james 14

Never fished Lake Manatee before. I have a club tourney this weekend on Lake Toho but I'll be running into Kissimmee because I know it MUCH better. I've been off the water the last two months with hunting season so I'm gonna be a little blind. I could catch 20lbs just as easily as I could catch 2lbs. I'll need some Istokpoga tips from you. We have our club classic down there the first weekend of March. The wind KILLED us last year but we were there two weeks later. The wind had just started blowing that week so hopefully we'll beat it this year...and we'll catch more of the spawn.

The wind this year has had me BEYOND ticked. It got to the point where all I could do was laugh...and then get ticked all over again. I had a run of 14 out of 15 trips with 13 in a row where the wind forecasted was 5-10mph and WITHOUT FAIL we would be facing steady 20+ and whitecaps. This is in either a 12 or 14' jon and it's darn near impossible to fish effectively in those conditions. Some days we can make it work but most days the technique called for a different approach...which we couldn't make work. And I'm not exaggerating in the least bit here. I check the forecast religiously...I have to. The wind was NEVER forecasted to be higher than 10 but it ALWAYS hit 20 or more and would nearly blow us off the lake. It all started with our club classic this past March. You'd think after 5 straight days of gale force winds they'd adjust their forecast to show a little more than 5-10 for the next day. We ran our batteries dead everyday before weigh-in, I put a dent in the hull of my boat, broke two rods and nearly suffered internal organ damage. The last tournament I fished I have no idea how I didn't fall out of the boat. I usually check weather.com but I started checking other sites and they've all failed me. I guess the only course of action at this point is to get a bigger boat. Good enough reason for me.

I wonder if George Perry jumped through so many hoops?

It's all about the timing. You can't be overly excited about it or you'll lose them just about every time. I treat it like when I get a hit on a plastic worm. You feel the strike, reel down and hammer it home. Another way would be to wait until the water settles after they blow up on it...almost as if you're looking to make sure the frog isn't still there before you set the hook.

Good deal. We placed second out there in a club tourney a couple months ago and we were first timers as well. We actually make the nearly hour long run to our spot in Lake Kissimmee figuring we were better off fishing a place we knew held fish...even if it meant losing a couple hours of fishing time. I've yet to figure out how these guys catch 25-30lb limits out there on the chain with regularity. Me thinks they have brush piles planted mid-lake.

There's no way he'd confuse a bowfin for anything resembling a bass. Is it possible it was just a skinny, malnourished bass? I've caught some pretty funky looking bass in my day and I could see where one might get the impression it's a hybrid of some sort.

I "horse" most fish in when using braid to ensure constant pressure. I know they aren't going to break me so it's usually an effort in getting them to the boat as quickly as possible. Bigger fish are actually a little easier to keep hooked since they put more bend in the rod and aren't as quick with their head movements as a smaller fish thus allowing me to keep more pressure on them. Small fish usually get a ski trip back to the boat. I rarely ever lose fish on a spinnerbait with braid. I always use a trailer hook and use MH rods.

I use 50lb PP on spinnerbaits unless I'm in really clear water...then I'll tie on a leader. I use a palomar knot. Never have problems losing fish or missing strikes.

I also picked Brian Snowden, of all people, despite his rather dismal record over the last couple of seasons simply because he was from MO. Lesson learned there, however, the same could've been said for JVD and his record as well...although he does have the Van Dam name and that speaks for itself.

Another vote for braid with a flouro leader. An alberto knot will be as strong or stronger than the knot to your lure so there shouldn't be any concern over having another knot to fail.

I seem to remember seeing something about that at one point. I was kicking myself during this last tourney. I had KVD and Aaron Martens in my lineup and almost put JVD in there as well. Switched them out for some other guys who had lower ownership percentages to see if I could make a move up. Bad idea. While I'm doing alright at 84% I'll need a miracle now to move up to the top. Looks like I was able to join still. Now I'm in 5th. I'm "Number One"...and that's not a proclamation of my perceived status. I was a little unsure of the setup process so that was supposed to be my first entry...hence the title.

What we catch down here I've always called "goggle-eyes". I have no idea why they're called that but I believe they're actually warmouths. The on in the pic looks a little different than what we catch although the pic is a little dark to be able to see all the markings.

Anyone competing? How are you doing?

I doubt it but the right people to contact would be FLW.

I just use a small boat and cheap gear and the rest takes care of itself.

Strike King makes a trailer hook that comes with black shrink wrapping over the eye to hold it in place. It's a 2/0 size as are most trailer hooks and they come in a 4-pack. Good move going to the trailer hook. I even use these on my buzzfrogs.

Another vote for the Mustads. I put them on ALL my cranks now and go a size up on nearly all of them as well. They don't seem to hang up anymore and I've never had the hooks catch on each other. I'd like to find some #1 or 1/0 to replace the #2s on my 6xd's and 2.5's. They are a pain to get off. Some of the split rings are easy to work with and some aren't. I'll have to watch that video to see what special tip I'm missing. Either way BE CAREFUL. I slipped the other day and put a hook through the side of my pointer finger. Fortunately it rode just under the top layer of skin before it came back out. I had to cut the tip off to get the hook out. I was very fortunate it went in the angle that it did. I'm also glad it was the original hook and not the Mustad. That thing was very hard to cut. EDIT - I guess I was missing the step with the pliers. I'll have to give that a try. Maybe it'll save me any future trauma on my fingers.

I use the palomar with no problems. You just have to make sure you wet it very well and don't tighten down the overhand knot you make before you wrap the loop over. If you tighten down the overhand knot before you tighten the entire knot down you create a lot more friction. At the end, when you tighten the entire knot down, you're basically just tightening the overhand at that point. If the knot is wet enough you should be able to pull the tag and the main line at the same time against the hook and the knot should cinch down with little to no resistance. Resistance = friction. I tested the San Diego Jam BTW and couldn't get it to beat a palomar. It was very bulky and hard to tie. It looks like a good knot in theory but I couldn't get it to work. The Fish-n-fool knot won the Knot Wars competition and is basically a Uni knot with the line wrapped twice through the hook eye rather than once. It ties pretty smoothly with FC.

Agreed. 50 is a good, manageable size.

Yep I fished about 20 docks, most of them with a white fluke, and only tagged one small fish. One thing I didn't do was really slow down on them but that just didn't fit with the weather conditions. I did throw a senko on a couple and threw a few spinnerbaits and frogs with no results. I'll certainly try this again with the sun out. I may even throw a shaky head in the mix but I just didn't think the fish were on the docks or I would've hit more than one.

Central FL Very murkey water with visibility about a foot in most places. Used to have hydrilla but a hurricane destroyed most of it...hence the murkiness. Some grass still grows but only in a foot or two of water. Predominate vegetation is Kissimmee Grass in 3-4 fow at most. Some lily pads in 4-5 fow. Max depth is 9' that I found and the bottom out there is mucky due to the dead vegetation from year's past. I did get fish on the depth finder but they wanted nothing I threw at them. Crankbait wouldn't dig in the bottom correctly due to the muck. A worm worked on the bottom got mucked up as well. The kicker is that there seems to be a very healthy population of shiners in the lake. I read it and witnessed it first hand when I hit of school of them first thing in the morning. Apparently the bass are hard to catch on artificials in this lake but tournaments still yeild 15-20lb bags. I have a tourney there next month. Water temp was 79-81 Weather was very cloudy with the occassional sprinkle of rain. A lot of docks on the lake but they only have 3 fow at most under them...and those are the few deeper ones. Most of them are about 2' The weather, I'm assuming had the fish scattered...likely chasing shiners in open water. I did see some fish busting the surface but, again, they wanted nothing to do with anything I threw at them. A sunny day would've concentrated the fish more in the grass and possibly under the docks. What would you have done in this instance?

About all I do is re-tie/tie on everything I'm going to be using during the tourney and make sure all my tackle is in it's place. IMO I think you're going a little overboard but, hey, it's your perogative. I don't have that kinda time and it's never adversely affected me in the past.

I go long sleeved with a regular base layer type moisture wicking shirt from Target. It's very light and cool, pulls sweat off your skin and dries quickly. I've never been one to get overly warm on my legs so I just wear some nylon gym pants. I top it off with a straw lifeguard hat I bought from a surf shop. I still get some sun from reflection off the water and when the hat has to come off to drive the boat. What I need to figure out now is what the gloves are I see the pro's where. I would just cut the fingers off some cotton gloves but cotton holds water.

I'm in search of a solid go-to bait and, generally, have a problem slowing down unless I'm flipping or am absolutely certain I know fish are in a specific spot...even then it's difficult so I can relate to the stubborness. I never got into the Senko craze and had considered spending some time with it. Seeing this post, now, is like a sign for me so thanks. I've only ever caught one 8 or 9 inch bass on one before so I've got a little work to do to. I was late on the horny toad craze as well and, since giving them a shot, it's made the different in cashing a check a time or two. I'm hoping this will work out the same way.

Pay very close attention to the line diameter of whatever you buy. While Yo-Zuri has a higher break strength than what it's rated for it also has a larger diameter than some other FC's. For instance, it's 6lb line is the same diameter as 10lb Abrazx. This is just one example but it's something to look for. Not all lines of a certain lb test are the same diameter. I've had good luck with Abrazx, Trilene 100% and Spiderwire Ultracast. I too was wondering about Viscious line because it's the only thing I can find locally that's heavier than 12lb beside friggin' Vanish.