Captain Phil

Until recently, I have not been a big believer in braid. I only used it for frog fishing in heavy over. I have seen instances where mono or fluro would out fish braid, especially when fishing plastic baits in clear water. Here in Florida, it is rare to find clear water. I find myself fishing a Rattle trap more and more. Rattle Traps are one of the best search baits. There are days when you can't get a bite unless you are fishing one. I fish a Rattle Trap on a casting rod with a 7/1 reel and 20 pound mono. If I can feel the lure vibrate in the rod, I know I am fishing it right. By switching to 30 pound Power Pro, the lure seems to vibrate more than mono. I do not know of what happens on my end affects what happens on the fish's end, but I catch more bass pulling a Rattle Trap with braid. I also don't worry as much about hangups. I'm pretty sure I could anchor my boat with 30 pound braid. :>)

This website is without a doubt one of the best web experiences out there. It's easy to navigate and the wealth of information available is astounding. The new layout is great. What amazes me is the lack of bullies and Internet trolls. Everyone is respectful and willing to share their knowledge. The owners are to be congratulated. Great Job!!

Back when I was actively guiding, most of my winter customers were from the North. Many would bring their own tackle. Occasionally, a northern fisherman would pull out a spoon or a spinnerbait that I had never seen before. Sometimes I would tactfully suggest that they try one of my lures instead. They had confidence in their "northern" lure, so they would throw it despite my suggestion. To my surprise, many would catch Florida bass on the lures they brought from home. Bass don't have Google Maps and they don't always do what you think they should do. Other than ice fishing, anything that works in Michigan will work in Florida.

Some of you may not remember Tom Mann. He was one of the early bass pros. He founded Mann's bait company in Eufaula Alabama and created the Hummingbird brand of electronics. For years he had a pet bass called Leroy Brown in a huge aquarium in his factory. The bass became famous and we stopped by to see him in the early seventies. There is an article about this bass on the Bassmaster website. Google Tom Mann Leroy Brown bass. A friend of mine had a pet bass in his tackle store. He put it in a aquarium when it was about 6 inches long. He fed it minnows and shiners. The bass eventually outgrew the aquarium and was released.

Here in Florida people pay a lot of money for boats that look just like yours. They are called Gheenoe boats. They will float in almost no water and are great fishing platforms. They rig them with casting platforms and electric motors.

I've been fishing for bass for over 60 years. As a small boy, my grandfather and I fished off the bank. When I was 16, I built my own boat out of a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood and some lumber I bought at a local lumber yard. I doubt I paid more than $15 for it. It leaked like crazy, but my girlfriend, my current wife of 55 years, kept it from sinking with a sponge. Since then, I have owned at least 20 boats of every size and description. Bass boats, center consoles, open fish, cuddy cabins, cruisers, flats boats, kayaks, even a 40 foot sport fishing boat. I currently fish out of a ten year old pontoon boat. To a fisherman, a boat is a tool. The fish don't know if you are casting out of an inner tube or a $60,000 bass boat. Will you catch more fish out of a fancy boat? Probably not. You will spend your day riding from place to place while some old man in an old pontoon boat is catching fish. Happens all the time. :>)

Unless you catch them out of a clear sand bottom lake, South Florida bass taste like mud. We used to soak them in milk for days to get the taste out. The only way I could tolerate the taste was to cut them into small pieces and fry them in a bucket of hot oil. If you like to eat fish, I say go to the supermarket and buy some frozen Mahi-Mahi. I have no problem with folks who keep bass as long as they eat them and obey the law. What I hate is when someone kills a big bass just so they can walk the bank to show it off. Thankfully, camera phones have cut back on that practice.

You are not that far from Lake Okeechobee. Lake Istokpoga is a great bass lake. How about the Caloosahatchee River? I lived in Pembroke Pines for about 20 years. Not exactly the bass capital either. I caught bass up to 9 pound bass in the canal in my back yard.

When I was a boy in South Florida, I used to fish a lot of small ponds and rock pits. When water levels rose after a period of low water, the fish would turn on initially. After the water stabilized, fishing would decline for a period of time. As a general rule, fish follow the water. This holds true in big lakes as well where rising water means good fishing and falling water is generally poor. The exception to this is in the Everglades canals where low water pulls all the fish off the flats and into the canal. Some of the craziest bass fishing I have ever seen has been when the water is low in the Everglades. It's nothing to catch a hundred fish in a day.

When modifying a spinnerbait, you are attempting to change the appearance, action or running depth of the lure. Much of the time you are "matching the hatch" as they say in trout fishing. For example, if the primary forage in your lake is small bait fish, you may want small willow leaf blades. If the primary forage is large golden shiners like we have in Florida, large gold blades might work better. Or, if everyone is throwing 3/8 oz. spinnerbaits, you may do better with a 1/4 or 1/8 oz. spinnerbait. Nothing is written in stone and the fish seem to make up their own rules. I remember a time when I was killing fish on a gold spinnerbait in Haynes Creek. For some reason, the bite shut off. I threw my gold spinnerbait for days without a bite. I fished a buddy tournament that weekend and my partner was catching bass on a white and silver Terminator. I switched and we won that tournament. What caused the bass to switch from gold blades to white with silver blades? When you figure that out, you can write that book. :>)

You should join a bass club. Not only will you find new places to fish, you will learn how to fish them. Here's a short list. Lake Monroe and the St. John's River, The Kissimmee Chain, East Lake Toho, The Butler Chain and Lake Panasoffkee. Lake County where I live is full of great small lakes with boat ramps. Many of the forest lakes produce double digit bass catches each year. Here's a photo of a bass we caught in one of them recently.

You should know that practically every body of fresh water bigger than a puddle in Florida contains some bass. Some of the best fishing is in residential rock pits and canals. If you only fish well known lakes, you are missing out. I live on the Harris Chain 30 minutes from Orlando. There are literally hundreds of other places I can fish, all less than an hour from my home. Florida lakes vary considerably. Some are clear with a sand bottom. Some are dark with cypress trees. Many are not much more than swamps. Everyone of them has a different technique that works better than others. Instead of fishing only water that looks like you think it should, learn to fish differently depending upon the conditions in that water. Too many bass fisherman do the same thing all the time expecting the same result.

If variety is what you are after, you should try inshore Salt Water fishing. In Florida, you are never more than an hour from the ocean. Most of it is just like bass fishing only the fish are bigger and somewhat easier to catch. Bass fishing is not about catching a pile of fish. It's about the challenge of trying.

I currently fish out of a pontoon boat. I have owned a number of bass boats in my life. I no longer fish tournaments and I am not as stable as I used to be. I am retired and my pontoon is docked on Little Lake Harris. My pontoon works great for me. The biggest problem with fishing out of a pontoon boat is boat positioning and trailering. The wind blows them around and they always seem to drift in the wrong direction. I solved that problem by installing a Minn Kota Terrova trolling motor. It's like having a guide run the boat for you. The anchor lock feature works great. I'm sure you can't rent a pontoon rigged like my boat. Don't judge all pontoons by your rental boat. Rigged right, today's pontoons are serious fishing machines.

I have been fishing for bass in Florida for over 60 years. Fishing is no tougher now than it was back then. Catching bass on artificials has never been easy. One of my friends worked at Roland's Marina back when he was making his TV shows. It sometimes took weeks to get enough fish action to fill up a show. Lures and tackle are much better now. Catch and release has caught on with anglers. 10% of the anglers still catch 90% of the fish. If you are going to fish a weed line, don't fish like most anglers I see fishing. Put your boat directly on the weed line and cast down it. Retrieve your lure as close to the weeds as possible. Better yet, hit the weeds if you can. Florida still has great bass fishing. It was never as good as it is on a TV show.

I like tandem spinnerbaits with a Colorado front blade and a willowleaf rear blade. My front blade is a #3 1/2. I normally downsize the rear blade to a #4. I also use a Zoom split tail trailer and a trailer hook. I throw my spinnerbaits on 20 pound mono with a 5/1 casting reel. There is a lot to learn about spinnerbait fishing. Wire size, shape, body material, blade size, blade color, flash, vibration, cadence, component quality and retrieve speed are all involved. Where to throw them is actually more important than what you throw. Once you get things right, good things happen. If not, you are just chunking and winding.

Spinnerbait blade sizing is about lure depth and retrieve speed. The smaller the blades the deeper and slower the lure will run. Most anglers pull spinnerbaits too fast. If speed is what is required, there are better choices like chatter baits and rattletraps. I like 3/8 oz. tandem spinnerbaits. They normally come with a 4.5 or 5 size top blade. I downsize the blades so they run slower and deeper.

I've caught the same fish numerous times. Some years back we had a drought on the Chain that dropped the water level over six feet exposing a lot of underwater stuff I didn't know was there. One of them was a sunken boat dock. It's almost impossible to find unless you know where it is. There is a big fish that lives on those pilings. The first time I caught that fish she weighted about six pounds. It's the same fish as she has some unique markings that you can see in this photo. I caught her again three more times. The last time she weighed a little over nine pounds.

Makes sense. This lake is full of small bass. The trout that are stocked are good sized fish. Residents catch them by slow trolling trout food. I'm back home in Florida now. There are two big tournaments on the Chain this weekend. After the lake calms down, I'll be back on the water.

Here's a followup on this thread. I tried a Zoom finesse worm on 8 pound mono and caught a few fish. This lake is full of small shad that I assumed to be the main food source. I pulled out a small shad colored Pop R that I haven't used in years. I'm sure these bass have never seen that lure before. The mountain lake bass went nuts over this lure. My buddy that lives on this lake now has a new way to fish. I still haven't caught any fish larger than a pound or so. This lake has stocked bass and trout. It's been stocked for a long time. It's deep with no weeds, only rocks. Where are the big fish?

Florida bass must speak Spanish? ?

I remember when the 2500C came out. They were great reels and we loved them. We were fishing Okeechobee and loaded them with 20 pound test. We quickly discovered if you hammer down the drag like you would a 5500C, the nylon gears would strip. They didn't last long down south.

I believe you are right about Arbogast. It seems the first rubber slip on skirt I remember was on a Hawaiian Wiggler. Tough bait to find with the skirt still intact. I have a Buel arrowhead spinner in my collection with an 1852 patent date stamped in it.

If I had to catch a bass and I only had one bait to use, it would be a spinnerbait. There is a lot more to spinnerbait fishing than most anglers imagine. I use Hildebrandt spinnerbaits exclusively. They are made with quality components. They are not cheap or easy to find. I order them online. If you hold a cheap Walmart spinnerbait in your hand next to one of these baits, you can see the difference. The blades are gold plated, which gives more flash. The top blade is easily changed as I often downsize or upsize my blades. The wire is thin and bent just right giving off more vibration. The hooks are sharp. They use ball bearing swivels so the blades turn no matter how slow I fish them. They are without a doubt the best spinnerbait on the market. If I had to pick second place, it would be a Terminator. I don't concern myself with the cost of baits that catch fish. Why spend your hard earned money on a boat, a truck to tow it with, rods, reels and tackle so you can miss out on fish by fishing with cheap baits?