Thankyou America . 2,000+ bass

[BassinBrits]

We flew out yesterday, April 2nd, and returned to the UK after a great time bass fishing and making new friends. I hope the following is of interest and some value.

All our fishing was with red 20lb Pro braid with a 10lb Seagur invisX fluoro leader. The leader joined with a double uni-knot and hooks attached using a Palomar knot. The knots never let us down. We learnt to check the fluoro leader regularly. After landing a few bass their teeth were roughing up and weakening the line just above the hook and also we fished a lot around grass and maiden cane which also put weakening nicks in the line. The hooks we used were 3/0 EWG Gamakatsu which were strong ,light and remained sharp for quite a few fish before dulling.
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We arrived in Florida and stayed at Inverness for January. Although the area is surrounded by good lakes we had no boat and could not find any good bank fishing and caught only a few small bass.

February and March we were on Crooked Lake (Caloosa), Florida, and stayed at Hillcrest Lodge. The owner Steve Campbell, a fantastically welcoming and helpful guy, loaned us his bass boat and we fished almost every day. In 2 months we caught nearly 2,000 bass. The best was two 5lb+fish in one evening to Doreen. Lots of bass were in the 3 to 4 lb range and loads around 2lb. We did have a couple to the boat at 8 to 9 lb but landed neither “$%.^&”. Crooked lake has some quality fish in it. We saw two 10lbers that were caught. We caught most of our fish using Zoom black finesse and trick worms. We think they were successful because we noticed there were some leeches in the lake and these worms perhaps look like a leech to a bass? In the last couple of weeks we started to use dark coloured Senko’s. You can cast them accurately and a long way weightless, as we prefer to fish them. They out fished the Zooms. But costing 70c each and being so soft they generally only last one per fish. The cost of catching 2,000 fish would be $1,400 on senko worms – ouch. We’d better get saving for next year or buy senko’s at wholesale prices. We were very pleased with our catches but the many passing cold fronts definitely each time put the fish down for a couple of days. So, next year we could catch even more and get the big old ladies out!

During our visit Rick Bateman ( a forum member) took us to his private ponds a couple of times and what an experience. 292 bass in two days between us. ( That put our total catch at 2,000+) Reports and photos on the forum. Thanks Nick – truly appreciated and hope to see you next year.

We also had the privilege to meet the Rodman Rats ( forum members). They took us out on Rodman and also brought their superb Triton boat to Crooked lake and came and stayed with us a couple of weekends at Hillcrest lodge. Sherrie and Jesse are one of the genuine, true and beautiful couples to meet. Doreen and I have never fished and laughed so much at the same time: fantastic days. Really fun guys to be with. We value them as true friends and you should take advantage of any opportunity you get to meet them.

We really have enjoyed our visit and bass fishing in your wonderful country.

Thankyou.

God bless America and all who bass fish there.