N Florida Mike

Quality insights! This reinforces some of the things I’ve learned and am learning about bank fishing.

Mine used to but she doesn’t anymore. She lost a huge bass a few years ago and it kind of defeated her. She was good at bream fishing when we were much younger and we would have friendly competition with size and numbers. She was also unafraid of wade fishing in the river with Gators around. Hopefully I can get her back into it someday. She doesn’t mind if I go, and is willing to at least hear my stories and see the pics.

Got one decent fish on a watermelon red trick worm the last hour of daylight...caught it at the first deep hole down the lake..

I haven’t got the elusive 10 pounder, even living in Florida. Have had one on a few times though at least! Whew! Got that off my chest! I feel like Im sitting in a support group saying” Hi, my name is Mike. My problem is .... I have not caught a smallmouth , in fact, I don’t remember catching a bass out of the state of Florida. I did catch one on the st Mary’s river, which is the border of Fl and Georgia. I have not caught a bass on a jig. This basically amounts to my short bucket list.

You must live in Florida. Things like what you describe happen to me a lot. In my younger years I wouldn’t put up with it. It’s truly a miracle that Im still here. I’m not what I want to be today, but am thankful I’m not what I used to be. People are really crazy, I know this because I IS ONE !!! I had a customer today ( from another country) try to manipulate me into a lower price .( I do sales) Normally it doesn’t bother me but after explaining all of it to her and her brother at least SEVEN times and being very patient up to that point, they began raising their voice and trying to entrap and manipulate me. Instead of letting it escalate , I got up and walked out, no sale - no problem.

Dern right on the football, but college not pro for me. Looking forward to seeing What Dan Mullen and the home-team? can do this year.

Amen brother. Just thinking about that myself. Right before I read this I was checking the predicted temps here to see if I’d see a little drop soon. Ha ha Im 6 weeks off on that at least.

I did struggle to remember between the two.

He’s also one of the main culprits that caused so many people to come ( and come, and come ) to Florida.

I tend to do best with watermelon colors , June bug, grape , red shad. Green pumpkins good but not best where I fish. Y'all try the Alabama craw color .It’s half June bug and ( I think ) half pumpkin. I don’t know if it comes in other brands besides Yum dingers but that’s my hot bait right now. The fish absolutely clobber it on top, reeling thru or on top of grass.

I ALMOST lost my right eye so I learned to shoot left handed. By the way I LOVE ANIMALS.... They are delicious!?

In my hometown I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone offer to carry my groceries or wheel them out to the truck. That’s fine with me , because I don’t want to tip anyone anyway.

My middle son is my most consistent fishing partner, although he’d rather fish saltwater, which we often do. He’s real good at bass fishing too though.We haven’t been much this year though due to life getting in the way. My grand daughter has reached the teen years and I haven’t been able to get her out recently . She is great to fish with when she’ll go. I have a few good friends I go with too. One is an ex tournament fisherman . He’s a good guy overall, but nearly snags me with his casts in my little boat. I’m ducking every other cast and he doesn’t realize it, even though I’ll tell him. He also consistently has line problems, backlashes and his line breaks a lot. His hands shake so I have to help him retie a lot. He’s fun in general though and needs to fish to get out so I put up with it. Also have a childhood friend that has a boat. I taught him the first principles of bass fishing when we were teens. He’s the friend that does everything for himself and we have never had anything resembling a disagreement. We also agree on what life is all about and so I’m blessed to have these people and a few others to fish with.

I just don’t like fluoro because it doesn’t float. There is more drag when you set the hook from the water your hauling and I like seeing the”twitch” when a bass takes a bait with floating line.

Wishing you a speedy recovery. You will be in my thoughts and prayers Reb.

Now I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I’ve often wondered how much wood a wood chuck could chuck if he could chuck it .?

But the bottom line is, Has anyone caught fish on it ?

I catch most of mine on the initial drop. I wait app 15 seconds, maybe longer in deeper water. Maybe as many as 80% of the fish I catch are caught this way. First lift of the rod to check , and they are on . I get most of the rest of them reeling at or near the top of the water column. I get a few by reeling a few feet, stopping, reeling a few more feet, stopping. There are some variations depending on the bait, like flukes , for example. I twitch and swoop them, but still catch more on the first fall of the bait.

When it’s hot I fish early and late in the day or night. I don’t think I’ve ever worn long pants to go fishing here in the summer. My legs are somewhat shaded by sitting in the jboat most of the time. I do try to wear sunscreen on arms and head areas.

@Bluebasser86 I think a world record brown bullhead would actually be pretty cool. How did you realize it was a bullhead not a flathead? Did you ever go back there and fish for it again ?

I’d be glad to take it off your hands and experiment to see if my hands hurt too.....?

If I had to reveal the location to get a state record I would. I noticed that some bass state records were caught in “ private ponds “ that don’t reveal the exact location. I have actually caught a state record sized golden shiner in my home lake when I was 15, and didn’t certify it. Not that it would have attracted a big crowd if it would have gone public , lol.

One thing I do with a long range fish is quickly troll toward the strike to close the distance before setting the hook. I use mono because it floats and I can see the “ twitch “ when they bite the soft plastics I use the most .But with mono , there’s stretch , so it is much harder to get a good long distance hookset and keep them hooked. I like some stretch, because for my style of fishing The fish don’t come off much once they are hooked. ( Not including long distance strikes) So as soon as I detect a strike on a long distance fish , I close the distance a little and pop him.

My dad taught me hard work . His dad left his family , went over the mountain and started a new family. So my dad was the man of the house and as a teen he had to support his mom and brother and sister. And it was the depression years. So the man had to cut the mustard and did. We worked every Saturday in the yard and garden and if we got done in time, went fishing. Directly because of him , I learned to work hard and enjoy working. Worked on a farm for several years and loved it. Have mostly lost the calluses now due to me doing sales work now . So I think it’s both the parenting and a personal choice. Sometimes you can lead a horse to water but can’t make em drink!!! But I also believe if the horse got thirsty enough, he’d drink ! If a man got hungry enough, maybe he’d HAVE to work. Oh I forgot, there’s always the government....

Got a relative in his 30s that rarely works , and he is excellent at tile and flooring. Just lays around and doesn’t do much of anything all day. They get some kind of gov. check. He doesn’t seem to care. I would be bored to death if I did that.