Zcoker

I usually run heavier braid on my spinning reels which, by comparison, is still very thin. The heavier line seems to be less prone to wind knots. I try to consciously load the cast which helps maintain firmness from the lure to spool. Often, wind knots come about when the line forms a loop while reeling in with no awareness of it. Then on the next cast, a mess happens. So I always take a quick peek at the spool before casting to make sure no loops are hanging out. I've avoided many disasters by doing that.

Old food saying "When In Doubt, Throw It Out" Might wanna consider that when it comes to your life.

I rarely loose a bass on Ol Monster 12 inch worms. Big worms. Big hooks. 6/0 EWG offset or 7/0. Weightless. Strait braid 50# on a 7-3 med/heavy extra fast rod. Don’t read too much into your age and body mechanics, just fish and let the hardware do the work. I also recommend flattening the barb when worm fishing. Easy out. This worm setup has seen 100 fish days easily, so something must be working!

The fish menagerie can be shattered down here in South Florida based off a series of man-made situations, namely nuking. A place can be a bass fishing paradise one day and then the next day become a dead pool. Going back in memory to those good ‘ol days can be frustrating because it shows just how detrimental spraying is to our fisheries. It’s hard to imagine as good as the fishing is today that it was even better back in the day. But it was! Earth shattering! Fish of a lifetime at every turn, even off the bank. Truly epic. So, yes, if I could go back in time I’d want to be right there living it again!

A good recommendation, but sometimes totally unavoidable in places that have very shallow water like where I fish in Everglades. They coming out of the water no matter what ya do!

Double up on the split rings, which allows twice the rotation and practically eliminates the fish getting any leverage. I find this mod especially helpful on the bigger topwater baits like 130 whopper plopper, chug bugs and the likes.

Lol Like in the movie 'Waterworld' that kite that he ejected for more speed. Something along those lines, I presume....

Only $1100? That's cheap. Try out the MacDaddy at $1 million bucks! Yep, a COOL MILLION. Now we're talkin

Good high quality hooks can make ALL the difference. Most hooks on most lures are not the greatest and simple changes can bring home the bacon. Having a nice high quality rod can also make a big difference as well. Point is, arm yourself with the right tools and pay attention to reconditioning your reflexes. I know a lot of guys that swing for the fences no matter what they use. Hard to break that habit but it is possible.

Here’s how shallow works out on the glades. Quite the handful.

Shallow is as shallow does. Welcome to the everglades! Not much of a choice out there, summer or not. If I do find deeper water, I still fish the edges, the shallow edges, which can be mere inches in certain spots. For the most, I always look to merge the two, shallow and deep, fishing one or the other in close proximity.

I think it’s easy to confuse intuition with being in the right place at the right time. In general, I rely more on common sense.

Happy wife is a happy life. My wife doesn’t have to get drunk to tell me to clean up my mess! I can buy what I want, but I usually get her something as well. QVC also helps! Balance is the key.

I know quite a few folks who say they don’t play the lottery because it’s gambling but I bet if they played it and won 20 million bucks they’d change their beat instantly! FFS is kinda like that. Some anglers don’t wanna use it but if they won a big tournament with it they’d be dancing in the street!

I reckon you'd either have to know by sound what it was or to have clearly seen it. Hard to say what it was by guessing. I know out in the glades the bass make a distinct sound when busting top water. Same with the gators. I can easily discern in the dark where the fish are feeding just by knowing the sound they make.

You know, sometimes altering the routine will add much more stamina. I mostly fish at night during the summer months because down here in south Florida it gets HOT! Not many can prevail in 100 plus degree heat, I don't care how young and in shape they are. Not only that, we get wicked afternoon lightening storms that don't discriminate when they strike. Don't have to fish all night, either. Can fish the wee hours into daybreak or the late afternoon hours toward midnight. Point is: if something isn't working, try something else.

No 10 for me. My top 5 baits, all big: 130 Plopper Custom made jitterbug Custom made spinnerbait Big blade chatterbait 12" worm (day use only)

30 is young yet! Hard to say why so much effort with you. Might be a medical issue rearing it's ugly head? Hope not. I'm about twice that and have been known to fish 2 days strait, sometimes 3. I fish the everglades solo all night long from sun down to sun up well into mid day. No issues yet. Tomorrow I start fishing a new area mid morning and will finish up next day. I fish the daytime to get the layout of the land and then attack once it gets dark. All in the head.

@Texas Flood oh no, busted! lol reminds me of the movie Jaws, when those kids were swimming with a shark fin over their heads.

FFS is not just on boats, lot of kayakers are using it nowadays in tournaments. I've seen some awfully large fish (26 inchers) popping up in a lot of kayak tournaments, just over the course of a year or so. And all those guys who are catching them had just started using FFS. So it's impact is all over the charts. The pro angler quoted here is right: folks are forced to adapt and use it or just lag behind, trying to keep up.

I've dealt with these guys directly. I even took some of them fishing! This was all related to the current LBSF shark fishing regulations in the state of Florida. They called upon me for assistance with their regulatory agenda. It's not so much with getting them ALL to agree, but if you can persuade at least one of them, then you've just made MAJOR progress!

The irony here is that a lot of this "basic" technology existed years ago and no one had a hissy over it until the technology blossomed into what it is today, which, btw, is going to keep evolving into oblivion. It's here to stay and folks are going to make use of it in tournaments, as long as they are allowed to. It's like automobiles, some are super duper outright pinnacles of achievement worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet, ALL automobiles still have to stop at red lights, no matter what they are made of or no matter the technology achieved. Rules are what it's all about. The blame and/or solutions need to be focused there, not on FFS itself.

I agree! Something is better than nothing--anything! Yet no voice is heard. Lotta chatter on these forums and on social media about a lotta things with strong resentments. Yet no one makes any sorta attempt to voice those concerns. I leaned that with saltwater fishing. I was totally involved to the point of speaking directly with the FWC commissioners! I saw first hand how a voice can influence their decisions and outcomes. Don't have to attend any meeting, either. Letters are very power! Without any objections, the rule makers "assume" that everything is all peachy and rosy.

$19million is a LOT of money needed to kill weeds. Next thing ya know they'll be using Napalm lol Seriously, though, we (as fishermen) need to get busy voicing our objections. If not in person, then by letters, which do help BTW. Any FWC/Water District ordinance or concern usually requires some form of public hearing. Be surprised how many folks complain about stuff yet when there's the opportunity to voice those objections, no one writes or shows up!

None of those places are like they used to be. Only been two years for Kenansville, which was my first trip there. I’ll never forget that morning. Local fires had smoked out the entire area. We had to wait for the smoke to clear up. My first turn onto the main lake with my very first warmup cast netted a 9 pounder.