soflabasser

I like saving money so I use Ugly Stiks or saltwater inshore rods when fishing with hollow belly frogs. I feel that heavy hammer dumbbell curls ( 70 pound dumbbells per hand for 8-12 reps ) makes fishing easier for me and maybe that is why I do not need a ''light'' rod for frog fishing.

The tilapia I catch in South Florida fight much harder pound for pound than equal size bluegill. The biggest tilapia we have are the blue tilapia which can get over 10 pounds and average 2-4 pounds in weight.

Welcome to the forum

You are welcome @filterlesskamel. You are very fortunate to live behind the Snapper Creek canal since its loaded with many exotic species of fish. Looking towards to reading your reports and seeing your catches. Yes its scientific name is Heterotilapia buttikoferi and the ones above seem to have spawning colors. The smaller ones are lighter in color and these fish are usually found close to the rocky shorelines of the canals. I also have aquariums throughout the years and one of my favorite fish to keep are Oscars.

Thank you @J Francho. I enjoy fishing for South Florida exotic fish and will help members when I can. The zebra tilapia caught by the @filterlesskamel is a very large one for its species. Most of them average less than 10 inches and the one he caught appears to be over 12 inches in length.

Welcome to the forum. The fish in your hands is a zebra tilapia. I have caught many of them in Miami Dade county canals along with many other exotic species of fish. The zebra tilapia you caught is very big one for its species.

I fished in 25-29 degree weather with +30 mph winds last year and would do it again for sure if it means I catch another fish on my bucket list. Would like to catch lake trout while ice fishing and that will be something I plan on doing in a future vacation. Fishing while its cold is nothing compared to long distance running in +90 degree heat and +80% humidity.

Welcome to the forum. Slow presentation= weightless senkos medium presentation= spinnerbait fast presentation = buzzbait

Yes I enjoy fishing winters in South Florida and would do ice fishing if I lived in the land of hard water.

Welcome to the forum

I have caught big bass on Storm swimbaits so you can try those out if you want.

I do not blame you one bit for not revealing one of your favorite spots, I would do the same. You most likely had to do lots of research and put in your time on the water which is something many people do not want to do these days. Besides people can always pay a guide to help them catch bass if they want. I do not plan on ever saying online where I caught my current personal best largemouth bass and most of the places I fish.I do give out a couple good places but not the ones I enjoy the most. I named one of the places I fish ''Jurrasic Park'' since I tend to catch many trophy peacock bass there. Got another spot where my best 5 bass in a day tend to average a combined length of 105-115 inches with a good chance of a 25 inch or better bass. I catch these fish from public waters from land and I prefer my privacy when I am fishing so you best believe I won't be inviting anyone online anytime soon.

I rather tie the knot directly to the lure with either a uni knot or a Rapala knot.

I ate a bullseye snakehead that I caught and it was ok at best. I will not eat anymore snakeheads since the canals they live in are high in methylmercury and other nasty chemicals. We got much better fish in South Florida such as hogfish, snapper, grouper, snook, etc so it will be a waste of my time preparing snakehead when I got much better and healthier fish to catch for food. I will continue fishing for bullseye snakeheads for sport since they hit a frog better than a bass and I am very fond of topwater fishing. You would enjoy fishing for bowfin in the Everglades since its loaded with bowfin. On a normal day you can expect to catch several of them and they average around 3-6 pounds with a good chance of a 8 pounder or better.

Congratulations on your new personal best smallmouth bass.

There are many proven swimbaits that are under $100 which you can get if you want but what is most important is that you spend enough time on the water with a particular swimbait to get comfortable with. No point in getting a couple hundred dollars of swimbaits if you do not know how to use them very well in the places you fish. You will probably be better off learning how to fish 1-5 different swimbaits than getting +10 different varieties that you barely fish with.

Sounds like the scale you are using was accurate enough to get a good weight of the bass. I would say that bass was at least 23 inches, but it is hard to tell from only looking at 1 picture. Next time you can measure a bass on a bump board and use a flexible tape to get the girth. I agree many people do not understand how heavy 10 pounds really is and your 10 pound weight is a good example. Another good example is a gallon of water which weighs a little over 8 pounds. Which means if the bass does not fell as heavy as a gallon of water it probably is under 8 pounds. With that said any bass over 5 pounds is a very nice catch that any bass fisherman would be happy catching.

Yes inshore fishing with a kayak is very fun and using a kayak for beach diving is even more fun since you get to practice several sports in 1 day (kayaking,freediving,spearfishing).

A 21 inch bass is a very nice bass that any bass fisherman would be happy catching. Bass fishing is hobby that you will learn for a lifetime. Yes BassResource is a awesome forum and I have learned many new techniques from members here.

Thank you @Joshua van Wyk. I have been bass fishing for +23 years now and have lost count of the bass I have weighed. A bass has to be at least 25-26 inches long with a 18-19.5 inch girth minimum to weigh 10 pounds based on my experience. The scale can be off both ways where it can underestimate or overestimate the weight of a bass. Lots of people are using scales that are not certified which is why it would be best to always get a length and girth measurement picture.

Nice bass. It looks like a 4.5-5 pound bass that you are long arming very close to the camera lens. This 6.5 pounder would be well over 7.5 pounds if it had more girth. How long was it? I use to believe that the scale was the final answer but even a scale can be off. I know a guy down here that caught a bass that was barely 23 inches long with a girth under 18 inches yet his scale said +10 pounds. It is safe to say his scale is off big time since a bass with a 23 inch length/sub 18 inch girth is 7-8 pounds at best.

Shimano Stradics are great reels for bass fishing that is for sure. Worth every penny and more when you have a reel that can last you over 10 years with minimal maintenance.

I only use spinning gear when fishing with jerkbaits and do well for both freshwater and saltwater species. For bass I like using 12-15 pound big game mono or 30 pound braid with a mono leader if I feel I need the abrasion resistance offered from a mono leader.

I am not surprised that the bass in Virginia are eating snakeheads since the bass down here also eat snakeheads. Bass are a much better predator than a snakehead and bass have bigger mouths which lets them eat larger prey compared to a equal sized snakehead. The snakeheads are here to stay and we might as well enjoy catching this unique species of fish.

Smallmouth bass are a species of black bass and all black bass are in the sunfish family. An example of a fish in the cichlid family is the butterfly peacock bass. The top and bottom fish are Goliath grouper and the middle fish is a black grouper. Have caught both species of fish and both are very fun to catch.