Recent freshwater fishing reports from all around the state.
Cool Weather on the Withlacoochee
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
The spring was 71 degrees and the river was 53 degrees. I caught four small bass in the spring run. After that I went down stream and fished the slower water close to the warmer bank with a worm. I didn't count but caught more than a dozen and had a couple of larger ones come unbuttoned.
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Speck Recon
Florida Sportsman member: Sea Snake
Myself and Big Bend Brian decided to make the day trip and fished with an old buddy Jim Keith, that Brian knew from Cedar Key. A learning mission, if you will, with some tasty rewards!
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Lochloosa Specks
Florida Sportsman member: Sea Snake
Now I must admit, I haven't fished this lake in over 30 years, like I stated earlier, and over the years fishing tactics change. Most of the morning was pretty slow, with just a fish here and there, as we tried to figure out where the fish were and it was cold too.
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South Florida Freshwater
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
Forum member chut03 caught some nice largemouth and peacock bass recently. All fish were caught on spinnerbaits, trick worms and live bait.
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Friendly Competition
Florida Sportsman member: syd7792
I tossed the lure in-between the pipes and started slowly twitching it. As soon as the lure came across the face of one of the pipes and my rod just went straight down. I knew right then this bass was a big one!
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Withlacoochee Bassin'
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
Forum member Alex from GA recently got out on the Withlacoochee and got into the bass. Although losing some fish, it seemed like he still had a good day of catching, all fish being caught on worms.
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Bass on Shrimp
Florida Sportsman member: JimmyD
Headed up to some cattails in the lake and put live shrimp out on the bottom and one on a float. The one on a float got hit pretty fast and I fought the fish for a bit before it spit the hook. Was slow for another twenty minutes or so and then got another hit on the shrimp under the float.
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Two Personal Bests In One Day
Florida Sportsman member: sandwashslugger
I completely re-tied my leader before throwing back out and that proved to be the right move. I hooked and landed a new personal best that went at 4.8 pounds. Very next cast I hooked into what I knew was a big fish. At first glance I thought I had hooked the same fish again.
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Drifting the Sante Fe
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from Ga
The first third of the float didn't amount to much catching just trying to avoid all the canoes and kayaks. After the big shoal the fishing started to pick up with a bunch of bass caught. No big ones but some nice largemouth and suwanee bass.
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Make It 1,000
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeabee
The day was not over by a long shot. We kept catching them at a steady pace until about 9:20. When we finished, we had 10 bass each and Steph came away with the big girl. To my surprise we ended up with five fish over four pounds.
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Bass Out Back
Florida Sportsman member: southboundchicken
Been fishing freshwater in my backyard in between trips to the ICW for my reds. The bites been pretty good using zoom super flukes in watermelon seed color fishing way back up in the grass where nobody goes.
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South Florida Freshwater
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
Forum member chut03 and friends have been catching a nice variety of fish in the South Florida Freshwater systems, including, bass, carp, snakeheads and even snook.
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Summertime Peacocks
Florida Sportsman member: sandwashslugger
Fishing for peacock bass has been heating up lately. Seems like the fish are schooling up and getting ready to spawn again. I've been averaging around 5 fish per short trip, and had ten the other day.
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Withlacoochee Bassin'
Florida Sportsman member: anglerbros 7286
I never went for more than a few hours each trip but caught over 20 bass each time. Several fish were 1 to 2 pounds. Each time I lost a couple 3 pounders, but last trip I caught a big fat 7lber. Had alot of fun in the kayaks on the Withlacoochee river.
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A Miami Adventure
Florida Sportsman member: spicyswamprabbit
This past weekend my brother, a friend and I took a guys' trip to Miami to fish for exotics. We took our kayaks with us so we could explore some of the canals. We managed to catch quite a few peacock bass as well as Mayan cichlids and oscars on artificial baits, shiners and even a few on fly.
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Saint Johns Schoolers
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeebee
If someone would've told me that I could get out there with Suspending Jerk/Twitch baits and Topwater Sebile Slim Sticks (walk the dog topwater) and catch 25 Largemouth in three hours I'd have thought they were crazy.
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South Florida Freshwater
Florida Sportsman member: Kill N Time
We had to cover a lot of ground and do a lot of casting to catch the ones that we caught. We were throwing top water rubber frogs for the snakeheads and when they decide to eat they absolutely crush the frogs. We also caught about a dozen large mouth bass while we were fishing for the snakeheads.
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Lake Garcia Slob
Florida Sportsman member: Topwater Guy
Forum member Topwater Guy shows off a solid 8.5 pound largemouth caught on Lake Garcia. This fish fell for a 10 inch red ribbontail worm.
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Saddle Creek Bassin'
Florida Sportsman member: Bassin Assassin
The heat is oppressive. The bite is tough. Sweating bullets and my back is killing me. I cast out my trick worm on a point. I work it a bit and lean forward to ease the tension in my back. I begin to reel in and my line is coming to me. I set the hook and a big bass has taken my bait.
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Heading South for Peacocks
Florida Sportsman member: Kill N Time
Since the wind was blowing Saturday my son and I took the opportunity to run South to Fort Lauderdale to see if we could find some more areas that were holding peacock bass. We ended up catching 14 peacock bass, half a dozen large mouth bass and we made a few attempts at a decent size snook that we could not get to eat before he swam off.
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Snook Surprise
Florida Sportsman member: kmander3
That was until my crank bait stopped as if I'd hung a brush pile then line starts dumping off my bait caster. Fought the fish for about 10 minutes thinking my bad day off bass fishing was gonna end with a trophy size largemouth. When this snook comes up to the surface.
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St. Johns Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Klinger
Not saltwater, but fishing nonetheless, a group of us try to catch the bream & shell cracker bedding season. Many of the beds have been abandoned, but catching is still not bad!
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A Freshwater First
Florida Sportsman member: PeacockFever
As we continued down the canal I was catching a midas on almost every bait I put in the water. We got to this one spot and I caught this big yellow 2 pound midas cichlid.
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Fooling Them with Plastic
Florida Sportsman member: Austins26
The last few weeks my buddy and I have hit a few lakes when the planets were in perfect alignment. We had a more than a few two an half hour trips when we caught 30 to 50 bass between us. A few were 6 to 8 pounds and most came during the hottest part of the day.
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Fun on the River
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
My buddy came from north Georgia to fish with me this weekend. We fished the Withlacoochee above the 200 and did pretty well. He mostly caught his fish on jigs while I used a worm. I caught a smorgasbord of fish including a huge bowfin, stumpknockers, warmouth and a bunch of bass.
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Public Water Giant
Florida Sportsman member: mcnallyoutdoors
This enormous largemouth bass was caught by noted Jacksonville, Florida angler Tim Mann from a large public lake. It was weighed, photographed and released unharmed.
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Bass from a Different Angle
Florida Sportsman member: Bass2bucks
Forum member Bass2bucks posted an awesome video. He placed his Gopro camera in a bass bed, and was able to capture the bass eating his lure. Nice!
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South Florida Freshwater
Florida Sportsman member: PeacockFever
I had a great week in the freshwater, fishing several spots. Two of the days I managed a freshwater grand slam and even pulled a nice snook out of one of my spots.
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Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
Beautiful day on the Withlacoochee, even caught a fish. We ended up with around eight pretty bass along with some redbreasts and warmouth. Everything was caught on worms.
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Lake O' Largemouths
Florida Sportsman member: Lucky_Lefty
Well my brothers were in town and we decided to take my center console over to Lake Okeechobee for the first time and try for bass. We stopped and got 2 dozen shiners. We launched out of the Kissimmee River and headed out to a area that looked good.
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Catching the Peacocks
Florida Sportsman member: sandwashslugger
I went out fishing with my buddy Paul, our target were the big boys. The 2 to 3 pounder, which are quality fish, were left alone. The fish were very skittish so live bait got us the most fish.
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Withlacoochee River Bassin'
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
Caught the largest bass I've caught in Florida this afternoon. Also caught several more on the same green pumpkin finesse worm that I've been using almost exclusively for the past 12 years. The big fish weighed in at 4 pounds 8 ounces.
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Crappie Dinner
Florida Sportsman member: stingwray
Got a call from a fishing buddy about going for a little perch fishing, so off we went sunday afternoon. Fished about 3 hours and it was a blast, we left the fish chewin because we had more than enough.
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Residential Bass
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
Forum member chut03 got into some nice bass recently, as well as some by-catch species. The baits used were live killifish, jigs and crankbaits.
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Find the Bait, Find the Fish
Florida Sportsman member: Realseabee
Weather was for crap but we went anyway and was rewarded with 28 Bass (19 Largemouth and 9 Sunshines). 5 Pounds biggest largemouth and 7 pounds was the biggest sunshine. Bait ranged today with three guys throwing at them but the best was still the Mirrodine.
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Lake Harney Largemouth
Florida Sportsman member: RealSeabee
Located some bait again today and the largemouth and several nice stripers were close behind. Just my wife and I today put 15 in the boat. MirrOLures ruled the day, medium MirrOdine and large MirroMinnow.
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South Florida Urban Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
Forum member chut03 has been tearin' up the South Florida residential ponds and canals. Catching largemouth bass, peacock bass, crappie and more. Nice!
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Tearin' them up on Topwater
Florida Sportsman member: Snookslayer772
Primarily fishing Gambler Big Ez's rigged on 7/0 ewg hooks, reeling them on the surface, we were able to watch every bass destroy our baits. Did lose a giant due to the braid breaking and a few more to the lilly pads, but all in all a good day of fishing.
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Lake Hernando Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: Alex from GA
Monday morning we saw some birds diving and caught a dozen crappie for dinner then went bass fishing. Using worms, spinnerbaits and jerkbaits we caught a dozen or so bass with a 14 incher being the largest. The water warmed up to 62 degrees and the bite turned on, some what.
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A Day on the Lake
Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer
The morning started out a little windy but once the wind laid down in the afternoon the fishing started to pick up. We ended up with only 5 crappie, some small bass, 1 catfish, and a pleco. We missed a couple bigger fish in the weeds because we were using some very light tackle.
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Panfish Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Pmoconnor89
As far as fishing, it was markedly slow until the sun got low. I managed a few decent fish on my nymph fly but the real action started as dusk set in and the fish began feeding on the surface. In a matter of 5 minutes I boated two 10″ bluegills on a popping fly and lost another large fish due to a missed hookset.
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A Switch from the Salt
Florida Sportsman member: greenie-slayer
Decided to change it up a little today and go try my luck on some freshwater fish. Threw poppers, spinner baits, and some flies to catch around 20 bass and a pickerel. Got cut off by a few pickerel too. Nothing very big but watching the bass and pickerel shoot out from under the lily pads to crush a a popper is all the excitement I need.
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Catching in the Cold
Florida Sportsman member: syd7792
I headed straight to the lily pads and started some flipping. My first fifteen minutes were slow but I could see slight movement around the pads. I saw a lilly pad twitch so I flipped the why not over to that pad and as soon as that bait hit the water that bass nailed it! Nice four pounder landed!
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Taking a Kid Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: syd7792
I give the rod to him and he makes his first cast. He is reeling it in and comes across a stick pile. As soon as the worm bumped an underwater limb a tiny mouth came out of the water and made a splash. I say,"Seth you got one set the hook buddy set the hook"! He's freaking out in excitement and hands me the rod. I land the bass and go to give him a high five. In that very moment I seen a smile that went from ear to ear and a little boy that was filled with joy.
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Chasing the Peacocks
Florida Sportsman member: heavychevy15
It was getting late so i switched over to spin gear to see if i couldn't land a decent size peacock before we called it a day. I would have much rather gotten the fish on fly, but i'll still take it. It was a solid fish and a good way to end the day.
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South Florida Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
Forum member chut03 has been fishing south Florida canals and lakes, and has been catching an awesome variety of fish. Nice work!
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Loxahatchee Largemouth and More
Florida Sportsman member: Fireman Bill
Monday's forecast meant kayaking out of the wind somewhere so down the Loxahatchee. We went in my tandem kayak. The water is still higher than I like but it was manageable. The big bass was the only fish I caught for the day but I made it count. My friend caught one bass, 6 snook and a hoard on panfish as I paddled.
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Backyard Bassin'
Florida Sportsman member: Brooksrobinson9
I recently moved and lucky for me our new house is on an awesome lake. Here is a video from what has been caught so far, with hopefully many more to come.
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Panhandle Pickerel
Florida Sportsman member: Klinger
We discovered the pickerel were more active than the bass in that stretch, so just a few bass, but a bunch of pickerel. We ended up with a possession limit of bass and more pickerel than we really wanted to dress.
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South Florida Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
Used primarily topwater rubber frogs for the snakehead, and the biggest bass attacked the frogs too. Peacocks on lipless crankbaits, and livebait. Plus one catfish on a rubber worm strangely enough. and even a needlefish that took a jig.
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Hitting the River
Florida Sportsman member: stingwray
My real passion for fishing is in the offshore waters but I also do a lot of freshwater fishing in creeks,rivers and lakes. On this trip got a late start leaving dock at 3pm. We fished shallow water throwing crankbaits and jigs.
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BassZilla
Florida Sportsman member: LilJim
Forum member LilJim got some great footage on his GoPro of a giant bass. This fish ate a slow rolled alabama rig, Nice!
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Sight Fishing Peacocks
Florida Sportsman member: peacockbass921
Other guys hooked into snook, jacks and tons of little bass and cichlids but I was able to land the biggest peacock of the event at 17.5 inches. I also caught a 14 inch female and saw tons of other fish like big largemouths, mayan cichlids, huge carp that look like bull reds and others.
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Clowning Around
Florida Sportsman member: FL-B
Forum member FL-B got into some exotic species this past weekend. Fishing in Lake Clarke Shores, he caught two nice clown knife fish. Sweet catch!
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Smallies Up North
Florida Sportsman member: Docked Wages
We managed to get on the water yesterday on Lake Mille Lacs to target small mouth bass and managed to pull lips on a dozen or so and lost a few too.
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Little Girl, Big Gar
Florida Sportsman member: Shark-Bait
my 6 year old landed a nice 40 pound gar on the trinity river, this was the day we landed 3 of them on cut carp, this was the last one for the day and the smallest of all three.
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Catching the Carp
Florida Sportsman member: former chut03
My fish ate a piece of expired potato bread. Brought him in on 8 pound test on a 6 foot rod and bass pro viper spinning reel. Measured in at 41 inches in length and a 24 inch girth. Both fish were fought for less than 15 minutes and safely released.
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A Trip to the Stomping Grounds
Florida Sportsman member: former bluefishinny
Got a call from a buddy over in Fort Lauderdale saturday morning that the peacock bass were back in full force at the old stomping grounds in Weston. I grabbed the gear, packed the car, and made the 3 hour drive from Sarasota to West Fort Lauderdale. We said our hi's and such, and it was off in search of peacock bass. And peacocks o plenty we found.
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Shoreline Specks
Florida Sportsman member: Jiganomics
Forum member Jiganomics got into a mess of specks, fishing from land. These fish were keyed into a bright colored "grapefruit" jig. Looks like a fish fry is in the near future.
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Backyard Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Morocco_madness
Plenty of dinner plate sized gills around. They were being difficult but, in the end they eventually succumbed to bread balls on a flat line. By no means complicated stuff. When it's right there in the backyard though, it beats sitting on the couch. Eventually, a carp came by and my neighbor Craig put a Fly on big girls nose. She inhaled it and was off to the races.
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Taking the Tournament
Florida Sportsman member: capt louie
Worked the area and added a 2 pound to the well and I caught a 5 plus pounder to help. Fishing was slow but we were able to cull twice and threw a bunch of 2 pounders back. I lost a big one flipping I never turned but it didn't matter. Our 21.62 final weight took the win!
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Big Blue Gill and Carp
Florida Sportsman member: Morocco_madness
Rather than waste a promising morning of fishing we decided to hit some nearby ponds for a Big Carp. Little Joey had never caught one before so we made it happen. The boys got around 15 or so large bluegill,over a pound,and 4 big grass carp.
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Flip Fest Fatties
Florida Sportsman member: Bass2bucks
The key is to find the cleaner water with minimal current. After pre-fishing with minimal success my partner and I got lucky on tournament day and found the mother load. We burned up some gas running over 40 miles before we got lucky and stumbled on these fish.
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Freshwater Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Fishin Rod
Forum member Fishin Rod and grandson were able to get out and enjoy some great bream fishing, ending with a fish fry! Nice work!
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Bluegill, the Fly Way
Florida Sportsman member: Pmoconnor89
Made a trip to a new area I have been meaning to get out to for nearly a year now. Shell Creek is a freshwater creek system off of the Peace River in Punta Gorda. I had heard good reports of panfish and bass in the past from this location and put it up on my list of places to try out.
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Summertime in South Florida
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Shane Procell
The Peacock bite is as strong as ever. We have been catching them on a live shiners, x-raps and top water prop baits. One morning we caught a snook and a tarpon on my hand poured buzz frog.
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Freshwater Warfare
Florida Sportsman member: Morocco_madness
We dragged the kayaks over to our trusty lake and set out. Jay had a very productive morning, 2 big Bass around 6 pounds, 2 around 4 pounds and a bunch in the 3 pound range. I on the other hand, not so much.
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Big Urban Bass
Florida Sportsman member: Morocco_madness
Here's a solid Bass i picked up this morning fishing a pond near my home. Picked up several other good fish but this one was my best. I think it's my personal best. All fish were caught on Zoom, U-Tails in Junebug color pattern. The fish once again, were in either deeper water or underneath low lying tree limbs keeping in the shade.
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Big Bags Out of Holiday Park
Florida Sportsman member: Bass2bucks
With the falling water levels the big fish are in the canals and feeding on Snakes, freshwater eels, Frogs and Bluegill. This has made for one heck of a good time and I have taken full advantage of this time of year. In the last three weeks I have weighed in two bags over thirty and at this weeks King of the Glades Championship round I weighed in 26.86 which got me nothing more than a pat on the back. The top 5 teams all had bags over 30 pounds.
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Mixed Bag Down South
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Shane Procell
Forum member Captain Shane Procell has been on the fish this past week! Not only catching big largemouth and peacock bass, but also catching some freshwater snook and tarpon.
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Busting the Bass
Florida Sportsman member: Morrocco_madness
Once the bait made it's touch down, fish were on it nearly every cast. Many casts didn't require a retrieve as fish were picking it up on the drop. The bite was very aggressive. We had a great day with a lot of solid fish being caught including my personal best, a stout 6 pound Bass with a mouth big enough to put my fist in.
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Peacock Bite Heating Up
Florida Sportsman member: aladro
Forum member aladro got into some peacock action down south in Miami, fishing crystal clear lakes that produced nice fish to 4 pounds! Nice work.
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Miami Peacocks
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
These two anglers were hardcore! We fished and fished even while the rain was falling. The bite was slow but we had action in the deeper waters while fishing live baits. Brandon also got to fight a fresh water tarpon in the 30 pound class for a few jumps before it wore through the leader and swam away. They managed to land a couple of largemouth bass, and a couple of different cichlid species as well.
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Lake Griffin Bass
Florida Sportsman member: capt louie
High stuck a fish and when I finally caught up to it I realized it was a nice one. I backed off my drag and it made a pretty good run before I netted it. If this was the tournament it would have got off,but of course that wasn't going to happen.
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Fishing the River
Florida Sportsman member: jvanpelt
After about hour or so of throwing the worm and nearly giving up on it I pitched it up under a rock ledge and was met with an almost instantaneous thump. As the fish started to fight and pull drag I immediately knew I had something other than a bass on. Finally after a few laps around the boat and nearly losing her in the prop I was able to boat a respectable 33 inch snook, my first on a bass worm!
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Busting the Bass
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Shane Procell
The water has come off the flats and concentrated the bass in the canals. Holiday Park seems to be offering the most exciting fishing. Bass anglers are taking monster bass to 9 pounds. One of the latest Holiday Park tournaments was won with an astounding 5 fish sack at over 37 pounds.
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Spring Fishing at its Finest
Florida Sportsman member: chut03
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