SirSnookalot

Take the rod and put some reels on it. See what feels and looks the best. A factor that is often overlooked is the clearance your hand has when cranking, people with larger hands may not be happy with a smaller reel. Don't look at max drags, a selling feature that IMO does not enhance performance. With today's reels it's harder to buy a bad reel than a good one, a freshwater reel should be worry free for quite a few years.

A gifted doctor no doubt, but some of his rhetoric is highly questionable. Personally if I were seeking guidance on how to shape my life, it may be to the likes of Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, Dale Carnegie or one of my favorites Og Mandino.

So secret I'm not saying, lol. Give ya clue, get a fly vise, jig heads and buy some marabou.

I've caught my fair share of 25" bass from the bank, no question in my mind I'm at a disadvantage. There is just so much bank I can walk, in a boat I could keep going for miles and I can cover both sides of a canal. IMO it's easier to land a fish from a boat vs the bank, I'm pulling them away from cover and not up a high bank. What is easier from the bank is sight casting for peacocks, in a boat you can't see them it's more blind casting.

I wonder that myself, lol. Fishing South Florida is urban fishing, people always walking around. Questions are pretty simple and straight forward. " What kind of fish are in here?", "do you eat them?". Coming from non fishing people these are inquires just based out of friendliness, a few seconds later their back on their walk. An antagonist appears once in a while, but not that often. I fish the ICW in Palm Beach sometimes, different up there. The area is very upscale and one might think the people are uppity, quite the opposite. People do stop by and watch sometimes or just have some light conversation while they are walking their dogs. It's one of the friendliest places I go. Beaches are like that too, people out for their early morning walk or with their dogs, many pause to say hello, always ask "did you catch anything?".

Plenty of trash cans and line disposal containers here in Florida, still the worst state I have fished for trash on the ground.

Conventional wisdom, dark water dark color, clear water light color. I don't pay much attention to color.

Ben Carson, well not for me.

This might be the perfect thread to post my conversation yesterday. I ran into a couple of guys fishing a canal, quite normal for the subject to be peacock bass, then I hear small mouth bass in Florida. The guys says he has a stocked pond not that far from where we were fishing. I asked public or private, he replied private, that was the moment I ended the conversation. Something told me that was the time to walk away and just forget about it.

Only for leaders and only for some some salt water species. I do use P-line floroclear for freshwater leaders.

Most people use heavier than 20# braid on a b/c, heavier lines get hard to break off. Using a leader simplifies the process, just pull the rod back while keeping it straight, the rod won't snap that way. Either your connector knot or the knot to the lure is going to break, a 20# leader isn't that strong and probably be using a lighter one. No different with spinning gear except your braid may be lighter.

There are no dumb questions if one hasn't the answer. The way I have found to answer a question I may have is to get out there and fish. Whether it's buying equipment or learning how to fish certain lures, time on the water leads to experience and experience leads to results. That experience coupled with some good old fashioned common sense, is the very best weapon one can have in their arsenal.

Well if Alonerankin did say it, I will. Plastics are dreadfully boring for me, I probably don't use them more than a few times a year. The only plastic I use often is a weedless fluke and I'm fishing almost exclusively as a top water lure. I'm there for the strike and the fight, dragging plastics don't seem to supply that for me. Something about a moving bait just seems to energize both the fish and me.

I use 15# for bass and 20# for snakehead, I'm using spinning so need for a heavy braid.

Just take less. People seem to program themselves to believe that need every thing under the sun with them, most of it doesn't get used. Learn to fish with a few lures for each outing, make one a better fisherman in the long run. Casting to where the fish are is a lot more important than the actual lure being used.

If fish were truly smart they'd never hit an artificial lure. I fish the same places all the time, use the same lures, much of the time it's in small ponds that hold just so many larger fish. Good chance I've caught many of the same fish multiple times, have seen distinguishing marks to back that up. Several years ago, I posted the pics here, I caught the same bass with a brown spot on it's lip. Caught it in the same general area using the same lure and did 3 days in a row.

If the place is private I won't risk some one screwing it up for me. Public places are a different story, I have given many places on BR, as I did this morning when asked about peacocks. Many of these public places some one told me about, I have no problem passing that info on. Pressure or no pressure I'll catch my fair share of fish, that's a given. It's great seeing a really nice fish caught by some one else, I feel as good about as if I caught it myself.

I think your appraisal is correct. The activity for a bank fishing was not as overwhelming as some of the other sub forums, I do think it would be valuable asset to some of the fishermen. IBFL, no reason not to let people voice their opinion, as long as there is no policy infraction.

My perception of sight casting is not targeting fish on beds. I do a lot of sight casting, I cast when I see activity such as birds, fish on bait or ripples caused by fish swimming. I don't bed fish for bass, it isn't my style but I do bed fish for peacocks. Bed fishing is about teasing and annoying the fish to prompt a strike, nothing works better for me than a marabou jig, I would bed fish for bass the same way.

Plenty of shore access and lots of parking, no problem on the side of the road.

The spot I don't know, he did say he caught the fish near Glades. If I were to fish there I would try several places, north of Glades near the bridge and I would walk up to the bridge near the turnpike off ramp. South of Glades near the bridge. I would also try driving down to SW 18 th, park on the grass next to the canal (boat ramp there), walk all the way down to the spillway. The water there usually seems to have less vegetation, have caught nice bass there.

Only way I fish with any kind of lure or bait, braid but I use a leader.

Wind is a huge factor fishing saltwater, I'll get to bass after this paragraph. Wind does dictate the target species, inshore wise catching anything with a s/e is tough making things even worse that wind direction brings in mats of sea weed. N/E is ideal bringing bait into the area, snook love a n/e swell as well. West wind is the time to stay home unless the target is barracuda, they like clear and calm water. We have had a a s/e all week here, bass fishing hasn't been great but catching a few. Same wind yesterday but entirely different results, may have been one of the better outings in quite a while. Put on my rain jacket and from the very first cast I caught about 7 or 8 bass nothing under 17-18" or so in very short order using an inline spinner. Drove down to another spot on the same canal about a mile away, the rain had stopped and the bite slowed down, just a little. Fishing a weedy area I put on a fluke and caught another 4-5 fish, enough for me in less than 90 minutes so I went home. What surprised more than anything were the shoulders these bass were displaying, totally enhanced the outing. I don't care what the wind is doing, either the fish are "on"or "off" but I'm going anyway. I may get skunked today with the same s/e wind and rain

Not here, west wind is the kiss of death, east wind is rougher weather, fishing is much better.

First time or 2 using red it does seem to stain your fingers a bit more than other colors, nothing I would classify as serious.