N Florida Mike

I’m using concrete block screws. 3 1/4 inch. I did more on it yesterday but I didn’t have but an hour or so before dark. Will probably have no time today or tomorrow to work on it. I hope to finish it on Saturday. Im not tidal, although we are technically connected to the river. The lake flows into the river via a creek but we are 21 feet above sea level and the lake is so much higher than the river there is no flow from the river into the lake, not even during Irma. There is a little current when the lake gets high and goes over the little dam at my right property line. It never seems to affect my catwalk though…even in hurricanes.

Tried another pond on the work route for a little while. This pond has been there a long time but was private land with one landowner. Now, like so much of Florida, develepors bought it and now there’s access. A man stopped and asked if I caught anything, as I turned to talk to him a fish clobbered my yum dinger as I was reeling in. He missed, I threw back over , and he bit again. The man said he’s fished there a lot and never caught anything, not even a bream, nor has other people he talked to. I told him” a local boy can survive” . Not big but we know there’s fish in there at least ! ps: on the way out the biggest bobcat I’ve ever seen crossed the road. Too far away to get a pic though…

I’m paying for it today. Back is stiff. I had to roll out of bed instead of sitting up and moving over. Actually suprised it doesn’t hurt worse.

Normally I would be but it was cool today. Perfect day for it.

My catwalk has seen better days. Most of the supports had rotted through. Yesterday I tore out everything and came up with an idea to use cinder blocks as supports instead of wood. What’s cool is that a cinder block width is almost exactly level with where the old supports were. Today was a trip to Lowes to get the blocks and screws. Most of the planks are still usable if I turn them over and get the old screws out. The hardest part was digging/ adding to the hard muck that was under the catwalk, to get the blocks as level as possible.Finally got everything foundationally done. My back was telling me I’d had enough. Next will be the part I enjoy: cutting the wood to fit and sinking the screws. It wont be completely finished until later. The outside support railroad tie was rotten on one end but the other half was solid as a rock. It’s right at the little drop off too where I park the boat. Giving up one plank on the outside for now until I figure out how I want to extend it.One thing at a time…

So… I hope the outcome was better than it sounded? Our stove has been broken since just after thanksgiving last year. So it looked like no turkey this year( although we could have smoked one) Tho owner at work came through though with a 50.00 gift card, so I went and got the last pre cooked Turkey publix had…

Theres one that I pass regularly when I’m working. There’s always a line of cars trying to get in and out. It just looks like a big hassle to me. Maybe if I was on a long trip or something… I by pass it to go to my favorite local chain which is a half mile or so past it. I did ride around behind it once, because it has a way in behind it. But I was only there hoping with all the hype there would be a pond there to fish.

I saw several of them here the other day on the side of the road I grew up in Florida, but I don’t remember seeing any until this year.

Thanks for sharing that @Catt Im assuming you’ve met Larry Nixon a few times…😉 Happy Thanksgiving!

@FishTax I wondered at first if you lived in N Florida because your report sounded a lot like mine yesterday! It was the same front that went through I reckon!

@ol'crickety I carry an anchor , but rarely use it. If I can catch a fish or two on a windward shore, I’ll anchor. Yesterday, the bite was so sporadic, I never anchored. A lot of the problem yesterday was the wind direction, which was coming from the Northwest at 20. That and southeast winds are the hardest to fish on my lake…

Went again most of the afternoon on the home lake. Very windy / cloudy conditions. I got the pictured fish off a lay down by the island on a speed craw. It was a very frustrating afternoon for me. To start with , the bite was slow. Caught a few other fish at random locations on flukes , uv speedworms with the paddletail, and the speed craw. Tried a spinnerbait for awhile and the magnum speed worm to no avail. Finally pulled out my most consistent bait of the year: the yum dinger. Got to a dock that I had caught a 7 at a few years ago. Felt the tap, set the hook… and inexplicably, the line broke. I am meticulous about the drag, knots, retying after nicks,etc. So, I’m dealing with that loss as I drift along and re-tie. Next cast , I just threw out instead of in, as I fought the wind and felt another tap. Set the hook. Big fish… pulling drag. Wind is blowing me around as the fish is pulling the other way, he gets the perfect angle on me …. and he came off… Now I’m talking to myself out loud, and I don’t care if anyone hears. The rest of the day was one problem after another, including bird nests , casting into trees, losing more fish, trolling motor getting bogged down in weeds. I finally got one more decent fish on a senko off a brush pile, and it came off and landed in the boat at least. I haven’t gotten so aggravated fishing in many years. Thanks for letting me vent a little. I will endeavor to persevere.! Still very blessed…

Copperhead bream ( bluegill) like the rest.It had real pronounced bars on it. Most of them I caught today had dark red fins too. No shellcrackers or redbreast though. I usually catch a good number of shellcracker along with the copperheads…

Loading up for the next fish fry. Stopped at 25.

My wife had that shirt made for my birthday a couple months ago…

Got out for an hour before dark, so I stayed near home. Very windy conditions. Got one on the big bites green pumpkin craw. Went to my money seawall that usually pays off. The fish was there, and was moving to the right. Solid hookset , but it came off. It didn’t budge at all . I was fishing the magnum speed worm, which is a lot of worm for a 4/0 hook. Kept on and had another one but by then it was too dark to tell exactly where it was - throw in an unknown clump of weeds + the wind , and I missed that one too…. At least it wasnt a skunk …

I had 15 minutes to fish a work route pond. Caught the dink of the week on a super fluke. The first time I fished this pond I caught 3-4 that were 14-15 inch fish. It hasn’t done me well since…

I just wanted to tell @Glenn thanks. I got locked out of BR ( password issue ), for around 2 weeks. Glenn went above and beyond to get me back, without losing all my info. While I’m at it, I wanted to also say that I somehow got on a thread outside of BR that was very negative of it. Kind of like a “ We hate Bassresource” club. A lot of what they said either wasn’t true, or they were just ticked off about some rule they broke. Bassresource is top notch, in my opinion. Love the info, forums, even the guidelines, but especially love the comraderie with all of you! Thanks Glenn, and for everyone that contributes to make Bass resource what it is !!

Got this one on the Big Bites craw in green pumpkin. Stop and go retrieve. Got another smaller one that hit it on the fall…

Zoom!

First cast in a work route pond got this one, on a 10 inch june bug worm . Not sure if it is a ol monster or a culprit. Interestingly, this pond is in a park that used to be an old friends farm. When the suburbs got a couple miles away , they thought it was “too citified “ for them anymore , so they sold out and moved to Georgia…

The closest thing I’ve had to that is a friend of my son. He is an excellent inshore fisherman, to the point that he is as good as any guide in the area. The last time we went, we were catching plenty of fish, but here’s the problem. He is very quiet until… he starts talking about his sexual escapades. He goes into great detail about how he was cheating with a married woman ( He’s married too). He also fires up a joint continually throughout the day, which bothers me… whatever you do is your business, but I don’t want to hear about it, or experience it . I would walk away from that guy, if anything for your own safety and peace of mind. With your kind of attitude, you’ll no doubt find a few trusted friends you can wet a line with…

Sunrise at the church pond yesterday…