soflabasser

Lobsters are known as sea roaches since they are bottom feeders that are mostly scavengers. I have caught and seen more lobsters than most people will see in a lifetime, they are fun to catch but there are much better tasting food in the sea. I will take your word on yellow perch being the best tasing freshwater fish in the North, in South Florida Oscar cichlids are near the top of the best tasting freshwater fish. I find Oscars to taste much better than walleye, crappie, and other freshwater fish that I have eaten. With that said hogfish is the best tasting fish I have eaten and they are relatively low in methylmercury, unlike sharks, swordfish, and kingfish which have some of the highest concentration of methylmercury of any fish. The best tasting hogfish is the one you catch and eat the same day, so eating hogfish in a restaurant is not the same as catching your own.

I have hand written journals full of places I have caught nice fish and like to fish these places often. I also like to explore new places and often catch nice fish in these places.

I prefer channel catfish, bluegill, tilapia, almost any decent tasting fish over lobster. I am sure that if someone markets anything well the crowds will fall for it and say it is the best tasting thing there is. With that said one of my favorite fish to eat is mangrove snapper, they amazingly delicious when eaten the same day you catch them.

@A-Jay I already know that, but I am still amazed it is snowing and there are frozen lakes in late April in many Northern states. I am sure you are waiting patiently for the snow to go away and when it does I am sure you will catch lots of smallmouth bass like you usually do.

This subject reminds me of how lobsters are seen as a luxury food when over 100 years ago they were seen as trash food. I enjoy catching lobsters but I am not impressed by the favor, snapper and other fish taste much better for me. Have eaten expensive caviar and I was not impressed. It goes to show that most people will follow the crowd in whatever the crowd says is the best thing to eat.

I am amazed that it is still snowing and there are frozen lakes in many Northern states at this moment in time. A cold front passed so it feels like Spring now in South Florida with daytime temperatures in the low 80's and nighttime temperatures in the 70's. I am expecting a hotter than normal Summer this year since we already had temperatures in the high 80's in the beginning of April.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

Congratulations on catching your first smallmouth bass. They are one of my favorite fish to catch when I fish Northern waters.

I have several fishing journals. In these journals I write the place I fished in, what I caught, what I used to catch these fish, time of year, weather, and other important information.

I read all the responses and it does not change the fact that Mr. King now holds the official West Virginia state record muskie. Congratulations Mr.King, I hope you get a nice replica for your wall.

The shiners that I purchased were wild golden shiners. The bass in this lake did not care for them and only seem to care for lures fished in a specific way. These bass are used to seeing thousands of fishermen every year so they are not as easy to catch as a bass from a private pond, you have to work to get these fish to bite with lures. Fortunately I caught my limit which made the trip better.

Welcome to the forum

Your post reminds me of a lake I fished in Central Florida that I could only catch bass on lures and the bass completely ignored the expensive golden shiners I purchased. A man I met earlier on that lake told me that I would waste my time fishing with golden shiners since the bass in that lake get hit hard by people fishing with golden shiners. This man was correct since I spent hours fishing with golden shiners without a single bite. At that point I was amazed to see these bass ignore the golden shiners so I decided to use some lures I do well with in South Florida and quickly caught a limit in less than 30 minutes. I learned a valuable lesson that day that there are times lures will outfish live bait, such as a place that most people are fishing with live bait. You have to think outside the box if you want to consistently catch bass in different bodies of water.

You are going to get a lot of different answers since people like to fish spinnerbaits and chatterbaits with a trailer, no trailer, different size blades, different shapes of the blades, and other modifications. Best piece of advice I can give you is experiment with what you feel will work best in the places you fish.

Too many boaters are speeding these days which is causing tragedies like the one OP mentioned. I mentioned earlier that I have seen boaters speeding in manatee zones, these people only care about themselves and could care less about hurting manatees which are endangered species. You really have to be an unsavory person to speed in a manatee zone knowing it can hurt manatees and other wildlife. These events make the bass fishing community look bad, so it is best to put speed limits on all bodies of water.

A skilled fisherman can do very well with a rod under $100 so you do not need a $100 rod to well in bass fishing. It does make it more enjoyable to have lighter, stronger rods but it is not absolutely needed to have expensive rods to do well in bass fishing. What matters most is knowing how to locate fish and knowing how to catch them.

I have caught big bass both on live bait and lures, both techniques have times they do best. One is not ''easier'' style of fishing than the other, anyone who is good at both live bait fishing and lure fishing knows this. I have caught big bass on lures in highly pressured waters were many complain that the big bass do not want to bite for whatever excuse they have. Someone always finds a way to catch fish so the best you can do is put in your time on the water. What that said I am in favor of reducing the amount of bass tournament anglers are allowed to bring to the weigh in. It is a well known fact that many bass caught in tournaments die from all the stress being in a live well and weigh in process. What would be even better is if the bass are weighed on the boat with an approved scale and these bass immediately released after the boat weigh in.

Speed limits are needed on all bodies of water and there needs to be better enforcement. This will help prevent tragedies like the one the OP mentioned. I have also seen people ignore speed limit signs on the water, these type of people tend to only care about themselves. For example I see lots of boaters speeding in manatee zones, these people do not care about manatees which are endangered species in Florida. It is no surprise events like this happened and will continue to happen. Fishing is supposed to be a peaceful hobby, not a hobby of driving a boat +60 mph in a place you should not even drive over 20 mph. The boaters that speed are not giving a good impression of the fishing community to people that do not fish. There is no need for a bass boat to drive +75 mph, that is faster than what you are allowed to drive on a highway in Florida. No wonder so many high speed accidents happen.

I have caught all my smallmouth bass on spinning gear and will continue for the next time I fish for smallmouth bass.

Swimbaits and spinnerbaits are also good lures for smallmouth bass.

Something needs to be done to prevent events like this happening. There should be a speed limit on all bodies of water, this will help decrease tragedies like the one the OP mentioned. Too often I see boaters speeding in places they should not be, including manatee zones.

I have had sharks steal my speared fish while spearfishing, and some of those sharks got too close for comfort. I am still here since I remained as calm as possible and defended myself, which is the best thing you can do when a shark shows signs of aggression. While rod and reel fishing I have had fish hook me while I was trying to remove the hook. This taught me a valuable lesson to always use lip grippers and pliers when using lures with treble hooks. Since then I have not been hooked since I am extremely careful every time I release a fish. When I was a kid I had a female alligator chase me for a short distance since I got close to her nest without knowing it was there, this was another valuable lesson to always look where you walk when fishing in the Everglades.