jaysen

i just spent some time with family in north miami and fished the canals. they flow fast with tons of weeds. i had a few small chases and strikes by small largemouth and a large peacock at a neighboring lake but nothing in the canal. i saw jacks hitting the surface once every hour or so but no takers no matter what i threw at them. i did go fishing mid day and it is a bad time of year but i would appreciate any advice that can be given for this area.

i work in medicine and have worked with animals as well. one of the most horrible moments for me, while fishing, is to gill hook a fish. they bleed out quickly and vastly increases mortality. I was wondering about using potassium ferrate or other coagulants on the gills to stop the bleeding almost instantly. this is non toxic and wont affect the gills in any other way. has anyone done any research or have experience with this?

I may be coming to south florida in early January. let me know if you want to link up.

thanks for the report. I rarely fish freshwater at this time of year and it is good to see the bite is strong. I am curious as to how deep the fish were positioned and what lures they were hitting.

tons more species but my friends havent sent me the pics yet.

The first set of pics The bass was from Florida. The rest are stripers from here in ny since I got back.

ive been very busy so i apologize for the late response. so in Orlando i met with fellow member,ray k. he was very fun to fish with, has a wealth of information, and showed me the connecting lakes. ray caught a gar and a medium sized bass, i wasnt able to catch anything. i know it is a bad time of year for bass and it didnt bother me. being on the water was just perfect. ray was a great fishing partner. later that day i tried lake down again. i took my friends canoe about 150 feet from shore and used a senko where i caught 7 small bass and lost a bunch more in less than 2 hours. the next day was going to be my trip to sarasota in the late morning. so before i left i fished lake down for a couple of hours. i caught 2 more dinks and saw a lunker under a dock but it wasnt feeding. yesterday i met with a man named scott larsen. he is a competitive fisherman who has been on the pro circuit and is popular on youtube. i arranged to target saltwater with him. i met him at 6am ( it was a 1.5 hour drive each way). he advised me the night before on what lures to get and was very informative. we targeted redfish, sea trout, and snook. i lost a bunch of big reds and a large snook because i didnt adhere to his advice (hard to not set a hook when it is what we do for bass most of the time) but still ended up boating 2 keeper redfish, a snook, a spanish mackerel, a remora, and a whole bunch of trout. scott was the best guide i have ever used. he was all about teaching me and refining my skills. he really worked hard to get me to catch fish and would stay out, move locations, and changed fishing styles long as i wanted to. we caught over 60 fish overall. today i went with my friends and rented a pontoon boat to take in the bay. i lost a nice redfish but caught a bunch of trout and my first ladyfish. the pinfish, puffers, and houndfish were a bit irritatingby constantly stealing my bait. when we all got back i wandered to a small swampy storm drain down the road and caught a medium sized bass with a frog. it was all weeds and i only had a half hour to fish with the light. my question now is if anyone knows of nice small fishing ponds/lakes/ creeks in sarasota, or if anyone can give me advice for fishing the beaches. sorry for the long update and hope for more helpful advice. you guys have been amazing and helped this trip be one of my best.

no chance for peacock bass, storms came in too quickly. today i fished lake down in orlando. i caught one dink and a decent sized largemouth but i was out from 11-230. i got a nasty sunburn and then a storm came in. tomorrow will be better. i will post pics at the end of the trip. i know you guys dont like to catch gar, but i saw them blitzing minnows today and they are active all day. any advice on how to target them? are there perch in florida?

i sent you a pm.

In ny it is a big problem, probably everywhere. The fishermen tie a 2 Oz weight and toss them at the jet skiers, it keeps them away usually.

Just got here yesterday afternoon. Went out on a friend's boat and caught big yellowtail, Spanish mackerel, and big bonita. This was by chunking and drifting cut bait. The fight on the false albacore is amazing. I was using a mh travel rod, static ci4 4000, 20lb braid, and a 15lb flour leader. Will try for largemouth later today.

nice catch! what did he bite? I will be in the area this weekend and may just stick to the ocean. I don't know how accessible the freshwater is.

I fly down to florida on Saturday morning. I will be in boca doing some ocean fishing until Monday when I will be driving to Orlando. that Thursday or Friday I will be heading to Sarasota. did you take a boat to the canal or fish it from shore? what are they striking?

chances are I will be fishing from shore. Im flying down so I cant bring a boat. I will be in windermere Orlando. are there good areas with lilies than I can legally and easily access from the land?

thanks to everyone for the advice. I truly appreciate it. if anyone wants to be a guide for me, ill gladly cover fuel and lunch. are all of these places public? do these locations have available parking?