Lunker777 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 (edited) Hey everyone, Well we made it home last night at about 11:30Pm after driving 2000KMS in 19hrs. haha it was a looooong day ! My girlfriend Megan and I went out with a bass guide on the Monday of our trip. His name was Jose Garza. He was a great guy. We were the same age so we got along quite well. We went out for about 10 Hrs, and he only charged us $350 ... INCLUDING 4 dozen shiners. The significant other, ain't she a beauty haha Myself So to start the day, we went to a chain of lake Jose knew was a good numbers lake. He wanted us to get some fish under our belt early, so the rest of the day we could spend tryin to catch a monster. Jose set the Wife up with a shiner rod for the morning and she was into the fish within a few minutes. She landed the first Bass of the day. I told Jose I wanted to try some artificials, so we spent the time on the first lake tossing poppers & spooks in the early morning and rattle traps and flukes later on. My first fish AWWWWWW The first time I tried to cast the fluke on a bait caster, I got a pretty good bird nest..... as I was trying to get that sorted, BOOM ! haha A bass hit the fluke that was just sitting in the water. I handed the rod off to Jose and pulled the fish in by hand. We tried that a few more time, but on purpose and caught about 6 more fish. You know you guide fishes a lot when... So the bite slowed down on the first set of lakes, so we loaded up and mad e arun for shore to move on to the next lake. The next lake is a size lake. Jose had a customer on the lake a week before we were there, and they pulled in a 8#2oz Bass ! 75MPH back to the dock !!! GEEEZ it was great haha the wife took a piece of seaweed off the face going full out, she wasn't impressed. We got to the second lake and launched. Jose set up 4 shiner rods, as that would be all we were going to use on this lake. No plastics. So with the beer in hand, sittin back and relaxin we started fishin. Within a few minutes the first fish was on. A kiss for good luck ! The lake was split in half by a major highway, we fished the first side for about an hour and then headed over to the other spot. Thats where he has had the best luck catchin HUGE fish. We trolled a weed bed for a while but seemed to be only catchin the fish in a little spot at the end of the weed bed, so we concentrated the energy there. It paid off !!! The view Jose's fish Megs fish My PB till that point of the day :) Put her on the scale and it was 3 lbs right on ! The Megs landed her PB of the trip !!! she was so happy !!! Another good size fish, we were thinking over 3lbs, but didn't put it on the scale And then it happened. The highlight of the day. I felt a little THUD on the line, so I opened the bail, and let some line out. Sure enough, all the slack in the line went away pretty quick so a closed the bail and set the hook !! Ill never forget that feeling, it was like settin the hook in a big log, NOTHING MOVED !!!! haha We knew it was big from that point. Well it put up a decent fight but came to the boat pretty easy. I let out a big YEEEEEAAAAAA. We put her on the scales and she came in at 4lbs 13ozs ..... Its not HUGE by Florida standards but I didnt think we were going to get any better then that as it was gettin pretty late in the day ! Its my personal best and was the big fish for our trip !! All in all, it was a GREAT day. I'm very happy with Jose and his service and I would DEFINITELY recommend him. He actually lived just outside of Detroit and fishes the local waters quite often, so I will be hooking up with him for sure over the summer. As we were talking about the day at the dock a looked to my left and kind of saw what I thought was a branch near the shore. Turned out to be about a 3.5 ft. Iguana !!!! haha It was a pretty neat find ! Since Jose was so good to us, We took him out for dinner at the Orlando Ale House to finish the day off and to recap ! Like I said... it was a great day and I would defiantly suggest a guide to anyone that is heading to Florida. Don't let the prices scare you. I'm sure there is plenty of opportunity to catch a fish double the size of mine ! Any questions and comments welcome ! Thanks for stoppin by ! Edited March 23, 2009 by Lunker777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigger08 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Yes Lunker777.....she is easy on the eyes.Looks like you had a good time,congrats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCTFisher9120 Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Ah great to see some more bass reports! Looks like you all had a great time in Flordia in that sunshine Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbouck Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Great Report! Can't wait for the bass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigugli Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 It can be such a blast fishing florida lakes with a good guide. WTG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moosebunk Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Thoroughly enjoyed that!!! Great stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rattletrap2 Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 It's great that you had such a good experience with your guide. My wife and I were not as fortunate. The guy sounded fantastic on the phone, but in person was totally opposite. I don't think I would ever hire a guide again without checking his references thoroughly or having a personal recommendation like you are giving. Looks like some really good fish and great time was had! Thanks for sharing your trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OhioFisherman Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Great pictures and report, nice to see you got some fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinker Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Not bad for a bass report Your looking pretty sunburnt by the end of the day......a little itchy now?? LOL Sinker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2kptbo Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Now that looked like fun, thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greencoachdog Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 That was a great report and pics!!! If you think the sun is hot in the Spring down here in the South... you should try it in July, August, and September!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corvette1 Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 great trip congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Pike Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Wow, what a great adventure that was Lunker and thanks for sharing it! The guided experience turned out really well too, eh. A good guy who got you onto some great fish. Still the rest is up to you guys and you did really well! Some real fatties! Just wondering what area of Florida you guys travelled to? The significant other, ain't she a beauty haha Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!! .. well you asked... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 man o man, softwater, the hot sun, and bikinis! thanks for the report, it will keep us sane for a little while ! Congrats to you and the missus on the PB! I noticed that you started off the trip calling Megan the girlfriend... and midway through she's became the wife .... LOL did we miss something there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnF Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Does the $350 include the boat? If so, that's very reasonable. You'd pay a good chunk to rent a boat like that for a day, and according to a recent post here you got about $50 worth of minnows thrown in. And yer a fool for posting pics of yer girl on here. Now you'll be getting swamped with invitations to go fishing, provided she comes along. Where else can we see pretty girls who appear to enjoy holding smelly old bass? Good report. JF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarzan's Jane Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 I noticed that you started off the trip calling Megan the girlfriend... and midway through she's became the wife .... LOL did we miss something there? I was going to comment on that as well. Great report and pics and congrats to both of you on your PB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinbanger Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 great report , thanks for posting . TB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunker777 Posted March 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Hey everyone !!! Thanks for the great feedback !!! It's great that you had such a good experience with your guide. My wife and I were not as fortunate. The guy sounded fantastic on the phone, but in person was totally opposite. I don't think I would ever hire a guide again without checking his references thoroughly or having a personal recommendation like you are giving. Looks like some really good fish and great time was had! Thanks for sharing your trip. Thats unfortunate, we actually had this talk on the boat, he was tellin us some stories of the local " guides " in the area ! I guess you have to be pretty careful. Even Disney world has there own guides, They charge $250 for 2 hours !!!!!!!!!!!! If you dont do the re-search, it can be a pretty big waste of money ! Being as he was reffered to us by a buddy of mine, we lucked out pretty good. Not bad for a bass report Your looking pretty sunburnt by the end of the day......a little itchy now?? LOL Sinker ITCHY ?!?!?!?!?!?!! I dont even think thats the word hahah its BRUTAL !!!! Wow, what a great adventure that was Lunker and thanks for sharing it! Just wondering what area of Florida you guys travelled to? We were fishing some lakes in the Orlando area... Northeast if I remember correctly. Im sorry I didnt get the names of them, I was a little excited that day haha man o man, softwater, the hot sun, and bikinis! thanks for the report, it will keep us sane for a little while ! Congrats to you and the missus on the PB! I noticed that you started off the trip calling Megan the girlfriend... and midway through she's became the wife .... LOL did we miss something there? HAHAHA NO NO NO ..... I usually refer to her as the Wife, I dont know why I started with " girlfriend " We've been together for 6 yrs now, so bascily we're married without the paper work ! haha Does the $350 include the boat? If so, that's very reasonable. You'd pay a good chunk to rent a boat like that for a day, and according to a recent post here you got about $50 worth of minnows thrown in. And yer a fool for posting pics of yer girl on here. Now you'll be getting swamped with invitations to go fishing, provided she comes along. Where else can we see pretty girls who appear to enjoy holding smelly old bass? Good report. JF hahah HEY I would be more than happy to bring her along for a day of fishin if someone wants to throw an invite our way !!! She was a great sport on the water.... Her face lite up when she got her big bass... it was great ! And the boat was included for the $350, he runs a 20' Stratos with a 225 Merc on the back... it was a really nice boat. Like I said.... I was VERY happy with the deal we got... I was expecting at least a $450 bill before tip. His website www.josegarzafishing.com if anyone is interested. or you can type Jose Garza in google and I think he is the third link down ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leecher Posted March 23, 2009 Report Share Posted March 23, 2009 Great report and pics Lunker777 Looks like you guys had a great time out with Jose and congratulations to both of you for your PBs Real nice buckets!! Great job you guys and Thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us! Leechman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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