N Florida Mike

It was 100 here yesterday. It hasn’t rained but a little bit in May. Fire season ! As for the Western sizzlin’s, the toughest steak I ever had was there. I think they had run out of meat that day and threw a saddle on there!!!

Very true . We had one just miss us here in N fl. in the 90s. The sky just north and west of us had that terrible green and black look. It was dead calm at our house , nothing moving, no birds etc. but the lightning and scary clouds looked like it couldn’t possibly miss us but it did. I had to go that way a little while later and about a mile away the damage was bad. Pines snapped off, big oaks blown over and uprooted. I turned around and went home. Found out my daughters friend had a tree land on her house 1/2 mile from us. And I think it was only an f-1, or just a bad downburst. We normally don’t get the real monsters like the plains states. We just get hurricanes and lots of lightning!!? Y’all be safe out there!

The pain is completely gone now. I’m still not overdoing it, but have started back with my normal routine. It feels like it never happened. Thankful !?

I don’t fish docks with people on them either. When I fish docks I mostly skip a t-rig under them for a few times and move on. I’ve only been told to leave once in the last 30 years .I was anchored up at a dock catching bream. ( owner was not out there at first ) He came out and rudely ordered me to leave because his “granddaughter fishes there” I thought “ What does that have to do with me, I’m not on your dock, there is plenty of fish in the lake “ I just disgustedly pulled up anchor and left without saying a word and him still running his mouth. Im a dock owner on the same lake and have people come around and fish . It doesn’t bother me a’tall . I look at it as an opportunity to make a friend. And I have a granddaughter that fishes there...

Those are all good ( although I’ve never heard of a pumpkinseed fluke). I would also try ribbontail worms like Culprit , mr twister , zoom ol monsters, etc . and zoom trick worms...

I’m another one that’s pretty much stuck in the past. I change about as fast as a tortoise. What matters to me most is catching fish and I’ve had satisfying results ( for me ) with my soft plastics , and sometimes will get diverted to use spinnerbaits or old top water baits like devils horse ( Catt )! .I still occasionally fish culprit worms ( mostly red or grape shad ) which are a throwback from the 80s.2 of my old friends that fish the St Johns river a lot still throw them almost exclusively and do well. Now, I have refined the overall technique so the end result is often better than it was back in the day. I have considered myself a bass fisherman since I started targeting bass 45 years ago... I still don’t know much about many of the new rod and reels, and some of you rave about baits that would tire me out trying to figure out what they are. I catch most of my fish out of a 30 year old Jon boat. I just love to bass fish. I still use my 6.6 ugly stick as my primary rod, if it ain’t broke ( and it won’t ?) why fix it ?

^^^ This!

Yeah , my son and me target Reds , sheepheads and flounder primarily in saltwater. Most of the ponds have at least a few bass in them. It takes some work to find the best ones though.

Welcome to the forums! Small waters are my thing too , and N.E Florida is full of them.

I use the super fluke with a 3/0 wide gap gamakatsu. I t-rig them and go weightless. Ive used a 2/0 but I don’t hook near as many with it. The smaller “fluke” works better with the 2/0. I don’t catch as many with the fluke jr. , so I don’t use them much. ( There is a difference between all 3 in size and action .) There is actually an even smaller fluke I’ve been seeing in the store but I haven’t tried them. I have used them for nearly 20 years and I have probably caught the most fish on them since then of any bait I’ve used.( mostly using the super fluke) I’ve caught a bunch of 4-6 pounders on them, with the biggest being 8 pounds.

I know one thing- if you don’t go you won’t catch anything. You wont know if they’ll bite top water baits if you don’t try...

It’s been a great spring here , numbers have been great with some big uns mixed in , but it’s fixing to slow down. Summer is almost here. Supposed to be 97 a couple days this week coming up. I’ll be switching to mostly early morning tactics til fall .

Rodman reservoir

I fish mostly shallow, weedy lakes that are neither Chrystal clear or murky. What works best for me in my situation is: Soft plastics • Senkos • flukes • worms • creature baits/frogs spinnerbaits are my 5th choice. I Texas rig the plastics, and go as weightless as possible. Mike

Got out around 430. Had a friend along I hadn’t fished with for 5 years or so. ( he had took up golf, but suddenly called and wanted to fish.) Weather was warm and windy. We caught 18 in the first hour and a half . I caught most of mine on a Houdini zoom fluke, and he caught some on the watermelon red fluke. All around eel grass.( as usual) We got down to the south end and it was pretty dead . Cuaght a few and decided to head back towards home and kept catching fish all the way back. I had switched to the watermelon slice fluke and Bob ended up catching most of his fish on some kind of top water swim bait, can’t remember the name. We ended up with 30 . No real big fish, but still a great afternoon.

I still have some worms from the late 70s and 80s and I don’t do anything to them. They work fine.

Looks like a deposit to me !

Well done !

Caught several yesterday on the 10 inch grape shad culprit worm.

5 1/2. Nice fish.

Exactly right !

Use shiners .?

On the flukes, I’d use watermelon red or ( I think it’s called) Golden bream. On cloudy days, use watermelon seed. Another good color is watermelon slice. June bug is good early or late in the day. These colors are good in the water clarity you mentioned and are good for any soft plastics. Mantanzas can always be hit or miss. Early in the day is fine, but I think tides and wind are more important and the barometer and time of year. I never fish on a southwest wind. My favorite time of year is fall. I would put out 3 rods, at different distances with different baits. Try to find holes and sloughs.

Welcome to the forums ! I haven't fished in W. G. Village due to the limited access, but the pond behind caddyshack used to be full of fish. If you haven't tried flukes in those ponds, give em a try ! Fish as weightless as possible. I grew up fishing matanzas inlet. It's no secret, but I'd fish from the North side beach with finger mullet ( live and cut ) mud minnows , shrimp, and sand fleas for pompano.