avid

No doubt about it...froggin is way fun

I'll have to check my satellite feed to locate your "formerly" secret spot. MUHUUHHHAAAHAHAHAHA

cool stuff. Love them smallies

New pb is the best. Congrats

the good news is that the color is just that....color. Losing the color in no way affects the strength of the line. So don't be too quick to change out.

In central Florida a real popular flipping bait is to screw a heavy sinker into a senko. This catches alot of big bass

Seeing as how you bought it already, I'll say it's the best darn book on bass fishing ever written. LOL Seriously, most of the books have good tips in them. You'll try a few out and see how they work for you.

Caught on a beautiful day. This bass fought like a mule. Got her on a worm.

I fish using the methods I like, topwaters , cranks, worms. I fish the likely areas and some unlikely ones. The bass will tell me where they are hanging out and what they like. Unless things catch fire, I'll experiment with different baits and areas.

Alot of good stuff here, but the one thing that all newbs I have ever known, including myself do, or rather fail to do is learn how to tie knots. The palomer knot, loop knot, and uni as well as some others have applications where they are the best choice. Learning some basic knot tying skills will improve the experience for most new anglers.

yep, now thats a topwater hit

I use braid all the time and have never had a problem with the standard palomar knot. Tying on leaders I use the improved albright.

I'm loving this borderline bizarre thread.

I've used both 50 and 65. I now use only the 50. The 50 is wide enough to eliminate the spool dig in problem I got with 30 lb, and the extra line I get on the spool over the 65 is significant. For me it's the all around winner. And if you snag something that can't be pulled out with 50 lb. test braid, then it's go gettum time.

I'm an old daiwa man myself, but the advice I always give to people especially young people who ask this question is "Buy what your friends have" Seriously... unless they use real crap like shakespeare or the non repairable Bass pro shops labeled reels then using what your friends use means some level of familiarity and less ridicule when you backlash. Otherwise the quality Shimano's (the ones NOT in the blister pack) are probably the most popular. But the Daiwa's have the most high performance after market and customized features, so they score big on the snob meter......not to mention being a quality reel right out of the box. the external brake control is a big plus for those new to baitcasting.

Your asking a big question because St. Johns is a big river. I have fished the Northern stretch where flipping senko's was productive. The froggies worked good there too. Cast to openings in the thick stuff and make a splashy retrieve. Sometimes the bass will hit these on a surprisingly fast retrieve so don't be afraid to experiment. Good luck and have fun.

Got mine too. Seems like a good idea. Now let's see what they do with the info.

I love fishing poppers. probably my favorite lure. I have caught fish using each of the methods you described, though I usually fish it with a bloop bloop pause type of retreive

Lobina Rico. More bloop to the bop

I love it when the offspring pull a reverse on 'take a kid fishing" it's why we retire.

cool stuff, I was hoping for a topwater bite last week but it didn't happen...

I delayed putting this up because I was waiting on the pictures, but alas they do not seem to want to appear. Anyway is a beautiful day, mostly sunny but with enough clouds to give a break from the Florida sun. Action was in spurts, but worms and jerk baits were the winners. SteveP took us to the south end and put me into a 'so close to 7 lb largemouth that only the most obsessive lunatic would call it anything less' Interesting footnote. The bass were really fighting hard, way harder than usual.... All of them, even the one and two pounders fought like they were on steroids. Odd, but i'm not complaining.

I like Loomis and St. Croix rods. the 1 power loomis is great for really light lures. 1/2 oz. is too heavy for the 781 IMO. but the 782 and even the 783 would work just fine.

Sometimes when the bass are busting shad on top they won't hit anything else. I have seen this plenty of times. You have to be right there with a surface plug or forget about it. Dang frustrating.

I've caught some big bass on a zoom finesse worm and a circle hook fished on spinning gear. I thread the the worm on the hook so the top is nearly a semi circle. The hook is exposed and I twitch it on retrieve. It zig zags and darts around. there are days I have used this and caught alot of bass as well as some up to 5 lbs.