New Year Bassin'

I headed out in pre-frontal conditions for a little New Years Day fishing. GatorDave Harper, Joe Jones and my son Eric joined me as we went to our special area in the Everglades. The wind forecast kept us from hitting the flats on the kayaks so we were looking for some exotic action.

 

The wind was not so bad so we started out with topwater lures in the morning. The action was a bit slow, but there were a few takers to give us hope.

 

As the sun warmed the water, the fish began to get a little more active. We were using rattletraps, spinnerbaits and live shiners to get them going. The largemouth bass were smallish but fat and healthy.

The peacock bass were out and readily took shiners and paddletails. Eric found a deep hole that was full of largemouth, peacocks and oscars, and we worked on a trifecta for a while. The fish were aggressive by now and hooking them was fairly easy. Landing them was proving difficult as they would throw the hook with their aerial head shakes.

We were watching oscars swimming along the rocky lake edges but they seemed disinterested in us. Patience finally paid off and Eric and Joe completed the slam with nice fish.

Finally, on the walk back out of the area, Joe went for one last cast and scored a mayan cichlid on a small spinner, completing an exotic grand slam!

What a fun day and if its any indication of the year to come, its going to be a great 2014!