N Florida Mike

I fish more lakes but enjoy rivers too, esp. the St Johns.

A buddy brought his grandson over and got some bream and a bullhead…

Got one on a small bream. The fish did a tremendous blow up on the bream .

I watched his fluke rigging video. It must work for him , but he says you lose 50% of the fish you hook with a wide gap texas rigged fluke. That’s the way I rig them. I land 80-90 % of the fish I hook with a fluke rigged that way. So , not sure why he has problems with it…

I’ve never heard of him. Now Ive got to go see what all the fuss is about…?

We always did best in the spring runs off lake George when I fished down there more. Like anywhere else in Florida in summer, be on the water at daybreak and fish until it gets really hot. Usually 10-11. I love bream fishing down there. If you’ve never tried it , don’t knock it. And these bream are generally big-3/4 to 1 pounders are common. They will bite all day sometimes if you find them. Beds will often be under docks and if you can find a shell bar- it’s on. Many people “find them” by looking at all the anchored boats . I like using wigglers on the bottom. Sorry for getting distracted- I know this is a bass thread…

Yeah. Those that consider too much end up not going…

Same.

praying ?

I have an old friend that goes with me several times a year. I taught him to bass fish when we were teens, and I’m 61 now. We have never had a cross word between us all these years. Other than him, I rarely have a regular fishing partner. My middle son moved up north, and he was the one I mostly saltwater fished with. My g. daughter mackayla went with me a lot before she was 14. Now she’s nearly 17 , and has only been once in the last 3 years. Her older brother Tyler is the same way. What gets me is I put them on fish nearly every time. So now it’s mostly the Lord and me. I really enjoy it regardless of who’s there or not. I do miss the family not going ,especially my son. Hope he moves back some day soon.

Why do I fish? . My dad did . It’s fun . They taste good ( Well, most of ‘em anyway)

I wish I could catch one. They arent as numerous up here though. One pond I fished at was full of em. They bed in April there. I could see great big uns on every bed but they wouldn’t bite worms, bread or any lure . Tried snagging one and couldn’t even do that!

I would think that would be true as often as not anyway… we had a tournament on the home lake and the only contestant that fished strictly shiners came in last place.

There is something about holding up the actual fish to show you caught it that has a bigger impact then a picture. Without the public weigh in you lose all that visiblity. I’m not taking a side - just saying. Today is MUCH different than it was 40 years ago. Back then, our club had a fish fry too , with ALL the fish caught during a tournament. Not saying it was right, but that’s how it was. We even allowed live bait fishing ( hardly anyone did it though) . Populations did not seem to decline at all. I kept nearly every fish I caught for years ( because we were a fish eating family ), and no matter, we still had plenty .In the last 30 years , nearly all ( if not all) bass clubs at least release all their fish. I would say this is also true with the majority of recreational anglers too. There may be a lot of people moving to Florida but a small % know or care anything about bass fishing . I am against unessary killing of fish, and now release the majority of fish I catch. I promise you that I dont have more fish die from live bait as opposed to lure fishing. That being said I am 100% against a closed season or other laws. We already have enough. I would lean towards releasing bedding fish on the spot , but I dont know how that could possibly be regulated… I am also opposed to laws banning live bait. There are plenty of fish here.

For me , Super flukes gut hook way more fish than any other bait , including live bait. Gut hooking a fish isnt desirable, but it happens .

especially shellcrackers ( redears )

Saltwater creeks are always full of them. They are a lot like bluefish with a lot of bloody meat.

I personally wouldn’t buy the redbreast one. I have live bait fished with various kinds of bream for many years and Ive never caught one bass on a redbreast. Catfish love em though…

Some people call them pinfish. Bonnett heads are my favorite. Mullet is real good smoked…

A good friend nearly drowned when him and his girlfriend jumped off their sailboat for a swim, and it blew away too fast for them to catch it. The girl was a stronger swimmer and pulled him up several times as he went under. Right when she was out of strength too, a lone fisherman rescued them… His dad then had to drive 45 miles with the extra set of keys because the set my friend had went down with the tackle box it was in after it fell overboard…

I have tried eating nearly everything I’ve caught. I don’t consider bullheads trash fish - they are delicious! Once I caught 27 salt water cats. I kept them , skinned them, and fried them . They weren’t bad… We also used to catch sailor’s choice and they were fair at best, but they had some of the nastiest guts when cleaning them. Some of you may doubt I did this , but it’s true. I used to catch big golden shiners. One day I cleaned a few and momma fried em up. My first mouthful tasted good, but then I realized there were a million little bones in with the meat. I could not find any part of that fish that was different.! Some people consider amberjack a trash fish because of the sea worms they have, but they don’t bother me. When you fry it, they disentegrate anyway, and besides, it’s extra protein.. Ive eaten fried shark and it was too strong tasting. But shark soaked in milk for a few days, then smoked, is outstanding! The worst fish I tried eating was a jack crevalle. Momma fried him up too, and it was all blood and bones. That was my last attempt to eat one. I caught another one later out of the lower st Johns river near the ocean. Some Chinese people that didn’t speak english came up and by their gestures and smiles, and excited dialogue, I could tell they wanted the fish. I tried telling them the fish wasn’t fit to eat, but they kept on, so I finally gave it to them. I’ve always wondered what they thought when they tried eating it…?

My home lake used to be full of big shiners, but not anymore. I once caught a 13.5 inch shiner in there.…

Same here. Especially if Im using a wide-gap hook. I don’t get many gut hooked fish with a straight shank hook though. For shiner fishing , I use a smaller hook than most people because I don’t want the action of the bait to be diminished by a large hook. I can’t find big shiners like I used to, so small hooks are best for smaller baits, like little bream. If I gut hook a big fish and it’s too risky, I just cut the line and let the fish go. The hook will rust and disintegrate before long.

I did that once with my first car. It got so bad I was holding my breath. Kept wondering what it could be and where it was…? Then I slowly began remembering the fishing trip from 3 days before when I used river clams for bait! Cant believe those things start stinking so soon inside a trunk in 95 degree heat…?

My aunt passed away in NC at the age of 93 . She was the Last of the older generation in our family .? Funeral is next week on friday. I’m not so sure my old suv would make it up there and back. So… I’m renting something. I have rented one car in my life and that was probably 10 years ago. So Looking for suggestions. Anyone have stellar experiences with a particular car rental place? Suggestions? I’m mainly looking for fuel efficiency obviously. I despise cars but trucks would probably cost a fortune so…