Captain Phil

I don't believe anyone knows why a bass hits one color lure over another? The obvious answer from a fisherman's point of view is white looks like a shad and chartreuse looks like a shiner or blue gill. I believe blade size and flash are more significant with spinnerbaits than the color of the body. About twenty years ago, I was fishing a large State buddy tournament on the Harris Chain. My partner was one of the best bass fisherman in Central Florida. I hadn't had much luck in practice. The day of the tournament, my partner ran us to the same area where I had been fishing. In my mind I was thinking there were no fish there. He pulled out an all white Terminator with silver blades and proceeded to catch bass. I had been fishing a gold spinnerbait with a chartreuse and white skirt and gold blades. I switched to a white Terminator with silver blades and we got a check. Since then, I carry both silver/white and gold/chartreuse and that's all I ever need.

Last night's game between the Chief's and the Bill's was the best football game I have ever seen and I've been watching football games before Super Bowl #1. It doesn't get any better than that...

FYI. I recently wished to replenish my supply of Zoom Speed worms in my favorite color. I went to my local tackle shop and the spot where these worms hung on the wall was bare. The store owner said they were on back order. I went home and checked the Tackle Warehouse website. They were back ordered there also. I checked a couple of other websites with no luck. Then I remembered Bass Pro Shop. I quit buying from them as the store in Orlando never had what I wanted. My online order was processed and three days later my worms arrived. ?

Web developers are constantly adding features and updates to their websites. Some are obvious, some are hidden from the user. Many new features require the latest browser version to work as designed. Many users are running outdated browsers. My bet is someone on this forum right now is still using Microsoft Explorer or AOL Email. I have both Firefox and Chrome on my PC and I update them regularly. I use Fire Fox the majority of the time. My bank's website requires Chrome.

My only experience with smallmouth bass has been fishing Lake Erie for two weeks on summer vacation. We caught smallmouths up to six pounds, all on weighted soft plastic tubes fished on the bottom.

Before the seventies, most all bass casting reels were 3/1. The first "high speed" casting reels were 5/1. The very popular Ambassador 5500C had a sticker on it that said High Speed. They even sold retro gears to convert older reels to 5/1. Spinning reels have always been faster than casting reels, that's one reason they were popular with salt water jig fishermen. Later, 7/1 and now 8/1 reels became available. My old Shimano Chronarch 100s are 7/1. There is no one gear radio that works for all fishing applications. If you use a reel that's too fast, you change the action of the lure. A good example is the spinnerbait. A spinnerbait works best when pulled slow and close to cover. A spinnerbait is not designed to be pulled on top like a buzz bait. You can catch fish that way, but you will do much better if you slow down. Fishing a buzz bait with a 3/1 reel is arduous. I did that when I was young because that's the only reel I had. The key word here is "young" as I wouldn't even attempt that now. Water temperature also affects the most effective gear ratio. The colder the water, the slower the presentation. Most bass fisherman fish too fast. It's like a drug to them. When they catch a fish, they can't wait to catch another. At the end of the day, they have covered a ton of water and left a ton of fish.

Years ago I went bass fishing in Okeechobee. When I returned to the ramp a guy was fishing on the bank next to the ramp. I asked him if he caught anything and he said 10 or 12 bass. I congratulated him and he showed me his stringer of fish. I asked him what he was using and he said "one of these salt worms". That was the first time I had heard of Zoom baits. Since then I have been a believer. Any plastic worm will catch bass. Zoom baits catch more bass for me than any other worm. Is it the salt or something else? I don't know and I don't care. I have done a lot of back country salt water fishing in my life. We fish the 10,000 Island area in Southwest Florida. The best bait in those waters is a jig. If you tip your jig with a small piece of shrimp, you double or triple it's effectiveness. The same thing happens with plastic baits. Scent and smell definitely affect bass both positively and negatively. For me at least, Zoom has this right.

I started a small business when I was 22 years old. I sold my business 30 years later. During that time, I had dozens of employees. My employees, mostly young men, married, bought homes and cars, had kids and I did everything I could to help them prosper. My employees never missed a pay check. Operating a small business is tough. Making payroll in hard times can be stressful. Markets change. Business can be great, then you find yourself starting over from scratch. One of the most difficult things for a small business to overcome is vacations and sick time. If you are running your business wisely, you have just enough people to get the job done right. When a key employee is gone, it stresses the entire operation. Your boss cares about you or he/she wouldn't have paid for your unused vacation time.

Rattle Trap...

Red "nicks"? That's funny... almost choked on my coffee! ?

We have lived in Eustis since 1997. There are a number of good restaurants in downtown Eustis depending upon your preference. If you like real fancy and expensive, you will find all you want in Mount Dora. Our favorite Eustis restaurant is Tillie's Tavern and Grill. It's a favorite with locals. An interesting small Eustis restaurant is The Crazy Gator on the waterfront. There is a small Mexican restaurant in downtown with great decor. There are a couple of good pizza and sub spots in the area as well.

My boat is as delivered, all white with gray carpet. As you can see in the two photos above, my lower step is removable. I could have saved some money by purchasing my Trick Step without the removable lower step. I didn't know at the time if I would need it or not. As it turned out, my step was too close to my explorer so I leave it off. I could have cut it off, but that would have ruined it for a future buyer. Here's a photo I took at the dealer before I installed the Quick Step.

I would advise getting it. If you don't the steps may hit your tow vehicle in tight turns. To be honest, I leave it off and rarely use it. I use the trailer tongue for the bottom step.

I have Trick Steps (https://trickstep.com/) on my Ranger RT178 trailer. I chose them because they are high quality rigid steps and I didn't want my steps moving around when I used them. This company knew my boat and trailer and exactly what I needed. I had quadruple vertebra back surgery last March, so I didn't wish to climb the fenders or jump to get in or out of my boat. These steps are not cheap. I also opted for the removable bottom step. You will need this option if your trailer is closer to your tow vehicle. I use these steps all the time. If it wasn't for them, I am sure I would not be able to launch my boat by myself.

Rodman is about a 45 minute drive from our home in Eustis. I was lucky enough to fish it in the early eighties when it first became known as a great bass fishery. Rodman is unique in Florida as it is a true reservoir created when the Ocklawaha River was damned in the sixties. It is also unique in other ways. Chemical weed spraying is not allowed in Rodman. Hydrilla is very abundant. It's kept under control by draw downs. The water flowing into Rodman comes from the Harris Chain mixed with water flowing out of Silver Springs. Rodman water is extremely clear for a Florida lake. Bass have always grown large in Rodman. Recent bass have been caught in the 17 pound range. Rodman can be difficult to fish with artificial lures as the water is very clear and the bass are buried in abundant cover. Fishing with large live native shiners is the most effective way to catch large Rodman bass. You will need a guide as these baits are not always available to the general public. If your bucket list goal is to catch a big Florida bass, this is the place to go. Rodman has been a political football for a number of years. The battle between fishermen and conservationists over Rodman is ongoing.

My mistake. Its a 75. Tops out near 40 mph, which is plenty fast enough for me at this stage of my life. ?

Here in Florida, it is common to make long runs when fishing bass tournaments. Okeechobee is 40 miles wide and it always seems the fish are biting on the opposite side of the lake. Back in the day, we routinely had to gas up before making the run back to the launching area. With today's fuel costs, this could easily cost hundreds of dollars. Owning a fast bass boat also causes you to spend your time running instead of fishing. The bigger the motor, the bigger the boat needs to be. I once owned a 22' Storm bass boat. I sold it because it was like fishing off an aircraft carrier. I couldn't turn it around in a tight canal and I needed a 4x4 truck to tow it. My current Ranger RT178 with an 85 Merc 4-stroke is a much better bass fishing platform than that Storm.

Over the years I have seen my share of bass boat speed claims, most of them overblown. With GPS, we now have a way of verifying these claims. In the eighties, I owned a Hydrosport that ran 64 mph verified by a Florida state trooper's radar gun and it was one of the fastest bass boats in my club. Bass Boat speeds in the seventies are now common place. The fastest bass boat I have ever owned personally was a Gambler and it could just reach 80 mph with me driving and no tackle. We have a couple of Bullet bass boats on the Chain that are faster. The fastest bass boat I have ever seen myself was an Allison. That Allison ran slightly over 100 mph. If you have never seen an Allison bass boat, calling it a fishing boat is ridiculous. They are extremely light and have almost no storage. The lid on the rod box is like tissue paper. Driving fast in a high performance boat requires skill. To get these boats to run that fast, the boat is nearly all out of the water. Chine walk can be scary if you don't know how to handle it. Owning a fast bass boat is not a sign of how good you are at catching bass. They are two entirely different sports.

The reel gear ratio you use has a substantial effect on your presentation. Some presentations, like buzz baits for example, require faster ratios to keep the bait on the surface. Other presentations, like spinnerbaits, are better when fished slower. I remember when a 5/1 reel was the fastest reel available. Before that, most casting reels where 3/1. Under some circumstances, a bass angler fishing with an 8/1 reel, could be missing a lot of fish. I have experimented with many different reel gear ratios over the years. In the winter, I want to force myself to slow down. The easiest way to accomplish this is to use a slower reel. Getting the right cadence is very important to some lures. When offshore trolling for marlin, a boat that puts out the right vibrations raises more fish. Your lure does the same thing. When you get everything in sync, good things happen.

If you are occasionally selling stuff to friends or family, you have nothing to worry about. If you are regularly selling stuff as a commercial business, you only pay tax on your profits and are allowed to deduct expenses against those profits. I doubt anyone is going to be audited for a $650 sale. What they are looking for are tax cheats who do big business on the Internet and do not report the income.

Success builds confidence. Confidence creates success. Over the years, I am sure I have owned just about every bass lure made. Two possibles exceptions may be a Whopper Plopper and a Roland Martin Helicopter lure. If I carried every lure I own with me on a fishing trip, I would need a barge full of lures towed behind my boat. I only use what works. It works because I use it. ?

Greed....

I don't know, the alligator didn't hang around to tell about it. What often happens when you hit something big in the water at speed is the big motor swings abruptly to one side. This causes the boat to turn sharply without warning throwing the occupants out of the boat. If the big motor stays running, the prop can cut you to pieces. This is not something you want to happen. A kill switch may save you as long as you don't hit anything on the way out of the boat or when you land.

This happens far too often. Last year Florida had over 800 boating accidents with 79 fatalities. I was in a bass tournament years ago where a competitors bass boat running on plane cut a small boat in half killing the driver. Two good friends of mine hit a large alligator running on plane at 60 mph plus. Both were thrown out of the boat and severely injured. Boating collisions in the Everglades air boat trails are common and deadly. Since Covid, we have many new boat owners on the water that do not realize how quickly bad things can happen. Slow down, stay alert and be courteous. You don't want to end up in the hospital, jail or worse and you sure don't want to live with the fact that you killed someone.

A spinnerbait is one of the deadliest most versatile bass baits available. To get the most out of these baits, you should know the following. Most anglers do not fish spinnerbaits close enough to the fish. How close is close enough? Inches. Anglers move along the bank casting at everything they see. When they don't get bit on a single cast they move on. A good spinnerbait fisherman will make multiple casts to a likely area. He/she will cast back in or beyond the cover bringing the lure as close to it as possible. Hitting the cover on the retrieve can trigger a strike. Sparse or individual pads are perfect for this. In addition, most anglers fish these lures too fast. Cadence is very important in spinnerbait fishing. The best reel gear ratio for spinnerbait fishing is 5/1. Most spinning reels are much too fast for spinnerbait fishing. Size can make a big difference, much more than color. The smaller the bait, the more fish you will catch. The larger the bait, the bigger fish you will catch. Of course there are always exceptions, but this holds true the majority of the time.