RoLo

Hmph, I've never fished the weedless shad, but that'll have to change. I see they're available in a nice array of dark colors. Thanks again FloridaBasser Roger

Trouble is, in this darn weed-infested state, I'm pretty much limited to the Hud 'weedless' trout. In any case, thanks for your suggestion. Roger

Absolutely! Regardless of its geographical location, a largemouth bass is a piscivore, and a swimbait mimics a baitfish. Never forget, the largemouth bass in California are Florida-strain bass that originated here in Florida. An ole mossback doesn't care if you're a trout, shad, shiner or bluegill; when you move like a baitfish you're "food". I live in central Florida and have taken a few good fish on the Huddleston trout. Though I've used 3 different Hud patterns, I've never noticed any favoritism by bass. In fact, if I had my choice I'd probably throw nothing but a "black" Hud, but they're not available. Roger

I know what you're going through Darren, and I'm pulling for your mom, your dad and their five children. No matter which way the road may turn, nothing can mar the beauty of 63 years of togetherness. Roger

Those are the heavy drinkers

Actually, you're sixing it

IMO, there is no better time for frogging than the post-spawn, which I even prefer to early fall. Bear in mind though, bass are on record as missing 1 in 4 topwater strikes, so even if your only hooking-up on half the blow-ups, you're still batting 667. Roger

Good read. Now you've got me rethinking my desire to have coyotes in my backyard (I'd surely miss our fox) This evening, shortly after sunset there were two reds feeding in the backyard when an opossum lumbered in (a black jack). The fox sat still and watched the opossum amble around the yard. The goofy opossum nearly bumped into the fox before finally noticing the fox, and the fox never flinched..LOL One day while crow hunting in Flemington, NJ, I was using a crow in distress call and inadvertently pulled in a gray fox. That day I was experimenting with a low power scope taped to my shotgun. Though it worked okay for shooting crows, I could not find the fox in the scope. In desperation, I ripped the dang scope off my shotgun but by that time the fox was history. The next time I returned to that woodlot I brought my Burnham Brothers fox call. Although the call of a crow in distress pulled a fox, the call of a rabbit in distress drew a blank Roger

How true. The difference in their nervous energy can also be seen by the difference in their physique. If you made a circle by joining the tips of your thumbs & forefingers, the circumference would be similar to a mature fox. Roger

Alabama is probably in the post-spawn now, so you should find a decent topwater bite. You might try running a soft swimbait across the tops of the weeds (slow & steady). Roger

If you were fishing the Coosa River drainage (north Florida / south Georgia) they could be "redeye bass", which is a separate species of black bass. Beyond that it could be smallmouth bass or rock bass, but I'd really need a photograph. Roger

It's funny, I have a room in my house dedicated to fishing gear (enough gear to fill out a small tackle shop). Yet, all I carry in the boat is one "Plano 1150 Bill Dance Tackle Box" (17'' x 12” x 5') On rare instances when I can't find what I want, my wife usually has it in her big tackle bag. Roger

And ironically, I keep telling myself to slow down. Is that bad when that happens? Roger

If I miss my casting target, sometimes I'll burn the lure back without fishing it: Should that be counted as 0 casts, 1/2 cast or 1 cast? Sometimes it might take me 3 minutes to retrieve a bottom jig: Should that be counted as 3 casts, 2 casts or 1 cast? I’ve come to the inescapable conclusion that I’m not qualified to count casts. Roger

It's an unfortunate cycle: waters that produce lush weedbeds are prime candidates for herbicidal treatment, but dead vegetation creates silt and mire that's unsuited to plant growth. Muck-scraping is an enormous project, it's costly and time-consuming: > Takes time to reach an affirmative vote to fund the project > Takes time to complete the project > Takes time to experience positive results This water might be private and it might be close to home, but I'd still take my business elsewhere. An extra 30 minutes on the road is a lot better than wasting a day on the water. I live 1-minute (60 seconds) from Jennings Fish Camp on 3,700-acre Lake Pierce. In the past 7 years, I can count on one hand the number of times I launched in Lake Pierce. Roger

Okay Tom & Tom, when you boys are ready to leave the inlet give me a holler, I don't mind working used water Roger

Darn it, I hate a crowd

Probably the southwest corner, but I was wondering the same thing (where's the inlet?) Roger

Though it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, try hitting them right away (no pause). If you're now having a hook-up problem, then you have nothing to lose. Watch Dean Rojas and Ish Monroe, and tell me is you see any deliberate hesitation between strike & hook-set. Needless to say, if the bass are bumping the frog with their nose, no hook-set strategy is going to work. Roger

I don't know the source of your fish's wound, but I'm going with the consensus: Lamprey Eel Most pike I've caught that had sores made by lamprey eels were superficial wounds, and the eel was never present. The sores were elliptical in shape, and generally pink or straw in color: Though I've never seen a pike in advanced stages of infestation, the wound does takes on progressively greater depth with passing time: Roger

That had to be a fantastic show, one I'd love to witness. I see coyotes only occasionally, maybe twice a year in the orange groves. Roger

Catt offered 5 forms of patterns only to illustrate the importance of isolating your pattern, rather than drowning in complexity. A pattern is simply a repeatable, easy-to-follow guideline. The culmination of every possible pattern takes us back to square one, which is no pattern at all. About 3 weeks ago I noticed a simplistic 'locational pattern'. On this particular lake, weed pockets & weed alleys are normally pay dirt. But most of our action was now coming from bass situated along the outermost edges of the pads and isolated offshore weed islands. This pattern is so simplistic that you can run full-throttle between trial sites, but you're free to refine the pattern as more info is gathered. How long did it last? It lasted for two weekends, and it's not working any more :-( Roger

Thank you, I'll bear that in mind I would imagine that most of the residents in our community have seen red fox, but cougar sightings are rare & coveted. As an interesting aside, the favorite food of Florida cougars used to be armadillo, but loss of habitat due to construction caused the armadillo population to collapse. Today, the cougars living in Florida consume about 4 times as many feral hogs as armadillos, a very welcome outcome Roger

Thanks Evan, and I appreciate your well-founded concern. In Georgia, we were visited every night by raccoons, opossum and gray fox (no red fox because is was heavily forested). Throughout our 6-year stay in the Georgia hills, we were continually warned about rabid raccoons. As it happens though, the biggest transmitter of rabies are pet cats running wild. The local farmers in Rico, Georgia would shoot every feral cat they encountered, which might account for the negligible instances of rabid raccoons in our bailiwick. In any case, I have seen a rabid raccoon, and they're pretty easy to identify. The 1st red flag is seeing a nocturnal animal during the day. The 2nd red flag is a scruffy looking, unkempt animal. If the animal doesn't flee from your appearance, that raises the 3rd and most important red flag. Here in Lake Wales Florida, I'm not aware of a single documented case of fox-transmitted rabies. On the other hand, scores of people have been killed on US-27, which is just 13 minutes from our home. Roger

When I catch 3 largemouth bass from the same lake....I figure that's a pattern