N Florida Mike

@Pat Brown I use these regularly. I don’t use braid much, except on my heaviest combo. I usually use 10 or 12 pound mono . I don’t remember ever having a fish break it off in the grass. I do concentrate on the edges because the grassy areas are generally less than 3 feet deep, and I can’t get too close without spooking fish. Fishing a worm slowly is a less known technique. I used to anchor in deep holes and throw out a manns jelly worm. I once caught a 6 pounder after letting it sit for 15 minutes!! Thanks for the reminder!

Nice fish man. Hope you can recover the pics. I got a 7 pounder once that was one of the 2 chunkiest bass I ever caught. I couldn’t get a pic and it still bothers me a little.

@wdp June bug works good all year, but best in the winter and spring when the water is stained ( just like you said). In the summer and fall , watermelon red on sunny days, and watermelon seed on cloudier days. I’ll pull out the junebug the last hour or so of daylight in summer and fall… I’ll try that gambler flappin shad.

Thanks for all the input so far. I probably should have mentioned what I do use. Speed worms, dingers/senkos, flukes, trick worms, various other plastic worms, and various other plastics, like baby brush hogs . I use frogs more in the summer but the action with the topwater frog is always slow. The horny toad is a different story. I get a ton of bites with them. I occasionally use spinnerbaits, but the plastics always out fish them. I have used chatterbaits too, with fair success. Using anything with treble hooks with catch me nothing but a clod of weeds on my home lake.

@Catt , The best ways I can describe the weed situation in most of the lakes I fish is by % of total coverage on the surface ( vertical), and the thickness of the weeds ( horizontal ). For example right now my lake probably has 20% coverage on top , Eel grass is the main grass. It is growing very thickly. There also weeds under the surface too of course that haven’t got to the surface yet. You will get a clod of algae nearly every cast.

They are predicting mid 20s here next week.

Happy B-day ! I got 2 50.00 BPS cards for Christmas. Used one of them and got 3 packs of worms, a shirt, hat , and candle for the wife.

@Catt I’ve always done well with mr Twister worms. Haven’t used the BUZZ worm yet though…

@Choporoz I’ll accept the next one you catch this time 😁

That’s mostly the waters I fish. I am not one to do much research on new baits, because the videos promoting them want to catch YOU, so you’ll buy their bait. That is why I occasionally need recommendations from those of you who have fished new baits and had some success. I mean mostly new- it could be a new bait for me. By the way , the lake is somewhat stained this time of year. It’s much clearer in the summer when the weeds are more prevalent. What are you throwing and how are the results?

Thought this would be fun. Like the title says, but never mind the size . Whatever your first one of the year is. From dink to Hawg.

I got out the last hr and a half of the day, so stayed close to home. Temps in the mid 70s . Enough breeze for a nice ripple on the water. Caught 6. Most were relating to eel grass edges. Caught fish on speed worms, dingers, and flukes. Biggest fish was a little tank. He crushed the june bug dinger a few feet from the grass bed. The bed runs probably 400 feet continuously- the pic shows part of it at the end. It was a good way to end the year. Got a warm feeling approaching my house. Any of y’all are welcome to come fish if you’re in the area! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!’

Fished with a friend this afternoon. Windy conditions out of the south, which is the hardest wind to fish in my lake. Caught 9 total , mostly on speed worms. Joe got a 3.90 20 inch fish, ( not a good pic of his fish) and my big fish was 2 poundish. Both were caught in one of the only places we could escape the wind. Caught most of the fish in the first hour and a half. It was the slowest day Ive had there in a long time…

Got this fish in one of my church ponds. Can’t remember exactly but it was 23 .5 inches I think. Probably around 6 pounds. Never have coaxed another bite from the huge fish in there I’ve hooked several times. I may try again tomorrow…

Christmas morning sunrise…

The area around where he’s talking about has some soft sand , but I never got stuck in there. Not to where I couldn’t get unstuck on my own anyway 🤠 . I fished in there a lot, although it’s been awhile. Strangely enough, I’ve only seen 1 little gator in crooked lake. I would wade fish any of those lakes without reservations. I would be careful to lock food up at night if camping. That forest is full of bears… What I watch out for the most in the ONF are varmints of the 2 legged kind. I wouldn’t think about going in there without a pistol . @Orion Red Crooked is the best lake in that area. Grasshopper is worth trying too. I lost a hawg in there . A friend got a 3 pounder there. Another one I fished a lot was Delancy, in the North part of the forest. It probably has more hawgs than any of the other forest lakes. I never did too well , but there have been some dds caught in there on shiners.

I’ve fished wildcat and buck. I didn’t do well because I’m more of a structural fisherman, and there just isn’t much there. Someone I know caught a 10 pounder in Wildcat. I caught my biggest forest bass ( 5 pounds), in echo lake, which may be nearly dry now. It is really a pond , and is on the left corner right when you turn onto buck lake rd. Caught it on a red shad culprit worm. My wife caught her pb ( 4 pounds) in N. Grasshopper lake on a zoom super fluke. I can tell you my favorite lake out of many I fished there. It isnt far at all from Wildcat. Crooked lake- There is an access off 40 that used to be a scout camp I think. I haven’t been there in awhile now. One time there was a chain across the road, then there wasn’t. Turn off 40 onto camp McQuarry Rd. If there isnt good access, there is a back way down an unimproved dirt rd. that comes to the lake off 445a. I have done very well with numbers there. Biggest fish we ever caught was 4 pounds , but heard of a 12 caught there. A friend lost a huge fish on the south shoreline on a yum dinger. They love watermelon seed super flukes in there. One day we caught 25 in a few hours . The lake is also full of bullhead catfish, we used to run trot line there and it was all you can eat ! 🤠

Nothing yet. I’m expecting a reel and some bass pro shops gift cards. ( We have a new one about 30 minutes away now)😁

Mine are the most specific they’ve been in my life. Largely because I have gradually added to my collection through the years. I don’t have time right now to be specific but I have combos for: • Small baits- • plastic worms • Yum dingers/senkos • Flukes/larger plastics • Spinnerbaits • Frogs/ heavier baits • Live bait combos Just because all the bait groups aren’t listed doesn’t mean I don’t fish them. I just don’t fish them enough to have a dedicated combo for them. It took me a long time fishing my combos with different baits to find what works best on what. I’m expecting a combo that will be a dedicated heavier bait set up, which is essentially a higher gear ratio reel upgrade for my frog / heavy bait fishing. I’ll also use it for heavier plastics.

This is me in coffee shops. Just give me good ol black coffee.

I haven’t lost much, considering Ive been fishing for 50 years in various water craft. Ive only lost one combo myself, which was a quantum bc. I don’t remember which rod it was on. A casualty of kayak fishing! My son lost one of my combos when he grabbed his combo and the reel handle caught the line on my combo and slung it overboard. The same son had a big fish pull one of his combos over the side when we were saltwater fishing once. Without any hesitation he dove in after it and somehow caught it going down. Lost the fish though. He also had his wedding ring slip off his finger into the water when we were about 15 miles out in the ocean.

Fished the last 1 1/2 hours of the day. Warm, clear , and calm weather. Got 3 on the bama craw dinger, all while reeling slowly on top. Something told me to put on a magnum speed worm ( june bug ) , and I fished it through and around a deep hole with no success. Turned around and threw in between 2 big eel grass beds. After several casts turning from left to right , I got a violent strike , and after a very hard fight, got a 21 inch fish. It was just shy of 4 pounds.On the very next cast , I got a 19.5 inch fish that was 3.5 . Lost 2 more, 1 at the boat that was 2.5 to 3. I will be fishing the magnum SW more often!!

First fish of my Christmas break. Caught on a watermelon seed speed worm.

Nice fish man!! Hope to get out next week myself and do something similar!

I fished tournaments for 2 years and got out of it. Life got real busy about that time. I bass fish because I enjoy it, and I eat a few every now and then.. it’s also kind of an identity thing with me. I identify as a bass fisherman…😂