N Florida Mike

In saltwater,a yellow mouth trout.The fight is like reeling in a sock. In freshwater,a speckled perch.( Crappie if you're north of Georgia) I think bass fight good myself but I did hook one on a small bream one time that didn't fight at all.Too my great surprise,it was 7 pounder. It was full as a tick( not with eggs but with bream.!)

NC mountains is where we usually vacation.Have never done well with the fishing there. but still have some great memories there. Glad you had a great time!

The biggest deer I ever saw was on a N Georgia mountain road in the sticks.I thought it was a horse at first.My camera was up on the dash( I wasn't hunting) When I grabbed it the strap had got stuck around a little peg on the vent and I couldn't get it off.The deer is just standing there looking my way.Finally I leaned forward and tried to snap a pic with it still attached.At that moment the deer just ran off the side of the mountain.No pic.!

When I started I could not hook them.Not stupid,but just ignorant to the technique. I would sometimes fish a creek with a cane pole and plastic worm.I would watch for bass to come by and plop the worm in front of them.It actually worked pretty good. In the same creek I saw a huge bass on the other side.10+.I had one lure beside blue plastic worms.It was a little George.Sort of a deep water crank bait.I threw it over to the bass.(water was maybe 2 feet deep) and it got hung in a tree and spooked the fish. First big bass I caught was on a big doughball.4 pounds.Got hung in a brush pile and I swam out and got him!!

Dwade,I sent you a pm. Mike

Not sure how the above got on here but I can't get it off.Just trying to reply to get this started up again.Is anyone catching anything? For me it's been kind of slow.I fish around town between jobs.I think the high temps have hurt the pond fishing this summer I did catch a good number last week on the home lake.

Just spooled a rod with some 8 and caught a couple .Casts good.No breaks.

I'm having similar results.I do get a few blow-ups on top water frogs but don't hook 'em.Thought about using some kind of trailer hook but in the lakes I fish it would catch weeds.I also missed 2 nice fish on a sinking frog last week.I would consider the top water bite only fair at best in my home lake.Its just enough to keep me trying . In past years I've done better.Seems like the top water bite is off this year.Maybe because if the extreme heat we've had this year in FL.

Those are 2 colors I have no results with.The next time the fish are biting the watermelon red,Im going to try one of these colors and see what happens,!!

Sorry to hear that,but at least it happened before you got out on the river. Prayers for a speedy recovery.Hopefully you'll be out on the river soon.

Maybe someday....

I heard that! Best fish in that bunch was 2 1/2. Sometimes you just need to catch some - whatever you can. Tried for bigger fish off and on during the evening though.

Got out on the home lake this afternoon.Goals were to try a new finesse outfit, to try my new frog rig, and my new swimbait combo.By the way, I have a friend who works on used r&rs as a hobbie.So I have a lifetime of old broken equipment he recently fixed.So now I have quite a few combos I can use for different applications. 1.finesse rig:Used a Penn slammer 6.6 .light wieght rod with a fairly stiff action.I have some power pro my friend lined it with.Not sure of the pound test.I just started using it again after a long time so I cant tell the test by feel.I have what I I call a medium light shimano spinning reel.I used the 4 inch gy senko on this.I loved how accurate it casts.Used it around our Island where there is a lot of downed trees , overhanging branches etc.I could skip with it very well.With the braid and rod tip I could feel everything so good.Caught 10 on the east side of the island.I give this combo an A rating. Frog combo:For this I use a shimano catala 300 reel with a 7" mh Berkely lightning rod.Using a heavier braid on this one.Had a problem casting.I have not used casting reels much since the 80s.Getting back into it.I would cast, it would go about 20 feet and act like there was a knot in it and plop down.I tried the adjustment knob and i just couldnt get it to cast the way I wanted.Had one fish( big) on it and I swung and missed.Got to re- group on this one. 3.Swimbait combo.Its an old quantam reel on a vortex spiral wrap the friend did for me.6.6 mh. Thing casts a mile.Occasional back lash but I still havent got the settings just right yet.Result: My first bass on a weighted swim bait rig.Whoo hoo.! This combo feels good .Got to finish on the settings. 4.And fished my favorite reel.My Strada with new Yo zuri 8 pound test on an old 6.6 medium heavy ugly stick.Fished The 5 inch senko with this.Caught 2. Summary: Been detirmined to try new things this year.Its hard but starting to pay off.As usual, i really enjoyed the evening on the water.Full moon was nice too. Mike

Purdy fish!

If I was catching and keeping fish( which I often do) , i could care less if I saw someone catch a fish and let it go, because thats their business, not mine.But if I want to keep what I catch, then thats my business not yours. Neither is wrong.

It happens.I once waded out 150 feet in the lake in 25-30 degree weather to retrieve a cane pole a catfish pulled off the dock.Water was 5 feet deep and felt warm.Got out to walk home and Im sure thats the coldest I ever felt in my life. Glad you took the safe route.

I always enjoy having an audience when fishing but sometimes it backfires and keeps you humble Just the other day I was casting and made a poor cast and got hung in a bush .Tried to pull it loose and the line broke.Said " dad gummit " and then noticed a guy watching.I guess he thought A fish did it.Felt like a novice.

For me its learning new methods.I have a familiar way to catch fish( Soft plastics).I am good at it.But not so much with other methods.I am also pretty good at live bait fishing.So for years Ive caught plenty of fish this way.Its hard for me to try and fish new ways for me when I know Id catch more with my familiar methods. But I have a couple friends who are helping me get introduced to other methods.And I am helping them ( hopefully) with soft plastics.

I try not to take it personally.I really dont think its about me.But I have mouths to feed, bills to pay and just have to draw the line somewhere with all this extra time they want.I dont think they want me to leave, they just want compliance.Ive already complied with other things that slow me down but I cant seem to go along with this one.And then they act amazed that I see it this way.And put pressure on us to sell more.( but less time to sell because of all the micro management. Aaarggh.sigh.

I have tried telling them but they are immoveable.If you disagree at all with anything, you are " whining ".There is no one in management who will hear me. And the funny thing is, after trying something for awhile they sometimes go back to what I suggested but they dont remember or care that I originally suggested it!!. When this has happenned before, I just try to stay away from the office( and managers) as much as poss.I try to do an excellent job in the field so hopefully they leave me alone.Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

i bet Itll catch some alligator snapping turtles, gators, and birds of prey. too.!!!

Cool video.Wish I could do a quality one like that.Good job.

I actually love the job.And we do high quality work, have a very good reputation, its close to where I live.I especially enjoy meeting with the potential customers.Im never asked to do anything dishonest.Its the best paying job Ive ever had. But its becoming one new burden to bear after another.I reckon it could be worse.

Good point.I have tried doing that but they schedule it for a certain day and it always seems to be on a day when my regular sales calls are far away from there.They want me to meet the contractor at the site when the work is being done, then go back AGAIN the next day to make sure the job was done right. I understand the need and if theyd pay me for the time it woudnt bother me.But with this system I go out there 3 times and get paid the same as I used to for going out once. They used to employ a manager for the quality checks.After the last one left, they want us to do for free what they paid the manager to do.Im not sure if its legal or not to require this Im not gonna go postal or anything like that.I just want fair pay for the time involved.Thats all.

Thanks everyone.Been mad all day.And the ironic thing is that I sold everything I quoted today. The worst thing is that they want me to follow up after the sale.This isnt a phone call.They want us to go back out to the job site( which sometimes can be 30 miles away) TWICE after the sale to see how the contracter did the work.We dont get paid an extra penny to do this. We used to do this service in-house.Now i do the bid and the contracter does the work.I think if they mess up they should have to deal with it, not me.And even if I go out and find a problem, the contracter has to go back anyway. The company I work for even withheld some of my pay because They said I didnt take a picture of the jobsite.Are you kidding me?.I have 2 kids A wife and elderly mother to support and theyre worried about a picture.Its all just incredible to me.