davecon

For that application I use a St Croix Premier 7" light fast tip. A little over $ 100.

Don't have a Mojo but love my Premier. Have several rods (St. Croix and others) that cost over twice as much and the Premier is hands down my favorite. Just casts marvelously. I use a lot of small light lures for pretty big fish, snook, reds, juvi tarpon,and some pretty big bass and it handles them well. I have a 7" med light spinning rod.

Wish ya'll had'nt started this thread. Now I gotta go catch some to eat. Shame on you guys.

I prefer Shimano spinning reels hands down. Tried 2 Lews spinning reels - not impressed at all. After a few months both were garbage. On the other hand I have both Lews mid range baitcaster and a Shimano Curado E7 that has been super tuned. While I like them both I give the nod to the Lews.

Nice ! Cooling off here too, actually got down in the low 70's last night. High today only 94. I just love fall weather !

To adjust the prop just back out the screw in front of it a little bit. You can also tweak it by bending the blades ever so slightly. I recommend putting split rings on the hook hangers and slightly heavier hooks. I also put a barrel swivel on the front. Just bend the line tie out, slip the swivel on then bend the line tie back in to place.

The waters I fish are brackish. As likely to catch bass as well as snook and tarpon. I use 3000 size reels for the extra line capacity. Never a problem with bass, they just don't fight that hard. I'm in a river so the tarpon, for some reason, don't pull out that much drag - they just go airborne. Snook on the other hand have come VERY CLOSE to spooling me on several occasions. Not uncommon for them to take out 150 feet of line three or four times in the same battle.

Used to be a fellow here in Florida that for decades fished tournaments using only one lure - a Devils Horse. I'm told and have read that he averaged winning $ 30,000.00 per year. Supposedly he used the 3/8 oz, in green. He tweaked them by adding split rings and changing out the hooks plus several other "undisclosed" modifications. Keep in mind there are some pretty good sticks in north central Florida and he did quite well against some stiff competition. He was known as "One lure Charlie" and if I remember correctly his name was Charlie Orme. He was retired from the FWC and passed away several years ago.

Just a wild guess here, but at what angle to the water are you holding your rod ? Point is, you should be able to drop the rod tip to give the fish a moment to take the worm before he feels any pressure. If you hold the rod extended towards the lure and the fish hits hard/moves away while taking the bait you don't have time to give any slack (that makes the strike feel BIG), the fish feels pressure and spits the lure. If your rod tip is somewhat higher, you can drop it, give slack, and hopefully the bass will feel no resistance. You then tighten up and set the hook. Admittedly there are times when you must set the hook the instant you feel anything but that doesn't sound like the problem you are having. Unfortunately, only experience will really teach you. On the positive side, at least you are getting bites and that's a great start. Keep at it, you'll figure it out. Good Luck. p.s.. _ suggest you google Glen Lau. He has a bunch of videos on the net which may help improve your learning curve. They are free and are really eye openers, especially to a novice.

Soflbasser, If memory serves, it was the largest bass weighed in by the FWC back in 1967. I may be a year off in either direction but that is the time frame. If I knew how to find it I'm certain the FWC had it as the largest bass they weighed that year. I have caught MANY bass from the same lake over 9, with one 12 and one 13.5 within the last few years so I don't doubt the legitimacy of the fish.

In these parts, in order - grass shrimp, wiggles, crickets.

Back in the late 60's a local guy was producing a dragonfly lure about 5 inches long. One evening a fellow fishing from shore in a local reservoir caught a bass that weighed over 16 on certified scales. Hearing about this I naturally tried one as I was young and dumb. The thing tangled on most casts and I never caught a thing on it. The manufacturer quit making them after a short while.

Red Bear, I agree with you 100 % ! As long as people keep buying those high dollar lures companies will make them. My situation is a little different - I fish for snook more then bass and believe me, most snook fishermen don't have any "old favorite lures". Snook will either take them away from you or literally destroy them. Then there's the occasional by catch of tarpon. They are pretty tough on tackle too, even the juvi's that are "only" 40 to 60 pounds. Needless to say I go thru a lot of lures and simply can't afford to see a 50 dollar bill leaving with some upset fish. The less expensive lures work just fine, thank you very much.

Yeajray231, Perhaps a support group for Rapala addicts is in order. " Hi I'm Joe Shmoe and I'm addicted to Rapala's "

Yeajay231, Never tried a Rapala at night as I did so well with the Jitterbug that there was absolutely no need to try anything else. I do agree with you on the Rapala's though ! In my humble opinion hands down the best hard bait ever ! Have been using them for 50 years plus and must have 25 of various sizes and colors in my box. And that's just the "original". Have dozens of shad raps, flat raps, DTs, etc. Loading the boat after snook/bass fishing one day a guy was standing at the ramp and commented "you must like Rapala's ". Hadn't thought about it but after his comment I looked at my rods and realized that of 6 rod/reel combos 5 of them had different Rapala's (the other rod had a soft plastic). In some situations there may be a better choice but overall the greatest lures ever !

Have posted this before but here goes again - I'm in central Florida and used to fish a LOT at night due to work schedule. Only need two lures, black Musky Jitterbug and a black 12 inch worm fished with as light a sinker as possible fished so slow you can't hardly stand it. A retrieve with the worm should take a full 2 to 3 minutes. Any faster - might as well stay home. On the Jitterbug vary the cadence but usually a straight retrieve is all you need.

Where are you going to be ? I have fished it some and my fishing buddy of 15 years fished it often before he passed away. The closer you get to the salt, the lighter the color, the further upstream the darker. Fish weightless but make sure to use a leader - snook travel as far up as Arcadia and downstream my buddy caught a few that were 40 inchers, so use a leader (I did well there but not that well).

Fluke !

Hey Catt, 'interesting that the guys with decades of first hand experience and knowledge have such different opinions than the guys "that have heard' or 'have read". I find that comical. I have no axe to grind here and feel you don't either. Oh well, to each his own. Same thing applies to folks from out of state coming here to fish. Sorry, but things are a little different here in Florida and the techniques used out of state, while they will work, are no where near as effective as the local techniques. These guys come here, use their home water techniques, and just don't catch very much. Duh ! Does the same happen in Lousiana ? If someone were to ask a question about ice fishing I would be the last person to offer advice, telling folks what I had heard or read ! I visit several bass fishing forums on a regular basis and this site seems to have more "foreign" experts than the others. Puzzles me. Have often wondered which advice the original poster eventually followed. Oh well.

I am a converted bass fisherman here in west central Florida. Bass fished for well over 20 years as an adult and now usually fish for bass mainly during the spawn. The rest of the time I fish mostly brackish and some pure salt for primarily snook, with reds, sea trout, and mostly juvi tarpon as by catch (Not bad I know but somebody's gotta do it). For almost forty years I have used nothing but bass tackle - Shimano Calcuttas, Curado, Lews. Shimano Symmetre. Same size reels as you probably use for bass. I use the same outfits for both. Just rinse them off when your done (light spray - don't use a lot of pressure with a nozzle) and lube them periodically. In the almost forty years of doing this I have NEVER had a problem with corrosion. Same goes for the "freshwater trolling motor" (Minkota) - just rinse it off when you get home, and outboard - flush it for about 5 minutes, as well as the rods - again, just rinse them off. As far as the boat - I use a small boat that I bought used. Rewired it using tinned copper, gold plated connections, and shrink wrap on every connection. No problem. My trailer is galvanized and is over 20 years old with plenty of life left in it. Again, rinse it off after every trip. I've got the clean up/rinsing/flushing down to about twenty minutes. Well worth the effort. Me thinks the "saltwater" reels and rods for inshore fishing are simply a marketing ploy. When you get to the offshore stuff - 12/O and 14/O reels used for Marlin, sails, wahoo, etc. we are talking a different animal but the guys I know that use them don't maintain them any better than I do my inshore stuff.

Check out Glen Lau's videos "Big Mouth" and "Big Mouth Forever". Absolutely amazing. I have them and watch every few months. One was filmed in the Silver River in Ocala, the other in thre Rainbow River in Dunnellon. I have fished the Rainbow many times. Water is crystal clear and therefore was great for filming as is the Silver River. You won't be sorry. Seems I learn something new every time I watch the videos Just Google Glen Lau.

Many years ago while fishing a local reservoir I decided to bring home a few bass to eat. Actually the wife decided I would bring home a few bass, but I digress. Long story short, was using I believe a Culprit ribbon tail worm (can't remember the manufacturer for sure but do remember for sure ribbon tail). It was solid black. Got home and was cleaning the bass and in one little guy about 15 inches long I cut the stomach open and there were about 10 little black snakes, all about 8 inches long. Talk about matching the hatch ! Not sure if I've ever caught any other bass with snakes in them as I rarely keep any bass. On a side note, over forty years ago (boy I'm getting old) there was a local tackle shop that also sold live bait, usually shiners, minnows, crickets, and earthworms. The standard fare for these parts. On occasion the shop would get live eels. They were relatively expensive but I have never seen anything that caught bass anywhere near as good. It was amazing. You would run a weedless hook with the wire weed guard through the lower and upper part of his snout. Cast the thing out and retrieve it like you would a plastic worm, just much slower. Those little things squirmed and writhed like nothing I've ever seen. You could catch as many as 12 or 15 bass on the thing before it croaked. Usually the eels were 10 inches or so and surprisingly skinny. You could keep the eels alive for a long time by just putting them in a 5 gallon bucket with some damp Spanish moss. Hardest part of fishing with them was getting them out of the bucket and holding them while inserting the hook. You've probably heard the saying slippery as an eel. Well let me tell you they were slippery. Had to use an old terry cloth towel or something similar just to hold on to them. While we are at it, another bit of worthless information . Years ago there was a small outfit here in Florida, I think it was a one man operation. Anyway, he made a plastic lure similar to a worm, that was molded in the shape of a baby gator. Was a pretty good likeness. I tried one small pack of them. Didn't work for me. Don't know if the fella is still around or not. And that ends today's worthless information and trivia.

I have several St Croixs and will have another soon. I mostly use spinning rods and have both the "Premier" and "Avid". Both in 7' ml. The Avid is more sensitive but I prefer the action of the Premier for casting. Both great rods for the money.

That's not a scar - it's a badge of accomplishment ! Every time he looks at it he will smile.

I'm in Florida so take this for what it's worth. I use a black 12 inch worm with as light a sinker as you can get away with. Here's the catcher - a cast/retrieve should take a minimum of three, that's right, THREE MINUTES ! Just crawl it along the bottom. They know it's there. If you work the lure any faster you might as well not even go.