SoFlaBassAddict

Don't push the hook point all the way out of the plastic. Leave it sitting just under the skin of the bait.

* Excludes Daiwa, G. Loomis, Jackall, Koppers, Reaction Innovations, Under Armour, Shimano, TroKar & Wright McGill Boooo! I was finally going to order some dippers and sweet beavers. I was interested in a Koppers shiner as well. >

Not strong enough? Is your nose broken? You're supposed to let it soak in the jar for about 5 seconds or so, not just dip it in and pull it out.

Straight shanks give you a much better hook up ratio. Some people will obviously argue this. From what I understand, a lot of the pro anglers are going to the straight shank hooks as well. The major drawback is having the lure slide down the shank. That can be easily fixed with a toothpick or some heat shrink tubing. I've become a big fan of Owner XXX wide gap straight shanks. I can't remember, but I believe Catt recommends the Denny Brauer Mustad flippin hook. Similar hooks, comes down to personal choice probably. I still use Gammy EWG's for some stuff like plastic swim baits (flukes, swimmin senko's, etc etc). But a good 90% of my plastics I fish with a straight shank now.

Great fish again Shane. The fishing down here has been great lately. Numbers and size are getting much better. How the heck are you going to fish that 16" monster. I've got some 14" worms here at the house and they're just horrifically large, but they do catch some large fish. Sent you a PM with a question also.

Yep, horrible baits. Send them to me, I'll make sure they're disposed of properly. Blame the angler, not the bait.

Great Bonita. Awesome fighting fish. Although they're aren't the best table fare, it's not a bad eating fish if you bleed them right away. Sounds like you had a great day, outside of dealing with the Bulls.

You're only going to find them in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. I don't believe they live on the western coast of Florida at all. I'm not sure how the population is up in the Palm Beaches, they probably recovered. The cold weather we had here a few months back really hammered them anywhere north of mid-Broward county. You can have a ridiculously good day with a bunch of live shiners. Thats the single best method to catch them. Small sharp hooks, rigged through the nose. You can go through several dozen fish quickly if you get into a school. They're super aggressive when they see baitfish. Plastics work rarely. Small minnow shaped cranks, x-raps, etc etc are also productive. If you hook into a large one, you better have some decent gear. Pound for pound they're the best fighting fish swimming.

Yeah I need to call them and see. The people out at Markham couldn't give me a straight answer about using the inside lakes. I was using darn near everything I had. It was just one of those days that everything was working. The majority of them were on a small drop shot though. Then I started playing around and just kept getting hits.

Sounds like a good day. Wish I could have gone out offshore today. I heard the dolphin were pretty active as well. Cobia's some good eatin fish.

Rage craw or lobster. T-rigged with a pegged weight. A jig is quickly taking up the slack when the lobster or craw doesn't cut it.

Hopefully everything worked out for you. Get it out on the water and test it out. Catch a few fish while you do, I'm sure you've been dying to.

Been fantastic for me so far. The cold earlier this year really killed the fishing for the first month or two. March and April were very good to me. May slowed down a bit, but has picked back up (landed roughly 30 today). Water temps are already pushing towards the 90 degree mark. The spawn is over and done with, post spawn is a recent memory. On to the summer patterns and fishing now. Lookin like a good year. Starting to break in the new boat and new tackle quickly. Got it out by myself for the first time today and had a blast even though it was sweltering outside.

Well, they really don't. It's not a swimbait per-se. You can use it as a swimbait, but don't expect the full body wobble like with a hollow belly. Theres a lot of action in the tail with a gentle shake at the head of the bait.

I'm not a tournament guy or anything like that, so I'm not overly concerned with me being able to fish a spot first. The way I look at it is, both people in the boat are probably throwing different baits. We can get on a pattern quicker by working together. Once we both find something thats working we share the fish. So to me, no, it's not an advantage. If money was on the line in a tournament, I could certainly see where it could be an advantage. Especially in tournaments where a lot of bed fishing is done.

Drink: Water/Gatorade and the occasional pepsi or dr. pepper Food: Cuban Sandwich, teriyaki beef jerky, or something small like trail mix/sunflower seeds Throw in a cigarette once in a while and a toothpick and I'm a happy man.

Learn something new every day. I kind of like the way that worked. Good video.

I use a 3/0 or a 4/0 gammy superline ewg on swimmin senkos. I fish them a bunch and have never had an issue using those hooks. Either those, or a 4/0 Owner XXX straight shank if thats what I've got tied on at the time. I just throw them on my normal t-rig rod. Crank them back, bounce them, twitch, etc etc. They're a really versatile bait. Gary Yamamoto recommends using a florida rig weight on them. I've done that and had succes, but I prefer to just use a pegged weight on mine.

I'm primarily a plastics guy... 9:30/10:00 am till I leave around 1:00 pm or so: My most productive set of lures so far this year have been anything in the Rage Craw lineup (baby craw, craw, lobster). Toss it out with a pegged weight in almost any depth. I've really started to like a 1/2oz tungsten flippin weight pegged to the lobster and just drag it along the bottom. I've added into my arsenal the 7" Anaconda in blue fleck, which is producing really well also. I'm also very quickly getting addicted to jigs with a rage chunk on them. Haven't had the chance to get out early enough for a solid topwater bite. Xcalibur Xt3D jerkbaits are working really well for lakes that have peacocks. The Xr50 (I believe) in tilapia is fairing pretty well also. The only lipped crank I've had any success with this year is a Series 3 in Sexy Sunfish. No size, but plenty of smaller fish on it. I've also got a few 12"-14" worms for the larger bite. I've picked up a few really nice fish this year on a 14" worm poured by a local company. But this is Florida, monster worms are always good to use. I'm starting to use tubes more down here when I'm not in thick grass. Coffee tubes in Golden Shiner with an 1/8oz tube jig have done fairly well on both Peacocks and Largemouth.

Way to go. Great fish. I really need to get out to tree tops one of these days. Wonder if I can take the Jon out there. I hit that big lake off of 172nd again today. 4 hours or so and about 35 fish in the boat. Ridiculously hot outside with no wind though. There are some seriously big fish in that lake. I saw several in the 7lb-8lb range cruising around.

Ok then. Whats the review on the weights without inserts? Inquiring minds want to know.

Nice bag right there. I'd pick one up if it wasn't in such a horrible color scheme.

Man, I'd love to see something like this happen in south Florida. I've gotta start searching around to see if it already exists, or start doing a little researching myself.

Was looking at them earlier. I'll probably grab some of them myself.

I use a MH cheapo Daiwa rod that I got for like 8 bucks because it had a broken tip. BPS Pro Qualifier and 40lb braid. I've never had an issue pulling a fish out of the junk with it. It's cheap enough that I can beat the snot out of it and not really care, and I fish frogs a lot down here. My gear takes a beating.