Captain Phil

We are staying in Big Canoe. Nights are in the 50s & 60s. Days in the seventies. That's the Ice Age compared to Florida. :>)

Thanks for the input. Leaving in the morning. Looking forward to some cooler weather for a change.

I have had decent luck with a Texas rigged Zoom Junebug worm and a 5/16" oz sinker casting it shallow and working it down the drops. All small fish. Bass over three pounds seem non existent. I know there must be bigger fish in the lake somewhere?

Next week we will be staying with friends in North Georgia. His home is in a mountain Community with a sizable private lake open only to residents. We fish out of a pontoon boat. This is a clear deep water lake of approximately 500 acres that is stocked with largemouth bass and trout. I have fished this lake many times before. I have caught small bass with a Tex rig worm on 8 pound spinning tackle. My largest bass so far has been about 3 pounds. Coming from Florida, I may as well be fishing on the moon. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The old man you described obviously has an issue of some kind. It would be best to avoid a confrontation because you don't know the extent of his condition. This is exacerbated by your inability to communicate. If he becomes overly hostile or physically abusive, you should report him to the authorities. I see no harm in keeping a few fish to eat. I don't eat bass myself, but I am not bothered if someone else does. What bothers me more is seeing dead bass floating after a tournament. When you take a bass out of it's environment, put it in a small tank in your boat and cart it around all day, that happens too often. You may not see the dead bass on the water, but damage is done nevertheless. I am a strong proponent of reduced bag limits, especially in tournaments. Tournament exemptions are handed out far too easily. Is a person who weighs five 12" bass a better angler than someone who weighs two 4 pound fish? Better yet is the current trend of catch, photo and release.

Found this on the web. Among Daiwa and Shimano proucts, MSRP$300-400 or higher products are Made in Japan. Products sold at lower are mostly made at factories outside Japan, like Thailand, Malaysia and etc. In my opinion, the best low cost spinning reels are the Daiwa Black Gold series. They are light, reliable and affordable.

I have lived and fished around gators all my life. I currently live on the Harris Chain. The Chain of Lakes has numerous large alligators. Any animal that large with teeth can be dangerous. We had a small boy killed by an alligator some time ago. He was swimming in a river teasing the alligators. Some men told the boys to stop, but they didn't listen. My handyman was attacked by an alligator while pruning bushes near a canal. Everyone knows about the boy that was killed at Disney World. It is highly unusual for an adult to be chased by an alligator. Unusual doesn't mean it can't happen. Never let a small dog get near the water in Florida. I know of two cases where an alligator snatched a dog from a jon boat. A dog walking along the shoreline is an easy meal for an alligator. If an alligator gets too large or starts showing aggressive behavior, call the game officials. They will send a trapper to remove the gator. Normally, if you stay away from gators they will leave you alone.

Our two Lake Erie smallmouth trips were in July. We took the Ferry from Canada and stayed on Pele Island for a week each time. Weather was an issue, but we were able to fish every day. We fished the glacier grooves around the island in 15-20' of water. We fished tube jigs on the bottom. Three-four pound smallmouths were common. What a fantastic fishery.

That would be great. I keep leaving it on. ?

I love my Minn Kota Terrova. Does anyone know if the Minn Kota remote control has an automatic shut down feature? I leave it in my boat and sometimes forget to power it down.

Depends on where you fish. I've spent my life fishing for largemouth bass. The only smallmouth fishing I have done has been in Lake Eire. Ten pound largemouth bass are rare, even in Florida. However, "Once in a lifetime" is a wide term. In the South, I think an 11 or 12 pound bass is closer. In California, I suspect they have fish that could eat my best bass for lunch. :>) On our trips to Lake Eire, we caught three 6 pound smallmouth bass. This was three guys fishing for a week two years in a row. From that experience, I would think a 7-8 pound smallmouth would be "once in a lifetime". If you fish small lakes and ponds, a six pound largemouth is a trophy. Any large bass is a thrill.

Year's ago I was friends with Charlie Infinger of Charlie's Worms. At the time, he was known around South Florida as a great bass fisherman. He had a ten bass "Gold Stringer" of mounted bass each over ten pounds. Back then, this was like a bowler bowling ten 300 games. For those of you who have never seen one, here is an old Polaroid photo of one below. Thankfully, we not longer kill our fish. I remember when he told us he was going to make his own worms. He asked us to try a few and tell us what we thought. His first worms were so soft they wouldn't stay on the hook. It took some time before he got them right. Since then, he sold many millions of soft plastic baits through Walmart and other major retailers. Charlie died in 2005. I believe the business was run by his daughter for a number of years. The company was recently sold. If you want to make worms as a hobby, I encourage you. I make some of my own baits and love it when I catch a fish on one. If you are doing it to make money, I believe there are better ways to make a living. Fisherman are a fickle bunch. One of the problems with running a tackle shop is ending up with a wall full of yesterday's hot baits that no one wants to buy. I currently have a king size garbage can full of old soft plastic baits that I can't give away. The list of plastic worm manufacturers that are no long with us is lengthy.

Here in Florida, there is rarely a need to anchor when bass fishing. Most of the time, I am covering water hunting fish, not sitting on one spot. When I was guiding and a customer wished to use shiners, I would anchor. I can also remember a few times when I would camp on a spot during a tournament. When salt water fishing, an anchor is essential due to the current. Power poles on bass boats are like big engines. They have little purpose other than to boost egos at the ramp. Until pros started putting them on their boats, no one needed one. Now you must have two to prove you are a "real" bass fisherman. This sells a lot of power poles. My current boat has a Minn Kota Terrova with the anchor feature. It works much better than an anchor or a power pole.

I grew up in South Florida. I started fishing when I was 12 years old. As a teenager, I read everything I could find about bass fishing. I was totally obsessed with catching a big bass. Try as I might, I could not catch a bass over 6 pounds. It seemed everyone around me caught big fish, but me. One day I decided the best way to catch a big bass was to use bigger bait. I started with 9" flip tail worms and progressed to 14" JW Hawg Hunter Worms which were like a rope cut out of a tire. I started fishing deeper, thinking more big bass are on the bottom. I eventually caught an eight pounder on a black Hawg Hunter. It seemed like once I crossed that line, I began catching bigger fish.

I'm not partial to one line or the other. Personally, I get more line tangles with braid and they are harder to pick out. I also don't like braid's tendency to wrap around my rod tip. If you train yourself to flip your bail over by hand and check for loops on every cast, you will avoid most spinning tackle mono line "bird nests".

I'm not sure about "better", but braid definitely casts farther with spinning tackle. This is due to it's smaller diameter, which is one of braid's advantages. Braid also has less stretch. This means you will get a stronger hook set at distance. When fishing soft plastics, you won't get as many bites when using braid. It's stiffer, more buoyant and more visible, not to mention more costly. You can tie a leader on the end, but now you have added another variable. Braid has it's place as does mono.

Lake Griffin.

You can try top water lures at night. When I fished those rock pits, I used a black 7-9" Texas rigged worm with a 1/8, 5/16 or 3/8 oz sinker. The type of worm is not that important. It depends a lot on the depth of the water and the bottom composition. I assume the water is 10-20 feet deep away from shore? If it's shallower, lighten up on the sinker. I have never caught many bass deeper than 30 feet in Florida. Many rock pits have bottom structure like big rocks and ledges. Slow down, work the worm along the bottom back to you. Be patient. As the water cools, fishing will get better.

Be on the water at first light. Fishing will be all over by 9 AM. Come back again about an hour before dark, especially if a thunderstorm came through earlier. If you can fish at night, do so. If you must fish in the heat of day, fish a plastic worm on the bottom. Most South Florida lakes are rock pits. They are pretty deep. That's where the fish are. Things will pick up in November.

To me, it's a matter of water clarity. Frogging is a technique that works better in clearer water. Flipping is for darker waters. There are exceptions, but this is true the majority of the time. In turbid water, fish hold tight to cover and don't move far. Years ago, when the Harris Chain water was a mess, flipping was the only way to go. You could cast a top water lure all day in the main lake without a bite. Today, the water is clearer and frogging works much better. Flipping all day is hard work. It's also the best way I know of to target big fish. Frogging is the most fun of any bass fishing technique I have ever done.

Anyone can catch fish when they are jumping in the boat. You will learn the most about bass fishing when fishing is poor.

The best way to learn a new skill is to avoid doing what you always do. This is hard because most weekend anglers go fishing to catch fish, not to learn a new way to catch them. Stand in the weigh-in line next to someone with two eight pound bass in his bag and you will feel pretty silly with a limit of 12" fish. There are techniques that specifically target big fish. Fishing for big bass is hard. You won't get as many bites. You may not get any. If you stick with it, you will learn to fish for big fish instead of just any fish.

Most fisherman fish a tournament like any other day fishing. They hope to catch a limit and if they are skilled enough, they do much of the time. This will win a tournament on a day when no one catches fish. Consistent winners aren't fishing for the same fish. All they want is a few big bites. If you want to be a consistent winner, fish for big fish. The small fish will take care of themselves.

I carry a rod with a Rattle Trap tied on whenever I go bass fishing. I can't tell you how many times I have been fishing without fish, thrown out a Rattle Trap and caught fish. I was introduced to Rattle Trap fishing twenty years ago by a tournament fisherman who never fished with anything else. A good Rattle Trap fisherman is tough to beat. There is more to Rattle Trap fishing than chunkin' and windin'.

A Rattle Trap is a search bait. It finds fish. No other bait covers water as fast. What you do once you find them is what wins tournaments.