soflabasser

Good subject. I sometimes give away a bass to fishermen if I have one die or a person ask me politely and I feel they are a responsible angler. I don't eat bass myself anymore since I don't like the taste of bass, but they are a ok tasting fish if your hungry enough. With that said, I rather eat fresh caught seafood that I catch myself( hogfish, grouper, snapper, dolphin, cobia, tripletail, lobster, etc).

Lots of reports of people catching 8-13 pounders in Central/North Florida for the past couple weeks.

The bass are definitely spawning in South Florida now, but not every empty nest you will see is a bass nest. The tilapias are spawning at this moment( along with other exotic fish since we have been having warm weather) and the tilapia's nest look extremely similar to bass nest. Lots of decent reports coming from Lake Okeechobee for the past couple weeks and I expect to hear more reports since their will be lots of people catching big bedding bass.

Berkley trilene big game monofilament line

My personal preference is to use spinning combos over baitcasting combos, even though I can easily cast with a baitcaster( I can cast with a 4/0 Penn Senator, which is much harder to cast than a bass baitcaster).I have caught all my trophy bass on spinning combos, and use these spinning combos for inshore saltwater fishing with no problems whatsoever. I often fish with big lures with these spinning combos(both in freshwater and saltwater), so saying spinning gear is not strong enough is incorrect and does not apply to all spinning combos.With that said, choose whatever combo makes you happy since in the end of the day its going to be you that is going to be fishing your gear, not someone else.

Its true that it is much more difficult to catch bass out of extremely clear water, but fishing in these places makes you a better bass fisherman in the long run. These clear water bass can see the flaws in your presentation easily, so you have to give a much better presentation that if you where fishing low visibility water. Some of the lures I have success in muddy water are the following; hollow body frog prop bait buzzbait spinnerbait lipless crank bait swimbait trick worm senko

Good subject. I hunt both on land and in the water.

Nice catch.

Nice one

I never use a leader when frog fishing and do quite well, at least in the places I fish. Do use mono leaders for braid for other presentations.

All my frog rods are heavy action rods in the 6-7ft range and each of them are well under $100 each. So far these rods have done a great job at helping me pull big bass out of heavy aquatic vegetation. For line I tend to mostly use 30 pound test braid and rarely go above this since anything over 30 pound test braid is overkill in the places I fish.

Same here.

1. My better half is my #1 fishing partner, nobody can take her place. Second to her is family members, third is close friends. 2.Ugly Stik fishing rod\ Shimano or Penn spinning reel combos, many of these combos are under $150. Caught most of my trophy bass on these setups, and many saltwater gamefish such as dolphin, kingfish, grouper,permit,snapper, shark, snook,tarpon, etc. 3.Spend quality time with the ones you love and make having fun your #1 priority in bass fishing.

Lots of good advice here. I used flexible wire line for the first big muskie I caught from land a couple months ago on vacation(caught this big Muskie in my first day of fishing for them). Muskie or pike are usually not leader shy and share similar attributes to barracudas, with one of the big differences being the barracuda is much stronger pound for pound than a Muskie or pike.

Welcome to the forum. Lots of bodies of water with clear water down here, especially in South Florida. Most of the lakes I fish have +10 foot visibility, with many of them with +20 visibility when the conditions are right. There's even canals down here where you can see clearly see the bottom in 15-20 feet of water.

In South Florida people tend to mostly use cast nets to catch gizzard shad and threadfin shad since these fish rarely bite a lure or hook. Its 100% legal to use cast nets for shad in Florida, as long as you have a Florida Freshwater fishing license. Make sure to keep your live well properly oxygenated since shad are very sensitive and die quickly if you don't take care of them in the live well.

Welcome to the forum. Thats a nice land based bass you caught. Looking forwards to your bass fishing reports.

Welcome to the forum. Those are some nice bass you caught. The bass fishing has been good down here as well and I caught and released a +7 pounder this month.

I have lots of variety to choose from in Florida and still enjoy catching big bluegils. Its such a simple way of fishing where you can just sitdown,catch lots of fish,and enjoy the outdoors.

Do I also need a custom bass rod with this corn dog, or will I be ok with a regular bass rod?lol

The camera angle makes the alligator look bigger, but that alligator is big one without a doubt. There are places in South Florida where you can see +10 footers almost every day, with a couple of them +12 feet.

The bass does look like a well trained pet bass since it eagerly ate the baby duck. There's a lake I fish where I have seen bass eat baby ducks, but I have only seen bass eat baby ducks 2 times in this lake. Have heard big splashes at night time and notice less baby ducks the next couple days in this lake, so something must be eating them.

I have seen that video before, that bass was very beat up from the looks of it. How big you think that Snook was? The +40 inchers I have caught had a mouth big enough to eat a 2-3 pound bass, not sure if a low/mid 40's Snook can swallow a +20 inch, 5 pound bass.

Rapala X-Rap

What a beauty, love seeing big alligators like that one in the places I fish. I have a spot where I have seen several Alligators in excess of 12 feet, with one of them that has to be well over 14 feet. Best thing about this place is that it is illegal to hunt the Alligators, so they can live their lives in peace.