Where are the fish?? Is it too cold?

recruitkim

I'm from NYC and don't know how to fish Florida. 

Anyway I tried fishing for bass and bluegill this last week and couldn't get a nibble. I'm using worm and bobber for bluegill, and get nothing!

I mainly fish retention ponds and whatever has the word "park " in it. 

Is it too cold? Do freshwater fish not get caught this time of the year?

GRIZZL

Had some big fronts blow through the last 3 weekends. Barometer jumping all over the place. Weather needs to stabilize and get rid of these 15-20mph winds. Next weekend is the best period of the month so I'll be out there regardless. Fishing in these conditions you have to find the thick mats for bass, they'll snug up under em for warmth and protection.

Barrell

Temp changes and in the salt, salinity changes, can shut fishing down until they adapt to the change.

DES51

The constant cold fronts are killing it! These FL bass are real sensitive to changes. Things should pick up this week as the temp. is going to moderate. 

capt louie

For bluegill try on the bottom near grass instead of the cork.

recruitkim

Success!!!!

Tony Roma

Congratulations , if I was you and targeting bream down size your rig , less bobber , less hook, less # test. 

recruitkim

Fishing capital of the world!!!

Tony Roma

Way to make it happen !!!

mplspug

Retention ponds can be tough.  I always considered one bass in 2 hours of fishing a success.  In a true retention pond with no or little emergent vegetation or cover cast parallel to the shore and concentrate on the first 4' from the bank.  I caught the majority of my fish in that area especially sunrise And sunset.  After that you can try casting out into the middle of the pond.

The thing is with most retention ponds it's quality fish, not quantity.  The majority of bass I caught were 3-6 pounds.  

Chatterbaits were my lure of choice.  A lot of other people swear by rattle traps and those giant plastic worms over 10" worked extremely slow.

Sixth Generation

Yes to mornings and evenings.  Yes to the fronts will turn off the bite.  Looks like you have found a pond that has fish in it.  Try a Black Blue Laminate Senko on a 5/0 offset worm hook with no weight.  The Senko is a heavy bait and casts just fine weightless.  It wiggles on the way down and just twitch it and then let it sink again.  My kids have been tearing up bass in the evenings from the shore.  They are casting down the bank and fishing the weed line, not out in the open.

Cagey

I've been doing well. 40 bass in 2 days and a bleeding thumb. Going back out today!

cortr

Spent 10 days(Feb. 23-Mar. 4) on Lake Okeechobee. Three different cold fronts came through during that time. Fishing was great before each front, but was tougher after front. As Sixth Generation suggested, we also pitched Black/Blue Senkos to heavy cover(reeds and joint grass) and had good success even when cold. The coldest morning was in the low 40's, and that day we had 2 fish over 6"'s that day. Major League Fishing was there at the same time, and several big names hardly caught anything. Fish slow and get you bait as deep into cover as possible, since fish will burrow up in thick cover to stay warm.