Sunshine---

I am flying a buddy down for the weekend as we had planned nothing but 4 days of fishing and wonder how this storm will impact fishing over Friday/Sat/Sunday..... Any thoughts???

Have a buddy coming in to town this week and we have never been to the Stick Marsh. I am picking up my "boat" this week which is a pond prowler with a trolling motor. Would you guys suggest not taking it to the stick marsh or if I do, I would assume just hitting some areas close to shore and the boat ramp would be the best idea. Let me know if I should not make the trip and just stick to the local lake and spend 4 days there instead of spending a day driving to the stick marsh only to find out we can't do a whole lot in the small boat...

I have an FJ Cruiser so I am not sure I could fit it on top. If it fits, I could get it up there although it would not be much fun getting that over my head. My situation is this, I would drop some money on a good bass boat but I anticipate this situation. A year or so from now, I am going to go inshore fishing in saltwater with a buddy or something and I am going to get hooked on that as well. I'd hate to drop 10K on a bass boat and then not be able to double it up in salt. So do I go with a fresh/salt boat and just spend the money now knowing that day may come or do I just get a jon boat and deck it out until that day I get into saltwater as well. I'd prefer to just spend 1-2K and get something I can depend on. Doesn't need to cover a lot of ground, I just need to be able to drop it in a lake and get after it. You guys point me in the right direction and that is what I will do. I can either listen to the guy at the store tell me what I need or I can listen to all of you guys. You guys tell me what to get and I will go get it. I have a buddy coming in to town on the 21st and I told him we are going to spend 3 days straight fishing and we will be doing so from a boat, not a canoe... I will call it the bass resource forum boat and you all are more than welcome to fish in it with me if you get to Pasco County Florida. Need the boat, trolling motor, possible trailer, battery for motor, and whatever else you guys can think of. So far based on what I am hearing is I need somewhere between a 9-12 footer. I have heard pond prowler mentioned a few times so is that the one??? You guys tell me...

The crazy thing is he just rolled over and layed there. No fight at all. Or maybe I was so jacked up it all happened in slow motion. It was seriously different from anything I have ever boated before.

Yeah I hear ya. The sad part is I will probably spend the next many decades of my life and never catch what I just pulled in the boat a few hours ago. Oh well. Life is good...

Assuming the girth is twice (or at least twice now I think about it) the height then it calculates as a 12+. The guy on the boat ramp swore it was a definite 10+ based on the marks I had. It was a HUGE fish and if that sucker wasn't over 10, I just can't imagine a bass that is 10+. Well all I know is I caught somewhere between a 7 and 12 and it was quite the memory. I wasn't about to spend 20 minutes to paddle ashore to weight the sucker while he layed in the bottom of the canoe and died so hopefully we will meet again!!!

I put him on top of my tacklebox and measured his "height" and from the top of him to the bottom was 10-10.5. Are you saying the girth to enter is times 2????

Just found this. Man, this site covers all the bases. Also cross referenced some of the pictures on the message boards and probably does check in around 7 pounds. I can't even imagine boating a true 10 pounder. http://www.bassresource.com/bassfishing/fishcalculator.html

Until about an hour ago I had never caught a big fish. Caught tons of bass in my lifetime growing up on lakes but never pulled in anything over 5 pounds. So a few months back I finally started fishing again and have been on a mission ever since to catch the big one. Well it finally happened... Been dropping a canoe in a lake by my house about 3 dozen times over the past few months trying to locate this big guy. Caught some great fish so far out of there and seen some good ones moving but just hadn't been able to land one. So today about 3:30 I decide to head out. Hot as heck but figured may as well fish from 3:30 till dark. First part of the day was windy as heck and that isn't much fun in a canoe so I hit the backside of this lake where you can only reach with a canoe. It was much calmer back there and very heavy cover. Tons of lilly pads. So I park the canoe up in the thick stuff and throw to the open spots and then move to the nest open spot "parking" the canoe up in the thick stuff. Threw out a watermelon trick worm with a chaurtreuse tail and noticed a big fish come out of the water (his back end). I wasn't even sure what it was because it was a very slow movement. I feel a decent tug and give it a yank. It felt very heavy and knew he was a good one but there was NO fight at all. I was in extreme heavy cover and my first thought was "there is no way I am going to boat this sucker" because he was sure to get caught up or buried. Well NO fight at all and just rolled over a bit. As I pulled him in I still wasn't sure what it was until he showed me that bucket mouth and it was BIG!!!! I grabbed the net, almost fell in the d**n water, and got him in the canoe. I was FREAKING OUT. Keep in mind, I had never caught a big fish and I am looking at what was surely a 10+. Now here is where it gets good. I am about 20 minutes from the boatramp in the middle of about 1000 feet of heavy cover and lilly pads. In a canoe. My digital camera which lives in my tackle box was..... taken by my wife to see her friend in Missouri. Great. I am sitting here with my trophy bass and knew I was going to be throwing him right back in the water without a picture..... I tried to string him and paddle back in but there was no way I could pull him through what I had to paddle. I held him one last time, said "son of a %^%" and tossed the big guy back in. I took measurements all over the place and wanted to throw them at you guys for a guess on the weight. I did not have a tape measure so I place him on top of my tackle box which he was much longer than. I moved the tackle box over to where his mouth was on one end and his tail touched the side of the boat. I also measured him out on the paddle. I also marked his top to bottom. 25 INCHES LONG 10 1/2 INCHES TOP TO BOTTOM The guy on the boat ramp who runs it said he was definitely over 10 and those who I have talked to in the last hour say the same. Did I finally land my big one???? d**n it felt good. Been waiting for that a long time....

Thanks guys. Some helpful advice no doubt. Would something like this below be sufficient for the time being?? http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131689 I figured for 1,000 I could throw a trolling motor on this and it would be OK for two guys. If you guys think it is too small let me know and I will continue to look around. Also, should I make an hour trip to a Bass Pro Shop to see what they have in stock or something or what. Seriously, thanks for the help.

Didn't know if I should post here or what but I was looking for some advice from you guys on a small boat purchase. I have checked out a few of the sporting good websites and I am in the market for a new small boat. I have found some (without motor) for under 1,000 and wondered if any of you had any advice on some of the dos and donts when it comes to making a first boat purchase. My goal is to have a small 2 man boat that I can bass fish comfortably out of. Do not need to cover a lot of ground and would be satisfied with a trolling motor only. Any thoughts on what I must include to look for when shopping??

Pasco County here. Just north of Tampa. Born and raised in Tampa though.

Next tournament they have out here I will set up my folding chair on the 12th greenside bunker with my rod holder buried in the sand. I'll sit there and run a shiner all day and have a cooler of beer by my feet. "Excuse me sir, do you my removing your ball from my cooler?" Imagine what that would look like from the Par 3 tee box??

Good question. The one I fish luckily has a big portion of the pond that is not on the course and has a few vacant lots that allow access to this portion of the pond. Then as sun goes down and golfers are gone, I can reach the other parts of it. The other side of the argument is this. Those golfers have a lot of nerve incroaching on our fishing grounds. Next time I see them up on the green and I am fishing close by I will look over at them and say "you guys mind keeping it down over there? Trying to catch some fish here" ;D How do you think they would play out?

The funny part about the "sometimes you go to go get them" basically means as I have the fish on the line, the canoe is being pulled towards the fish. Canoe fishing alone is not much fun. When I have a buddy in the boat, one of us would paddle towards the fish once a big one got on but on night in particular I lost a few good size fish just not being able to move them out of cover.

By the way, for some of you experts.... How in the heck can I hook in to a nice fish in heavy cover (look at the otter picture) and pull them out. I have caught a ton of fish in my life but nothing bigger than 5LBs. Been looking for that big catch and have hooked in to them but I just can't get them out of the heavy cover. Any suggestions??

Thanks for the heads up. Yes, turned out to be a good day. Caught some nice fish this morning and ran across a big gator early in the morning and had 3 otters come up to the canoe (about 3 feet away) at noon.

Here is the short film I was able to put together. http://64.237.99.126/clips/JJBass.wmv

I have been fishing a lake near my house over the past few weeks and have actually been fishing out of a canoe. There are parts of this lake that can only be accessed by a canoe so I was able to get in a few spots this morning that not many people get to and had some succes. Bad thing though is I found the spot right at noon when it was 100 degrees out and nothing was biting at all. Can't wait to get back this week and get on the spot in the morning or evening. I agree with the theory about not many people fishing probably being a good spot to fish.

I have a video that I put on my server and will link it up in a few. I have to have 10 posts to be able to link something so will do so after a few more posts.

This kind of ties in with the whole golf course thread from earlier and you guys will get a kick out of this. I have my nephew out at the house who has never caught a fish before in his life. I take him to the golf course pond I had talked about in the other thread. This pond has a bunch of good size large mouth bass and not anything small. I have caught tons of fish out of this pond and figured "what the hell, why not make his first catch a good one". I took some time to teach him how to cast and he picked it up in no time. So off to the pond we go.... I tied him on a spinner bait. Figured it was a good fit because a fast retrieval would help set the hook automatically. I had him cast and "reel fast JJ". So he began.... About an hour goes by and he has finally picked up the whole casting deal pretty good. He then figured out the transition from the actual cast to the reel and knew it was just a matter of time. About 100 cast go by and his arm begins to wear. I see that look in an 8 year old's eye that tells me he is losing patience with fishing. He asks me "how about a worm" because some of his friends catch bluegill off the dock by his house and I tell him "trust me, your first catch will be one to remember". I knew it was coming.... So after about an hour and a half, I tell him to hang in there and we round the last corner of the pond headed for home. I find a shade spot to sit down in (got a little burned from 5 hours fishing this morning) and patiently wait for that first strike. Then it happened..... I am sitting here watching my nephew cast on a 10 dollar rod and reel with a bright yellow spinner bait and WHAM, I see that shine in the water when the fish hit. I popped open the cam corder I had and started yelling "JJ, your first fish". I see my nephew start reeling like "what the heck do I do" and I helped him along. I knew from his fast retrieval could have set the hook and felt he had a good chance to land what I knew was a good size fish. A minute or so later I watch my nephew reel his first ever fish to the shore and just what I anticipated. His first ever fish turned out to be a 2-3 lb bass. He wont realize until years later how cool it really was but I captured it on tape and one day down the road, he will appreciate what happened a few hours ago.

I fish a pond on a golf course and it is almost TOO easy to catch fish. When I get that "I need to go fishing" look in my eye my wife tells me to just walk to the pond and I tell her is not even fun because it is so easy. This one pond I swear doesn't have any small bass at all in it and I think I have caught every fish in the pond. Range is between 2-5. I don't think there are any big big fish and I am not sure the pond was stocked long ago (course is only 7 years old as is the pond) but there are tons of fish. It also has pipes coming in to it which leads me to believe it connects to the big lake behind the course. The odd thing is I haven't had any luck on any of the other ponds on the course. I can't figure out if it is because of the pipes coming in to this particular one. Another theory to pond fishing is being able to target the fish from shore and bascially sneak up on them compared to running a trolling motor up on an unsuspecting fish. Also the retrieval of the bait to the shore also probably makes it easier for a fish to see the bait and then have it approach them compared to retrieving bait from the shoreline or cover back to the boat. Even though it seems most of my catch throwing from boat to cover occurs by throwing the bait right on top of the fish for an immediate strike.

Good stuff. Thanks guys...

need some feedback from you guys. Hate when this happens as it did this morning. Hooked a small bass with a worm and decent size hook and had trouble getting the hook out. Here are a few questions.... Is it ever a good move to simply cut the line with hook still in mouth or throat?? If so, does the hook simply dissolve or pass?? The hook this morning was pretty deep in throat and I could not get it out. What tools would you guys recommend for removal?? What else would you suggest as a way to not catch small bass?? Should I use a larger hook or bait?? I consider this a very important topic and would love to hear what you guys have to say.....

Thanks for the info guys. Didn't get a chance to get out this morning but will try it out this evening. Will update.