[Hoffman]

Fishing for bass in Florida will spoil you real fast! My first fish on my third cast was 4 lbs, 20", throwing a weightless worm over lily pads. The only rod I had rigged at the time was a medium light wt. with 8 lb mono. You can imagine the heart pounding rush of fighting her in a canoe by yourself in the pads! Six casts and a 14" dink later I hooked into this 5 plus 22". The same way in the pads dragging that worm across the tops of the pads. It was almost too much to take, my hands didn't stop shaking for at least 10 mins.

took three pics. still couldn't all of her in view, did I mention i was shaking.

The trip kept on this way, some days it was real hard to keep the little guys off the hook. To give you an idea we put the skiff in at 7:15 am and by 9 am we boated 38 fish. However, only one was over 20", this girl who stole a johnson spoon from a 14" dink. She came up boat side and started chasing the other fish and took the spoon and got hooked up.

My girlfriend caught her PB LMB with this 20.25" 4.25 lb bass, she was using the medium light rod with the 8 lb mono so I was proud.

And her PB kittie 25" and 6.5 on the light tackle it gave her a run for her money.

They have some really big cats down there but I wasn't comfoartable fishing at night when the gators are hunting. It's okay in the day when you can see them though.

This guy came around six feet from the canoe

A couple last bass photos

Have a ton more photos they all look the same I didn't take a picture of anything under 20" the biggest went 23.5" 6 lbs. While the fish had thick shoulders the bellies just weren't that fat.
Legnths = weight
20 = 4 +
21-22 = 5 +
23 = 6 +

Had a blast can't wait until next year! And spring here!

One last photo of a pair of sand hills and chick, they always seem to hatch when we arrive.

 

[augman]

Very nice pic's!!! Boy , It makes winter seem that much longer seeing pics of some real nice bass. Now the cabin fever just got worse!!! :lol:

 

[Mountin Du]

2 Cool... were those catch & release? Any wall mounts for the den?

 

[FishinMatt]

Really nice fish Nathan 2

 

[Hoffman]

Thanks guys, It was a blast! No wall mounts DU, all C n R, well C n R with ride to new home for a few of them. I'm still gunning for a 10 plus down there, hopefully next year. While my girlfriend likes to fish, 6 hours is about all she can handle (she has some back problems). I still count my lucky stars that she enjoys it but I would have liked to put in 12-14 hour days the entire week.

O well still caught a ton of fish and her catching that 4 lber made my day. We were just beaching the canoe to cross that land bridge into the next lake. Bam! she hooked up I jumped in the water with a gator to assist with the landing. She lost a 5 lber in the pads earlier that day and was ticked so I made sure she didn't lose this one. We didn't use a net the entire trip.

NOTE if you are heading down make sure to stock up on any fresh water gear (i.e. plastics) you think you may need. As it was tough finding any so close to the Gulf. If anybody wants further info PM me and I'll see if I can help.

 

[Nikster]

NICE PIC's. 2 Yea, Florida can spoil ya. Catching biguns on any given day.
But, Gaters, & all those slithery things down there give me the willies

Was fishing a local pond (5/6 acres) a number of years ago. A local came up to me & told me of a big gater that was seen a few days before, & to be carefull. I figured he was just trying to scare me. Then I heard that the next day a 40+ lbs., pooch got snatched from the bank.

That ended my fishing from that pond.