 3 pounds as well.

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Caught a citation sized smallmouth bass a couple months ago on a crankbait while fishing a river, so I would think this would be a good lure to use for smallmouth bass fishing.

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Hard to tell from a picture, but I would say that bass is somewhere in the high 2's maybe low 3's. Please get yourself a digital scale and a tape measure so you can get a more accurate weight. It's a nice bass and it beats not catching anything.