N Florida Mike

Started thinking today I might talk to the GM and see if I can go back out on the service truck for awhile. Im getting kind of old for that but maybe itll carry me through until spring. It seems like they really need help there anyway. ( but I'll still be looking elsewhere ) Part of me wants to save the day and help them since it has been a good job and met our needs all these years. The service side is what I did anyway for 19 years. But its kind of like going backwards through a door Ive already been through. So...I dont know. Thanks for the prayers and support. I did get one small sale today.

Last year I posted about changes in my job I didnt like. Things seemed to have stabilized ,and I had learned how to deal with the office politics and micromanagement. I was having a very stable year,but not near as good as the last two,but still enough. Since I do comission only sales,I depend on office leads and whatever I can generate on my own. The last 6 weeks or so the bottom has fallen out. Today was the third straight day with 0 $. I was told today by a potential customer that she had decided not to go with us because her dad had a bad experience with the service sideand they would NEVER use us again. I have worked there since 1993 largely because of the integrity and family atmosphere. I now have lost confidence that the techs can produce what I am selling,because of this incident and many others Im hearing about.So today I officially started looking.Dont know where this will end up except that I know God has a plan for me to provide for my wife,daughter, and 2 g- kids. I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Praying for a good and faster recovery

Was in Gainesville ( gator country) today hanging out with my brother. Every other person wearing the Orange and blue ,esp. after last weeks miracle finish against tenn. Now were fighting for our lives against kentucky.N othing like SEC football !

Thanks for sharing this special time in your life with us.Thanks for stepping up for your niece. We need more real men to do what youre doing. I have an adopted daughter and son that are now grown. I always wanted another daughter for some reason and had the name picked out ( Mackayla ) My daughter then had a daughter and named her Mackayla.( She didnt know that was what I would have named another daughter ) So now they are living with us and she is like a daughter to me,since her dad rarely visits. We fish, take walks, do hikes, swim,play sports etc. And I got her brother in the deal too. So never a dull moment at our house.Sounds like at your house too,Raider.

We were surf fishing once and my wife out of the blue said " Im going to catch a black drum " I told her I had not caught one there in years. I mean 20+. In a little while I look over and guess what she caught? And she caught another one the same day. She just doesnt make cute or funny remarks.When I say Im going fishing , she says ok. If I show her a nice fish, she says wow. Thats about it.

Ive done the party boat bottom fishing thing a lot and LOVE it. You cant beat the price for what you get.I have not done the more expensive ,bigger fish offshore trip,and have no desire to really. Mostly because Im a fish eater and fairly poor! But I would research and make a good choice of boats . Some are better than others.If you can find one that has less anglers and more space its a better experience.You would catch grouper,snappers mostly,with a great variety of other fish thrown in. Bigger fish would be amberjacks and sharks. You could also hire an inshore guide to catch trout,redfish,flounder etc.Those would be more expensive but its you and a couple others+ the guide so that could be an epic experience with the right guide. Keep us posted. Id be glad to share a few tips .

I use 4-6 pound mono mostly. When I fish the St johns river around docks I like a light braid which is stronger around docks.I got into some big shellcrackers ( redear sunfish ) under a dock and lost about a third of them wrapping around the pilings and breaking off. Got me some spiderwire ( dont remember the pound test,but it was like 6 pound mono diameter) Never had another fish break me off there.

Lmb.Suwanee bass,redeye bass,sunshine bass,Channel cat,brown bullhead,yellow bullhead.Bluegill,redbreast,shellcracker,longear sunfish, stumpknocker,warmouth, speckled perch.chain pickeral,florida gar.triploid carp,gizzard shad,mudfish,golden shiner,creek chub,rainbow trout,brook trout,brown trout.Dont know if eels count,but Ive caught some kind of freshwater ones and also florida sirens. So around 26. Probably forgot a few.Maybe more trout. Not good at i.d. on them,since Ive only fished for them a few times.

Ive said this before but if I had to do one kind of fishing and give up the rest, I would keep bass fishing. That being said, I also do some inshore fishing for Redfish,flounder,sheepheads, trout, etc.And once in a while some offshore bottom fishing. Also love surf fishing. I live about 15 miles from the ocean so oppirtunities abound. I also do some catfishing and bream. Id say I bass fish 70% and the rest 30%.

I use zoom flukes a lot. I use a 3/0 wide gap hook with no weight on 10 lb hybrid line . I have no problem with it sinking. I catch most of the fish just throwing it out and letting it sink. Even doing that only will often cause it to dart erratically to one side or the other. I dont have any problem with it sinking though,unless Im fishing a weed mat and it gets hung up. Them and senkos are my favorite baits.Use as small a weight as possible if you must,or it will reduce the action.

I havent been bass fishing since irma either.Got one more big push and Ill be done with the clean up. Hope to get out fri or sat.afternoon.

Had a 106 mph gust in my county. We got power back after 29 hrs on tues. My boss still doesnt have power . I can say this with no doubt- it is the worst flooding in the st johns and its tributaries in the jax. area I have seen in my lifetime. We were blessed just to have a roof leak and a mess to clean up at our place.We are at 22 ft above sea level so our lake drains well, as the creek goes downhill to the river. We have a small dam/ spillway at my house where the ditch/ creek starts and it was flowing with such force it took our triploid carp gate off and down into the spillway. Eel grass piled up in there too and me and the nieghbor have a job ahead cleaning it up.H ad a big cedar tree down across the road next door but me and the nieghbors got it out of the way in 10 minutes. Our results was - flooding equal or worse than hurricane Dora in 1964. Wind had gusts as high but not as high sustained.I have a video but cant post it.

For me it depends a lot on the attitude of the person and where Im fishing. Im not too worried about" meat " fishermen.Many of the places I fish have TOO MANY bass anyway and they might even be stunted and need to be thinned out . If theyre asking they probably still wont catch many even with the extra knowledge. ( how many times have you gone out knowing what youre doing and still got skunked?) There are too many little details about bass fishing that a little knowledge given wont really help an inexperienced fisherman that much.I usually help kids and undemanding folks. I might even start the conversation.T hat being said, I have a few trusted friends I search new ponds with. If I find a good one,I will share with them and they do the same with me. These we guard with our " circle of trust" . The ones a friend found I dont share with anyone else because that isnt fair to my friend. If I find one I may or may not share it depending on whos asking.

Spent most of the day getting ready. We decided to stay 2 days ago. Biggest concern today was getting my cracked bedroom window boarded up. Tomorrow morning all hands on deck to put up out door stuff.This isnt easy with all the kayaks, boats,traps, lawn tools ,g- daughters toys,etc. Part of my back looks like fred sanfords junkyard! We are staying because we really had no where to go except family in NC and as much as I love that state, its a hurricane magnet. Also, getting back home might be a problem. And when we decided to stay ,we were forcast to get a cat 1 or maybe 2 ,now it seems to indicate itll be maybe a 1 in my area of NE Fl, if the storm keeps to the west. In my area it just didnt seem to be life- threatening.If I was in S Florida I can promise you we would already have left. Talked to my nearest nieghbor on the lake and hes staying. We will help each other during the storm if needed. My son also stayed so I have an extra comfort of having him around.Hopefully, power wont be off too long. Truly this a historicly intense hurricane. I plan to get out after the storm and see how I can help my nieghbors,esp. the elderly. and maybe get a little post storm fishing in !

I was leaning towards leaving but Im hearing theres no rooms for 500+ miles. ( and this is 4+ days before it hits) They are saying it will move by quickly which will potentially drop less rain.So Im not worried about the lake coming up very far. Weve still got our camping gear if we have to get out. Hopefully it wont come to that.Many of us in the jax. area are staying.Next 2 days we'll be battening down our hatches. Pray for us,and the whole state .

Both.

Yeah I wasnt sure what happened either. I guess its like starting over. Somewhat off the subject, but is there any change n the pic downloading? I can only do it now if I put it in the gallery,then insert it.

Love your post man. Its an encouragement for sure . Good to see a company honoring a faithful employee. Congrats!

Had mine out in the intercoastal waterway before with 20+ winds. No problem. A yacht went by and didnt slow down and it nearly swamped us though. Mine isnt very wide ,so I dont try to cross large bodies of water in it. It could be done but I dont take chances like that anymore. The swells in a large lake is the problem.S mall rivers ,coves , backwaters ,medium to small lakes are safe

Got out for a few hours last night. I tried the shallower end of the lake first with no results. We have a wooded island about 1/2 the way down the lake and I caught a few near the north end of it . Like it usually does,the bite was slow on the west side of the island but I picked off a couple fish.Up to this point,all the fish had been cuaght on the small zoom fluke in watermelon seed. That bite just quit and after 20 minutes or so with nothing I decided to switch to a small tequila sunrise culprit.Good decision.I began catching fish immediately. By then, I was nearly to the south end of the island and decided to keep going along the western shoreline. I had caught several and the 2 worms I had were torn up So I switched to the 7 1/2 inch culprit in grape shad and caught a few more.Tried the frog near sunset for awhile but no takers. Overall, the bite was nearly like the average fall trip. It wasnt overly hot, with a nice 5-10 mph breeze. Ended up with 12-13 .Nothing over 2 pounds, but the majority of the fish were healthy and well fed. i caught more than half of the fish on my finesse rig,which has 8 pound test and a light spinning combo.Getting excited about the fall.My sons and me are planning our first inshore trip for tomorrow.Hope to have some pics soon!!

I would have to have someone hold my lab or he would swim after me out into the lake . I couldnt go fast enough with a trolling motor only to make him give up.And he would not turn back. More than once I would turn around to make sure he would make it back . Once, after 2-3 trys Id had enough and just kept going and he came way out in the lake after me and finally turned back. He was not the sharpest dog in the shed anyway.I had to constantly watch any baits to make sure he wouldnt bite em.

Will continue to pray,wish I could do more. Matthew brushed us last year and we got quite a few trees down and 8 inches of rain and it was pretty stressful. Cant imagine how bad it must be there.

I do some hunting, play 5 string banjo and am a civil war buff.Did play baseball ,then softball for many years. And Im a Florida Gator fan.