soflabasser

I have fished a week in a row several times in my life but not much longer than that. As much as I love fishing it can be a bit too much if its all I do for fun. I have other hobbies and I like to give them time as well.

I fish for snakeheads as well in South Florida , but a different species called the bullseye snakehead and they hit a topwater so hard that they make bass look like tame puppies. The big ones fight with surprising strength for a freshwater fish and I can compare the initial power of a +8 pound snakehead to a decent snook heading to the mangroves.How was the peacock bass fishing on your vacation? Did you go to the places I mentioned in the response I gave to you in your PM and did you catch some nice ones? Looking towards to your report!

Well said @islandbass! Multi species fishing is far more fun than just sticking to 1 species of fish. I love to bass fish but there is no denying other species of fish fight harder and can be more of a challenge to catch than bass. I like to travel for fishing and have been doing it more often since it gives me the opportunity to catch new species of fish that I have only seen in pictures before. Last year I caught my first muskie, this year I caught more muskies, my first couple smallmouth bass, white bass, freshwater drum, and other new species, I could not do that if I didn't venture out of my comfort zone and just stick to bass fishing in South Florida. I plan on traveling to South America, Asia, and other parts of the world to catch exotic fish, both freshwater and saltwater. Got to enjoy life before I am too old to enjoy it!

Welcome to the forum

Welcome to the forum

Try using the uni knot to attach the lure to the line and the uni to uni knot to attach a leader to the mainline. Always check the line for abrasions and cut off any line that is not in good condition.

I am more of a multi species fisherman than a bass fisherman so I would say I probably fish 80% or more for other species of fish. Have caught several double digit bass,hundreds of bass over 6 pounds,and plan on bass fishing for the rest of my life.

Hiking is one of my favorite outdoor sports and a good way to find good fishing spots.

Congratulations on a nice salmon.

Welcome to the forum

You know you are master angler when.... You are doing better than most of the local bass fishing guides in your area. You are consistently catching big bass in tough conditions when others are complaining about how bad the conditions are. You catch more state citation sized fish in 1 year of fishing than most catch in 10 years of fishing. You have people offering you free boat fishing trips so you can put them on fish. You go out of your way to teach children and good people how to fish and you do it for free since you enjoy seeing the smile on their face when they are catching fish.

Congratulations on your PB smallmouth bass.

30 pound test braid is more than enough for me to pull +8 pound bass out of heavy cover but you can use heavier braid if you want.

A hollow belly frog such as a Live Target Frog.

There was this guy I met fishing in the Everglades that swore he caught lots of smallmouth bass where we where fishing. I told him there was no smallmouth in South Florida and that he was most likely catching warmouths. Showed him a picture of a warmouth on my phone and he quickly realized he was not catching smallmouth bass in the Everglades.People need to study fish biology more since its a important part of being a well rounded fisherman.

Welcome back to the forum

I honestly feel hurricane Irma was overhyped and had a feeling it wasn't going to compare to hurricane Wilma, let alone Hurricane Andrew. The light only went out for 8 hours in my area and the damage it caused was typical of a low category 1 hurricane. The canal by my house didn't even flood to the street, with hurricane Wilma the canal was +2 feet of water over the road and you could not tell where the canal started or ended in many places. I give hurricane Irma a 3 out of 10, hurricane Wilma a 5 out of 10, and hurricane Andrew a 10 out of 10. We did get some +100mph gust in my area, which was interesting to see since it's been over 12 years since I have seen that.

Welcome to the forum

Couple months ago on vacation I caught a couple of smallmouth bass in a river that had low 40 degree water so high 60's/low 70's degree water should be more than good enough to catch fish in a river.

Congratulations on your first Muskie.

I am located in South Florida but travel for fishing so my exact location changes often.

Welcome to the forum @Ryan Belfor. The most important thing in bass fishing is to make sure you are having fun while fishing. Don't stress the days you do not catch much, it happens to all of us regardless of our skill level. Try to learn from every single fishing trip you have and accept that bass fishing is a sport where you will learn for a lifetime. Try to find a fishing partner that is very good at bass fishing and fish with him/her as long as you can so you can learn as much as possible from them.Be open minded about fishing techniques and keep a fishing log of the places you fish, techniques that worked, when and where you caught big bass, etc so you can get better at reading any new body of water you encounter.

California has good bass fishing but its nowhere as good as it use to be in the 1970's-1990's. You can still catch double digit bass , but nowhere near like the ''good ol' days'' that California use to have. It doesn't help that most of California is experiencing a severe drought that has lasted years and doesn't seem to be going away completely anytime soon. Largemouth bass are now seen as a invasive fish in California as well, so that means the state might not try to improve the bass fishing to its old glory. Sounds like your state has very good fishing and similar to South Florida. I fish places where I can expect to catch 30 to +50 bass in a normal day and I have had several trips where I have caught over 100 bass in less than 6 hours of fishing. Many of these places are in/near the Everglades which is probably the best place in the world to catch a large amount of bass in a short amount of time when the conditions are good. There's also trophy bass in these waters and every year people catch double digits from the Everglades and surrounding areas.

Congratulations on your PB. She's a beautiful thick bass.

There are no native smallmouth bass in South Florida and they can't survive in our warm waters for long even if someone releases them down here from their aquariums. Some people mistake juvenile largemouth bass or warmouths for smallmouth bass but these fish are not smallmouth bass. We do have some bass that somewhat look like smallmouth bass in Northern Florida( shoal bass, spotted bass, suwannee bass ) but these bass are not in South Florida. You will have to drive to Northern Georgia if you want to catch the closest smallmouth bass to South Florida.