N Florida Mike

Great info y’all. Thanks! @Koz it’ll take me awhile to mull through your detailed response. @Swamp Girl, I have a canoe. I keep it but rarely use it. I got blown all over the place the few times I used it. I have an old ford ranger shortbed to haul my various watercraft in, but the canoe is the longest and Id rather slide something into the bed than have to tie it off on top. @MediumMouthBass , another great response. I want to keep it as simple and easy as possible, so probably going with a paddle ‘yak. I usually only fish for a few hours at a time, so gonna be traveling light. I just want something I can quickly load and unload, with as few breakable parts as possible!

I already have one, but it wasn’t made for fishing. Just a shell you sit on. It also leaks real bad. I know little about kayaks. Trying to start the hunt for one I will like. What features are essential, what is a good length, your pros and cons , etc? I weigh around 250 pounds. I want something very stable , but as short as I can comfortably fish. I’m primarily looking for a good used one at this point. I will primarily fish smaller waters with it ..

I personally don’t fish much after a cold front . I’ve never done well fishing then, ‘specially with blue bird skies and wind.

I started to submit a fish for Trophy catch (an 8 pound 1 oz. Fish). Then I realized my freshwater license was expired! Part of the submission requirements state that you have to have a valid license to submit a fish! So I immediately went and got my license renewed, but didn’t feel right about it, so I never submitted the fish…🙁 I tried to submit the tilapia, but it says they are upgrading the site at the moment…

I’ll try it! Thanks.

Aaron, I rarely fish with those baits, so that explains not catching them. He hit violently and like you said, I thought at first it was the bass I was after. After a brief struggle, I got him to the bank. But it wasn’t far to start with. Thanks for mentioning the trophy catch program.- but I didn’t think of it and let the fish go without a picture of the measurement or weight !😕

Not an excuse to bite an ear , but Holyfield had been head butting him before that. A lot of people are saying the fight is going to be rigged for Paul. Not sure where that info. Is coming from.

My understanding is they rarely bite any kind of artificial bait, but he clobbered the rattletrap about 8 feet from shore…

Thanks. I thought so too.

I was bass fishing with a rattletrap, and caught this 5.5 pound, 18.5 inch tilapia. First one Ive ever caught on a lure.

Tried out a new pond( for me) on the work route. Caught 1 on a cut off stick bait, but also caught my PB Tilapia.( In other species thread.)

Big red snapper do the same thing. I had several cut me off on a wreck while using 60 pound power pro the last time I was out… my son was able to get a 30 pounder to the boat.

Caught several on the trick worm as the sun was going down…

Had the chance to fish a little in a customer’s canal off Doctors Lake. I clinched a tournament win in the 80s just behind the trees in the second pic. I was hoping for a fish or two yesterday to bring me a deja vu moment, but it wasn’t happening!

The chart tells what it SHOULD weigh if it is it’s ideal weight for the length. The scale tells you the real weight, not the ideal weight for its length.

I have a chart that shows how much the fish should weigh for it’s length . 2 fish I checked the other day were 85% and 90% ideal weight for the length. I forgot to do it on this fish but he was much less.

Thanks, but he was one step from malnourished!

Got this long skinny fish on a hollow body bream . I don’t remember the name of it Ive had it so long. Noticed a bass crashing bream at my dock, so I thought of the bait. Tied it on and in less than 5 minutes , had the fish. He hit it like a bream hitting a bug on the surface- just pecked it and it was gone! First fish I ever caught on it.

Got out for a couple hours before dark. Fished the upper 3rd of the lake nearest to home. Fishing into a moderate wind. They weren’t having anything but the yum dingers. Ended up with 7.

Went to a friends wedding yesterday and caught some bream around the dock at the venue. The first one had a chunk bit out of him by something. I caught around 10 in the short time I had just before the wedding. Only one was small. I did something I can’t remember ever doing before. I cast out , and the rod slipped out of my hands and went in the water. I got down under the dock and was just able to reach the rod with another rod- all with my suit on and dress shoes. I came very close to slipping in the mud twice, as it was I got mud all over my dress shoes. It was worth it, because it was one of the grooms rods !!

My waters aren’t gin clear but fairly clear. It’s hard to describe. Slightly stained is another way to describe it. Many of the lakes around keystone heights are clear.

I reconnected with an old friend I hadn’t seen for at least 30 years. He came over to fish and catch up on our lives. It was super windy and cool . We caught around 18 -20 fish on Culprit worms, Super flukes, uv speed worms, and yum dingers.

A lot of it is how you were raised. My dad always kept anything we caught. He never really understood size regulations and all that. His simple thought was, if he caught it he should be able to keep it. His idea of catch and release was to catch it and release it into his ice chest. I was like that until a few years into bass fishing. One time I even kept some big ( 12 inch) shiners I caught, and mama fried em up. But they were full of tiny bones.😂 Now , I keep some bass occasionally, but only 12-16 inch ones. When I saltwater fish , I’ll keep nearly everything that’s legal and edible. I don’t ever get nutty people asking me that always want every fish released. Thats probably a good thing…

That’s great news A.J !!! My wife had a “ eye stroke” last year, so she’s dealing with a similar kind of eye problem…

It wasn’t bad up here. We didn’t lose power. Helene had worse winds for us. The lake didn’t even get above my catwalk, which it did during a rainstorm a couple months ago. It looks like no damage, and very little tree debris, because Helene already blew most of it down… After a while I may ride up to local creeks and the river and see if there’s any tidal flooding…