South FLA

Low water levels mean less places for fish to hide, therefore there is a larger concentration of fish for less acreage which is GOOD! It also means the bass maybe hard or impossible to get to if the water level is too low for safe boat operation. Your guide should have a good lay of the water and you should clobber them, but then again it is FISHING. Are you live bait fishing or strictly fishing artificial? I recommend first timers on the BIG O to fish with live wild shiners, they will make your chances of landing a BIG O LUNKER go way up, even if it is cheating Tight lines and good luck, hopefully we can see some pictures of those Florida Hogs in their natural untrout fed, warm water, gator avoiding state (jabbing Fourbizz in the ribs, with the California beauties, or should I say Florida beauties in the perfect environment)!!

KVD followed closely by Roland Martin, he was the king of the 70s/80s BASS tournaments.

Also, Daiwa Zillion, Shimano Core, ABU Record, Shimano Calcuttas, Shimano Scorpion. All great reels. Sold my Revo Premier, its no high-end Shimano or Daiwa to say the least .

Unlike bocabasser, I have caught plenty of peacock on topwater, specifically Tiny Torpedo and Smithwick's Devils Horse in South Florida. The largest peacock I have ever caught, was caught on drum roll please..... a Zoom Fluke bait. I wasn't targeting peacock, but when I finished my cast I reeled my fluke in rapidly and out of no where a fat peacock slammed it. Not sure of the weight, but should go at least 7lbs. Just for reference I wear a size 13 shoe. When fishing for peacocks you need to be flexible sometimes they won't hit a certain lure, but always work the lure aggressively/erratically they can't stand it. That being said the best luck I've had is with X-raps and rattle traps. Replace hooks with saltwater hooks or buy saltwater version of lures, that will save you some bending.

I've fished the Spro, Reaction Innovation, River 2 Sea, Bozo, Scum Frog heavily and I feel that the hook-up ratio is about the SAME, the most important aspects are the way its fished (i.e. Rod,Line Combo) and the FISHERMAN on the other end of the frog. If your good at delaying hookset and not getting to excited, hard to do by the way, your hook up ratios go way up. Believe it or not I would say my average hookup now compared to when I first started fishing the hollow bodies is over 80%. That being said I am partial to Bronzeye, cause I have more of them in my tackle box and they are easier to come by here in S. FL. Those of you who said swim frogs have a higher hookup I think are right, but its not a fair comparision since they are totally DIFFERENT presentations. As far as swimming frogs again they are all about the same, I still like the "Original" horny toad. Cane toad is decent, but man does it rip really easily, I can only catch 2-3 fish before its nose cone is useless for rigging.

, bizz is the BOMB, so haters stop hating and give the man some PROPS. Fourbizz, At the beginning of the post you said it was the first time out on a boat, what platform did you catch those monsters out of? I would like to do a boat christening like that, no champagne needed.

I was going for Roland and Shaw being from Florida, Zona is starting to wear on me with goofy antics, although I think he show boats for TV. KVD is a class act, I love the way he cut ol'Roland off at the end. Lastly, wouldn't you love to have a custom bass lake like Ray's, I don't think I would ever fish anywhere else if I did.

Mekanik, Your right about those hooks! I have to pull the pliers out all the time if I am fishing with "WIMPY" fresh water x-raps, so now I use my 4" saltwater x-raps on them. Have you noticed they like a particular color more than others?

I am getting ready to pick up my Ranger 185vs Intracoastal soon and want to replace the Garmin 160 fish finder on the console with a Combo unit. After looking at all the choices I am overwhelmed. So I was wondering if any members have some input. Here is what I like so far: 1. Garmin GPSMAP 540s 2. Lowrance LMS-527C 3. Humminbird 787c2i The Garmin is a little more expensive and the guy at bass pro said for inshore and bass fishing lakes its overkill. So may I can save some bucks and go with the Lowrance or Humminbird. Oh, by the way I have a Garmin 160 on the front deck, is it a good unit or should I upgrade it too? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Tight lines!!

Just sold my Revo Premier, very light, felt tight, but had issues and I went through 2 of them before I gave up. Guess what I got....yup a Shimano Curado 100D, was going to go for a high end Daiwa, think redline robert taste, but could not pass the rebate deal up. I don't know if Shimano is close to a model change, but the rebate worked on me at least.

So what's the sound??? Its a bit too early man for the trash talking... a 300 point difference this early in the season for the top YOU and me 9th is not that much. The bassresource fantasy group is way ahead of the curve when it comes know their stuff though, I have like an 88th percentile rank and I"M NINTH in the group.

For me. 1. Calcutta CT200GTB "Super Tuned" 2. Daiwa Zillion 3. Shimano Core Like the expert said rod is more important. Catt is there some type of specs that must be met for casting competitions? If the world record is only that long, I think I know an "old" surf-caster in Titusville, FL that can give the record holder a run for his money. He uses 1 oz. pyramid sinkers and custom 9'8" surf rods though. Those pompano he catches are on the outer sand bar and I know the sand bar is at least 110 yards.

A pig caught on a jig, way to go!

Buy, both and sell the one you don't like after. I have a Cumara 7'2" Med Hvy and love it for fishing swimming frogs and hollow body frogs. It has plenty of backbone and really whips the lighter baits out there.

Nice taste there Redline, give us a report on how it fishes.

Move South?

So any predictions on who is going to have the hot hand on good'ole Lake Amistad this week? I am hoping 2007 rookie of the year uses his Texan knowledge to lay it on them? Byron may have an advantage also since he is a lake side resident.

T-rigging in Texas, what a concept!!

Nice fish, nice tan, and nice hat!! !!Go Noles, Scalp'em!!

Bassnblvd, I went out yesterday to a local canal here in Lauderdale and saw some beds, but I think we can expect some more as the weather warms, the rain doesn't help either anyway, send me a PM sometime and maybe we can target some Peacocks/LM bass around West Palm. I am up there pretty often running errands for my business. By the way we ended up catching about 8-10 peacocks, a snook, 4 LM and a Mayan Cichlid. Take care and tight lines!

You'll love the forum! Filled with lots of good info. Have fun and tight lines!

Frogs, T-Rigs, Jerkbaits, and Topwater presentation Good at finding productive areas quickly.

Just got back from watching the game at local bar, AWESOME!! Could not have asked for a better championship game.

Look at the date of that article. September 2005. A LOT has changed since then. It could have said 1805, doesn't matter. It may have changed in those particular markets (Cali/New York), but it applies to markets elsewhere in the USA. Home values in my area are still overpriced for what I want. Instead of paying that extra cash to lower my principal I will be investing it in another investment option. Throwing money away is never a good thing, but if you invest money into a home certain "sunk cost" exist that are equivalent to throwing your money away (PMI, Property Tax, Interest Payments, etc.). The scales would tip toward buying if prices fell, property tax law changes, and/or insurance premiums go down, but I don't really have the luxury of waiting it out much longer. Here is a spreadsheet for those of you in the market for a new home to run the numbers through. Remember it doesn't always pay to own vs. rent. http://www.box.net/shared/r659yg74hf

Sent my spreadsheet to my college accounting professor, guess what he said in my scenario I would be better off renting!!!! Don't get me wrong home ownership is usually the way to go, but I can rent a place on a local lake (Lake Clarke Shores, for you locals )3,200sq feet for $3474K including additional yearly tax since we can't claim property tax and interest deductions. Actual rent is $2500, I hate taxes! To buy that some place would cost me $5371/month including tax savings, insurance, maintenance, and mortgage payment. It doesn't include the money down to buy and closing cost associated with the purchase and down payment. Since extra cashflow is not an issue we are going to invest the difference $1.9K saved by renting an a diverse portfolio, that has traditionally averaged a faster growth rate over the longterm when compared to real estate equity growth. Is anyone here in a section of the country where it is better to rent right now? Here is a great article for those of you who think its always better to buy then to rent: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/realestate/25cov.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1