SoFlaBassAddict

I may be forced to retract my previous statement.... It's freakin cold outside now. I haven't seen a single fish all day. Not even a bite, hit, sniff, anything. Nothing but wind and cold. Where the hell is my warm south florida weather?

Nice info GW. Made for an interesting read. One of these days I really need to make my way up there for some fishing. As much as I love going into the everglades, I really want to fish up in your neck of the woods some day. That 14 pounder sure as hell looks like fun.

Theres nothing wrong with that! ;D The more peacocks down here, the better.

I haven't been able to post here in a long while, thankfully Christmas break affords me some time to fish with the kids. What's been working for me down here has been C-rigged senko's like the poster above said. Gambler paddle tail worms in bluegrass color have been great. Swimming senko's (watermelon w/black flake) have been decent. Other than that my regular t-rigged grab bag fished really slowly have also produced a few decent fish. I've hooked into a few really nice fish on topwater frogs, but haven't been able to land them...I need to change out my line it's got some nasty looking frays in it.

Holy crap, what a beast of a bass. I would have never guessed that a potential record would have come out of Japan. Hopefully the fish was caught legit. If thats the case well done to the angler.

I love me some horny toads. I've got a small box dedicated to them. I pretty much just use those 5/0 zoom screw in horny toad hooks and have no real issues. Sure once in a while it flips over on a retrieve, but I don't think it really affects the action much. I've yet to hop onto that rage-tail toad bandwagon yet just because I can catch fish on the zoom toads on a regular basis. There is nothing more fun that watching a bass explode on one of those things.

There is a ridiculous amount of good info on this site for pretty much everything you asked. Some of the stuff in the articles make for great reading. Once you figure out what all you liked, just do a search here and you'll probably find a number of different ways to refine that technique or some ideas to fish it slightly different. As M & M said, it's hard to beat a t-rig from the bank. It's hard not to catch fish with a senko, especially if you're a lazy SOB like me ;D

I pick up shiners every once in a while at holiday park for the kids. It's around 11 bucks for a dozen. And they aren't the best quality in the world.

I've seen a few up here sitting on the banks of my lake in south Broward. Very rare, but I do see a few in the early mornings or out at night. It's made me start using more craw patterned baits on t-rigs. Paca-craws, chigger craws, etc etc. Definitely seems to work at certain times of the day.

Yeah, its miserable down here in Broward right now as well. I tried to get out in the backyard to do a little fishing yesterday and it just wasn't much fun in the heat we had this weekend. Before it was non stop rain stopping me from catching fish, now it's this incredible heat. Summer is going to be ridiculous this year if it's this hot. Even the peacocks down here have all but disappeared with this heat. I've got a nice deep lake here to fish in and I know the fish are all down deep, but without electronics thats making stuff no fun. I'm already looking forward to the winter cool down and it's only June.

Live mullet? Where?? The Snook were slamming mullet down by cutler bay but I wasnt able to castnet any and of course they wouldnt hit anything else I had :'( You could easily get a handful of them right in Homestead Bayfront Marina. Although some of those mullet will more than likely be way to large for snook. darn blast using light tackle though.

Does key lime pie count? Dear god I love that stuff. If I can have a real reason to eat it other than the taste I'll be having that stuff with every meal.

I ALWAYS wear at least some heavy duty sunscreen when I head outdoors. If I know I'll be outside for an extended period of time I'll most definitely wear a hat. I prefer using my old army boonie style hat, some good comfortable light shorts, and usually a long sleeved shirt of some kind. I hate seeing the tan lines that some people get with a regular baseball cap on. I shave my head once every two days so I need all the protection that I can get. Whenever lobster season comes around is when I go really overboard with sunscreen on my back (I hate diving with a shirt on). I'm still hoping that I'll find a sunscreen that is REALLY waterproof this year. I've been trying really hard for 20 something years now with no real luck. One thing I do recommend if you get a burn is to find some good aloe gel. I've got a bottle here that I bought like 10 years ago that the name and all has worn off of. It kind of looks like green booty lube :'(. But I've never found anything better on cooling down a sunburn.

As I was re spooling my SINGLE casting reel (yes yes I know) that I regularly use, I was thinking to myself, should I be using a leader attached to my mainline or not. I've noticed that I go through a bunch of line over the course of a few months as I tend to change lures out on that rod/reel at least once or twice a day. Let me first go out and say that I don't spend ridiculous cash on line for this rod and reel as bass fishing is more of a hobby that I take kind of jokingly. I don't go out and dump heavy braid or whatnot on my bass gear. I save that for my offshore tackle. I use cheap 8-12 test that I get for like 4 bucks a spool from BPS. It works, it's cheap. But even still I was just wondering how many of you actually use leaders. One thing I noticed was that for some reason when I've seen people using leaders on TV is that a lot of times they're using leaders that are lighter than the mainline, me being a saltwater person think's thats just darn silly. Would appreciate any input on this, thanks.

Fished out is about right. I'm not sure if it's just sheer fishing pressure or not though. I mostly target offshore pelagic species and I can say that there are nowhere near the same weedlines like there used to be several years back. When I was younger you couldn't help but find grass so thick you could walk on top of it. Now finding a few sporadic clumps of weed is pretty tough. I miss the days of being about to fill up the boat with dolphin in about 2 hours. If I could afford the fuel I'd make the short drive over the Bimini and fish there. But at darn near 6 bucks a gallon for fuel that isn't so easy anymore.

Easy there, nothing wrong with northern people....Have you ever been skiing? Its alot of fun I do my skiing when theres a rope tied to the back of a boat. That and the women wear A LOT less clothing down here when skiing is involved. Clothing mishaps are so much better when theres only two small pieces of fabric attached to said women.

We're too busy fishing for you to notice us on here. Those silly northern people have these weird "seasons" and whatnot that they can catch bass. So they have more time to post ;D

I've used things similar to this while offshore fishing for dolphin/sailfish/marlin. They look great in the water, but it's almost too much of a PIA than I'd like to deal with. I'd rather spend a couple hours rigging up baits instead of dealing with the tangles that I've had on umbrella and spreader rigs.

Yeah, I've been using some of the baby paca craws on recommendation from a lot of people here. My one big complaint about them is that for some reason I always bring them back up missing an arm. I need to figure out a use for some one armed or no armed craws. I've been meaning to jump on the whole rage bandwagon. I just need to make the time to go grab some at BPS one of these days.

After going for close to a month of non stop jig fishing catching NOTHING, I finally caught a LM. I only wish I picked up jigs earlier in my fishing career, even though I haven't caught much on them they are kind of fun to fish with. The bass I caught may have been two pounds, but I really don't care it was something other than some grass on the fun end of the line. I've caught plenty of fish before sight fishing on beds before, but that almost seems like cheating to me. The worst part is now the monkey is calling me again to start buying more jigs with cash that I should be spending elsewhere... Bleeding Bitsy bug in green craw with a YUM twin tail grub trailer in matching color.

On my lake I have TONS of lizards. Almost an excessive amount of them. I've caught most of my large fish on a weightless t-rigged zoom 6" lizard. I mainly work it like a topwater bait. On occasion I'll let it drop a few foot down and just give it a slow retrieve similar to a super fluke. The best fishing I've ever had with a lizard has been at night using a seven or eight inch glow in the dark chart w/black flake lizard. I've caught some 20+ pound catfish on them and a whole mess of 7+ pound bass. I've probably got more lizards in my garage than anything else....

Exactly the same thing I do except for the addition of 2/0 hooks as well. Sometimes I just like using the smaller hooks when I'm changing baits often.

The biggest difference between the two besides the cost is the type of plastic being used and the amount of salt impregnation. The senko's are more of a premium bait where the zoom brand is more of your everyday joe type of plastic. Thats not to demean zoom by any means, I love using tricks worms and such. Neither the Senko line of baits or any of the Zoom baits are guaranteed to catch bass. No bait will do that. Each one has it's different use and application. Now that being said, if you're a lazy wretched like me you can pretty much just drop a senko in the water, let it hit the bottom, lift it up and down a few times, and you'll stand a good chance of catching fish. Senko's are the perfect lazy mans bait. On the other hand, I have FAR more Zoom branded baits in my boxes just because of the variety and the cost of them. If you've never fished with a senko before, it's certainly worth the six or seven bucks to pick up a package of them. Pretty much across the country they catch fish on a regular basis. Be forewarned though, they are very soft and will usually only last you a few fish before you need to change them out.

Hey Sqhertz, How bad was the store down there. I've never actually been to the one in Miami and I was tempted to head down there on Thursday when I have some time off. Is the whole store raided or what? I also need to pick up some new seats for my boat, hopefully they have some. Whereabouts is the store located?

I think you kind of missed his point there.... But I'd hope he caught a few birdies and the occasional eagle. Although if he's like me, he caught more bogies...