Koz

It seems to me that more than likely the issue is employees that are just too lazy to target the invasive species and instead just spray everything. An employee on the boat sees all of that vegetation and can't be bothered to take his time and pick out targets. Ultimately, the FWC is responsible but they should probably also launch an internal investigation.

Strike King Sexy Shad buzzbait has been killer and I'm on my second one of the season. The first got hit and bent up so much the slot holding the prop broke off. Senkos have been pretty good as well. Earlier in the year the chatterbait was king. I will say that this year I have done a better job at adapting to conditions and choosing the right bait.

Have you ever had something really weird or strange happen when you were out fishing? If you have, share your story in this thread. I'll start it off with something that happened today. We had perfect weather here today. Maybe not perfect for fishing, but perfect for humans. It was only 81 degrees out, low humidity, bluebird skies, and enough wind to keep the ripples moving on the lagoons. I was bank fishing a long stretch of shoreline, slowly making my way to the far end. I hadn't caught anything at this point, but I could see the bass were moving. It should be noted we had a ton of rain this week and the lagoons were about a foot above their normal levels. Anyway, all of a sudden about 20 feet to my left I see a bass breach the surface right along the bank and he lands nose down in the high grass. I see the grass move a bit and then nothing, so I go to check it out. Sure enough, a bass about 1.5 pounds had wedged himself in the deep grass on the bank, leaving his tail sticking up. I picked him up, put him back in the water, and called it my first catch of the day. I am the Fish Whisperer.

When in doubt, fish by the dam.

After about a week straight of thunderstorms today was the first day in a while where it was safe to fish. I was more than a little excited to get back out there and do some fishing after work. We've had about 5 inches of rain over the previous two days and the lagoons were a foot or so above normal, but I was jonesing to fish. I was in a really good mood as I headed out to to some of my favorite lagoons. I parked my car near one of my favorite spots and said, "Hello" to a woman sitting with her dog in a nearby golf cart. She watched as I tied on a slashbait and as I made my first cast of the evening. I hit my mark exactly, worked the bait, and boom - landed a bass about 2 pounds on that first cast. She clapped and was amazed (first cast and all) as I unhooked the fish and tossed him back. Then, seizing on a confluence of events which I will describe in a moment combined with my good mood I clipped my bait to my rod, headed back towards my car and said loudly, "My work here is done! Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen, and good night!" She cracked up and asked why I was quitting. That's where the confluence of events comes in that made this a perfect opportunity for me to be goofy and have some fun. Landing a fish on a first cast is always a thrill, but in this case it was actually a high percentage cast. The narrow end of the lagoon I was fishing has a large, concrete stormwater outlet and with the heavy rains of the past few days a current had formed as water flowed freely into the outlet. That means smaller bait fish will be inevitably be pulled into that area. At the same time, between the far side of the outlet and the bank the water was calm - the perfect area for a bass to ambush from and that's where my first cast hit the bullseye. This area I was fishing was only about 50 feet wide and 100 feet long before it opened into the larger port of the 20 acre lagoon and this narrow passage added to the current. Now when I made that first cast, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Big Gator (9-10 feet long) hanging out in the water just past this inlet over in the main body of the lagoon. Big Gator is a pain in my butt because he's not afraid of humans at all. If you're fishing he'll come within 20 or 30 feet of you and hang out waiting for a free meal. He's relentless and will not leave you alone. If you happen to hook a fish he gets really aggressive and will try and ****** your catch away. It's better not to tempt fate with him around. So seeing Big Gator out there when I let that first cast go I knew he wasn't going to leave me alone. As soon as I hooked something he was guaranteed to close in and ruin the rest of my time fishing. So it was the perfect opportunity to make a one and done grand exit with an audience. Being in a goofy mood I couldn't resist. Hence my "Good night" spiel. But when I approached my car to load my gear I let the woman know the real story of why I was packing up and that I couldn't resist having a bit of fun. Later I hit a few more lagoons and caught a couple of more fish, but nothing over two pounds. Still, it was good to get out there after all of those storms and have a little bit of fun. Sometimes I just crack myself up.

We got almost 5 inches of rain in the past few days, but today the rain has finally stopped! It's still cloudy for the umpteenth day in a row, but the sun returns in a few days. Best of all, temperatures will only be in the mid 80's. It's kind of amazing how much I miss fishing when it's been too stormy to head out there. It won't bother me if I don't catch anything tonight - I'll just be glad to get out there.

Agreed. I was actually thinking of buying a Hyundai Kona last year, but because I can't stand their service department I never pulled the trigger. I usually keep my cars until a costly repair comes up and it makes more sense to purchase a new car rather than make those repairs. My last car was a Volvo S60 that I kept until a nearly $2k sensor went and the car was worth only $5k. FWIW, the car was 12 years old and the sensor was proprietary to the S60 model. I'm not sure why Volvo did that.

Whenever I see the shad busting on the surface I start throwing a mostly white buzzbait, specifically my Strike King Banshee in the Sexy Shad color. That's been my most productive bait for the past month.

So today the dealer calls me and says they found another problem, something about an O2 valve being zip tied and that needed to be replaced as well. The guy on the other end of the phone is kind of stammering, and then I figure out he's trying to ask why I did that because it won't be part of the warranty repairs. I politely told him the last time I worked on my own car I was in high school and I had a '75 Dodge Dart and I knew nothing about today's electronic filled cars. I then reminded him that the dealer had previously replaced a turbo and THEY were the ones that worked on my car. He obviously had not looked at the service records for my car, put me on hold to check them out, then said OK I'll get back to you. I'm still waiting. If their bubble gum fix caused this current problem I might ask them for a new engine.

I'm not a fan of the 90's. The tiniest bit of floating debris will gunk them up. For me, the 110's and 130's did well last year but I haven't had a single strike on a Whopper Plopper this year. Maybe I'll buy a 75 this week and give it a chance.

They make great spinnerbait trailers. Deadly here in the spring.

You could try something like this, or even a gaiter with another hat.

I suppose if it rains any more you might need one of these. I'm not sure what size trolling motor, though...

Bring a buddy who is a decent angler to fish the bank with you. If you both strike out after a few times fishing that location start looking for another place to fish.

It's the same old story here day after day. Sunny and warm until about noon, but with 78% humidity. It clouds up and starts raining at noon, then at 4 pm the thunderstorms roll in and last until nightfall killing any chance of fishing after work. Occasionally I can get in a half hour to an hour of fishing between storms.

That could be, but I will say that other than oil changes and a new set of tires, the only work done on my car has been a handful of warranty items so I'm thankful for that. I have buddies with BMW's and Mercedes and their cars are in the shop a lot more than mine. That being said, my car is a 2013 model that I bought in May 2012 so it's probably time to trade it in later this year while it still has over $10k in trade in value. I got a ridiculous deal on this car when I bought it, put down some cash and financed very little so all in all it has been a pretty good value.

Where are some decent bank fishing spots in the Greenville area. I'm moving to Duncan next month. I'm not big on dink ponds and lakes - I'm looking for quality over quantity.

I spent hours in the dealership today and for the first time in forever they didn't give me a hassle and they confirmed it was still under warranty. That's a relief. While I was waiting for that confirmation I was online shopping for a new vehicle just in case it wasn't covered and I would be on the hook for costly repairs. The day after I initially purchased the car I noticed a high pitched squeal and after some research I found out it was a fuel pump issue that a lot of people were experiencing. Dealers across the country were replacing the fuel pumps. Not mine. They confirmed the noise and the cause and told me I would have to live with it. Imagine driving around hearing nails on a chalkboard all of the time. That's what it was like. I called Hyundai corporate and they told me to drive right back over there and they would take care of it. They did. Another time the sunroof motor quit with the sunroof tilted open. They told me they could look at it in three days and in the meantime wedge something in there in case it rained. The service department manager told me that. Seriously? I called Hyundai and asked them to at least have the service department just close the thing up until they could service it. If I tried to do it and broke the glass or any of the parts it would have voided the warranty. Needless to say they closed it immediately and had it fixed the next day. They were good enough to provide me with a rental car today, a Honda Civic. It's not a bad looking car on the outside and OK on the inside for a stripped down version of the car. But the steering is lousy. I don't know if it's because I'm not used to the smaller, narrow tires or what but there is a ton of play in the steering. I thought it was dynamic steering and that was just at low speed, but there's a ton of play at speed as well. It would be really, really easy to over correct and end up flipping the thing. Thankfully my own car should be ready by Wednesday or Thursday. But I did like the looks of the Hyundai Kona. I may have to investigate that further.

Unortunately, the closest other dealers in the area are an hour or more away depending upon traffic. I've thought about a new vehicle, but it's really nice not having a car payment every month.

I have a 2013 Genesis Coupe that I bought new and a little over a year ago the turbocharger failed. Luckily it was covered under the drive train warranty. Then, this weekend as I'm heading home from fishing I hit the gas, hear the "zhooop" sound followed by the sound of broken turbo blades heading out the exhaust. My guess is that they gave me a refurbished or used turbo last time. The car has only 52K miles on it and it's not like I take it out for track days. Now I get to deal with the service department that 2 out of every 3 times Will deny my warranty issue and force me to call Hyundai HQ to get the matter resolved. It's going to be a lovely Monday...

Thunderstorms all week here. I did manage to get in a few casts in during intervals between storms. Even caught my first 8 pounder - but it was a catfish ?

So, what were your results?

If I were to do it all over again I would probably get the Deeper Pro +, but I'd check out the others as well. The keys for me would be the ability to map areas and then easily recall that data, wide cone, side scanning, trip logging, and the ability to add marker or notes to the maps. If the software doesn't allow the maps to be stitched together I'd like the ability to export them to a graphic image so I could stitch them together myself. I'd also like it to come with torpedoes to fend off the alligators, but that might be asking too much.