N Florida Mike

#2 Funniest was one I was in the middle of, but I didnt do it or was the one it was done to. We were fishing near welaka, on the St Johns, and fishing the cypress . I was in the middle seat, sandwiched between two brothers I had grown up with. The younger was in the back. We had been seeing a lot of cottonmouths on limbs, stumps, and so the younger bro. whispered " watch this ", and he flipped a big worm he had tied to the line on back of the older bros. neck. He was a big outdoorsman, and Id never seen him slightly scared of anything in the woods or water. Until that day ! " Reaction " does not do it justice. He hollered and flailed his arms wildly and almost fell out of the boat ,until he finally realized what happened. In the meantime, me and younger bro. had nearly fell out of the boat laughing.? I had to get between them then to keep little bro. from getting thrown off the boat.

I have around 10 bass combos. Most are 8 + years old up to 20 years old. Got a few newer rods and older reels from a friend who buys and sells from pawn shops. These include a berkely lightning rod and a couple gander mtn rods. They are all servicable rods. I still have my 6.6 mh ugly stick from the 90s that I have caught many hundreds of fish with, and its matched with my shimano stradic from 8 years ago that I LOVE. Favorite reel Ive ever had .

I posted this in a similar thread last year. We were at a church men's retreat on Lake George in the 80s. It got dark and we posted a teen under the dock and attached him to the end of a line on someones baitcaster. Then we hollered as a friend walked up that we had a huge bass, it was possibly a world record etc. At that point the teen began thrashing and splashing around, and the friend bought it hook, line, and sinker. We handed him the net and purposely kept throwing the light beam around so he couldnt see too good. At just the right moment, with Steve hunched over with the net, the teen ( david ) lunged all the way out of the water with weeds wrapped all around him. At the same time he made a scary , loud noise, kind of like " aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh " Steve shouted in terror, fell over backwards into a boat on the other side of the dock. The only thing that was hurt was his pride. No doubt the funniest thing Ive seen in 50 + years fishing.

I had a evinrude that was unpredictable like that. Got it worked on numerous times. General diagnosis was always something to do with the heater coil. It would start normally after launching, and make a perfect run to the first stop. Then it would start and you'd go 200-300 feet and it would cut off. It would do this several times before it might just not start atall. Several times I almost just unhooked it and dropped it overboard. Never could get it right so I sold it .

Yeah, I forgot Atlanta. I wouldnt argue with anyone saying it was the worst. I do distinctly remember ONCE when someone let me over where 75 splits with 85 ? I think. I am really nervous with the 8 lanes of traffic going one way. Tried to drive 30 miles to the east to get around it coming back and the traffic was HORRIBLE.

I Never knew either one of mine because they had already worked themselves to death before I was born. Farming and esp.coal mining has done that to many....? It was a choice they made though. There wasnt much else to do where they were from...

It depends on where your fishing. ? Big fish could be rare to common. In Most waters I would say less common, but not rare. They are smarter, just like any other living thing thats been around awhile. Animals are easier to catch/hunt when their attention is distracted from caution to food and breeding.

We even had a cold day for us. High of 47. Been raining since daybreak and has not stopped once. Raining harder right now than it has all day. Time for some hot chocolate !

I fish with soft plastics. I occasionally use something else. That pretty much sums it up.?

I wear a blue shirt on a sunnier day, and gray shirt on cloudier days. I dont know if it helps but it seems to. I also try not to fish with the sun at my back unless its a bait that will cast a long way. I really want a couple of blue and gray camo type shirts.

I cast and hold with the right and reel with the left , with my spinning set - ups. I like to set the hook and fight the fish with my right, since Im right- handed. I have a couple baitcasters that are right hand reels and I do ok with them though.

I dont know anywhere that was worse for speed traps than hwy 301 in N Florida back in the day ! Lawtey !! A car with New York tags passed me there once like I was standing still. I thought he wont make it to the city limits before getting stopped. He didnt. He desrved it, but they would get you there if you were 1 mile over. Hampton was bad too, but Waldo was the worst. Got my first ticket there. Speed limit changed so many times you had to be diligent every second or get a ticket. None of them are as bad now .

This thread gets the dovetail award for the year... As for me, fishing has more of a following than many of the others combined. The only one I had to think hard about was the competitive eating. lol. Got a lot of that going on around here....?

I would beg to differ. I cant imagine anywhere ( in the U.S) worse than Fl. I drive in 3-4 counties weekly so I have quite a bit of experience. People going 45 on the highways. People driving 80 mph on the expressway through town. People sitting at a red light even though they could turn R. on red and nothings coming. People drifting way over in your lane on the highway. They ought to give us hazard pay !!

I usually hunt when its cold but couldnt this year. Got other fish to fry.

Dang. I admire your braving the cold. Thought I was a die-hard. Was is the key word. We get so much nice weather here I reckon Im spoiled. Getting a freeze tonight and bluebird skies. Probly wont fish tomorrow.

I was fishing one of my favorite lakes back in the day in my JB , with my gf at the time. I had only told her one rule- be careful when casting not to hook me from behind.It wasnt long and I heard and felt a Swoosh, and on her cast she had hooked my hat and threw it out in the lake. She was so worried Id be mad but I thought it was funny. I did not marry her tho. Another time I was fishing with shiners off a dock in the river. I had a big shiner under a cork , and when I cast got a big birdnest, the shiner smacking the water 10-15 feet out. Im trying to pull it out and it starts tightening up. Cork was under . It had to be a lunker, because the shiner was 10-11 inch. I had no choice but to set the hook, but with no drag , the line broke. My favorite one happenned while fishing a nght tourney on lake Sante fe. It was around 2 in the morning and I had tried everything in my box to no avail. I had tied on a crankbait and just started trolling offshore. After a long time the rod suddenly loaded up and it felt good, real good. Im thinking Ive won the tournament and big fish... But it was not in the boat yet. I woke my partner up and he got a light and net. I would pull it almost up where I could see it , and it would take most of the line back I had gained. Not sure how long this went on and I tightened the drag a little, putting a little more pressure on it. Suddenly it came into view. A trot line. ? I had hooked a dad -gum trot line. I dont think I had ever been that disappointed about anything before. Then I almost cut in in half in anger, but decided to just run it and see... Not even one catfish for my trouble. I did not win the tournament...

PB was around 11 a.m .No scale but taxidermist said 9 pounds. 24 1/2 inch. Only fish I ever mounted. And it was my only bite that warm and windy december morning. Runner up was between 12-1 pm 8.6 pounds

This is another confirmation that winter has truly arrived....

That reminds me of a 6 + pounder I caught off a bed last January. It was bedding right in front of my bulkhead and all I had seen was the bed and the little buck gaurding the nest. Big mama VIOLENTLY attacked that spinnerbait about 10 feet from me. Never heard of many people catching bedding fish on spinnerbaits. It was the biggest bass I ever caught on one . Sorry about the cold weather. I cant relate much to that right now ( temps in the 70s here )?

Still slow at work, so Ive been bank fishing a lot the last 10 days or so. Its been slow fishing too. Fished 7 ponds for maybe 4 hours total, and have caught a grand total of 7 bass . Caught them on flukes mostly .This was the biggest, which is nothing to brag about.

Mann's jelly worms. Caught my PB on one so Im not sure why I dont. I think its because I only have the smaller black ones left in stock , and I caught more with the bigger grape ones. Im not much of a " order on line " fan, and they arent in stores much around here.