Captain Phil

It's a long drive, but you can buy native shiners at Owen's Tackle in Eustis. They have shiners when no one else does.

Speaking of strange lures, anyone ever fished with this? Sponsor of the FLW Tour! Seriously?

Years ago, a Musky Jitterbug was all we used when night fishing in the Everglades. You have to fish it where big bass are common enough to eat food that large. It's a mouthful. Alligators like it too!

Anglers have been holding bass by the lip since the first one was caught. Why do they calm down when lipped? I have no idea, I only know they do. I would ask the fish, but they're not talking. If you catch enough bass, you will become familiar with "Bass Thumb". Bass Thumb is when the skin on the inside of your holding thumb gets torn up from bass teeth rubbing against it. I actually like this as it tells me I am doing my job. ?

Every generation of lures has it's duds. Marketing takes over and before you know it, you're caught up in the hype. The Roland Martin Helicopter lure was one example. A spinning worm works, the helicopter was so dumb looking that most just ignored it. Years ago there was a famous lure called a Helin Flatfish. Evidently, they are great trout lures. Anyway, the marketing of these lures was relentless. Their ads were everywhere. You couldn't open an outdoor magazine without seeing one of their ads. I tried and tried to catch a bass on one, but always failed. Others have told me they have caught fish on them, but it must have been during a solar eclipse. I have a couple of them in my collection along with another one of Helin's inventions, the Fish Cake. True to form, it's doesn't catch fish either. ?

How about a Cobia or Big Mahi? They'll tear up your boat!!

If you must hold bass, do it with wet hands. Bass have a protective slim on their bodies to keep them from bacterial infection. Never use a net or drop the bass on the carpet of the boat. It is best to handle them as little as possible. The only thing worse is carrying bass around all day in a live well, especially in the heat of summer. All my bass are released immediately on the side of the boat and as quickly as possible.

Sounds like a nice winter day in Florida! ?

I have caught bass in heavy cover with surface water temperatures in the 90s. Some of the best hot summer spots where I fish are in pads with the sun directly overhead. These spots are the best during the heat of the day. The first club tournament I fished was in Lake Okeechobee in July. If you have never fished in Florida, you have no idea how hot and humid it gets. It was so hot, we rode around all day and never caught a fish. Two guys won the tournament fishing in 4 feet of water. Taught me a lesson.

Thanks for the help. I'm going to try 30 pound Power Pro with a Fluorocarbon leader and a 7/1 reel. We'll see how that works and what adjustments I need to make. The weather is terrible in Florida right now. As soon as I can get out, I will.

Sounds like you have everything covered. Three of us drove from our homes in Central Florida to Windsor Canada two summers in a row towing a 20' Ranger. We left about 6 AM and arrived at 2 AM in the morning. The most important thing is to have someone to share the driving and to keep you awake. Towing a boat in heavy traffic is stressful enough.

It is a false assumption to assume big bass only live in deep water and small bass only in shallow water. I have caught double digit Florida bass in 4 feet of water in August. Here's one I caught in Little Lake Harris.

Most people currently living in Florida today believe every water snake they see is a moccasin. The majority of snakes you see while fishing are not venomous or aggressive. Water snakes grow large in Florida which can be scary. The best option is to treat each one with respect by giving them a wide berth. Never clean fish in the water as the smell attracts them and watch where you are walking or sitting. I have seen hundreds of snakes while fishing in Florida. The funniest time happened when I was loading my boat at Slim's Fish Camp in Okeechobee. My buddy was powering the boat on the trailer while I backed the truck in the water. When the boat came up, all I saw in my mirror was him running over the front of the trailer. When he hit the ground, he continued to run. I got out of the truck and asked him what was the matter? He said, "Look behind my seat in the boat!" Laying on the carpet coiled behind his seat was the biggest brown water snake I have ever seen!! We got him out of the boat with a fishing rod and went on our way home. It must has washed up into the boat with the motor's wake. Nasty...

For about twenty years I assisted my wife in her Real Estate business. Boats and trucks in the yard were always a topic of discussion. Home Owners Associations can be a blessing or a curse. Some are strong and some don't seem to care. Before you buy a home in any neighborhood ask a lot of questions, especially about the HOA. If they don't have one or it's not active, you can expect anything could be next door. Some people prefer it that way. If you live where the HOA is strong, you can expect to be told what you can and can not do with your property. Someone with a boat or truck in their yard or driveway shouldn't live in a community like that. Choose your community wisely. There is nothing more annoying than being in a war with your neighbors.

I live in a house in an older neighborhood. Our community is not gated or is it considered "fancy". We all have our hobbies, but we put them out of view at night. I keep my boat in a covered outside storage lot a block from my home. Lucky for me, my spot is close to an electrical outlet. The storage lot is fenced and secure. They charge me $90 a month to keep it there. In the past I have had boats in my yard. It's not something anyone wants to see.

Thanks for the input. There is not a lot of deep cranking going on in Florida. However, some seem to have sucess with it. I have not done a lot of it due mainly to the physical effort involved. What I have done is troll a deep diving plug. Covering water, I found some good spots. A few summers ago I caught a seven pounder this way. I'm leaning toward braid because my casting distance is so much greater than mono. This surprised me. I know where the fish are, I'm not sure I have the stamina required. It's something I want to try again.

Good point. I have experienced this when using braid with Rattle Traps. Thanks!

Now that I have more time on my hands, I am thinking about experimenting with deep cranking this summer. It's been some years since I did this and I know things have changed. The water where I want to fish is from 6 to 12 feet deep. I have a nice 7' 2" rod that I want to use. Most of my casting reels are 7/1. Is a 7/1 reel too fast for this? How about line? Some videos I have watched say to use 12 pound Flourocarbon, which seems a bit light to me. I can see that casting distance is important. How about 30 pound Power Pro? I would like to hear your thoughts. Our waters are not clear. Do I need a leader? I have some old Fat Free Shad lures in a couple of sizes that I used some years back. Is there anything better? Thanks for the input.

I have flipped bass with most all soft plastics. They all have their time. It depends on the mood of the fish. I would say 70% of the time, worm versions do the trick. Sometimes they want a finesse worm, other times a paddle tail gets their attention. One of my favorite paddle tail worms is the Producto Vibrator. Fished as a pegged T-Rig it draws bass better than others I have found. It works especially well fished vertically around bridge pilings. The rest of my fishing is done with creature baits, craws and lizards. It's best to change up as the mood of the fish isn't always the same.

I think it depends upon who's managing the lake. In the early days, no one knew the optimum number of grass carp to stock per acre. Someone in control at the State capital heard that carp ate hydrilla and they flooded the lakes with them. I'm pretty sure they would have stocked great white sharks if they thought it would do the job better. In the name of invasive species, Florida made every mistake that could be made. Today things are quite different. There is still hydrilla spraying going on, but it's being managed not totally eradicated. For those who don't know, Florida's has a bigger problem with hydrilla than most States as our winters don't get cold enough long enough to kill back the hydrilla. Without control of some kind, the stuff will continue to grow until the entire lake is topped out. That is worse than no cover at all.

I sent you a message through this forum.

Our experience with so called sterile carp has been a disaster. Around thirty or so years ago, those carp were stocked into the Harris Chain. In those days they had no idea what would happen. All they knew was they had to do something about the hydrilla. What happens is the carp eat everything both good and bad. The carp grow huge while this is happening. I have seen grass carp in the Chain nearly 40 pounds. After they eat all the hydrilla, they start eating whatever they can find. This leaves the lake totally devoid of cover, the water turns turbid and fishing declines. It got so bad in Lake Yale they tried to fence off the shoreline reeds so the carp couldn't get to them. Eventually, they had guys in airboats physically remove the carp. Today most of the carp are gone and the lake has recovered. Around the same time, the local Water Authority decided to bomb the entire Chain with chemicals. The State declared war on hydrilla and vowed to remove it at all cost. The County Mosquito Control division was given the task. You can imagine how that turned out. It took nearly twenty years for fishing to recover from the carp and the chemical onslaught. Today the hydrilla has returned. The State took aquatic plant control out of the hands of the locals and gave it to the Fisheries Division who are now managing the hydrilla. The current state of the Chain is better than I have seen in many years. Grass carp and chemicals look like a quick and easy fix. There is no easy or cheap way to manage a fishery. It takes money and informed expertise. Taxpayers don't want to hear this, so you have these ill-fated disasters. I hope this doesn't happen to your lake. For my experience, I would find a new place to fish.

2018 in a fairly new boat. I doubt it came that way. Sounds to me like a former owner had a faulty float switch and removed it rather than fix it. A manual switch alone will work as long as you are in the boat and can notice water in the bilge. It's when you leave the boat in the water that it's a potential problem. I once rode my boat 18 miles to an offshore park on an Island in Miami. When I docked my boat, the boat in the slip next to me was sitting on the bottom in 6 feet of water. The owner had ridden out to the park with the rear bilge plug out. When he docked the boat and left, it filled with water and sunk due to no automatic bilge pump. Oops!

For some reason unknown to me jigs don't seem to work that well in Florida. What does work is fishing soft plastics as you would a jig. Flipping and pitching soft plastics is what I do 70% of the time.

A Carolina Rig is a deadly deep water search bait. What you are looking for is hard bottom structure. This could include rock piles, muscle beds or any number of other bass holding structures. I have found some great spots using a C-Rig. Before I started using it, I let one out the back of my boat as I fished and drifted. What I discovered was I found myself catching more fish on the C-Rig than in the front. In the summer when everyone else is fruitlessly pounding the shoreline, you could be having the time of your life.