Captain Phil

Everything I dreamed about doing I did and I did them when I was young enough to enjoy them. Don't wait until you are old to make your dreams happen. You can always make more money. You can't make more time to live. ☺️

I am fairly sure you could put Hildebrandt blades on a coat hanger and catch fish. I like to swap out my blades, so I order the blades separately. There are four things I like about the Hildebrandt Okeechobee Special spinnerbait; the top blade is easy to change, the wire is thin which makes this bait vibrate more than other spinnerbaits, the body is gold plated and it catches big fish. The last reason is good enough for me. If everyone who fishes my lakes would use it, it wouldn't work as well.

Seriously? I've had times when a missed strike from a mud fish was the highlight of the day! ☺️

They are. That's what makes them work. ☺️

Florida is a melting pot, so they are called all kinds of things. Craw Dad is most common. Most new comers have never seen one unless it was on a plate. Bass had a ton of different names over the years too. Old timers called them Green trout or just Trout for short. This gets pretty confusing because we have a salt water trout as well. In Canada, they call walleyes Pickerel. A Pickerel in Florida is a small species of Pike called a Chain Pickerel.

When I was fishing the Everglades and South Florida canals I would often talk with bank fishermen who would ask me if I caught anything? Some of them would take my gars and mudfish. I have seen Seminoles spearing those same fish. I assume they were eating them? In the Boy Scouts they taught us you could eat gars. I never tried them myself. Fish caught out of the Everglades and Okeechobee taste like mud to me. If you cook them in a pot of hot oil, it takes away much of the bad taste. Years ago, we used to soak them in milk for a few days before cooking.

I started fishing when I was about 12 years old. Living in Miami, I had many choices. We caught Spanish Mackerel and King fish off the piers and bridges in those days. Tarpon and snook were often hooked. I say hooked because landing a big snook or tarpon is not as easy as hooking one. This was before Peacock bass were introduced. I always loved LM bass fishing. There is something about a bass that keeps me interested. Fishing in the Everglades and flood control canals, the biggest bass I caught was about 6 1/2 pounds. When I was in my twenties, I caught an 8 1/2 pound bass out of L67. I didn't start catching bass over ten pounds until I moved out of South Florida. The farther north you go in Florida, the bigger the average bass. The largest bass in Florida are in an area from Ocala to Orlando to Tampa. As for numbers. the Everglades has them all beat. When the water is low, it's nothing to catch 100 bass in a day. When the water is high, you would think someone poisoned all the fish.

The only carp problems we have had locally were grass carp that were stocked to control hydrilla. I have seen them grow to 40 pounds. Stocking them was a huge problem as the fish ate everything that grew in the lakes. Thankfully, they have removed most of them. What is amazing to me is how few people in Florida fish for catfish. For a number of years, the State record catfish was taken from a local creek, so I know the cat fish population must be healthy.

The Eustis City boat ramp is a few blocks from my house. It has three double ramps. One of the ramps has a huge hole at the end from power loading. I was there one day when I saw two guys standing at the end of the ramp looking into the water. I looked where they were looking and about 2 feet of trailer tongue was stick vertically out of the water. I couldn't imagine how that happened so I asked? They said the trailer got hung on the drop off so they unhooked it from the tow vehicle and the trailer fell into the hole. That hole was so deep it swallowed a bass boat trailer!! I've seen some crazy stuff at boat ramps including boats dropping off onto the pavement. It's a real circus on a holiday... ?

Some of the largest gars I have ever seen are on the St. John's river. Once I was fishing where the Wekiva and the St. John's meet just north of the City of Sanford. The water was very clear that day. I happened to look down into the water when I saw a group of huge fish under my boat. At first I thought they were tarpon. They turned out to be gigantic gar. We have some big gar in the Harris Chain, but nothing near the size of the river fish. Nobody that I know fishes for them. Maybe they should?

I have very few regrets. None that have anything to do with fishing. I started fishing walking canal banks. I ended up owning dozens of boats and fishing all over the world. I married my teenage sweetheart and we are still going strong after 57 years. The best thing I ever did other than marry my wife was leave a big corporation when I was 22 to start my own business. Working for someone else is good just long enough to learn to do things on your own. I should have started saving earlier. I spent too much money on things that didn't mean anything to me six months after I bought them. I should have lost weight. I should have gone to the dentist more. That's about it....

Florida is infamous for our bugs. I've seen roaches three inches long. Aside from mosquitoes and sand flies, they are mostly just a nuisance. We have a small white fly that can cover a wall so thick you use a broom to pick them up by the bucketful. We call them "blind mosquitoes" because they don't bite. The worst are Hydrilla gnats. You run into them in the summer when flipping hydrilla mats. They are tiny little devils that get inside your glasses and on your face. I hate them. They are nothing compared to the dear flies they have in Canada. Those things are nasty.

River bends are not only a thing with SM bass. LM bass love them too. We don't have many natural rivers here in Florida. The ones we have have been channelized or artificially altered into canals. The exceptions are parts of the St. Johns. When I first started fishing it years ago, I had no clue where to start. I eventually found fish in the river bends. Current digs out the banks in these bends making them deeper and sunken tree limbs accumulate along the shoreline. Bass hide just out of the current and wait for food to flow by. The best way to target them is to position your boat directly on the bank and cast upstream. I like to use a spinnerbait, but have had success with a Texas rigged worm bumping along the bottom. Where's there's current, you will find bass.

I only use a couple of knots when bass fishing. For years I used a Palomar for 25 pound mono when flipping and it held up well. Lately, I started flipping with braid and snelling my hooks. This places the hook point in the perfect angle, which is important when fishing cover. Roland Martin has an excellent video on this. For everything else, I use a double clinch knot. It's tied the same as a regular clinch knot except the line is doubled. It's been called all kind of things. I learned about it from a Jimmy Houston video. Braid does not hold knots as well as mono and fluorocarbon line. Using a traditional clinch knot with braid will you lose you a fish. I learned this lesson the hard way. I have never lost a fish due to a knot failure since I started using Jimmy's knot.

The Rabble Rouser came out in the 70s. Haven't seen one in some time. It was an ugly sucker, but it caught fish. It was an all plastic crankbait that ran 3-4 feet deep. We used the brown and orange pattern in the Everglades canals with great success. Kind of a crayfish imitation.

Some years ago I was able to fish with one of the best Rattle Trap fisherman I have been around. One of the many things he taught me was to mark the sides of Traps with a red permanent marker. The bleeding shiner pattern has what you are looking to do. If you look you will notice most successful bass lures have red painted on them somewhere.

Been there, done that. When I purchased my last two fishing rods, I looked at both the Poison Adrena and the Zodias models side by side. Both are incredibly light and sensitive. I decided on a Zodias because there seemed to be little difference other than the price. Both of my Zodias rods are MH. One is 7'2" and the other is 6' 10". These two rods are vastly different. The 6' 10' rod is built on a much thinner diameter blank than the 7' 2". I use the lighter rod with worms and Senkos. The 7' 2" rod is a tough beefy work horse. I believe it's the best flipping rod I have ever owned. Spooled up with braid, I swear I can feel a bass hit my lure before it does. There has never been a fishing rod that someone couldn't break. Back in the seventies, I bought one of the first graphite fishing rods on the market. As I remember it was a Fenwick and I paid $300 for it way back then. It only took me a few trips before I broke it. When it happened, my fishing buddy and I were so stunned we stared at each other for what seemed like 20 minutes. Luckily, Fenwick replaced it under the warranty. Buy what makes you happy. Do you want your last thoughts to be "I should have bought that Adrena fishing rod?" ☺️

This subject has been tackled numerous times on this forum. What it always comes down to is personal opinion. Here's mine. When you first start out with a casting reel you are going to have some issues. The timing of the cast is different and you have a revolving spool to deal with. Modern reels are much better than those we had 50 years ago, but despite the claims they still backlash. I've been fishing with one since the early sixties and they still happen to me on occasion. The advantage of a casting reel is accuracy and power. They allow you to spool up with heavy line without sacrificing distance. If you are going to finesse fish, use a spinning reel. For power fishing, a casting reel works better. My recommendation is to start out with 15-20 pound mono. I prefer Berkley Big Game, but any line will work when you are learning. Mono is cheap, so you won't be crying when you have to cut off a spool or two. Mono is flexible and doesn't jump into knots like braid. No matter what line you use, you will get backlashes. Don't be discouraged, it happens to the best. Get out in a field or on your lawn and place a bucket as a target. Before you go fishing, cast into that bucket until you can hit it 9 out of 10 times. Don't go fishing with it before you practice or you will swear off casting reels and never go back. When I was a teenager, to me casting was more fun that fishing. I would spend hours "fishing" on my front lawn which always got a smile from my neighbors. Once you get casting down good enough to fish, you can try different lines and strengths. Good Luck!

The Crazy Shad is a great bait as well. It's somewhat smaller and fatter than a Devil's Horse and I seem to catch smaller bass with the CS. Some other notable prop baits from the past are the Creek Chub Injured minnow and the Dalton Special. The Heddon Tiny Torpedo will catch bass even in the toughest conditions. For some reason unknown to me I seem catch bigger bass on the Devil's Horse. There are dozens of great old bass lures than are never used these days. All the more reason to use them. ☺️

Every lure has a time and place where it works best. If you are looking for a lure that works everywhere all the time, you won't find one unless it's sold in an infomercial. ☺️

Gators have been living in Florida for millions of years. People? Not so long. The problem is there are more people in Florida now than ever and more are coming everyday. This makes alligator/people interactions more common. The State has a program that will remove large nuisance alligators. Unfortunately, by the time they are deemed a nuisance many are already dangerous. When my wife was in Real Estate, her out of State customers would often ask about gators. She told them if they wanted to swim to buy a home with a swimming pool. I was raised in Florida and would often go to the beach. When I started fishing on the pier I could see what was in the water and I wanted none of it. The chances of being eaten by a shark are slim, but the odds were too much for me. Same thing with alligators. I would never allow my grand kids to swim in a Florida lake. Small dogs and people look like glazed donuts to a large alligator. I have never felt threatened by an alligator even in the Everglades at night. I stayed in the boat and you should too!

I learned to fish a Devil's Horse from the best in the business. I fished against Top Water Charlie for many years and was fortunate enough to observe how he fished. Top Water Charlie (Charlie Orme) was a Florida Wildlife officer who fished bass tournaments as a side gig. He reportedly made over 100K a year doing this. He was written up in many magazines and articles. He never fished anything but a Devil's Horse. I have stood in line at weigh-ins with 20 pounds of bass when he had a limit of 5-8 pounders. One tournament in Kissimmee I helped him to the scales when he had so many big bass that his bag broke open! Charlie had many different techniques depending upon the season and conditions. He was so experienced, he could sense what the fish wanted. He often fished a lot faster than you would think. Something that most people don't know is he sought out places that others ignored. Residential canals were one of his favorites. Those back water canals hold big bass that never see a lure.

It's not so much which top water lure you use, it's how and where you fish it. When you pull a top water lure steadily, you turn it into a buzz bait. Most of today's bass anglers are impatient. They cast and crank, cast and crank, cast and crank...repeat as necessary hoping to catch a bass. You can't count on the lure to do all the work by itself! Here in Florida, the Devil's Horse is by far the best bass top water lure. This lure works best when thrown close to cover. It takes accuracy and guts to do this, but nothing that rewarding is easy. Fishing it in short intermittent jerks works best for me. What you are doing is mimicking a dying fish or creature struggling in the water. This turns lazy big bass into angry predators. Keep your eyes on the calm water around the bait as a bass will follow this bait for some distance. If you are doing this right, bass will often blow this lure out of the water. Sometimes they will just suck it down like a flushing toilet. Another great top water lure in Florida is a gold Bang-O-Lure with a tail spinner. You fish it the same way. It's killer in Okeechobee.

I have owned boats most of my life. Bass boats are not generally run as much as a salt water boats. Salt water runs are longer and trolling is often used as the primary fishing method. My diesel sportfish had 2,500 hours on it when I sold it and I bought it new. Even when I was fishing tournaments I rarely put over 100 hours a year on my bass boats. Whoever buys my current Ranger when I'm gone will get an almost new boat. The boat ramp is three blocks from my home and my favorite fishing spot is 200 yards from the ramp. This summer it's been hot and I haven't been fishing more than a couple of times this month. If you buy a used boat, you want to buy one from an old man like me. Boat maintenance is a lot more important than hours used. The worst boats to buy are those that sat for years. Electrical connections corrode, fuel turns to jelly and motors seize. If you are going to own a boat, you need to exercise it regularly and maintain it properly. I can't imagine living without a boat. Even if I don't use it, I know I can. ☺️

Anglers have been catching bass with mono fishing line for over 60 years. All of a sudden you aren't with the program unless you use braid or fluorocarbon? Braid and flouro have their place. Braid is tough as nails, which makes fishing in heavy cover workable. It's also like fishing with rope. It digs into itself and creates tangles that even Alexander the Great (Google it) couldn't untangle. You can tie leaders onto braid. That's trading one problem for another. Fluorocarbon line sinks and is nearly invisible. It's also kinky as heck. If you want a really bad day, spool up your spinning reel with straight flouro. You'll be "Pickin but not Grinnin". I use mono on a spinning reel when bass fishing. It's flexible, forgiving, easy to use, doesn't dig into itself, doesn't wrap around the rod guides and it's cheap. Most spinning reel line tangles are caused by not flipping the bail over by hand. Lazy anglers reel the loops onto the spool and wonder why they have a bird's nest on the next cast. Buy some Berkley Big Game mono, spool it on your reel in the right direction and stop worrying.