bigbassin'

Nothing is a given, but if you're trying to set a pb I'd strongly recommend live bait. If you're already getting above average fish, big shiners fished in the same areas will likely produce even better fish. Personally I've seen several smaller bodies of water never produce a fish over 5 off artificials, but seen the same bodies of water produce fish up to 8 pounds on live bait.

Can't speak for Alabama, but a lot of small creeks in Florida seem to be pretty heavily wooded making it necessary to wade in order to properly fish the creek. The issue with that is if you go in the wrong creek you might be swimming with gators. Combined with having to hike to these locations, and that they tend to produce smaller fish despite the (sometimes) better numbers makes them lose their appeal to many in my opinion.

When flipping and pitching wood, I've had my most success with a 3/8 ounce football head jig. Other styles such as arky heads come through the wood a little better in my opinion, but for whatever reason I've never caught a single jig fish from wood if I wasn't using a football head. I'm assuming that's just a confidence thing. With grass I will always start with a 7/16 ounce gambler swimjig. Regardless of water color, green pumpkin has hands down been my top producer if I'm swimming a jig, but this may be because bluegill are the primary forage almost everywhere I fish. The rigs A-Jay posted do look like pretty good options though.

Spooks, shallow x-raps, bucktail jigs, and any gulp product are pretty popular with guys that regularly fish inshore saltwater.

Never fished in that area, but I'd assume January through February will be when most fish are spawning in that area.

What part of Florida? In South Florida I've heard of them being on beds in December, while in North Florida they may not spawn till mid-April.

I just use a generic walmart backpack. Cost me $12, carries 5 plano boxes, 25-30 bags of plastic, scale, pliers, 2 to 3 water bottles and a small snack. I wouldn't recommend packing all that for bank fishing though because it will wear you out pretty quick.

I just about exclusively fish for bass, but I'll definitely switch it up on occasion and go for catfish and spec, or saltwater fishing. Something about how you fish for bass is just more enjoyable than other species in my opinion.

All of these posts have been great, very informative for those of us who don't typically fish docks.

That's what I was worried about... I feel like I've seen someone on here say they use a pair of $25ish waders that have worked very well for them, but I might be wrong.

I know this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find the topic. As the title says, what's a good pair of cheap waders? The coldest water temps I'll be wearing them in is probably the lower 60's, maybe upper 50's, not sure how cold the creek I intend to fish gets during the winter but it is flowing water in Florida so I'm imagining it can't get too cold. Air temps will be in the lower 40's, but I'm assuming I'll be able to just wear layers underneath so that won't be an issue. I'll also need some sort of boots due to the amount of rocks.

I think ww2farmer did a pretty good summing everything up for the most part. I will say my experience with eel grass is very different though, the few 50+ fish days I've had have come from eel grass, along with my 2nd and 3rd largest bass. Possibly a regional difference between Florida and Northern strain largemouths?

Anyone fish this lure? And if so, how do you like it? It looks pretty awesome, and I heard a lot about it before it came out, but I haven't heard much about it since it was released.

I do pretty good on the brown, it's actually my top producing number and size lure this year, and I throw it way less than jigs and trigs so it's not a confirmation bias thing. On a side note, the bait monkey may get a new slammer with how much hype y'all have put into it.

If you know there is a good amount of bait in one location, this is where I would start, the bass have to eat so they won't get too far from potential prey sources. Most ponds I fish have bluegill as the primary food sources and I do well fishing swim jigs (green pumpkin is my top color), green pumpkin/junebug swimbaits, and watermelon red flukes when the bluegill school up.

I was fishing a tournament as co-angler throwing a senko in 10 foot of water, and my senko stopped falling after 2 to 3 seconds. Knowing it couldn't of reached bottom yet I set the hook. Rod doubled over and took drag going straight down. Thought I had a big cat and told my boater I was going to need the net... Turns out I just set the hook into a 10 pound branch that must of broke off the tree when I set the hook, allowing it to fall to the bottom...had to tell my boater I don't need the net anymore...

I'd step up the size of the worm. Personally I won't throw a worm smaller than 6.5 inches in the summer, and prefer worms in 10"-12" range and this time of year. If everyone else is having success with moving baits but you wan to offer something less flashy try a paddletail swimbait and a fluke. Both can cover the entire water column and provide different actions than what everyone else is doing.

Carolina rigging a fluke down a drop off definitely works. Working it with retrieves that take 1-2 minutes is the way to go on them in my opinion. I don't drop shot, but I'm imagining a fluke could be used for it.

Only catfish I've ever caught on lures all came off rattle traps.

Find the thickest mats you can, like ones that'll need a 2 ounce weight to get through, and punch them. It'll be dark and shady underneath.

What kind of inshore fishing? Redfish, trout, sheepshead, stripers, tarpon, jacks, etc.? On the flats, in bays, off the beach, fishing mangroves and docks? Going for trout and sheepshead you could easily get away with bass gear anywhere. Redfish can be handled by bass gear as well on the flats. Open ocean or deep bay reds definitely require a step up in tackle, and tarpon will need something even stronger. Don't know a thing about stripers. Jacks will depend on where you're fishing, what you need for them basically matches redfish. Personally, I use a 1500 size reel and a 7'0 medium moderate bass rod for the flats, 3500-4500 size reel and a much stronger rod for the beach and bays when targeting reds, jacks, and tarpon.

Thanks for the replies. While they fit in my budget, the issue is that they only had two types of reviews. People either said they were the greatest thing ever or they snapped after a couple of months, and the reviews were pretty evenly split. Have you used it yet, and if so how do you like it? Redington is a name I've seen pop up on several Florida saltwater forums as a good choice, I'll definitely have to look into them. @WdyCrankbait thanks for the input, definitely some good stuff there. I still need to do my research on all the actions and lines. What is the difference between weight forward and double taper?

I'm looking into trying fly fishing for bass and inshore saltwater fish and need some advice: What size rod would you use? Based on my research it seems a 6 to 8 weight is ideal for bass. I'm personally leaning towards an 8 weight so it can be used for reds and sea trout as well, but don't want to get stuck with a size too big for bass and too small for the salt. I'm also thinking of going with a medium action rod as these are easier to learn on from my understanding. What brands would you recommend? Between the rod, reel, and line I'd like to spend no more than $175 if possible. What fly's would you recommend?

I've seen a toad on a split shot be the top producing bait of a given day before so I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

I think this is pretty accurate. Realistically the biggest bass you'll catch on a given day is a couple of pounds, but because they live in heavy cover, we fish for them with 65 pound braid and reels that lockdown with ~15 pounds of drag. On the flip side when you see a lot of saltwater fish make giant runs, they're 20 pound fish with only 5 or 6 pounds of drag on them since they don't have anything to get snagged on, and you don't want to pull the hook. While I don't think bass are even close to the pound for pound hardest fighting fish, I do think if you were to scale the line and drag down to be equivalent to what is used on open water fish, they'd at least be middle to upper-middle of the pack.