N Florida Mike

I could write a book ... It sounds to me in the 2 incidents that novice fishermen see a lone person fishing and think he must be where the fish are otherwise he wouldn’t be there... so they get as close as possible. I think I would have done the same thing you did. I am very laid back about most things. I am a people person . But there are a few things that still get me very angry. Kids getting in the way are not one of them. One of them is adults that are violating my space while Im fishing. I was surf fishing with my son and a friend. We were on the beach as the sun came up. Nobody else on the beach. 2 casts =2 fish.We’re thinking its going to be a great day. We hear voices. People coming over the dune. Surfers. One goes directly in front of me, one directly in front of my son, one directly in front of my friend. I couldnt believe it. The one in front of me snagged my line somehow with the fin. He was spooling me. Im yelling. He cant hear me ( or is ignoring me ) I tightened down the drag. Saw the rig come up over the fin, just missed his leg. Dont think he even knew. I was waiting for him when he came in. I told him what happened in a loud voice and asked him , not nicely , why he couldnt just move down the beach some. He actually complied. His buddies didnt though. About 10 minutes later my son said he was starting to get mad , my friend as well, so we left. To me ,that was rude behavior. Knowing how I get , more than once I’ve just left before I get into it with someone, so something like this wont happen:

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Our owner came in my office a little while ago bringing a 200.00 visa card!!!?

Im going to get a 6.6 medium heavy in it. You never know. The combo I caught my PB on was a cheap olympic combo.

I T-rig mine with a small split shot. Watermelon red works best for me. Its kind of hit or miss with them but when its on its good. I like skipping them around brush piles.

I like both. I fish with artificials a lot more because I catch my own bait and it takes up too much time usually. Its relaxing to sit on the dock and throw out a live bream or shiner and wait for the bite that will inevitably come. Circle hooks can be used and you dont gut hook many fish with them. I sometimes fish live bait just like I do artificials. As you move, just cast the bait to likely spots and let it do its thing. You need a lot of baits for this kind of fishing, but it pays off. If I catch a nice bass on a live bait it doesnt bother me to share the picture. The bass on my profile pic was caught on a 3 inch bream.

On friday the owner at work confirmed Im getting a gift card - Im asking for academy still .She didnt say for how much and I didnt ask. Suspense is growing!

Culprits were my main baits in the 80s. In my home lake, black shad was the color. Red shad second. In tannic water, moccasin ,red shad , or black grape seemed to be best. In very clear water, motor oil. If you could just pick one, red shad was it. I still have them with me every trip. I did like the older, heavier ones the best. Now, they seem lighter so you cant throw them as far. 7.5 is my favorite size. My biggest bass on a culprit is 7 1/4 pounds.

That was my go to bait for many years. I won a tournament using them.

My favorite lost and found story: One year I couldn’t find my favorite bream combo. Since I had grandkids and their friends over, I just figured it was around somewhere. I had other combos and just used them. One day my g- daughter wanted me to take her to a local pawn shop to look for cheap games to buy. As I recall, it was a sunday, I was really tired and didn’t want to go out. She kept on and finally wore me down. So we get to the pawn shop , her and her friend go to look at games. And I go to the fishing section of course. I look at every item on the wall and was just turning away when the last combo caught my eye. I thought “ there’s a perfect bream combo” I went over and grabbed it . It looked kind of familiar. Then I realized-it was my lost combo!!! Apparently someone ( No doubt a relative or friend of theres) had stole it, and pawned it. I bought it back for 16 dollars. I didnt want to press charges because it takes up to 4 months to get it back from the police. ( evidence ) Whats the chances of that? It had already been out for sale for a long time and it was just waiting for it’s big buddy to come rescue it!!?

I skip creature baits up into cover. Learn to skip into cover -it really pays off . I also try to fish parallel with the structure. In others words, if you see an exposed tree limb fish into it vertically instead of horizontally. In other words, straight down a branch, not across one.

I caught one once that had part of his head torn off near his mouth almost up to an eye on one side .It was really amazing how that fish was even alive. I assume a bird of some kind had got ahold of him . It had healed but it was the “elephant man” of bass for sure. Wish I still had the pics.

I “hooked” a gator once when he ate a bream I had caught. I dont think he ever realized he was “ hooked” though. Broke the line, of course.

Got that right!!! I cant listen to it. ? I agree with @TnRiver46. I went through a long depression that lasted a few years. It was based on unmet expectations from others behaviors. I have cast that burden on the Lord. I still pick it back up sometimes , but overall its much better. I realize I cant make people change so I might as well be happy and take care of myself while I wait...

My Granma was born in raft swamp settlement which is now considered Lumberton. Mom was born and raised in Clarkton . Ive always wanted to fish lumber river. How’s the fishing ? Welcome to the forums by the way!

Ive fished my private home lake for 45 years now. It was a good numbers lake then, and is good now. The first 10-15 years , I kept nearly every bass I caught. They just never ran out. There were plenty of various kinds of bream, the biggest were mostly hand sized. In the early years, the lake was chock full of shiners too, really big ones. I caught some big bass then, up to around 9 pounds. The record is 13 1/2 though. Fast forward to the 2000s. Same if not better.. until the fish kill of 2011. Im convinced all the bass over 2 pounds died, and all the big bream as well, The bass have recovered well -it’s still a numbers lake , with an occasional big fish. The bream population isnt what it was and shiners are almost non existent. Reduced forage but still great fishing. My point is that I have caught thousands of bass in the lake for many years and I catch more now than ever. It seems like if there was a genetic remembrance, I wouldnt catch much, right? Especially having caught so many in there. But it isnt the case. It could be because I have tried to manage the lake by letting all fish go over 17 inch, but occasionally keeping some of the 12-16 inch fish. One mystery though. Since 2011, I have caught a bass app. 1 pound or so bigger than the biggest fish from the year before - until the last 2 years. This illustrates it: Year biggest bass 2012 app. 2 pounds 2013 app. 3 pounds 2014 4 pounds 2015 5 3/4 pounds 2016 6 1/4 pounds 2017 7 1/4 pounds 2018 8 pounds 2019 7 pounds 6 oz 2020 4 pounds 10 oz Why am I going backwards? Are the biggest fish wising up? Is it genetic memory? luck? By the way , I have caught plenty of 3-4 pound fish this year, and great numbers. I do 95% of all the fishing on the lake, and out of the other 5%, only a few bass fish. So people arent catching them out. They are also not able to get out of the lake unless we have extreme high water, and it only flows out then at one place. Trying to understand why Im not catching bigger fish the last 2 years. At least in the same class 7-8 pounds. Memory??? I think this goes along with the topic. If not, I apologize.

Crabs are the one thing seafood wise that I prefer letting someone else fool with. I love crab cakes but dont care to fight with the legs to get a little pinch of meat out.

It varies according to state. I know of a lot of situations here that involved someone breaking into a home and were shot while breaking in ( not just after they got in) Most if not all were not charged. I cant imagine a situation where If I had one of my guns and someone got in my house that I would run away out the back door and leave my family to fend for themselves. I would have go to jail I guess. A young lady I work with just had a gun brandished at her and her friends by her sisters boyfriend ( who is a minority) just because they didnt know who he was at first and called out asking who he was as he was walking up in the dark.He took offence saying they were racist for asking and pulled a gun- the cops did nothing.

Dead shrimp and cut bream are my favorite.

I’ve got an inexpensive rod and a scale on the list so far...

I really dont want to hear any more about the plandemic. I come on here because I want to get away from it for awhile. Can we all just stop and move on to something we all enjoy, like fishing for example?

I have a no return policy. ? Seriously though, I am at the North end of the lake, and we get mostly south winds in the summer which pushes all the grass and algae up against my bank. I was going to wade out and clean it up some but its like 97 out there with a south wind of 15 or so. It’d just push more in by nightfall.

9^ He really got a 2nd wind when the woman showed up. Lets mix it up a little ( a lot )?

You can have some of the weeds and algae I have in the home lake. I have plenty to spare!

That’s crazy low priced. I’ll definitely try one. I thought ugly stiks were cheap, and Ive used them for years... Thanks .