soflabasser

Those are very good times for those distances. Do you have a thin build or a muscular one? When I ran my sub 5 minute miles I was muscular with a BMI of over 27 but under 8% bodyfat (100% drug free as well). Few people with muscular builds can run a sub 6 minute mile or sub 18 minute 5K. I would bet that less than 5% of people ever run 1 mile under 6 minutes, especially as a drug free athlete. There are people who run sub 4 minute miles but those people are less than 0.0001% of the world's population and they have very thin builds. Have you ran marathons or half marathons? They are very fun to do and I feel running a full marathon is something every athlete should do at least once in their lifetime.

Saw the video. It is crazy that the lakes are still frozen in your area. Hopefully the snow melts soon you so can catch those big smallmouth bass.

Walking is awesome no matter how fit you are! Best part of walking is that it is a workout that helps in real life. It won't matter how much a person lifts when they are old what matters is that they are in good enough shape to walk for long periods without being out of breath.

Running is an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise and so is walking which many people underestimate as a form of exercise. At my best shape I use to run 1 mile under 5 minutes, 5K under 18 minutes, 10 miles under 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I would still get a great workout by walking 1-2 hours at a brisk pace. In the end the most important muscle is the heart and having big, non functionally fit muscles does nothing to improve a person's health. Moderation is key when it comes to exercise. Too much exercise can hurt more than help and it is best to think long term than short term when it comes to working out. Pushups are one of the best calisthenics exercises you can do no matter how strong a person is. Once a person can do 4 sets of 20 reps they can start doing various pushup variations for a more challenging workout, such as clapping pushups, one hand pushups feet apart, and if you really want a challenge you can do one hand pushups with both feet together.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

Caught a 10 foot Burmese python with my hands near Homestead/Florida city. Will do the same the next time I see another one.

Congratulations on the weight loss which is no easy feat. It takes a huge amount of will power to lose that much weight, I know this from my own personal experience and from helping others lose weight. Now comes the hardest part which is keeping the weight off for as many years as possible. I would not recommend resistance bands and would focus more on free weights, calisthenics, and functional cardio (walking, running, swimming, etc). Another recommendation is stay away from PED's, you do not need them and you can live a long, healthy life without them.

I have a friend who is a Ranger in a state park and he does not make much from what he and his wife told me. He does it since he has a passion for the Outdoors. I personally will not work for so little and will stick to my profession but I am glad people like him exist to protect our natural resources. We also need Fisheries Biologist and hope they get paid better wages as time passes.

Forgot to mention earlier that tarpon live in many South Florida freshwater canals. Tarpon are considered one the best fighting gamefish in the world and the best part is you can catch them from land. No guide needed if you know what you are doing. I am sure salmon fight well and taste very good but they do not compare to a tarpon in fighting ability, especially a big one. Once you hook into a 20 pound or better tarpon in freshwater on spinning gear you will understand why people spend thousands of dollars to travel to Florida to catch them. Have seem tarpon in excess of 100 pounds in little freshwater canals and seen +200 pound tarpon while freediving. They are absolutely beautiful animals and no northern freshwater fish compares to them pound for pound! As for eating fish we have hogfish, snapper, grouper, dolphin, snook and other fish that for me taste much better than any salmon I have eaten.

I have a couple of friends that strictly fish saltwater and they do not care much for bass fishing. They see it as a waste of time. Have had others judge my fishing gear I use even though I catch more quality fish than they do. Others do not understand why I release bass after putting in so much work to catch them. In the end I do not care much what others think of my bass fishing hobby and instead I focus on catching lots of big bass since it makes me happy and helps me fill up my fishing albums with big bass pictures. Lots of saltwater fishermen look down on bass fishermen just rod/reel guys look down on spearfishing and fly fishermen look down on everybody. Not much you can do to change others opinion and best thing you can do is do what you feel brings you the most happiness.

I have caught bass on frogs in every single month of the year. The frog bite is best in warm weather but you can also catch them when it is cold since Florida does not get very cold like more northern waters do.

That is ok with me since Florida is getting too packed, especially compared to 10 years ago. Seems like more and more people move to Florida every year, many of those people are from Northern States. I do not blame them since Florida has the best weather in the continental USA among other things that makes Florida a great place to live. I prefer living in a tropical paradise with green trees, open water, and big bass everywhere than somewhere up north with gloomy miserably cold weather, hard water for 4-6 months, and other less than desirable aspects of living in some northern states. Michigan, Minnesota, and other northern states has excellent freshwater fishing but I would not call any of those states the freshwater fishing capital of the USA. That would be Florida which has much more variety of freshwater fish. We have bigger largemouth bass, peacock bass which beat smallmouth bass in fighting ability, freshwater snook that are often +40 inches long, and other freshwater fish. Muskie are one of my favorite freshwater fish to catch but they are no match for a big barracuda, especially the ones that are +50 inches.

By yellow catfish do you mean yellow bullheads? Some people call them buttercats as well. The Everglades is loaded with yellow bullheads. Best time to catch them is at night. Have not tried blackened catfish but have eaten blackened dolphin which is extremely delicious. Might try some blackened catfish fillets from one of the next channel catfish I catch.

Hogfish are in the wrasse family as well which is why I am looking towards to catching and eating Tautog. Have eaten fluke and it is very good!

I have eaten cod, it is a good tasting fish. What is your favorite species of catfish to eat? I have eaten channel catfish fillets and it tasted good. There are a couple places I fish that are loaded with big bluegill and you can catch a limit of bluegill if you wanted to. These bluegills average 7-10 inches long and I have caught giants measuring +14 inches long and well over 2 pounds. The body shape on these giant bluegills is very different from a regular bluegill, the head area looking deformed and very thick for its length. South Florida also has exotics that taste better than bluegills such as the Oscar which has lots of meat for their size. Alaska is on my bucket list of places to fish later in life. Those Alaskan Halibut get huge and must be very fun to catch. My favorite sport is diving and lobster which is one of my favorite seafood to catch. Also catch blue crab every once. My family prefers lobster over blue crab so I spend more effort on catching lobsters.

The one you caught appears to be over 11 inches long which makes it a big Mayan cichlid. Have caught them over 15 inches and well over 2 pounds but the most common size I catch them is 4-11 inches. Mayan cichlids have been caught as far north as Central Florida and they can be found in almost any freshwater body of water in South Florida. They are also called ''atomic sunfish'' as a nickname since they have vibrant colors and fight harder than a sunfish of equal size.

That is true. Tautog is a fish I plan on catching on a future vacation. From what I read they taste very good. What is your favorite fish to eat that you catch in the Northeast?

I have caught walleye and ate it within hours of catching it. It is a good tasting fish considering it is a freshwater fish but there are plenty of fish in South Florida that taste much better. On a scale of 1-10 a walleye is a 1 compared to freshly caught hogfish (which is a 10 out of 10) which is my favorite fish to eat. Grouper, snapper, dolphin, lobster are other delicious seafood I catch in South Florida. As you already know fish caught and eaten in the same day taste much better than what you buy in the supermarket so you won't get the same quality if you buy old, stale frozen fillets or lobster tails.

Welcome to the forum

You can fill the size 3000 with 20 pound braid to have more line capacity. Use a 4-10 foot mono leader for abrasion resistance. Braid gets cut easily by barnacles, concrete, and other abrasive objects in the water so take that into consideration as well. Good luck and I am sure you will have fun on your vacation.

You are welcome. I suggest you fish with a size 4000 spinning reel. You never know if you hook into a trophy snook, bull redfish, big jack crevalle, etc and you get spooled on a small reel. Better to have a story about the fish you caught than the fish that got away. I got +24 years of South Florida saltwater fishing experience so I am teaching you what I learned through experience and not something I saw online, something I read online, or what some guide told me. Have caught all the fish you mentioned in your opening post by myself without a guide from land. With that said you should be ok with a size 3000 spinning reel if you are only fishing for fish 20 pounds or less and feel extremely comfortable with light tackle fishing.

A size 3000 spinning reel should be ok for what you are targeting. You run the risk of having a large snook, bull redfish, big jack crevalle, etc spooling you so take that into consideration.I personally prefer a size 4000 spinning reel and have caught many +40 inch snook on these reels. Even caught a 7.5 foot shark on 30 pound test braid on a size 4000 reel once but this size reel is better suited for medium tackle inshore fishing. Many people use size 6000-8000 spinning reels for inshore fishing but that might be too much of most of the fish you are targeting.

The fish you caught is a Mayan cichlid. Pound for pound they fight harder than a bass and they can be caught on the same lures you use for bass.