FloridaFishinFool

About time! Congratulations! And now the fun begins! BOAT spells Break Out Another Thousand! Curious what your plans are for the 1958 Johnson? The photos you posted above show the motor, but to my eye it does not look old enough to be a 58??? This is what I see in the photo above: While a 1958 Johnson looks more like this: The motor I am seeing in your photo looks to be possibly as much as 20 years newer than a '58 and the color of it is different? What's the story on the motor? Does it run?

He can veto it all he wants to. He is on his way out the door. Incoming new people are mostly going with the science. The snowball is rolling down the hill unstoppable at this point in my opinion. Science has won. Its already on the law books. For anyone wanting to dive deeper into this ongoing subject... https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2026/981 CS/CS/HB 981: Tributaries of the St. Johns RiverGENERAL BILL by State Affairs Committee ; Natural Resources & Disasters Subcommittee ; Duggan ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Cross ; Daniels ; Eskamani ; Mooney "Tributaries of the St. Johns River; Requires DEP to hire project lead to oversee implementation of act, to develop project plan for restoration of Ocklawaha River, & to develop specified outdoor recreation plan; creates Northeast Florida River & Springs Recreation & Economic Development Advisory Council; requires Department of Commerce to develop specified economic development program for Marion & Putnam Counties." If you read this new act, it goes straight to "implementation of act" to develop a plan for restoration. Its no longer a question or debate over the water science. Now it is all about moving forward and implementing it as soon as possible. Goal number 1 removal of dam. Here is an older restoration plan that puts the Rodman reservoir back into context with surrounding watersheds: https://onlinetools.sodapdf.com/document/c7c8e136-00a4-4c5f-9632-a1bf14440b81?ref=sodapdf.com%2Fsodalite&uid=1019209&venid=web-opera&wid=7773 More of the unstoppable water science: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390798330_Ocklawaha_River_Restoration_Science_and_Economics_Report_Executive_Summary https://www.floridaspringscouncil.org/free-the-ocklawaha Breaching the Rodman/Kirkpatrick Dam on the Ocklawaha River would bring back twenty "lost" springs that were drowned by the dam's reservoir over fifty years ago. Ocklawaha Restoration is the most cost-effective springs protection project in Florida. The science is irrefutable, the support is bipartisan, and the plans to restore the river and its ecosystem are ready. Three Rivers, Fifty Springs, One Solution: Reunite the Rivers and Restore the Great Florida Riverway There you have it. Removing the Rodman dam is now a "springs restoration project" too, and watershed restoration project, and restoring 3 rivers and 50 springs project as well. It is interesting to me that its the water science of interconnectivity and interdependence between all the watersheds around Rodman reservoir that have sealed its fate. I see right here in this thread are fishermen who wish to keep the Rodman dam intact. But at what cost? And who is going to pay that cost just to keep a part time reservoir intact and ongoing for a small minority of people? That is not going to happen indefinitely. There is overwhelming support across the state for removal of Rodman dam. Opposition is actually very small now compared to the already ongoing legal movements towards removal. My personal opinion to keep or remove it is irrelevant in the much larger picture of how best to do this to benefit the most humans and benefit the most nature. The science is clear. And its a done deal as far as I can tell. Start your countdown clock on dam removal. Current government officials standing in the way are irrelevant as well because this is going to outlive their service in whatever offices they hold. This one may veto it but the next one may not. The science has already won. Case closed really. Now just waiting on construction crews to begin dismantling something that never should have been built in the first place. Listen to the lyrics of this next song explain the how and why the Rodman dam even came into existence and why and for who. And keep in mind all those people and plans from them 60 years ago is as gone with the wind and as dead as they are leaving us with their unfinished incomplete project to deal with. Take a listen to a song from Florida about Florida. A live version of the "Rodman Dam" song written, sung and performed by a man who worked on the project building the dam as a young man now making his amends in music form as an old man. He admits in this song how he helped to kill a river and how he regrets it and hopes to live long enough to see the river restored. If Desantis stands in the way of dam removal, he will be removed, replaced, and the can kicked down the road until someone says yes. Us fishermen love the dam. We all love the results of the dam in terms of what it can deliver in the way of fishing. The Rodman Reservoir is a consistent producer of some of Florida's biggest bass. No doubt about it. But to all fishermen who support the dam, we gotta think about and consider the weight of the impact keeping it has on others. Take the manatee for example. A species slowly going extinct. Since before recorded history manatee swam up and down the Ocklawaha river and could connect up with other rivers and life saving springs when the cold weather hit Florida. Today those same manatee have to swim miles to reach the dam and then turn back around and swim back out of there because their connection to the St. Johns river is cut off from them and life saving springs are now compromised further endangering manatee's existence. I think and believe as humans we need to restore to them what they naturally deserve that we have deprived them of in the past, must now be changed in our future. That dam stands in the way. Support to remove it is increasingly overwhelming. Support to keep it dwindling by the day. What criteria do we as humans put at the top of the list as the most important reasons to keep it or remove it? This is what has already been decided. The water science and Nature science has won. Done deal. Now all we have to do is get that dam out of our way- and out of nature's way. Our current governor will be irrelevant in the long run. Florida government is already on the side of science and water restoration. It is our state government who used our tax dollars to develop the restoration plan in the first place. Implementation is all that we are waiting on- as this new law stipulates.

This is just my opinion, but I don't upload and host photos on this site because the memory limitations are too strict at 1000kb. This causes image sizes to be reduced quite a bit, and image resolution deteriorates along with it. But to post images here by uploading and storing them here on this website I post these instructions found here: I can't post a picture. It says the size is too large. You need to use a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop, or whatever your computer comes with, and go to resize image. You may want to crop it for your avatar. Once you do that you can post any picture. You can also use Pic Resize (https://picresize.com/) You just need to locate the picture on your PC, and it's simple from there. For mobile devices, get the app Image Shrink Lite for Android and iOS. The pictures I post are sideways Upload them to the Gallery. You can then turn them, and embed them in your posts, or use them as your avatar" There is another way to embed images that I think works better in terms of being forum friendly in use an results. Its called third party hosting of images. Simply open an account with any well known image hosting website and upload your images there. Then to post an image on this forum simply copy the URL address link to that image and post it into a comment here on the forum. The forum will link it in automatically, and even automatically resize it to fit perfectly in comment section. Doing it this way means that members can keep the image files large enough to be seen clearly without having to do any sort of image reduction efforts. If you click on your reduced image stored on this site, you can see the limitations are blurring the image data. Move to third party hosting and click on a linked in file and it redirects you to the original file size for enlarging if needed. I use cubeupload for all of the images I post here on the forum. Works great!

Things are a bit different in Florida. No cabin fever here. We fish year round so its not the cold that causes us to stock up on lures. For me its all those clearance bins in the various stores. I walked into Mudhole the other day and first thing in my face walking in front door was a large clearance bin of lifelike shad or shiner like rubber lures. $2 per bag. And over in Bitter's, old John Bitter over the years has kind of run a side tackle business inside of his retail business. John buys estate sale finds of old fishing tackle and then brings this into Bitters to give us fishermen access to all those fantastic classic old lures gramps used way back when for like $2 each. Need an old balsa wood Rapala minnow lure? New on the shelf made of plastic. Walk into Bitters and dig through his old timey lure boxes and its heaven on earth. No other place like it. Ollie's has been draining the wallet lately and surprisingly so has Ace Hardware who sells some fishing tackle and quite often runs 50% off or more sales and I grab some of that stuff. So for me way down here in Florida its not the cold draining our wallets. Its those year round clearance deals for me. What I recently ran into at MudHole... 10 bags is just not enough! Not at $2 per bag.

More than likely, in my opinion, the dam will eventually be removed because of overwhelming science that Nature knows best and mankind tends to mess up the natural plans... and make things worse in the process. This case of the Rodman reservoir may very well be one of those cases. The first issue to consider about the rodman project is that it is not a stand alone project. Let me bring up another case as an example. Down South of Orlando near Lakeland is the Tenoroc Mines Wildlife management project. The old Coronet phosphate mines were taken over by the state of Florida some 40 years ago to begin their water and biology science research. One of the first things biologists and scientists noticed in the area was how the Green Swamp was drying up and the Peace river were drying up and disappearing. But why was this happening? They discovered that humans on the land's surface had changed things to the point of cutting off natural water flow across and through the state of Florida. This state has at least 29 watershed basins that are all interconnected and interdependent on each other. When man above changes water flow, the basins begin to dry up and our rivers, lakes, ponds, and creeks go with them. So when Tenoroc was opened up, it is more than a wildlife management area. The reclaimed Tenoroc phosphate mines are a central key junction and water pumping area that is being used to reconnect up at least 5 watershed basins in the area so now the Green Swamp has water flowing back in. The Peace River is now flowing again. The i-4 interstate constructed from 1959 to 1965 oddly enough began its construction right in the area of the Tenoroc Mines, and it was that section of the new highway that forever cut off 5 watershed basins from each other and much of that water was redirected down into the Kissimmee river and on into Lake Okeechobee- one of Florida's current most polluted bodies of water and the scientists are right now trying to reduce that lake's inflowing nutrient loading as well as filter existing water with no place to go. So the point of this comment is that we all need to take a look at Florida's bigger picture in terms of water quality, water cleanliness, and correct natural water flows through this state. Once the Rodman reservoir is considered in its place in context with surrounding watershed basins, it becomes all too clear that natural water flow is now at the top of the list. That alone means the dam has to go. That dam was to serve private corporate interests who are now long gone and we are all left with a dam that according to the science is causing more harm than good. One of the rare and little known facts of this Rodman project are the springs mentioned above. Again, this goes back to water science, but it should be our human priority as we have been slow to learn, but are now catching on and responding more in tune with Nature because of it. When the Rodman reservoir was constructed there was no consideration of what the reservoir would do to the natural springs in the Ocklawaha river. So this has been an interesting development for science to research. Going from memory here, but as I recall there are some 25 springs affected by the dam. When the river is allowed to flow as natural, the water over the springs does not influence spring water flow direction. But as soon as the dam was constructed and water above the river's springs began to rise, this placed pressure on the springs. New water pressure from the above manmade reservoir effectively REVERSED the springs water flow direction. So now, instead of pure clean water flowing up and out of all those springs, the Rodman Reservoir had now turned those same springs into drains directly into the aquifer that could now carrying deep into the ground surface pollution now mixing into the water. A case of humans poisoning our very source of drinking water. Not too smart really. The science leans heavily behind restoring natural water flow and eradicating the reservoir forever. That water and area has to be returned back to Nature so it can once again work naturally in tandem with other surrounding watershed basins. You can't simply unplug these water basins from each other. They all work together naturally. They must remain intact and natural water flowing. Right now there is an ongoing recovery/restoration projects operated by already existing law called Mitigation banking. This is where the government of the state of Florida interacts with private citizens and businesses towards future development based on water science. And, also reversing or deconstructing old outdated no longer wanted projects like Rodman. https://floridadep.gov/water/submerged-lands-environmental-resources-coordination/content/mitigation-and-mitigation-banking#:~:text=The%20Florida%20Department%20of%20Environmental%20Protection%20(FDEP),to%20the%20complete%20restoration%20of%20one%20acre. Mitigation banking is a practice in which an environmental enhancement and preservation project is conducted by a public agency or private entity (“banker”) to provide mitigation for unavoidable wetland impacts within a defined region (mitigation service area). The bank is the site itself, and the currency sold by the banker to the impact permittee is a credit, which represents the wetland ecological value equivalent to the complete restoration of one acre. The number of potential credits permitted for the bank and the credit debits required for impact permits are determined by the permitting agencies. UMAM is the method of assessment for banks established after Feb. 2, 2004. Chapter 373.4135, Florida Statutes, states: “Mitigation banks and offsite regional mitigation should emphasize the restoration and enhancement of degraded ecosystems and the preservation of uplands and wetlands as intact ecosystems rather than alteration of landscapes to create wetlands. This is best accomplished through restoration of ecological communities that were historically present.” The Mitigation Bank Statute, 373.4136, and Mitigation Bank Rule, 62-342, provide the framework for permitting banks. Mitigation banks are authorized by a state permit, issued by either a water management district or the department, and by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a Mitigation Bank Instrument (MBI). The Corps maintains a website for federally approved or under-review wetland mitigation banks called “RIBITS.” The map below represents state-issued mitigation banks. Additional information on rules and procedures related to mitigation banking can be found in our Mitigation Banking Rule and Procedure Synopsis. The point is, the Rodman Reservoir is already a part of the recovery/restoration mitigation plan by law. This current proposal is more or less trying to push it along to accomplish removal of the dam sooner rather than later. But it is coming. That dam will be history soon. Another problem the dam may not survive is that the dam is now outside of its predicted shelf life. Without lots of regular maintenance the dam would have failed before now. So the state is not really interested in spending big bucks on a useless dam that science has already determined needs to go. "The Rodman Dam (now the Kirkpatrick Dam) was built in 1968 with a designed 50-year service life, meaning it is currently over 8 years past its intended lifespan. As of 2025-2026, the dam is considered to be in an aging, high-hazard condition, prompting intense debate over its removal and restoration of the Ocklawaha River." Science has already won this one. And the law is moving in that direction as well. The Rodman reservoir will soon be gone!

Mostly without reels. My son has a couple in his bucket with reels on them, but they stand upright harmlessly with no bending at all. I can easily store over 100 rods safely in the footprint of just two 5 gallon buckets. One thing I do the buckets is to use round foam like what is used on air conditioner lines or water pipes to keep them from freezing. Simply install this foam around the top lip of the bucket and this helps keep them vertical without damage for long term storage. I think it can hold around 50 rods per bucket without reels. Good long term storage with ease of access. And its easy to move rods around like this as well. I keep my rods inside the house in the air conditioner and don't store them in a hot garage. Never have any issues doing it this way. Some of these rods are close to 50 years old like new. Permanent storage without any bending of any rods. (2 more buckets beside this one.) I keep one of my buckets for new unused blanks & spinning rods only, and the other for baitcast rods. My sons and I have learned when we lean a rod, we support it down low near grip and don't lean rods against the wall at the tip which can cause bending or leave heavy weighted lures hanging off rod tips that can also cause permanent bending. This is the simplest cheapest way to store rods long term with no damage ever. You can see the rod or rods you want to use and they slide in and out easily. If I need to move the whole bunch of rods I simply lean it all over and cradle rods in one arm and grab the bucket handle and can move them very easily and effortlessly. Sure beats custom wood wall racks for a lot of rods. A real space saver. Fits neatly into a room corner.

Glenn I have a question for you about this subject... If a person loses their email address and is locked out of an old account, is it possible to recover it by opening a new account and then asking you to combine the new one with the old one? Would this work?

I did a quick search for part number BNT2143 and the searches turned up several hits showing the same size as 5X8X2.5mm. I hope this is the correct size! Numerous search hits all match.

I love the rat'l traps too, but this one is a solid lure, not hollow, and its called a wobbler. No brand name. I get them in bulk from ebay for around $21.50 for 10 of them in all colors. This blue one for some reason just tears them up here in Florida. Its about 2.5" long. The bass has worn the paint off of. There have been days where the only fish caught was on this lure. It has a smooth wobble to it. Nice and tight. Runs nicely just off the bottom. Has a nice running frequency to it. When I see schoolies busting up,this one is a quick grab and the bass slam it. I just ordered up some more. 10PCS Sinking Fishing Lures VIB Hard Artificial Swimbaits Wobblers

Trailer maintenance is a big issue with me as well. One of the things I changed on my trailer which was always a problem is the manufacturers use of the trailer frame as the ground or negative conductor for electricity to the tail lights. So I got tired of that problem and used a 50' regular extension cord with 3 conductors to run from connector through trailer frame to tail lights and no longer use the trailer frame as a conductor because of notoriously bad connections. I've had no more problems since moving away from the trailer frame as a conductor. A little detail a lot of people ignore and don't mess with usually is the lock down on the hitch ball. There is an adjustment nut on the underside to adjust to get just the right amount of spring loaded tension on it for proper lock down on the ball, and I bet most don't grease the cup that goes onto the ball. Little details like that. I also take the safety chains and put them into the shop vise to bend the hooks closed just to the point of where they still fit on the tow vehicle easy on easy off, but closed up enough to not fall or pop off the tow vehicle. Another often overlooked issue are the trailer suspension springs. These can rust out badly especially in saltwater use. I recently nearly had a disaster towing an abandoned boat someone had given to me. Each side had 4-leaf springs. On one side 2 had rusted completely through and 1 on the other side. It could have been very dangerous had one side broken and given way. These are really cheap to replace. I think my new ones cost $60 with free shipping. So check those. Keep them in good shape. You kind of have to go over every detail sometimes. Another issue often overlooked are the rollers under the boat. Quite often they are knocked out of alignment or proper placement usually from boaters who like to drive the boat up onto trailers right out of the water and hit them hard enough multiple times to knock them around and out of place. Also make sure they are in good shape and that the underside of boat is not being damaged in any way. Check the bunks as well and bunk supports. Another issue often overlooked are those wheel bearings. They are simple to check. Simply use a floor jack and jack up one side of the trailer at a time until tire is off the ground and can spin freely. Then spin wheel and listen and feel for any grinding or noise. Properly greased wheel bearings run silently and smoothly. Also check to see if there is any side to side play with the hub on the axle and tighten if necessary. Hand tight is good enough. If I were to break down on side of the road and had to repair or replace wheel bearings and maybe a hub, I could do so with minimal tools. And its a good idea to carry these tools with you when towing a boat. I also carry spare bearings, grease gun, and even a spare hub as well, and the obvious a spare tire. I can say now in my 60's I have never broken down on the side of the road because of wheel bearings because of regular maintenance. But I cannot tell you how many others I have seen on the side of the road who never did any maintenance and let it go until they smoked some bearings and wound up on side of road without the tools or spare parts to fix it. Most of those who I see breaking down because of this- in Florida- are mostly the saltwater boaters as the saltwater takes them faster and harder than the freshwater trailers. Also check your wench and cable and tie downs. Doing your own trailer maintenance keeps you informed on where it stands on a regular basis so maintenance can be more thorough and regular as well. I can't help you with any videos. I am sure some others here can and will soon.

My neck of the woods! https://theapopkavoice.com/stories/big-florida-lake-ranked-as-the-most-polluted-in-the-us,141696 "Lake Apopka, Florida’s fourth largest lake, was once a world-class bass fishing destination before nutrient pollution turned it into an ecological cautionary tale. In the mid-20th century, agricultural discharge and pesticide use devastated its water quality and wildlife. Though massive restoration efforts have improved conditions, the lake still faces ongoing challenges — phosphorus levels remain high, algal blooms are a persistent threat, and wetlands continue to recover." That lake has an interesting history. But to make long story short, the lake was destroyed over the last 100 years since the 1926 land boom in Florida. Farms and ranches surrounded that lake starting back in early 1900's and were directly behind the destruction of that lake as it became the dumping ground for farm and ranch waste like fertilizers, pesticides, and cow manure which made the water nutrient rich that led directly to a plant overgrowth explosion that caused untold tons of dead rotting plant material that covered the once sandy bottom with more than 10 feet deep of rotting plant muck effectively killing the lake for fishing for decades. So today biologists with the FWC have been hard a work restoring that lake because Florida at state level government wants to turn Florida into a multi-billion dollar fishing tourism destination and hope the next world record bass comes from here because of the fantastic work efforts of biologists working along with earth shaping constructing companies who are hired to come in and reshape the land either under the lake itself or surrounding it. And that is the key secret to what is happening at Lake Apopka today. All of the farms and ranches are now gone. Much of the land around the lake is now in state possession. And that land is being used to dig out the muck in the lake and spread it around and mix it into the soil surrounding that lake. But to clean the water, the state has basically turned a growing number of our lakes into swimming pool operations. So the way swimming pools are cleaned is how our lakes are now being cleaned. They design and build natural plant filter tanks along the shore. They design and build massive pumping stations sucking out the polluted waters and flowing it through natural plant filters that remove all of the nutrient loading contained in the water so that only clean clear water is pumped back into the lake. So, what I would suggest you look for when on that lake are the new inflows and outflows. Also look for scraped sandy shallow lake bottom that biologists have been developing to give fish a nice place to spawn. So at this time of the year you should see bass on the beds so the big girls will be there. I call you attention to another lake #10 at Tenoroc Mines wildlife management area where state biologists began their water restoration efforts over 40 years ago. In the following video listen to what bass fisherman John says about the inflow fish and outflow fish. Very important details fishing surrounding the pumping of water! John is not even casting at the outflow. He is just dipping into the water what looks like a rooster tail and pulling fish out one after another including an 8.6 pound tagged bass he got $100 cash for from the state. You will find this same water pumping going on in Lake Apopka now. So paying attention to the public data on water pumping in that lake is something to key in on. It could mean the difference between catching fish or not catching fish. The above video shows how important this is! So I would call your attention to the Lake Apopka BMAP or plan for lake restoration providing key details on what you will find there and how to take advantage of it to your fishing success: AI Overview The Upper Ocklawaha Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) is a comprehensive strategy adopted to restore Lake Apopka by reducing nutrient pollution, primarily phosphorus. Phase I was adopted in 2007, with a second phase in 2014, focusing on, marsh flow-ways, urban stormwater management, and restoring agricultural lands to reduce algae-causing nutrient loads. Here is a direct link to the 277 pages of the BMAP plan to restore lake Apopka: https://onlinetools.sodapdf.com/document/3de90b37-cfce-4384-af29-449b60028036?ref=sodapdf.com%2Fsodalite&uid=1019209&venid=web-opera&wid=7773 https://www.sjrwmd.com/projects/lake-apopka-project/ And here is that plan in action: The long version. An hour long detailed history of Lake Apopka: https://lake.wateratlas.usf.edu/waterbodies/lakes/7800/lake-apopka https://lakecountyfl.gov/water-authority/water-resources/nutrient-reduction-facility-project Critical details on the water pumping stations water flow data accessible 24/7: Critical InfrastructureA group layer containing the layer themes from the Critical Infrastructure developed by Balmoral and FDEP. This group is part of the assets from the Statewide Critical Assets Dataset.https://onlinetools.sodapdf.com/document/2c231ca1-e055-4f9e-8631-3804542b651e?ref=sodapdf.com%2Fsodalite&uid=1019209&venid=web-opera&wid=7773 I hope this information will help you familiarize yourself with what all is ongoing at Lake Apopka right now, the same information many Florida tournament fishermen access as well. I tried locating the LakeWatch bathymetry maps, but they are now offline. So I did find an older 1969 map that shows the lake's historic lake bottom shape that may still be of use today. I will try and locate in my own files the modern sonar map I use. The state has yet to publish a new map that includes all the water restoration construction details, but those can be found in the bidding contract blueprints which are public info and can be dug up with lots of work searching for them. Good luck!

Disagree.

Hands down SwampGirl! She kicks all of our you know what. Her numbers speak for them self. Is there anyone here who catches more fish than her? Prove it! She's number 1 by far around here in my opinion. So if anyone catches more fish than her by numbers show us. Otherwise, I think she gets top spot on this one.

If it is not the line itself as mentioned above, I am wondering if maybe there could be a cracked tip guide, or another guide? A chipped or piece cracked off a guide can cause similar results cutting through line during a cast. It could be on the side of the guide the line is pressured against in backswing of cast, and not noticeable for normal loading with a fish. Just mentioning another possibility to check all guides thoroughly.

Florida law is kind of like that. The law says you don't need a fishing license on private land and a private pond under 20 acres where the private land completely surrounds the pond, and there is no navigable water to public water. The law also specifies that if a pond is manmade on private land then you can pretty much do as you please. The laws are designed to regulate fishing on public bodies of water more or less. The state knows they can't step onto private land to tell land owners what they can or cannot do on their own private property so in that situation you can get away with fishing how you please. Even if the law applied, there is no way to enforce it on private land because the state cannot step foot on private land without some sort of probable cause or a warrant so I'd bet they ignore it and stick to public waters. I would also consider that the fish in a private pond on private land would also mean the fish are privately owned and the owner can pretty much do as they please. So maybe there is a way.... I don't see anything wrong with it really. We use other species, so why not bass?

I am kind of the opposite. Since I am now a senior citizen, many of my rods are 40 plus years old. Today's modern rods tend to be getting stiffer. And so they started blening fiberglass with graphite to find a balance between modern and the way older rods bend deeper down the blank. Some of my favorite rods today are 20, 30 plus years old. I still collect the older rods of higher quality. The Loomis, St. Croix, older Falcon rods, etc. To me they are fabulous rods to use. So no, I would not be getting rid of any of them for newer rods. If anything I may wind up ditching newer rods to go back to using my older rods. The last time I went bass fishing I was using a 40 to 45 year old LCI blank made into a custom rod. The graphite reel seat cracked and shattered so this rod became unusable and I found it in a pawn shop for like $5 because it was broken and no one wanted it. All I saw was gold. The reel seat and blank were both identified as G. Loomis. So I stripped it down and rebuilt it. A great rod now back on the water. And now one of a kind as well. Even my 12 year old son is catching on. His brand new custom rods he outright says dad its too stiff to cast well with light lures. He started fishing with Ugly Stiks made of fiberglass so he started with whippy rods that bend deep into the blank and even he wants to revert back to older rods, or as he asked, he now wants to try the modern blended rods with fiberglass/graphite construction. Sometimes newer is not always better. To me vintage high quality rods are pure gold. And I keep those. That's why between my sons and I we now have close to 125 rods for sorts of fishing from freshwater to saltwater, from small fish to big fish rods, and he's getting into fly fishing now so add in those as well. I think my 12 year old son is already a vintage rod guy and he learned it from me. That's what dad's are for. Passing the magic of fishing on to the next generation. He will get the rods one day too. I told him you can use any of my reels you want to. I could care less. But you don't touch my old vintage rods until I'm dead and gone and then you gotta pry them out of my cold dead hands. He wants all my old Loomis rods, St. Croix, All Star rods on LCI blanks, and Falcons and others like the All Star Emerald Edition rods... They just don't make rods like these any more. No need to get rid of them when they bring us so much fishing enjoyment every day we use them.

I just checked Florida law on this subject and its clear: https://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/regulations/taking-bait/ Use of fish for bait Black bass, peacock bass or any part thereof may not be used as bait. No live nonnative fish, except variable platys and fathead minnows, may be transported to or between waters for use as bait. Live goldfish and carp may not be used as bait. Whole pickerel or panfish (e.g., bluegill, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish, spotted sunfish, flier, warmouth) or parts thereof may be used as bait for sportfishing by the angler who caught them. Whole pickerel or bream or parts thereof may not be used as bait for trotlines or bush hooks or any method other than by rod and reel or pole and line. Panfish less than 4 inches in total length raised by a licensed aquaculture facility may be purchased and used for bait. That said, they do make great bait but it is illegal in Florida. But I read what the OP said: "I had caught the smaller bass on Senkos/lures and they got sucked up reeling'em in. Even the 3-4 pound bass would try and eat the 1 pound bass and at times tried eating bass up to two pounds." The same has happened to me as well. One of the largest bass I have ever hooked into ate a 14" bass I was reeling in and had caught legally on a rubber worm. I had wondered why that small bass was acting strangely and kept trying to run to shallow water to hide as I reeled it in. I pulled it to me out over deeper water reeling him in, and on 3rd time a monster bass ate him and went straight to the bottom. My frayed 10 pound line was no match for what was on the other end of the line. A good learning experience for sure, but not something we can do legally. Florida law does now allow us anglers to use bream and bluegill for baitfish but only if we caught them our self, but don't use a bass! I wonder what the fine would be if caught?

I just did a google search that resulted in an AI overview by asking the following question: What percentage of lead acid batteries are made in USA? Approximately 90% of lead-acid batteries sold in the United States are manufactured domestically in North America. These batteries are highly sustainable, boasting a 99% recycling rate, with new batteries typically comprising over 80% recycled materials. The industry utilizes a closed-loop system, keeping over 130 million batteries out of landfills annually. Battery Council International +3 Key Facts on U.S. Lead-Acid Battery Manufacturing: Domestic Production: Over 90% of lead-acid batteries in the U.S. market are produced in North America. Recycling Rate: 99% of used lead-acid batteries are recycled, making them the most recycled consumer product in the U.S.. Recycled Content: New lead batteries are comprised of more than 80% recycled material. Domestic Lead Supply: U.S. manufacturers source about 85% of their lead from North American recycling facilities. Market Share: The U.S. dominates the North American lead-acid battery market with approximately 75% of the regional share. Source: Battery Council International While some options are increasing, the majority of lead-acid batteries for automotive and industrial use remain manufactured within the U.S. and North America. Source: Association of Battery Recyclers ------ So the results backup my first comment above. What I am tapping into are those U.S. made batteries made from recycled lead sourced from a lot of those cheaper thin plate batteries recycled here in USA into much higher quality batteries with thicker plates. And this is what the professionals are also dealing with which is why I hire them rather than take a chance on front end retail selling me thin plate batteries at higher prices. So when I do a similar search on "thick plate lead acid batteries" I find these AI overview results: "Thick plate lead-acid batteries are specialized deep-cycle batteries featuring robust, thicker positive plates designed for sustained, long-term power delivery rather than quick, high-current bursts. They are engineered to withstand deep discharges (up to 80% DoD) and repeated cycling, making them ideal for solar storage, marine, RV, and industrial applications. Source: Vasworld Power Key Features and Benefits: Enhanced Longevity: The thick positive plates contain a larger reservoir of active lead dioxide, reducing the impact of corrosion and material shedding, which extends the battery's overall lifespan. Deep Cycling: They are designed to be discharged down to 20% capacity repeatedly, unlike automotive batteries which are designed for high-current, short-duration (starting) use. Durability: The stronger plate construction provides improved resistance to vibration and physical shock. Lower Power Output: They offer lower starting power (CCA) but superior long-term energy capacity. Which is precisely what I want for trolling motor batteries. With trolling motors we do not need CCA. What we need is what that last line above says: "superior long-term energy capacity" along with the increased durability. I can troll for 3 days straight without even thinking about charging them back up. And that is 8 hours a day constantly on the trolling motor too if need be. Take your chances at front end retail on buying some thin plate batts and not even know it, or hire the professionals who make it their career to point us in the right direction that benefits us the most. That's how I see it anyways. Threads like this are meant to inform rather than mis-inform. This is what forums are for! Putting the "correct" information out there to benefit everyone. Edited by moderator for policy compliance

I still use lead acid batteries as well and have no plans on changing either because the reserve capacity keeps me going all day and the next in part because of the energy saving electronics I use to drive my trolling motors with. I can troll wide open full speed for hours and when I get home and hook up the charger it quite often says I am at 93% to 95% still charged much of the time. As for batteries, brands are not the deciding factor for me. Location of where they are made is. I use a company called Batteries, Inc. out of Orlando, Florida. This is a company who services batteries for commercial and industrial applications like bulldozers, forklifts, etc. The reason for this is simple... when someone tries purchasing brand new batteries from well known stores, some mentioned here in this thread, you don't always know what you are getting. Batteries, Inc. informed me that today there are some batteries that are making what is known as thin plate batteries that fail faster due to holes corroded through the thin plates, and plate warping from high current use, and they don't hold a lot of reserve capacity or as much as the higher quality thick plate batteries do, and Batteries, Inc. will not service those thin plate batteries. Those are scrapped and not worthy of restoring. So when I go to Batteries, Inc, they only restore and rebuild thick plate batteries which is to my benefit because I know I am getting a higher quality battery than what is to be found in the consumer retail market- and it takes away the guessing game for me. So all of my trolling motor batteries these days, and have been for years, are all old used batteries rebuilt and fully restored by Batteries, Inc. They cost $60 each and come with a 6 month warranty. They usually last 2 to 4 years average- in hotter Florida- which is a comparable lifespan to a lot of brand new batteries. Cooler climates get a couple extra years usually. Another nice thing about using a company like them is that for one they stand behind their work, and for two, I can sell them old batteries and get I think like $9 each for old batteries. And since I am still connected to an old trolling motor warranty repair facility, I stop by there sometimes and pick up a pile of their junk batteries and turn them all in and get my "new" batteries for free basically plus some extra money to spend on lunch for us. So sometimes I don't have to pay a penny for a new set of trolling motor batteries. That's my payment for doing the shop a service. It can't be any better for me really. Even if I did not have the shop to help them dispose of a pile of batteries from time to time, $120 every 2 to 4 years is dirt cheap for the largest size automotive batteries made. And all rebuilt batteries are load tested and fully charged and ready to go. As good as new, and industrial grade strength quality. So in every major city of the country, you should be able to find one or more companies who specializes in rebuilding and restoring industrial and commercial grade batteries. I have not put brand new batteries in my boat in more years than I can remember. No need to. Even my SUV has one of their rebuilt batteries. I've never had a problem with one either- until it just outright fails and won't take a charge any longer same as any other- and then sell it back to them for another one for $60 a pop minus whatever lead batts I can sell them to knock off the top of the price and back on the road again, er water. I am trying to imagine how many fishermen are out there using brand new batteries at $200+ each from retailers selling them thin plate batteries? So rather than me trying to figure it on the front end of retail- and getting it wrong because that type of info is not provided by manufacturers. I just hire the pro's and let them take care of it for me. Its cheap and reliable. Oh, and for $60 each, pick your size. Same price across the board. Won't get that at retail level. So I can get the biggest baddest automotive batteries made and troll for days on one charge. Can't beat it really. I've never found a better deal or anything close. Batteries Inc. OrlandoMarine Batteries in Orlando | Starting, Deep-Cycle & Jet...Batteries Inc Orlando offers marine batteries for boats, pontoons & jet skis. Starting & deep-cycle options with free installation & expert support. Edited by moderator for policy compliance

To catch bass in Florida, especially central Florida you don't need a guide! This time of year you can easily see the double digit bass sitting on their beds. Toho is heavily pressured due to an old outdated reputation. That lake is now dying, slowly becoming choked up again with heavy vegetation and needs to be cleaned out again. Still good bass fishing in there, but also as busy as Daytona 500 race track too. Florida has thousands of places to fish and choose from. I'd recommend targeting springs, and spring fed lakes. But if a guide is what you want, then Steve Boyd: Steve Niemoeller who lives right on the lake and has both a bass boat and pontoon party boat to fish that lake. I hope you have a fun successful trip, and can avoid that lake when a tournament is active on it.

Wait, this is a trend now? Its been standard fishing 101 for my entire life! One of the challenges I handed my sons was to pass down to them their grandfather's old tackle box. He's been gone since 2011. So on a fishing trip I told the boys just bring rods and reels and nothing else and handed them grandad's old tackle box with the challenge to go out and catch fish on all that old stuff found in there. One of the lures we found in there is called the chain worm. I plan on sharpening the hooks and giving it a try myself. (Photo borrowed from ebay) I'm still using 1980's Mann's Mannipulator rubber worms I still have in stock. Point is, I have never stopped using the old lures. No reason to. My old Rapala lures are made of wood. Today's lures are mostly all plastic. Sometimes older is better!

An interesting question. The only dedicated combos I keep consistent are the frogging combo & the flipping and pitching combo. The reel is specifically designed for flipping and pitching so it stays dedicated right there. It might bounce around on different rods from time to time. But generally, I keep my rods and reels separate because I'm a vintage guy with a nice collection of 70 to 80 awesome old rods going back 40, 50 years or so. Same with my reels. I want every fishing trip to be with something different. So I move reels around on rods all the time. I like to enjoy the differences rather than settle on one combo and keep it that way always. Between my sons and I, we have close to probably 125 rods and probably 60 or more reels. We both keep most separate and pick and choose for each trip. So its never the same and I think we both really like the variety more than same old same old all the time. One of the benefits of doing it this way is that each time we go fishing all of our lures are freshly tied on rather than chancing not retying after fishing and going back out with possibly damaged line ready to snap on first fish next trip out. Variety is the spice of life!

I'd bet Doug Hannon would agree. In this ongoing back and forth between straight running and erratic lures, I don't think there is another person who was on this planet who caught more double digit bass than Doug Hannon. It is said in his lifetime he caught more than 800 bass over 10 pounds. That success rate tells us something. How did he do it? If you watch his videos, one of his favorite lures was the devil's horse. And if you watch how he used it, erratic and all over the place was his method. Up, down, left, right, Doug Hannon worked it into erratic movements. He did the same for his worm "trick." I tried finding the video where Doug Hannon himself shows how to do it, and underwater video of how it moves. But the point is he did not rig rubber worms straight. He rigged them to spin and generate an erratic movement and there are no hard facts on precisely what lures he caught those some 800+ double digit bass on, but according to Doug Hannon himself, his top lures were the Devil's horse and his unique rubber worm method. So far the polling results support erratic over straight running lures. Doug Hannon also seemed to be this same erratic camp and would probably say if still alive that his choice of erratic movements were in fact behind his incredible double digit catches. I did find one video of a "favorite" bass pro who knew Doug Hannon personally who learned it directly from him. And he did his own video on the erratic Doug Hannon method of rubber worm rigging that is claimed to be one of Doug Hannon's top methods for catching double digit bass. (I cannot confirm nor deny any of it, just passing it along for what it is worth.) I have researched Doug's methods and patents over the years, but I have also researched Doug himself and his water choices which is an interesting subject by itself because that is the source of his double digit fish that is often ignored and overlooked. To this day what Doug Hannon looked for in Florida and the reason he moved here are now the same things I also look for all across Florida. Water is the key. Not just any water. But very specific waters which are on full display in his videos even if he is not discussing the water. It was his techniques combined with water specifics that was behind catching more than 800 double digit bass. I'm curious if Doug were alive today and asked Doug, do you catch more large fish with straight running lures or erratic? I'd bet you he would clearly be in the erratic movement camp. Just my opinion.

I'd look at Shimano DC reels or Curado HG at minimum. I'd only get the SLX XT with the SVS brakes. Avoid the lower end SLX. Those brakes are no where near as effective as the SVS brakes. That casting problem with daiwa reels is the magnets are always on so they never have a true free spinning spool. The Shimano Curado (or better) can give you a true free spinning spool that daiwa cannot do - unless the magnets are removed all together, and then maybe. I really love the SVS brakes on Shimano reels, and if you can spend more start moving up into the higher end Shimano reels. You can pick up a Curado HG series reel used for around $100. New they are around $250+ and they cast great. Google AI says: "Shimano’s SVS (and SVS Infinity) is a high-performance centrifugal braking system using internal pins/weights and an external dial to control spool speed. It excels at long-distance casting by applying maximum pressure at the start of the cast, allowing precise, on-the-fly, and tool-free adjustments to manage backlash." The Curado HG series has been around for awhile, but to date I've seen nothing to surpass them except maybe the DC reels. I am sure some daiwa fans would disagree, but that's the way it goes...

I'd suggest maybe taking a look a some underwater videos on youtube. Glenn Lau and others have filmed this sort of thing over the years. There are lots of underwater videos to choose from.