I have an established pond with plenty of BG and native bass. Year and a half ago I put in 15 Floridas ranging from a pound to three pounds. The Floridas go after my feed every time the feeder goes off.

We have had very little luck catching any of our large fish - both native and the Floridas. Any suggestions? Thanks

Try this.

Wait until the second day after a front, slow down your retrieve to almost a crawl, and throw either live bait, or a suspending or large glide bait.

This 6" bait Gantarel has done me well, but you've got to have a monster fishing rod to throw it. Normal sized suspending jerkbaits work well too.

That's like tossing a bait for a musky! I have a 7'-6" St. Croix set up with 60# braid for that.

The Gantarel is a tad heavy. My Dobyns rod is rated for 2-8 oz.

Have you caught any of the Floridas even one time?

Lots of people on Pond Boss report that their Florida Bass are very hook smart.

Even your northern strain LMB will get hook shy.

I think the peak of the spawn is the exception. That is the only time that I have caught multiple bass in a day with healing mouth wounds, or a lure still in their lip, or a 6" plastic worm and hook in their stomach!

Also, do you turn off the feeder for a few days? Some of the feeder people on the forum say that makes a big difference.

Clicked on your link, and saw that is a $50 lure!

If you hook up a fish, does the lure give you two nice fillets in a ziploc bag by the time you get it back to the bank?

Hey, Tim. I've got a mix of Floridas, F1, and Northern LMB at my place. I've found three techniques for the bigguns.

One, throw Stubby Steves around the feeders, especially after the pellets are dispensed. The only disadvantage is that you'll get a lot of BG and smaller LMB along with the occasional lunker, but it is a blast to watch. The big girls lose all sense of caution!

Second, when you catch a small BG or LMB, use them as live bait. This is what they do in Florida, only they use shiners. Much more likely to fool a Florida LMB than any artificial bait. At least, that's been my experience.

Three, attach a hook to a big Hand Thrown chunk via a rubber band. This works best after you've already tossed out a few chunks and have the bigger fish going crazy! Advantage is that you won't be bothered so much by BG or small LMB.

Good luck!

No, but it usually provided a bigger LMB. I was going with a more sporting artificial lure angle, but pellets will certainly catch feed trained LMB.

thanks for all the great replies. Just turned the feeder off a couple of weeks ago so I will give some of these suggestions a try -