Chris at Tech

Yes you will need a license. I’ve never done it myself, but I hear Miami has lots of canals that are accessible on foot

I hope you have a scuba diver on retainer!

Try soft plastic jerkbaits too

Have you tried restarting your modem/router? Every once in a while, that can be helpful.

Those ponds could be brackish, which means they could also hold redfish, trout, flounder, black drum so a gulp shrimp is also likely to be a player.

I’m one of the St Croix fans @bulldog1935 referred to! I’ve got several of the now discontinued SCII Tidemasters but I really prefer my SCIII Avid Inshore. If you’re fishing more open water, I think a 7ft M would be a good starting point but you might need to step up to MH if you’re throwing to bigger snook in the mangroves.

Add an inshore guided trip for redfish to the “to do” list!

Ft Pierce Florida Area. Hit Stick Marsh and/or Okeechobee for LMB, then hop in the salt and target redfish, trout, snook, etc.

Guppy

Swim jigs, bladed jigs, weedless paddle tail swim baits as well

Our family's annual fall break pilgrimage to PCB took place last month and I'm sure you'll all be shocked to learn I fished a bit. Every year I spend some time wading or jetty fishing, and the wife and I also book a guide. After struggling last year with the wade fishing, I was looking forward to the success I'm more accustomed to but Mother Nature had a different plan. Red Tide wasn't the culprit this year, but there had been so much rain in the FL Panhandle that the water was much muddier and less salty than normal. Despite a few fishing sessions, the only fish I was able to trick were a few decent bluefish from the jetties at St Andrews State Park. Good news was the new Daiwa BG MQ reel I bought got it's proper break in! The second part of the week's fishing was our annual trip with guide extraordinaire and star of "Chasin' the Sun" TV show Justin Leake. Keeping the theme for the week, there was NOTHING easy about this trip. Due the aforementioned water salinity issue, netting our own bait was darn near impossible so we broke down and bought some from the bait guy. Drastic times call for drastic measures! Once we made it out of the bay, action was non-stop but getting hooks to stick was a challenge. As the day went on, things got better for us and we put a few fish in the box. Early on I was able to boat a small 2+ lb scamp grouper but the highlight of the week came later when a blackfin tuna ate my freelined cigar minnow. The next few minutes was when we finally had some good luck! Just as we started realizing that we had a BFT hooked, we saw a few bull sharks cruise in and those guys usually mean bad news. Miraculously, we got the BFT in range for a gaff shot, and just like that it was in the cooler! As we were cruising back to the dock, Justin mentioned that the PCB Fishing Rodeo was taking place and that we should weight the BFT in, so away we went. Somewhere in that trip back, Justin managed to get his "Chasin' the Sun" TV producer to show up and fill us weighing in the fish so I *MAY* make by Discovery Channel TV debut some time in 2022 with my just under 20-lber. Ha! When we saw that no one else had yet weighed in a grouper that day, we weighed in my monster 2 pounder just because we were there. Turns out both my fish were good enough to win the daily weigh-in for those categories so I got a few nice plaques and t-shirts. I watched the scoreboard for a few days hoping maybe my BFT would win the grand championship but those hopes were dashed by a bigger fish just a day later. Oh well, I got some swag and some fish for the freezer so that's just fine by me. The real surprise came 2 weeks later when I got a text message informing me that my 2-lb grouper was the grand champion for one of the categories, and an extra $200 hit my bank account. Not too shabby!

Just wait and see what this crew will do to your place once the next BR Roadtrip invades! ?

When I went to Baccarac a while back, I had rods custom built on 3-piece MHX blanks and they did the job admirably. I haven’t priced a build lately given current supply chain issues, but I would imagine the custom route I mentioned would come in well under the prices of the items other members mentioned previously in this thread.

Win and no one cares. Struggle and all of a sudden everyone becomes the morality police.

Use a more powerful rod, especially if you’re going to a heavier wire hook.

Kistler KLX and Daiwa Tatula Elite are worth looking into as well.

Regarding the "losing the bottom" thing...I *THINK* I noticed something similar in my brand new 9sv. It seems like somehow the depth range I had set got lost but re-adjusting the depth range seemed to resolve the issue. It's certainly annoying that it happened though.

I had a good trip with Capt Mike a few years back https://navigatorcharters.com

I did end up buying the 9 and I’ve only been out with it once. I was originally pleased with the default settings, but looking back after reading this thread, I do recall thinking that some of the SI returns were not what I expected. I’ll keep @VTFlier’s suggestions handy for my next trip out.

I use a Daiwa SV103 in the 7.9:1 ratio. I just started with this sort of close combat fishing this year, but I believe picking up line as fast as possible after being bit is a critical part of preventing the fish from getting too far down into the junk.

Buy the name brands in bulk packs. Or maybe you can find someone selling terminal tackle in the Flea Market.

I'd suggest you try some kind of paddle tail worm as well, like an Ultra Speed Vibe.

I've never fished an Expride so I cannot offer real-world experience. I would assume the high-end offerings by Megabass, Loomis, St Croix, Shimano, Daiwa etc would offer "more" sensitivity. The point I was trying to make was better said by DVT.

Do we have any bait painting folks on here? I'm thinking about getting paintjobs on a Sebile Magic Swimmer and a Yozuri inshore popper.

Considering your starting point is a pretty-darn-good Expride, I think you may find yourself disappointed. If you were starting with a $50 Bass Pro rod and trying to step up, then ok -- you'd be blown away by the night and day sensitivity difference. In this instance however, the increase in sensitivity is not likely to keep pace with the increase in $$$ spent. If it's me, I'm getting two middle of the road rods.