N Florida Mike

I haven’t been on the river lately , but a friend that lives in the fruit cove area caught a 5 pounder on a trick worm , not sure what color. I have done best in the river system with soft plastics, red shad or black , black grape. My favorite worms in the river is Culprits and producto tournament worms. I like fishing Cypress trees and inside grass beds on high tide( the closer to Jax you get the tides are a factor) and the outside of grass beds and under docks at lower tides. Usually the end of the docks will be right on the edge of deeper water so they often hold fish. Pick out the low slung docks and skip under them if you can. They usually hold more fish. I also just mainly fish the ends and under boathouses, not the walk way part. If I had one pattern that would be it. If you fish live bait, shiners always account for some good fish, I would fish them on outside grass/ pad edges. I haven’t fished south of lake George but I have a friend down there that fishes in the river east of Orlando and does very well with swimbaits on a weighted jig head.

I had one real bad episode of it 15 years or so ago. Got home from a 3 hour trip and fell out of the car, crawled up the steps into the house. I thought “ if I can just make it to the bed Ill be ok . Too late- threw up and kept on throwing up for hours. Finally went to the hospital and what all they gave me made me feel better almost immediately. Doc said it was “ minears syndrome. And to cut out salt and caffeine. My ear still rings all the time and so get little bouts of slight vertigo but nothing like that one time. I took beta histine tablets for several years and they really helped. I try to keep the salt down- it seems to really help. Caffeine doesn’t seem to matter- I drink all the sweet tea and coffee I want! Hope things get better. Vertigo was only .2nd to minengitus for the sickest I’ve ever been so I can definitely empathize.

I catch plenty of smaller fish with the baby brush hogs. Brush hogs don’t work well for me at all. I do well with lizards, mainly the 7 inch ( I think ) Zoom in pumpkin or watermelon seed. Bigger average fish. The zoom lizard is versatile- it can be used in several different ways. For me , I do best with either a medium speed retrieve on top, esp. over and around grass , or working them slow on the bottom.

Didn’t know they got this big. Would a huge bass be able to tackle this thing? I think this is where the craws would get some payback!!!

Bass will bed in a mud bottom lake. They won’t do it in real deep mud, but they will traditionally bed in the same areas year after year. They bed in my lake, which is all mud bottom. Carp are helpful, although fairly expensive. They have certain weeds they like better than others though. I’ve got some 40-50 pounders in my lake. Otters are probably why you aren’t catching fish. They ate every catfish in my lake! I fished hard for 1-2 years for them after the last otter sighting and the catfish fry finally grew up enough for me to start catching some. Otters can’t catch bass as good, because bass are more elusive than catfish but in a small pond with limited cover they can definitely thin out a population. You might try the Pond Boss forum. It’s a very helpful place to get info.

I manage my small lake for weeds, algae etc. I don’t do the actual treatments but work with a local company. If we did not treat the weeds the lake would be quickly overrun with weeds in all the shallow areas, which would greatly reduce fishable area. We have 2 extremes of people on the lake. Those that never want to see one weed in the lake, and those that want it all natural- no weed control. Most people could care less. I’m about 2/3 of the way to all natural myself, because it’s better for the fishing, but I also have to please those that are in the “ no weed “camp. It’s not easy. That being said, I have seen 0% reduction of bass in our lake with once a month treatment. When the weeds all die in the winter the fish don’t relate to the weeds because they aren’t there. Fishing becomes tougher. When the weeds come back in late spring, fish immediately start relating to them again. I am very much against total herbicide control of weeds in lakes but I realistically must allow some control. Our old lake sprayer,( a resident) got nearly total control of weeds and only sprayed 1-2 times a year. He did it for 25 years without a fish kill. In 2011 he killed all the weeds( they were really bad because he hadn’t sprayed in a year) , the oxygen level tanked, all the big bass and bream died. My wife watched him scooping them up with a net.It took me 3 years to catch a 4 pound bass again. I wanted to wring his neck. He also lied to me about it. The smaller fish generally survived. Now, our bass population is excellent, and no re stocking was needed. I actually need to cull some out we have so many. And this is with once a month treatment. It sounds like you can’t do anything about it but try different baits than normal- maybe the fish got used to the same old baits.

Was able to get out for a couple hours before dark. Not biting real good, but I was able to get 6 on this windy evening. Caught 5 on the watermelon red fluke and 1 on a cut off senko. Lost the best fish which was the first one that bit. This was the second biggest, which ain’t saying much. But I’m thankful to just get out!

Me too. I do alright when I can go but haven’t got out in a month or so. Of course you can always watch the tigers play. Seems like they might have a big game coming up next sat. ???

Why do I use em? Beacause bass love em!!

I sniff a bass every now and then. Have always loved it. puppy breath ? Not so much.?

Man, I grew up fishing George’s lake, but haven’t fished it for many years now. Cant believe I’m seeing a post about it- it is a fairly obscure lake.I did well there for numbers nearly every time. I never got the bigger fish dialed in though. Caught about 90% of all the fish on a 7 1/2 inch red shad culprit worm, mostly bank beating. ( No depth finder)Sometimes we would just turn around and cast out into the lake, and do a very slow retrieve and would get bit. We caught fish all over the lake, especially doing well under docks and off maiden cane grass edges . We also caught a lot of fish in the canals on the west side of the lake. It is not murky but pretty stained anyway. Speck fishing is pretty good also. I met an old man that was a customer of mine that had 2 mounted bass ( 10 pound + ) on his wall. When I asked him where he caught them, he said “ Georges lake” According to him, they had found some offshore drop offs and ... he then said they had caught 50 + bass over 10 pounds in many years fishing there !! And guess what he used primarily? A 10 inch red shad culprit!! The lake record according to the old fish camp owner was 13 pounds, caught on a big shiner. I was told by a resident that the lake was named after “ Old George” which was a huge Gator that ruled the roost there. He was( is ? ) 16 ft + according to the resident. I don’t remember seeing many when I’d be there. Didn’t see him, that’s for sure. Also used to love the short cut through the woods to get there.app. 10 miles through the woods instead of 25 or so on the paved road way! Keep us posted. I’ve actually been thinking about going there again for a day sha vu trip lol. Heard today the ramps are now closed there. Don’t know for sure.

The best day I ever had for numbers was fishing the windy end of a lake with 20+ knot winds. I had to anchor and fish the area , then move a cast or so away and repeat. I caught the majority of my fish there. I was using a zoom speed worm, and got bit either on the retrieve or dead sticking. I tend to think the fish bite better when there is some turbulence producing bait fish disruption. But sometimes I fish too fast if getting blown around so If it’s real windy I anchor and fish slowly.

I believe filleting bass takes some of the “ muddy” taste out of them. It seems like eating one on the bone has a stronger taste. My dad didn’t filet any fish because he was determined to get every little bite of fish he could off them. He even ate the tails! So as I grew up I found that filleted bass are good, but with the bones and skin, not as much. We fried them all, of course!

Thanks for letting us know. You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers. Be of good cheer... Ive been going through some struggles here lately that has also kept me off the water. Not health related but involving black sheep family members. Learning to lean and trust that it will all work for the greater good in the long run.

Hoping all is well. Prayers sent!

Maybe Florida’s alligators are different but when I walk up on one they run into the water. I used to wade fish in the St Johns river for many years and never had any aggression from them. But I would agree with the other Floridians. There are WAY too many people coming here. fishing season? ??? for bass??

If I spent equal time doing both I would give the edge to... artificials. They are more efficient and take less time to rig. With live bait I catch mine also which takes more time away from catching bass. I tend to catch a bigger average size bass though using live fish for bait like bream or shiners. In times when fish aren’t biting very good, live bait is better. I can catch a lot of little bass though using live worms but I don’t count that. And by the way, if you don’t want to gut hook fish using live bait,use circle hooks.Hook the baitfish through both lips. The bass will nearly always be hooked in the corner of the mouth. Just don’t try setting the hook with a circle hook or you’ll not hook the fish very often. You just reel up the slack and slightly lift the rod as it comes tight. It’s hard to do this if you’re used to setting the hook, but it works.

Don’t think I’ve ever caught a northern strain lmb. But the Florida strain fish I’ve caught fight pretty good. ? River fish fight harder.

Saw one big waterspout going down the St Johns river around 8 years ago or so. I was around a mile and a half from the river and thought it was a tornado. It looked like it was heading for my daughters house but it was further away than it looked.Thank God.

Maybe Fulmer should start coaching again. He would definitely do better than the last two.

At least y’all have the best fight song imo. ( rocky top ) The dog is kinda cool too. Be of good cheer brother. They’ll get it right someday. I generally root for Sec teams unless they play Florida, it’s better for us when we beat a team with more wins. ??? ?