Boca Raton \ Weston Report 10/31/15

SFL BassHunter · October 31, 2015, 04:29:40 PM

Started on a canal over in Boca which is about an hour and a half from my house. I figured I should try something new though. Woke up at 5 am and grabbed my stuff to put in the car. Now I was going to go to bed last night at 10pm. Well it turns out the neighbor in front of my house decided this would be the best time to mow his lawn. Yes I just said that. This guy is mowing his lawn at 10PM.

I figure ok maybe it will be quick, he doesnt have a big front yard. Well I was wrong at 10:30PM he decided to use his weedeater. At 10:45PM I had turned into this:

Put on my shoes and went over to discuss this situation with him as kindly as possible.

He apologized and shut off his weedeater. I then went to bed at 11PM and of course now it takes me a while to fall asleep so who knows perhaps I feel asleep at Midnight.

Anyways that part of the story is my excuse for failing to grab the correct rod. I have 3 carbonlites which are different sizes and on one is the PQ and the other I have the Lews Lite which is my bank fishing rod because it is 7 foot as opposed to the PQ which is on a 7'6. In the dark the lews and pq look very similar. So I grabbed the PQ and also the FDX custom rod that I put my Bionic Plus on with 12lb mono for Cranks, Spinner Baits and most top water.

I arrive to the canal and notice both sides are full of hyacinth mats. I look at my rod and realized my error. This wasn't bad considering I was going to be punching and this is my punching rod. But after 25 min of that with 0 bites I felt like I needed to switch. My problem was the limitations of that outfit. Frog was is impossible on it. Far to long to twitch. Casting light weight stuff was out of the question as I soon found out and so what I should have done was take the reel off and swap it with the Bionic, put the Bionic with the 7'6" back in the car and just used the darned PQ on the FDX MH.

Instead I put a frog on the 12 lb mono...yes I know not a good idea. Interestingly though it didn't backfire. Unfortunatly the only fish I caught on that canal was not a Bass. It was a big long snakehead. Anywhere between 18-20 inches.
I knew almost immediately it wasn't a Bass and thought it may be a mudfish by the way it fought. A man pulled over in his truck to see what I was catching. We agreed that this fish was a snakehead but I didn't have anything to kill it with. My pliers were to small and this thing was thrashing dangerously. He grabbed a pipe from his car and put the fish down. I didn't take a picture but it looked just like this and a big bigger.

I continued with the frog for a bit but got no bites. I then threw worms and had no luck. Packed up and went to Weston. Again to lazy to change my reels around I went and did a bone head thing. I put a uvibe on the 12lb mono knowing full well this pond is heavy grass bottom and there is a layer of pads in front of me. My cast backlashed a little and so I was working that out then reeled in and felt some serious weight. I set the hook and had the fish take off to the side. Now my worm was at the bottom which means so was the fish. It pulled hard and I lifted my rod to see if it would come up out of the grass but it didn't. I then had no choice but to horse it in which seemed to work until I got to the pad field. The fish and probably a ton of weeds got caught in the pads until the fish was gone and my hook was probably anchored in one of the pad stems. A hard pull snapped my line and the story of the month is Rick getting in his own way to lose fish.

I was pissed and now it was too late but I made the switch. The PQ casts much better on the MH and now I had 50 lb braid. So since I am now ready to go with line that won't snap, the right reel and the right rod I catch these two:

That ends my day in disappointment. But hey I caught my first 3 fish on the FDX Rod and really enjoyed using it. Also that was my first snakehead ever.

Lipripper · October 31, 2015, 04:51:58 PM

Thanks for the report Rick and you caught something and didn't get

Next time don't wait so long to change your stuff around.

SFL BassHunter · October 31, 2015, 04:54:03 PM

Quote from: Lipripper on October 31, 2015, 04:51:58 PM
Thanks for the report Rick and you caught something and didn't get Next time don't wait so long to change your stuff around.

Next time I hope to grab the correct rod. lol

FLStorm · October 31, 2015, 04:55:58 PM

That was hands down one of the best fishing reports that I have ever read. You had excitement, drama, heartbreak and joy.

Seriously...good report. Catching something is better than catching nothing.

SFL BassHunter · October 31, 2015, 07:56:12 PM

Quote from: FLStorm on October 31, 2015, 04:55:58 PM
That was hands down one of the best fishing reports that I have ever read. You had excitement, drama, heartbreak and joy.

Seriously...good report. Catching something is better than catching nothing.

I try to make my reports as animated and fun as possible.

MCS · October 31, 2015, 08:43:37 PM

nice report. better luck tomorrow man

Pferox · October 31, 2015, 09:58:42 PM

Good Report Rick. You caught more than I did.

Canesfan · November 01, 2015, 12:47:53 PM

Did you fish with someone else in Weston? Reason I ask is that I went to the Home Depot in Weston around 11AM or so and saw two guys fishing in one of the ponds on Weston Road. Would have stopped if I knew it was you and introduced myself. Depending on how long you were going to be there I could have gone home and grabbed some gear and fished for awhile. Only live 5-10 minutes away.

Capt. BassinLou · November 01, 2015, 02:42:18 PM

I wouldn't sweat it too much Rick. The fish were non-existent yesterday in the canal I fished at either.

SFL BassHunter · November 01, 2015, 02:44:12 PM

Quote from: Canesfan on November 01, 2015, 12:47:53 PM
Did you fish with someone else in Weston? Reason I ask is that I went to the Home Depot in Weston around 11AM or so and saw two guys fishing in one of the ponds on Weston Road. Would have stopped if I knew it was you and introduced myself. Depending on how long you were going to be there I could have gone home and grabbed some gear and fished for awhile. Only live 5-10 minutes away.

No I was by myself. But that would have been cool!