FLcentral

I fish the Harris chain and came to the conclusion this summer that the greatly expanded growth of hydrilla has caused a big change in fish habits and location. Locations that produced last year when the hydrilla was sparse are not producing any fish this year. It seems that the fish prefer the hydrilla over other cover so I have been fishing the heavy grass more. Eel grass and pepper grass (cabbage) still hold some fish but not like the hydrilla.

When I was a teenager fishing the local lake I noticed another guy fishing a mid lake eel grass flat catching a few bass. It was mid morning and the bite was slow so I moved on to the grass flat a good distance from the other guy. The water was about 5 feet deep with fair visibility to the bottom. I started throwing a red 6 inch plastic worm as I slowly drifted the flat. With no strikes I was watching the other angler who had boated a couple more bass and had also seen a couple bass swimming near the boat so I changed my worm to a blue color which also produced on this lake. Still no bites and bass swimming by the boat made me change colors again to a black worm. The black worm quickly produced a couple of 1lb bass and the likely answer to the fishes preferred color. While unhooking the fish I could see crawdads sticking out of their gullet so a dark colored worm was close enough to the craws they were eating to get a strike. I tried a chocolate colored worm which also produced but red or blue was ignored. During the last month I have been fishing rattle baits in the local lake and have found that a bait with a good bit of chartreuse on it was getting regular bites while the metallic baits that produce consistently last summer were not getting hit. The water clarity was less than 2 feet, a little less than last summer. I threw several different brands of rattle baits and caught fish on all brands that had chartreuse in the paint job.

I vote for numbers. I'd rather fish different baits, patterens and locations than wait out a few big bites. In florida public waters targeting big bass useually means fishing live shiners around heavy cover. It gets big bass but can be slow going, besides it ticks the bait monkey off when you go to the tackle shop and only buy shiner hooks.

Funny how fish will pass on a more accurate baitfish imatation and hammer a more basic old school lure like a spoon.

While I can get bites on topwater you pretty much have to hit them in the head to get a strike in the area I've been fishing. Once they go down they rarely hit the topwater, subsurface baits still get bit though. A swim jig sounds like something worth trying. Oddly shore line fishing with topwaters draws good strikes unlike the open water school fish.

When you find bass schooling and busting shad on the surface what lures do you like to throw? While topwaters are an obvious choice I have had better luck throwing a Fluke, I've seen others catch fish on spinnerbaits in open water but thats never produced for me. So what do you like when the bass are busting bait?

I have prescription Costas and WileyX wrap around style frames for more side glare reduction. The single vision Costa pair were always good for clarity and glare reduction. The WileyX frames had more of a curve to them and with no line bifocals my doctor had to send the glasses back to the lab 3 times before they got the focal alignment correct due to the curve required in the lense to fit the frames. My insurance covers most of the cost but be aware that the choice of frames can complicate the lens fit and preformance.

Strong cold fronts = slow bass fishing.

Speaking of storm systems I'm finding that the fish in my local water are more sensitive to weather fronts than I expected. Liveing in Florida the weather has been fairly warm over the last month and the fish have been agressive at times. What I have noticed is that the change from mostly sunny to mostly cloudy with scattered showers has really slowed the bite down. I expected that warm conditions with a little clouds and rain would get the fish feeding more actively with water temps around 65 to 70. The reverse occured, a slow presentation with a worm would still catch fish but they were not nearly as agressive as they had been in bright sunny midday conditions the day before. This situation has occured twice with simular results. Dureing hot summer conditions some clouds and rain usuually increase the fish activity. I'm guessing the pressue change affects the fish before the clouds and rain arrive.

Don't over look the chance the bass may be picky about the size of the bait they want so don't pass up a few 2 to 3 inch baits.

For a reel in this price range the cast control adjustment works fairly well. Some others at this price level have a magnetic control that seems to have no effect on spool speed. The reel is decently smooth in operation. I did split the handle retaining nut on mine and had to order a replacement.

The location I'm thinking of the fish school on the same bars over and over for 5 or 6 weeks. You can plainly see 3 to 4 inch shad jumping as bass chase them agressively. Throw out a shad imitateing plug and more often than not it will be refused. If you do find a lure that they will hit about 2 fish is what you'll get before they stop hitting. If you hit a day when they are very aggresive you may get a number of fish on a single lure. Odds are the next day the same bait may produce little or nothing. Yor probably thinking this guy doesn't really know what he's doing but after 20 yrs of fishing this area I've seen it happen over and over. I often catch more of these school fish by fishing under them with worms or other bottom bounceing baits. So why do hungry aggresively feeding fish refuse lures that are carefuly designed to imatate a shad? Draw your own conclusions, but I'm convinced that heavy fishing pressure conditions the fish to avoid lures. I agree that the correct lure selection can make all the difference. On a lake I use to fish a huge school of bass was busting shad on the surface. I went through all the usual topwater and sub surface lures in my box with out a bite before I realized the shad were only about 2" long. I pulled a white Crappie jig out of my box, tied it on a light rig and caught double digit numbers of bass from the same school.

I agree with WRB. If Bass or other fish had no memory they would not reconize threats like Herons, Otters, larger fish and other hazzards. While this is more survival related than feeding responses it still shows they learn or become conditioned to negative experiences. Down here in central Florida most all public warers are heavily pressured and a hot bite will become general knowlage within a week. Case in point when the bass school on shad for about a week they will hit many lures pretty well, after that boats will be on the spot before first light and right on the fish as soon as they show. They become very lure shy in the month that follows. Those that bite aggressively usiually end up fried so they won't be back to add their genes. I have read a study that showed that bass don't become as conditioned to flexible types of artifical baits as they do to hard baits that produce a consistent sound or vibriation pattern. I feel like it's always worth trying something different even if it looks a little goofy.

I picked up a Vengence 7' MH BC at walmart. Put a ABU reel I had with 30lb braid on it to worm fish. Fished it last weekend and landed 4 one to two pounders. Happy with the feel and power of the rod. I think it is lighter in weight than a compareable BPS Graphite series rod. This is the season of deals if you can wait for one.

If you fish a bait all the time you come to know it very well. You cast it more accurately, you know the feel when your working it right and what a light strike feels like. It all adds up to more fish caught. On heavly fished water showing them something different is always worth a shot IMHO. I've caught fish on topwater baits in many locations when the bite on slower presentations was not working.

Awsome. I guess that supports the old saying go fish whenever you get the chance. It was 40 degrees and 30mph winds up here in central Fl yesterday.

I bought a BPS Extreme Low profile 7:1 with a swept handle to use on a heavy action flipping rod. Love the reel but not the swept handle. Peeled the skin off my knuckle twice hauling bass out of heavy cover. The edge of the handle is a very sharp 90 degree corner, very effective for peeling knuckles. If I were useing the reel for more moderate techniques like crankbaits I probably wouldn't have a problem. The handle also has long cut outs in the center which weakens it. I bent the handle on mine cranking about a 3ft gator out of heavy pads so I will be replaceing it soon. I do love the soft rigded grips though.

I like to fish the small rivers here in florida. The weather is less of a factor than open water lake fishing. River fish seem to be a little more active in cold weather also. Better suited to small boats in some ways.

Well I think I'm pretty well set, untill I make my next trip and find there biteing on something I don't have a stock of.....thens it's back to the tackle store. Went to BPS after christmas and picked up an Extreme 7:1 for my frog rod along with some 65# braid and a few assorted baits. Set up a cheap fiberglass Diawa baitcaster to fish some crankbaits. Next trip fished square bills for an hour with only one bump, switched to a super spot and hooked up two about 2lbs in 10 minutes. This made it necessary to drive to BPS after work to grab a handfull of super spots at the $1.97 Presidents day sale price. So now I'm set until after the next trip.

I bought a spool of 65# braid for frog fishing. It seems to have a larger diameter than other braids of the same lb test. I suspect this is reduceing casting distance slightly.

Yea guys this is what I'm talking about. Some days your a hero some days a zero. With out a dout the details of what were doing or not doing makes a difference to the fish even if we can not precieve what it is. Sam: never thought about trying to match my partners wardrobe but some days I've tried to copy just about everything else. WRB: I agree, I've taken several guys out that wanted to learn to fish some piticular location or type of fish and most could not get past what the choice of lure would be. They were told by the tackle shop guy that a certian bait was great for what they wanted to catch and thats where the thought process stopped for many. I would try to point out water and weather conditions and how that should dictate our lure choice and how and where we should fish but for many it went right over there heads I'm afraid.

Yep the snook fishing was back in the late 70's when I was a kid. Midnight pass where we fished doesn't even exist any more, the pass filled in and closed. My wife has got the best fish of the day several times.....I say it's because I'm busy takeing care of her tackle and bait.

Good stories guys. Keep them comeing and share a little of your fishing frustrations.

Here's a "magic" bait story although not about bass. As a teenager we went to Sarrasota FL to Snook fish on the intercostal for a weeks vacation. Our first two days of fishing produced zero fish although one of the regulars at the motel brought in his 4 Snook limit each mourning and evening. My dad and I were frustrated but the old timer gave us a tip and suggested we try a red and white Mirrolure. To our suprise where the tried and true lures had struck out the red and white plug caught fish every day the rest of the week. Not sure why the red and white plug was the ticket but it far out fished the other lures that had always worked so well in the same area. The water conditions were clear as they normaly were and we noticed nothing else unuseual about the weather or the general area we were fishing. It's all just part of the challenge just trying to figure the fish out.

Tell your story. We've all been there, you or your partner are catching all the fish and the other guy can't get a bite. Not really talking about being front ended by the guy on the bow hitting all the choice cover but one of those days when one guy on the boat had all the luck/skill?. Did you ever figure out what made the difference between success and failure. Here's one of my stories. Spring time in Florida and I'm fishing with my regular buddy working some shoreline vegitation. The bite was fair and we both caught several bass. As mid mourning passed the wind and clouds began to build so we ran to a narrow channel to escape the wind. At this point I was up on my partner 2 or 3 fish with the best one pushing 4lbs. The channel narrowed with overhanging trees which minimized the weed growth so we began throwing unweighted 7" T-rigg plastic worms at the bank that dropped off into 3 to 6 feet of water. Thats when the beat down began. He could not fish more than about 5 min without catching a 12 to 15" bass. He was fishing a Watermelon red flake and I was fishing a black worm, so I switched to watermelon/with chartruse tail, still no bites. By about my buddies tenth fish I switched to the identical worm he is fishing. Eventualy I get one twelve incher that nails my worm when I pull it into the water after casting it on top of some isolated floating vegitation. That was the last fish for me while my buddy continued to catch them. He was still getting them after we turned the boat around and fished back out of the channel thru the water we already covered. So what happened? Well I'm not sure but he was fishing Mono line and I was fishing Braid with a 2 foot 17lb floro leader. That was the main difference although we both used different hooks for our T-rigs, I was even useing a worm out of his bag with no success. The fish in general were not tight to cover but seemed to be randomly scattered on both sides of the channel. Wish I new the answer to this one, could have been the sink rate of the different riggs but I'll never really know. The Devils in the details.