N Florida Mike

Went out for a couple hours today. Today I didn’t feel like taking it to serious- I just decided to play around with the roostertail again, and the tube. Did pretty good with the rooster but nothing on the tube. I had a lot of fish follow the rooster without taking. But those that did were a blast on the ultralight. Had fun and got some peace and quiet so that’s all that matters.

They definitely have their pros and cons. I did the majority of mine in the past when I camped Out in backwoods lakes. Set it up before dark, better get the camp stove or grill set up because it was literally all you can eat. Mostly butter cats (yellow bullheads) They are so tasty. It was a tradition in our family. A good way to get supper in a short time. Most Florida lakes are chock full of bullheads, unless otters have come through. I always remove the trot lines except once when I set one, ran it a few times, went back in the morning and couldn’t find it. Can’t remember how, I think the marker jug came off or something. The hooks weren’t stainless so ... I’m sure the Gators and turtles had a feast. We aren’t allowed to set bush hooks in Florida or Id do it.

I had a large soft shell turtle one time . He had gotten the line all tangled up and had almost drowned by the time I came along. Another time a gator ate several catfish off my line all but the heads...

Got a sudden urge to fish a roostertail on my ultra light combo. The goal was to catch some bream . No bream , but got this one and 2 smaller relatives instead. Nice fight on the ultra light!!

I was thinking about getting my trotline out . In Florida we can run one up to 25 hooks without having a commercial license. I have always caught plenty of catfish on one. I mainly bait mine with old dead shrimp leftover from saltwater fishing. Cut pieces of fish work well too.I’d like to hear Your experiences with them, what you use for bait , etc.

Another nice sunrise from a few weeks ago.

I used to love the dsg near me when it was new. The fishing and hunting area was great. It still is the only place I can find 4 inch senkos. I haven’t been there in a year or so now , and hadn’t heard about their gun stance until I read it on here. I had about quit going there anyway.When Academy opened up 15 -20 minutes Away , I started going there mostly. Love It ! The second closest wal mart also has a decent fishing section that is run by a friend that bass fishes, so it’s better than average. There are a few mom/pop stores left. The one I like best is Green Acres SG. It’s near my church around 1/2 hr away. They have more hunting than fishing stuff, but they carry a LOT of zoom baits which I love. A little pricey but worth it for the selection. We’ve heard for several years that BPS is supposed to be opening a store around 20- 25 minutes from me - not sure what’s taking so long.

My first big bass: At the local lake I had gotten pretty good at catching bream and catfish. In those days I primarily fished with hand lines off the bank. I used bread or dough balls mostly. I got to where I could wind up and sling it 50-60 feet, with no weight.Usually didn’t use a cork either .You just waited for the line to start moving out steadily and pull up the slack to hook the fish. That day I had thrown a big dough ball out and the line began to move . When I hooked the fish, it pulled back much harder than anything Id caught up until then. As I got it closer , I was able to see it in the clear water. The mouth was large and the red gills flaring ! It got tangled up in a small dead tree in the water but I immediately jumped in and was able to grab the fish. It ended up weighing 4 pounds. I took it home and mama fried it up. I’m sure there was a picture of it but It’s probably in the thousands of pictures my parents had and is somewhere in my storage bin. That is what got me hooked on bass fishing. I never caught another bass on dough, but caught a couple on bread balls through the years.

I’m very sorry. I had him in my prayers since you first mentioned it. I actually thought of him and prayed for him and you on the 22nd . At a Loss for words . Please let us know if there’s anything at all we can do.

I caught a 7 3/4 pounder on a bubblegum fluke.

Me too ! To get to the boat. IMO. you win the most interesting place to live award...

Yeah I’ve never fished that far south- Stick Marsh is the furthest south I’ve fished. If I went there I would fish what I fish up here- Flukes, senkos, Zoom lizards , trick worms, speed worms, etc. Culprit worms. Might try the ol Mann’s too. Good luck !

I caught my personal best on a cut off Mann’s Jelly worm.! My guess is the worm was around 9-10 inches. Grape color.

I use the zoom trick worms. They are in my “ circle of trust “ baits . I catch a lot of fish on them using mostly the watermelon red or junebug colors..They don’t float with a Texas rig, and that’s all I use. They are fairly buoyant though ( they don’t sink too fast ) and fish like them both with dead-sticking or on a slow to moderate retrieve. Biggest fish I’ve caught on one is 6.3.

35 feet ! This is my view. Makes it easy to throw a trip together! That’s not the whole lake either- there’s twice as much as you can see here.Have fished it since 1974. It’s a shallow, weedy lake . Full of eel grass mostly. We have an undeveloped island that has good lay downs all around it. We have a fair amount of docks I can skip under, and some deeper holes. Bass population is excellent, bream population is somewhat below average, and we have a fair catfish population. Also have some giant grass carp. So thankful and blessed to be able to live here. I can also choose to fish the St Johns river system ( closest ramp is 2 miles from me ) The bigger lakes start about an hour and 1/4 away to the west or southwest. We also have dozens of ponds and small lakes to fish starting 5 minutes from the house up to 30 minutes away. Then we’ve got a multitude of saltwater options since I live around 15 miles from the coast. Great place to live if you love fishing!

Happy birthday! If I live to September 19th, I’ll be at the big 60. Cant believe it. I Still don’t take any medicine, and I will fight that as long as I can.

^^^Wow. Five of us went fishing on Fourth of July to a remote lake in N . Florida with 2 boats. Dark clouds began to appear to the northwest. A few rumbles of thunder. We had time to make it to the ramp, which was a couple miles to the southeast. We ran down to the ramp but idled there and had a debate about what to do. It looked like it would pass by well to the north. So we decided to go over to the far southwest side of the lake and keep fishing. Suddenly a flash and roll of thunder alerted us to another storm that had come up from the south . It literally wasn’t there when we left the ramp area , and came up 10 minutes after we made it to the new spot. For an hour it was one lightning strike after another and rained as hard as Ive ever seen. All we could do was pull in under some cypress trees and hunker down. The water in the boats got so deep everything was floating around. We had a fervent prayer meeting to occupy our time. ?

Very tough choice . I am a non discriminatory bait user as long as it’s some kind of T rigged soft plastic. Its a toss up between a Zoom super fluke or 4 inch senko. Watermelon seed or watermelon red. Lots of close seconds.

It doesn’t bother me near as much if the fish jumps and throws the hook. I work hard to not let them jump in the first place though. what bothers me the most is if I lose a big fish because of some stupid mistake, like the drag not being set just right, or knowing there’s a little Knick in the line and you should have retied.

I have never used the crawdad so I couldn’t speak to its color.

Got off in time to get on the lake for a couple hours. Stayed closed to home with the limited time .They’re saying it’ll be the last warm day for awhile . ( Think it was 82 today ) , so I really wanted to get out. I was determined to catch some on a tube( see the tube bait thread in the tackle section) So I got one on the small tube, and one on the bigger 3 1/2 inch one . Watermelon red . They weren’t biting it much so I switched to the zoom watermelon lizard and they were all over it. In a lunker slump , but got a few decent fish anyway.

I don’t use brown worms much, but when I do I use Moccasin Culprits.

I think 1-2/0 . I’ve got a couple bags of the 3 inch ones. They aren’t a confidence bait for me. I just need to fish em more. Bass in my lake haven’t seemed very interested in them though. Too busy eating flukes, I reckon.?

I was thinking about trying tubes again soon. I’ve not fished them much but the few times I have, Ive only caught a few total. What kind of hook do y’all use for a T-rig with tubes ? I have to use a T- rig because of all the weeds in my home lake.

Got out on Saturday with a close friend I grew up with. I have known him and his family since was 11 years old. He was my first fishing buddy, and we would primarily fish the lake I now live on before we got vehicles. We fished all over north Florida together once we got trucks, and fished in the same club. Anyway, we got out on the St Johns river and it was rough. Tried fishing a few docks with no results. Hard to keep the boat in position with the wind. We ended up running up into Julington Creek, which I fished a lot as a teen and young man. I tried a chatterbait with a pit boss trailer with no success around some pads. He threw a spinner bait, also with no results. We eventually switched to worms and slowed down, still with no action. We decided to fish a creek off the creek and got 2 bites, both on beaver- style baits with orange bottom. Didnt catch much for the time we put in., but the “ catching up “ between friends was priceless. Already planning 2 more trips !