central_fl_fishin

I use a hose on all my reels after saltwater use. Just a gentle spray. Never had any problems. I do oil them up every few months or so.

Has anyone here experienced the phosphor glow in the idian/bannana river at night? Was out last weekend late and it was just plain spooky!

It's angle + cranking speed. Sharper angle = deeper at the same cranking speed as shallow angle. Increase the speed and sharper angle dives deeper. If you go slow any angle will go shallower.

I have tried fireline. The problem I found with it is that it has a waxy feel and leaves my thumb with a black color, almost like it's coated with something. I am not saying it's not good, just that it has a very chemically coated weirdness to it. And it seems to retain the spool contour. Not "threadlike" like PP which is like smooth thread.

I was using PP (red) braid this weekend in Mosquito lagoon. Got hung up and actually reeled the boat in (20ft Sea Pro w/135 merc.) slowly towards the mangrove stump to unhook. I have been using PP for years and the only time I break off is when I cut it.... Just sayin...

I like the bass assassin electric chicken shads. They are bubblegum/green.

Here's the rig setup.

I was fishing them florida rigged with a 1/8oz bullet pegged 1/4 inch up. I was thinking about going weightless tomorrow over the pads.

I was in the tackleshop the other day and picked up some soft plastic zoom 6" lizards. Being from central Florida I figured since there are 100 lizards per square foot around here it might be a good choice. So I called in sick yesterday and went out to one of my favorite lakes. I figured that casting under the dock might be a realistic place that lizards would be likely to fall into the water. First cast and BAM! got a nice 2lb'er. Walked around the bank and had good luck too under the cypruss. Anyone else use lizards? I don't hear about it much and was wondering.

small beetle spins or breadballs on a bream hook.

I have caught and eaten quite a few black drum that had worms hen cleaning. I try and cut them out of the fillets if it's too bad I use em as chum. I am sure anything bad was killed during cooking. Never got sick or anything but ya, it's not cool when u see it. Depends on how much beer you drank before preparing I guess.?

I have Daiwa's and the Curado 200E7, I really like the Daiwa's, but..I think the Curado is a bit smoother. I find myself using it a bit more. But both are great reels. That's a tough decision. Use a magic 8 ball.

Calcutta 200b.

Yes, a loose drag is best when not fishing. Leaving the drag tight maintains compression on the drag washers. When they are loose they stay like this () when tight they compress like this ||. Leving them tight reduces the strength over time.

I fish reds (almost twice monthly) from mosquito lagoon to sebastian. I find it alot like bass fishing except instead of worms I use plastic shads. Topwater rapalas like the skitters work good too. Had some luck on spinners. If you can find them while they are feeding in the morning of by tide you can catch them on almost anything, just like bass. Reds are much more tastier than bass though. (yes, I eat bass of the right size, hehe) ;D

If your starting out and want to try something to get a feel for worm fishing in general, I would start with a 7" grape/black or dark blue curly tail, t-rigged with a 1/4 oz bullet.

I have always wanted a Curado, but always settled for what were reviewed as just as good FW bass reels for less. I own and use weekly Daiwas, Abu's and Pfluegers.... For my birthday my parents went ahead and got me the Curado 200E7. Yesterday I went out and got some 20lb PP braid, spooled it up and hooked up my usual florida rigged 1/4oz 7" grape culprit worm rig. The first cast went at least 10 yards further than what I am used too! Man...there really is a difference. I use calcutta's for SW inshore and know they are great, but for light tackle I could not believe the difference this reel made. Shimano has put some design work into this reel!

I use the iPhone app Navionics USA East marine maps when fishing the St. Johns and Indian/Bananna river areas. With the built-in GPS and these maps on the iPhone plus a regular Humminbird depth finder I find I don't need an expensive Nav. unit. Plus I can get up to the minute weather and free tide info too. The iPhone is a great fishing tool.

Hold the end of your line/lure/bait before you cast. Reel in. Feel the drag slipping, feel how much pressure it takes to engage the drag, look at your rod tip. If the drags slips alot then it is probably set to low. If the pressure is so great that your rod bends down and the drag doesn't slip then it's probably too high. A good way to tell is to tie your line to a known poundage weight (like a small hand weight) and get a feel as to what weight your drag slips compared to what size fish you expect to catch, although sometimes you will hook something you were not expecting. Generally you can just get a feel for it by pulling the line and testing the drag before you start fishing.

Simple diagnosis... If the line pulls off the spool and the spool stays put, then try re-spooling with backing/spooling tighter. If the spool moves with the pull at full drag, then get your drag fixed.

If you use backing or not (although I think it helps), when spooling make sure your knot is tight and apply ample pressure to make sure the line is tight on the spool. Sounds like you got line/spool slippage.

It's really not an opinion, it's a fact. Below 20 ft the dissolved oxygen content is too low on most phosphate pits. The 3-pounder you caught was probably suspended on the shoreline drop-off (very common). Roger This is why I love the forums here. This is great info. Thank you.

Braid really helps for feeling the strikes using jigs cast far, especially in grass. What I do is once the jig hits bottom slowly take up the slack, hold the tension slightly, jiggle, then quickly sweep up the rod tip and let it fall again

Seems like you would need an underwater camera for that? I never seen a depth-finder record motion.

Try a small spinner or buzz-bait in the evening right before dark.