piscicidal

Gonna try Luke's night owl tourney this Friday. Fished one of those last year and it was pretty fun...I'll be donating (and not just my blood to the mosquitos!)

Glades, I was there yesterday (MM35) with my five year old son also. I backed into that same washout! Careful guys! It is in the middle of the SW launch...the water is so green with algae you cannot even see the washout which sits about 6inches underwater. You can go left or right of it and be OK. We went north into the Miami Canal, first thing. Very first cast, my son hooked about a six foot gator which grabbed his spro frog. He got to fight the gator for a while, before he spit the hook. We caught three bass there in about an hour...one was about 3lb, but the fishing was very slow. I tried running west through the weir...no luck, too shallow. My boat drafts 8inches and I was bottoming out. I then loaded up the boat and tried the SE launch at MM35 to try and get into that other canal system and hopefully some cleaner water. The water is too low/ramp too steep...can't launch. Same thing at MM32. Ramp too steep. I continued back East and down to Holiday Park. A ton of boats out there...we ran down to the Miami canal and fished there. There's a ton of bass in there but super small which was fine for me. I didn't even wet my line...playing guide to my son unhooking him from bass and/or trees (he has to cast it himself now ). He ended up catching 14 in the hour and a half we were there.

Interesting to note the weights of the plastics that JF posted. For example the 6" stickbaits... Senko: 0.560 BPS Sticko: 0.385 Yum Dinger: 0.475 Note: they all the same basic shape, so the difference in weight is largely caused by increased density (salt content?). Since fall rate is going to be proportional to density (for objects having similiar profiles) it follows that in terms of fall rate: Senko > Dinger > Sticko. This result does coorelate with my experience. I think most people agree that fall rate is an important parameter in fishing "vertical" presentation baits like senkos/jigs/etc, so at least for this instance I think the data is useful.

I can relate to your situation, kms. Growing up on the Mississippi River in Minnesota I fished Walleye ALOT and smallmouth/muskie a little. I almost never targeted largemouth...my buddies/family regarded LMB about one step higher than suckers/carp. Largemouth were not considered especially sporting...throw a spinnerbait in the weeds and catch em. How hard can that be?? (little did I know) Anyway...I moved to South Florida about 12 years ago and started doing little bit of largemouth fishing, but mostly saltwater. It was only about 4 years ago that I really got into it. It started when I took a trip onto one of the more prominant LM lakes here in Florida (so I could brag to my northern buddies about the double digit bass I was surely going to get) I promptly got skunked! That's when I realized that maybe this bass fishing wasn't so easy. Since then, I've been borderline obsessive trying to improve all aspects of my bass fishing knowledge/equipment.

True. Vanish Transition: After your fish "vanish", you soon "transition" to another line!

Josh, I think you will find that cold front walleyes are harder to catch than cold front bass. Go out on an overcast day with a nice 5-10 mph wind creating 1-2 foot waves (we used to call "walleye chop") and target these fish. They are a great game fish...

1. Roland and Scott Martin, KVD 2. Roland and Scott Martin 3. I've met them both and they are both truly great guys. I'd love to spend a day in the boat with them on Okeechobee. Let those two have a a friendly competition...I'll play marshall and just sit back, watch, and learn.

I use lipless cranks virtually all year. They are one of the best cold water baits there is. They are awesome as a search bait cause you can cast them a mile. Great to use on grass flats...even if the fish are in a neutral state you can usually pick up a few ripping traps thru the grass. I especially love using them this time of year (early summer) in So Fla when the water levels are real low, the bass stage up in open water before going to their summer locations.

Sure, you should try downsizing...and upsizing! One thing I've noticed jig fishing is that the fall rate is very important. My baseline jig setup is a 3/8head with a medium bulk trailer (i.e. sweet beaver). If I am fishing an area that I know has good fish and I'm not getting bit with this baseline setup, I will usually upsize the weight of the jig (or downsize the size of the skirt) to get a faster fall rate. If the fish are not actively feeding, sometimes they will grab the faster falling jig as a reaction bite (I've had good luck this way during cold fronts). If that doesn't work, I'll try and slow the fall rate by downsizing the jig or increasing the drag/bulk of the trailer (i.e. rage chunk...the swimming legs create a lot of drag, which slow the fall rate of the jig).

Time to replace those trebles with some 2X

If my memory is correct: Lucky Craft and Strike King come stock with VMC trebles and Spro comes with Gammie hooks. Those three manufacturers make up ~90% of my crankbait usage and the stock hooks are certainly strong and sharp enough. I like the triple grips as I think they help keep the fish buttoned up a little better. I don't change the trebles on all my crankbaits as it is a tiresome and expensive venture. But as a datum point: I use red eye shad alot and have many of them both with stock and triple grip hooks. And I do believe my catch rate is improved with the triple grips.

Like any other bait, the stickbaits have their time and place. If the fish are in a neutral/negative mood the senko is hard to beat. But if the fish are chasing moving baits...great! Stick with it. When that bite slows down break out the senkos again.

I replace trebles on virtually all my new cranks/traps. I prefer the Mustad KVD triple grip 2X, putting a #4 on the front and #6 on the back.

I fished Walleye alot growing up in Minnesota. I think it is fairly common to find walleye in the weeds, especially in that period right after post spawn. The females move up from the deeper water adjacent to the spawning flats and start to feed heavily. Some of my best Walleye fishing trips ever were on/around Memorial weekend, fishing shallow (7-12ft) emergent cabbage weed flats. Rig up a lindy rig (3/8oz slip sinker/swivel/3' leader/#6 hook) and a nightcrawler with a little shot of air in the tail (to float above the weeds) and troll around thru those flats. I'll bet you get a few more of those tasty fish!

The main failure mode is the unit running kind of sideways (not upright) and biasing to the left/right on the retrieve. I've tried tuning the top ring to compensate and they still run sideways. I've even broken out the dremel tool and shaved down the parting line on the lip, hoping that a nice flat leading edge might help it run true. No luck.

OK...I have been crushing the fish lately on lipless cranks, catching open water schoolies as they are staging into their summer patterns down here. Problem is I've got a small bonepile of red eye shads stacking up in the garage that just do not run right. I've replaced the hooks/tweaked the top eye/replaced the split ring at the top/etc... Anyone have any tips/tricks for salvaging these baits or are they destined for the garbage can?

Top producers for me so far this year(in order): Skinny Dipper/Big Ez (soft swimbaits) Ol Monster Red Eye Shad/Aruko Shad/Excaliber (lipless cranks) Jig/Rage Chunk Sweet Beaver

I went out last night walking the golf course about midnight. Pretty fun fishing...caught a few up to about 3.5lb on spro frogs/spooks. Always a little intense walking around out there in the dark with all the critters (banana spiders/water moccasins/alligators/german shepherds/etc...) and then when some big ol bass explodes on your bait ten feet away it gets a little bit exciting. I went out with my son yesterday afternoon with the golf cart also...he caught five on senkos. I caught two but they were good ones. One 3lb and one 5.5lb. Pitching a T-rigged Ol Monster around stumps.

I've only had my boat out once in the past month. Lox too shallow and my hot spots dried up (literally) on Okeechobee. Been fishing the golf course ponds a little bit with my "land boat" (golf cart). Been getting 15-20 each night, with a few 5-6lbers in the mix.

Yeah, in this partially decomposed state it kind of looks like a payara (vampire piranha).

Thanks guys. I call him Little Ike...he's very animated when he gets a fish, has a competitive nature about him and he loves to fish. On this trip he caught about eight fish before I even picked up a rod. After awhile I picked up my jig rod and promptly hung a fat, six-pounder. He was PO'd...didn't talk to me for about a half hour. LOL. I wasn't a great Dad for awhile there...

A couple more videos of my five year old son, Luke (aka "Little Ike") catching bass on senkos.

Bluebasser, I used to go to Eagle Lake every summer with my father/brothers/uncles/cousins. Awesome trip. We stayed at Sportsmans Lodge on the east side. I would catch several trophy Walleye (+9lb) and Smallmouth (+5lb) every trip. That place has MONSTER muskies also, although I only hooked up with one. We'd lose a walleye or two each day to a four foot plus muskie. Awesome place.

Tuna/marlin @ Cabo San Lucas or walleye/smallmouth/pike/musky @ Lake of the Woods

Personally, I use baitcasting gear for frog fishing but it's mostly about casting accuracy for me. If you can cast a spinning rig accurately then no reason not to use it, IMO.