pitchNbass

Location: Private Lake in Treasure Coast, FL August 15, 2009 @ 10:45am 8 pounds 1 ounce. Normal DD Fire Tiger in 16 feet of water. I was just about to call it quits for the day and actually working the crank bait on my way back to the trailer. Bitter sweet though as the treble hooks got her gills, bad enough that she couldn't swim away on release unfortunately. I would have liked to of seen her next spring. Although, now I could manage to get a better picture with a timer at my truck.

I see this happen quite often. Especially with pond fisherman, typically they don't even have a scale, they catch a nice fish and they estimate the size and like to say they caught a monster. I have friends who pond fish quite often here in florida and they like to say they caught one 5, 6, 7, or even 8 pounds, then I then look at the picture and see its more like 3-4 lbs. Or this line "I LOST ONE THAT WAS DEFINITELY CLOSE TO 10LBS!" Typically they are catching 1lb dinks so when they actually land a 3-4 lber, it looks like goliath. It's like come on dude, invest in a scale and don't lie to yourself. I fish almost everyday on a lakes and ponds and since summer began, I'd say I've caught about 50 bass between 4-5 lbs, with ONLY three over 5, and one over 7. The 5lb mark is tough to tough to break this summer, but at least I know when I do get one. I would only trust those who are reliable when it comes to size of bass. I fish places where I judge on average fish size. Typically the higher the average weight of fish in the water, the higher probably of something very big. Pond fishing, you're odds are slim, and with the pressure, typically don't produce for me. Although, I see people getting large bass out of ponds in florida, if you are getting your line wet in a pond, don't go with such high expectations, but rather with just trying to catch fish in general. If it happens it happens. I just got off the lake this morning. Caught 5 bass between 4.3-4.12 in 2 hours of fishing. Gosh I would love to say the 4.12 was over 5, but guess what it was 4 ounces shy. Why couldn't it have eaten a bluegill before it got my rattletrap? I would have kept fishing but that d**n coffee was running through me.

Went out today, lost a nice bass on a deep crank trolling early in the morning, lost my lure. I used a drop shot in about 25ft of water where I was finding fish on my fishfinder, but no bites. I then used a jig and fished up and down and along the drops slowly. nothing. I went to some shallower structure around 10am and caught a few 3lbers, but nothing exciting. The property manager just open the pump from the canals and bait (perch) by the thousands are pouring into this lake. I tied on a medium depth crank and caught a few more fish before i called it quits. I wore them out on the worm next to the lock but all 2-3lbers. BTW, I've fished this lake/pond almost everyday since april, there is no deep cover. Steep drop offs which i fish all the time, but lost of open deep water. I need to give the slip shot a try. My buddy went out on the pond this afternoon and caught a lot of fish, no big ones. He said he trolled with a swimbait for a while and caught a nice 4lber. I was thinking of giving that a try tomorrow. I know these large bass feed on the large perch, so fooling them really frustrates me. I love topwater early in the morning and I wear them out after the grass lines, but no huge lunkers. I did notice a 1ft+ water level increase last night. I want to fish at night but the mosquitos are terrible. Maybe I'll bite the bullet. Tuesday I was planning on getting some 10" shiners and using those for the first time.

I fish a privately owned 200 acre lake in florida almost everyday. I began fishing it last April and me and my buddy would catch 100s of fish a day, up to 6-7 lbs. We've caught about 10 bass between 6-8 lbs, but recently with the florida heat, its slowed down some. Although I still catch 15-30 fish a day, most are in the 2-4 lbs range. This lake used to be a limestone mine so it has sharp drop offs around the whole thing, but 15-25 feet deep is basically most of the lake depth. I've been sticking with carolina rigs on the drop offs, they still hammer top waters along the grass lines early in the morning but the biggest bass will be 3-4lbs. I throw a lipless crank and they hammer it regularly but my biggest will still be no bigger than 4lbs. I don't like fishing fast for 10+lbs bass. The prop manager has caught 10+ with live shiners, but I hate fishing live bait as it bores me to death. Since this was once a mine pit there is no structure deep in this lake. No real ditches, but there are some deep humps, I find suspended bass in random deep water, some down deep, but I dont really ever see schooling fish on my fish finder. There are humps, and I have electronic 565 huminbird fishfinder. Can someone help me so I can catch that lunker I've been wanting everyday I go out on this water? I want to fish deep but I have no idea where to begin as I have casted big swimbaits and deep divers in random deep water but no luck. I was thinking of trolling deep next time out. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.