N Florida Mike

My waters aren’t gin clear but fairly clear. It’s hard to describe. Slightly stained is another way to describe it. Many of the lakes around keystone heights are clear.

I reconnected with an old friend I hadn’t seen for at least 30 years. He came over to fish and catch up on our lives. It was super windy and cool . We caught around 18 -20 fish on Culprit worms, Super flukes, uv speed worms, and yum dingers.

A lot of it is how you were raised. My dad always kept anything we caught. He never really understood size regulations and all that. His simple thought was, if he caught it he should be able to keep it. His idea of catch and release was to catch it and release it into his ice chest. I was like that until a few years into bass fishing. One time I even kept some big ( 12 inch) shiners I caught, and mama fried em up. But they were full of tiny bones.😂 Now , I keep some bass occasionally, but only 12-16 inch ones. When I saltwater fish , I’ll keep nearly everything that’s legal and edible. I don’t ever get nutty people asking me that always want every fish released. Thats probably a good thing…

That’s great news A.J !!! My wife had a “ eye stroke” last year, so she’s dealing with a similar kind of eye problem…

It wasn’t bad up here. We didn’t lose power. Helene had worse winds for us. The lake didn’t even get above my catwalk, which it did during a rainstorm a couple months ago. It looks like no damage, and very little tree debris, because Helene already blew most of it down… After a while I may ride up to local creeks and the river and see if there’s any tidal flooding…

Starting to rain in earnest here now. The wind is light so far.I’ve heard some contradictory reports. Of course, the storm won’t arrive until late tonight. On the insurance side of things, The company we used to have doubled the cost in one year. We just couldn’t afford it , so we switched to a less expensive company, and reduced the coverage. For us, it’s the only option outside of no insurance. So far , we’ve been fortunate and blessed not to have had a claim. Even though 2 tornados just missed us. I have an adjuster friend and a lawyer friend. Both of them fight insurance companies to get people the full amount they deserve. Hopefully, I won’t need them. @DaubsNU1 Your niece may need to contact an adjuster that will help her get what she deserves. If that doesn’t work, an insurance claim lawyer would be able to help. Please keep updates coming in from your areas of Florida. Praying for y’all.

I’m not going anywhere. I’m slightly concerned about the lake flooding because it’s at full pool now. The city was out right before Helene cleaning out the outflow drains so we should be ok. We are 21 ft above sea level and the ditch/creek that drains the lake goes downhill to the St Johns, which is 1 mile or so away. The highest I ever saw the lake was during hurricane Matthew, and even then it didn’t make it to the top of my bulkhead. We aren’t even in a flood zone, although my house is only 30 feet or so from the lake on one side. Still hoping and praying for a weaker storm before landfall. 95 going north was a zoo today…

Another one on the way. Those of you south of me, what are your thoughts and plans?

Well, Florida won anyway …☺️

There’s 3-4 things wrong with it. I have a friend that fixes them very cheap, almost as a hobby. I’ll probably take it to him.I just don’t have time to mess with it right now.. Yeah, I agree. Mine is a Stihl, and Ive used echos when I did commercial landscape maintenance.

My chainsaw needs work. I paid 50.00 for it used, around 20 years ago. Took it to the shop and they wanted 175.00 to fix it… Looking for other options…

St Johns river looking south

Got this one on a watermelon seed super fluke…

Our power went off at 1:30 this morning. We had one last bad band go through and that was when we lost it. For us, it was a high end tropical storm. I know we had gusts to the 70s. I don’t think we have any trees down, but I haven’t done a search yet. No flooding where I’m at…

Now we’ve had a gust to 63.

@GRiver Just had one closer to 50, I’d say. I was just outside my back door and it took my breath away. I keep seeing these long skinny clouds up in the sky. Hope they aren’t what I think they might be. .. My lake is full but not overflowing. We’ve only got 1-2 inches here so far. Heard the river is breaching the bulkhead near downtown Jax…

Whew … Having our highest winds yet up here as I speak. That gust was at least 40 I would guess. It didn’t rain all day but we’re getting a lot now. There’s been tornadoes north and south of us… Hoping and praying for everyone…

Got out for around 3 hours with a friend. Ended up with 10 or so on various baits. He brought his drone and got some cool footage.

Most of the water I fish is generally clear to slightly stained. I catch nearly all my fish with light mono line, no weight or as little as possible. Watermelon red is one of my favorite colors when the sun is out. Watermelon seed when it’s cloudy…Zoom flukes, uv speed worms, yum dingers, culprit worms, baby brush hogs, speed craws have all worked well for me. I get 75% or more of the fish dead sticking. In other words, slow is better, especially in the summer… fishing at night may help too.

I had a cousin die a couple weeks before covid was thought to be here, of similar symptoms. They didn’t do an autopsy, but supposedly it was pneumonia. She was a school bus driver in NC, and my best friend was here. So it looks like maybe she had covid….

My best friend passed away from it. I reluctantly took the vaccine right before he caught it. I had 4 friends I trust encourage me to do it. Once the next year I had all the symptoms, but the results said negative. I kept working and was better after 5-6 days. That year I got respiratory illnesses 4 times. Had not been sick for years. Still wasn’t sick enough to miss work. The last year and a half Ive been fine. Dont think Im taking any more though.

I had a lot of hobbies. Then I got married lol. Some of it I don’t do anymore due to various reasons besides marriage. I used to play church league softball for many years. I used to camp a lot too, but that always included fishing or hunting with it. I have been an avid Civil war buff , but not as much recently. I enjoy reading historical novels occasionally , Louis Lamour especially. I used to have a vegetable garden every year, but just can’t keep it up at present working 2 jobs. I love hunting but haven’t been able to go in over 5 years now. I have hung onto picking banjo.( and fishing, of course)

I love his more traditional bluegrass tunes… I actually like a lot of anything he does tbh

I reckon Im starting to get it- in my shoulders, wrists, and left foot .Haven’t been diagnosed officially. I usually don’t take anything for it.

Ive got some smaller , quieter water lakes if you get tired of the big lakes and crowds… Out of that list Orange and Rodman . Lake george too. Ive fished them, but not lately. Did best overall in Orange…