Zcoker

lol

I forgot about the tools! Always need those pliers with cutter. Must have.

Like I said, to each their own. I live in Florida the fishing capital of the world and I haven’t heard much of anyone doing it, or at least with the guys I know. Probably more prevalent in freshwater fishing up north? But, hey, nothing against it! If it makes you a better fisherman, then more power to ya!

Gee, that's a hard one. Can't believe that some actually count their fishing days but to each their own. I fish not only freshwater but saltwater as well, all over the state of Florida, in fact. So if I'm not out in the everglades going after bass, I'm on a secluded beach somewhere working a pencil popper for sharks or yaking baits out for the bigger fish or even in the Keys sharkin off the bridges all night. I reckon at least 2-3 days a week devoted to freshwater or saltwater, depending, of course, on my work load or what's running. I have to balance everything: work, family, saltwater fishing, freshwater fishing...busy busy busy but, hey, a busy life is a dizzy life! lol I'd say more of a percentage deal for me, like maybe 50-60% of 2023 was devoted to fishing in some form or another. The rest is, well, the rest is general life events. Now if you count researching and shopping for tackle, rigging up shark poppers, spooling up the big reels with over 2000 yards of line, crimping up leaders, then there's plenty more days to add to it!

Let's see, for bank fishing with two rods, I'd take along a bait caster for plastic worms, the other would be a spinning rod with 4k saltwater reel for topwater lures, which is usually the main player for the bigger fish where I fish. I'd use my surf fishing belt/bag for the extra storage or even just my shirt or jacket pockets. That's about it. I've won tournaments fishing in the everglades off the bank with very minimal tackle, like with only one lure and a spinning rod. A minimalist approach is a good approach. Makes ya use what ya got to the MAX!

Los Angeles sequel, Gator wrestling, lol. I wrestle with them all the time when I'm out in the glades! Old Florida is still on the road map, even in the densely populated areas. I have a home on the west coast of Florida, lil town called Safety Harbor just outside of Clearwater across the bay from Tampa. Once populated by the Tocobaga Indian tribe, it's still a place of safe haven with old Florida homes shrouded with big live oaks, Spanish moss hanging everywhere like grey ghost...and it still spits! I can hear the sound of the oyster beds during low tide, spitting away! Wonderful little place with red brick streets (hard to even imagine that they hand-laid all them individual bricks!). Lotta small towns like that all over this state. And our entire state is still OWNED by the Everglades. Nothing much gonna grow there except sawgrass...and BIG bass!

Good point about all those nuked plants dying in the water. They die, sink to the bottom and turn the water into a muddy cesspool. Some of these places down my way used to be so fresh and clear. The water clarity in south Florida has never been the greatest but with constant spaying it starting to look like chocolate mixed with charcoal.

I’ve been flung, bit, hooked, knocked off my kayak … crazy sport. These big sharks are no joke! Sometimes I have to swim them out…of course in a pitch black ocean. Kind of a relief bass fishing lol

Well, I guess I'm a hammer because I catch a lot of hammer-heads lol

You're correct. All contracted out. They get free reign. The gates to some of these retention areas are opened up for them to have a field day. One place in particular down my way, they completely killed off most of the sawgrass islands. Took over a year for those islands to stabilize as well as the fish to start biting again. Never been the same. They probably don't really give a hoot. I mean, they get their marching orders, "hey, head over to so and so and nuke it!" We're just doing what we're told. No one in control. No one to strictly monitor. Not a tree hugger here but if any one has ever seen the before and after of some of these nuke jobs, hard to imagine anything surviving them.

The spraying here in south east Florida some of us call "Nuking", and for a very good reason. So when anything is sprayed, we talk on the lines of, "hey, such and such lake just got nuked." Which is about right. Kenansville Lake (or Jurassic Park, as it's also called) is a prime example on the smaller bodies of water, the detrimental effect it can have on the fishing. I don't know if the concentration is higher or to what extent the chemical compound is made to, but after they nuked that place a few times, seemed like it wiped out just about everything that swam. I know they say the bass don't die and I can't say if there's any other method to use, but it sure does take a LONG TIME for any recovery with what chemicals they're using nowadays. And even at that, I've yet to see any of these places recover fully from previous sprayings. I used to go the Kenansville and catch trophy fish just about every trip along with loads of other nice fish. Now it's very hit or miss, sometimes hardly a bite, day or night. I've spent many nights out there solo in a kayak going over the entire lake. It's not like it used to be, heck no! It's like these places just get worse and worse. The Stick Marsh (another prime lake) was once thought to be the end-all place for trophy fish and is now nothing by a mud hole, plain and simple. They just recently drained it to plant vegetation around the banks in an attempt to bring things back to normal but that could take years! All these places are very fragile from previous sprayings, so they're all extremely prone to complete decimation, living up to that term nuking!

Fishing in the glades gives me plenty of big fish, so much so that I don't even weigh them anymore. If I had to guess, I'd say most of them run from 7 to 9lbs, which is good enough for me. I do carry a scale for fish that I believe are over 10lbs. I once lost a 12 pounder after weighing her. Of course I wanted a photo, so I put her back into the water for a quick breath and then with a quicker tail slap, away she went. Those big bass are so much stronger than we think!

My recommendation would be to get what you want now because if you're a really serous about kayak fishing, you're gonna be getting it anyway. So if you've been dreaming about that Auto Pilot 120 or Hobie Pro Angler or something similar, then break out that credit card lol I know a lot of guys who are the same way with fishing reels. They start out with a cheap reel and then move on to the next reel and after about three or so reels, they end up with a dream reel--that high quality reel that they always wanted but because of money they didn't get it. They only spent TWICE as much money getting there! lol That can add up big time with everything....imho.

The road is, well, the road, the dirty dusty road and it will expose ANY weakness in your metal parts! So go as slow as you can and have all things buttoned down so they won't bounce around or fly off. A boat cover is also a must for the dust. As far as smoothness goes, some days are better than others, depending on when they grade it. Regardless of that, early morning before sunrise there's hardly any dust and the road is amazingly smooth, so that's an option. Later on as the heat stokes up, the road turns into a dusty washboard. I've heard about the proposals to lay asphalt but that seems to go back and forth within the budgetary department. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, we'll just have to make do with what we have along with some of the suggestions mentioned. Ironically, the only road that they did lay asphalt to was the road to Kenansville lake, which is just as epic as Headwaters. That dirt road (12 miles of it) made the road to Headwaters look like a beauty queen lol They only laid asphalt about halfway down but it's still better than nothing. Don't know how far they are going to take it but these projects sorta come and go like the seasons. Freshly paved road to Kenansville Lake

I have never seen anyone start so many topics on a forum like you! lol Just kiddin. You keep things spiced up here. Let's see what I can come up with related to fishing: I've never captured and tagged (from the beach) a great white shark. Most all other east coast shark species I've captured and tagged. Thought I came close a few times but they turned out to be tiger sharks. As far as freshwater goes, I've never fished from a bass boat. I started out bank fishing and later on ended up with a motorized fishing kayak, which has worked out very well. Maybe someday I'll get a bass boat (or fish from one lol) but for right now I'm pretty content with my kayak.

Respectively, I don't necessarily agree with this based off experience--not so much for your nice charts and data but more to do with catching nice fish in places that are assumed not to have them. I've only been seriously bass fishing for just over 3 years. Before that, I couldn't buy a bite with the bigger fish. And that's fishing the same places that I'm fishing now, places that have an abundant population of large bass, which is the south Florida everglades. Yet I just couldn't catch any. I'd spend days out there, year after year, doing about the same things that I'm doing now yet coming up empty handed. It wasn't' until I really put my mind to it that I had a massive turnaround. When I started seriously thinking big bass, I started seriously catching big bass! So, for me, at least, it had been more a mental roadblock that obviously had prevented me from catching the bigger fish. Now I catch them all the time anywhere I go. Heck, I caught an 8 pounder a while ago in a fish empty water skiing lake that is supposedly fishless! A location far far away from the glades. So, in my opinion, if the mindset isn't there for any body of water fished, then the outcome will no doubt be unfavorable for those larger bites.

I'm not into the crowds, either. And is why I just love fishing in the glades. And, yes, the glades is about as absolute as absolute gets, absolutely barren as far as human life goes lol. Headwaters has turned into a mecca of sorts, thanks to social media. What's interesting about Headwaters: it's not natural. It's completely staged. It was once a cow pasture or a sod farm. It's by design, like a playground, folks got together over coffee and came up with this trophy fishery idea and then stocked it with over a million fish. It's tailored specifically for trophy bass. Whereas the glades, on the other hand, is about as wild as wild gets and is probably the reason why the bass out there are so darn mean and nasty lol

A firm hand slowly eased off with a nice pat while on the board, like petting a cat, they'll settle down. Even the biggun's will let ya take a hands free glamor shot. Just have the net in place and ready, just in case!

Yeah, that was at Headwaters. Lotta screaming going on there lol And rightly so! I know the exact spot she caught them at. I think she live scoped them. Easy to pick out. Regardless, that place is packed full of BIG bass! I've seen a 13 on a 6" worm. I don't go there often but when I do, I usually do pretty good but it's fading a bit lately, just like the Stick Marsh did. Folks travel from all over the world to fish that place--in droves! Hopefully it holds steady. The 14 below was caught not to far from there. Whole area is just busting with big bass! Probably why everyone is flocking there.

I've had many experiences with bass that I've never seen in YouTube videos, either, and is one of the reasons why I always raise an eyebrow to challenge set beliefs. For one, when I catch a big bass in a certain spot, I always keep fishing that exact same spot with the exact same bait and usually (more often than not) catch another big bass practically the exact same size. They say that big bass are solitary creatures lol. No way. They hang together. They pare off related to size. Maybe it's a food thing. Maybe because of them all being the same size they won't eat each other lol

Just what I've noticed. These two 24's were pretty close to back to back. Happens a lot out there. The sizes being near the same is a mystery. Just last weekend almost all my fish were in the 20's. Goes the other way, too. All the fish can be 15's.

Welcome from south Florida!

Dang, you must fish with a calculator lol All I can say is when the 20 inchers are hitting in my neck of the woods, it’s one right after the other until the window closes. Same goes for most all other sizes, including the 23’s and 24’s, all of them can be back to back, which might suggest that they are pared off related to size, obviously!

Paint may be subjective. I've caught more fish with heavy tungsten sinkers stripped of their black paint, bright and shiny. Seems the added flash when punching the dark underbrush gives the fish something to key in on. But if you must have color, just get some nail polish and paint away. It'll eventually come off again but at least you'll have something to do next time around on those long rainy days.

Kinda neat watching how things evolve over a year, whatever it may be, things shape and form and mold just right for the angler. I've seen all my systems evolve, from storage to rods, even watched my tackle reduced to a bare minimum. All this efficiency means more and better fish for 2024!