Everglades (New Year's Day outing!)

[Capt. BassinLou]

Conditions:
Moon phase: Waning Gibbous
Outside temps: Upper 50's to mid 70's
Water Temps: Mid 60's
Water clarity: Clear
Water level: Normal for this location
Wind: 5-10 out of the NNE
Skies: Clear
Working bait: stickworm
Fishing time: 0700-12pm

Keeping with  my New Years tradition, I headed out and fished the Everglades. Arrived a little before sunrise and was on the water fishing by 0700.  Threw an assortment of lures for over 2 hrs without a sniff.

Keeping my New Year's promise of improving my bottom fishing skills, I switched to a weightless stick worm and went to work.

Fortunately, I made the switch. Finally caught my first bass of 2024, a little before 0900. Shortly after, I began picking off bass here and there.





Lost a few good ones due to poor leverage on the hookset due to fishing mono and casting distance.

Surprisingly enough, I stayed with the stickworm for the remainder of the trip.



Need to work on a few things technique wise, but other than that, I had a fun first outing to kick off  2024.

Thanks for reading! Happy New Year!

[FlatsNBay]

I'm surprised you are fishing mono on your worm rig. Thanks for the report.

[JHAB]

Nice going and Happy New Year!
Jim

[Capt. BassinLou]

Nice going and Happy New Year!
Jim

Thanks Jim.

[Capt. BassinLou]

I'm surprised you are fishing mono on your worm rig. Thanks for the report.

Yeah, I'm circling back around to mono again for my soft plastics applications in open water. I'm having to really adjust my timing when it comes to hooksets. Mono is just so dang springy!! I need to reel down a lot more to effectively set the hook. 

[Donald Garner]

Lou, Congrats on the successful outing.  Tks for sharing the trip and those pictures with us also.

I see your throwing my 'Favorite Color' stick bait there also     That color is a go to color for me down here in Central Texas when the water is clear to murky 

[big g]

Lou this last trip, your fishing my kind of fishing plastics.    Flukes and stickbaits fished slow with light weight is a major part of every trip for me.  With cooler temps it always requires a slow cadence even dead sticking at drop-offs.  Over the years this has produced a lot of quality fish.  I just love Floro line for sensitivity and sinking ability, especially weightless.

Just got back from Georgia today and caught 8 in two hours at the neighborhood lake.  All on Flukes W/M Red fished painfully slow.  I did notice how cold the bass felt, after being away for three weeks. 

Thanks for the report my friend!