soflabasser

Its not just hogfish that taste better than walleye it's almost any type of saltwater fish I have eaten. Mangrove snapper are a common catch and they taste way better than walleye. Back to the subject, both live bait and lures have times they do best. A person who only fishes with lures or only fishes with live bait is limited compared to a fisherman that knows how to fish both live bait and lures well.

I fished a well known Central Florida lake that has high fishing pressure from lots of people fishing with golden shiners. I tried using golden shiners there and did not get a bite in several hours of fishing. I am very experienced with live bait fishing so this was a surprise to me that these bass would not bite a lively bait but it goes to show you bass do what they want and you have to be able to adapt if you want to be successful in bass fishing. In the end of the trip I decided to use a lure I felt would do well in that lake and within minutes I started to catch some nice bass until I got my 5 bass limit in less than 1 hour of fishing. It turns out those bass are best caught with reaction style fishing techniques.

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You should be able to catch bass on lures in a pond with very little fishing pressure. Try fishing at nighttime or try fishing with a lure that most people do not use there. If I lived up north I would focus more on muskie and fish very little for walleye. I do not see why people make such a big deal about walleye. I have caught them, ate them on the same day and I was not impressed. Try eating a freshly caught hogfish and you see how walleye is an overrated fish. I agree lure fishing is much more effective when it comes to catching large numbers of bass.

Congratulations on your new personal best bass.

I catch river smallmouth bass in similar areas that you mentioned and I catch more river largemouth bass in parts of the river where the water is not moving much.

Try fishing with a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap. Find the size that works best where you are fishing in.

The fishing has been good as usual and will only get better as winter approaches.

Good report and nice catch.

I have caught river smallmouth bass in the upper, middle, and lower water columns. Good advice.

1. Catch a couple new species of fish for my fish lifelist. 2. Anything else is a bonus.

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The bass fishing industry wants bass fishermen to continue buying lures and whatever else professional tournament bass fishermen recommend people to buy. It is to their best interest that people buy lots of lures and other fishing tackle related to lure fishing. There is little to no money to be made if people catch their own bait compared to buying lures. With that said I feel it is easier to catch a 5 bass limit on lures than only using live bait. You can fish lures in more varied conditions compared to live bait. I caught 149 bass in less than 6 hours of fishing from the bank, all on lures. Lost count of +50 bass days all on lures. I doubt I can do that with live bait since I will be limited by how much bait I have. You can easily catch +50 bass on the same jerkbait, the same cannot be said for 1 live shiner.

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A good bass fisherman understands that both live bait and lures have times they work best. My record for most bass I caught in 1 day, top 5 bass in 1 day, most species of black bass caught, and other personal best have been on lures. I have caught +7 pound bass on cutbait while fishing for catfish. Many bass anglers would hate knowing their favorite fish eats like a scavenger. Other predator fish eat cutbait as well.

I go ''leaderless'' whenever I do not see an added benefit to using a leader. For example I do not use a leader when fishing for largemouth bass with hollow belly frogs. I do use a leader when I need the extra abrasion resistance mono provides over braided line, such as fishing near concrete or other abrasive structure.

Spinnerbaits are a good lure to use in windy conditions. Use the wind to your advantage and do not fight it.

Must of been quite the experience seeing a waterspout so close too you while kayak fishing! I have seen a couple waterspouts while fishing on a boat in the ocean and a huge one while shark fishing from land that was less than 100 yards from me. Fortunately it did not cross my path and I caught a nice sized shark a short while later.

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Try fishing a hollow belly frog in that pond

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We were fortunate that this hurricane did not land in South Florida. It had potential to be worse than hurricane Andrew since at one point it had 180 mph sustained winds with 220 mph wind gust. Weather is looking good for the weekend so I plan on going fishing.

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I agree with you 100%. Small-average sized bass are a easy fish to catch in most states. Larger bass are still relatively easy to catch when compared to other species of fish. Trophy bass can present a challenge to even the most talented bass fishermen, but trophy bass are much easier to catch in places like Florida, Texas, California, etc compared to other states with smaller sized northern strain largemouth bass. Some bass fishermen are so fond of bass fishing that they start traveling the USA for different species of bass, that in itself is a very unique type of bass fishing. If you are good at catching big bass you will most likely be good at muskie fishing. Both types of fishing have a similar mindset. Carp are fun to catch and I have caught several over 40'', which is very fun on light line!