N Florida Mike

It's a yellow.Browns are mottled dark brown to black with white mixed in.

I just posted this recently on another thread.I caught the same 4 pounder 8 times.A friend caught him once.I named him " Hard Luck ". He was by far the most aggressive fish I ever caught. He stayed under my boat at my dock.Any time I fished he would attack most anything I threw out.He was specially fond of bream.After catching him a couple times,and I realized it was the same fish,I tried not to catch him but he would plaster anything thrown out. Btw,How do y'all tag your fish? I was buying tags on line but the cheapest supplier went way up on the prices.

I'm looking for one too.And I am probably the worst when it comes to figuring out technology.Thankfully,I have a grandson who is my consultant!!

I'll try the TM in front.Love that seat!

Thanks!

So my best friend wanted to get his old bass hunter out of his yard.I was glad to take it off his hands.Now I have a Jon boat ,yak, and now the hunter.Had it out for a test run with my 40 pound thrust tm.The battery was too low so I didn't go far. It is very stable, has plenty of leg room,will fit well in the back of the truck,and has chairs. If you have one and have any tips or accessories info.please let me know.Seems perfectly for my lake and other small water bodies I fish. Thanks, Mike

ON the St John's the bass fishing is best south of the Buckman bridge.But some of the creeks between there and downtown Jax.are pretty good at times.The " line " depends on how much rain has fallen lately.Lots of rain: it is closer to downtown.Little rain: Further south.The further you get back in creeks,the fresher it usually is. It is also tidal way up it.One pattern is to fish the cypress trees on high tide with soft plastics esp.dark colors. Another is to fish docks,which are very abundant ,esp.north of the shands bridge. If you can find eel grass or shell beds,they hold fish.also.Fish the inner edge on high tides,and the outer edge on lower tides. I never got into " offshore" fishing in the river but I know it's very productive at times. This may help you simplify things .We were fishing a tournament once in the river near lake George and had engine trouble.All we could do was use the trolling motor.We simply started at the ramp and went north.We ended up finishing 3rd.Caught most of the fish on 7.5 inch red shad culprit worms.Fishing pads primarily. I would say the best pattern for a beginner in the area is to skip under low slung docks. Caught many of my best fish in the julington Creek area,but I have not done well at all there in recent years. Won a tournament in Doctors lake using guess what? RED SHAD CULPRITS. Mike

Cost is the main reason I get the yum dingers.The GY senkos are my favorite brand because the fish love em.But their too bad expensive and tear up too quickly.

I love yum dingers as well.Watermelon seed ! Wieghtless. For some reason, I don't do as well with brush hogs.Baby brush hogs work well for me though.Did catch a 4 pounder on a brush hog once.

One bait that I love that I've never seen mentioned on the forums is the Z-Hog by Zoom.I suppose they simulate a frog.I use the watermelon seed or watermelon red. The average sized fish is usually heavier than normal with this one.Its best in weed pockets and skipping under docks.

Sad,but can't people just go pick them up anyway?I'd be all over that,esp. the catfish.Ive never heard of a law that prohibits picking up fish by hand!

Culprits were my go to bait for many years.I still have a box dedicated just to them.Red shad and moccasin in tannic stained water,black shad and motor oil in clearer water on sunny days.Tequila early and late in the day. I T-rig them and use a 2/0 wide gap hook weightless in shallow water and only use a little weight in deeper water or if it's windy. I cast out,let them sink,and wait 20 seconds or so.Then I reel n with a slow to moderate speed.I never hop them much.Havent needed to.Youll get most of the strikes on the fall or shortly after.But you'll also get some on the retrieve,esp.up on top.With this bait above all others you will get blow ups right at the boat!!

Welcome to the forums! The coldest 2 months in N.Florida are Jan/ Feb.Most often,there will be a cold front for a few days,then it can warm up into the low 80s.The cold weather ( Pittsburg people would think its warming up ! ) will slow the bite,but you just fish slower.C aught my Personal best on Dec.31st.The fish was an early bedding fish.It had been warm all fall so the fish were already bedding. I hunt some too,so I try to do that when it's cold.But the weather will usually warm up in a couple days and the fishing improves.I consider it a really cold day here when the temps don't get out of the 40s. I usually use a lot of the same baits in the winter that I do throughout the year.Just try to fish em slower.For me,a big worm is often the ticket in winter here.

There was a 4 pounder I caught 8 times in my lake.I nicknamed him hard luck.He was on the skinny side.

That's exactly my thinking.But it went from a fair amount of bites to nothing since I switched.Its been about 2 months.I try all kind of retrieves.I know the fish are there because it's only been my home lake. I've noticed around here though,that the frog bite is best during the summer when you hear bullfrogs croaking at night.Lately no frogs.I know it's a shot in the dark but maybe that has something to do with it.

Trying to get some feedback on frog fishing.I am only fair at best at it. Got me some screw in frog hooks that fit my zoom horny toads perfectly.Before,I used wide- gap hooks usually 3/0 and caught a modest amount of fish on them.But the frog would always slip down the hook which was annoying me. I would also have a lot of fish come unbuttoned using that kind of hook. So I decided to start using a real frog hook.Ever since the switch,I don't get bit at all.I make sure the frog is straight and the action is still good. I also started using braided line ( 40# )at the same time,from using mono.I have a very experienced braid only friend who scoffs if I suggest that it's the line. What's going on here?

I was at a customers house one day last year.Its a suburban area but it's out on the edge of where the country starts. I see a dog size animal coming up the road and it. had large pointed ears. But it had NO FUR.it was a hairless fox I THINK.When it saw us it took off between the houses. Another time my g- daughter and me were fishing and she says "look g- paw it's an owl." You could see him back in the tree.I did my barred owl call and he immediately flew over to the branch right above us, and was staring at us like"are you and owl or what? Another time we were out and she said suddenly" look g- paw it's a beaver ! and it was a dang nutria. I've seen a lot more things while hunting but I'll save some of those for later

Thanks.It wasn't my dad's truck,its an old man down the road.Most of the cousins accounted for now. Pray for us though.Supposed to have my mom's funeral in that area sat.and I'm not sure we can even get there,( and the deadline is about here to let the funeral home and family know.Trying to decide what to do.

I've got family in the Wilmington area, the Fayetteville area,and areas in between these two.I usually come up 95 to 74/76 then on to Wilmington.Moms from Clarkton,but we are doing the service in Wilmington.

Thanks for the kind words.God bless you,sir.Come up here to Jax.a and we'll go fishing.Seriously.Standing offer.

We do use nets for most of the saltwater fish we catch.However,I respectively disagree about how to net fish.The way we do it is to wait until the fish is near the boat and heading in .We then quickly dip the net in front of the fish and swoop it up.You NEVER try to net a fish from behind.If you stick the net in too soon the fish will change direction and you'll usually miss or you'll hook the net with the fish on the outside.

Mike L.,Thanks for your generous offer,but we're good now.We got power back and now it's just clean up time. What I'm most concerned with is my family in NC.Theres several groups of them,and I've now heard from most of them. Another twist in the situation is that my beloved mom passed away this week and we are taking her back home ( hopefully ) this sat.in SE NC. for her burial. Wow.Just watching weather channel and one of my distant cousins was being interviewed by Jim cantore about the rescue operation. Again,very appreciative of your offer. Mike

Me and the grandkids rode around some yesterday.There are trees down all over.An area to the south of us was especially bad.Lots of pines and oaks down.Wooden power poles snapped off.Lines down. An acquaintance of mine was out in his yard.Said a tree hit the back of his house,the Creek flooded into his house,and he's a beekeeper and all his bees blew away. There's one stretch of road out here that is underwater for 3/4 of a mile. We lost power for 25 hours ,but our s.school teacher lent us his generater. I still cannot find out about much because our cable is still out. Concerned about my cousins in NC.The storm went right over them.No response from them yet.

I'm concerned about my cousins in NC though.I haven't been able to get a hold of them.

I don't use nets because: I fish in a small boat and can lean over and lip big fish I don't use anything with trebles much. I lost a tournament because of a net problem. I don't remember ever losing one fish in 42 years because of trying to lip them. They take up too much room They attract hooks like a magnet.