bigbassin'

Saw a bobcat yesterday which was neat. Seen plenty in suburban settings, but first time seeing one back in the woods.

Copy, that is definitely not great.

Disappointing but I’m sure it’s heavily pressured. Now is it really a D or are the locals just upset about the pressure? Every Florida forum is nothing but doom and gloom about the state’s fishing but it doesn’t seem any worse or better than it’s always been. I think I’ve had licenses for 2-3 states at a time for a while now. At the end of the day if I live in that area I figure I will probably fish Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.

Having lived in Atlanta for a year and a half, 45 minutes with no traffic was the closest (not great) fishing I found. Typically closer to 1.5 hours to get to better fishing, and it was boat or bust in my experience for bass. In Chattanooga I could be on Chickamuaga in minutes, think with a 1.5 hour radius I’d have a good range of options for both largemouth and smallmouth. I plan to try rafting and rock climbing up there, but don’t think which state I’m in matters much for that. Honestly I’ve pretty much got my mind set in one direction, just seeing if anyone has a perspective I haven’t considered.

I think work will have me moving to Chattanooga in the next 6 months. I can pick between being in Georgia vs Tennessee. Currently leaning towards living on the Tennessee side of Chattanooga. Cost of living seems to be a tad cheaper with no income tax. As far as fishing and hunting goes (the second biggest factors in my decision) I think I get more bang for buck as a Tennessee license holder than Georgia. Fishing I for sure give to Tennessee as opposed to North Georgia. I think hunting is a wash quality wise, if nothing else both states should have better deer hunting than Florida. Figure there’s probably not much in the way of ducks along the 75 corridor of either state. Any pros/cons of living on the Georgia side of 75 vs Tennessee that I need to consider?

Yessir I am. I’d be comfortable throwing that schminnow for any warm water fish out there. Because of water logging I’ll go with the clouser more but effectively they are 1A and 1B in my opinion.

Always interesting how different climates impact fish growth and lifecycle. In Florida I always hear a largemouth will grow 10 inches the first year, then between a half pound to two pounds a year depending on male/female and available food. Not sure if this is science based or dock talk, but I’ve heard the average 5 pound Florida bass is a 4 year old female, with 6 years being the top of the average life expectancy.

Anyone know roughly how many mpg a 15 hp 2 stroke Johnson would get on a 14’ jon boat? I’m planning a 20 mile round trip this weekend and want to make sure my 6 gallon tank will cover it. About all I can find is that you should burn 1 gallon per 10 horsepower an hour at wide open throttle. This would imply 4 hours of running at 15 mph with the tank or 60 miles total. I haven’t really kept up with how much gas I’ve used up to this point, just fill it up when needed but 60 miles on 6 gallons sounds pretty high to me.

I know the gulp brand has a glow color. Always throw it during the day saltwater fishing so can’t really tell you how well it would glow at night.

6 wt with floating line is typically what I reach for. Chartreuse/white or all white clousers get the most action from me, I’ll occasionally throw a shminnow or a popper though. Fly rod pb (5 lbs 6 ounces) came off of a 6wt with a size 8 popper. If I don’t need to make long cast I’ll step down to a 4, or if I’m throwing a popper I’ll go up to an 8. Not sure what size hook you tie that on, but add some rubber legs and you’d have a perfect bluegill fly.

Quit, no. Long breaks and lower intensity definitely. Fished anywhere from 3 to 7 days a week from the time I was 10 to 18. Then with college I’d say I went once a month the first year or two, then twice a week the next 3. Once I started working full time, a lot of it depends on schedule. 6-7 day weeks or night shift simply leaves me too wiped out to fish, or if I’m out of town and a long drive to the water I won’t fish. A couple of jobs that were 7 days a week for 2-3 months alternating day and night, fishing was the last thing on my mind. I remember fishing 20 hour days when I was younger, starting at 4:00 AM in the surf, moving to the flats around lunch time for sight fishing, then bass fishing until midnight. These days I’m done after 3-4 hours on a normal Saturday trip. I do a lot more messing around for panfish these days than I used to, haven’t thought about doing a tournament in at least a year or so. Doing a lot of hunting these days and while I wouldn’t say I enjoy it anymore or less, I’ve fished twice since September 1st but been in a tree stand about 10 times. I think I fished once from September to March (early duck season through the end of turkey). So I guess one way or the other I’ve made a subconscious decision on which interest me more at the moment. As far as weather based breaks go, I’m in the opposite boat being in Florida than a lot of y’all. Winter time is probably the best fishing here, it can be tough to motivate myself to go in July after working outside all week. With that being said, all my vacations are fishing based so when I do fish I’ll hit it hard for 7 days in a row from sunup to sundown. Edit: the bulk of my fishing the last 15 years has been largemouth or saltwater. If work has me in a spot to go after a different species, I’ll quit going to the gym to get after them. One benefit of traveling for work is I’ve gotten to catch peacock bass, smallmouth, spots, shoal bass, rainbow trout, and brown trout without having to take a vacation to do so.

Definitely looking at it in a positive light. Taking steps in a positive direction, and I’ve already seen 3 deer in range this season (2 were at the last 5 minutes of legal light and I couldn’t see my sights) and had a shot on one, so definitely an improvement over seeing zero legal deer last year. Having taken up hunting on my own without any friends or family to teach me, it’s good to have these encounters and know the sign I’m seeing is actually corresponding with deer. I’ll probably hunt about 3 more times with the bow this season, then rifle season will open up near the end of the month in my area of Florida and remain open through January. I’ll for sure hunt one rifle weekend in December for a good quota I have drawn, but after that duck season overlaps and I’m up in the air on which to spend my time on.

Not a successful hunt, but my favorite one yet: Started hunting last year, and never got in range. Finally got close a few weekends back with the bow but missed! Tried out a small management area close to where I’m currently working Saturday afternoon. Property is a couple hundred acres, swamp on the SE corner, large creek runs the northern property line. Middle of the area is a mixture of fields and woods. Place was packed and I didn’t see any deer, but it was also covered up with deer sign so I figured it was worth trying again. Got off work Tuesday, and figured it would be a good day to try again. Got to the parking lot around 6:00, 5 other vehicles in the parking lot. Grabbed the bow, and decided to still hunt/scout along the property line with the bow in hand. With only an hour and a half of shooting light, didn’t feel like messing with the climber, plus I felt the other folks were likely hunting the field edges already. Jumped one doe 100 yards from the parking lot laying in a field. Figured that was a good sign. Tucked into the woods along a field edge and followed a trail paralleling the northern property line (adjacent to a creek). Made it about 100 yards down the trail and start seeing tracks, very heavily used area. Moving slowly, I creep along a little further. Find some acorns on the ground and what I believe was a scrape? Low hanging branch broken and missing it’s leaves at chest height, ground was scratched below it. Tracks all around as well. Go just a little bit further, and movement catches my eyes. It’s a deer! Head down so I can’t ID it. Bucks and does are both good to go, but I still wanted to know what it was before flinging an arrow. Finally looks up after going from broadside to facing away, it’s a doe. Very slowly feeding away from me, I cautiously took a step or two to keep it at 35 yards. Turns back to broadside. I draw back…and a tree is blocking it’s vitals. I let down, it turns away and I’m staring at it’s tail. Turns back to broadside, I draw back and take the shot…missed low! Arrow went right under. Luckily no branches were hit so it was pretty quiet. Doe seemed to know something was up at this point, but it wasn’t fully ready to leave the area. It moved about 15 yards back to where it came from and looked around for a minute. I stayed as still as possible. It put it’s head down again and I drew back to take the shot. Arrow hit a vine, deflected, and I missed again! Sound of the arrow hitting the vine sent the doe hauling back into cover. Game was over with that one. In about 20 hunts, I’ve never had a deer in range before. Real bummer to miss not once but twice once I finally had the opportunity. Not sure what else to say other than target panic took over there. Thought I was comfortable with the bow on the range but drawing back on the doe made it clear it’s not at muscle memory for me or even close to it. On the flip side, it was still an exciting hunt even if I clearly need to spend some more time on the range. And if I’m going to miss I’d rather just downright miss than get a non lethal shot. I’m starting to see more sign when picking spots so I’m at least making progress. Just need to keep at it and eventually should get it done.

Been a while since I fished it, but exclusively caught spots (and lots of them). Flukes around docks, jigs and grubs around lay downs, and jerk baits around schools of bluebacks all produced.

I joke around all the time that for some guys every day is there first day. I had a guy that did the exact same thing every single day for 8 months straight on a jobsite. We finish the job and move to a new project, exact same work as the previous project. Work is identical, everyone’s task remained the same, same layout was provided to the crew. All of this is discussed at the start of shift. I see him get out of the truck about 100’ away and stare at his drill like he’s never seen one before. My phone starts to ring. ”Hey boss, what am I doing today.” Same exact thing you’ve done for 8 straight months…

This is one I see all the time I’ve never got. I just can’t fathom how anyone would rather hangout in a portajohn during the middle of July than just do what needs to be done.

On the road for work so I just went with local anesthesia so I could drive afterwards. Top 2 pulled without much issue, bottom 2 required a lot of cutting which was fun to listen too. Tried to tough it out the first 3 days and worked 8-10 hours each day. Think I may have over done it and haven’t gotten out of bed yet on day 4.

No fun, would not recommend.

You may have posted before, but what’s your diet? That’s where I struggle. For me personally the gym is the easy part. Enjoy putting on some headphones and moving weight. Plus the difference in how I feel when I lift vs don’t is so night and day it’s easy to convince myself to go even if I don’t want to most days. You also get the instant satisfaction of seeing/feeling the pump after a hard lifting session. Cardio is a little harder but unless I have a tough day at work (physical labor so I’m definitely getting my steps in, normally while under load) I’ll get it done. Diet over the weekend kills me. Every Friday I’m 5-8 pounds lighter than I am on Monday. I figure most of this is water weight due to increased salt intake, which I then sweat off working outside during the week.

As others have said, it looks great but I’ve never gotten a bite with it.

You can close the thread on this one.

Probably ate quite a bit less than many members, but I feel game meat largely comes down to the individual animal. I’ve had venison that was better than any steak I’ve ever had, and I’ve also ate some where there was no doubt that the meat came from a game animal. I imagine the diets, stress level, shot placement, etc. result in a lot more flavor variables than cattle or chicken all raised on the same feed and harvested in the same manner.

My thought as well. You’ll never catch a smallmouth in Florida, a decent size largemouth that may not be photo worthy in Florida is a lot of folks PB’s up north. Add in saltwater available along the coast or trout in the mountains and you could be justifying a couple homes if money is no factor.

Looks like the fuel may have been the issue. Pretty much ran out the last tank and filled back up with new non-ethanol gas, so far so good this morning.

I’ll be sure to try these out next time I have a chance and will post the results. Current tank of gas came from a can about 9 months old, would that be old enough to do? Most of this tank has been used for duck scouting so it’s definitely ran to into some mud.