piscicidal

YES!! The satisfaction you get when you've put together all the pieces is what gets me geeked out. It's not even about the catching, for me. one of my most satisfying trips was a trip this winter after a really nasty cold front...I caught about 15 fish with my best five going MAYBE 9lbs. But that 9lb sack felt like 25, that day. I talked to five guys that day at the landing and they all caught zero. Again, the fight/catching is almost anti-climatic for me. For me it's about the satisfaction you get knowing that that all the knowledge, equipment, effort, and preparation that you have were put to good use.

Jim McC, I can totally relate....my parents live near Leech Lake. For about two years of my life I had "musky fever" really bad. In my lifetime I've probably fished Walleye 10X more than I've fished bass. Truth be told I am (currently) a much better walleye fisherman than a bass fisherman. I used to be positively obsessed with walleye fishing, but the last couple years I've switched my obsession to bass fishing. The main appeal for me is all the different techniques: frogs, topwater, swimbaits, T-rig, C-rig, drop shot, jigging, flipping, pitching, punching, crankbaits, etc, etc... My favorite part about fishing (whether its musky, walleye, bass, etc..) is pieceing together the puzzle: finding the fish and then presenting the bait in the most effective way possible. The fight/catch are almost non-climatic for me.

My lord...I'm speechless. You are the only person who says they leave 7lb bass because they aren't big enough, and I actually I believe it.

Skinny dipper, big ez, ol monster, rage thumper, sweet beaver.

I fish soft swimbaits a TON...Skinny Dippers/Big Ez/Ez swimmer/Zoom swimming fluke (<- what I think you are using)/etc. My experience with these is that the bait is NOT especially lifelike on its own. I've had similiar experiences to yours where the bass ignore this bait if they get a real good look at it (open, clear water). Where these lures REALLY shine is when fishing shallow weeds (especially the more grassy weeds: eelgrass/kissimmee grass). The bait slithers through the grass, bouncing back-and-forth off the stalks. These soft swimbaits look very lifelike in this presentation and the fish cannot get as good of look at it. I've had several +100 fish days with these baits when used in this manner. When using softswim baits I prefer a more lifelike color... Houdini is a very effective color where I live for all the soft swimbaits (Big EZ/EZ swimmer = Copperfield color). If the primary forage in the lake is shad try the GRN BAD SHAD color (skinny dipper) or New Shad (Big Ez/EZ swimmer). If the primary forage is mullet try the Big Ez GHOST SHAD color. If you are fishing open/clear water you are probably better off with a shallow running jerkbait/crankbait or a hard swimbait like the Mattlures/Sebile/Spro BBZ/etc...

People posting pictures of their 3.5lb bass calling it 5lbs. Or posting their 4.5lb bass and calling it 7lb. Similiar thing, different sport. Golfers who drive the ball 240 and say they hit it 280-290. Driving on a four lane road...you're in the right lane with a ton of space behind you. A car pulls RIGHT in front of you and promptly hits the brakes so he can make his right hand turn.

OK, I'm giving away one of my best tips now... Go to that exact same spot and throw the Devil's Horse. He's very unlikely to expel that bait without catching one of the six (2 trebles) hooks hanging off of it.

Not sure where you're at with the spawn, but it could be bedding fish grabbing/blowing the bait to get it away from the nest. A bass will grab a bait and expel it almost instantaneously when in this mode. They're not eating...just trying to get the bait away from the bed. You are not likely to set a hook in this fish from any distance even with braid and/or fast action rods. You can increase your odds by having a ridiculously sharp hook on your frog...he may hook himself trying to expel the bait. But you will still miss alot of these fish. Good thing is...those fish are probably BIG, and you know where those big mommas are now. Sharpen the **** out of your hooks, make sure you've got a H/F action rod and go back and try it again...

OMG..only 1/4lb off the state record. That's one more little brim for that toad. Too bad theguy wasn't in the "State-by State" thread... 98.1% would be pretty hard to beat!

Texfisherman, You're getting a lot of good advice here. One thing that wasn't mentioned...were you using a single hook bait or treble hook bait (hardbait)? If you were using a hardbait, it is very important to have some compliance in the system to keep the hooks from ripping out of big fish during the fight. A softer, parabolic type rod and mono line will help keep the fish buttoned up when using the hardbaits. It is also advised to replace the treble hooks with a high quality 2X on many hardbaits. I was fishing with a really good bass fisherman Thursday night. We got on a good bite with lipless traps and caught a lot of nice fish...but between the two of us we also lost four fish over 5lbs. You will lose more fish with the treble hooks even if you do everything right. It's the nature of that beast. Don't beat yourself up over it. Just keep chuckin it out there and catch another one.

Bruce, I had a similar Easter Sunday. Went to my brother-in-laws Sunday afternoon in Coconut Creek. Spent the afternoon with my kids and nephews fishing the pond in his backyard. Couldn't get much going until I saw some activity way out in the middle. I put on a 3/8oz scrounger/fluke and launched it out there and started catching some schoolers. I spent probably 80% of my time casting and untangling kids line, but it was fun. Two of my nephews caught their first bass.

Bass love my redfish "rootbeer jig". I've caught big bass in the C-13 canal (brackish) on a mirrolure jerkbait while fishing for snook. I've caught a few bass on a luhr jensen jigging spoon I bought in the saltwater section at Dicks Sporting Goods. I bought some Sebile Soft Swimmers in the saltwater section at Dicks. I haven't tried them yet for bass, but they look great.

Agreed...top water frogs is the most exciting way to fish bass.

Oscar, I live in South Florida also and use a 5.0:1 reel for my heavier soft swimbait rod (Big-ez). I like having to "burn" the reel a little bit with this technique. I think the stronger gear ratio also helps a little with fatigue as you are pulling fairly heavy baits through heavy slop. I have my 5.0 reel attached to a 7'6" MH veritas, and this setup has been phenomenal for me. The Veritas is only $100 so it falls in your price range. I use 6.3 (worms, hardbaits) and 7.0 (frogs, flipping) ratios for virtually every other fishing I do. The 5.0 is also a good ratio for deep cranks and heavy spinnerbaits...although I don't do much of either, fishing mostly shallow, weedy lakes.

Ten fish over #5...wow! Outstanding!

IMO, Abu has the better product and customer service. I really like that Abu lets you return the rod to the retailer. I lost a guide insert on one of my Veritas rods and brought it in to BPS for a no-hassle refund, today. Many brands (St Croix, Loomis, etc...) want you to return to the factory. It's really nice to be able to bring the rod straight into BPS and exchange it without dealing with all the BS (processing fee, shipping, downtime not having the rod, etc...) I have three Veritas rods and I will be buying more.

I have three Veritas rods. IMO, the Veritas is probably a tad stiff for the treble hook baits. I use these rods for soft bodied frogs, and soft swimbaits (skinny dipper/big ez). I don't have any experience with the Vendetta.

A month ago, I caught the same bass 1/2hour after I caught him the first time. On the same bait. It was a 3lber that had this nasty red bump/tumor on his head, so I am sure it was the same fish. I've done the same with walleyes...catching the same +25" fish several times over the course of a day. If fish do have any kind of cognitive recollection, I would think it's less than 30 minutes from my experience.

Eric, I'm sure you've heard of this...but a small piece of shrinkwrap works awesome for retaining plastics on straight shanked hooks. I do this on all my flipping hooks...leave the upper portion of the shrinkwrap (towards the eyelet) "unshrunk" or partially shrunk so it acts like a big barb.

The bite. When you get that monster blowup on a topwater toad...or a huge wake following your skinny dipper before that tell tale "thump thump"...or the bonejarring take by a hawg of a pitched jig/beaver on eight feet of 65lb braid. Man, I live for that (stuff).

Accurist PTs are fine reels. I am less impressed with some of Quantum's other offerings (besides Smoke). You can get PTs new on EBAY for ~$80 and used ~$40. IMO, the best value around in bass fishing reels...

Sheesh, that thing is the touchdown plus the two point conversion...You are definately running up the score on the defenseless opposition!

Good job, Bruce! 24lbs is a heck of a day!

All these light-weight (i.e. thin walled), ultra-high modulus rods are going to be susceptable to breakage upon side impact. This is irrespective of brand (Avid, Dobyns, Shimano, etc...) If dropped/banged around and the cross section is compromised (i.e. nick, dent in the side wall), they will break upon hookset. It's the price you pay for sensitivity and lightweight.

It's hard to imagine better fishing anywhere. I am a novice when it comes to Okeechobee (yesterday was my eighth time on the lake) and I caught about 300 pounds of bass yesterday. What the heck is a good fisherman going to do out there??