I am starting out (again) with fishing as of about a month ago. The first thing I did was do a bit of research on bass fishing (latest techniques, lures, bait, rigs, etc).

Anyway, so I went to CB smith park in Broward County a few weeks ago and had a really good day. I pulled 6-7 largemouth out of the various ponds. I also caught 1 pea. The largemouth were small. 1 - 2 lb or so. But the pea was a good 16 inches in length and I estimate it was about 4 lb. I caught all of the largemouth on a texas rigged watermelon colored 6" plastic worm. The pea was pulled out with a shiner and bobber. My retrieval with the worm is typically slow with a jerk every so often. The weather that day was overcast and windy, cool. It seemed to work well that day.

The next chance I got, my son and I hit our neighborhood pond for about an hour before we had to go somewhere. He was using the texas rigged worm again and pulled a little largemouth out on his very first cast. (HiS FIRST BASS EVER!!!)  He had a bullet sinker rigged ahead of his worm for getting through the thick weeds.   I was also using the worm (weightless) and caught one shortly before we left. This was about 5-6 pm.

I have always been told that fishing in the cold front or right after is tough. Well, yesterday I hit 3 spots.

I took my son to Plantation Heritage Park at about 10 am this morning. I read on the broward county recreation website that the lake was stocked with bass. If you've never been there, there's not a whole lot of structure there but there are 3 fish feeders. I was fishing with a medium action, shakespear spinning outfit and 10lb test. I was experimenting with different lures , so I tried a blue on black flippin jig with a grub trailer. No luck there. I then attempted to put a spinnerbait on there and discovered that my tackle was not strong enough to fish that lure. Then tried a soft plastic toad. Nothing. Zoom 6" plastic worm (usually get hits with this one), still zip. I even tried live shiners. Anyway, we stayed there about an hour and half without so much as a nibble. Left at about 11

Went to Markham park and drove around the park to find a decent spot. I had never been there before so I was surprised to see how big it was and how many people were there. Very few of them fishing though. Anyway, I stopped at a spot across from the model plane airfield, southside of the park and went through the same routine I did at Plantation. I pulled one 2-3 pound largemouth out with a live shiner, free lining. I put it about 10 feet from the bank right on the edge of the long grass. It was the highlight of the day. After no other success, we went on to the next spot.

We didn't technically leave Markham park but went to the south boat ramp at the SR 84 canal. From the bank I could see there was quite a bit of submerged structure along the bank. My son kept his zoom plastic worm and I rigged a 5" Senko (I believe the term is Wacky rig), I placed the hook in the middle of the bait, casted it out and let it hit bottom before popping it up, reel the slack, let it fall, repeat.

Anyway, then a guy on a jet ski blew by and he decided to do some hot dogging right where we were fishing. I packed it in at about 3:30.

Today, I went by myself for the morning and came away empty handed. I was at the same pond that my son and I had caught one a week or so ago. Conditions were clear and cool, windy and overcast. So I thought it was going to be a good day. The sun did come out after an hour though. The water was clear also. Anyway, I started with the old plastic worm but after about 20 minutes and no action, I switched to a buzz bait. My retrieval on the buzz bait was just straight and no erratic jerking. 20 more minutes and no bites, I tried a black and blue flppin jig with grub trailer. I pitched it into the weeds, along side the weeds, between the lilly pads, even in the middle of the pond ( I don't know if there is structure underthere). Nothing. My retrieval with the jig was short jerks up and down with a normal reel in. (After researching this forum, it appears I was doing this wrong)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the water seemed filled with hydrillia today. Every cast on anything but the weedless worm brought back a chunk of weeds. This is bothersome because I know that if I'm dragging weeds that fish are not giong to bite my lure.

By now I was getting frustrated. I switched to live bait (free lining shiners). I would cast the shiners in but they would immedeiately swim straight into the thick hydrillia, resulting in a tangle for me. After no bites for a couple minutes I would attempt to reel in to check the bait. that's when I discovered that I was once again hung up on somthing the little guy put me on. Eventually after struggleing with it, the line broke, and I had to rig another. Then I put a 1/2 ounce sinker on the line with a leader to keep the shiner in place, That made it worse.

anyway, I tried a couple small jigs to see if maybe the size of the bait was keeping the fish away. But I didn't give it that much time after I kept dragging more weeds to shore. I left.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions.  Next time I plan on using the Senko again only this time being MUCH more patient before I begin the retrieval.

[movedhere] General Bass Fishing Forum [move by] five.bass.limit.

Although I don't live in Florida anymore (Joined the Army 15 years ago) I did grow up in Davie and fished markham park and all the canals along 84 and even into alligator alley. As I recall, you are using the right bait, T-rig and all.... and sounds to me you are doing all the right stuff.

The problem I always had was weather. I distinctly recall overcast being the best time to bass fish, for some reason they always were biting. The FL largemouth seems to always be 10-20 ft off the shoreline and did not require substantial cover. That being said, I think you are just falling prey to low lake stock and bad luck. Keep your bait in the water and you'll figure out your own technique.

My family just vacationed down there last week (Stuart, FL.....) and my boys were killing the largemouth up in coral springs, destroying was more like it. As a matter of fact, my profile picture was from my vacation last week.

Good luck, let us know how it works out!

I am starting out (again) with fishing as of about a month ago. The first thing I did was do a bit of research on bass fishing (latest techniques, lures, bait, rigs, etc).

Anyway, so I went to CB smith park in Broward County a few weeks ago and had a really good day. I pulled 6-7 largemouth out of the various ponds. I also caught 1 pea. The largemouth were small. 1 - 2 lb or so. But the pea was a good 16 inches in length and I estimate it was about 4 lb. I caught all of the largemouth on a texas rigged watermelon colored 6" plastic worm. The pea was pulled out with a shiner and bobber. My retrieval with the worm is typically slow with a jerk every so often. The weather that day was overcast and windy, cool. It seemed to work well that day.

The next chance I got, my son and I hit our neighborhood pond for about an hour before we had to go somewhere. He was using the texas rigged worm again and pulled a little largemouth out on his very first cast. (HiS FIRST BASS EVER!!!) He had a bullet sinker rigged ahead of his worm for getting through the thick weeds. I was also using the worm (weightless) and caught one shortly before we left. This was about 5-6 pm.

I have always been told that fishing in the cold front or right after is tough. Well, yesterday I hit 3 spots.

I took my son to Plantation Heritage Park at about 10 am this morning. I read on the broward county recreation website that the lake was stocked with bass. If you've never been there, there's not a whole lot of structure there but there are 3 fish feeders. I was fishing with a medium action, shakespear spinning outfit and 10lb test. I was experimenting with different lures , so I tried a blue on black flippin jig with a grub trailer. No luck there. I then attempted to put a spinnerbait on there and discovered that my tackle was not strong enough to fish that lure. Then tried a soft plastic toad. Nothing. Zoom 6" plastic worm (usually get hits with this one), still zip. I even tried live shiners. Anyway, we stayed there about an hour and half without so much as a nibble. Left at about 11

Went to Markham park and drove around the park to find a decent spot. I had never been there before so I was surprised to see how big it was and how many people were there. Very few of them fishing though. Anyway, I stopped at a spot across from the model plane airfield, southside of the park and went through the same routine I did at Plantation. I pulled one 2-3 pound largemouth out with a live shiner, free lining. I put it about 10 feet from the bank right on the edge of the long grass. It was the highlight of the day. After no other success, we went on to the next spot.

We didn't technically leave Markham park but went to the south boat ramp at the SR 84 canal. From the bank I could see there was quite a bit of submerged structure along the bank. My son kept his zoom plastic worm and I rigged a 5" Senko (I believe the term is Wacky rig), I placed the hook in the middle of the bait, casted it out and let it hit bottom before popping it up, reel the slack, let it fall, repeat.

Anyway, then a guy on a jet ski blew by and he decided to do some hot dogging right where we were fishing. I packed it in at about 3:30.

Today, I went by myself for the morning and came away empty handed. I was at the same pond that my son and I had caught one a week or so ago. Conditions were clear and cool, windy and overcast. So I thought it was going to be a good day. The sun did come out after an hour though. The water was clear also. Anyway, I started with the old plastic worm but after about 20 minutes and no action, I switched to a buzz bait. My retrieval on the buzz bait was just straight and no erratic jerking. 20 more minutes and no bites, I tried a black and blue flppin jig with grub trailer. I pitched it into the weeds, along side the weeds, between the lilly pads, even in the middle of the pond ( I don't know if there is structure underthere). Nothing. My retrieval with the jig was short jerks up and down with a normal reel in. (After researching this forum, it appears I was doing this wrong)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the water seemed filled with hydrillia today. Every cast on anything but the weedless worm brought back a chunk of weeds. This is bothersome because I know that if I'm dragging weeds that fish are not giong to bite my lure.

By now I was getting frustrated. I switched to live bait (free lining shiners). I would cast the shiners in but they would immedeiately swim straight into the thick hydrillia, resulting in a tangle for me. After no bites for a couple minutes I would attempt to reel in to check the bait. that's when I discovered that I was once again hung up on somthing the little guy put me on. Eventually after struggleing with it, the line broke, and I had to rig another. Then I put a 1/2 ounce sinker on the line with a leader to keep the shiner in place, That made it worse.

anyway, I tried a couple small jigs to see if maybe the size of the bait was keeping the fish away. But I didn't give it that much time after I kept dragging more weeds to shore. I left.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions. Next time I plan on using the Senko again only this time being MUCH more patient before I begin the retrieval.

Musta been one Fat peacock lol.... ;D

Thank you for your input.

I went to Markham Park just after I got out of work. I just fish for about 1 hour and I caught 1 peakcock and 2 largemouth nothing big. The same week I went to Sawgrass Recreation Park just when the cold front started. The temp was around 40 degrees it was freezing. I caugh 26 largemouth 4 or 5 around 1 1/2 pund 2 pound. My partner never fished before and he caught a 3 1/4 pound (biginners luck) : )

After that they I've been going to that place but nothing big, every largemouth is around 1 pound and they love jerk bait or anything that runs on surface like torpedoes or poppers. They get out of the water when they strike !!

I went back to Markham Park looking for another peakcock but this time I went to the new river canal the one that runs parallel to 84.

I fished there for about 2 hours and it seems that theres not too much fishes. I saw a few peakcocks and oscars floating dead in the shore, I heard in the news the cold weather was killing fishes.

After 35 minutes I caught one largemouth less than a pound and then I decided to use a live shinner with a circle hook to see if I can land a peakcock. I made my first cast and I didn't used a bobber I just use a plain hook.

Around 15 seconds later I felt the shinner moving and pulling the line really fast and then I felt somebody want to take my fishing rod from my hands I just set the hook and big surprise for me I saw a 8 or 10 pound Tarpon dancing on the air. I put that fish more than 4 times next to the boat but I was afraid to force it because the line was 12 pound test and no leader, also the hook wasn't that big. I tried to catch it with the net but he made his last run and the line came in to the boat like it was broken but it wasn't broken. The hook came out of his mouth and I noticed when I passed my fingers on the nylon that the line was about to break.

It was fun I love it I just missed that picture in my album but I will go back for him next week because after that I saw other tarpon rolling on the surface and some fishes kind of mullets jumping out of the water, I think theres a lot of tarpon overthere.

I'm off to Markham Park........

Don't worry about the hook they are routinely caught on 2/0 jigs and flys.

BTW the law is a bit sketchy but the FWC doesn't want Tarpon netted or taken from the water even to remove the hook or take a picture.  Their internals are not supported out of water and it's hazardous to their health.

FYI  : Due to the recent cold weather and the death of hundreds of Snook, Tarpon and Bonefish throught out the state. The state of Florida has but a ban on Tarpon ,Snook and Bonefishing. The regular Snook season scheduled to reopen of Feb 1 is being put on hold til further notice.

just keep trying, it's not always easy to catch fish!  This time of year is particularly rough, but don't give up!

p.s.  a 16" fish should be nowhere near 4 lbs...  maybe 1-2 lbs. buying a scale can be a very humbling experience, I know it was for me.  those 5 pounders somehow become 2 pounders!!