soflabasser

Yes South Florida has a extremely healthy population of bass and probably the best place in the nation to catch +100 bass in a single day. Northern/Central Florida is better for trophy bass and 100's of trophy bass are caught every single year in Florida. We probably have the best DNR of all the states and there's a reason why so many people from other states come here to live and not many want to leave.

My favorite big topwaters are the ones I make myself and its worth all the trouble hand making lures when you catch a good sized fish.

I use spoons mostly for saltwater fishing and rarely for freshwater fishing.They do have a place and time that they work very well, that is for sure.

I have caught bass with several holes in the mouth like you mentioned, mostly from highly pressured bodies of water.

Topwater

Hopefully that same bass is not filled with soft plastics that it has eaten from discarded soft plastics thrown in the water. This is a big problem in waters that have high pressure and these soft plastics inside the bass intestines can cause the bass to slowy starve.

South Florida is a very different place to bass fish compared to Texas and California so what works in Texas and California might not work the same in South Florida. There are many public bodies of water down here that you do not have permission to enter with a boat,so that changes giving boat advice and using electronic fish finders to find the bass. In these places you have to be very good at reading the water and understand what the current conditions will do to your fishing since you cannot use a electronic fish finder and a boat to help you in these places. Many of these places have 8-12 pound bass, but most of these places are not easy to fish ( lots of vegetation both on land and water, alligators, snakes,etc). Its not easy catching a +10 pound bass in South Florida and the percentage of South Florida bassers that have caught double digits down here is much smaller than those in Central/Northern Florida. I have been very fortunate to have caught a couple double digit bass in South Florida, but each one made me work very hard and fishing for 8,9,+10 bass in South Florida is not something for somebody that wants a easy fish.You really have to earn a double digit bass in South Florida and most people will probably never catch a double digit bass in public waters of South Florida and they will be better off going to Central Northern/Florida if they don't have the patience to fish for DD bass in South Florida( maybe even go to Mexico or a private ranch in Texas that has plenty of pet trophy bass to catch).

I store most of my crankbaits in a couple of size 3700 Plano Tackle boxes.

Looks like a typical South Florida post spawn bass. We do have areas down here where the bass are very thick with a potbelly year round but not like the bass in the West where they stock dumb farm raised trout to feed the bass.

Fishing next to alligators is definitely not for the faint of heart but there can be some very good fishing in a area with lots of alligators.

There's a member from this forum from Texas that's caught plenty of big bass on swimbaits. Haven't seem him post here in a while but he does post in the swimbait forum we are both members of. Fishermen tend to stay quiet on what exactly they catch their big bass on and you will never truly know what they use unless you see them catch the bass in front of your eyes. The Texas state +18 pound record largemouth bass was caught by a crappie fisherman with a small minnow so anything is possible. You never know 100% what a largemouth bass of a lifetime will hit , they might hit a crappie minnow, a small inline spinner, a beetle spin, a mimmic minnow, a chicken nugget,etc but that would be unlikely compared to fishing with a buzzbait, oversized Rat-L-Trap like you like using, or swimbaits and big topwaters I like to use. Bass fishing is something that even the best bass fishermen can not know 100% and its safe to say that I have a long life ahead of me to try to figure out what the big bass in my area like the most.

I have fished the Everglades many times by myself at nighttime and yes its not for the faint at heart. The Everglades becomes alive at night with many animals making sounds. Its best to bring a friend along, have a headlight, fish 15 feet or so away from the shoreline, and be very,very careful where you step. I usually do my night bass fishing in public parks and other public bodies of water. I enjoy it very much since they are less fishermen on the water, less boats,no jetskis since they seem to be terrified of the night, no sun to burn my skin, and peace and quiet while hearing the sounds of frogs and other animals.

Welcome to the forum

Congratulations on catching a big bass on a frog, that is worth more to me than catching a big bass on a jig or other bottom bait. Lol

Congratulations on catching your new personal best bass.

We have lots of anhingas, pelicans, ospreys and other predatory birds in freshwater bodies of water in South Florida yet the bass population is extremely healthy. These birds are part of a healthy ecosystem and I am glad to see them when I am fishing.

Sounds like you are in South Florida since you mentioned Mayan cichilds. Don't know of another state that has wild Mayan chichilds besides Florida but let me know if there is. Try fishing at night and be careful with the alligators, moccasins, and Burmese pythons that love to be close to the shore.

Hollow belly frogs are definitely a good lure for big bass, especially near aquatic vegetation. Fishing at night has worked well for me but you have to be careful fishing in South Florida since there's lots of alligators, moccasins, and even Burmese pythons near the shore. Buzzbaits are another good lure to use at night and they tend to produce some very nice bass if you are willing to give them a good try.

I caught 38 rainbow trout ( Including a palomino trout) and my better half caught 4 of them for a total of 42 rainbow trout in a couple hours while fishing on vacation a couple months ago. We used 6 pound test line and for lures we used mostly inline spinners and small crankbaits.

Try using a small crayfish on a size 4-6 hook for those big redear sunfish you see and don't be surprised if they become much easier to catch.

Good report thank you for posting it. Have caught many tarpon and agree they are a fish worth traveling for. Tarpon are much more powerful pound for pound than most if not all North American freshwater fish and they jump multiple times in a fight. Another fish worth targeting is a shark over 8 feet while standing up and no fighting gear, that will give even a very strong man a fight he will never forget.

As a multi species fisherman I find it difficult to understand why these walleye fishermen hate muskie so much. Yes muskies eat whatever they can catch, but so do bass,walleye,trout, basically every predatory fish does this. I don't eat muskie but I have read they taste very good, so muskie are not trash fish in any way. Guess some people are just set in thier ways and don't want to grow as a fisherman and target new species of fish. Oh well that leaves more fish for us multi species fishermen.

I am a member of a swimbait fishing forum and have seen many big bass caught the past couple years in Southern California. Lots of California members are posting plenty of big bass in the 10 to +13 pound class. The members of this forum have a monthly competition and they have to submit pictures of the bass on a scale so there's no guessing the weight.These are the new generation of dedicated trophy bass fishermen that mostly fish with big swimbaits. It seems like they have no problem catching +10 pounders in Southern California at this moment in time, even if there are so many fishermen in Southern California fishing relatively small bodies of water. I have learned a lot about swimbait fishing from these members of that forum and they are very good fishermen to consistently catch +10 pounders on swimbaits in today's age when most highly experienced bass fisherman in California are having a hard time with 5-9 pound bass when they use to catch much bigger ones +25 years ago. I read about that bass, he was very fortunate to catch it on a chicken nugget. I have caught some big bass on cutbait while fishing for channel catfish so anything is possible with largemouth bass. Have read that some people make bottle cap lures and catch some nice bass, I wonder what would be the next "latest and greatest lure"? Only time will tell!

A bass will glady eat a baby muskie if it gets the chance and this happens all the time. It's survival of the fittest for these fish and the top fish will survive and the weaker,older,etc usually do not. Many saltwater fishermen in South Florida do not like barracudas and sharks since they steal fish and lures, but there is no denying that barracudas and sharks are much stronger gamefish than most fish that are eaten by them. I much rather fish for big powerful fish like a barracuda or muskie than fish for a small fish that rarely weights 10 pounds, but that's just me.

10 years is a very long time without catching a DD bass, do you still target DD bass or you fish more for numbers of small/medium bass now? I read reports of the new age of California bass fishermen that are catching 10,11,12, and +13 pound bass at this moment in time, mostly on big swimbaits. It seems like California is still a good place to catch a trophy bass but not nowhere what it used to be +25 years ago.Seems like it was very easy back then to get a DD from Southern California and things have changed, maybe more people targeting these fish and less bass are reaching trophy status? My last DD bass was only a couple years ago ( caught on a artificial lure from public land in South Florida which is much more difficult than fishing on a boat in Central Florida) and I caught one less than a ounce under 10 a little over a year ago,also on a artificial lure from public land in South Florida. Lots of 7-9 pounders since then and honestly I barely fish for largemouth bass since I am more of a multi species fisherman than a bass fisherman. Too much variety of much stronger fish to choose from in South Florida which makes it very hard to fish just for largemouth bass!