soflabasser

Bullseye snakehead are one of my favorite freshwater fish to catch in South Florida and there are plenty of them in the +5 pound class swimming in the canals of Broward country. Use hollow belly frogs, soft plastic frogs, and small swimbaits and you should have a good time. Make sure to walk quietly when approaching a snakehead since they get spooked easily.

Welcome to the forum. The fishing is very good in Lake Wateree and surrounding areas, even from the shore. You can fish with fresh cut gizzard shad on the bottom with a fish finder rig for the blue and channel catfish and have a very good time there.

At least the people from northern states don't have to worry about burmese pythons like we have down here in South Florida. I encountered a 10 foot Burmese python recently and made sure to humanely euthanize it so it won't eat any more native wildlife or peoples pet dogs or cats. Several have been caught in excess of 17 feet and that's more than big enough to hurt someone.

Seems like it has been a long, cold winter for most of the northern states. Good thing spring is around the corner.

The fish you showed in this picture is a black crappie.

This reminds me of how I see largemouth bass and peacock bass schooling together while they are looking for fish to eat around the shoreline. Both these fish are completely different species and not even in the same family yet they school up together to hunt fish.As for largemouth and smallmouth bass, they are both in the sunfish family and different species of sunfish are often found together. Have caught smallmouth bass and largemouth bass in the same body of water so I am sure they often cross paths or form schools together when they are hunting their prey.

South Florida is probably the best place to fish during the winter in the United States. At least this is what I am told by the many northerners who are now living here in South Florida and the ones who visit here every winter. We also got lots of former Californians living in South Florida and it seems like I see more and more California license plates while driving here. Can't blame them since South Florida is a paradise for more than just fishing.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

There are several techniques that work in Wisconsin that work well in South Florida and many other places. Many people tend to think that Florida is only heavy grass fishing but it is not only that, it is much more than that with many other types of fishing conditions. For example, people up north use swimbaits (weedless swimbaits and swimbaits with trebles) and spinnerbaits to catch largemouth and smallmouth bass and both these lures work quite well in South Florida. There are other "northern techniques" such as the figure 8 and others I learned while muskie fishing that work quite well in South Florida for both freshwater and saltwater fish.

The largemouth bass in Wisconsin are northern strain largemouth bass which are much more aggressive and easy to catch compared to the Florida strain Largemouth bass, which is well known for being difficult to catch when they reach trophy status( +8 pounds in South Florida, +10 pounds in Central/Northern Florida).Some Wisconsin techniques do work well down here, and everywhere else. I agree with you 100%. Those who adapt will thrive, those who do not adapt will not do as good until they learn to adapt. Time on the water and learning on every single fishing trips helps much more than being online or reading a book about fishing.

Congratulations on your new PB.

This seems like a decent chart to help a fisherman guess the weight of a bass based only on length but its off with bass that are thinner or thicker than normal. For example, I have caught double digit bass that where barely 25-26" but they where very thick( potbelly+ thick frame all the way to the tail) and caught bass in the 24-25" range that barely weighed 5 pounds( very skinny bass in the Everglades). I would at least get a length and girth measurement if I did not have a digital scale with me.

Yes I fully agree that the best fishermen tend to be the ones that truly understand the areas they are fishing in and what it takes to get big bass on a consistent basis. These fishermen are very serious in the way they fish and it shows by the results they get.

What part of Florida did you visit and did you fish while here? We have some of the best fishing in the nation if not the best.

You can always make a greenhouse for the baobab tree to protect it from the elements or move to South Florida where these trees thrive in the warm, sunny South Florida climate. Let me know if you ever plan on coming to South Florida and I will let you know where you can go to see giant baobab trees and other exotic trees.

How tall are your baobab trees? We got a couple of them in South Florida and they are very unique and beautiful trees. I know of one that has to be well over 60 feet tall from what I saw in person.

Nice bass. It would be best to carry a digital scale and a tape measure the next time you go bass fishing. That way you will know for certain how much a bass weighs and how long it is.

Looks like he was thinking outside the box that day and he was able to catch a beautiful trophy bass.

There could be many reasons why you are not getting many hookups on a spinnerbait. Maybe this spinnerbait comes with a dull hook that is of poor quality (big bass have hard mouths so you need a quality sharp hook to go through the bone), maybe the spinnerbait is too small or too large for the bass you are targeting, maybe you set the hook too hard which is a common problem with people that fish spinnerbaits and frogs. I have caught plenty of gar on spinnerbaits in the Everglades and many other species of fish. What is the rating of your rod? Heavy action, medium action,etc? I prefer using heavy action rods when using spinnerbaits, but I tend to use big spinnerbaits since I am specifically targeting big bass.

A 6-7 foot medium heavy spinning rod, size 2000-4000 spinning reel, 12 pound test mono, and a couple different lures is a good way to start bass fishing. You can buy more gear if you want, but a simple sets up is all that is needed for most bass fishing.

The spinnerbait is probably one of the most unnatural looking lures but there are many other ones that look unnatural. Pink, chartreuse, orange, yellow or other bright artificial lure colors can be very productive in the right conditions...

Welcome back to the forum

No animal in a bass natural habitat looks like a spinnerbait yet a spinnerbait is one of the best lures for bass. Bass also hit other lures that look nothing like the forage in the area yet these lures catch lots of bass.

Depends on what size bass I am fishing for and the location, weather condition, moon phase, time of year, etc I am fishing in. If I am fishing for large numbers of bass I tend to use reaction type lures if the fish are active. If they are being picky I start using finesse presentations. If I am fishing for big bass I use techniques that are better for big bass but not so much for small/medium bass. Sometimes the regular established patterns won't work and I have to figure out what technique will get the bass to bite, maybe a technique most people in my area do not use, which often gets the bass to bite.