I just got back from a really short trip to FL from NH, and I managed to catch a lot of bass while I was there fishing from the shore at our resort.

I stayed at the Grand Cypress Golf Resort in Orlando FL. It borders the Disney property, and has a lake that wraps around the villa's that you stay in. All the villa's have fishable water outside that have some 10 pounders in them. I asked for the best fishing spot, and they gave it to me.

I heard they had tackle there, but I decided to not take any chances and brought my own. I also wanted to bring my own rod, so I got 36 inch rod tube from Cabellas. Sadly, this tube did not even really fit the crappy Mitchel rod and reel combo I bought because it was the only 6 ft rod medium rod I could find at really short notice. Next time I'll buy the bigger tube and bring my 6'6 medium heavy rod, but anyway, live and learn.

By the way, bringing the rod was a piece of cake. They just put in in the overhead, and our flight was packed full.

So we flew in Thursday night and did not arrive until after midnight. I immediately put my rod together and tied on my heddon torpedo. I only made about 10 casts, but I did not get any strikes.

This was the view from the room:

got up at 7:30am and tied on a 5" green pumpkin senko, and caught a nice 3 pounder on my second cast (which I ran into the room and showed my wife who was still sleeping )

Then the trouble began. I started hooking into lunkers with my rod that I discovered did not have nearly the backbone needed to land some of the bigger fish. I must have had 4-5 fish 6 pounds or more throw my hook because I could not set the hook as solidly as I wanted to and keep as much pressure on the fish that I needed to. It was frustrating, but I was having so much fun I almost (emphasize almost) did not care.

Here's the 4.5 pounder (guessing, looked bigger) I did land that afternoon:

Caught fish on almost everything I bought. Probably at least 6-7 nice ones landed per day, and another 4-5 the first day that I lost. Here's a quick list:

5" Grn Pumpkin w/blk flk Senko

4" watermelon senko w/ blk flake

KVD sexy shad hvy cvr swim jig with GY grn pumpkin crawdad trailer (biggest fish)

White double bladed spinnerbait

GYCB in green pumpkin black flake

Fat Ika in green pumpkin (most fish overall)

If anyone wants info, just PM me and I'll let you know what villa to stay in.

Great job, man! Sounds like you had a blast!

HAHA....LOL at you holding a dripping bass over your wifes head in your hotel room. Awesome.

Thanks guys!  

Thank god my wife is pretty cool.  Instead of yelling at me to get the fish out of the room, she actually said:

"That's GREAT honey" and went back to sleep.

I knew I married her for a good reason.

Nice Job Jay,

       I kind of don't like you now that you got to go fishing while we are all sitting in waist deep snow.

Can't wait to get out on the water again

Nice Job Jay,

      I kind of don't like you now that you got to go fishing while we are all sitting in waist deep snow.

Can't wait to get out on the water again

LOL! If it helps, I came back the day we got 10 inches of snow. Back to reality in a hurry.

I cannot wait either. It still looks like I'll have a nice boat this year, so it does not always have to be yours.

Here's a couple pics my wife took:

view from the villa:

fishing from the porch outside the villa

The first day I caught a lot of fish 4 pounds and over. The second day it seemed like even though the wind was blowing better and more cloud cover, the previous nights temp. dip into the 50's cooled the bite off until around 4:30pm. Then, the Fat Ika was on fire with 5-6 fish around 2-3 pounds caught in about 30 minutes.

Congrats, on the catch. Sorry that you had to come back to the snow. But look at it this way, it will melt an add more water to our lakes/ponds. Hope the snow melts fast.

We got about 6-8" incehs over night here, so I feel your pain.

memo

good points memo.  I cannot wait until this hard water is gone!  Looks like the 50's this weekend, so that's a start.