warmer

i dont miss fish as a result of lead in the body, if you are concerned about it you can use wire saudering material and that will hug pretty tightly to the hooks.

there is no question that cheating is wrong. absolutely none. BUT i have to say that i am shocked by the self-righteous tone of the thread in general. time for a few of you who wouldnt claim the bible as authority to just chill out and think reasonably about it. for those who would, go read matthew 5 again. cheating is ultimately a lie to protect or advance yourself, and none of you im sure ever lie about anything, so you couldnt possibly relate. tying up a fish is an obvious and desperate cheating move. but how about culling a dead fish? ever been tempted? not even for a moment? if you cant relate on that level, let me ask you this. ever seen a beautiful woman that made you forget your wife, even for a split second? or this. client calls, "hey, i really need this job done today, are you going to be able to pull it off?" you reply, "im just covered up right now, and should have it first of the week." "im having a hard time hearing you, is that wind in the background," they ask. "oh, yeah it is, i just stepped outside for a bit." you say as you put down the rod and huddle behind the seat to get out of the wind. i am glad when cheaters get caught for the sake of fairness. i am sad for them because "there but for the grace of god, go i" or for you non bible types, i can relate to the temptation to cheat to get what isnt mine through some type of deception. a lie is a lie is a lie. word

true that george, i have often found that the high noon high sun toad bite is as good as any bite on the lake at that time.

i wrap lead on the hook of the frogs to add weight for casting distance. i find it necessary with the scum frog bigfoot, and beneficial for other hollow bodied frogs.

yozuri is my favorite around grass. red eye if you want to keep them hooked up. and rat-l-trap if you expect to catch a lot of gar and chain pickerel, because who cares if the finish is gone in two casts on a rat-l-trap, it wasnt going to take long anyway.

you should in no way feel bad. if i am not in a tournament, i throw every gut hooked fish in the well until it is either upright and peppy or rolled up on its side. if it is on its side, out comes the fillet knife. at the end of a the year. i have a nice collection of unfortunates in the freezer, and have a little fish fry. there is some value to harvesting largemouth. even with all the pressure on the lakes, the majority of bass fisherman are catch and release, while the flotillas of fisherman parked right over the top of the shell-cracker and spec hatches haven't released a fish in their living memories. im not sure what the balance is like in your lake, but if you can find out it would be worth knowing, and harvesting a few bass now and again is, as likely as not, a very good thing for the health of the lake. a nice easy recipe! Bass salt pepper vegetable oil 2cups flour 1 cup corn meal 1 ziploc freezer bag milk 8 fillets Combine salt, pepper (as much or as little as you like) flour, and corn meal in the ziploc bag. Shake well. Place fillets in a bowl full of milk. Let sit for 1 to 2 minutes. Place fillets one at a time in ziploc and shake well. Place 2 fillets in a frying pan with the vegetable oil, and fry until golden brown. Serve and enjoy. Makes 4 servings.

i for one love cheating when it comes to balderdash and taboo, and maybe a little scrabble now and then. only when, of course, im clearly outmatched. but certainly when money was on the line at a tourny, id never do it.... but i can conceive of a scenario, and i know you will probably not like this, that i would stash a fish or two in a "friendly" buddy "tournament" and would use them, and then let everyone in on the gag. lets say on my local pond, i go out the night before and i know that a few of my friends and i are going to have a friendly competition the next day. i catch a huge fish, i might wrap a little netting around the dock and toss a fish inside it, and then scoop her up the next day just to wow the crew. if youll notice the charge was for possession over the limit. i guess i dont see the harm if you dont harm the fish. tethering them to the bank seems like high stress and mortality possibility, so itd have to be a better method of containment.

if "local tournament" = payout less than $1000 if 3 hours run @18-20 gph @$4.00 - $216 - $240 if 20-22lbs = not guaranteed "local tournament" + 3 hours run + finicky fish = find something closer to the ramp, you are running by lots of fish.

kissimmee. sat. 10th. tournament out of camp mac fishing was better than it has been for awhile. culled 2 fish by 8:30. fishing inside grass lines in 2-4 ft. couldnt really get it going w/ the flipping bite, so still casting toad and worms. lost a 5lber that would have improved us to 15lbs, but not to the money. it took 16.5 to cash a check, with 2 bags over 20lbs. flipping in kissimmee was tough. not sure where the weight came from, but most boats headed north. out of camp mack, so im suspicious open water is producing the big bite. ended the day with 13lbs.

hey firehawk5 i dont know if you have already fished there or not. but lee is right. the bite is off shore 90% of the time. dragging worms out on the bar is about your best bet. - between the narrow point of the "hourglass" to the north section of the lake, there is lots of wood on the bottom (i never fish it). - on the west side of the lake about 200 yds north of the old double that stands out from the shore north toward the boat dock w/ a red roof there is a "hump" that drops off either side... there was a lot of "gunk" on it last year, but if its cleared up there are some clam beds on there that produce some fish. - "the bar" between the point on the south east of the lake across to about 100yds north of the double dock on the west shore there is a bar that comes up to 8ft in places and drops off either side... the fish seem to be on the north side of the bar. the smaller fish but better numbers are usually on sticks if you can find them or grass, but the bigger fish are on sand, and totally random... good luck.

nicely done gobbledog, i was in the same tourny as lee up there ^. it was a tough tourny for many. we caught small limits both days... under a two pound average, and it was good enough for 21st place out of the 117. i found one little area with dirty hydrilla behind an inside grass line that had little keepers in it and they were toad hungry... other than that it was flipping grass around bird, inside and out. in good news. and gobbledogs post struck the chord, ive been out in auburndale for a few days at lake arrietta, and the fish are hungry... big post spawn fish... and if you time it right you can get them to come up and eat a topwater in 12-15 feet of water. saturday i got a 7lber 2 5lbers 2 4lbers and about 15 more in the 2lb class. this morning i went out and threw topwater for an hour and caught a 6lber, a 4lber, and about 4 little keepers.

there are always two sides to the story. who knows what that guy had going on. i recently ruined a co-anglers day. i thought i filled my tank, so i reset my fuel flow to 50 gallons... ran around for a week, and had only used 25, so i thought i had 25 left... turned out it was 15, as i found out about a mile from the weigh in with 5 minutes to go. no time to flag a ride. he was fishing for points in the series. bad day for him. man i felt bad. but isnt all this the risk you run as a non-boater. its truly the luck of the draw. ive never seen a tournament with a draw/team format. is this a local club or something?

rolo, the bite throughout the chain seems "off" in my estimation. a couple people are on a solid bite in these tournaments, but the falloff is quick, and a lot of people are all but blanking. i hear people say pressure is what does it with all the people from low water level lakes pounding it. i dont know if i buy it.

gobbledog, have you seen all the spraying they have done @ toho... oh my, i hear it put the skids on an offshore bite. solid post spawn patterns at kissimme... bass in grass inside and out, not much size, but plenty of bites. flipping creatures and jigs.

flipping/pitching post spawn areas took the tournaments last weekend. although this moon may pull another wave up, worth a look.

monte goodman is a good guide close to tampa http://centralfloridaangling.com/guide2.htm or you could just pay me lots of money to take you out, but im all artificials

good report! re: kissimmee... apparantly in addition to some spraying @ philidelphia point and extensive spraying @ the point to the north of tiger cove, it looks like everything south of grape hammock to the locks has been sprayed... WHY OH WHY? we need our man rolo on this.... what is the fwc justification? what happens to all that fry, and forage? i know the bass are gone from the area.

if your co-angler splits the gas with you right? cause if you are burning through only $70 for an hour of running 80 i need to change motors. 225 merc opti on a 20'6" stratos i burn: 20gph @ 72mph 15gph @ 60mph 10gph @ 45-50mph

answer: watching kvd run a triton the last day. market exposure at that level is significantly more valuable, and if it werent we wouldnt have any fishing to watch on t.v.

once they top about 10 or 11 they all start looking the same to me... my "ballpark" guessed get worse and worse. maybe its because ive never brought in one that big. that "orange grove pond" looks more like a lake to me... and it could be one of about any dishpan lake in polk county.

you and close to 40% of everybody playing.

bobby won at potomac flipping grass last year, he did well in deep water at the classic... im thinking hes gonna have the versatility to keep it up... maybe im biased... lakeland represent!

im in central florida, and i almost always try to limit early. my reasons are: -if im fishing a series for points especially, 10 pounds on 5 2 pounders, and the points that come with it is a whole lot better than the comfort of lifting one 7 pounder and telling stories about the other ones that broke of or just wouldnt take it right. - my limit fish are raw weight, so they are the most important... -the bite (at least after it warms up and stays warm) is strong early, so for sheer numbers thats the time to get it. -there are some big ones moving around w/ those 2 pound limit fish, i may get lucky. limit, then upgrade.

cent florida: bluegill are beginning to bed... hear em popping? im thinking topwater plugs and frogs... jigs w/ that splash of blue or purple are just around the corner

opposite of what? humility? are you a scientologist by any chance? brother man, i am confident you are very good w/ a rod in your hand, and i do hope that your manner is far less self-congratulatory and prideful than it translates in the medium of typed word, but i would guess that were i your non-boater i would be tempted to smile and nod counting the minutes when i didnt have to hear your stats and advice.