FD.

BPS only if I have a long list. Gambler for my soft plastic and bullet weights. Several great local mom and pops shops. I actually prefer to shop here even if it is more. Support your local tackle shop. They are there at 6am when you need them.

What boca said X2. You don't have any knots to worry about..

I use the double uni knot to tie braid to anything else..

Why use braid? So you can get you baits back for one. I use braid in stained water for rattle traps too. The braid will cut through grass better than mono. The line actually acts like and saw and you have less hangups.

Put your rod and reel in the boat. Put you bait bucket in the boat. Stop at the bait shop. Put your bait bucket down near the live bait. Pay the man at the counter. Shiners magically appear in your bait bucket!

I would fish the 9th st canal with a curly tail worm, 1/8 weight pegged and light line as slowly as you can stand it. Or just west of the canal on the shell bar. From the mouth of 9th st canal work as far off the grass as you can cast with crank bait or rattle trap and when you start bringing up shells you are in the right place. I would put in at Venetian Gardens, N end of Harris, and I would not do it until 9 am. Venetian is only about 1/4 from 9th st. The bite is tough and the big females were not in the canals saturday and with the cold fronts moving thru....well....good luck. Actually warmers advice is probably the best, now that I think about it. Harris is a tough nut to crack, I have been trying to crack it for a year now with very little success. Be carefull and watch the weather closely because Harris is a BIG water lake and can get dangerous quickly.

vruter, Welcome to the forum. I will be fishing the K this weekend and will probably target eel grass in 4-6' of water off the Kissimmee grass with a rattle trap or a paddle tail worm in the pads in 3-4' feet. A cold is pushing thru right now and another one scheduled to get here Saturday so who knows what it will do to the fishing. My best advice is to PM rollo and ask him. He lives on Walk In Water and is the resident expert.

I have fished 14 days out of the last 30......so fishing is how I fill the winter months

Another tip for braid. When it begins to fade badly, I will spool it off one reel directly onto another reel. This puts the faded part as the "backer" and the never seen the light of day braid on the outside of the spool.

Nice fish guys!

X10 - this is the most incredible group that I have even seen assembled...

Harris out of Buzzard Beach Sat 1/12/08 Air 65-80 Water Mid 60s Heavy fog until 11 am then PC Wind of of SW at 10 1 fish at 8 am on zell torpedo 2lbs Lots of small bucks up in the canals but no large females... Missed 1 on a rattle trap at the 19 bridge, another one 5 min later on a junebug worm in 6' off grass points. Tough day overall. 40 boats, 12 and change won the tourney with Big fish under 6.

What Dale said X 2. I have Hot Spots Maps available for the lakes I fish. I keep them in a tupperware box on the boat at all times. You can fish a lake 100 times, have the best GPS mapping cards availabe and you can still learn something from a paper map.

I have 3 cranks that are my favorites- Shallow water over Hydrilla ect..Rapala J-11 in golden shiner. I crank in down to the top of the grass and twitch or rip in through the grass. It produced the most fish by far this year with 3 over 5#s. Its only drawback is that it is light and you have to use lighter gear to cast it very far. 5 to 10' and around timber or docks - Bomber 6A Firetiger. I pitch this crank more than cast and I go through a lot of them. pitch it under docks or into laydown trees that are exposed. Crank and twitch until you hit something and pause and hang on. 8.31 lbs out of a huge tree in 3 ft of water. You have to work it slow and make accurate pitches and be prepared to lose or break a lot of them. Same technique with a DD 22 got me a 10-8 out of 5' deep water this year(see photo to the left). I use heavy braid when doing this. I believe these heavy structure fish are usually resident fish and don't see many cranks because most people are scared to throw them. Deeper water (in fl that means 15') or on large flats or shell bars I like the Spro Aruka Shad in golden shiner on 30# braid. You can cast this thing a mile and it sinks quickly so you can work a lot of water.

I ordered some a few weeks ago just to try...In florida we have a lot of snakes so they should work. I would think in LA they would work, particularly the black.

LSU- 42 OSU- 17 The SEC beatdown - round 2

I was not around fro the '07 predictions, but here is how I did. Bought my first bass boat in March, a 17.5 triton. Entered my first tournament in March. Weighed in for the first time in April. Caught my first LMB over 5 in April. Watched Josh weigh his first tourney fish in June. Got married ( to a fisherwoman) in July Caught my first LMB over 10 in July (on my honeymoon). Caught my first Spotted Bass in July Cashed my first tourney check in August (big fish 8.31 lbs). Upsized my boat to a Stratos 201 pro in Sep Spent Turkey Day vacation with my family catching lots of fish. Watched Taylor catch her first double, first spotted, first LMB on artificials and finally in DEC she caught a 5.5 lber on a worm that she picked out herself, paid for with her money, rigged, and made a perfect cast on a point, great hookset, and an awesome fight. All I did was net it. Spent hundreds of hours on the water with my Wife and kids doing something we all love. Over all an AWESOME year of fishing. Man, I love Florida

Since it's only Jan 7 and I already have a 6.5 lber I'm going to aim high this year. Break my LMB PB of 10-8, 2 over 12 will do nicely. Striper over 20 lbs 5 fish limit over 25 lbs

Sorry guys posted the wrong photo the first time...long day

ghoti made the trip from the cold frozen north yesterday. Today we made a trip to Harris for some fl toads. It was a slow bite and he missed a few including a break off...I told him to pack some braid... Anyway here is the one I managed to get in the boat despite his attempt to knock it off with the net. She went 6.5 lbs Note to Muddy- Don't be calling a man while he is trying to fish, that is just plain rude. Note to Avid- borrow your pants back from your wife and go fishin with the man.

Harris Chain out of Buzzard Beach Jan 6 Air 55-80 water 56 Heavy fog until 11 am with light wind lots of flippin grass lines in 4-6' water 1 bite 1 hookset 1 6.5 lber ghoti had several misses and 1 break off

Nice day of fishing!

Lake gibson ramp is behind 5 guys burger and fries- Starbucks on Socrum Loop rd, its a county ramp with parking for about 10 rigs. The majority of the lake is about 8' with some shallow sandbars near shore. There is a deep hole 25' on the NW end and 12' in the eastern most cove. This lake is very clear for florida, 4-6' visibility. I have seen a lot of large bass in the pads near shore in 3-5' of water with no bites. The only fish I have caught out of there in the last 2 weeks was on a shallow crank over a shell bar at sunset. I have been told that red shad and black zoom trick worms work but that remains to be seen. Don't worry about saddle creeks rep. I fish there at night and all day and have been doing so for over a year with no problems. Shiney Red shad worms, J-11 rapala in root beer, firetiger 6a crank, rattletraps in bleeding shad or silver/black have been working lately. Fish the submerged Hydrilla points in 4-6 feet of water next to drop offs. I have caught several fish over 5 lbs out of there last year with seven fish over 2 lbs in 1 hr last spring. As a family we have a 3.5, 4, and a 5.5 lber since xmas eve.

I'm with avid. Just buy a license, it can't be more than 10 dollars then you have nothing to worry about. On the subject of wardens..I have been stopped and checked 3 times this year. Once on Harris, once on Kissimmee, and once on Istokpoga. All 3 times they were very professional. All I had to do was produce the required coast guard gear and a license and I was on my way again.

Fish with braid with your rod tip up. When you see the strike drop your rod tip and reel up the slack just like worm fishing and then a short but hard hook set. I also use an attractant so they hold it a little longer.