TR186FLA

Hello everyone, got a question... I ordered a couple MattLures.com bluegill swim baits last week and cannot wait to get them, the fish in my lake primary forage is bluegill, so I am thinking this would be a great bait to throw, any tips on tackle, ( rod, line size ) appreciated and presentation tips... can't wait to get them, hope they get here for this weekend the weather is suppose to be great... Thanks again, Brian.....

Very Interesting thread... River Warior,, very good points.. On a regular basis I fish Ansin Garcia in Central FLA,, clear / light tea stained water.. u can see the bottom to 4 / 5 feet in the flats and we always use braid ( 40 to 50 pound power pro ) when fishing lippless crankbaits and the number of fish my buddie catches , who fishes this water every weekend.. is in the hundreds over the past few month, granted this is a fast moving bait,, so I do not think braid makes a differnence.. Here is Jax I live on a 3 1/2 acre lake that is pretty close to gin clear and have lcaught ots of bass on soft plastics and crank baits on braid.. however I am going to start trying a florocarbon leader and see if my catches increase when fishing soft plastics... thanks for all the tips,, great post...

And Jacksonville is getting a BPS and Cabelas.... NOT.............................................I will believe it when I see it.... ;D ;D ;D

16.2 POUNDS, our BIG FISH 5.4 POUNDS. I think 2nd place was around 15 pounds, the big fish of the tourny was 5.5 pounds. We got 1st place total weight and 2nd place big bass.

Thank You....

Keith and I fished Garcia on Sunday morning, in a small Tourny. We took first place, fishing was tough, but with a few adjustments.. We got on some bigger fish and took home 1ST Place total weight and 2nd place for big bass. Here are some pics:

Yep, it was a fun day,, I wish I could have stayed later than 2pm, we could have put allot more fish in the boat, we had to leave with them still biting, my fault.... :'( But the next day, I caught 8 more on my lake at home from my kayak.. thats a blast having a bass drag you around the lake...

We drift fished in the flats and used rattle traps. After catching 17 drift fishing in the flats we headed to the Zig Zag canal and caught 14 more on traps and senkos. Water temp was 73 degrees and I saw countless beds all over the place. No fish sitting on the beds but where we caught most of our fish there were beds nearby. To bad my friend had to leave by 2pm as we could have caught 50 today if we stayed till 5pm. All the fish except a few where good fat solid fish. Several in the 3lb range and many in the 2lb range. Keith holding a nice 2+ lber http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=122206trip2gg1.jpg Keith with a 3lb bass caught on a rattle trap http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=122206trip3wo0.jpg Me with my first of the 11 I caught today http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=122206trip4my4.jpg Keith with yet another nice fish. He caught 20 today http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=122206trip5ld0.jpg Here is a nice bass I caught in the Zig Zag canal http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=122206trip6ll0.jpg Me with another nice Senko fish

Good luck with the surgery, I may be looking at surgery on my left elbow in the near future too,, I think I have just about wore it out.. Its my casting arm too, which really makes it tough.

Avid,,,, too cool.... ;D ;D ;D

Keith, GREAT Post thank you for providing such detailed info.. good job in helping a brother out.

If I ever re-paint the running surface on my boat, it will be a painting of a HUGE school of shad... ;D

Congrats.. you'll love that boat...

But do they eat their client twinkies and moon pies.... ;D ;D just kidding.....

I guess I will chime too.... I have great experiences on the water with guides and I have had the absolute worst experience with guides. Example: ( Not naming anyone, and as far as I could tell, the nightmare of guide has not posted on this thread , nor is a member here ) Good Time: Been on the water with guide and he simply refused to pick up a rod and take part in the fun we were having, he stated, I am here teach you guys, put you on fish and make sure you have a great time for the money your paying me. This guide taught us about the water we were fishing, the species we were targeting, the envirement and local sites. Was the best time I ever have had on the water, and because of all this my wife and buddie booked another trip with him for me on my birthday. Bad Time: Hired a guide to fish a well known central florida body of water known for big bass, since it was 100% catch and release. ( I'll let you folks guess the location ) Anyway we called him, got all the info, and setup the trip. We brought our own gear and lures based on what the guide had recomended to us on the phone. We met him at a gas station up the road from the ramp and followed him to the water. We got on the boat and before I knew it, we were fishing, no info on the water, structure info no teaching, area info, ect.. before we knew it, he was on the first fish of the day. He continued to front end myself and my buddie and realy put a hurtn' on us.. He fished the entire day, caught prob. 2 times the total to both of us, and also caught most of the larger fish. My friend and I had just dropped over 350.00 to go fishing with a guide. It was a complete disgrace, that this guide thought it was just fine to fish all day, we tried to in a round about way ask early in the am about this, and it was simply sluffed off, as this is normal, I always fish with my clients.... Needless to say I would never recomend this guide to anyone, and now know in the future to ask the question: DO YOU FISH , or GUIDE...... Just want to add one more thing.. yes it is fine for a guide to fish to teach his client, and make sure they are on fish or even as in the case I stated above we were on so many fish all day long and having such a great time with our guide.. we were begging him to pick up a rod and have some fun with us.. BTW this particular guide has a TV show here in Jax Fla, and and taped shows with legends like Mark Sosin... and he was as down to earth, friendly and accomidating as we could ever have expected. He even let us GPS corrodinates of all the spots we fished with him, so we could come back on our own in the future, without even asking him.. he simply told us on the phone if u got a hand held bring it with...

Holy Lands, Terrytown, Fla Big O Loxahatchee Wild Life Preserve, Palm Beach Fla Holiday Park, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla Lake Wellington, Wellington Fla Lake Brian , Jacksonville Florida No 6's but a good number of 4's and 5's North St. Johns River, Dr's Inlet