TyTy

All that sounds good. Winter Haven is a little far of a drive for me, I think we will do Lake Harris. I didnt see many gators when I was there, a few in the canals. I am hopeing to get close to some big ones, my father in law is excited to see them. I have been here for 2 years and I still think its neat to see them when out fishing. Thanks for the advice everyone.

I just remembered what lake I was on a year ago when I saw a restaurant on the lake...the harris chain has one on the canal on the way into Lake Harris. I had forgotten where that was. Also the St. John's just south of Lake George but I dont want to drive that far.

Anyone know of any? My father in law is coming this weekend and wants to try his hand at bass fishing but he will only want to go for an hour or two. My wife and I thought it would be fun if we could fish a little, see some gators and then boat up to a restaurant on a lake and have lunch. Ideas? The closer to Orlando the better.

ahhh bowfins, mudfish, grindles, etc....nasty animals and they BLEED so much when hooked. they fight hard. i undestand they are native here, but snakeheads are from SE asia or somewhere that people have let go to breed for food, but have just destroyed the native fish here. save a basses life, kill a snakehead They are very similar looking and have a nasty set of choppers like a snakehead. And yes, they do fight hard. The first few I caught I thought I had the bass of a lifetime on the line. Luckily someone told me not to stick my fingers in their mouth. I almost did but thought twice and used pliers. Before the pliers even touched the mlouth he chomped down on them. It broke some of his teeth getting the pliers out!!!!!!!!! That is determination...like a snapping turtle. I kill them when I catch them simply because with teeth like that they must be predators and eat the same stuff bass do.

I watched that show on the history channel the other day also. What is the difference between a Snakefish and what we have in Florida, 'Bowfin' or 'Mudfish' (I have heard them called both)? I call them Mudfish but I have caught a few and those things are NASTY. They thrash around like crazy when you boat them and they have some NASTY teeth. The whole time I was watching the show I was thinking they were all over FL.

I recently bought a 1999 Nitro 700 bass boat with a 115 Mercury. It says on the steering column "Rack & Pinion Steering". I was surprised how DIFFICULT it is to steer. It is harder to steer than a non-power steering truck I used to have with 35" tires on it at low speeds. Once I get some speed it seems to get easier but usually I am not turning as much obviously. When manuevering around the ramp I have to use both hands to turn the wheel and often find myself gritting my teeth. My wife really cant turn the boat effectively and thus is nervous to try driving it. My questions are is this normal for a nitro bass boat? If not, how do I fix if? If it is normal how do I upgrade it? Thank you!

Ok, I was fishing the off-shore grass north/northwest of that. I'll have to give that area a try. I've got a club tourney in June. How deep does that off-shore vegetation go? 7' to 10' range? Im not sure. If you are 1.5 casts from the grass it seems to go until you are just about ready to reel in and cast again.

Here you go, this is the spot I was fishing.

What kind of off-shore grass were you fishing? Last year I remember finding some patches of hydrilla on the north end near the main boat ramp, but wasn't able get any fish off them. All my fish came off the exposed bullrush (i think that's what it is) in the southern and western areas fishing the tight cover. I'd rather find that off-shore bite like you did. The area I was fishin is after you pull away from the ramp and get into that first main body of water, there is that shallow point that extends left to right off the left bank, if you hook around that point and go hard left you will go through the no wake zone into the other part of the lake. The area I was fishing was from that shallow point to the first dock...along that bank. I was drifting that stretch repeatedly (the wind was perfect to push me along with a drift sock and no trolling motor was the main reason I started there). I started by fishing the exposed grass with senkos and didnt get a hit. Then I moved back and drifted it further out using trick worms, a couple ticks but nothing. Finally I moved further out from the bank on a carolina rig and that is where I caught my fish. Out past those exposed weeds there is submerged grass of some sort. I felt it on the carolina rig as well as saw it on the depth finder. That is some of the only submerged vegitation I have found, most of it seems to be just what you can see.

There is a big difference bt the Power Pro and Suffix Performance. The Suffix Performance has 6 strings and the PP has 4. Maybe you tried a different Suffix, I know they have different brands. Again, I have not tried PP, I need to but Im gonna be hard pressed to use anything but Suffix after my good experience with it. The only thing I dont like is like all braid it is still pretty visible in the water. I have been practicing my uni knots though and my next purchase will be some floroucarbon.

Is Power Pro one of the braids you tried? If so, what are the differences between it and the Sufix? No, Power Pro and Suffix were pretty much the only two I had not tried. I guess I shied away from them because they arent traditional line maker brand names that I knew (Stren), nor had they been marketed a great deal when braid first came out (Spiderwire, Fireline).

I finally got a hold of some Suffix line today and tried it out. I have tried pretty much every other braided line and had shyed away from Suffix and veered towards every other brand for some reason. I have probably tried 5 different lines and been unsatisfied with all of them. Every one of them ended up in the trash. So then recently I read all the good reviews on here for Suffix and Power Pro, decided to try Suffix. Man what a difference. It has so many less poor traits than the other braids I had tried. I love it, never going back. Just wanted to let yall know.

Sat April 5th - John's Lake - 3:45 to 7:30 Weather - Rainy/Thunderstorms Water Temp 76 Outside Temp 80ish? Fished submerged grass in 8-12 feet of water on one stretch of northern shoreline about 200 yards long all 4 hours pretty much. Used a carolina rig with 1/2 oz weight and about 3 ft leader with a green floating worm with red and green flake in it and a small glass rattle I inserted in the tail. Caught 3 fish approximatly 2,3,4 lbs. The 4lber had the head of a 6lber. Missed 2 or 3 bites, one of them felt like a freight train and the reel SLIPPED OUT OF MY WET HANDS! By the time I grabbed it...gone.

Which one is Fish Hook? I dont think they call it that do they? Does it have a number?

Oh and also I forgot to mention, Tenoroc seems like a good place for wind cause when I was there I found plenty of places to get out of the wind and also was using a carolina rig the whole time...less line watching versus Johns Lake where I use mostly senkos and finesse type stuff.

Well I am debating between a close favorite (Johns Lake) which is about 25 minutes from me or Tenoroc which is just a hair over an hour. I went to Tenoroc a few weekends ago and got basically skunked (2 fish in 9 hrs of fishing) and kind of want to go back down there. I just dont want to make the longer trip to catch a few small fish when I could travel half the distance and catch the same. Basically I want to learn when the prime times are and make those the times to take the longer hauls.

All you Central Florida bass folks. I am trying to learn about weather and bass fishing. I have read the articles and they generalize and some even conflict on what bass do when. Lets look at this weekend and talk about what, when, where, how you would approach it. My observations is that we have a slight decrease in temp going into Sat and Sun, its only 1 degree in lows and 4 in highs. Does that constitute a drop in temp/pressure meaning the bite will be slow...switch to light line, go deep, small baits fished slow? Or is that small of a change not considered a "cold front"? Lets analize your plans for this weekend and any strategy you have based on this weekend. Maybe we could make ti a weekend thing then report back on our success/failure of your strategy.

Stick Marsh is not that bad. The only danger is if you run on plane where others arent and you wouldnt do that in any lake you didnt know really. I expected it to be a huge mine field, it wasent. I boated out there my first time in the morning before sun up...no big deal.

Well I wanted to let you all know how I did. I went this past friday, unfortunatly there was a cold front the night before. I think it was 48 if I remeber right when I got out there on my trucks rear view mirror deal. Anyway I fished Lake 5 from 7ish to 2:30ish. I only got 4 bites, caught 2 sunshine bass one 12" one 14". I got turned around once but they have arrows to guide you to whichever ramp you put in at (Lake 5 has two, one north and one south). Then at 2:30 I got hungry and got out, left for lunch and came back and tried lake 3 and didnt get a bite, got back out at 7:30. Thus all in all it was a bad day of fishing EXCEPT I took something away from it which is the reason I went... I caught both fish on a Carolina Rig in about 12 and 14 feet of water. Those are the first fish I caught on a Carolina Rig or in deep water...so Im proud of that. Also I felt my way up and over a ton of underwater structure and learned how to locate it, mark it, fish it. So in that sense it was a huge success. I will be using a carolina rig a lot more in the future and I feel like I added a tool in my belt. Also I saw one partially submerged hump that had grass growing down it and into the water, I casted onto the side of it and felt the rocks and the grass all along the side...so I thought this HAS to have a fish on it. Kept fishing it and caught my second fish...pretty proud of finding and focusing on that. One thing that made me feel good, they were doing creel sheets and the lady at the office said the most that anyone caught was 12 and that those guys are regulars and usually catch a lot more. Otherwise she said it was a lot of zeros and a few 5's and 6's. So at least I know it was more the weather and less my fishing. It was a neat trip. I love the pits. One question I still have though is with so much deep structure is there any way to pick and choose or do you just fish them all?

I would go to the Stick Marsh too simply because it is easier to catch fish. A couple bags of dark senkos and swim senkos and a rod is all you need. Just cast in/around/on top of the wood and you will catch some fish. I spent 9 hrs fishing Tenoroc last Friday and only caught 2. I caught a dozen the time I went to the Stick Marsh and was just bopping around not knowing what I was doing. I wouldnt worry about tearing your boat up in the Stick Marsh. It isnt as bad as it sounds. Just dont go too fast, follow people out that know where they are going and just go slow. When slow down before you start seeing wood.

I dont mind that is all Bill Dance fishes, what I dont like about his or any other bass show (his is actually one of the better ones) is the lack of information! I want to see the knot he is tying, want to see the bait in detail, etc, etc.

As far as Tenoroc goes...which lake is the best for big bass? Is it hard to get in there? I have been calling to make a reservation all day, nobody has picked up the phone. I read its first come, first serve...does that mean I need to be there at 4AM or can I strole in at 7:30 or 8 and be okay?

I was out there 2 weekends ago, very windy. Anyway, I was curious...does anyone fish those canals in the thick southern parts or is all the fishing up in the NW area where it is open/hydrilla/etc?

Didnt realize you were in Ohio. I think West Marine sells them too if you have those in your area. They ship to the store for free if the store dosent have one (most have them).

No by big deck I just mean the front bow area being large and flat enough to have some room to stand and move around like in a bass boat. Some of 'flats' boats decks are sunk down more like a non-bass boat. However from what I am learning those are probably being misclassified as flats boat. I guess a true flats boat would be like the Hewes George Welcome posted a pic of with a flat bow area, anything else it not a flats boat. Bear in mind I am doing my shopping on craigslist. Im looking for something $8000 or less.