South FLA

Have fun gentleman, I will wait until it comes back to Orlando

This one call is the most underutilized and under appreciated calls out there, I use close to 100% of the time in Florida marshes!

Booyah! d**n backseaters, they can do it to you sometimes, what was the difference?

Gotta love the SPRO, nice fish!

Ranger=Resale I would really consider a used boat, if you are patient you can find some garage kept gems, with an anal-retentive owner. The money you can save is ridiculous. As far as boat brands, I would stick to Skeeter, Ranger, and Bass Cat with the Bass Cat being on top of the list. Also, make sure you buy your boat with the max recommended HP engine and have engine inspected by an authorized dealer if buying used.

Don't get me wrong, conditions change day to day and that's why its called fishing. I put in at Southern ramp, but basically fish from spots all the way down to the Lox Rd. ramp stopping at different points along the way. You need to cover ground, not just concentrate on the flats, as I tend to see most people do. You can pretty much always grind out a five fish limit fishing the main canal by making parallel cast to the bank and covering water with the trolling motor close to full speed with lipless cranks or spinnerbaits. When you do find an area that holds fish, note it and next time you come back across it slow down with other techniques, senko, t-rig and such. Keep at it.

Lox can be tough, but trust me they are there

Great gun, my brother has the Super Black Eagle for home defense, plus a quiver of other Benelli models for dove and duck hunting. I love my light weight 20 gauge M2 for dove though. Good guns, but if you are just talking home defense its over kill, get a Mossberg or Remington.

Yes! Deer, dove, squirrels, and duck mostly with duck and dove being my favorite. Bow hunt too, shoot a PSE Bowmadness and a Mathews Drenalin LD

Make sure you chip it, my buddy has the GMC Denali version of that and its a BEAST once chipped! Rides like a Cadillac sedan, tough as nails towing!

I use to fish many local lakes, Little Lake Jackson being one of them in a canoe.

Exactly its amazing how quickly in went up from last Wednesday, the western most flat was basically a mud pit now water, water everywhere!

We will see what happens after this years football season. Last time I check Seminoles were eating Ibis for lunch. I would venture to say that the "U" is the 4th best college program in the state with UF, UCF, and USF being better! ACC champions vs. ACC Chumps? Scalp'em!

Its all about boat setup and each boat is different. Read this and put in the time. http://www.kencook.net/Setupart.html

Mike and I got together for a little pig fishing at the Loxahatchee refuge. My hog came on a Spro popper, Mike fooled his pigs while walking the dog and skinny dipping! Water level is WAY up so bass are on the move, back to the usual patterns, we caught them on a couple of different patterns, ended up with about 22lbs for a five fish stringer, Mike was slaying them from shore while waiting for me at the ramp, nothing like a pump house turning on to get the HOG pin going!

Tell your buddy to put the yankee gear where it belongs, back at HOME!

I have been very successful fishing around water control structures with T-rigs, crankbaits, and lipless crankbaits, as well as fishing main canal covering as much water as possible and concentrating on areas where I do catch fish with lipless lures. Make sure you vary your retrieve and try yo-yoing it, speed trolling, etc. until you can dial them in. Frogs work well in and around visible structure and deeper pockets in shallow flat areas.

That is one LONG BASS!

Love it, Imagine getting caught in that canal AT NIGHT in the middle of a rainstorm in a jon boat trying to get back to the ramp! Now that is scary! Tight lines, Rober

At least I have two over 10lbs .....if I only lived in Texas or would use LIVE BAIT! Did you guide out of Lake Port? I use to hire Steve Daniels back in the late 80s/early90s when family came down.

I had my share of of conflicts with gators such as charge my jon boat, try to come up on the back of my Ranger after I landed a fish, charged and bite my trolling motor, attack my Spro frog out of nowhere, hit a T-rigged worm (ask Dwight), attack a mud fish while reeling it to the boat, and snag a spinner-bait all were most likely fed by people or were being territorially aggressive. The largest one was easily over 10' on the Stick Marsh. At the Loxahatchee Refuge some are aggressive and some have been known to follow my boat around and charge the boat especially if I am the process of landing a struggling fish! I challenge the most MACHO man on the forum to go in a kayak or a low free board boat such as the Pelican Raider to fish some areas I fish without having a major life threatening experience. So to answer your question you need to be concerned especially if gators are not hunted or pursued as game and have either been fed by humans or looked at humans as a feeding opportunity and there is know way of knowing until you actually encounter it.

Glass is optically superior PERIOD, poly is lighter and IMPACT resistant. I have a pair of 580 Fisherman boat glasses in amber, but end up just wearing my Tropic Star Costa's with interchangeable lenses most of the time.

Dude, its sketchy even in your shallow drafting bad-ss boat, if you draft 4 inches WOT than yes, but good luck getting back, the deep spots on flats will produce though!

Dwight, I fished about 2 hours solo and wanted to surprise my buddy with my "big" catch at the ramp, since he couldn't meet me until 5:30 PM before fishing the rest of the day. The bass sat in my livewell for a bit with some Catch and Release formula and a bag of ice to help her out in the high Florida temps, bass tend to bleach out after being in the livewell, thus the color.

Went out to the Lox refuge Wednesday from 3-7:30 and boated about 40 fish, most came off lipless crankbaits fished parallel to canal banks adjacent to water control structures and deeper water areas, caught a few off the skinny dipper and frogs. I ended up catching 2 that were 5lbs bowling balls as well as the 7lber pictured below , really thought she only weighed about 5 1/2-6lb, but my buddy said to weigh her since he thought she was bigger and was surprised to see the boga peg at 7lbs! My partner, Brett, lost 2 that would have gone 5 or more also! Went out the next overcast morning for a few hours and made the long run to the flats to see if could find the deeper honey holes, I trolled in about 1/4 mile but did not take the same path back and ended up having to get out of the boat to push it! I had to keep a watchful eye on gatorS, needless to say I made a mess out of the boat with a the muck and it was not worth it since the canal bite was just fine! Anyway, ended up with 10 or so all dinkers! ADDED PICS OF 5LBERS FOR COMPARISION