hawgenvy

In my area at least, aquatic birds are ubiquitous and frequently are seen to fly from one pond to next. Heron, egrets, coots, marsh hens, anhinga, and ducks are seen wandering the shallows and deeper waters frequently. There is no reason to believe that they don't transport any variety of local fauna from one body of water to another upon their legs, feet, beaks, feathers, or perhaps in their mouths. However there is little proof that they do that. I would like to know of an instance where viable fish eggs were indeed discovered on the birds. Good experiment for somebody to do.

Fish eggs adhere to the legs of wading birds like herons and egrets.

Hi Ridi. Went out of Clewiston this past Saturday for a club tournament. Most of the fish were caught at the east wall area not far from the ramp. We likewise did well the first hour, and the guy I was with lost a 6 pounder at the boat which nearly killed him, but later boated a 5 pounder which partially restored his sanity. Most of the fish were 1.5-3 lbs. We eventually moved to a far north spot around noon but only caught two more fish all day; meanwhile the boats that stayed around where we had been said the bite picked up at 1 pm. Go figure. The boater caught his fish on worms and I caught all mine from the rear pitching a blue and green jig with a rage craw trailer. Nothing on swimbaits. Ended up with around 15 lbs at weigh in (5 fish) which surprisingly got us 2nd place among the 8 boats.

Might try that sometime in the summer when the bass bite slows down. Thanks!

How'd you do it?

I accidentally snagged a plecostomus by the tail with a lipless crank today while bass fishing and pulled the crazy guy up to the bank. I snapped a few photos and let him go. I've heard they're okay to eat. This type of plecostomus is a common invasive species here in Pam Beach County. They apparently arose from people dumping them from household aquaria and now they're breeding like rabbits. They are supposedly unwanted but I have no knowledge regarding any harm they might be doing to the local ecosystems. They are largely plant and detritus eaters. Anybody have experience with these?

They've recently been bedding down here in Boca Raton. Look around for their fairly big beds in shallow clear areas, if you can find any.

Thanks, Ridi620. I appreciate your following up with the report! Lake Okeechobee is a beautiful, peaceful, and interesting expanse. But so far this season it seems folks are often not catching much. I'll be fishing in a club tournament out of Clewiston this Saturday. ("Thunderstorms likely.") I got a new rain suit, we'll have a fast boat (I'll be the co-angler), and tons of plastic to throw at 'em. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Yes, of course you can bring a Senko up to the top and make a little surface commotion to attract some bass! In fact, you can twitch a weightless Senko across the surface in a "walk the dog" fashion like you would with a frog or a spook. Sometimes bass blow up on it when you do this. Sometimes they just follow along under it when you walk it, but if you then let it sink for five seconds and then subtly twitch it they might inhale it. Just about every way to fish a Senko is widely described. But jerking it across the surface is a technique that is not usually mentioned, which is why I'm posting this. But it's easy to walk and it's always worth a shot if they're not eating it when it's down below. It works for me, anyway.

I keep the major Keitech inventory stored in their original plastic packs in the garage. Then I refill as needed the Ziploc bag in my take-with tackle bag. They seem to do fine in the Ziplock bag, at least for a few weeks, and I haven't had trouble with misshapen tails.

Okay. So let's say you want your plastic frog to imitate the color of, say, a frog. You'd want it pale on the bottom and some sort of brown or green spotted stuff on the back and sides. But consider this: a real frog is white on the bottom and camo on the back so that birds won't see the back easily and fish won't see the belly against the sky. If he were white on top he'd be eaten by birds and if he were darker on the bottom he'd be eaten by fish such as bass. So the most realistic color might not be the best if you're trying to get your bait swallowed. On the other hand, based on my possibly faulty logic, I think the frog bait ought to be natural colored if used in the day because in daylight he is rather visible anyway and the way you're gonna be making him dance around on the water the bass are going to see him regardless and he should look as natural as possible to compensate for the fact that he is a piece of plastic. If he looks real they just might be more likely to inhale him. But maybe in the early morning and evening twilight hours or at night his belly best be dark to be more visible. This choice seems to work out for me as a fisherman. But I'm not exactly keeping records. Consider also that when you fish a hollow body frog, you are perhaps not needing to make it look like a frog but rather like an injured bait fish.

SDJ

Morton's steak house in West Palm Beach near the intracoatal waterway, then the Breaker's Hotel for drinks, on the ocean. Classy. 45 minutes East of Belle Glade.

Please let know how you do with the guide! I'm going the following weekend out to the lake out of Clewiston. Last couple of my trips up there the fish were on a hunger strike, so I'm curious to know where the guide takes you and what kind of bait he'll have you throwing. The conditions should be good. I wish you luck! Tight lines! Nail some big mamas!

...and I jumped up and down and told him to reel steady and picked up the fish by the lip from the water's edge and high fived him and all kinds of exclamations and praise, and de-hooked, weighed, photographed, released it; and later edited the photo and ordered an 8 x 10 print for him. Yeah, I get a little credit. It's still his fish, though -- and secretly a little bit mine.

Hey, he's from New Hampshire, just down here for the wedding and a few extra days of R&R. So, come on down for a long weekend if you can and catch a few. March thru May are my favorite months for bass. But even here there's no guarantee.

Took Paul, my daughter's soon-to-be father in law, for a little LM bass fishing at a local residential pond today. He had never caught a bass -- ever. Had to show him how to cast the spinning rig. His first bass was 6 lb 2 oz, second fish was 5-0, third was around 4. On a gold trap. In 2 hours of fishing. I caught a dozen fish, all under 3 pounds; he caught just those three beauties. His assessment: "Fishing is fun." No kidding, Paul!

I don't want to be writing stuff down on a spreadsheet when I can instead be tossing my bait back in the water. I'm not saying you OCD anglers oughtn't do it, only that I wouldn't have the patience for it. Anyway, Rapala has this fish counter device you can clip on your belt and you press the button every time you catch a fish. They sell it on TW. I could maybe see using that. People, my wife even, are always asking, "How many fish today?" With that thing I could tell 'em exactly. But I bet it's going to be less quantities than what I've been saying until now. When I think I've caught 20 or so, it's probably twelve. So maybe the Rapala Fish Counter ($4.99) is going to make me an honest man! (Hey, would you guys tell on me if I clicked twice for fish over 3 pounds?) PS: You can use that thing to compete with your fishing buddy to see who catches the most fish! Then you can rub it in. It'll be fun: one of you can be the big jerk, and the other gets to be really ticked off at the jerk who literally documented catching more fish than he did! PSS: But you can make whoever catches the most fish pay for the pizza after and that way even it out again.

This topic is freaking me out. Because for the past two weeks I'm catching so many fish on a gold lipless crank. So now I can only use gold, or else I can never use gold.

Oh yeah, and she wanted me to sell off one of my other rods, since this one's so important. "So sell off one of your other rods. Makes sense, right?" "I would but, unfortunately, there is some kind of ridiculous law in Florida where you cant sell a used rod. Something about marine vibrio bacteria transmission. I know it's ridiculous, but that's the law." "Okay, I didn't know. Probably you're making up that crap. Do what you want, I don't have time to argue, I'm busy." Okay, I'm off the hook. That wasn't bad. Didn't think of that. Thanks! The handle looks wood, but that's cork with the cellophane still on, right? Anyway, awesome rod. Enjoy.

That doesn't work for me -- and I've been married 33 years. Instead: "I already explained why I needed that one. It is a special rod for a certain type of lure that I will be tossing a lot this spring. And it was on sale. I promise I wont need another rod for about 1000 years. Thank you so much for being so understanding. I knew you'd understand. I love you so much, you know that?" "F**** you, you lying piece of ****. We can barely pay off the credit cards, you moron. The next ******* rod you get I'm cracking it over your moron head." And that was getting off pretty easy.

My wife said the next rod that shows up at the door she will crack over my head.

The new 5.2 oz Lew's Team Pro Magnesium lists on TW for $279. But was only around $237 on Amazon -- still too much. So then I applied/ordered the Amazon Visa credit card. That gave an additional big discount and I ended up spending around $145 total which put it below my guilty threshold -- and the new reel showed up on my doorstep in just two days. I wasn't sure it was it at first because the box was so light. It's an option you could look into. The Magnesium might not be for everyone, but it is ridiculously light and smooth. Almost too smooth. When you reel in a light bait like a weightless senko it's like you're reeling nothing, or like reeling air. Reeling in a fish is also amazingly smooth. And it casts very far. I use it with a light 6'8" medium rod and finesse baits. The whole rig feels like it weighs nothing. Practically spooky. But I love it. But I also love my Lew Tournament Pro G. Aluminum is more reassuring. Solid. You can feel at least something when you reel it in.

Grubs

Keep in mind that on Lew's the magnetic cast control dial tightens COUNTER-clockwise and loosens clockwise. It is counter-intuitive. That could be the problem. Turn it counterclockwise most of the way (8 out of 10) and try again. If no backlash, if you need to, you can then loosen one click at a time till it's tuned perfectly. If that is the problem, you'll feel like an idiot, but if it's any consolation, I did the same thing -- twice.