Samlakes10

If you want to throw swimbaits, a TK and a bull Shad 5-6” get bit. As far as regular baits - flukes, jerkbaits, lipless, and swim jugs are what I throw most often. Worms will catch largemouth but for the most part peacock bass and snakehead which you may run into won’t hit worms only baitfish presentations or frogs.

Born and raised in south Florida, you can pretty much park and fish anywhere it’s not posted private and most of the time you can get away with that too. Old white people 60+ are the only people that ever bother you. Peacock bass are really aggressive but have a much smaller mouth than a largemouth, similar size to smallmouth bass. They eat TKs and I’ve caught them on K9s but a jerkbait works really good. Be careful fishing the canals, a lot of them have snook and tarpon and they will fray through 20lb mainline Fluoro, I throw a 30lb leader myself. Lot of good fishing down here tho so I’m sure you’ll catch some. Good luck man !

I fish the leviathan alpha soft swim XH, thing is an absolute broomstick. Sometimes I don’t even set just reel into the fish. I live in Florida so a lot of heavy grass and big fish. No issues so far

I throw mine on a leviathan omega Heavy, their rods are pretty soft and I’ve had no issues.

As far as reel size I would go with a 200 if you plan to throw 20lb, if you’re going lighter like 15-17 a 150 works good too. As far as gear ratio I would do something in the 7s like a 7.2:1 or a 7.5:1. That way it’s not too fast if you want to deadwalk it but it’s fast enough to glide it or crank it. That’s just my experience.