RoLo

"Skinny Bear Round Rubber Punch Skirts" I use 'black blue' but would be comfortable with any dark color Roger.

Deps 7" Deathadder Grub - scuppernong (Discontinued) Roger

THE JIGLESS JIG In the 'Florida Slop', my most weedless probe is what I call a 'jigless-jig' The 'crawless-craw' is a Deps 4.5" Twin-Tail Grub (Very tough plastic) The skirt is 'live rubber' The Hook is a 5/0 grip-pin rebarb straight-shank Dyn-o-mite Roger

> Yum 6¼” Swurm - sugar & spice (soft jerkbaits) > Gambler 5” Big EZ – alewife (soft swimbaits) > Mustad 5/0 Grip-Pin Flipping Hook (Rebarb – conical – 32 grains – 0.068” wire) (I’ve never found a hook that retains a trailer as well as this Denny Brauer hook) Roger

There's no reason to be intimidated by its size, just subdivide the lake on your chartplotter, something you can do at home. The FWC reported that of all things, the most productive plant for bass in the Big-O has been "cattails". Cattails rarely grow deeper than 3 ft, which gives you a heads-up as to bass depth. Roger

PHEW, now I know why Scott is in Florida

Oops, I guess I blew my cover, because now you know why I moved from Jersey to Florida. Roger

I love ice-fishing, but I hate temperatures below 32 degrees Roger

You can't fix the mindset of a litterbug, nevertheless, you can't change the mindset of us trash collectors either I realize that I cannot bail-out the ocean, but I take away as much trash as feasible. Roger

> Lucky Craft Pointer > Rapala Husky Jerk > Megabass Vision Roger

KVD - Denny Brauer - Larry Nixon and a bunch of fellows on the forum...too many to mention. Now to the flipside of the equation: Can they tolerate a day of Brain-Picking? Roger

As confirmed by telemetric studies, largemouth bass are shallow-oriented, residential fish that move no farther than necessary. On large year-round holding sites, seasonal adjustments involve little more than depth change within the same structural complex. Food is very rarely an issue on fertile natural lakes. Thanks to Mother Nature's master plan, the favorite habitat of bass forage correlates with the habitat of bass (i.e. food comes to them). When bass have to travel far to find food, that's an indication of an unnatural habitat (stocked bass) and/or a lake with low fertility. In any event, bass are highly adaptable creatures that do what needs to be done to survive. Roger

Cabomba (Cabomba caroliniana), also known as fanwort is actually a different plant. One difference is that ‘coontail’ has no true root system, while fanwort is a rooted submergent. Since the title of this thread is "Identifying Grass", let me share a quick way to distinguish between the 3 most common bottlebrush-shaped submergents: Hydrilla Hydrilla is debatably the favorite weed of largemouth bass. It has the general shape of bottlebrushes underwater with foliage that's hard and stiff. When hydrilla is removed from the lake it retains its shape totally, which is a very distinguishing feature. In addition, hydrilla has a raspy feel all its own. Coontail Coontail is cherished by northern pike, being second only to cabbage (pondweed). Coontail consists of firm, Y-shaped filaments with an overall shape resembling the tail of a coon (no surprise there). When coontail is removed from the lake it retains most its shape but not as rigidly as hydrilla. Coontail has no true root system, just hold-tight filaments at the bottom of its stems. For this reason, coontail beds can be relocated by high winds or strong current, but they normally colonize in protected bays or amidst a companion plant like hydrilla, water lilies, and so on Milfoil Milfoil (actually 'Eurasian watermilfoil') is beloved by muskies. a plant with soft, wispy foliage that resembles down feathers. Milfoil has an overall shape that reminds me of Christmas garland. When removed from the lake, milfoil collapses completely, a real giveaway trait. Roger

Team9nine nailed it. The Y-shaped fronds are a prominent field mark. Roger

I know one lady who catches 2 to 3 bass to my one. Thanks to her, I'm a crackerjack with the bass net Roger

Skills and Strengths?? Hmmm, that's a tough one! Now, if you were asking for 'weaknesses', I could fill the page. Roger

Since I'm a Triton owner, I'm probably the wrong guy to ask (2011 Triton 17 Explorer / 115 HP Merc). With 2 passengers aboard, 115 HP is adequate and will give you superb fuel economy to boot. The only drawback would be getting out of the hole with a full fuel tank (26 gal) and a full livewell (36 gal). Realistically though, how many bites are you going to miss by spending an extra 10 sec getting on plane? Every year, I tow that little rascal from Florida to Canada (heading to Manitoba this summer). For this reason, I place great value on 'fuel capacity', 'livewell capacity' and 'rate of flow" (spouts 8-ft). which are all areas in which Triton excels. Roger

Sadly, I know exactly what you mean

Depending on the lake classification and seasonal period, the shoreline is often the high-percentage area. Actually, the presence or absence of structure is unrelated to the angler’s distance from shore. Furthermore, you can fish surgically along the shoreline, and you can fish randomly offshore. Roger

Unless you create your own charts (which I do, but it takes forever), that's definitely the wave of the future. 'Community Edits' sponsored by Navionics is on the same page. It's Navionics way of improving chart accuracy without investing in cartographers. On the upside though, all Navionics users benefit from the edits without charge. Even though I update my Navionics Plus SD card before every outing, I rarely notice a meaningful improvement, even on popular waters like Lake Kissimmee. That would be okay if their charts were beyond reproach, but chart accuracy in many areas is laughable. I'm confident though that we're on the cusp of rapid improvement (I hope). Roger

In the areas best suited to flipping and pitching, line visibility is not an issue. Bass in heavy vegetation are shrouded in shade even during the midday sun. Chris Lane won the last Bassmaster Tourney on the St. Johns River. Chris was flipping Lake Dexter with Hi-Vis 80-lb braid (No Leader of course) Roger

I'm not qualified to say whether Fish Attractant is Magic or Placebo, but until I catch a bass with barbels, you won't find fish scent in my boat Roger

I have an old bulk spool of 15-lb Trilene Big Game that's roughly 40 years old! Despite its age, it's a major chore to break that line in your bare hands (incredible stuff) Roger

I'm Sorry