SirSnookalot

I mostly fish canals in south Florida and see fewer gators than you would think, but on occasion I do see one and they seem to mind their own business. I make a point of treating ALL SNAKES as water moccasions. I fish from uptop of the canals, usually 6-8' down to the water, the snakes seem to hang around the water and not up top. However I did almost step on one once, the snake bolted one way and me the other, scared the crap out of me. A couple of weeks ago I was walking by a canal on the edge of the glades. I saw paw prints that were very large, almost the size of my hand, I didn't think bobcats were that big. Florida panthers are rare I understand so I ruled them out.

Anyone ever fish the flats in cancun for snook, tarpon & bonefish?

I fish alot, 4 hours or so in salt most mornings and a few more in freshwater in the afternoon, everyday, so if I miss a few small ones I'm not too upset. I do mostly canal fishing from shore for bass and peacocks and I seem to think the larger bass are protecting their own turf, so I keep moving. I have only noticed the bass boiling in the ponds not in the canals down here and when they do they will hit anything, size seems to be quite irrevelent.

BTW, this time of the year the birds sometimes LIE, lol. I fished 20 miles of the ICW at various spots and 10 miles of beaches the last 2 days, all with out a strike. It seems to happen this time of year. The strong bite is the freshwater one now. Come on down, I'll take ya to some great places.

It works here too. 99.999% of time the birds are right and the fish are there. Both the fish and the birds are vieing for the same baitfish. I do much less freshwater fishing these days as I love the ICW and the ocean, just so many different options and species, not to mention the "shoulders" on those saltwater fish. Did you know there are places down here that in one spot you can catch bass, peacocks, snook and tarpon, the latter 2 being saltwater species that can exist in fresh or brackish water (they cannot reproduce there). Gave up my boat up north as prefer hoofing and packing light now.

Not as different as you may think. I fished freshwater 50 years before moving to Florida and I apply many of the same techniques to saltwater as I did to fresh. If you opt to sit in one spot you're chances of catching larger ones are greatly reduced. Whether it's fresh or salt you need to cover a lot of water to produce.

No challenge in catching small fish, I always search for larger ones. Many species school up and all will be the same size. A 200' walk down the beach may produce a school of larger fish, it hapens all the time.

Once in while for a little pond fun I use ul 4# test for mayans and peacocks. I have caught several small gators on top water as well. Most amazing to me was a grass carp on an xrap, very rare as they are vegitarians and go big.

I've been to Mexico many times and never have heard of bass fishing near Ixtapa. There is always a chance of some pond bass, but only the locals would know. I would suggest Mazatlan, about 500 miles north, not only do they have off shore fishing but about an hour inland is Lake El Salto and others that have excellent bass fishing. This is strictly my opinion but I'd pass on the bass. For the same kind of money you can do inshore fishing, fish the flats for species like snook, baby tarpon and jack crevelles. After I caught my first jack I never wanted to go bass fishing again, it's like pulling in seaweed in comparison. There are quite a few places in Mexico where you can inshore fish and it's all good, not bad spot among them. So many options, heavy gear for offshore, light spinning or flyrod for inshore. I always put time aside to do some beach fishing, all you really need is a silver spoon or jig and no guide and you never know what you're going to catch.

Can Lake Wellington be fished from shore? Our boat is strictly offshore in Hypoluxo on the icw.

Snagging is not sport.

I'm in Delray and the county has been spraying for weeds in the lakes and canals. The fishing seems to always taper down then for several weeks. Great weather lately and the surf has been producing so I don't miss fishing for bass. BTW catching a nice jack on topwater is awesome.

I was watching Jose Wejebe, "The Spanish Fly" on tv fishing for stripers off Martha Vineyards. As the above post mentioned , they used circle hooks and hooked them thru the upper lip. Then they casted and retrieved as they would with a lure. I have friends down here in Fla that come from that part of the country and they toss surgical tubes for them. We use tubes down here for barracuda.

Awesome stripers..............wish we had them down here in Fla. No complaints with the snook and tarpon we have.

Should have snapped that photo is macro mode..... I caught a remora no bigger than an inch or 2, from the beach of all places on an xrap.

I agree with the other Floridians. For me in saltwater, it's jack, snook and tarpon. Freshwater it's peacocks and bass are way down on my list. Bass is what I fish for when the ocean bite is off and I'm bored. Excited to try barramundi.

I'd say the author of that proverb was not from the east coast of Florida. The exact opposite is true at least for saltwater. I do this daily 7 days a week and the rougher the weather (east or nne wind) the better the fishing. In freshwater you can almost always catch something, not the case in saltwater. Just as important as wind is tide, tide is everything so a guide once told me and he was right and don't forget no baitfish, no gamefish around. But I go anyway, nothing like greeting the new day on the beach as the sun is coming up. For me it doesn't get better.

Hey, I'm one of those retirees ! I had a lifetime of snow and sub zero weather.............you can have it!

If possible I prefer casting into the bank that is receiving the wind regardless of direction. For saltwater (Atlantic coast). East to ENE wind 15-20mph 3-4' chop. West wind, may as well stay home and do some bass fishing, unless you like watching purdy girls in bikinis ( beats fishing sometimes)

That's Sonny Bono ( Sonny & Cher) Sonny Crockett...............Miami vice........Don Johnson

Tallydude is right on the money. Lake Osborn is best by boat, but if not there is lots of bank fishing with very easy access. A good spot would be to park your car on the east side of the lake just north of Lantana road. Personally from the shore I'd fish it weedless, spoon or a fluke hooked weedless. I'm in Delray, a bit south of Lake Osborn and the peacock bite has been slow due to a cool November, the weather has been decent the last week so perhaps the bite will improve.......try the afternoon.

While you're eating your acorns I'm catching 15-20# Jack Crevelles, Spanish Mackeral and Bluefish and all I have to do is drive a few miles to the beach, then on the way home I pick up a few bass and peacocks.....EAT YOUR HEART OUT !!

That isn't my style of fishing but I have seen it done. Not really the ballon thing as the prevailing wind comes from the east especially in winter and it's a bit too strong. Would work in the summer months with milder winds and mostly from the west. What they do here is fish for shark in icw at the boynton inlet at night. Guys will put a glow stick in a gallon milk bottle with a breakaway knot and float it out a long long way. I have caught quite a few shark while drift fishing and I'm not crazy for it. This past summer while fishing for kings off the Woolbright tower I caught 2 about 6' each ( can't really give you a weight) one on 6000 spinning reel and the other on an avet mxj conventional. The pull is very powerful and each one took about 1 hour 20 minutes to bring along side the boat. At 63 years old my back was in traction for 2 weeks, lol. You can catch smaller shark sight casting in the backwater, which I've done, using soft plastics on a jig head. That's more my style.

Down in Florida we have grass carp from china. They are really the worlds largest minnow from what I understand and are vegitarians and planted to here to curb algae. They will eat fish eggs and I have noticed our bass population in our ponds isn't what it used to be.