SirSnookalot

It's rainy season and we have been getting our share this year. The canals are being drained and all this freshwater is spewing out of the inlets into the ocean. From the standpoint of fishing, the Captains, commercial fishermen and recreational fishermen to a tee have all been declaring this has been the worst fishing season they have ever seen in South Florida, I'm 100% in agreement with that. Not that I'm looking forward for huge amounts of rain, but I am looking forward to anticipated groundswells, as a rule they bring fish in.

I buy my filets at Costco and they are pretty good, but not restaurant and hotel quality. My former business partner owned a 5 star restaurant, the meats were bought at a packing company that catered to the trade. I was able to have him order an extra box when I was in Detroit (at Belmont packing they came in boxes of 12), the steaks were outstanding. As good as they were I was not cooking them on professional grade equipment and there is difference, mainly professional ovens cook at a much higher temperature. Waygu beef is supposed to best and it is available to the public, one day I'm going to grill some of these up.

Braid is different than mono or f/c. In the past I've soaked the line in warm water then spooled it up, but always troll the line out before fishing.

I'm not sure how the water is in that part of Florida but I do fish saltwater everyday and this time of the year mostly from the beach. What is different about fishing from the surf compared to bass fishing is knowing what fish are best on what tides and even more important is baitfish in the water. Most species follow the pods of baitfish, it can be feast or famine. The reality is that very few lures are needed, topwater, spoons, bucktails, hard jerkbait and quite often I'll use a fluke on plain jig head instead of the hard jerk, Storm keeled weighted work good too. I hardly use anything other than what I mentioned, except for my own change of pace once in a while. I feel the brands are not of the utmost concern. I bought a top lure the other day at Walmart for $2.00 called a Creek Chub striper striker, killed them with it, I went back and bought 4 more of them. Give ya a tip if I can, bait busting out in the water work your lure moderate and never over work it, fish that are right up against the shore let the waves just push the lure around with a slow retrieve, plenty of 20#+ fish are caught in knee deep water. If you happen to hook a nice fish, once near the beach don't use your arms to pull it in, walk backwards and pull them out, your legs are much stronger than your arms.

A bass reel does not produce 20# of drag, nor will most bass pull 20#. If one cares to set the drag with a scale and know the exact poundage it's at, so be it. I set by feel and probably almost every recreational fisherman I know does the same thing. I do know guys that do set them by scale but they fish for tuna, swordfish, marlin and the like. If one is of the ilk to use 50# braid and drag them at warp speed may as well just lock the drag down all the way, no bass is going to break the line, just matter of pulling it out of the weeds. I could personally never fish that way, my drag is set just enough to get a good hookset, if needed applying a bit more drag manually or with your thumb or palming a spinning spool is pretty easy to do. Ghoti makes a good point about drag and rod angle.

I'm not sure how tournaments are set up week to week geographically, but 5000 miles might be just a bit of an embellishment. Lake O to as far as one could drive in Alaska is less than 5000 miles and there are no bass tournaments there to my knowledge. Be interesting to see the spacing between week to week events. 3 hours of sleep to drive to a distance like that, not that it's impossible but not real probable. Sleep deprivation is much like over drinker, one is not in control of their full faculties. I'ts unlikely on tournament day anyone is blowing reefer, a bag a chips and a nap would be in order. I wouldn't be surprised about amphetamines, but with those there is going to a crash with extended use coupled with minimal amounts of sleep. Whether fishing is a sport and anglers are athletes one can believe what ever they wish, I have my sentiments on that.

I don't fish for them but every now and then I'll catch one in the surf or the ICW, they hit artificials for sure.

My wife and I share enough interests that we don't have to do everything together. Fishing is one activity that isn't conducive for us to share. I leave at 4 am and she isn't ready till 11 am, she has to eat, read the paper, do her stretches, talk to her daughters (now she is texting the gr kids), go to the pool to work out, like I'm waiting around for that, plus she gets sea sick.

2 seniors, we eat small meals, $500. mo., includes cleaning & paper items. She eats lots of fruit and veggies, we both eat a healthy diet, no junk food in the house. Being a diabetic I'm very cautious what I eat. We out 2 nights a week on average

I had have to see proof on that statement, Web.com is the ticket to the PGA tour, too much at stake. There is always the chance that a few may do it but I don't think the use is rampant. I don't know if there is random testing or not but MJ stays in in your system for about a month.

Braid does make noise, but I'm not bothered by it as I understand what's going on. Sometimes holding the rod at a slightly different angle will curtail the noise. I'm on my 3 rd (and last) spool of Tuf Line Supercast, it is very quite. I'm using the 12# on my heavy bass rod and used 20# on my barracuda outfit.

It happened to me the other day, I was fishing on the jettie and hook about 7 lb snook, as I'm lifting it up, which I've done a 1000 times, I go tumbling backwards hitting the concrete. Examining my 20# braid I see the line broken which appeared to me not a knot problem, the line must have had an abrasion that I didn't notice. Luckily I only hit my elbow and palm not my head so I was fine.

A bit of levity................but unlikely setting it down on grass will mark it up like that. I use braid on spinning reels with no issues of the line doing any damage to any part of the reel, 30# braid is something I only use on offshore ocean spinning, but for bass?

I always assumed the turnpike and the ponds at the ramps were off limits to fish. Gated or not communities are private property, at least areas other than the streets. Gets a little iffy, in a gated community the police will not write a parking ticket because the streets are private, but in a non gated community they have the jurisdiction to do so, the streets are public.

As far as I know we can fish any roadside pond or canal if it's public water, people are jumping the curb all the time down here to fish. If you or you car is not interfering with traffic, where's the interest in safety. Happens again get his badge number and call it in, not that will do any good.

I think he over stepped his bounds.

I have had my line tangled up like that but never broke a reel. Looks like a bit of rash on that reel, could be those pavers you're dropping it on, grass won't scratch it up in that manner.

Sounds more like rod specs. Reels come in sizes, some use numbers like 25, 30, 35 and 40, while other companies use numbers like 500, 1000, 2500, 3000 and so on. Drags and line capacities will vary from size to size.

I use nothing but a hose rinse on my saltwater reels and don't do it every time, all my reels are perfect. Only have mono a couple of set ups and don't use f/c, warm water soaking before spooling to curtail coil is all I do.

If it was private property a fishing license is probably not required, especially if the state does not manage or have supervision over the body of water.

Let's keep the bible out of this, as long as the post wasn't deleted I'll just say this. The Old Testament prohibits the unnecessary suffering to animals and animals can be used for legitimate needs like food and clothing, animals must be slaughtered in a humane way. These are very old laws, but they are in the bible. I do apologize for the TOS violation, but it's quite clear in the O.T. I straddle the issue, on one hand I'm a fisherman and do my best to handle fish I release in a proper manner. I don't believe every fisherman does the the same, most on fishing forums are much more aware than others. Some of things I'm with PETA is how animals are treated, like dog fighting and acts of cruelty. One thing that really bothers me is trapping using those leg traps, it isn't a quick kill but a slow death. If clipping a fin or bleeding a blue runner to catch a shark is cruel, I'm doing it anyway.

The way I see it the lure is casted with the flex of the tip. If there is a difference in being able to handle fish I haven't noticed it, so if there is I'd say only a little bit.

This might not address spinnerbaits per se, but it may address spinning reels. In a spinning reel IPT may a bit more important than the actual ratio, howver they can go hand in hand. For the most part I pay little attention to IPT as I'm working my lures, whether it be bass fishing or some of my inshore species. I guess I've been finesse fishing for nearly 60 years, never knew there was a name for it. There are some techniques where the IPT is very important, like butterfly jigging or deep water freshwater fishing with something like a hopkins type spoon. When it comes to spinnerbaits, I'm still using a spinning reel but I just reel faster or slower, it may take a few casts to hone in on speed I want. Not being a fan of b/c in general, it might appear to me that a spinning reel might be easier to operate for a person with arthritis.

Live bait or artificial is a personal choice, my observation and own experience lead me to believe live bait catches bigger fish. Sometimes it's more time consuming and difficult to catch bait than it is to toss a lure and score, being a bait fisherman can have it's challenges too. I probably have not used live bait for bass in about 50 years and don't care to. Fishing for snook nearly everyday of the year I may use live bait 4 or 5 times a year, haven't done it yet this year. I do it for "sociable fishing" just hanging on the jettie and shooting the bull my buds, my serious fishing is casting, I do find it more fun and rewarding.

If I hadn't caught anything decent in a decade I most likely would have given up on that spot long ago. But be disabled it may be one of the few places you can access to fish, so I'd stand my ground and let the owner call the police, if harassed or threatened you call them. The real question is not where your body is but if the owner owns the water, I'm guessing he does not.