Zcoker

It’s been hot down here in Florida, as usual, but I’m still getting a lot of fish. Some days better than others, mostly at night. Which is game-on here in the Florida heat. Fishing at night has turned into a standard for me. Often when I fish into the day and the blinding heat, where the water seems to almost boil, I think to myself that nothing alive is going to be active but instead hiding and waiting for the sun to set. Time to eat!

I have the 13x16, more than enough for my 2 plano boxes. That's about it other than a orange tie down and a rain coat top. I only use four rods, which are stowed on the left side of the box while on the water (one in my hand, three in holders). Any rod on the right side of the box means a snapped tip or some pulled guides from a bad cast. I've leaned my lesson the hard way on that one! Thank goodness for Dobyns quick no fuss replacement warranty!

I hate it. Broke off too many times, some on the cast, some on fish, other times who knows why! If the knots are not spot on, it will break. It will also break on the cast if it gets kinked anywhere on the spool. I've said bye bye many times to my lure along with yards of line. It has no place in the Florida eveglades, imho. Maybe in other places but not on any of my reels down my way. Strait braid is my cup of tea.

I've often thought about these so called tough fishing indicators but I've had many occasions where things were absolutely incredible. For instance, I've had some of my best top water days right after a cold front blue bird sky middle of the afternoon. Same with a full moon, some of the most increadiable action. It's not so much a bad thing to be fishing in ANY situation that's deemed tough because fishing or having a bait in the water is the most important thing of all! I may be fishing in situations that are not ideal but that one hit can make ALL the difference because it's usually a giant bass. If anything, sometimes I think the bigger fish roam around when they're least expected to.

Bass jump like tarpon. Wonder if "bowing to the king" has any relevance here? Have to give that a try one time. Works wonders with tarpon!

The only thing I ever skipped is school lol But a frog will do for me, about it with that. More a underhanded cast, putting the frog in tight places, if it skips at all. Most of the time it's target practice with a regular cast using a 7.3 medium heavy extra fast rod. I fish frogs with a 7.4 heavy fast. My main play is swinging a 2oz tungsten while seated in a kayak, which I've gotten very good at. Can send it anywhere dead center. Takes practice, that's all, along with a bit of determination. Develop your own style and comfort zone and confidence will soon follow, and then all should be good.

I usually run heavier braid on my spinning reels which, by comparison, is still very thin. The heavier line seems to be less prone to wind knots. I try to consciously load the cast which helps maintain firmness from the lure to spool. Often, wind knots come about when the line forms a loop while reeling in with no awareness of it. Then on the next cast, a mess happens. So I always take a quick peek at the spool before casting to make sure no loops are hanging out. I've avoided many disasters by doing that.

Old food saying "When In Doubt, Throw It Out" Might wanna consider that when it comes to your life.

I rarely loose a bass on Ol Monster 12 inch worms. Big worms. Big hooks. 6/0 EWG offset or 7/0. Weightless. Strait braid 50# on a 7-3 med/heavy extra fast rod. Don’t read too much into your age and body mechanics, just fish and let the hardware do the work. I also recommend flattening the barb when worm fishing. Easy out. This worm setup has seen 100 fish days easily, so something must be working!

The fish menagerie can be shattered down here in South Florida based off a series of man-made situations, namely nuking. A place can be a bass fishing paradise one day and then the next day become a dead pool. Going back in memory to those good ‘ol days can be frustrating because it shows just how detrimental spraying is to our fisheries. It’s hard to imagine as good as the fishing is today that it was even better back in the day. But it was! Earth shattering! Fish of a lifetime at every turn, even off the bank. Truly epic. So, yes, if I could go back in time I’d want to be right there living it again!

A good recommendation, but sometimes totally unavoidable in places that have very shallow water like where I fish in Everglades. They coming out of the water no matter what ya do!

Double up on the split rings, which allows twice the rotation and practically eliminates the fish getting any leverage. I find this mod especially helpful on the bigger topwater baits like 130 whopper plopper, chug bugs and the likes.

Lol Like in the movie 'Waterworld' that kite that he ejected for more speed. Something along those lines, I presume....

Only $1100? That's cheap. Try out the MacDaddy at $1 million bucks! Yep, a COOL MILLION. Now we're talkin

Good high quality hooks can make ALL the difference. Most hooks on most lures are not the greatest and simple changes can bring home the bacon. Having a nice high quality rod can also make a big difference as well. Point is, arm yourself with the right tools and pay attention to reconditioning your reflexes. I know a lot of guys that swing for the fences no matter what they use. Hard to break that habit but it is possible.

Here’s how shallow works out on the glades. Quite the handful.

Shallow is as shallow does. Welcome to the everglades! Not much of a choice out there, summer or not. If I do find deeper water, I still fish the edges, the shallow edges, which can be mere inches in certain spots. For the most, I always look to merge the two, shallow and deep, fishing one or the other in close proximity.

I think it’s easy to confuse intuition with being in the right place at the right time. In general, I rely more on common sense.

Happy wife is a happy life. My wife doesn’t have to get drunk to tell me to clean up my mess! I can buy what I want, but I usually get her something as well. QVC also helps! Balance is the key.

I know quite a few folks who say they don’t play the lottery because it’s gambling but I bet if they played it and won 20 million bucks they’d change their beat instantly! FFS is kinda like that. Some anglers don’t wanna use it but if they won a big tournament with it they’d be dancing in the street!

I reckon you'd either have to know by sound what it was or to have clearly seen it. Hard to say what it was by guessing. I know out in the glades the bass make a distinct sound when busting top water. Same with the gators. I can easily discern in the dark where the fish are feeding just by knowing the sound they make.

You know, sometimes altering the routine will add much more stamina. I mostly fish at night during the summer months because down here in south Florida it gets HOT! Not many can prevail in 100 plus degree heat, I don't care how young and in shape they are. Not only that, we get wicked afternoon lightening storms that don't discriminate when they strike. Don't have to fish all night, either. Can fish the wee hours into daybreak or the late afternoon hours toward midnight. Point is: if something isn't working, try something else.

No 10 for me. My top 5 baits, all big: 130 Plopper Custom made jitterbug Custom made spinnerbait Big blade chatterbait 12" worm (day use only)

30 is young yet! Hard to say why so much effort with you. Might be a medical issue rearing it's ugly head? Hope not. I'm about twice that and have been known to fish 2 days strait, sometimes 3. I fish the everglades solo all night long from sun down to sun up well into mid day. No issues yet. Tomorrow I start fishing a new area mid morning and will finish up next day. I fish the daytime to get the layout of the land and then attack once it gets dark. All in the head.

@Texas Flood oh no, busted! lol reminds me of the movie Jaws, when those kids were swimming with a shark fin over their heads.