Rejoice with me

[carlcmc]

I'm taking an education trip to Orlando, Fl the end of May, begining of June for 1 1/2 weeks. I've managed to make room in my schedule for a guided trip on the stick march/farm 13! HUBBA HUBBA! Anyone here ever went there? Any feedback/suggetions?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Ahh yes... stick marsh/Farm13.. the mecca to bass fishing in the U.S. I fished it for 2 days a couple of years ago... Fishing florida for a week during my spring break. StickMarsh and Farm 13 are 2 HUGE bodys of water.. almost completly square in shape with the channels running around the outside. A 20 mile dirt road to get there so everybody boat is filthy by the time they arive at the lake.

We fished about the same time you are going. Fish were mostly done spawning, and we threw topwater chug baits (pop-r and chug bug) for much of the day over the hydrilla beds.. Also threw some senko type baits and florida swimming worm rigs over the grass as well. We didn't have the typical days on stick/13.. I bet we only caught 60 some fish a day.. biggest around 7 lbs. I went with the goal to not throw any live bait, and I didn't. The picture in my avitar 10lbs 14 oz, was caught that week but on lake Toho...

If you have any more questions.. please ask...

One of my biggest memories of the trip.. I had a 3 lb fish on a pop-r... anyway, 1/2 way back to the boat it got ripped off by a gator!!~!.. no kidding!.. I lost track of how many alligators I saw, well over 300 a day!

[carlcmc]

I have been trying to decide about live bait as well. I see the mention of using the large golden shiners to get the huge bass. While I'd like to catch a huge bass, I'm not sure how fun or exciting using the live bait for it will be.

Is it possible to catch large bass there with out the shiners?

I also thought that this might be a chance to learn how to fish a jig n pig if there were so many large bass. Is that effective there or a producing option?

thanks.

[Ray Esboldt]

carlmc,

I have no advice for you since I've never fished Florida. But, I can say you're one lucky dog.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Carl-I wish you would have brought this up down at Cabela's.. we could have talked about it at lenght..

Can you catch big bass without the use of live bait?.. yes.. like I said, the fish in my avatar is 10lbs 14 oz.. and was caught on a flipping tube. I also caught an 8lber and a 9lb er and a few that pushed 7 that trip.. but I fished from sun up till sun down for 6 days... If you only have a day to fish and you really want to up your odds you need a guide and probably shiners. However, its your call to make.

as for Jig and Pig. Many of the FL lakes are plump full of vegitaion!... And Floating Matts of Grass.. I found in my 6 days of fishing that the Jig and Pig was not as effective for pulling threw the grass, even though the Jig is weedless, it still catching weeds.. I found a flipping tube much more effetive!

Best of luck on your trip.. if you have any more questions... Keep em comming!