Captain Phil

Here in Florida, alligator encounters are commonplace. Fishing at night with a top water lure attracts alligators. I've snagged a few with a rattle trap more than once. Once while night fishing in the everglades, I hooked an alligator with a worm on the bottom and it pulled my boat around until I could cut the line. I once watched a fight between a snake and a blue heron. The heron had a large black snake wrapped around his bill. It looked like a standoff. I wondered who was going to win the fight? The heron started beating it's bill on the ground until the snake went limp. Herons are tough...

I am 74 years old and have lived in Central Florida for 25 years. Our county has the largest population of seniors in the country. You would think our friends and neighbors would have been devastated by the virus? The opposite is true. Seniors know their time on Earth is limited. We kept our distance and wore our masks. More importantly, we avoided large groups and stayed among ourselves. Few of us have kids or go to work. Not seeing the grand kids at Christmas was tough. I do not know anyone who died of Covid. I only know a few who got the virus. None of them went to the hospital. Our governor did the right thing by quarantining all the nursing homes. The people that died of Covid had other issues as well. Everyone I know has had their shots. Restaurants are open. The theme parks are open. Schools are open. Everyone I know is still wearing their masks. Boat ramps are nuts. It seems everyone moved to Florida and bought a new boat. I don't even think about fishing on the weekends. I can't wait for things to get back to normal, whatever that is.

The amount of entry splash when flipping and pitching has the least influence on a bass hitting your lure. I have seen both extremes. A lot has to do with the clarity and depth of the water where you are fishing as well as the activity level of the fish. The greatest factor in this type of fishing is the fall itself. The lure's weight must match the cover you are fishing. The lure should fall through the cover naturally. You want the lure to "pin ball" through cover like a falling prey would. It is important to let the lure fall on slack line. The lure careening through the cover alerts the bass that something good is coming it's way. You must "check" your bait after every drop as a bass may have your lure and you won't know it until it's too late.

From my experience, the strongest fighting bass are around 6 pounds. Of course this depends upon the tackle you are using at the time. I catch most of my larger bass flipping with 25 pound mono. I have had a few bass pull me to my knees on the first run. The largest bass I ever caught this way ran under the boat breaking my flipping stick off on the side of the boat. Some big bass seem to come to the boat fairly easy. I once caught a six pound largemouth on a 4" Rapala with a 6 pound spinning outfit. I was fishing in a field of pads and somehow got the bass to the boat. That was some fight.

I tie one on a foot ahead of a weightless worm. Works as a light swivel. Looks like a wacky rig with a straight worm. Finesse Carolina rig.

At one time, the Harris Chain was full of large gizzard shad. Biologists identified them as a problem some years ago. In large numbers, they hold and create harmful nutrients in the water column causing poor water quality. Using large seine nets, they removed millions of pounds of shad from these shallow lakes. Our improved water quality is a result of these efforts.

Catching Tarpon in salt water is not difficult. In the keys you can catch them on almost anything a fish thinks is edible. Local guides use stinky shrimp boat bycatch as bait. I have even seen them caught on fish parts when cleaning dolphin. The best Tarpon bait is live mullet, large shrimp and crabs. This varies with the location. They will hit artificial lures, but landing them is a challenge as they can throw any lure. If you land one out of ten, you are doing well. We catch them on jigs with big white plastic worms on the back jigging on the bottom around the keys bridges. In Everglades City, the best bait is half a fresh lady fish. You will also catch some big snook and a lot of sharks that way. Miami harbor has some of the biggest tarpon I have ever seen. An old friend, Captain Bouncer Smith, made a good living off those fish. Fresh water tarpon are a different animal. They are an occasional catch at best. I have caught them on 52M Mirrorlures, crankbaits and top water plugs. I once caught a 17 pound tarpon on a fly rod popping bug. The best natural bait for fresh water tarpon are live shiners. South Florida canals are full of tarpon, especially in the summer months. Hooking a 100 pound fish in a canal is exciting. Landing one is a challenge.

I am 74 years young and have been bass fishing since I could hold a fishing rod. In my fifties, I started having pain in my back and hips when stand up fishing. To counter this, I learned to flip sitting down. I eventually had an MRI which told me I had lumbar spinal stenosis which was pinching the nerves in my legs. It progressed to a point where I couldn't walk more than 100 feet. On March 1st of this year, I had surgery to remove numerous bone spurs, clean up bad discs and alleviate pressure on the nerves in my spine. My nerve pain when standing and walking is gone and I am recovering well. It's been a rough six weeks, but I am happy with the result. My quality of life has significantly improved. Don't let this happen to you. Pay attention to your back. All that hammering and bouncing around in a boat adds up. Watch your weight. When you stand all day, an extra 30-50 pounds is beating your back like a hammer. You may think you are young and this won't happen to you. Think again.

Here in Florida, the summers are very hot. Most bass fishing is limited to early morning or late evening that time of year. When I was a kid, summers were the time to fish. I always read that summer fishing was better at night. I hooked up with an older man that was a member of our church. He had a Jon boat and we would go out at 12 AM and fish until 9 AM. Our best fishing was always between 2 AM and 5 AM. Back then, we used top water plugs exclusively. When I began to get serious about bass fishing, I fished the Everglades at night. I would leave Holiday Park or Sawgrass at midnight. The mosquitoes were relentless. You had to coat yourself with Cutter every 15 minutes and burn Pics coils in the boat. Fishing alone at night is not a good idea, but I was young and thought I would live forever. I loved fishing at night. I had all the good spots to myself. I caught a lot of fish and they were bigger than the fish I caught in the daytime. I used 10" black worms dipped in Anise oil and big black spinnerbaits. Eventually, I started fishing Okeechobe at night. That was scary. All alone at night on 40 miles of water can be frightening. My best fish came on big spinnerbaits. My favorite was the "Deadly Dudley" It had a large boat propeller blade that turned with the slightest movement. Some of you may remember this bait. Great memories...

I once won a tournament on a Mepps Comet Mino lure. The bass were schooling and they ate it up.

I can't speak for the rest of the country, but here in Florida a spinnerbait is a big fish bait. Gold is my preferred blade color. Big bass in Florida prefer large native shiners. They flash gold, so I assume that's why gold works so well here. In the bedding season, bass will hit a spinnerbait out of aggression. I've had some almost pull the rod out of my hand. You have to experiment to find what they want that day.

Slow rolling is a very effective technique. Most weekend anglers don't do it because they are in too much of a hurry. Slow rolling keeps the bait in the strike zone longer. It should be done as closer to cover as possible. Strikes are not always obvious. A bass can suck in a spinnerbait and spit it back out faster than you can react. Finding the right cadence is important. I throw spinnerbaits with a 5/1 casting reel and 20 pound mono. Anything faster tends to disrupt the bait tilting it on it's side or affecting it's running in some adverse way. Experimenting with blade size can be beneficial. I often downsize the top blade so the bait runs deeper. This also makes the blades turn easier. If you fish slow enough, you can actually fish a spinnerbait on the bottom. Don't just throw and crank. Speed up and slow down. Giving the bait a jerk once in a while mimics deflection. Hope that helps.

Anchor or use a drift sock.

My first "Fish Finder" was a flasher I built from a Heath Kit. I never found many fish on the thing, but at least I knew how deep it was. My first offshore boat had a Lowrance Chart recorder that looked like a giant green fax machine sitting on my console. It used paper that came on rolls and tangled at every chance it got. It was good to 3,000 feet. Don't know why as I couldn't reach bottom anyway. Today's electronics are insane. With all these advantages, you would think the fish don't have a chance? Evidently, the fish have different ideas as you can see from tournament score boards. ?

About twenty years ago, I was a member of a group of anglers who paid to fish a private rock pit. There were about a half dozen of us in all. This rock pit was quarried when Disney World was created. One of the drag lines was still in the pit. The rock pit was over 100 feet deep and meandered over 30-40 acres. The water was crystal clear and full of huge bass. The best way to fish it was with large wild shiners. I took my son fishing there one winter morning. We took seven dozen 8"-10" shiners with us. We ran out of bait by 11 AM. The average bass we caught was seven pounds. A few of them were real giants. Back then the fee was $600 a year. If you ever get a chance to fish a pit like that, go for it. I still think about it today.

If your spinnerbaits don't catch fish, your lures will last forever. ?

If you want to target big bass with artificials in Florida, the most consistent method is flipping heavy cover. Before moving to Central Florida in 1996, I had caught maybe a dozen fish over 8 pounds and only one over ten. I quickly learned my favorite South Florida techniques weren't going to cut it here, so I left all my rods at home except for my flipping stick. Location is important in all fishing as you can't catch fish where they aren't. Most people won't do what it takes to target only big bass. It requires a lot of confidence and patience. You may only get a half dozen strikes a day if that. Most all your strikes will be larger fish. Truly big bass aren't normally swimming around our lakes picking on 6" worms and chasing jerk baits. If you want to target only big bass around here, you must put a lure in their face so they don't have any choice but to suck it in.

Great discussion. Every lake is different. Every angler is different. Our lakes average 6-8 feet deep. There is very little offshore cover or structure. In the spring, there are 2-3 tournaments each weekend. Some have over 100 boats. If you are going to consistently bring five fish to the scales, you either find fish where others aren't fishing or you need a long list of one fish spots. I once won a tournament on the Harris Chain with two fish. I only got two strikes that day, one 9 pounds and one six. I burnt up a lot of gas. The pattern that day was "run and gun".

I fished South Florida and Okeechobee for years. I rarely had trouble finding fish. When I moved to Central Florida in 1996, I quickly discovered I was no match for the locals. South Florida bass fishing is much easier than fishing these lakes. The number of Harris Chain bass per acre is less and there is practically no cover. We do have seasonal patterns, but they don't always hold up. Add in tournament after tournament and you have some really tough fishing. That's when "one fish spots" become valuable. I don't believe the Harris Chain is unique in this. I suspect many forum members struggle on challenging lakes. It takes time and effort to put together a successful milk run. These days, it's essential.

It seems that way. Funny thing is when you remove a fish from a spot like that another fish moves in to take it's place. I have caught the same bass on the same sunken boat dock four times. Each time she gets bigger.

Exactly. Could be miles apart. I have hear this referred to as "junk fishing".

Unfair advantage? I don't see it that way either. For years fishing experts have been talking about patterns. This gets interpreted by some to mean you can catch fish all over the lake the same way you caught one fish. Fishing pressure is much greater now than it was in the sixties. It's much greater now than it was three years ago. A successful milk run now may include a specific boat dock, a downed tree, a rock pile and a canal. If you show up here in a tournament, you may wonder if the winners are fishing in some other lake?

I don't normally watch TV fishing shows. I am currently recovering from back surgery. Marooned in my house, I happened to watch the latest Elite Series. On the show, Zona spoke about "one fish spots". This is something I have known about for years, but is hardly ever discussed. One fish spots give local anglers a tremendous advantage. Fishing the Harris Chain can be challenging at times. Right now, you can spinnerbait the weed lines and catch fish all day. In a few months, the action will slow substantially. Our best anglers have developed a milk run of "one fish spots". These spots could be sunken docks, stumps, rocks, tiny weed islands or anything out of the ordinary. A fish will set up on these spots. Catch that fish and move on the the next spot. At the end of the day, you have a nice limit when most other anglers can't get a bite. Fishing pressure being what it is these days, one fish spots are replacing patterns.

When bass tournaments first started back in the sixties, it became popular to paint your name on the sides of your boat. Some angler's names were fairly large. Like everyone else, I put my name on both sides along with a dozen decals and such. When I began to win tournaments, a friend came to me and told me he knew every spot where I was fishing, all he had to do was look for my boat. My next boat was all one color with no names or placards of any kind. ?

Smokers are the main reason I don't go to a casino. When I come home from a smoky casino, my clothes stink, my eyes water and I cough for half a day. Cigars are the worst. They stink so bad, no one will get near them. If you want to clear out a line of slots, light up a cigar. Maybe that's the point? ?