N Florida Mike

@N Florida Mike, the last game each of them played in neyland , not their last games all together

Got a couple hours in before dark. Cloudy , windy, cool conditions. It was sprinkling rain off and on, so I stayed close to home. Worked hard for 3 bites on the speed worm. Caught 2 of them…Got this one up in a laydown.

I’m not counting ponds, but I’d like to add a few good ones this year. Florida is full of water bodies. I’m somewhat burned out on many of the lakes in N Florida. The idea of going to one of them and having great success is limited in my mind. I’ve fished many of them back when the state had hslf as many people in it and was fairly successful then. I’ll continue to fish my favorite on the road lake, which is an hour or so away. I would love to make it down to head waters lake, but it is out of my range distance wise. Thinking of fishing Orange lake , Rodman, and Sante Fe this year. I’m searching for info on other spots. I would LOVE to also get back down to some of the Ocala Forest lakes…

I forgot to mention that I helped a friend land his PB in the same spot as the laydown in the story 35 years later. His bass got tangled in there and he thought he’d lost it. I told him to keep the line tight as I reached over and grabbed the line . I felt a little surge of the fish, leaned over, and followed the line down to the fish through the sticks, as he pulled up. I had just enough arm to lip the fish !! Im hunting the picture…Found it !

Thanks Katy. Coming from you that’s quite a compliment!!

Got another one from when I was 18 on the home lake. I was bream fishing one day with bread. I had caught 30 something at one of my spots and scraped together the last crumbs to make a last bread ball. I threw it out, and a huge swirl engulfed the bait. As soon as I set the hook I knew it was something big. Real big. I only had 8 pound test and a reel that had no drag. So I left the bail open as I pulled up the anchor and began rowing the jon boat after the fish. I was amazed that the line was traveling faster than I could row. Whatever it was then went through a laydown. I thought for sure that was the end of it but it wasn’t. Miraculously, the line came free and was still peeling off to the north at a fast clip. It finally cleared the top of our Island still going north. I made a quick decision. I had no net , and knew that I would never get it into the boat , so for some reason….. I jumped overboard into the chest deep water to continue the fight. Looking back on this , I’m not sure why I didn’t just row over and get out on the bank but I didn’t. Maybe I thought I had a better chance of grabbing it if I was in the water too. So I tried fighting the fish. I would reel, it would be about to break the line , and I would pop the bail, and try to hinder its run by mashing the line against the rod. The run would stop, I would crank it in some, and it would just turn and swim away. I begin wondering if it wasn’t a big alligator snapper or even a gator . That got me wanting to get out of the water, so I began working my way to the nearest shoreline, which was a couple hundred feet away. At least the water wasn’t over my head. But it was winter, so the water was cold, even for Florida!! I eventually clambered out on the bank. I was not gaining line on the creature. In desperation I looked up in the property of where I was and saw a man I actually knew who just happened to be walking by out on the road. I hollered and he went home to get his net. I continued the fight. Another guy had heard the commotion and was there to help. The man brought the net , and the other guy waded out a few feet. I put as much pressure as I dared on my antagonist, and after a extended tug of war, got him close enough to be netted. A small crowd had gathered, and a cheer went up. It turned out to be……. a huge catfish! It ended up weighing 22 pounds but it was barely hooked with the small bream hook, IN A WHISKER of the fish!!!! I released the fish after taking it home and weighing it.

When I was 15 I hooked my first pb of a decent size , and she got well into a brush pile. I was bank fishing but waded/swam out to the fish and got her.

Hopefully my first fish of 2024 isn’t a harbinger of things to come this year…😟

Not sure that I’ve ever had a 20 pound bag…😂

Watermelon Seed !! Junebug also.

The loading/unloading is no problem for me at 63. My lower back hurts after 2-3 hours in a boat with bench seats and no backrest. Doesn’t mean I quit then though…With a backrest I can go indefinitely . One issue that seems to be getting worse is my wrists. They hurt a lot now, and don’t seem to be as strong as before. I especially notice it when setting the hook on a bigger fish… My left rotater cuff bothers me also, but since I cast righty it doesn’t affect my fishing much… Exercises? I’ve tried them but they don’t seem to help 🤷🏼‍♂️

If someone wanted to shoot the owner they would just do it, rules or not… You might lose your job but save your life…🤷🏼‍♂️.

What did you catch them on? They are some great fish man !!

@omegapd I’m glad there’s other fishermen like me. • Ugly stiks • fixing it with tape • using whatever is available • Going in the water after the fish • laying fish on the ground momentarily ( and admitting it ) The only difference is that I would have pictured the fish and not feel bad about it !

Thanks. I’ll check it out. That new one I got couldn’t be more uncomfortable.

My License actually is due for renewal TODAY. So thanks for the reminder! I think Fl. Freshwater license is 30.00 now. In 2 years it’ll be free for me if I can just make it to 65.😬

My wife doesn’t fish anymore, but she doesn’t mind if I go. As long as my chores are mostly caught up. I don’t mind that, because part of being a man is fixing stuff, right.? A lot of it is just pride. If I had said no to her requests ( that were mostly just things I should be doing anyway, and weren’t unreasonable ), Id be singing the song” I’m gonna miss her”… 🤠

Thanks @Eric 26.

I got a new Taurus 9mm for Christmas so I’ve been carrying most every day so far . Sold my 40 over a year ago, and my 6 inch barrel 22 is just too bulky for daily wear. ( It’s my vehicle gun). I need a better holster though for the 9mm.The one that came with the gun is very uncomfortable. Im going to check with work before I carry there though . It is a gun friendly management but I need to find out their policy before I start there.

Any updates on this ?

Got that right. Had another first cousin pass away this week… My last aunt left passed on this year. Now I’m in the older echelon of relatives. Nobody left now over 50 but my brother and a few cousins. 😕

I get just close enough where I can skip a bait to the outer edges. Skipping a bait doesn’t make a big splash , so doesn’t spook the fish. They will often hit the bait on the fall. Then, as I get closer , I’ll skip up into the middle. Many of the laydowns I fish are too thick to even pitch or flip to, and most of them are 5 feet deep or less, with mostly clear water. I can’t get too close or they’ll spook. So I’ll skip from 20 feet or more away usually. I lose some fish like that obviously, but at least it gives me a good chance. Pulling in too close gives me a smaller chance because theyll spook in the clear, shallow water…

Thanks, and I almost didn’t fish it. There was a wrought iron fence around the first pond, then a berm between the ponds. The fence continued all the way to the end of the 2nd pond and I was about to leave,when I saw the gate. No lock or no trespassing sign. I walked down and noticed little bream everywhere. The fish bit within 10 minutes about 20 feet out from the bank on a senko. What a fight ! At one point I thought Id hooked a big carp ! But it was on a light combo- It was either 8 or 10 pound test. I literally fought the fish close 4 times , and it would pull drag back out. It was the only bite I ever got there. I went back a couple other times and got no other action at all…

I have hundreds of ponds within a 15 mile radius of my house. Most are man made. They are all different. Amazing the variety of baits they like. Some ponds they want the fluke, some lean more towards senkos, others it’s the speed worm. Most of them have fairly clear water. I’m learning to read them. I don’t fool with anything that’s confrontational, in other words, I’ll fish anywhere I know I won’t be bothered. I fish them mostly between work stops when there’s a gap between my appts. So I fish wherever I am on the route, which makes deciding easier. That gets me trying a lot of new ponds. Some are duds. You can catch dinks in most of them at least. Got an 8 pound 6 oz fish on lunch break. When I was eating, I looked at google maps and saw 2 big ponds Behind a target store nearby. 20 minutes later, I was taking pictures of the fish !!

I went all afternoon again. The weather was my favorite: cloudy with just a nice ripple of wind, temps around 70. The bite was about the same as the other day except more of the fish I caught hit baits as they were moving today. Got the most fish on the watermelon seed uv speed worm, but also got a few on lucky strike worms, baby brush hogs, and yum dingers. The first fish pictured was caught right before dark against a dock. The fish grabbed it and went on up under the dock, wrapped around a piling but I kept it tight and eventually got it to the boat. All in all, a good , relaxing day - ended up with 12. I may go again tomorrow…