Florida, and especially Polk County, is home to some really good lakes and if you know when and where to go the fishing is great. My brother Travis and I set off fishing at 6am Sunday morning with canoe, paddles, and fishing tackle. The great thing about a canoe is that you can get in places that other boats can't – places that bass like to hide. They were hitting hard at the time we arrived, and by 9am the biting came to a stop. This trip we did catch and release.

Travis – paddling out before first light. I help. My paddle is connected to a battery.

Roy lands the first fish, a large mouth bass. $1 spinner lure does the trick.

Who's the chunkiest?

Roy lands his second large mouth bass. Not as chunky as the last one.

Travis pulls one in

Travis with a nice size large-mouth bass. You can't get your 17 foot boat in here – all those monthly payments and all you needed was a $300 canoe!

Packing it in

But not before saying bye to our little friend. Ah, soakin' up the sun.

Great trip. Hope to do another again real soon! Next time I'm going to bring some live bait and get some other fish when the bass quit hitting.