N Florida Mike

Thats great ! I caught one there that was 2 or so.Felt like a 4 pounder in that current.I love Sante fe LAKE too.Orange/ lochloosa,little orange,wauberg, hampton,Alto,Newnans,all are good .But Sante fe is my favorite!

welcome to the forums.Ive fished many of the lakes in your area.My brother lives there so I go there a lot.Sante fe river is cool ( literally ) You can catch suwanee bass there.

I catch a lot of bream with bread.And sme on worms.In florida we call em wigglers. Anyway, with bread you can do it several ways.To start with the bread must be fresh to work the best on the hook. I like merita bread best if you can get it.Use staler bread to bait em up.If you have a spot you like,throw bread or fish pellets out daily to keep them there.I use a #6 bronze eagle claw hook for bigger bream,and smaller for catching bait bream.I do not use a cork or weight.I will use a bb shot weight if fishing deep water.I also use 4-6 pound test line. When I start,I throw out some old bread to get them started.When I start seeing them feeding,I bait the hook .There are several methods for this.You can stick the hook in a piece of crust and gently throw it out for topwater action.I also mash a piece of the white part flat on the hook,which will cause it to sink more slowly as it flutters to the bottom.If you arent catching big ones these ways,try a small balled up piece .It wll sink faster and get to the bottom where the bigger ones often hang out.Dont be suprised if you catch catfish and shiners this way too.To hook the bream just wait until the line starts moving steadily in one direction.When the line is almost tight,pop em ! ? I fish worms( usually 1/2 of the worm )with a small cork if Im fishing emergent brush or trees.When setting the hook with a cork,use a staight up hookset or youll miss the fish usually. In water with a relatively clean bottom,I like fishing them on the bottom with one small split shot sinker. Mike

I havent tried his bbq yet.I bet its excellent.I cant get off his hamburgers! Yeah the next full moon ought to be prime time here unless it gets cold.?

There are some like that here.I can think of 2 natural lakes that I used to fish that were greenish.Both were absolutely full of fish.Never knew why they were that way.As far as I know,there werent any big farms or mining cos.in the areas.Mostly just swamp around them.Both were relatively close to Gainesville Fl. As for the wind stirring up the muck,Ive never thought much about that,or noticed it.And I like fishing the bank or weedbed that wind is going into because it seems to push small baitfish up against the cover and the bass will be waiting. Not saying its not true I just havent noticed that I reckon.

Water or sweet tea for me on my common 2-3 hr trips.I usually dont bring snacks when its just me. When my son goes,its always most of the day,so he makes some kind of sandwiches for us,soft drinks,water,and we make the obligitory stop at the last store before the ramp,and load up on chips, esp honey bbq lays for me.pb crackers.,and snicker bars.?

Dont know Alabama but Rodman reservoir in N central Fl. is great.Book a trip with Sean Rush.Hes one of the best guides in the area.He regularly puts his clients on 10 + bass.

Many of the ponds and lakes in Ocala national forest are clear, also the keystone heights area lakes.The rest are Tannic stained but not what I would call muddy.The southern end of the Ocklawaha river,now thats muddy.

^^ What I use

Ive caught the majority of mine on various worms, creature baits,lizards. I dont have too much strategy for fishing beds but I like the full moon phase in spring.I find the beds and fish them late in the day.I cast past the bed and pull the bait onto it,or skip the bait onto the bed.Then you fish them til they bite. More often than not,it wont be long!

So very sorry for your loss.Please know that when you can't track God's hand, you can trust His heart.Will be praying for you and the kids.

Manns jelly worm- 10 inch- grape.

Yeah thats real nice Lonnie.

I use the albright exclusively with braid and have never had the knot slip.I have had breaks with braided line.I finally realized they happenned on the same rod.I searched diligently for burrs in guides with a q tip but never found a burr.The q tip will snag on the burr and leave residou. I gave up on that rod.Havent had a break since.

Nice. But I think I'll go with camo

Going to take my 11 year old G- daughter out on the lake tomorrow afternoon.She caught a 3 pounder yesterday.

In my lake it stays clean mostly.I pulled an old office chair out by the island and left it up on the island to dry out so it wouldnt mess up my boat.Next time down there it was back in the water again.Apparently a lot of people dont have any sense. I cant remember seeing anyone trashing an area.Not sure how Id react.If it was in my lake I KNOW how Id react ! Nice but firm!!

Cannibal! Beautiful fish !

Thats ridiculous that anyone could think they own the bottom of a creek or river !

I wouldnt agree with all water access for everyone. I would be for public access for natural lakes ( unless they are small and completely owned by individual owners) and creeks and rivers. I would not be for open access to man made private lakes,if completely owned by individuals. Just think of the chaos if everyone could fish everywhere! That being said,it better be posted or obviously private or Im fishing it.

In our lake the only way to get in is to tresspass or ask permission . One guy would fish in back of vacant houses off docks.People say hes not hurting anything but he still had to trespass to get to the lake.If he wants to fish there he either needs to buy him a house on the lake or ask permission.Plus he was keeping whatever he caught.One of our board members harassed him enugh until he quit coming. Ive been on both sides of the coin though.I recently got asked to leave a pond that connected to one of our parks.There were houses on the other side ( where I did not go ) and wasnt posted where I came out of the woods.Not long after that a lady came around from the houses and began asking nosey questions and told me it was private property and didnt I see it was posted.The sign was clear across the pond and unreadable from where I was.If it had been where I was,I wouldnt have fished there to start with.I did kind of get an attitude with her but just left.I was there to fish ,not fight.Fishing there stunk anyway. Sorry for the rambling.Do what 2 kids did.They went door to door until they got permission to fish.( In my backyard ! )

Ive already got some!

I try to spend more time with the family.I usually hunt some,but this year the weather just wont cooperate. I cleaned up and organized my fishing room and baits.Got some outdoor projects done.Now Im kind of caught up.Its very warm here for this time of year even for Florida, so Ive fished even more than normal this winter.

We had one down the river that was supposedly 16 ft." old tail light " He was named that because his eyes were like wide like tail lights and glowing red in the light. An old gator trapper had several run ins with him but never got him. There are several newspaper articles in the Florida times union about it. The trapper was Bubba Stratton.

When I cleaned up my fishing room I found an old buzzbait with no skirt.What color would work best for my shallow fairly clear lake? I havent fished one n many years and am looking to beef up the topwater game this year. I think the original skirt was white. I will be using it most in low- light conditions so I was thinking black. It is aluminum,with a white jig head. Thanks,Mike