Turf

Nice report as always Geo. Was also out this morning on the kayak but as you mentioned the wind pretty much ruin it for me. Was blowing all over the place without a trolling motor. Fished a ribbit frog much of the day due to the overcast and wind but had limited success. Also fished a grass pig swim bait and hb popping frog, swim bait with grass pig trailer as well as a junebug uvibe. Fished first light through around 10am (by that time I was exhausted fighting the wind) and had 8 on in total. Only landed 3 embarrassingly but honestly had a lot to due with the darn wind. 5 were on the ribbit, 2 were on the swim bait and one small guy on the uvibe. Even if I would've landed them all I don't think any would've hit 2.5 lbs. Heading out again tomorrow as I'm Hoping the wind will be much different. Will report back. Will likely resort to the senkos and uvibes but am planning to continue to fish bigger with the ribbit and larger profile swim bait. Good luck out there fellas. Fyi forgot to note but I fished the north flat essentially due north of the ramp. Pain in the butt to get all the way back up in there but usually pays off.

Was out on Sunday as well from 630am through 1030am. Had a little better luck but I was in my kayak and headed back pretty deep into the flats. Didn't fish any of the main canal or spoil bank. Caught 10 lm on the day, 3 decent sized over 3lbs and lost 3 others. Biggest may have been 4 pounds. One pickerel as well. Caught most of them on a green ribbit frog, but also caught them a swim bait, and rage craw as well. The construction is due to some new pumps they are putting in apparently to better control the water levels. Have it all chewed up. Supposed to be done byh end of November but that isn't happening from the looks of it. S3e article below. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-reg-boat-ramps-closure-20170818-story.html

Been out one time since the hurricane and it was fairly slow as expected. Still super high water levels as well. Did okay, went out with my pops and I believe we caught 6 on the day together. Nothing of any size. This was several weeks ago though. Heading out tomorrow morning to check it out again. How did you make out?

Unfortunately not as well as you did by the sounds of it, but glad to hear you did well! Went out with my dad on kayaks on Friday morning but had to wait until about 8:30 am to put in the water due to some heavy rain (didn't feel like getting drenched). Water is very high at Lox as well which of course isn't surprising. We caught a few decent LM and a couple of other dinks. 5 on the morning but only was able to fish from 8:30 till 11. All 5 fish were caught from 8:30 - 9:30. Skunked for the last 1.5 hours we fished so we packed up and headed home. We fished back in the flats the entire time, didn't so much as throw anything around the spoil bank or out in the main canal.

Thanks guys, Going to give Lox a go with pops on Friday morning. Appreciate the feedback.

Hey Guys, Just curious if anyone's been out and successful targeting any bass since the storm. Thinking about heading to Loxahatchee this weekend or possible next but just curious what you guys have been seeing or finding. I'm guessing it's a royal mess and will be for several months but just thought I'd check. Thanks all and hope everyone is doing well and safe.

Awesome, thanks guys. Much appreciated.

Oh it's open to the public. I've had some decent luck in terms of bass but it's clear that other species including snakehead, pickerel, mudfish and other junk fish are prevalent. Caught two pickerel last time I was out there. It's wide open in terms of what you might come up with. The attachment might be hard to see but there is a little parking area right by where I have highlighted the box. The entrance is directly from Atlantic, just go straight instead of getting on the Sawgrass. It will take you straight to the parking lot. Most of the spots are on east side of the levee but there are a couple on the west side as well. That's actually where I caught the two pickerel last time out. Good luck.

Hey Guys, Haven't been out fishing for a few weeks and from what it sounds like I'm not really missing a ton. Not surprising however with the high water levels. In any case, my brother in law's father is coming down in a month or two and would like to get out into the everglades for some bass fishing. Anyone know any reputable guides that I might be able to pass over to him? No kayaks for this guy, boat guides only please. Thanks.

Here's to hoping!

In terms of lures what do you throw? The two I caught, one crushed a ribbit frog I was ripping across the top and another I caught up on a lipless crank bait. I assume they like fast action, spinners baits? shallow crankbaits, etc.? Just curious what specifically you typically throw at them. I know they are prevalent around an area I bank fish from occasionally right off of Atlantic and the Sawgrass. Perhaps I will give it a go next weekend.

Nice job on the 3 snakes. And sure I fish for many other species, just not nearly as much as I go bass fishing. Can't say I've tried snakehead fishing specifically although have caught a couple while fishing for bass. What gear do you use when targeting snakehead? Also are you mainly fishing canals?

Nothing good to report on this side. Lox was pretty dead for me on Saturday. Fished 6:30 until about 9:30. Fished bigger as I mentioned above for the majority of the time but did throw some senkos and flukes as well, but nothing going. Talked to 3 other guys as well who also had little to no luck. Had 1 small guy on the day, lost a decent fish due to a bad knot (shame on me), and missed a big mudfish who blew up on my frog. Otherwise nothing going. Hope you all had better luck.

All good advice! Thanks. Going to switch it up tomorrow and try some different techniques. Heading out to Lox early and am going initially try a rage craw with a 1/4 ounce bullet since I already have them, like you mentioned. Also going to be throwing ribbit frogs on top and larger profile soft plastic swimbaits. Hunting for the big girls tomorrow. Could go either way tomorrow but you never know unless you give it a shot I guess.

Solid choice as well. You hawgenvy do you ever through the twin tail weightless? Just curious, I rarely find myself throwing weights unless I'm punching or trying to alter my drop speed to trigger a bite.

Let us know how you make out, if you get out. Trying to see if I can get out this weekend. Thinking either Lox, Alley or Holey Lands. Good luck!

No worries, always glad to help. I know that yum dinger has the bama bug color. Affordable and reliable as well. I have a few. Also a good color choice.

I almost most often fish Berkeley grass pigs on weighted gam swimbait hooks (sometimes weightless), your EZ swimmers will be great. Often throw senkos texas-rigged weightless on either 4/0 or 5/0 gam offset hooks. Throw zoom u-vibes with the same setup. The extra tail action is sometimes the subtle difference they are looking for. Also don't hesitate to work the u-vibe rapidly across top water over and around grass/pads, etc. Can often find a top water bite using this method. Lastly I throw zoom super flukes with the same weightless setup in the same color patterns we mentioned above. For me in the places that I am typically fishing it's all about staying as weedless as possible. You will be pulling through tons of grass, hydrilla, pads, etc. Thick vegetation is almost everywhere down here, plan accordingly in terms of line type and test. For my soft plastics I'm fishing in this manner I use PP 15lb braid with about a 6' leader of 17lb flouro. While frogging I use a heavy 7' rod with 65lb braid, straight to the frog. Some say 40lb-50lb is plenty and others rely solely on 80lb for frogging, I like the happy medium. Typically if I throw these 4 different styles at them one is bound to work. You likely aren't going to be doing a lot of pitching, punching or flipping from the shoreline so I would recommend you stay weedless and weightless and work the through the bottom and ledges as Geo stated earlier. In areas with less grass/weeds you can certainly use bullet weights as well to change your drop speed but personally I tend to stay weightless down here. Many guys throw larger 7"-10"+ worms as well both in the ribbontail or straight variety but I've had better success fishing 5"-6" senkos. Sometimes even 3.5" senkos depending on the day. I'm originally a PA boy as well, born and raised. It's a whole different game down here as I'm sure you are aware. Where I would typically spend a entire day throwing jigs up north, down here I'm either swimming a weedless swim jig or I'm likely not fishing a jig. Hope this helps. Good luck out there.

Hahah, yep that was me. Had a nice little chat with your partner while you were parking the truck. Seemed like a nice guy. Next time will have to speak up and ask if you're Geo from the forum. That's too funny. And yes as I explore deeper I'm seeing just how much water there is to cover out there. I mean you can see it from Google Maps but in person it's a bit overwhelming. Seems unlimited when you are only able to go a few miles per hour in a kayak. Love being out there too, apart from the occasional air boat motor, it's nice and quiet. In terms of gators on this last trip I only saw two, neither one was within 100 yards of me. I know I probably paddled over or past plenty more where that came from but knock on wood, they keep to themselves and so do I. I do carry a decent sized knife with me when I go out, but that's it. I don't have a handgun otherwise that would be with me as well. Something I should get here in the near future. Thinking about wrestling off an angry 10 foot gator with a knife will most likely end poorly for me. I mean I'm not Crocodile Dundee. Let me know if you are ever going out and looking for a partner. Usually able to sneak away at least one day a weekend, but am having another kid in late September so that might change for a bit. In the meantime good luck out there!

June bug is a solid choice. Typically when throwing plastics down here whether, uvibes, senkos, swimbaits, etc. I use a darker profile. June bug as you mentioned, black/blue, watermelon green or red, green pumpkin. Black/blue is the swimbait color choice I almost always start with.

Thanks for the update Geo. I was out there Sunday as well and for the exact same period of time. I immediately took off back fairly deep into the flats into some open water I was able to find. It was quite a paddle but worth it. I had a plan to shoot for larger fish and not quantity so I mainly threw a 5" grasspig the entire day. Just swimming it through the top side of all of the vegetation that you mentioned. However I started with a hb popping frog for about 45 minutes and had no action. I also threw a fluke for a short period of time and caught a couple of little guys but the main action was on the swimbait. Had 9 total on the day a mudfish, one really nice fish that was in the upper 4 range I would guess. Otherwise caught 2 (2-3 lbs), 4 (1-2 lbs), with 2 dinks. Still hunting for that big momma but was happy with the day. Sounds like it's all about the flats right now from what I could tell.

Thanks. I think I may have seen you out there actually as I was leaving the ramp around 9 - 9:30. The "needle nose fish" was very likely a gar. Our lakes and canals are loaded with them. Freshwater for sure. Good luck out there.

Was just going to ask if anyone's been having any luck at Holey Lands or out on the Alley as of late. Sounds like it's still relatively tough out there. Thanks for the report.

Got back out to Lox this Sunday and fished some of the same flats I've been targeting just north of the Lox road boat ramps. Can get there quickly and didn't have a ton of time this morning. Water temp was quite warm, which is expected this time of year and water clarity wasn't great but fairly clear back in the flats. Winds felt a bit stronger than I was expecting and likely were in the 5-10 mph range and seemed to be constantly switching directions, especially back in the flats. I was only able to fish from first light until approximately 9 am, but was still able to have a productive fun day. Starting fishing alternating between a livetarget hb frog and a 5" soft plastic swimbait, trying to target some larger bass but nothing going. After about 45 mins I switched to a watermelon green/brown senko and still wasn't even getting a bump. About an hour or so in I switched to a watermelon green fluke and started getting bites immediately. Was casting as close to the grass / structure as I could and slowly jerking it back while letting it sink to the bottom occasionally. Wasn't so much about quantity today but fish quality was much better. Caught only 6 on the day but 2 of them were over 2lbs, pushing 3lbs. 3 others were between 1-2 lbs. And of course this girl that I caught casting the fluke up into some tall grass along a point, then slowly dragging the fluke back into the water without a splash. The second the fluke hit the water, this girl leaped up and smoked it. Although I wasn't fishing top water at the time there is nothing better than a top water bite from a big fish. She then proceeded to give me a nice ride before I got her to the kayak. Didn't have a scale with me so not sure on the exact weight but she was a tub, much bigger than my last PB. Always amazed by how each and every day / every hour is so different in terms of what these guys want to eat. Trying to crack that riddle is half of the fun in my opinion. Apparently today for those couple of hours I was out there it was all about the fluke. Hope you all did well out there this weekend. Tight lines!

Haha, yes the alley is absolutely loaded with gators but it's typically not that bad or dangerous out there. Lots of people kayak out along the alley, even recreationally. Just need be aware and as cautious as possible. I tend to stay away from the alley during mating season as well. No sense in risking it. Any aggressive or territorial behavior, get the hell out of there and leave him be. You would be perfectly fine in your prowler. And of course there could always be a rogue gator at any turn but can't let that unlikely event keep you from doing what we love.