Backlash123

Went out of Holiday Park today (10/12). This was the first time fishing the area, decided to do a little prefishing for a club tourney I have next weekend. I ended running south the L67 canal for a bit, also fished a canal which runs north (off of the L67 canal). We caught 4 fish (3 dinks and a 3.9lb). Started the morning fishing hollow body frogs, then followed up with swimbaits and senkos. Hope it turns around for next weekend, but I doubt it. Tight lines.

Nice report George. Went out of Holiday Park today 10/12. I was REALLY SLOW!

Our club was gone by 3:00am. I threw a chatterbait for a while, but didn't get a single bite on it, I just have no confidence with that bait. Last months tourney was at the same spot, and the winning bait was throwing a chatterbait as well. I'm going to have to commit to this bait and see if I can figure it out. Going to switch gears now and start fishing Holiday Park, that's where our next tournament is going to be. Tight lines.

Nice report George. I had a club tournament out there Saturday night (9/20). Ended the night with a 15lb bag, probably caught 9 or 10 fish. Started out on the north side (1st bridge after the first turnaround), headed east and started fishing, landed 3 fish on a hollow body frog, ended up fishing all the way to the western end of the canal where I landed one more on a frog, then another on a finesse worm. Picked up,other fish on buzz baits. My co-angler weighed around 14 lbs. That west end of the canal provided us 3 or 4 keeper fish, with the largest 4.5lbs. The tournament was won with 28lbs, the top three boats were supposedly using chatterbaits, third place weighed in 25lbs.

Great info as always George! I'm going to try to get out there this weekend. I fished a club tournament out of there about 3 weeks ago at night, but ended up only catching 1. After being out there, I really like the area and been wanting to return. Hopefully I'll run into you out there. Thanks!

Nice report! I ran out west on L67 last week. Nothing substantial, a couple around 2lb and other small ones. I was using a small 6in finesse trick worm. When you guys fish Senko's, do you use or weight or not? Every time I've used them, it's been weightless and they have a great action on the fall.

If you are in the Kendall area, try the Kendall Lakes area (137th ave & 88 str). Some of the lakes should be accessible and lots of peacocks in there. As far as other species, there have been people that fish the canals coming of the bay and they catch snook and stuff, I've never fished them but that's what I have heard. Also, try to find canals with spillways that lead out to the bay. When we get the heavy rains and those spillways open up, I've heard of lots of snook caught in those canals. Again, as mentioned before, Google Earth is your friend. Good luck, and welcome to the forum!

Couldn't agree more. March - June are great months to be down here. The tackle is going to vary on the area and techniques used. Just look through the threads, you'll see what kind of gear people are using and which techniques, and post any questions, this forum is VERY helpful.

Mike, congratulations on the win and a hell of a gesture giving back the winnings! I wish I could have fished the tourney (and received some tips, lord knows I need them) , but unfortunately I had some family matters to attend. Hope to some day meet you in person at one of the tourneys.

Wow George, what a coincidence. Glad to hear there was no damage. This was the first time I fished the area, it's pretty cool. I'm definitely going to return.

Nice report George. I was out there Saturday night for a club tourney, fished as a co-angler. We put in at mm 35 south side and ran west, we crossed over west of mm41. After fishing a bit we decided to make a run, when all of a sudden it felt like we hit something (gator??), but we lost propulsion, only to find out later we had a big hole in the side of the lower unit with the gears sticking out. We ended the night with only 1 fish each. Caught mine on a junebug skinnydipper, the other was caught on a buzzbait. Tourney was won with 21 lbs. I'll be back there in the near future.

Thanks for the reply Matt! I stand corrected, it is the 285 loop my office is located by. A big part which is weighing into my decision to go or not, is if I can find a home on a large lake and make the daily commute into the office. I don't mind having a 30-45 min commute everyday (I have a 50 min commute now which I've been doing for the past 15 years). I started doing some research on homes in Acworth which are directly on the lake, any other large lakes in the area which are within commute distance? Thanks a million!

Hey Guys, quick unrelated question, but somewhat related question. I live in South Florida but might be relocating to Atlanta at the end of the year. My office is on the west side of what I believe to be 407 loop. I was wondering what's the fishing like in Lake Allatoona/Lake Acworth, and how far is that from where my office ( I believe the office is right by the Cumberland Mall), are those lakes too far to do a daily commute. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

My condolences as well to the Fellows family. It's very tough to hear when someone young passes to an accident. I've had it happen in my family a couple of times, one of them to my immediate family, and it takes a while to get over but with the support of family and friends, it does get better. As Lou mentioned, I've also been following your posts (but not as long, I've only been a member since November), and I have to say I'm truly amazed on how someone could figure out a fishery so well to dominate tourneys. Good luck in this weekends tourney, its for a great cause.

Thanks for the insight Mike. My boat is currently in the shop getting some gel coat repairs. But after that, I'm headed up to Lox, and give L67 a shot again using your suggestion.

Went out on L67 and got skunked. Caught 1 around 1.5 lbs. Fished worms, jigs, and Why Nots. It's truly amazing how some guys have the area so figured out that they continue to catch fish. Kudos to them. I've been thinking of giving Lox a try, but I've never been there and have no idea where to even launch. Any help on directions would be greatly appreciated, I live down in Miami. Tight lines.

Went out yesterday 7/27 to L67, headed west along the trail, and north towards Holiday. Started the morning throwing frogs and other topwaters which produced two massive mudfish. Then started throwing 10in Culprit worms (watermelon) and Zoom Trick worms (junebug), managed to land around 7 bass with the largest being 3.2 lbs. Fished till around noon, it was just too hot to be out there. So, this is my first summer bass fishing, is this the standard pattern for the summer time fish? Does it always slow down this much?

Mono has it's uses, but it's not for flipping and frogging in my opinion. Here's the plan, step up the line weight and switch to the Palomar knot. My flipping setup will remain as is, 65# using a snell knot. Now, if I could only get my boat out of Bass Pro for a small gelcoat repair.

I do use backing, for both my frog rods and flippin rods. I think I have 15lb mono underneath. I only use 75 - 100 yards of braid on the reels (could probably use less on the flippin rod). I don't want to lose casting ability, but I'll try to go up in line weight. Maybe I should give 50# a try with a Palomar knot. Coming from the saltwater world of fishing, I never imagined using 50# PowerPro, or even 30# for that matter. I guess it's all about casting and using it on baitcasters. Because the heaviest I ever used in saltwater was 50# and that was on my bottom rods fishing for 20+ lb mutton snapper in the Bahamas (which we did plenty, and landed plenty). One of the advantages of living in South Florida. Thanks for all the info. I'm still learning the bass fishing game, but I'm loving it!

Thanks for the replies guys. Let me answer a few questions first. I do not fill the entire the entire spool. I put around 100 yards of Power Pro. I have not used slick on my baitcasters. I also thought about the guides causing the breaks, but for it to happen on two rods in the same day was just too rare for me. I figured the line breaking during the cast was due to the line digging in the spool, how do I fix that, if at all possible. Sounds like I should move up to heavier line, and relax a bit with the hookset.

Lately I've been experiencing some breakoff's with braid. Let lay out the scenario. As of lately I've been throwing lots of frogs, and I've been tying them straight to braid (30lb Power Pro). A few weeks ago while throwing a frog, I got a nice hit when I set the hook, the like just popped, thought it was strange, but I pulled out 5 yards of line off the real, cut it off, and tied on another frog. A few casts later, the frog got stuck on a lily pad after the first pull to free it, the line just snapped again. At this point I'm thinking the line is rotten or something (probably 6 months old) so I just put that rod away. Pick up another rod also with 30 lb Power Pro, had a spinner bait tied on to that one, first cast and the line snaps as the spinner bait is still flying through the air. At this point I'm thinking ok, this braid is also rotten, time to respool. Went home, still had another spool in the garage of 30lb Power pro, and respooled both rods. Went fishing a few weeks ago, and lost another fish on a frog bite as soon as I set the hook. At that point I'm really puzzled, so I tied a 5ft. section of fluorocarbon line to the braid as a leader thinking I need a little stretch in the line, and didn't have any other issues the rest of the day (ended the day with about a 15lb bag, all on frogs, thankfully not really heavy cover). Now my dilemma. I"m having a good hookup ratio using a leader instead of straight braid, but I'm also having issues with fishing a frog in heavy cover. Now I've seen and read alot of people using braid for frogs, and I believe everything I've seen they have been using it straight (but I can't confirm because nobody calls it out directly). At first I thought maybe it's the knot, I've used the Improved Clinch knot and the Palomar knot, both with same results, so I ruled that out, now I'm thinking maybe I'm using too light of braid (even though I thought 30 should be more than enough, I'm not flipping with these rods). Don't know what to do next. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Nice fish!

Fished the Northern canal. Pretty much fished just past the bend (probably 1/2 mile). Was going to try going west, but it was just too hot to continue fishing.

Headed out to the Big L today. Fishing was slow, caught a few with the biggest about 2lbs, my wife lost a nice one also. Few short strikes on top water, nothing flipping black/blue jig, caught fish on black 10 inch culprit curly tail, then dipped tail in chartruese dye. Let's see what happens next week.

Sounds good. I'm planning on hitting Big L this weekend. Looks like a small front is coming through late in the week, so let's see what happens to the bite.