N Florida Mike

Go Braves !

I dont fish topwater much... but when I do I fish a devil's horse. Have caught more fish topwater on it than any other. ALMOST won a tournament because of it. When fishing it, work it SLOW. Cast out, then let it sit until the ripples are gone . They will sometimes clobber it just letting it sit there. Then , one jerk every now and then . I mainly fish them at night or low light conditions.

Got this one on the small pumkin yum dinger.

We have had a very mild winter, even for us. It hasnt even been under 50 for 2 weeks now. Everything in nature around here thinks its spring. We'll see.

If I was a condemned man, fried fish would be on my last meal. Ive eaten all kinds of fish, including many a bass. That being said, I mainly keep them now for friends that dont get fish much, or if we are having a family fish fry and other kinds arent quickly available , or if I gut hook one. We get a lot of saltwater fish, and I would rather eat them than bass. And Id rather eat bream and catfish than bass. If I do eat bass, I eat filets mostly. Something in the skin of a bass makes them have a muddy taste, for lack of a better description. It doesnt bother me at all if people eat bass, as long as their catch is legal.

When I was a teen my buddy hooked what is still one of the biggest bass Ive ever seen. The fish came out from under the boat and we both got real excited when we saw it. He was trying to pull it up and it dove back under the boat . He hollered " Grab the line and pull it up " I did, right as the fish surged away, and the line broke. I cant remember ever doing that again in 40 + years of fishing. If they are small, I swing em. The rest I lip. Cant recall the last fish I lost by lipping them. I dont grab the body of the fish and lift at boatside very often but when I do its with fish a little too big too swing, but not big fish. I dont use nets because My boat is fairly small, and its amazing how it is a magnet for hooks and reel handles.

Got this skinny 4 pound, 9 oz. fish on a 5 inch pumkin chartruese tail yum dinger.

I still have my old Rebel excalibur box. The handle and one of the hinges broke off a long time ago. I use that box for all my old worms from the 70s and 80s.

Forgot to mention my frog and swimbait boxes, but you can still see where my affection in bait selection is. !!

I have one box of trick worms, 1 box of culprit worms, 1 box of other curly tailed worms , 1 box of old assorted worms, including manns J worms, 1 box of senkos ( which I consider a worm ) 1 box of plastic creature baits, and 1 box of flukes. I have one box of hard baits ( that I seldom use ) and A few spinnerbaits. Wonder what my favorite kind of baits are ??

This about sums it up for me ! Same here. That red shad culprit is one of the best baits ever created. Still in my box on every trip. Won me a tournament. I probably fished it 80 % of the time for 15 years.

Those are great. My fav. color too.

I hate to ask, but did you weigh it ?

That would not have been the right attitude around my house growing up , lol . Im glad my dad was the disciplinarian he was though. I needed every bit of it.

Had time at one of my work route ponds to catch this one on a trick worm.

I was telling my son about my worn Shimano stradic yesterday, and how I was considering either fixing it or replacing it. He went and bought me a new Shimano Nasci 3000hg, which is the comparable size to my stradic. I am thrilled at his generosity, but was wondering what experience y'all have had with the nasci line.?

What do you think it is ?

A little bit off topic , but my stradic needs the gears replaced. Would you order directly from Shimano or what ? I love the reel, but I hooked a couple big fish and the handle froze up long enough for me to lose the fish. Its been cleaned this year.

Ha ha. Exactly. And , oh my goodness, let a restaurant make a little mistake, and everybody jumps on the bandwagon...

This is an interesting thread. My nieghborhood has it's share of drama. If it gets too boring, all I have to do is get on the " next door " nieghborhood forum app. to catch up on all the latest drama. One thread on there had over 100 posts about red foxes and how they were eating people's cats and picking off all the ducks at the duck pond. About half sided with the foxes and half with the pets/ducks.? It went on for weeks. People have too much time on their hands....You will also get posts on there titled like " Strange man walking down street " What was strange about him ? Well , to start with, he was walking down the street . What else ? It was in broad daylight, and when I looked at him, he looked at me !!! Imagine that ! And I had never seen this man before , and he was wearing all black etc. Then the next post will say something like " I saw him too ! " Was he driving the little red car with the georgia plates" " All I saw was the man , but no car " and it goes on and on with all the busy bodies putting in their 2 cents.Free entertainment every day.

Wish I had a room to rent lol. We've already got a house full. But the fishing's free anytime.