GatorBait

I generally pitch and flip trick worms around pads and kissimme grass with great success. I generally use a 3/16 to 3/4 ounce weight depending on conditions. I found the less i work the bait the more effectively the bait is presented. Carolina rigging is also very effective in clearer water situations for me.

I live in Florida so rainy weather is a issue! What is the best rain-suit that is around the 100$ price range besides frogg toggs and similar imitations?

Down hear in Florida i have really began on building confidence in swimbaitin. As a matter of fact i even use them as a search bait "sometimes" in new waters. I use bass magic and shadalicious equipped with a owner beast lock hook (match the bait size with the hook size ex. 5.5" with a 8/0, 6.5in with a 10/0, 4 in with a 5/0 or 6/0 and if needed add a bullet weight for deeper applications). In addition the owner hooks are weighted so that is generally the weight i use. The hooks are expensive but they are worth it. If it is a new body of water i will start off throwing a 4in or even smaller just trying to get a bite. If it is my home lake i am throwing a 6.5". One technique that has worked very well for me is reel as slow as possible, and when i think that i am reeling as slow as possible, slow it down some more with an occasional light snap or jiggle. This is a key factor in antagonizing a strike form what i call "follower Bass". I also encounter a lot of short strikes and miss hook ups. They say you can buy stinger hooks to prevent this but here in in Florida they become entangled in grass and effect swimming action and just don't work out well on some bodies of water. For rods i use a skeet reese swimbait with an E5 and for my large baits i use a 7'11" Quantum superlight all equipped with 20lb flouro.

My favorite would be the Devil's Horse by Smithwick.

What is your favorite crankbait? (model, size, color)

I use a G loomis FSR 904x and a Quantum PT superlight 7'11". Detween both of these rods i can cover all applications of flipping/pitching, weather it is heavy punching matts of flippin saw grass. They both are also very good for heavier applications such as swimbait, Carolina rigging, 1oz spinnerbaits.

Today was a club outing for our University of Florida fishing club. The rules for the tournament were simple. Big fish takes it! I practiced for 2 consecutive days prior to today and found found some fish. As a matter of fact i stuck a 4lb. on Thursday and caught a 5 and a 7 lb. nearby on Firday. My partner and i started off catching multiple fish at dawn at a location i had found in pre-fishing but nothing would compare to what was yet to come. Around 11:00 am the my trolling motor lost power so i began the tedious hassle of find the bad connection. Upon cutting and connecting wires my partner was in the back of the boat ripping the lips off multiple fish while i was in the front of the boat sweating and building frustration. He literally caught 4 fish in the half hour i was messing with the motor. Finally i got the motor fixed! I stood up unknowingly of what was yet to come, grabbed my rod and cast my lure. My partner made a joke saying, "I think all these fish around here have sore mouths!" Eluding to the fact that i may have pre-fished to hard. Then thump! At the time i did not realized it was what it was. So i began ripping it in like i had been doing all morning, thinking it was a small fish. Then she surfaced! Then i got weak in the knees for a moment, but recouped and my partner grabbed her and slung her in to the live-well. On the scales she weighed 9 lb. 5 oz. To think if it would have been a week or two earlier i just may of had a lunker! What i learned today is proper practice does help in tournament fishing, but i think luck plays more of an important role on any given day. It seems the less i think about fishing, while fishing, i have better days.

I recently fished the backwaters running a stanley ribbit over slop with great success. HOwever i did do a whole lot better on the actual lake. I found some nice eel grass near the dam and it was on. A zoom mag speed worm was my key bait on the lake. And if you are a crankbait guy, try deflecting the bait off stumps if you can find any! LOL!!!!!! Good luck!

She was 11+, got her a few days prior to the posted pic.

Is this fish a snake or what?

all i can say is mbr783c

I use 3/0. The bigger the hook the easier to hook the fish.

Not to brag, but i fish for UF and our team won the FLW southeast regional!! Bethel or what ever it is has another thing coming!

I just squirt mine down after every trip!

I own the swimbait rod and i am satisfied with it. The 7'6" will allow you to cast a little further from shore and have some backbone to pull a fish straight back at you!

I have a gl3 cr 663 and i absolutely love it! Unfortunately they are no longer produced. They do however make a spinnerbait series rod that has a relatively short rear handle. St. croix avid series makes a pistol grip. I dont know how you are about your tackle but the berkley's lightning rod pistol grip is a fantastic rod for the price! they make 5'6" and 6' that have a fast taper and are very stout and will only run you about 38$.

I purchased them with high expectations! I generally use ribbits and horny toads and the rigging procedure with these hooks basically has torn up the noses of my baits several times. I personally think the hooks are garbage. I will take my chances using a standard worm hook.

Just wanted to here some of the communities favor lure colors to use in Florida? personally I use junebug, watermelon red, gizzard, chrome or gold with black or blue back. Have any of you used orange craw or chartreuse in Florida??

First off I LOVE FROG FISHING!!! As far as a frog rod, personally i use a heavy action rod. This is because most of the time i am running a frog through the heaviest cover possible on the body of water. Think about it, were do frogs live? They live in Lilly pads, marshes, cane grass etc... That is the reason for the heavy line too. When that fish hits it you want to have a rod with enough backbone and a line that wont break to get that fish to the boat and weigh it in!! Like i said earlier i use a heavy action rod that is about 7' to 7'6" to not only make long casts but also be able to get my tip high in the air to deflect my lure form snags. As far as line i use 30-60 lb suffix braid.

I fill the spool with a backing leaving room to put around 75-100yds of fluorocarbon. This not only helps form wasting line it helps out on the wallet too.

I does not matter if you set even numbers of brakes or not. I usually use one green brake with several of my curado's in stead of setting two. If backlash occurs at the reel immediately after the cast or when the bait is projecting through the air adjust the vbs settings. If backlash occurs when the bait hits the water adjust the friction nob. Hey i know you!

I have seen some staging bass in about 4-5ft in the clearer waters. I have also heard a lot is going on in that lake! pre, post and spawn! How about you?