mplspug

Have you normally fished these ponds this time of year before when the bass appeared healthier? From my limited experience after moving to Fla last August is that the bass are skinnier during the hottest months. My assumption is that in these smaller waters is that they get stressed out. Their optimum water temps are in the 70s and ponds down here can easily get into the lower 90s. Oxygen levels also drop. My thinking is that despite the boom in baitfish making them plentiful, they are lethargic but require more food and end up looking like they have empty bellies. If you always fish them this time of year, then that theory might be out the window. This time of the year I try to move even faster getting a photo and releasing them as fast as possible. Being already stressed, they don't need anymore from being handled too much.

FishingMN718m, I am originally from MN, just moved to Florida. " I was wondering how you even find out if there are fish in golf course ponds and if any of you guys have tried it. " Generally speaking, there's a good chance any given pond or small body of water has bass in it. Not sure if you are asking because you want to try it in MN, but MN ponds can't support large fish because during the winter they either freeze completely or run out of oxygen because if the ice and snow cover.

Minnesota used to have a law making it illegal to throw them back. Many people still think it is on the books. The DNR realized it wasn't doing anything but stinking up shores because no one disposed of them properly and it wasn't affecting the population of carp or gamefish and it hasn't been law for decades. I used to love carp fishing in the spring on ultra light gear. It was a blast. Like others have said, killing them accomplishes nothing.

Navionics is definitely the way to go on a phone or tablet. Now you can pair it with certain marine electronic for real time mapping.

Nice. I won't be on the market for a boat until next year, but I am looking for something that I can bass fish out of, but still take it inshore fishing as well. The one caveat is the girlfriend wants her say. That means small enough to be able to troll around a shorline for bass, but big enough and comfortable for chilling in the sun. Welcome aboard!

Bass fishing in Indonesia, who'd a thunk.

So what does everyone think of the new store? I have to check out the H2O baits they sell. As long as the quality is good, you can't beat the price. My only problem with the store is because of the H2O products, they seem to have a smaller selection of other brands. For example, I was looking for a Rapala Shadow Rap, but they didn't have them. I hope Gander does. I wish they had live shiners, but I understand why they don't. At least they have some crawlers and wigglers I can pick up for the ponds around me.

I moved to Florida back in August and have been wondering about the Turkey Lake rentals. I don't want to hijack the post, but I am curious how far in advance do you normally have to make the reservation? It's Thursday-Sunday from right and you can take a boat out from 7 - 11am? The boat has to be back by 11am? Feel free to just message me so I am not muddling up this post, unless you also have some info for the original poster. Thanks

We just moved and lease. Our house is part of a HOA. But the HOA is confusing because there is 1 HOA but 2 classifications. I can't find any information online about the HOA, but my neighbor says I can fish the ponds and I have been until I am told otherwise. The funny thing is the only bass I have caught so far has been out of a retaining pond that is connected to the pond by a man made "spillway" that is dry, but allows water to flow into the retention it when there is flooding like we had earlier this year. The retention pond is the only place I have had luck so far and it is devoid of much cover. I prefer it now over the other pond because it would be tough to land one through the lilypads that grow along the shore. I wasn't very confident fishing it until I actually pulled a bass out of there and saw another floating that appeared to be starving to death.

Did some pond hoping the last 2 days and was blanked. I don't think the blue bird skies and fishing mid day is helping.

Ha, sorry I didn't mean to come off as complaining. I'm looking forward to being able to do some pond fishing. The only "complaint" I have it is overwhelming when you move to a place where you have to start from scratch. I'm going to hit a couple ponds today that I know are fishable to get my feet wet so to speak. Eventually I'll get to know the area enough to find some lesser known gems. I look at a body of water, including retention ponds, on Google maps and wonder is that accessible? Is it posted as private or fenced off? Bottom line is I moved here for a lot of reasons and one of them was being new to an area and having an adventure learning it, so no, no complaints here.

So is academy sports geared more toward freshwater? I hope so! Its funny you complain about Gander, because I am from Minnesota and the fishing forum up there most people complained about Gander too. Honestly I have no idea how they stay in business when I see far more negative comments compared to positive ones when it comes to Gander.

I know its a bass forum, but you ever catfish in the St. John's by Monroe? I just moved here and catfishing is my second favorite fish behind bass. I've heard Dunn's creek/St. John river is a good spot. Sometimes I just like to chuck out some cutbait, sit in a lawn chair and wait to do battle with a channel cat.

I just saw a sign and construction going on in Lake Mary. It's across the street from Gander, that should be interesting.

Checking in, I just moved from Minnesota. If you ask why, you get a facepalm. I'll be boatless for a while, so hope to hit some local ponds and lakes from the shore and start learning. Kind of weird coming from a place where you know all the lakes to being a newb and knowing nothing about where you can fish and what are good places to fish. Glad I woke up to some cooler weather. I imagine that shore fishing when the water temps are warm during summer, shore fishing must be tough.