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Have you sat behind the wheel in one? Or a Ranger aluminum for that matter. I’m 6’2” and my knees hit the wheel or the console.

I have a flipping one, probably late 80’s early 90’s. It’s the maroon one. LMK if you are interested in it.

I’m in Mike. I’m in Debary so Toho or Harris work for me

Great bait hack.

Looks like you already asked in the right place.

I can’t tell you how many bass I’ve caught on these over the years. My favorite was always the black one with a white culprit worm trailer. Cut the culprit at the egg sack and just use that portion. On cloudy days, the gold with a yellow trailer was what we threw on Toho. Always have a backup rod ready with a worm and 3/16 sinker ready. If they miss the spoon, real in and toss the backup, more times than not you’ll get that fish. And yes the hooks are dull but a little work with a file/sharpener will get it ready to fish.

Happens all the time fishing the Stick Marsh here in Florida. There will be boats all around the area you are fishing and once you catch 1-2 they beeline it right on top of you. I mean a cast away! I’ll just throw at their boat and catch one out from under it ? Not at the Marsh but another lake, I had one guy the other week or so that idles down the grass line goes around our boat and proceeds to start fishing. I figured it was a God test so I just picked up and ran across the lake. About 3 hours later, I see a boat coming towards us and low and behold, it’s the same guy. This time he wants to know if I had a scale to weigh a fish he caught as his scales battery went dead. Unbelievable. Another test moment. Yes I weighed it for him. But I’ve been 25-30 miles offshore of Cape Canaveral fishing a bottom spot and had boats pull up within 100’ and steal the spot. And more than a few times.

Great news!!!

The creed I’ve always lived by was “ when in doubt, rip it out” or set the hook. I can’t tell you how many times I set the hook on something different and it was a fish. I’m not just talking about a worm or jig but it applies to moving baits as well. If the bait isn’t acting like it should I set the hook. Yea I hook a lot of grass and wood but I get my share of bass as well.

Check out this ad I found in an old magazine I had. Them boys could catch em.

Best bet is probably a bay boat in the 20-22’ range. They are designed to handle the rough chops of open bays. They have front and rear platforms, some have rod lockers, trolling motor setups, higher sides, basically a saltwater bass boat on steroids. I had a 2101 Century years ago and would bass fish one day and could run offshore of Cape Canaveral here in Florida the next day, weather permitting of course.

Phil, don’t remember Ellen’s tournaments sorry. I helped start a little club called Everglades Bass Anglers. We fished mainly Sawgrass, the Alley, Okeechobee and even SR 84 out of Melaleuca park. We mainly fished Okee out of Uncle Joe’s cut. I did a lot of light tackle saltwater back in those days fishing the MET tournament. Once I moved up here I did more bass and fished the Redman, Bass-N-Buddy and the World Bass Association tournaments. We need to meet up and share stories and a ? or two.

Like Phil and Geo stated, they are everywhere and are very aggressive during mating season. You couldn’t pay me enough to fish out of a kayak down there. I’ll bet Phil, Geo and I all know each other. I grew up in Plantation (59-84) before moving up to central Florida. Fished all the same locations as Geo.

While I’ve caught a couple of smallmouth on Dale Hollow years ago, I’d love to fish with Ajay where he catches his big ones. Maybe we could work out a trip trade. Lake Baccarac where he fishes is definitely on my bucket list. Living here in Florida my entire life I’ve fished most of the well known lakes here. I’ve also fished both FL coasts and the keys out to 100 miles and caught about every species that swims. Still would like to fish some of the lakes in Texas and some of the northern lakes and rivers for smallies.

Summers can be tough in Florida due to the heat but especially the humidity, at least on us. Bass will be where like Phil, James and WRB said. Top waters early, then flipping is your best bet from now until September. Sounds like you’ve found some of the right spots offshore, just need to get them to bite.

. I'm not a big time lure collector. I collect lures that I fished with as a kid. Each one brings back a memory. Same for me Phil.

Johnny Rattler or “Mr. Excitement “ we called them. Great for bass but spotted sea trout loved them. Tarpon too as Phil said. That was probably a standard color and not custom as they had a lot of wild color combos on them. That Weedwing was the ticket down here in Florida back in the day. I grew up using a Nip-I-didee prop bait, Dalton special, devils horse, Rapala purple creme worm and Johnson spoons.

I’ve read that braid makes noise coming thru or in contact with wood/brush and that flouro is better. Any truth?

Megabait mega crank 65

BFS has it rigged correctly too. Front hook should face down, rear hook should face up. Rapala does this on some of their saltwater baits.

True

I remember that Phil.

I agree it’s more of a feel thing that I use when fishing them too so the “actual” weight probably isn’t that important I guess. I’m just OCD and like to organize my tackle as best I can and take as much of the guesswork out as possible.

You would be wrong. I’m 67 and been fishing them for a LONG time. Different style heads weigh differently too. As for too many, I’ll give you that.

That’s as what I was thinking Lol, I only have the one for jigs and chatterbaits.