SoFlaBassAddict

Went out again for an hour later on in the day. Saw several Peacock beds as well in a different part of the lake. Some were loners, most of them had a male and a female on the bed. Others were just a male and a female that were roaming around. Caught a few that were between 16" and 20" on the old elbow measurement. Several 2 to 3 pound LM on beds and in schools also. Along with a bunch of fish just cruising around on the drop offs. Like South FLA said, lots of empty beds as well. Looks like this lake is in all three stages of the spawn right now. Been some great fishing for the last few days.

x2 I use #8, but I'd imagine the difference is negligible. I think the 8 is like 0.11 and the 6 is 0.10 diameter. Or somewhere right around there.

Any of you guys out there know of any software that lets you take a picture from like google earth or something and create a lake map from it? Or would something like that just be easier to do in a normal ms paint type of program? Theres no topo maps of my lake and I'd like to start mapping it out a little more as opposed to just going by memory.

Well, I guess it's officially here in Broward for me. Basically finished up on my boat right in time for the spawn to hit my lake. Got out for about two hours total and picked up a good 15 fish. Picked up a few large females that were just dripping with eggs. Saw several fish sitting on beds, and several fresh empty beds. Had good success today on my new finesse combo with a shaky head dropping into the beds. Around sundown I absolutely slayed some larger fish on a watermelon swimmin senko worked deep on some drop offs leading into deep grass. Warm weather finally stabilized and the fish are happy again. Hope the rest of you guys are starting to have some fun down here. Gotta love Springtime in southern FLA.

I swear, I really need to book a trip up there one of these days. Short trip to get there. Those are some ridiculous fish, Larry. Nice job.

Congrats on the new rig. Nice smallies right there.

That was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP's post.

I totally forgot to add the space monkey. I haven't caught anything on one yet, but I'll be damned if they don't look good in the water.

So in the next few days I'm going to start a thread or three on my specific lake. Hopefully some of the info that you guys help with will help some of the other guys out there that have questions similar to mine. I've been bank bound for bass mostly for the last few years. I've never had the urge to buy a boat. I've recently picked up a rig for my lake and am having a great time trying to learn it more and more with my graph. In this part I'd like to discuss water clarity. I understand the concept of clear, stained, and muddy water. But what actually defines clear or stained water. I'd hope muddy is fairly self explanatory. Would clear water be me being able to see a white lure down into six foot of water or what? I'm assuming that stained would be half of the visibility in clear water. That being said, I know that weather conditions can also affect the clarity on a lake. Wind, cloudy days, clear bluebird days, etc etc. Things like this are where I'm positive I need to improve on to become a better bass angler instead of starting on a guess and trying to work towards a pattern from there. So, with your help, I'd like to try and actually define what a clear or stained lake would be. Short of me dropping a tape measure in the water with something attached so I can see the end, I'm d**n clueless here.

I've never done anything else buy t-rig them. Normally use the zoom brush hogs, but I've got a surplus of hogg assassins here right now. Good style of lure, it can mimic a lot of things and can be worked a ton of different ways.

I got my butt handed to me by my daughters today on my pit lake. They were using bubblegum trick worms on like 1/8 weights. Just tossing them into the grass on the drop offs. I think they pulled in about 10 fish each in an hour and some change. Gotta love the warmer temps being back. I managed a dink on my junebug finesse worm drop shotted in the deeper water.... Teach me to laugh at pink worms....

Way to go. I've really got to get my hands on some of those skinny dippers. I constantly hear how great they are from a lot of the Florida guys.

If you're a little handy with tools, you can easily make one yourself out of some thin gauge aluminum. It bends really easy and you'll be able to make it whatever size you want.

For a guy your size, you'll want the widest you can afford. Remember, the bottom width is the important number, not the beam at the top. I'm 6'1" and roughly 235 and I manage with little trouble in my 1236. You've got to be a bit cautious if you move to one side or whatnot, but you wont instantly flip into the water. On a 32 you'd be swimming. If you can, find something at least 40, or 48 wide. You can get away with a 12, but you may find the extra length on a 14 or 16 footer handy.

5200 is great stuff, you'll be happy with it. Like I said before, DO NOT get it on your hands. The last tube I used cracked when I was rolling up the bottom. Use one of the tube keys if you have one. I had to soak the stuff on my hands in Acetone and scrub for a while to get it off. I still have some stuck in my skin almost a week later.

I'll say this, I loved the 570 at first, then I had transducer issues. I no longer own that sonar. I'm not sure if Humminbird is having QC issues or what, but lately I've been hearing about a lot of problems with their stuff.

Oh, I can and do. The threaded pedestal is a removable piece. The seat mount pin drops right into the base mount. I was hoping somebody knew of a shorter pedestal though. I like being up a little higher, but the 11" might be a bit high.

5200 is the way to go. Spend the extra couple of bucks and get the tube in the red packaging. It's the fast cure. It does cure fast. Don't get that stuff on your hands, it is a major PIA to get it off if it gets even a little tacky on skin....I know from experience....

The only problem with those, thats a permanent installation. With the removable pedestal style, you can pop it off with no issues and it just leaves a small plate in the location.

Yeah thats what I was thinking. Smallest I've seen has been 11" also. I'll have to check and see how that bushing is stuck into the tube. If that pops out, cutting it is an easy thing.

I love using chatterbaits. Generally my best are the all chart and the white. My only real complaint with them is the hook quality seems to...suck. I've had several recently that I've picked up that are just plain dull. One actually had a blunt tip. For 4 bucks I can't complain too much, little work with a hook sharpener handles the problem. Only drawback is you remove the coating on the hook, so they're prone to rusting quicker. I've been thinking lately about just removing the small metal hex and snap lock and swapping them onto a jighead with a better quality hook.

So, when I got my new TM, the guy tossed me a Tempress seat so he could get it out of his garage because he's moving. I picked up a base, seat mount, and pedestal today in a package. 11" stand. I can stand safely in my Jon, but the seat on the pedestal makes a little nervous. If I put my feet up on the sides of the boat it's not really a major problem, but it's enough that I have to be cautious. It's probably something I can get used to over time, but I'm not sure. Does anybody know if you can either cut down a pedestal, or is there a company out there that makes like a 6"-8" stand. I believe it's a springfield 3/4" threaded base/pedestal.

Lol, aint that the truth. We use them all the time drifting on the reefs down here in Miami. Great thing to have. But like Steve said, make sure you attach it really good. Eventually I stopped buying them and started making my own out of heavy duty sailcloth that I have at the shop, or just a five gallon bucket with a couple of holes punched in the bottom.

Love my carbonlite baitcasting setup. I wish I had grabbed a spinning rod when they were still on the introductory price. I still may at some point. What reel do you have on that? Almost wish there was a carbonlite spinning reel to go with it right now. I'm very happy with the baitcaster.

I was looking at buying one of the tm's with the iPilot on it and just couldn't justify spending that much on it. God do I wish I had one though, sure looks like a cool toy. If you could plot out a course with it to follow along a bank or something, that would just be sickeningly cool.