SirSnookalot

Congress entrance, all the way back to the canal and fish near I-95, use live bait. Another place I have heard is off Southern Blvd, mile 21 or something like that.

High surf, foamy and stained water bring in the snook, especially this time of the year when a lot of bait is present. Quite a few were caught the other day, sad to say some of my locations are closed due to the weather.

Redfish can grow to be over 90#, but probably average around 5 or 6, the Florida slot is 18-27". Much like snook and stripers, redfish can be caught in a variety of ways using bass type lures, nothing ever beats cut or live bait. A good way to fish for them, my preference to most kinds of fishing is sight casting, if you spot a ray, cast near them. Rays stir up the bottom, redfish love crustaceans (so do cobia), live shrimp rules.

I have never caught one but I know a couple of locations where others have, live bait is best as reported by forum members of another board.

Realizing the appreciation of the journey of life is far more rewarding than any of the monetary goals attained.

It's not nice right now, some of the beaches, jetties and piers are going to be closed, looks like another freshwater day for me. Sunday the weather improves. Friday Tropical storm conditions expected. North northwest winds 32 to 37 knots with gusts to around 50 knots along the coast to north northwest 34 to 41 knots with gusts to around 55 knots in the Gulf Stream. Along the coast...seas 14 to 17 feet with occasional seas up to 20 feet. In the Gulf Stream... seas 17 to 21 feet with occasional seas up to 24 feet building to over 20 feet with occasional seas up to 28 feet in the afternoon. Dominant period 10 seconds. Intracoastal waters extremely rough in exposed areas. Showers likely and chance of thunderstorms.

Looked at the forecast and the beach cams and didn't fish the ocean this morning, but I did fish freshwater inland. I was in Coral Springs this morning and the wind wasn't bad at all, rained off and on but was quite fishable. This is the last week of hurricane season, as Floridians remember Wilma hit us about the same time back in 2008. Sandy's major impact will miss Florida, we will have strong winds for the next couple days, but Sandy is going to cause Havoc further north. The Weather Channel is forecasting a lot of power outages and flooding.

Saltwater is about the weather, much of time the rougher the better. I'm out everyday and the fishing has been pretty good, our bigger fish generally show up before and after the fall mullet run which is right now. In the calmer weather we have been catching jacks, bluefish, spanish mackeral, even a 3# jack is a fight you will remember. Yesterday it got a rough and today it was about 25- 30 mph with a good rain, that's when you want to be there, because that is snook time, and they were there as expected. Offshore is going to be rough all week, 6-8-10' waves, too much for me, lol but the kingfish bite should be on fire. We love a tropical storm for fishing, storms bring the bait and the bait brings the fish. Stay out of the ICW, too much freshwater.

You can run, but you can't hide !

Very well said........Putting the spinng rod under your armpit is very common too, not really necessary for bass fishing.

Facebook is what you make it to be, nothing more, nothing less. I'm on Facebook nearly everyday, mainly reading articles and websites of interest that I'm linked. It's my choice to be or not to be involved with people on my friends list, I pay close attention to some and no attention to others. I don't see much difference between a dedicated forum and Facebook, except on Facebook there is an unlimited supply of topics and interests.

I have 2 steller lites, one is a 7' 25lb hvy class rod that I use offshore, $119., my other one is a mh 7' 20 lb, $99. IMO if I were buying another Star I'd be buying a better rod. On both rods I have had to shim the reel seat to get a tight fit, they both have adequate backbone but do not cast lures in their lower range that well, the heavy side of lures cast a ton. On my heavier Star I've caught many kings, bonita, dolphin and sailfish, my lighter Star is one of my tarpon and snook rods. I was fishing with Bassn Blvd and he had just purchased a Star seagis, I thought it was very sweet, however it's a bit more expensive and may be price prohibitive for customer use, for personal use It's a winner. Quite a few of their rods have lifetime warranties, they are located in Morehead City, NC but stores like Tuppens in Lake Worth will do over the counter exchanges.

There is a ton of fish out there right now, jacks, spanish mackeral, blue fish, some tarpon and snook if you no where to find them. This time of the year the fish run small, but at times it's non stop action for 1 or 2 hours straight, I'm worn out a sore from catching so many fish, nothing beats a jack for fighting. This past weekend we had 4 kings and a dolphin and several cut offs, out only 3 hours. One of my buddys was out Saturday, caught quite a few dolphin, kings, bonita, some big yellow tail on a west wind flat water. This week is going to be very rough, heavy winds a big waves, both inshore and offshore bite should be very hot. We have seen fisherman come with their bass gear before, they seem to always leave it in the car on the second trip.......lol.

Been meaning to do some snakehead fishing but the fall fish run has been really good, hard to tear myself away, as we all know it can end at any time. Not every day but almost it's been a fish on almost every cast, one of the best years I have seen. This week we have rough weather coming in, I'm excited about that.

The intent is for customers, not personal use. A little bigger is better for a few reasons, Lake O has larger bass than up north and I understand there are landlocked snook and tarpon too, The combos can be used in other locations as well, where larger and stronger fish are the norm. Also not all customers are seasoned anglers and a little extra horsepower certainly is no negative, especially considering modern reels and rods are lighter in weight than they used to be. The seasoned angler is probably bringing their own gear, so what I or anyone else might use is not necessarily pertinent to that of a customer's needs. @ Diggy..........you like that calico jack, I thought you would, heck of rod for $55.

Not in the fj series...........both the 4000 and 5000 are identical size and weight (about 10.8 oz), with the 5000 having a deeper spool to hold more line. The fi series 4000 is about 11.8 oz and the 5000 is bigger and If I remember correctly more drag too.

Reels that are designed for saltwater have corrosion resistant bearings, many of my reels are made of aluminum, magnesium is something to stay away from, water tight drags are important too. Sizes run all over the map, I use 2000-4000 and 8000 reels and they go as high as 20000. I fish saltwater nearly 365 days a year, I'm not a real technical kind of guy but after 30 years I have a good idea of what kind of reel I want for the locations I'm fishing. Pier, jettie or inshore boat fishing, most Shimano reels are pretty good, I love my stradics for that kind of fishing, you don't want to use them from the beach or offshore. They have a reputation of being sand magnets and are not durable enough for offshore, the Shimano sagasso (about same price range as a stradic) and the stella sw shine in those areas, there are brands that are equal to the task too. I fish quite a bit from the beach, I prefer not to wade in but many guys are up past their waist, the reels are constantly being soaked. I couldn't say what the best brand is but I do see more people using Penn spinfishers than anything else. That reel is updated to the Penn spinfisher V and haven't much about it yet. I do own 4 Abu sorons in various sizes, I find it's pretty hard to beat that reel in it's price range, sadly it's discontinued and a cheaper model is in it's place, one of which I have not used.

I agree with Alpster, for me there is no benefit whether I'm fishing freshwater or saltwater. There are many that fish no leader and catch plenty of fish, line visable or not. I always use a leader and F/C has not increased the number of strikes I get. I don't worry too much about lure depth, if I did a simple split shot takes care of that. Snook for example are supposed to be very line shy, we have guys catching them on wire all day long regardless of water clarity, so much for that myth. In fact some very experienced anglers use wire just to get the lure down a bit deeper. I use braid for all my fishing because I like it, but in reality I catch just as many fish with whatever kind of line I use and whatever brand I use. Quite honestly if one has an issue needing something super sensitive, you really need a fishing lesson and not a different line.

Some of the posts may be losing sight of the objective, the inquiry is for a customer not adept at using casting gear, not a personal use outfit. Where the 5000 stradic fj is a very good reel, it has way too much line capacity for freshwater use, not to mention the expense. Staying with the spirit of Shimano for a customer reel, I'd look at a saros or symetre. The number of suitable rods is almost endless in any price range, I think the reason inshore rods were suggested is that they are available in heavier sizes and in many cases a mh inshore as compared to a freshwater mh quite often is going to have more backbone. Doesn't make it better or worse, just a different rod, I personally use inshore rods for bass fishing. With all due respect, Capt. Shane is a professional, I have a good idea he already knows what he wants.

A lot of rods and reels can be overlapped for a variety of species and techniques, but IMO you are exceeding those limits. A reel weighing 27 oz. should be on a boat rod or surf type rod, not an inshore type. 600 plus yds of line is not needed even for surf or most offshore applications, very few fish are capable of putting on that kind of run and for the ones that are your reel isn't heavy duty enough for them. I'm not quite sure of that you realize what you are getting into doing repetitive casting with a 27 oz reel, a 8-10 or even 12' rod and lures heavy enough to load up those kinds of rods, you are talking some major weight. Not that many don't do that but only use those combos for their intended use, certainly not for bass fishing. Personally I would abandon your idea and purchase a suitable bass rod and reel. To address you concern of losing baits, that happens to everyone doing any kind of fishing, if you aren't losing them you ain't fishing.

Same here, I'm in South Florida. I keep all of my saltwater lures and gear plus a few bass baits soft and hard in the trunk of my car. My rods and everything else, are stored in my garage, gets hot there too, never a problem or anything melting.

Probably best kept as the other species forum. I'm a member of a saltwater board in Florida, we have a couple of forums directed at freshwater fishing. Days and sometimes weeks go by with no threads on bass fishing, just not enough members that bass fish. I think the same would happen here, granted there may be more activity on BR due to the larger membership. It may not be a bad idea for any of the "other species" fisherman to discuss their equipment in that forum. This is my rational opinion, my true feelings are I'm all for it.

My usual bass outing.

It's just my own priority, I prefer fishing moving baits, I have a hard time keeping my interest up fishing slow for bass. I don't have as much problem fishing a little slow in saltwater, but sill prefer moving baits there too.

Keys and wallet are in a ziplock bag, my shorts have a zippered pockets. My partner stows his cell and we have a radio in case we have to call sea tow, my phone stays in my car. I have a camera in my tackle bag that I hardly ever use offshore, unless it's a very exceptional fish that we are going to release. My partner could care less about a picture, I may take one back at the dock if it's a really good fish.