Fishing_FF

Well, it took about forever to get a hold of the Deeper Pro+ but I see why my friend didn't want to give it up. The thing is sweet. I took it to Turkey Lake today. There is a section at the south end of the lake where an dock use to be until Hurricane Irma came through. I've seen the pilings, even fished them. I threw the Deeper out that way. I was surprised to find the pilings are in 14 feet of water, and it even showed fish suspended at 6 foot. I knew it was a little deeper there as it takes forever for a weightless stickbait to sink, but would have never guessed it was that deep 15 ft from the shore. I decided to test to see if I could get one of the 3 fish it showed in the area. I tied on a LC Flash Pointer and went to work. Sure enough, as the jerkbait passed by the piling, I got a hit. It was a near 6 pounder. I did find a big downside, the Deeper is quite heavy. It gave my St. Croix Mojo Inshore heavy rod a run for it's money.

+1 Original bags unused, and zip lock bags for used. I once stored a black and blue laminate, a cream white, and chartreuse pepper in the same bag. The laminate lighten up a tad, but the white became a light blue then light green and then a light yellow color and the chartreuse became a neon green with black flakes. They fished fine, got tore up like a Senko. Tackle is removed and rinsed to minimize rusting, and everything is stored inside the house because hot Florida days in the garage destroy fishing gear (think pictures of melted Z-man plastics and swollen, warped Scott Martin crank baits and jerkbaits).

I wanted to like it. I mean after all, what should be better on my Shimano reels than braid manufactured under the Shimano name?

Chain pickerel or as we call them down here "jackfish" because they are always jacking up our jerk baits and crank baits. I was pre fishing a tournament on Lake Cypress either this week with a friend, and he caught one about that size (maybe slightly bigger).

+1 I have two different versions of the Glacier Gloves (Ascension and Islamorada) as well as the Columbia PFG gloves. The GGs have held up with machine washing, while the Columbias say spot clean only. I like the Islamoradas a bit more, less synthetic leather and more palm feel of the rod.

I haven't caught any fish to date on the Whopper Plopper with a straight retrieve or even the start stop retrieve. I was so frustrated with it that I stopped throwing it. I mean, the WP is suppose to be this awesome fish catcher and I was getting squat. While out with a friend who fishes FLW tournaments, he saw the WP in my topwater box and said that would be a great lure to through. I laughed and said, "Yeah, no confidence in it." He told me to work it like a Spook walking the dog or like a prop bait with short pops. He's never steered me wrong. When I walked the dog with the WP, it got crushed. Its my primary method of retrieve for the WP now.

My Whopper Plopper 90s are thrown on a MF spinning rod that is rigged with 30lb braid. There is a ball bearing swivel connection between the braid and lure. I know some have had issues with the 90s nose diving, but the pair I have run level for straight retrieve or walking the dog.

I too have a job because of dumb people. They pay for my house, my vehicles, my kids' school, food on the table, and for all my fishing tackles, so.......

I've used original PowerPro, PowerPro Slick 8, and Suffix 832. I've used them all in both 10lbs and 30lbs test. The PP 10# and 30# are great lines with 30# being a go to getting fish out of pads. As a bank fisher and someone looking to get that extra edge with casting distance, I tried 8 carrier braid. PPS8 in 30# worked well, but the 10# had significant issues with the wind and weightless/ultralight tackle. The 10# PPS8 is the only line that I've had problems with line twist and wind knots. I've thrown the same tackle and in worse wind conditions on PP and 832 without any problems. PP and 832 weave seems to be more round, whereas the PPS8 especially in 10# seems to be more of a flat weave. Its the only thing I can think that would cause the issues.

I use EWG 5/0 hooks for similar items as @Mike L has listed. Gambler Big EZ 6" Yamamoto Senkos 6" Gambler Float Worms 7" Gambler Fat Ace 10" Berkley Powerbait Worms

Welcome fellow Floridian!!!

It is tripled or thirded? Drop shot for drop shot rigs and wacky rigs. EWG for T-Rigs, C-Rigs, and weedless drop shot rigs. Beast hooks for swimbaits. I have to carry my gear, so minimized for weight.

Sweet.....yeah, those spinnerbaits are small and don’t look like much, but they outperform the Stanley’s, Revenge’s, and River-2-Sea’s spinners I have.

Why Florida? There aint no bass here. I assure you the stories for double digit bass are greatly exaggerated. Fake new and photoshop. Plus, we have winter here. We have had our cold, rainy, and/or cloudy days. If you want fish, sun, and warmth, Florida isn't the place.

I don't usually get the opportunity to fish a lot at night, so most of my fishing is done early mornings until late mornings. @N Florida Mike is spot on with his advice. I use the same pattern/methodology. Top water, starting just before the first light. I've had some great hits as the first rays are cresting the horizon. Once the temp starts to heat up, I'll switch to Senkos (wacky rigged if no/light vegetation or weightless T-rigged in the thicker grass) or weighted T-rigged ribbon tails (usually in the 7" or 10" sizes). I'm mostly bank fishing ponds and lakes, so not doing much skipping under docks. The target is shadows, vegetation, and holes within my casting distance on these ponds and lakes. There have been times I've lost track of the time, and caught fish past the noon hour on the hot Florida days using this targeting method.

Welcome fellow Floridian!

^^This! I've fished a lake that by Al Linder's water clarity chart would be deemed dirty/murky, but the fish were only hitting watermelon colors. Then on Friday, I fished a lake with some decent visibility, light stain with clear sunny skies. In the couple hours I was out there, I caught 11 and lost 4 more trying to flip them in (bank fish so don't carry a net). They were all caught on green pumpkin or junebug, which according to the color charts are cloudy or dirty. As Catt said, "Bass don't read charts!"

Because I fish and I'm a firefighter.

Yes, I wanted to like the FishHunter. It has 5 tri-frequency that allows the app to show a combination downscan and sidescan type image. Like a traditional downscan, it will show the fish and their depth under the transducer, but it also shows fish left and right of the transducer with their depth and distance from the transducer. I was told if I could get the FishHunter to work, I could keep it, so had plenty of incentive. My friend said he would buy another one. I would just have to setup his up. I believe he now has a Deeper Pro+. I'll call him to see if I can borrow it this weekend if he isn't using it. Got a boat rental this weekend at Turkey Lake, so I could test it out there.

FishHunter is the product market by Lowrance. You would think with Lowrance at the helm of a fish finder, it would be a great product. However, it has been rendered useless since the app no longer works. A friend gave me one after he got frustrated with not being able to get the device to connect to his phone. I tried without success. I contacted Lowrance and Navico (parent company of Lowrance and who original made the FishHunter), but never got any response to multiple calls and emails. Amazon and the iTunes App Store are full of reviews similar stories of non-working apps and no customer service responses. I probably should have started there. I gave the FishHunter back to my friend, and when I asked what he did with it, he said it works well as a paperweight.

Thanks @J Francho! Cuts like a Lake Fork swimbait makes sense. I’ll try that vs one with the top part of the tail removed to see which has better action. I loose too many Sick Fish to creatures like gar, turtles, catfish, bowfin, and even cormorants that loosing Trash Fish would just hurt the wallet a bit too much. @fishwizzard, I use the Berkley Sick Fish when I want a smaller swimbait. The big swimbaits I throw include GY Heart Tail and Keitechs Swing Impacts, but for whatever reason, the smaller Sick Fish get hit by fish and other creatures. Sure, I’ve lost a Heart Tail or Swing Impact to something other than a bass, but I’ve never pulled in a small gator or cormorant on one. The smaller ones (3”) seem to be softer than the bigger ones (4”), but don’t have any of the 5.5”to compare them to. Also, I’ve noticed the more part and detail on a Sick Fish, the stiffer they are due to the extra paint.

I use the Berkley Sick Fish and have always just cut of the top tail part to make it more like a traditional paddletail swimbait. I’m curious about your cuts. Do you by chance have a photo of on that you’ve modified? Thanks!

There are 4 options for kayak rental places that I know of: Peace of Mind Kayak Tours - Winter Park lake chain. This would probably be one of the better options as you have multiple lakes to try. They offer both sit-in and sit-on kayaks. Weikiva/Weikiwa River Kayak Rentals - This is a spring feed river. The plus is with the current it becomes an easy paddle. The downside is it go from very clear water, 6-8 feet in spots, down to murky, muddy stuff with 6 inches of visibility. Westgate Lake Resorts - Sand Lake. You may want to call this one as they were talking about limiting rentals only to guest staying on property. Shingle Creek Kayak Rentals - Shingle Creek and Lake Toho. This place can be a spawning bass gold mine when the time is right. However, it is a trek to get down to Toho, and you'll have to fight the current to get back to the outpost. Just like any body of water in Florida could contain a double digit bass, they can also contain alligators. You may or may not see them. Attacks are rare, and usually involve a gator that is being feed or that someone has been feeding. I would beg to differ on any lake surrounded by development not having many if any gators in them. This photo is of a 5-6 foot beside a drainage creek that goes into Lake Underhill. On the other side of the fence is a divided 4 lane road. The the north is the Orlando Executive Airport, to the west is downtown Orlando, and to the south and east are multiple housing communities. I was checking to the creek to see if the bass were spawning or staging about a month ago. It was empty, perhaps because of this:

It was good to meet up with @N Florida Mike for fishing. I definitely got pushed out of my normal fishing element. Gone were the open to light pine covered banks for lots of docks and overhanging oaks. The fish were also very particular, wanting a strict watermelon deadsticked. Watermelon aren't a big producer for me around the Orlando area, where I seem to do better with green pumpkins, junebug, and blacks with blues. Yep, they wanted none of my typical central Florida colors. Funny thing was the lake we fished was more on the dirty side than clear, which left me scratching my head why they keyed only on watermelon. Yet, once again these Florida bass show they set the rules. The fish from the photo was a great fighter. She bullied like an 8-9 pounder, and was surprised to see she was a little smaller when Mike got her in the boat. It was a great time, and I'm thankful for the community of good people like Mike that make up with forum.