you

Learned to fish a new lake that I had neglected for years. Now, it's one of my favorite spots for pickerel (not bad for bass either). A recent goal of mine is to build confidence with larger plastics (e.g. lizards, 10-12" worms, 5-6" swimbaits) and learn when to use them effectively. I have not accomplished this yet, but I plan to focus on this in late winter and spring.

Found this snagged in some tall sedges. The algae stains were all superficial, but I'll never have confidence in that color pattern. At least the hardware was salvageable. The annoying part: the lure was attached to this: About a spool's worth of 20-30lb braid, mostly held taut in or just above water as it snaked through dozens of yards of cattails, sedges, emergent grass, and pads. Took about 15 minutes to remove all of it. Not sure if the previous owner was trying to fish or trap egrets. Anyway, rant's over.

Went to Ocala National forest on Sunday. This was right after our first decent cold front of the season. Think it scattered the fish a bit, but the weather was beautiful. The fish were beautiful, too. Caught a few dinks like this one:

My thoughts exactly. We need better jig ontology. First time I heard about a "ned rig", I thought: "that's a jig, not a rig".

Amen. For us, last night was the first night with no AC since May. Can't wait for November.

Do sinking lures count? I catch most of my fall topwater fish on 4" senkos (or similar) and small plastics (finesse worms, grubs, swimbaits) on light jigheads. These are usually for schooling fish busting shad on the surface. I'll start with a fast retrieve on top. If nothing bites, I'll kill it and wait for a bite on the drop. I know, that's not five lures. I don't have five favorite colors either, but for this application I prefer shad colors (smoke/gray with silver and/or blue flake) or dark colors (black, junebug).

I feel like there's a species comparison sub-thread materializing here, so I have a question: Have y'all noticed that bowfin are far less likely to bite you off than pike or pickerel? I regularly land them on ultralight gear with 4-6lb leaders. With pickerel, more than half bite me off, at least. The difference can't be from a lack of size, strength, or teeth.

Keep it up--this is how I find most of my hard baits!

Be careful fishing around that stuff if there is wind. If the water gets choppy, some of it will aerosolize and potentially irritate your throat and lungs. It's an occasional/seasonal thing here, too. Like others said, the fish should be ok. Probably still fine to eat, too. Here's a blurb about it from Florida's Department of Health (https://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/aquatic-toxins/harmful-algae-blooms/index.html): "BLUE-GREEN ALGAE AND FISH Fish tested from water with blue-green algae show that cyanotoxins do not significantly accumulate in the edible parts—muscle or filet—of fish, but can in other organs. Prior to consuming, rinse fish fillets with tap or bottled water, throw out the guts, and cook the fish well. Do not eat shellfish in waters with blue-green algae blooms."

I enjoy fishing for native and introduced species alike. The problem is that some ecosystems are so far removed from their natural state that it's hard to know what effective species management should look like. I'd rather see management and regulatory priorities focused on keeping waterways clean. So many watersheds have been affected by over-development, fertilizer runoff, chemical pollution, etc. Protecting the water first is a key step to maintaining healthy native fish populations. Even if the native fish populations are already disrupted, protecting the water first protects humans who eat the fish or drink the water. Strong water protections can also eliminate certain sources of species invasions. Also, I wonder how all the fish felt when the humans started showing up ?

Gotcha. I've mostly used maxima for leaders where suppleness doesn't matter too much

If I'm on a familiar body of water, I don't change lures often. I know what works for that season/species/cover/structure/etc, and it's usually a question of overlapping with a bite-window or finding the "spot on the spot". In a new body of water, I'll change location, then presentation, then lure (in that order) about every 15min if I'm not catching (or seeing or hearing) fish. Also this. After some weeks, the fish are secondary.

Have you tried maxima ultragreen in similar diameters? I've found that its abrasion resistance is better than most other nylon lines (even XT and Siege) in thin diameters. I imagine it would perform well for heavier applications, too.

Coming from an avowed multi-species angler, that is quite a catch!

For your scenario, I wouldn't worry about breakage with light braid to leader. If the braid is made the US market, the lb test will be significantly underrated. I use 8lb berkley x9 for redfish--it's more than strong enough for bass in light cover.

This is my go-to in pressured lakes around here. 4.5" roboworms and yamamoto kut-tails are great, depending on your desired rate of fall. Also, 2" Keitech swimbaits on a 1/32 or 1/16 oz jig head. If you get it close enough to them, they will bite it. I've caught 4-5lb fish sight fishing with these from the bank.

Had a great multi-species day while creek fishing. Caught shellcrackers, stumpknockers, bluegill, bowfin, and pickerel, but no bass. Not even micros. I'm wondering where they went--normally there are plenty in this stretch. Oh well. It's worth noting that all fish pictured below were caught on a single z-man larvaz trailer. Hard to complain about elaztech.

I prefer any wind to no wind. If it's too windy for a kayak, there are some great places to fish from shore nearby. Wind direction will determine where I choose to fish, especially if it's predicted to blow across productive banks or structure. I haven't found that wind direction makes any difference per se.

Ouch! Hope the recovery went well. Light skin is definitely a risk factor. I'm printer-paper white. Already had a few moles removed in my teens and twenties. A few of my relatives had skin cancer, too, so I cover up. Catch me fishing anywhere in FL between 10am-6pm and you will only see my fingertips.

Deadsticking, usually with an unweighted worm. It's not like I ever hated this technique, more like it wouldn't have occurred to me because it's so boring. The lightbulb moment was realizing how often I had a fish on after I spent a minute pulling a loop out or adjusting something in my kayak while my line was in the water. Combined with precision casting, deadsticking is, well, deadly.

Fair point if you're fishing hardbaits, wirebaits, or chatterbaits. I mostly throw soft plastics, so at worst, I'll lose a $2 jighead. The excitement is worth it!

Several years ago, I would have answered 'jet skis'. Then I encountered a fan boat. They are deafening. On a calm day in the gulf, they can wreck the soundscape from over a mile away. It's hard to imagine using one ethically outside of official wildlife management or law enforcement applications. I can imagine! They make speaker cones from that stuff.

Congrats on a new species! No pike here, but we have plenty of pickerel. Not as big but the hit hard and put up an acrobatic fight. Any of the Esox species are a blast to catch.

Great info, y'all! Thanks for the replies. I didn't mention the dragonflies--they were everywhere the midges were and feeding heavily. I'm thinking of breaking out the fly rod and fishing big nymphs on this lake. Even when the hatches aren't happening, I'm sure the mayfly and dragonfly larvae are prime targets. I'm no mayfly expert, but these were big ones (~1.25" bodies not including tails, light tan color).

Last Saturday, I fished a lake where large midges ('blind mosquitoes') and mayflies were hatching all along the shoreline. There were molted casings all over the water's surface, so the hatches probably started earlier at night. Normally, I hate to see this first thing and figure that any fish hear shore is probably too full or too preoccupied to go after my normal lures. Didn't have a fly rod to match the hatch, either. But actually, it was a great day! I caught quite a few fish (bass, bluegill, bowfin) on straight-tail worms and small jigs with grub trailers. I think the hatches left them fired up, not completely satiated. What are your experiences fishing for bass (or other target species) during insect hatches? How do you change your approach to suit the conditions? Any hatches you look forward to (or dread)?