Captain Phil

Toho is a good choice. Keep in mind that spring is when most of the tournaments are held, so we will have a lot of competition. January, February and March are also cold front months.

Why not use a Buzz Bait instead of a spinnerbait?

Try the Mepps Comet Minnow. Great for schooling bass.

I've eaten a lot of bass in my time. Years ago our bass club owned a fish fryer. After the weigh-in we would cook and eat all we caught. No one in my club thought killing a bass was harmful as they seemed to be everywhere. At the time, Florida had a ten bass per person daily limit with no size restriction. In the seventies, a buddy and I won an Okeechobee tournament with 20 fish that weighed in excess of 65 pounds. That was one huge pile of dead fish. Shiner guides would kill buckets of double digit bass just for a photo. Eventually this started to have a negative effect on the size and quantity of the fish. Bass fishing in my area of Florida is currently better than it's been in 20 years. Catch and release is largely responsible. If you like to eat fish, there are much better choices.

I have no issue with those who wish to eat a few bass every now and then. In my opinion, bass are not the best eating fish. Back in the day we soaked them in milk to improve the taste. You can fry anything and make it edible. Before you know it, someone will start a bass eating fad. The same thing happened to Red Fish and they were almost wiped out until Florida banned nets and created slot limits. Bass are game fish. They are much more valuable as sport than food.

Don't eat bass. Stick with Snakeheads.

The spinnerbait is one of the most versatile bass baits every developed. Lure size, weight, wire diameter, wire shape, blade color, flash, blade shape, blade size, hardware, line diameter and reel speed all affect bass strikes. This doesn't cover what happens on the fisherman's end. There is no perfect spinnerbait for all conditions. I have seen days when you couldn't get a bite on a gold bait when they were tearing up white. I have fished with anglers who modified their baits so slightly you wouldn't think it mattered, when it did. Different parts of the country have diverse water color and bait fish. Here in Florida, gold is the color of our native shiners. White is a shad. Our bass food is big and so are our fish. Over the years I have fished with practically every bass lure (except a Whopper Plopper). More and more often I find myself fishing a spinnerbait. I like tandem blades, Colorado in the front, willow in the rear. Why? I don't know, they just work for me. Most likely because that's what I throw. I often downsize my top blade and I seem to get more strikes. I fish slower than most. I fish closer than most. I cast to the same target more than most. If I only had one lure to fish with, it would be a spinnerbait.

Angling opportunities vary greatly in South Florida. Everything from neighborhood canals and rock pits to Lake Okeechobee. Many you can fish walking the bank. You will need a spinning rod with 10 pound line and a casting rod with 20. You can use the spinning rod for worms and light lures. Some of the water is clear, some is stained. The casting rod can be used for areas of thick cover. The best all around basic worm is the Zoom Trick worm in black or June Bug. For canal and rock pit fishing I throw worms with an 1/8 oz. Texas rig. In the spring a wacky worm is deadly. Top water fishing in South Florida can be excellent, especially in the Everglades. Spinnerbaits and Rattle Traps too. The best bass fishing is in the spring when the water is low. It's nothing to catch 100 bass a day during a drought. Lake Okeechobee is a world all to itself. You will need a boat to fish it. Everything works in South Florida if you know how to use it. In the past twenty years, exotics have been introduced. Peacock bass from South America are growing to decent size. Some canals are full of them. Every now and then you will hook a snook or a tarpon. I have seen 40 pound snook and 100 pound tarpon swimming with bass while fishing that area. South Florida is very congested. Draining the swamp opened up a lot of good fishing. If you have any questions, let me know.

Before plastic worms came out in the sixties, pork was the standard trailer for spoons, buzz baits and jigs. Pork has a very subtle action in the water. The closest plastic would be a ribbon tail worm. The problem with pork is it's messy. If the bottle leaks, it rusts everything it touches. It also ages. You don't want to open a 40 year old bottle of pork baits anywhere near your nose. Soft plastic baits replaced them for a reason. Plastics can be molded into any shape, color, size or texture and they keep nearly forever. There are devotees for pork baits and I can see the appeal as they often catch big fish.

Power Pro starts out dark green, then lightens slightly with age. I have never seen "very light green" Power Pro. Could be something new (hope not), or a different SKU. If it's in a Power Pro Box, I doubt it's counterfeit. Maybe a weird dye lot?

I would look at water clarity first. If the water is clear, I would lean toward top water, weightless plastics or a Carolina rig. If the water has limited visibility, I would think spinnerbait, crankbaits, or flipping. Next I would look at available cover on the surface and near the bottom. Are there any points, islands, docks, rivers or canals? From there I would choose a search bait. Something that fit the conditions and covers a lot of water. The key to winning tournaments is prefishing. You have to put in the hours if you want to be a winner.

I haven't been to Toho recently, so I don't know the present conditions. Hydrilla is pervasive in Toho. It also holds a lot of fish. You shouldn't need to flip to catch bass in Toho this time of year. Cast along the hydrilla and back in the pockets. The weather is cooling and the top water bite should be good. If you can't catch them on top, use a June Bug Zoom Mag II worm. Good Luck!

Toho is loaded with bass. Shiner fishing is preferred by guides because it's easy money and it works regardless of the skill level of the customer. If you know how to fish artificials, you don't need shiners. Reeds like in the photo below only grow on hard bottom. Hard bottom is like a bass magnet. Everything works in Toho. It's arguably the best bass lake in Florida. Many bass tournaments have been won within sight of the City of Kissimmee boat ramp. Take a jacket as Florida can get cold at times.

In January, you will be dodging cold fronts. When cold fronts approach Florida, the wind blows hard from the southeast, swings west, then north. If you catch a few warm calm days in a row, you will have great fishing. Toho is a terrific top water lake. Look for areas with green reeds. Not cattails, straight buggy whips. The fish will be shallow in January. Your kayak should be able to get back in the grass where the big fish are. Good Luck!

Many years ago I was standing in line in front of a "pay phone" waiting to make a call. (Google it). We were fishing a three day bass tournament on Lake Okeechobee and everyone wanted to call home. In front of me was one of the best bass fisherman in the country at the time. He was talking on the phone with someone and told them to buy all the chartreuse painted blade spinnerbaits they could find and bring them to him. Up until that time, I had never used anything but silver and gold blades. I went to the local tackle shop and found some chartreuse painted Lindy Spins. I went out the next day and the Okeechobee bass went crazy over them. I ended up eighth in that tournament and got a nice check. Since then, I fish them in dark conditions. They really shine on rainy days. I once had an angler from Michigan out on a trip when he pulled out a spinnerbait with bright orange blades. I opened my big mouth and said, "That doesn't work here." At that point, he proceeded to catch a fat 4 pound bass on it. You never know.... ?

I'm not a fan of wimpy fishing rods and tiny reels, but there was a time when I experimented with 4 and 6 pound line for bass fishing. My favorite lures were 3 inch Rapalas, tiny torpedos and small crank baits. They caught fish like crazy. If you like a lot of action and pure fun, this is the way to go. Obviously, you are not going to use this tackle in a field of thick hydrilla or pads. It's a great way to fish canals. Canals are often overlooked. They hold resident fish year round and fishing pressure is light. Every now and then you get surprised by a big fish. Landing a 6 pound largemouth on 4 pound test is a thrill of a lifetime.

I've though a lot about where my ashes will be planted. My wife and I have decided to have our ashes mixed so our bodies are together forever. This will require some work as people rarely die at the same time. I kid her that if I die first she should put my ashes on a shelf in the house. If she gets a new boyfriend, I'll be there to supervise.... ?

I ran an 18 1/2 Skeeter in all types of weather for ten years. It's not so much about the size of your boat as how you handle it. Salt water fisherman know that their boat has more than two speeds. Many bass fisherman seem to be stuck in high. There is a speed and trim setting where a boat is comfortable. Find that setting and you will not get wet or beat the heck out of your backside.

Thirty years ago I drew a partner in an Okeechobee tournament who claimed to catch 100 bass over ten pounds. He was written up in a couple of magazines, so I didn't doubt it was true. All he threw were lizards.

Sounds like you have been through a lot. I have spoken with others who have similar stories. My condition was caused primarily by a build up of arthritis. It wasn't an easy fix, but compared to some I got off easy so far. If I could give any younger person some advice it would be to buy the best supplemental insurance policy you can find. When you are young you don't think you will need insurance. When you are old, you will spend much of your time at the doctors. Medicare doesn't pay for everything.

For fly fishing, I make my own tapered leaders. I use blood knots to join the leader sections and have never had a problem. In salt water fishing, we use a modified blood knot to join mono to short wire leaders to prevent cut offs from barracuda and king fish. We bend the wire into a U shape and wrap the mono around the wire. The problem with leader knots in bass fishing is they can get stuck in the guides when you cast. A blood knot tied correctly will lessen this possibility.

I was taught to set the hook as hard as I could. We used to call it "crossing their eyes". This was necessary because the hooks we had at the time were nothing like the laser sharpened hooks we have today. When bass boats first came out, the manufacturers didn't know to thru bolt the bass seats. They were held in with wood screws. One day in Okeechobee, my wife and I were fishing a he and she tournament in Pelican Bay. I felt a bass hit my worm, reeled down and set the hook with all my might. The front bass seat pulled out of the floor and I fell in the water holding my rod and reel. My wife said all she saw was the bottom of my sneakers. When I got back in the boat, I spent the next 30 minutes screwing the seat back down. I finally settled back into fishing. About ten minutes later I felt another bite. I set the hook again and fell in the water a second time. My wife laughed so hard, I thought she was going to split a lung. I went back to Slim's Fish Camp bought some giant lag bolts and finished the day without a repeat. My wife still laughs about that day. ?

Try pegging the bait with a tooth pick. Bury the hook eye in the bait. Stick a round tooth pick in the bait through the hook eye and clip off both ends of the tooth pick flush with the bait. This will keep the lizard from sliding.

Lizards are great flipping baits too. Those little legs and the tail make for a great presentation on the fall. They're not just for spring. I use them year round. This bass ate a lizard in Big Lake Harris.

If you are going to fish like that, why not stay home and play a fishing video game? The fun of bass fishing is in the hunt. Catching a bass is the conclusion, not all there is to the game. Some day bass tournaments will be held in swimming pools with robot bass. Competitors will be sitting in front of screens thousands of miles away. You won't need rods or tackle. You won't have to cast, retrieve or land a fish. I wonder if they took all their electronics away, if I could still beat their butts? ?