N Florida Mike

I use zoom flukes a lot. I use a 3/0 wide gap hook with no weight on 10 lb hybrid line . I have no problem with it sinking. I catch most of the fish just throwing it out and letting it sink. Even doing that only will often cause it to dart erratically to one side or the other. I dont have any problem with it sinking though,unless Im fishing a weed mat and it gets hung up. Them and senkos are my favorite baits.Use as small a weight as possible if you must,or it will reduce the action.

I havent been bass fishing since irma either.Got one more big push and Ill be done with the clean up. Hope to get out fri or sat.afternoon.

Had a 106 mph gust in my county. We got power back after 29 hrs on tues. My boss still doesnt have power . I can say this with no doubt- it is the worst flooding in the st johns and its tributaries in the jax. area I have seen in my lifetime. We were blessed just to have a roof leak and a mess to clean up at our place.We are at 22 ft above sea level so our lake drains well, as the creek goes downhill to the river. We have a small dam/ spillway at my house where the ditch/ creek starts and it was flowing with such force it took our triploid carp gate off and down into the spillway. Eel grass piled up in there too and me and the nieghbor have a job ahead cleaning it up.H ad a big cedar tree down across the road next door but me and the nieghbors got it out of the way in 10 minutes. Our results was - flooding equal or worse than hurricane Dora in 1964. Wind had gusts as high but not as high sustained.I have a video but cant post it.

For me it depends a lot on the attitude of the person and where Im fishing. Im not too worried about" meat " fishermen.Many of the places I fish have TOO MANY bass anyway and they might even be stunted and need to be thinned out . If theyre asking they probably still wont catch many even with the extra knowledge. ( how many times have you gone out knowing what youre doing and still got skunked?) There are too many little details about bass fishing that a little knowledge given wont really help an inexperienced fisherman that much.I usually help kids and undemanding folks. I might even start the conversation.T hat being said, I have a few trusted friends I search new ponds with. If I find a good one,I will share with them and they do the same with me. These we guard with our " circle of trust" . The ones a friend found I dont share with anyone else because that isnt fair to my friend. If I find one I may or may not share it depending on whos asking.

Spent most of the day getting ready. We decided to stay 2 days ago. Biggest concern today was getting my cracked bedroom window boarded up. Tomorrow morning all hands on deck to put up out door stuff.This isnt easy with all the kayaks, boats,traps, lawn tools ,g- daughters toys,etc. Part of my back looks like fred sanfords junkyard! We are staying because we really had no where to go except family in NC and as much as I love that state, its a hurricane magnet. Also, getting back home might be a problem. And when we decided to stay ,we were forcast to get a cat 1 or maybe 2 ,now it seems to indicate itll be maybe a 1 in my area of NE Fl, if the storm keeps to the west. In my area it just didnt seem to be life- threatening.If I was in S Florida I can promise you we would already have left. Talked to my nearest nieghbor on the lake and hes staying. We will help each other during the storm if needed. My son also stayed so I have an extra comfort of having him around.Hopefully, power wont be off too long. Truly this a historicly intense hurricane. I plan to get out after the storm and see how I can help my nieghbors,esp. the elderly. and maybe get a little post storm fishing in !

I was leaning towards leaving but Im hearing theres no rooms for 500+ miles. ( and this is 4+ days before it hits) They are saying it will move by quickly which will potentially drop less rain.So Im not worried about the lake coming up very far. Weve still got our camping gear if we have to get out. Hopefully it wont come to that.Many of us in the jax. area are staying.Next 2 days we'll be battening down our hatches. Pray for us,and the whole state .

Both.

Yeah I wasnt sure what happened either. I guess its like starting over. Somewhat off the subject, but is there any change n the pic downloading? I can only do it now if I put it in the gallery,then insert it.

Love your post man. Its an encouragement for sure . Good to see a company honoring a faithful employee. Congrats!

Had mine out in the intercoastal waterway before with 20+ winds. No problem. A yacht went by and didnt slow down and it nearly swamped us though. Mine isnt very wide ,so I dont try to cross large bodies of water in it. It could be done but I dont take chances like that anymore. The swells in a large lake is the problem.S mall rivers ,coves , backwaters ,medium to small lakes are safe

Got out for a few hours last night. I tried the shallower end of the lake first with no results. We have a wooded island about 1/2 the way down the lake and I caught a few near the north end of it . Like it usually does,the bite was slow on the west side of the island but I picked off a couple fish.Up to this point,all the fish had been cuaght on the small zoom fluke in watermelon seed. That bite just quit and after 20 minutes or so with nothing I decided to switch to a small tequila sunrise culprit.Good decision.I began catching fish immediately. By then, I was nearly to the south end of the island and decided to keep going along the western shoreline. I had caught several and the 2 worms I had were torn up So I switched to the 7 1/2 inch culprit in grape shad and caught a few more.Tried the frog near sunset for awhile but no takers. Overall, the bite was nearly like the average fall trip. It wasnt overly hot, with a nice 5-10 mph breeze. Ended up with 12-13 .Nothing over 2 pounds, but the majority of the fish were healthy and well fed. i caught more than half of the fish on my finesse rig,which has 8 pound test and a light spinning combo.Getting excited about the fall.My sons and me are planning our first inshore trip for tomorrow.Hope to have some pics soon!!

I would have to have someone hold my lab or he would swim after me out into the lake . I couldnt go fast enough with a trolling motor only to make him give up.And he would not turn back. More than once I would turn around to make sure he would make it back . Once, after 2-3 trys Id had enough and just kept going and he came way out in the lake after me and finally turned back. He was not the sharpest dog in the shed anyway.I had to constantly watch any baits to make sure he wouldnt bite em.

Will continue to pray,wish I could do more. Matthew brushed us last year and we got quite a few trees down and 8 inches of rain and it was pretty stressful. Cant imagine how bad it must be there.

I do some hunting, play 5 string banjo and am a civil war buff.Did play baseball ,then softball for many years. And Im a Florida Gator fan.

Ahhh. Cooling news from the north.Another 6 weeks and the temps and humidity will begin dropping here enough to turn on the fish. Cant wait!!

Ive been out many times with lightning all around but never had the line rise or heard cracking sounds.One of the worst storms I was ever in while fishing was at Palestine lake in N. central Fl. There were 4-5 of us in 2 boats. The lake is around 3 miles long and about a mile wide. We were fishing the north end and a storm popped up suddenly from the northwest coming our way. We ran down to the south end and the storm looked like it would miss us .We were right by the boatramp but one of my best friends thought we could go to the southwest side of the lake and keep fishing. But another storm had slipped up on us from the south and before we knew it we were caught. We ran up into the Cypress trees ( dont know if that was a good idea or not )and laid down in the boats.It was a toad strangler rain , I mean. Lightning all around us every few seconds. ? We had a prayer meeting right there! We were all pretty shook up, soaking wet, nerves shot and half deaf after it all. I dont remember us fishing any more that day after the storm.We just quietly loaded up the boats and went home .

"Jake from state farm " is my favorite. I either laugh or at least smile every time. Also liked the cave men gieco commercials. I get the feeling it offended someone ( imagine that in our society ) because they just abruptly stopped showing them. There was a guy at my church that reminded me of them and he was a singer. I would think of the commercial every time he would sing

er, glad she was at least one county away from me.....

Hope your right about Florida. Got all the pieces except QB is still ???

• mowing yards •bonanza steakhouse bussing tables • working on a farm.

I was working but kind of wanted to see it. Weatherman said it would be clearer out towards the beach so I had a stop out there and went.Rain and clouds!! So after the stop I had about 15 minutes before the peak time ,now the weatherman says best chance for a break in the clouds is inland. So headed that way and toward a little litening in the clouds .Pulled over with several other onlookers and the sun popped out almost right on peak time. I thought Id be able to see it without the solar glasses , Honestly, I couldnt see much difference, could not see the moon., but there were some cool sun bursts coming down. We were supposed to be 90% coverage but I was suprised it didnt get much darker than normal.

I only went home twice ever,derectly after losing a fish. Once was around 20 years ago. Had the 10+ fish up to the boat and it made one last ditch surge and broke the line. I yelled and looked up and 2 men were staring at me off another dock nearby. I just dropped the rod and went home. The other time was this spring when I went home over a 5 pounder. I had been in a big fish slump for a few months and then lost that one. ? Was so ticked off I kicked a hole in my gate when I got home when it wouldnt open the way I thought it should. Glad my wife didnt see it!!!

I used to fish all over the Gainesville area, but in a boat.Bank fishings difficult at the natural lakes there. If you have connections at U.F you have access to their property at wauberg lake ,which includes bank fishing and boat check- out.I wouldnt wade fish those lakes.One of the highest concentration of gators and moccasins anywhere. I can tell you about surf fishing.Done it all my life in the st Aug. and Jax area.I start going again in Oct. Plenty of spots to fish.With surf fishing,its more about conditions , bait ,and rigs than it is about where you go.

I love Calabash. We went there several times and got seafood when I was a kid. There were only a couple restaurants there then. The one We went to was right across the street from the docks where they brought it in. I think the name might have been Thomas seafood.( This was app. 50 years ago.) Calabash is special to me because it was my parents favorite place to get seafood.I can still picture us there in my mind. My Granma and uncles family lived at Shallote NC for many years and Id go there for 2 weeks every summer, hang out with my cousins, and fish. Caught a 3 pound or so black drum at Ocean Isle when I was 8. That fish is the one that really got ME hooked on fishing!!