N Florida Mike

Had a tough outing yesterday. Fished 3 hours in the afternoon and got 3 that were less than acceptable for my picture standards lol. Tried a chatter and spinnerbait off and on with nothing. Caught one on a super fluke, one on a zoom lizard, and one on a big bites stick worm. At least that one absolutely blew up on it. Im thinking of expanding my new water search. My home lake is the worst it’s been in years. Ive been seeing an otter lately , so that’s not helping !?

Yum Yum !

I’m one of those that gets angry when people honk at me. Im only driving 5 miles over the speed limit ya know ! But don’t worry, I wouldn’t blow anybodies head off over it…?

No. One of the few times he didn’t keep something. His idea of “ catch and release “ was catch and release into the ice chest…?. Older Appalachian men didn’t throw much back in those days…

It’s difficult to fish live bait for bass when there’s a lot of turtles around. I once caught a big soft shell while fishing with a shiner. I went back in a few days and saw a lot of turtles hanging around. Caught another shiner , threw him out, and the cork immediately went under. But this time it turned out to be a 7 pound bass !

Bingo !!!

I had a female customer once that had a 10 pounder mounted that she caught in okeechobee. She used to keep her boat at Rolands I think. Said she knew him well. Based on all her knowledge of baits and techniques, I never doubted her. I used to take girls fishing before marriage and it was quite a bit more fun that my regular posse. One of them would have been really good had she done it more. My wife was fair at bass fishing but she won’t go now after losing what would have been a new pb. One of my g. daughters is really good at fishing but, at 17, doesn’t know I exist anymore…? I know it’s a male dominated pursuit, but most of us would welcome more females on the water…

My dad was casting off a pier once and hooked a sea gull flying by. At first he wasn’t sure what was going on as his line was going up instead of down. The bird put up a commendable fight…. Biggest thing we caught that day. We had to hold it with a towel to stop it from pecking and slashing….

It’s better here now. 80s instead of 90s. Can’t wait for the first breath of cooler air.

For me , it’s fried fish. I’m not hard to please. I love any kind of fish /game.

I was at my last job 23 years. Would have just kept on there but every year For 3 years I was making less and less because they thought the answer to their apparent problems was to hire as many salesmen as possible…which meant less and less referrals for me. They did give me a nice lunch when I left. I could have put up with all the micromanaging, “healthy “ competition in the sales department, hypocrisy, one week of vacation after all that time , favoritism,the list goes on. I was very fortunate and blessed to start working where I am now 3.5 years ago. Great pay, ( because I get most of the referrals that come into the office). 3 weeks vacation already, no stress, no micromanaging, great work environment, my own office, car, cell phone , the list goes on. And I’m doing exactly what I did at the last company…I have a lot to be thankful for… Clayton , I wish you the best . I agree that the second job sounds better for you…

Grass ( Here it’s eel grass , maiden cane and hydrilla, also Niad.) Pontoons, docks , laydowns, esp. whatever end the trash has gotten blown into, or the end the wind is blowing into… Pontoons are usually #1. I think it should be a law that every water front must have one!! ?

I’ve only had a few that really bothered me. # 1 . I was fishing in a tournament in Rodman out in the stump flats at the east end of the lake. It was very slow that day. I don’t recall having any bites until this one. There was a lone stump out all by itself, and I made a perfect cast with the ambassador b/c. The cast went right under an overhanging prong of the stump. I was using a 7.5 inch red shad culprit worm, and I think I had a 1/8 oz or maybe 1/4 oz bullet wieght with it. 14 pound stren. Picked up the slack , felt the tap, set the hook, and at first I thought I was hooked on the log. It absolutely didn’t budge. You know how you turn nearly all the fish at least a little on the set? Not this one. Then she started slowly swimming directly away from me, and began picking up speed. Then she took off, the drag was too tight, and the line snapped , sounding like a pistol shot. In 45 + years of bass fishing, absolutely the biggest Ive ever had on. I dropped the rod and just sat there for awhile. I didn’t win the tournament… My wife had one on in the home lake that was towing us in the jonboat until it just came off… That pretty much killed her desire to fish anymore after that…?

Well, obviously it’s on dry land…

Other than the artic and antartic, a person is never more than 6 feet from a spider at any time in their life…

It was a great place to grow up. Very little crime, schools were good, never felt crowded, lots of woods and access to fishing waters. Mostly friendly folk in my area. Fast forward 50 years: Lots of crime, drugs are rampant, most public schools are below average , woods are thinning faster than my hairline, a lot of my hunting and fishing spots are now in subdivisions… Still has some friendly, good nieghbors, but not as many…most of the communities just outside of Duval county are great places to live, which is evident by all the people coming here from up north and out west…

This is my every day life in the Jacksonville florida area. Just imagine what you have there with 1 million + people.

Glad to hear things went well with the surgery. Will pray for y’all in a few minutes.

Sending prayers and thoughts for you and Lynn… My wife’s had a chronic illness our whole marriage. It has nearly debilitated her at this point. We are in the drs office as I write this. Ive come to realize that it’s part of the human experience. We have grown in character as a result, so now we can empathize with those who have similar issues…but it’s still hard seeing your loved one in a situation like this…

I would say I’m 90% tried and true, but the other 10% has been fun. I fish soft plastics 90% of the time because they work best in my home lake , and other waters I fish around here. The biggest fish Ive caught outside of my normal plastics, was a 7.3 on a Booyah pad crasher. I got a 6.3 on a spinnerbait. Im pretty sure I will eventually get a big fish on a chatterbait. I’ve caught some fish on jerkbaits but nothing big. Ive even learned about different soft plastics that Ive caught some fish on. I do need to fish new spots more. That’s probably true with most of us…Bassresource forums are the main reason I’ve branched out from the norm. THANKS YA’LL !!

I use 12 pound mono. 10 in less weedy water. I fish fairly clear water so I feel like I get less bites the higher pound test I go. Ive lost fish down in the weeds, but don’t remember breaking off because of the weeds. My home lake has eel grass and lots of algae clumps. Another lake I fish primarily has maiden cane. I don’t have problems with line breakage with these. 17 should be more than enough. If it’s clear water you won’t get as many bites though…

I use 12 pound mono. I fish a lot of eel grass with algae clumps everywhere right now. Also fish a lake with a lot of maidencane and use the same. I can’t remember having one break off down in these weeds. I have lost some in there of course. 17 should be more than enough. I fish a lot of moderately clear ( somewhat stained) water. So I feel like I get less bites the higher pound test I go. I definitely get less bites with braid .( Unless I fish more stained waters.) I even use 10 pound mono in less weedy waters.

If I used a jighead, I’d get a clump of weeds every time with the waters I fish. I get a lot of bites on the fall too, I just think in the primary lakes/ponds I fish it would sink too fast. I also occasionally use 4/0, never 5. Your right. Not as many bites with the 4…

It’s easy . Use a 3/0 wide gap hook and T-rig it. I use no weight because I primarily fish in less than 6 f.o.w . Let me clarify- I use zoom SUPER flukes, rarely the smaller flukes anymore. I catch a lot just deadsticking or pulling it over weeds and letting it drop into holes, also skipping around brush piles or under docks. Another method is finding a weed line and skipping the fluke parallel to the edge. I have never done well twitching it like so many people do.

I love fried bream, but I caught these for my boss.