N Florida Mike

Ive caught quite a few of them while catfishing in my home lake, and other spots. Ive never tried bass fishing with one , although I heard of a 19 pound bass being caught with one, I think in lake Tarpon. It was a very interesting story in a Florida Sportsman magazine from the 80s . Ive even caught a few sirens. They are eel looking things with little arms up towards the head, and they have a larger flexible fin on top. Wish I still had the pic of the last one I caught that was around 3 feet long but that was in the cell phone that got wet when I was out in the kayak. This video shows the arms well around 3:45.

purdy fish -5-6 pounds. Welcome to the forums man. Go to introductions and introduce yourself to everyone. Never mind. I think you already did.

My lake has had way more people out in it than it has in many years. Almost all of them are just paddling or trolling around- not fishing. The few new ones fishing are pretty much all in the “ upside down “ reel camp. Nothing to worry about. These same people dont know much ,if anything about boater etiquette. The other day 2 men Id never seen before were having a go with a canoe, and by the looks of things, hadnt seen a canoe before either.? They were trying to turn but it wasn’t happening. They went between me and the bank I was casting to. I don’t even think they had any idea what they did. Another group of foriegn folks kept following me, and Everywhere I went they would come too. Not fishing, but they seemed interested. Probably thought I was one of the “swamp people “ or something ?.

I’ll probably never retire, unless forced to. I fish a lot, regardless of work. My desire to fish is not much different than when I was young. But now it’s mostly up to 5 hours and thats it. Lower back starts yelling its time to go home.

Traffic is picking up during the day around here, but rush hour in the morning is still eerily quiet. Im writing this at 7:10 a.m. Usually by now you would hear the roar and sounds of traffic on the roads going towards town and it’s completely quiet out there. The shortcut out of my neighborhood ( no stop light) is very difficult to get out of in the morning, but has been easy since the virus, and still is. Business for us has been great though lately.May was a big boost after a below avg. march and april.

You’re 3 days older than me. I had a high hbp reading, so I put two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar with 2 tablespoons of honey and mix with a small glass of water. I drink it every morning. The headaches and flushed feeling in my face has 95 % gone away. And I largely have quit eating salty snacks. I feel a lot better.

Well, look on the bright side. You could always stock it with fish!

At this time, my question Id like answered is : What must I do to catch the 9 + fish that I know live in my home lake? I got an 8.1 two years ago and a 7.6 last year that was 26 inches. My son got an 8.2 three years ago. I have very diligently searched all spring for larger fish , and a 4.10 was the biggest, along with several others around 4. You might say someone else caught and kept them. I do 95% of all the fishing on my lake. About the same % of time, Im the only one fishing on any given day. Im about to go into a live bait( bream or shiner ) campaign to solve this question, if I cant do it with artificials.

Got up this morning and decided to throw a frog a little before work. It was the same fish I caught and released yesterday

Had a big rain and the fish were fired up near our little spillway . The water got high enough to flow over it. This causes a slow current and bass come around to eat the little fish that are drawn to them. I got 6 bass, 2 catfish and a few bream. I caught 4 of the bass while catfishing on cut bream, including the biggest one, one on a live bream, and 1 on a fluke. Left em biting at dark. ?

I have a 12 foot jb, with a 2.5. And I weigh 250. My best guess would be around 5 mph. I would think a kayak would go a little faster than that due to the shape of it.

Yeah , boating stupidity has and will continue to be a big issue. I think it’s because of several reasons. 1. Alcohol ( No explanation needed ). 2. Boater education. If the same level of liscensing with boating as is involved with driving was enforced it would help some . Im generally against more laws though , so at least some kind of required boater course would be beneficial. 3. Perception. By this I mean people in general just think boating is easy-they just dont think it’s dangerous- and it can be, especially with all 3 or any combination of the other reasons at work. Back in my younger days I had my bass boat parked at a girlfriend’s house in her canal. I took her out for a dusk ride. She was up in a creek so we rode out into where the creek got much bigger. Theres a bridge out there, so we went out to it, turned around and started back. We passed a boat on the way back that was flying towards the bridge , full of people on it hollering etc. We went way up a side creek after that and turned off the motor to hear the swamp sounds . Night had fallen , and We started seeing lights on the horizon . We got curious and rode back out to see what was going on. There were a lot of flashing lights out by the bridge. Since we were closer to her house, we went there. Found out the next day the boat we had passed had hit the bridge and a pretty girl I knew from high school had died- alcohol was involved.... Very sad but avoidable.

^^^^^ This!!!!!

You are a true North Carolinian. The only reason I didnt include them is I didnt think most people would know what they are.

I turn 60 this September. 60 . Where did my life go? Thankful that I still take no medicine. 30? That didnt bother me at all! My advice to you as an older codger is don’t waste your time on lesser things, like unforgiveness, worrying, arguing, and with high living comes high consequences. Been there. Just my 2 cents. Happy Birthday!

Man, glad things turned out ok. I threw some clothes in the dryer once and was leaving to go to church. I was walking out the door and caught the faintest whiff of smoke, which caused me to go back in and check. Dryer was on fire. Got it turned off and put out the fire. As big as the flames were, it hadnt gotten anywhere else! The house would have burned down no doubt had I left and not caught that slight whiff of smoke . Divine intervention!

Baby Brush hog Flukes U-vibe speed worm.

He'd probably be fine if you get the water temp. about the same...

I generally see them head deeper. But Ive caught the same fish a few times after hooking it or having it break the line. Doesn’t happen much , but it does happen. Theres another thread going on about fish memory...

The only thing I can get a carp to bite is a big bread ball on a small , but strong hook. I caught a 32 inch one that way. I chum with bread for awhile til they come around... I also snagged a 23 pounder with a treble hook. That fish was in the top 5 best fights of a fish in my life...

Ive took pictures , weighed and measured fish, and admired them probably too long but I cant remember one fish that didnt swim off afterwards. That doesnt include the occasional gut hooked or gill damaged fish that dont make it. They wont be wasted though!

Hard to be sure , but this ones probably in the top 5...