BareHook

Local ponds seem to be in a post spawn pattern, catching lots of males but cannot find the big girls.

Try the ponds at the St Lucie fairgrounds, just go in the side entrance to the office and ask, they'll just say catch n release only. They have a decent population of bass.

Using Bluegill for bait is legal in Florida when caught using proper methods. One should always consult local laws when fishing in unfamiliar areas. I've never had any issues with gut hooked bass, use of circle hooks prevents this. Using bluegills is a nice way for kids to catch bass any enjoy the sport, personally I prefer using artificial baits and have seen just as many or more gut hooked bass on plastic worms as circle hooked live bait. Either way just cut the line and the hook will clear on its own. Ken

Is that El Dorado park in Long Beach Ca? I used to go there on family picnics when I was little and catch bluegills with my cousin, we should have been using them for bait.

Love the show, my son and I record the series and watch it together. Mark seems like he would be a really fun guy to go fishing with. Ken

KVD smack-down! getting to 74+ pounds for the win from being 20 pounds down in last place. This one was a really entertaining episode.

30 years, got into ocean fishing, then married, and kids. Now kids are old enough for interest, 6 months ago started up again with the kids and going gang-buster.

I have the Bass Pro pistol grip and it works well for me, though you may want to beef up the lanyard connection, the provided split ring is weak and could pull out on a larger fish.

There are several fishing apps for smart phone that are surprisingly entertaining as well. Prayers for a swift recovery Ken

I second the wacky rigged senko or even TR rigged weightless. Try catching some Bluegill or buy some shiners for live bait?

My first kayak and tourney experience was a pond tourney that ended up with 30 mph sustained wind with gusts to 50. Everyone ended up staked out along the shore, and forget about finesse fishing. It can be difficult, but I've found in many fishing situations, the wind turns-on the fish to feed. My sons recent big bass was caught on a windy day and we were about to give up, because you could hardly even feel a bite, but ... Ken

In Florida there is a stocking program for all ponds as part of the water management. Look into it and see if there is a similar program there.

I like the Yum Dingers as well. You can vary your sink rate by using a thin or heavy gauge hook. BTW a certain "Big Box Store" currently has them on sale for $1.97 per pack

Yup! we were about 50 yards from our front door. He's been killing me, sending fish pics from after school while I'm at work.

Fishing the home lake last Friday was a little tough, it was pretty breezy with the wind in our face and bright sunny around 3 in the afternoon. We were just poking around a bit and had caught a couple little guys earlier. I was using a pumpkin red flake 5" Senko and Ben had the same but in June-bug. I had a swirl on mine , but it didn't eat it, so Ben cast in the zone and it was "Fish On!". After a short fight with one above water headshake that had me praying, he was able to ease her ashore for her photo session and release with our many thanks. Ben was using a 7' star rod and Okuma RTX 25 spinner with 10lb power pro and a 12lb fluorocarbon leader. Ken P.S. Also started getting a fair amount of bites on smaller fish dead sticking them way out deep.

Sorry I'm still learning various techniques, but can you describe what "deadsticking" is? Thanks! Ken BTW last night went well, my son and I were using 8" zoom lizards in junebug, I switched from a 10" worm after he caught one and lost an aprox 4 pounder on a jump, while I had zero pickups on the worm. After switching, I caught an 18" and 12" and my son got another 14".

Agreed, just in my particular lake the deep divers only seem good for clearing excess growth from the bottom. I'll keep trying the jig, especially on some bedding bass, but the lake has little or no cover except some grass beds along the shore and a couple fallen trees that are real tackle eaters.

I've become a "boatless" angler in the past two years and am looking at this continuing for at least a few more so I thought I would share some of my findings and useful comparisons between shore and fishing while afloat. These observations only reflect my opinion fishing in my particular lake conditions, a Florida small lake with no boating or even kayaks allowed. 1. Angle of attack: I no longer can deep drop on marked fish or work lures from shallow to deep. I am limited to paralleling the shore or working deep to shallow, plus offshore drop-offs can present difficulty with snagging or cutoffs. Shoreline grass beds are a barrier to get past, not a target to start at. 2. Lures to leave at home: Heavy flipping jigs, deep diver crank-baits, both foul up drastically with every cast 3. Effective lures and presentations: finesse lures and soft plastics with little or no weight, lipless crank baits, jerk baits, surface lures, bladed baits. 4. Mobility: I either go minimal with two pre-rigged rods, one stored in a sand spike holder, of we bring a wagon with the tackle boxes and extra rods. 5. Wading: With all the recent rain, the lake has risen above some cultivated lawns and shoreline and I've had some luck slowly wading out to the previous drop-off as the shoreline is stretched out up to 20 feet but in some areas only inches deep. 6. Night fishing: Having good luck with this and don't have to worry about navigation and night boat safety.

My buddy and I were on a multi-day fishing trip off Baja California. The boat had stopped over some bottom structure about 60 feet deep and we were dropping down to the bottom with whole live mackerel (about 10-12") for bait, when his line suddenly heads out and a striped marlin tail walks about 20 feet away. Seems it grabbed his bait while it was dropping to the bottom.

Seen big ones caught using live blue gill for bait, other than that pretty tough, seems the fish shut off on a particular lure after it works for a day or two. Rattle traps seem to randomly work, my son got a 5 lb, 2 weeks ago, then nothing on them. Over the holidays rattles also accounted for a 7 and 8 pounder but then shut off again.

I tend to agree with you, but at the same time its difficult for my son, being new to fishing, to see "hawgs" being easily caught while we're pounding away with lures. We'll be doing a bit of bait fishing as well, its more about ensuring my kids have a good time. When they get older and more experienced they'll learn to enjoy the challenge of lure fishing, although I must admit he has been out-fishing me on lures. Ken

SFWMD at its finest! Not! So sad, I live in the St. Lucie area where they have just started the water discharges into the river and already there are bacteria warnings for fecal pollution as well as Vibrio vulnificus bacteria that can be fatal. No swimming or wading, and forget about eating your catch. Eventually the warnings will extend to the local beaches near the inlets if the outflow continues.... Ken

Thank you for all the response and feedback! I'm getting a much better understanding of what's going on in the lake. We're seeing a pre spawn pattern. I'm going to look into some various soft baits such as "baby alligator", Frogs, and Craws that I haven't seen used. Bare Hook Jr. had good luck night fishing and landed a 19.5" (4 lb.?) and a decent 16.5" then the weather turned, so we'll be hitting the evenings this week. I couldn't get a bite I had the same color/size worm, only difference was he used a curly tail, so its on this week, I gotta catch up, he's kickin my butt (5 fish 86.75" so far)

Yep more trips to the tackle store, colors, sizes ... The trick is getting the finicky BIG ones, kills me to see a 9 pounder on bait while I get a 15" tossing lures, OK enough crying Going to try the night bite tonight Ken

No "meat hunters" they are all catch n release, but they're catching lots and big ones up to 10 pound class so the released fish are not biting or becoming very shy, just cant seem to compete with the bait.