GobbleDog

With my luck, some smart-*** would find it - "Just calling to say thanks for my new $20 lure. By the way, are you blind or something? What the hell were you casting at? Man, you stink!" ...click.

Has anyone ever called?

Anchor up, stand on the back of the boat, and fish down-wind, but when it gets upwards of 20+ mph I'll start looking for sheltered areas. It's difficult to feel the worm bite when the wind gets that strong, not to mention keeping the bait in one place. I agree with Rondef about keeping the rod tip down to keep the bait still.

Rapala Super Shad Rap ticking off-shore grass.

Over the past 5 years or so, I've noticed a big reduction of hydrilla in a lot of lakes throughout Orlando that used to be chocked full of it. Lakes like Fairview, Killarny, and Jesmine come to mind. Even Lake Conway doesn't seem to have as much as it used to and the hydrilla that is there is kinda mushy and seems like it's dying. I don't know for sure that all those lakes have sprayed, but something's going on. As a fisherman who thrives on off-shore hydrilla fishing, I ain't very happy about it.

"The Chicken Rig" A normal T-rig with sliding bullet weight (10" curly tail) with another worm hook tied 2 feet above (4" curly tail). That's it. It's a pain to cast because the two worms swirl around during the cast, so it works best when casting WITH the wind into off-shore grass. The idea was the big worm gets down in the grass while the small worm swims a foot above. I noticed 75% of the fish I caught would hit the smaller worm on top. I tried mixing it up with senkos and other worms, but none worked nearly as well as the 10" curlytail on bottom and 4" curlytail on top. When my fishing partner first saw it, he looked at me and said "what the hell is that? It looks like a d**n chicken rig!" referring to the salt-water rig with numerous hooks and baits attached to one line. I rarely use it much anymore, but when times are tough - the chicken rig is ready. 8-)

You da man Rolo! BTW - did you happen to see any hydrilla the last time you were there? I'm going down to practice in two weeks and I'll report back what I find.

luck

Never fished this lake before and I've got a two-day club tourney down there in a few weeks. Anyone fish this lake? Got any information on the vegetation, water clarity, or depth? :-/

Sorry for 'jerk' in my comment - too much red wine while posting that. Still not ashamed that we trespassed years ago in order to fish those ponds. Never did it on somebody's residence, just behind businesses or vacant lots. It's impossible to get permission, so we just went for it. If you're not willing to risk it, that's your decision. We chanced it and caught monster bass. The only time we ever saw a cop he said "I hate to do it, but I have to ask yall to leave." If I owned a vacant lot and saw two clean-cut guys putting a canoe in, I gaurantee I'd let em fish. But that's me. Unfortunately, not everyone is that way as shown in this thread.

To all the youngsters here; DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS TIS IS THE SINGLE WORST POST I HAVE EVER READ HERE! You are teaching kids it's ok to brak the law, thats plain irresponsible. You're right mud, I'm sorry. Hey youngsters, all those ponds you see that are full of big bass and you want to fish them?!?!? Too dang bad. Jerks like Muddy and Pond Hopper will call the police if they see you trying to fish them. Life sucks, get used to it. Better? :-?

I wouldn't fish somebody's private pond in their backyard, but hell yes I used to launch my canoe behind businesses that had lake frontage or an empty lot or pretty much wherever I could find access, ACCEPT walking right next to someone's house - that's the only thing I wouldn't do. You have to take risks if you want to fish it bad enough. Luckily, I had enough stones to try em. Some of the biggest bass I ever caught came from those little ponds. From my experience, you'd have to meet the biggest a-h*le cop in the entire world to actually get arrested.

It's usually easier to get forgiveness than permission. Back in the day before I had a bass boat, me and my fishing partner would strap a canoe to the roof every weekend and head out to any little pond that we'd seen that week. I got kicked out of a couple lakes, but most of the time we rarely had any problems. Good times.

No joke here. I once pre-fished a lake that I'd never fished before and while I was looking for my own spots I came upon a few boats who were tournament fishing and cluttered together in small area, so I pinged their spot. I went back a week later during my tournament and caught some fish there. Nothing wrong with that. Obviously that's not something you can rely on, but when it comes to fishing a totally new lake - I'll take all the help I can get.

Exactly what I was thinking. Big line on a heavy action rod was the reason he could get away with ripping it through the grass like that. I don't use lipless crankbaits often, but watching KVD do it so effectively on my home lake has caught my attention.

Jap lures are expensive to begin with, but with the US dollar falling as much as it has those prices have gotten even worse.

I'm amazed he did so well working that off-shore hydrilla with a lipless crankbait. I assume he was using a heavy action rod to rip that bait through the grass like that without getting fouled every cast. Strike King's Red Eye Shad, Sexy Shad color:

Even in the hot summer days, I rarely ever turn in a dead fish. Keeping the live wells running works fine.

Many years ago when I started bass fishing, I asked my nephew round up some lizards in the yard to use as bait - seemed like a good idea at the time. When I got to the lake, I started to hook one through his mouth, but little critter went crazy spinning his head around and biting my fingers. It didn't hurt, but it freaked me out. After that I didn't have the heart to hook him. So I taped him to a hook instead and cast him out. His little legs were kicking and started swimming along the top until something finally came up and ate him, but I didn't hook up. In hindsite it was probably a crappy. I let the rest of them go and that was the end of my lizard fishing days. Poor little lizards.

I was told that if ducks live on it then bass are sure to be in it. What would be the connection between ducks and bass? Unless they're thinking bass eggs will stick to the duck's feet and get transfered there, but that's true of any bird, turtle or gator.

For reasons not to do with fishing... I don't know about Kissimmee, but I was in Toho last Sunday and the water level was fine. Full of hydrilla and plenty of big bass.

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Florida lakes ain't as pristine as they once were. I wouldn't eat anything from any of our lakes. Fertilizer, street runoff, and lord knows what else. Not to mention the giant leaches which are visible on the roofs of their mouths. Gimme a good mai-mai anyday. A young fish, out in the ocean blue, clean clear meat...

25. Have you ever had conflict with other users of the fishery/water (i.e. anglers targeting other species, jet skiers, recreational boaters)?

Like a lot of Florida anglers, I worm fish almost exclusively. I don't know squat about swimbaits. The only thing I know after throwing my first swimbait last Sunday was that if you don't reel painfully slow, they swim sideways. Anyone consistently catch fish with them? What are the finer points to fishing these cartoonish-looking baits? :-?