Captain Phil

I used either a Zoom Horny Toad or a Gambler Cane Toad with 50 pound Power Pro braid and a Gambler Double Trouble Toad Hook. Good sharp hooks are a must. The hardest part of plastic frog fishing is learning to drop back on a strike. As the Harris Chain has cleared in recent years, toad fishing has gotten better. Toads are tearing it up right now.

This not a bass story, but you may find it interesting. When I lived in Miami, I participated in the NMFS Cooperative Game Fish Tagging Program. Basically, we tagged game fish and tracked their size, location, Etc. One afternoon, I caught a tagged Atlantic Sailfish. I measured the fish, removed the tag and released the fish. After I sent in the tag, I received a letter a few weeks later informing me that my fish had been tagged ten miles up the coast the day before I caught it. Not only did that fish bite twice in two days, It traveled some distance to do it.

I don't think I ever lost a fish on a Wacky Rig. I agree the problem is your hook. I use Owner or Gamakatsu hooks. These hooks are so good the fish set themselves.

This happens every time there is a drought in the Glades. One day you think you're Roland Martin. The next day you think someone poisoned all the fish. Fishing is fantastic when the water is low because all the fish are in the canal. As soon as the summer rains start, the fish move out into the flats. There is actually a magic few days where the only fish in the canals are huge. As the water moves higher, there is current in the canals. If you find running water, you will find fish. Try the intersections of the canals. The fish will be on the bottom facing the current.

I wouldn't beat myself up. Back in the day, we fried thousands of bass and they survived. These days, I respect bass too much to kill one.

It's not good for the fish to touch it's body. Bass have a protective slim to protect them from infection. Rubbing off this slim could cause the fish to get lesions. For the same reason, I do not use a landing net. If you must touch them, do it with wet hands. I hold bass by the lower lip. I always make sure the bass can swim off under it's own power. Fish are tough animals. I have caught some that survived horrendous injuries. It's best to release them as soon as possible.

Most bass fisherman I know prefer catching big fish over small fish. Every big fish "harvested" is a fish no one will ever catch again. I release every bass I catch. My biggest bass was near 12 pounds. She was released and hopefully lived to thrill another angler.

Bass fishing can be frustrating at times. The canals you are fishing contain black bass. It is possible the non native fish have reduced their numbers, but I believe there are enough bass left to make you happy. A couple of observations. Peacock bass like fast moving baits retrieved near the surface. The fact that you are catching them and not largemouths may be due to your fishing style. If you want to target native bass, here's what I would do. Load your spinning rod with 8 pound mono. Fish a Zoom Trick worm with no or a very light weight. If the water is clear, use watermelon green. If the water is dirty, use black. Fish the worm on the bottom. Slow down. If there are any black bass in that canal, they will bite your worm. Others may have different tactics. Find one that works for you. This works for me.

Senko, finesse worm or wacky worm. Go with light line and light weight. NO TERMINAL TACKLE!! Tie your line directly to the lure. Slow down, be patient and you will catch fish.

To me, a nice fish is any fish you enjoy catching and you want to catch more of. If this discussion was about "bragging fish", it takes me eight pounds or better to get excited about a Florida bass. Most people weigh bass with their eyes. The fish they see are a lot bigger than the fish they catch. People often send me photos of fish for our website. I try to post them all. I don't post weights because most of the ten pounder photos are sevens. Back in the early seventies, I drew a partner in a national tournament who claimed to be the first person to catch 100 10 pound bass. He was a good fisherman and I didn't doubt him. That would be some feat today.

In Florida, I consider any bass three pounds or better nice. I believe the strongest fighting largemouth bass are around six pounds. Bass larger than that do not generally clear the water. They will try to break you off or run under the boat. We call them "rooters". Some folks think Florida fisherman only care about ten pound fish. The fact is a 10 pound bass is rare no matter where you fish. The average bass in Central Florida is about 2 1/2 pounds. A nice tournament kicker is 5 pounds and over. An average weekend tournament winning 5 fish bag on the Harris Chain is about 18-20 pounds. This takes 4 nice fish and one kicker. I once won a local tournament with two fish that weighed 19 pounds. Two bites...two fish.

I grew up in a bad area of Miami. I didn't know it at the time. In the eighth grade, one of the kids in my gym class turned out to be on the Public Enemy List. I had as much chance of being in prison as being out. Two things kept me straight, church and fishing. When other kids were hanging out at night, I was either at church or planning a fishing trip. If you see a kid carrying a fishing pole, that was me. I learned to cast into a bucket on the front lawn of our home. I taught myself to cast a fly rod. I learned how not to get a backlash, most of the time. I saved money from my paper route to buy my first Mitchell 300. I met my wife when she was 15 years old. She loved fishing too. We fished before school and after. Fifty eight years later, we are still fishing. We fished with our son when he was too young to walk. If you take a kid fishing, you could be affecting him or her in ways you can't imagine. Some kids don't like fishing. All kids want their parents to love them.

Or anything else for that matter. If you want to learn to catch fish on a certain lure or with a certain technique, leave everything else home and do that. When I first learned to flip, I didn't have much luck. I grew tired of getting my butt kicked, so I took a flipping stick and fished the entire circumference of Little Lake Harris. Took me all summer. Not only did I learn to flip, I found some great spots I did not know about. If you fish the same area the same way all the time, you will produce the same result. If that works for you, great. If you want to do better, try something different.

:>)

For years I read about anglers catching bass on jigs. The bass in Florida must not read the same books, because I never had much success with them. Believe me I tried. I did catch one fish on a jig in Florida. It was a very cold day and I was desperate. This lead me to believe jigs are for cold water conditions. Cold water turns soft plastics into sticks. During the winter in Florida, I catch more bass on hard baits. Years ago when I was guiding, I often had anglers from other parts of the country in my boat. Most of my customers where tournament anglers looking for help on the Chain. They would pull out a "northern" lure and I would comment as follows "That doesn't work here." About that time they would catch a fish on the "doesn't work here" lure. If you have confidence in something, you will make it work. If you don't, you will believe it "doesn't work here" like I did.

Many South Florida canals connect to the ocean. Tarpon and snook follow the canals and can be found miles inland. I have caught tarpon in Lake Okeechobee.

It's always amazing to me how bass fisherman follow trends. Power poles are a great example. How many $2,000 power poles do you need? How many of them never get deployed? Some of the best bass fisherman I have ever seen were cranking old Ambassador reels from a leaky boat. I once fished a Federation Team tournament in Toho. I went non boater to help a friend get in. The boater I drew had at least a half dozen $500 Shimano reels with $300 Loomis rods. It was impressive. I caught fish all day from the back of his boat with a tiny torpedo. He finally caught one bass just before the weigh-in. I like cool stuff as much as anyone, but it doesn't make you a better angler.

Live bait on a kite.... :>)

There are a lot more game fish in those canals than most people realize. Big snook and tarpon live there too. For years out at Holiday Park, anglers talked about a giant bass that lived in the Miami Canal. Turned out to be a 30 pound snook. :>)

OMG NO!! I looked terrible in those things. We wore them because the "pros" wore them in the magazines. If Bill Dance wore a spotted bikini, we would have worn that too!! Some people like Roland Martin looked good in everything. Never helped him win a classic. :>)

I was introduced to fishing by my grandfather. After he retired, he would take me with him. We would sit on the bank of a canal for hours. We hardly ever caught anything. I was never bored because I wanted to be with my grandfather more than anything. Taking a kid fishing is not about catching fish. It's about telling stories, sharing the experience and just having an adult's attention for a few hours. Today's families don't spend time with their kids. Everyone is too busy. Kids substitute their phones and the Internet for their parents. They are no substitute for a real Mom and Dad.

Welcome! Lots of Florida bass anglers here. Sounds like you live in South Florida. I grew up in Miami. Moved to Central Florida twenty years ago. When I lived in Pembroke Pines, I lived on a canal. Whenever I fished the Glades or Lake Okeechobee I would bring bass home in my live well to put in my canal. That canal was full of huge bass. Every now and then one of the neighborhood kids would hang one about nine pounds. They once hooked a bass that was so big it scared them and they cut it off. South Florida has some of the best bass fishing most people don't know about.

Have you ever eaten Tripletail? Delicious! Dolphin (Mahi Mahi) is my personal favorite.

Walleye is a great eating fish. I fished in Canada for a number of years. We ate walleye for shore lunch every day. Pike are good too, if you know how to clean them. Florida bass from Okeechobee and the Everglades taste muddy. We used to soak them in milk to get rid of the taste. Salt water fish all taste good. The best offshore fish I ever ate was Wahoo. It makes tuna look bad. Lots of people email me and ask if it's safe to eat fish from the Harris Chain. Fisheries biologists tell me it is. Some Florida lakes have excessive levels of mercury. In Florida, I think it's better to eat fish in a restaurant and leave the native fish alone.

Years ago, I wrote a weekly fishing column for a local newspaper. A reporter asked me to take him fishing. We got up early and went to East Lake Toho before light. It was just getting light when I made my first cast. I threw out a Devil's Horse and got a hit right away. When I set the hook, the fish went to the bottom. I could feel the weight of the fish but it didn't pull hard. I thought I had hooked a turtle. When I got the fish to the boat, I had two three pounders hooked to my Devil's Horse. The reporter went nuts. I smiled and told him that I do that all the time. :>)