hawgenvy

If you're punching through compacted hyacinth and pennywort you probably don't want a skirt. 1.5 oz usually is heavy enough. I use a 4-0 or 5-0 snelled hook. And #65-80 braid. I usually use my Powell Max 3D 8 foot mag heavy rod. And some Advil. Seems 2-4 foot depth under the mat works best. It takes time to get really good at punching the heavy stuff and actually hooking fish and getting them out. Personally, I'm still pretty sucky at it, but I keep trying.

Oh, my God. Why did they let you in the K.I.S.S. club?

We use that in Florida for flipping heavy cover for bass. Or to hang a side of beef.

I HAVE A DEFINITIVE ANSWER, thanks to Dr Motta at USF! I caught a bass tonight and the dimple indeed disappeared when the mouth was closed and reappeared when opened. I made a video with my iphone but haven't yet figured out how to compress it enough to post it here. When I do, I will. "Robert I saw the picture. I am going to guess that depression mostly disappears when you close the bass mouth. AS the mouth opens and protrudes it appears. If that is so you are seeing an artifact of jaw protrusion. I have seen this on other teleost fishes. There is a ligament that runs across the two maxillae bones, over the premaxilla (upper jaw bone). As the premaxilla is protruded it pulls on this ligament (plus pulls on others) protruding the jaw. As the premaxilla slides forward to protrude it slides on the vomer bone. This causes a dimple to appear in that exact region, probably because the skin there is more tightly adhered to the premaxilla ascending process, or the movement away of the premaxilla simply causes a depression to form. This is really apparent in the mojarras (Gerreidae) when they protrude. So that’s my anatomical take on that depression area. Phil Philip J Motta, PhD Professor of Biology Department of Integrative Biology University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Ave Tampa, Florida 33620"

Florida residential ponds are typically shallow, and especially in the summer may have plenty of algae and vegetation. So have weedless and top water baits on hand. For bank fishing Florida ponds, Texas-rigged worms, senkos, flukes, jigs, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, small swimbaits and frogs can all work. A T-rigged Rage Menace grub with a 1/8 bullet weight has worked well for me this summer. I usually have the most success in Florida ponds starting an hour before sunset, when the fish become more active and may work the shallows. Sometimes a big worm or jig/trailer will catch a big one trying to stay cool out towards the center of the pond. Floating dead or algal mats create anoxic conditions and don't usually hold bass. Look for isolated structure, hydrilla edges, emergent plants and lily pads. Those big metal pipes that connect the ponds often have a fat fish guarding the entrance, so stealthfully dangle something plastic in front of the pipe. Be prepared for the weather to be hot and buggy even late in the day. I wont even go out if there is not at least some breeze to mitigate the gnats.

Thanks, Tom. But next time you catch a fish, take a moment to see if the feature in question is there or not. I believe the little snout-residing satellite dish is ubiquitous yet typically unnoticed by the angler, especially in the rush to place the guys in the live well or back to the lake.

Someone is bound to know what it is and perhaps its function. There are virtually no anatomic features in nature that don't have some function. Here is another photo that shows the mystery crater rather well.

Thanks, J Francho, but the seahorse skull doesn't quite do it for me. I have submitted my query to Florida Fish and Wildlife (they ought to have a whole team of biologists) and if I get a response I will post it here. The dishlike depression reminds me of a satellite dish or radio-telescope receiver and suggests to me that the feature may have some interesting sensory function.

Thanks, MMK. I tried Googling info on it and couldn't find anything. If you find out more be sure to post.

No, I mean the round depression you see in the photo. You can put your thumb in it. It's a little smaller than the eye. It's external, in the middle of the snout, behind the upper lip.

That was great! Until now I thought getting bass out of dense pennywort and hyacinth mats was difficult.

I use the San Diego Jam for all knots to hooks or lures.

Largemouth bass have a round crater-like depression on the top of the snout, in the midline, between the nostrils. We've all seen it a million times. What is it, what is it called, and what's its function? Anyone know? No guessing, please!

Just got my new Dobyns rod today, through the replacement program. It took about three weeks from when I mailed them the blank segment and check. Came by UPS in a PVC tube.

I snuck out to a pond tonight, in spite of the hot sticky windless miserableness of the weather. I swear the only breeze was that generated by the beating wings of my personal congregation of gnats. Why do they love my ears? Anyway, the Menace Grub came through for me tonight. I tried the Delta Red for the first time, on a whim, and it brought me a half dozen 2-4 pounders in an hour. It was nice also to spot the gallinule chicks with their mom.

I'm actually waiting for a Dobyns replacement rod after one of mine broke when my son stepped on it. You just send back the 6 inch segment of the blank that has the logo and model number, in a padded envelope with your info and a nice check. The replacement cost for the Extreme, BTW, is $80+$20 = $100. You can also just bring the broken rod to a Dobyns dealer, give them the $80 and they'll hand you a new replacement rod if they have one. That way you can get a rod right away and also save $20. I sent Dobyns my 6 inch segment 3 weeks ago and haven't received or heard anything yet. My rod was only 2 months old. The foot that stepped on it was 28 years old.

Contact Daiwa

I've been catching very nice size bass in the evenings this month on T-rigged Rage Tail Menace grubs swum slowly in the shallows. I've been surprising myself with my own success, as I am more accustomed to disappointing dinks until late October. By now I am more typically disgusted with the bass catching business and usually by now would have resigned to leave my rods to gather dust in the garage until fall. But this season I have been venturing out at sunset and have been returning all smiling and showing off selfies with three to six pounders.

Can't recall the name of the lake. Sac a lait is what they call crappie in south Louisiana. In New Orleans crappie are known as "sac a lait", which means literally "bag of milk." I suppose it's a Cajun or creole term. Here in Florida crappie are called speckled perch or specks. I recall that in New Orleans largemouth bass were called green trout and bowfin were called choupique.

Water temp 75? That's downright cold. Our water's near 90. BTW, I fished in Pineville decades ago, in the 1970s, for sac-a-lait in a massive brush pile with a cane pole from the bank of an oxbow lake by the Red River, with minnows. The good old days. I must have caught a thousand that month and ate every one of 'em, dusted in corn flour and fried.

Oh, yeah, I'm annoyed. I fished a club tournament on Lake Okeechobee last weekend. I was co-angler. Now, usually I can hold my own from the back deck. But his time, the boater had a nice bag of fish and all I could manage was one sickly 14 oz fish. My boater won the tournament, while I came in last out of around 14 anglers.

I nailed this 5-5 brute at 8 PM tonight on a black/blue 3/8 Strike King Hack Attack jig w/ Rage Menace trailer in green pumpkin.

This thread inspired me to pitch a jig into a local residential pond tonight. I caught this 5-5 brute at 8:05 PM (35 minutes ago!) on a black/blue 3/8 Strike King Hack Attack jig w/ Rage Tail Menace trailer in green pumpkin.

I bank fish small ponds with a jig quite often. A jig may scare off some of the smaller bass so I am more likely to use a jig if I think there are larger bass in the pond. I didn't have much luck with jigs when I first started using them, but I stuck with them because of their reputation and with time my success increased. Now the jig with craw trailer has become a confidence bait for me, from a boat or from the bank. Also, at first I was screwing up the hook set a lot by doing a hard snap set, and I thought I just wasn't fast enough; but that wasn't the problem. Rather, the problem was that I was jerking the jig out of their mouths. Now I reel up the slack until I start to feel the weight of the bass and then I do a strong upwards pull, and I don't miss many that way.

I snatched this 5-3 out of heavy pad cover while bank fishing tonight. The formula: Powell Max 3D 8 foot punching stick, #65 Seaguar braid, and a Missile Baits D Bomb in Candy Grass on a snelled flipping hook with a pegged 1 oz weight.