N Florida Mike

I mean, a hook anywhere in your body is bad. For me , getting hooked anywhere else than an eye ( almost anywhere else ,lol😂) is less traumatic .

When I was in my 20s, all I wanted was a cabin in the woods , with “ a woman and the kids and the dogs and me” I got the woman, kids , and dogs, but the woods have receded like my hairline. 😂. At least I get to live on a lake…

A single hook in the eye was enough for me! @GRiver I feel your pain. Get better soon.

Well done ! You caught 28 in 2.5 hours?😮. Is that on your lake ? Those are some healthy , beautiful fish.

My nieghbor Leon called and had a new topwater frog he wanted me to see . I had fished all morning and was relaxing but he’s always so excited about fishing I met him down at the property line. He had had 2 blowups but missed them. He insisted that I try with his combo and frog. It casted probably 125 feet. Boom! Fish on ! 😄 He couldn’t believe it…

I was on the water long before the sun came up. Clear and warm with a nice 10 mph breeze. Started out at the south end of the lake. I Tried the pad crasher for awhile , and had one half hearted blow up that I missed. I went to the Bama bug dinger and immediately caught 2 good fish. Then I moved to the southeast corner of the lake , and caught another good one on the dinger . I picked off a couple fish on the horny toad in the deepest hole in the lake, and one on a red bug truck worm , then began fishing around the east side of our island , hunting for shade. Got several on the June bug speed worm and lost several in brush piles. Came around the south end of the island and switched to a watermelon seed super fluke, and caught a few going up the west side of the island, including these 2… I caught a couple more on the fluke as I headed home , and stopped at the north deep hole on the way home. I had switched to a Houdini super fluke because it was so bright, and got this 4.25 pounder to close the morning. It was the best day I’ve had in several years on my lake. The lake is clearly rebounding since the otter has been gone the better part of the year… Ended up with 16, with a 16 pound bag for the top 5… It was one of those rare days where nearly everything went right! Got a good case of bass thumb to go along with it lol . Happy Memorial Day everyone!

There are tons of snakes here. Pygmy and diamondback rattlers, cottonmouths( which are the most common). I even saw 1 copperhead, which aren’t supposed to be in NE Florida. Heres a healthy diamondback that was crossing the road between 2 palmetto fields in Guana preserve when I was hunting…

Started the weekend off right with another long skinny fish.. Also got a smaller one, both on the Bama bug dinger.

My son that lives in Michigan fried me up some yellow perch when we were up there. It was delicious !!

I’ve been eating bass for 50 years now. In the 70s and 80s I kept every one unless it was a dink. In the 90s I began selective catch and release. By this I mean that I keep some occasionally. When I bank fish ponds in my area I very rarely keep any. When I go to an out of town water body, I usually keep legal fish . If I fish my home lake, I will occasionally keep some to eat, only in the 12-16 inch range. Anything over 16 goes back, unless it dies on me. My lake is very productive for bass ,and always has been . Therefore, I must harvest some so there’s enough forage for the remaining fish. As far as eating them, I love filleted bass under 16 inch. I fry them and they come out very tasty. I don’t like them quite as good” bone in”. I think because of the skin. I love catfish , bream, and bass. I’ll eat any of the 3 interchangeably. There are saltwater fish I love more than these 3 though . I just don’t get the chance to catch them now as much as I did in the past.

Not buying the water rising thing. If I said what I really think, it would probably get banned. If it does rise , then I would hope that people would have enough sense to move inland.🤷🏼‍♂️

Katy , I agree that insurance is a big problem. Infrastructure is another one, trying to keep up with all the people coming here. The traffic is becoming a nightmare. Respectfully though, our coastline is no different than it was when I was a kid in the sixties. Oh we have the occasional storm that floods some houses, but we’ve always had that. I can go surf fishing and stand in front of the same dunes that were there when I was a kid. Like I said though, N Central Florida is still nice( not the crowded coast).

N. Central Florida is still a nice place to live, but it is rapidly changing. It is getting developed to death. IMHO the fishing isn’t near what it once was. I could break down the water bodies you mentioned but won’t for sake of time. I will mention Sante Fe for an example. We fished there recently and caught 1 bass in 6 hours of fishing. It is one of the most bassy looking water bodies you will ever see. It has everything . I personally did not get 1 bite in 6 hours. And I grew up here. My conclusion: Heavy pressure. The other popular water bodies are the same. If you can find unpressured water , then you will have success. Don’t get me wrong- I am very blessed and content to live here, and even more so, to live on a small lake. That being said , my lake now has probably more pressure than ever since Covid. The saltwater fishing here is very good , but you have to deal with lots and lots of people at the ramps and on the water. It’s frustrating for someone like me who , when I was younger, had wide open fishing opportunities with relatively few people around. As for the Greenville area, I have had this strange desire to live in upstate SC for many years now. And not just for the fishing. I’d like a quiet place back in the hill country. I doubt if it will ever happen, but it’s fun to dream…

Not much work today. I fought it all day , but finally had to get a few casts in. This healthy fish fell prey to the Bama craw yum dinger.

Somebody ( A family member), took my old gas can that I used to fill my lawn mower up with. My grandson had a new can that he uses for his 4 wheeler and dirt bike. I asked him if I could get a tank full of gas for the mower . He said that’s fine. But I like to never got the gas to come out of it for the device that hinders the flow for some reason. So I was looking for the old style gas can that actually works and thought I had found one at a gas station and bought it. I go to fill up my mower , and after pushing , pulling etc, could never get any gas to come out of it…😡 . I got so frustrated I considered breaking the whole thing off., but it’s probably connected inside the spout somehow. I finally just took the whole spout off and poured it directly out of the big hole , spilling some of the gas…😡😡 I am fairly mechanical but … why on earth do they make spouts like this?? I suspect it has something to do with not spilling gas, but I spilt far less with the old cans. Thanks for the vent !!

I was on all night security detail the night it happened and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, even though I was outside most of the night. I was around 7 miles west of Jax - maybe the city lights made it unviewable… To tell you the truth , I was disappointed when I heard about it. I’ve never seen it here in my life. The last time it was seen in Florida was 1989, and I missed it then too.

This is Florida. Wildlife everywhere

Tried a friends pond on the way home from work and got 5 on senkos and Bandito bugs…all around pad clumps. Nothing big , but it beats a skunk…

Got 3 in our small church pond , all on the bandito bug…

19 inch is all…

It seems like you catch biggins if there ISN'T an insect event… Ive heard a few, but seems less than normal so far…

First cast again on a yum dinger…

I am meticulous about drag, knots, nicks in the line. But it still occasionally happens. What really mystifies me , is that I caught my pb when I was 19 years old, and didnt know much then compared to now !

A friend at church suprised me with a new combo today. A Wanyoo ? Anyone hear of that? Went home , made one cast with it, using a bama craw yum dinger and…got the skunk off…

Got a new PB today….. But it was a mudfish… We fished a lake we hadnt fished in many years. On the water at dawn. Got halfway to the first spot and Jeff had forgot to put the plug in ( again) . So back to the ramp we go. Finally get to the spot and the TM doesnt work. Mess with the connections awhile and it starts working. Fished grass edges, docks, cypress, and offshore all morning . Used Speed worms, culprits, senkos, jerkbaits, Traps, swim baits, Bandito bugs, diferrent topwater baits, even a roostertail. Flipped, pitched, skipped , you name it.Results: 3 halfhearted bites, 1 bass, a smaller mudfish, and my PB mudfish. It was 8-10 pounds , but I didn't fool with weighing it.. First bass skunk Ive had in a long time.