N Florida Mike

Thanks, Darren.I took my wife out fishing last night and tried so hard to put her on some fish.She hooked several but they all got off.I only caught 1 bass and 5 bream.We started using live worms and they werent even biting them .It was 98 here yesterday and they just werent biting. By the way, we caught a few spots today too.On the bone or fileted, theyre all good. Too bad about the skunk, but at least your son caught something!

My son took me inshore creek fishing this morning.Part of the frame of the trailer broke off on the way but at least it wasnt an essential part to making it there.Then we launch and had motor trouble.At first we couldnt figure out what was wrong because it ran fine when we checked it.So we said a prayer and it immediately started. So they wernt biting good.I attribute it to the 98 degree day we had yesterday.Just too hot for the creeks.But we fished one stretch of creek and got 4 flounder on mud minnows.Got 10 crabs or so also. A storm came up so we headed in.We had to slow down for some kayakers and go around them, which ran us up on a shallow mud spot and got us stuck.We got off okay, but mud had clogged the holes on the lower unit and the motor was running rough again so we paddled the last 1/4 mile or so against the wind.Had trouble getting the boat loaded too but I wont elaborate. We've had worse trips.Got to discuss life issues and enjoy our father-son relationship.It seems like most of the time our trips have some kind of problem that we have to solve together and that helps us bond more through the years Anyway we plan to eat them tomorrow.LOVE fried flounder!

In the home lake i have fished up to 25 with no problem.Due to the lakes shape, I can always find some shelter.Other places its 15 if Im still planning if Im not already there .

I had a near perfect day going last saturday , had caught several nice fish.Stopped to throw a frog at a dock and a big fish rolled and ate it.He was 3 feet from the dock near deep water and heavy weeds all around.I pegged him good, felt him for a second, and the line broke.All I could do was sit there and say how?? a few times.Knot was good, drag was set, no nicks that I knew of.It happens .Sometimes you just cant make sense of it. The dock where this fish was has plenty of cover, and deep water around.Im sure the fish will probably stay there.Im planning round 2 soon!!

I know this post may sound simplistic or childish to some but why does fishing always have to be complex if it doesnt have to be to have fun?.Anyway in my lake the fishing has slowed on artificials due to the heat weve had lately.The other day I thought Id just dig up some worms and fish some under a small cork.Caught 8 bass in 45 min.including a couple that were decent size. Last night I pushed out about 100 feet out and fished like that again and caught several more-and another nice sized one.Im fishing generally the old creek channel where its deeper and cooler.Getting some bream along with them. Before long I plan to fish all over the lake like that.Like brad paisley sang " No telling what I may catch..." Theres just something really fun about seeing that cork go under and feeling the weight of a good fish when you set the hook, then fighting them on light line.

His Hit "Do you feel like I do" was one song of his I liked.When my gramma died my cousins and me took a trip across rural NC to her hometown to bury her and that was one of the tapes(8 track) that my cousin had.Ill never forget that

Also pray for the family that had the little toddler taken by a gator.I cant imagine how awful that was and is to them.They came all the way from nebraska to have a fun filled family time and this happenned...

Yeah I'm getting the catfish fever too.I plan to camp on an island out in the home lake and see how many I can catch all night.There's channels, browns and yellows now.Hopefully the otter won't come back!!.I caught a 22 pound channel cat in here years ago.

The one caught in Jax. was actually the state record BROWN bullhead.Caught in little cedar creek.5.91 pounds I think.

We've got plenty of yellows and browns in N.Florida.World record yellow was caught in the cedar river here in Jax.Okefenokee swamp in a Georgia is full of them too. I sometimes run trot lines for them in the Ocala forest.All you can eat!!!

We call em butter cats.( yellow bullhead)My favorite eating catfish.

There's a guy that occasionally fishes my home lake.I don't think he lives on it.Whenever I see him he's just caught another" huge " bass but he never produces the fish.He starts telling me all of the baits he caught them on.I mean every time.And its like he's never seen me out there before.He has No memory of our last conversation.He is condescending, as if HeS the lake pro or something.I just smile and ask him questions.His answers lead me to believe he's never caught anything over 3 pounds.(He doesn't know I've fished the lake for 42 years now)One day he asked me if I'd seen all the "jellyfish"in the lake.I just smiled and shook my head.

I didn't want to say it but I did!

Red shad or moccasin culprit worms too!

That reminds me of the time a friend and me were fishing and an osprey suddenly dove and snagged a bass that appeared to be 5-7 pounds.The osprey got him out of the water and was flapping with all his might but could not get but a few feet above the surface.The bass was struggling with all his might as well.So it appeared that the osprey was then trying to disengage her claws and finally was able to "release" the bass.We went over to find the bass but it had disappeared and apparently survived.

Not to muddy the water but I had a friend in high school who's dad said he saw a black panther while riding his horse out in the woods in extreme s.e duval county.(this was in the late 70s)There was definitely a few around there then.What we all concluded was these were very dark Panthers because they stayed in the swamps and their color matched their surroundings.While not truly black, they were dark enough to be thought of as black but not genetically black.

Its one of my " inner circle " baits.Its one I always have on hand but I don't always use each time out.I have not caught one big fish on them though, but it seems to be a great numbers bait.I have an area of my home lake that has a lot of old tree branches and brush piles.I do well with this bait esp.in this area along with baby brush hogs.I catch most of them either dead sticking them or hopping it along the bottom.but I have caught fish on them reeling in, usually in the middle of the water column.Watermelon Reds my fav. Color. Went Saturday and caught all of my fish on it.Biggest was 1.9.Like I said its not normally my go to bait but I used it that way and I was pleased with the results. Dicks has had them every time I've gone to pick some up.

When I was 24 I was night fishing a farm pond with a girlfriend and using a spoon with 5/0 hook.I felt a bump and reacted instinctively and jerked .But it was only a few feet out and the spoon came out and hit me in the right eye.I spun around and sat down.I reached up and gently pulled but it was in deep.I cut the line and had to hold the spoon up because it was pulling my eyeball down from the weight of it.We were both kind of in shock.She drove me to one of those acute care type clinics and when the doc saw it he made a face and told me to get to a hospital.Duh!!. Anyway I was in surgery for 5 hours.The impact of the spoon detached the retina, destroyed the lens and damaged the iris.A doctor who was one of the best in the state did the surgery .He apparently didn't think he could save the eye but tried anyway.He agreed later it was a miracle that the eye was saved. I just had a recent eye test, and with correction, the eye is now 20-20!.I'm very thankful. I also got a small hook stuck just like the first post.I just rotated it around and gently pulled it and it slipped out.No sweat- if you've been hooked in the eye nothing else is a big deal!!

I usually do well with dark colored worms around them.That's it.

Sorry, but I don't get it.The Beatles?

Little boy came up to us once when we were catching bream and shiners at a pond .Begged us for some of them .He really wanted the shiners.We told him you can't eat them- too many little bones.He said we don't care we eat fish and grits 8 DAYS A WEEK.

I used to catch mine at a small golf course pond.Id chum them with bread and throw once or twice with a cast net and get all I needed.This worked fine until I caught a 5 pound bass in the net just as the security guard pulled up! Don't use the the farm- raised shiners.Bass don't care for them. And any bass in a water body will readily eat shiners whether or not there's any in there or not

Lol exactly what I thought. By the way, one good summer pattern around here is fishing frog baits where you hear croaking frogs.I really don't think its the basses favorite meal but the ones I catch this way are all fat , healthy fish.

We were fishing the Ocklawaha river once when without any warning two fighter jets flew over us at tree top level.My heart started beating faster just now thinking about it.It was and still is a pretty remote area with little noise .We were totally and completely blown away by the suddenness of it. Another time we were at the folkston Ga entrance into the okefenokee swamp and my son and his friend were fishing at the boat docks and his friend hooked a big mudfish.As he was pulling it up it fell off the hook and landed on a mud bank.He was just about to jump down and get it when a giant 10-12 foot gator shot up on the bank, grabbed the fish and sank back in.

Just try living in N.E Florida.In 40 years a whole way of life is nearly gone.Its like a snowball rolling downhill.it just keeps going further and further and gets bigger and bigger.When I was 17 it was 5 minutes to the woods.Now its a ' hood.It started with one or two people selling out, and the country folks didn't want to see a new house behind their barn or pasture so they sold too and it just keeps rolling in.One of my best friends lived on a farm.If you want to know about this family, just watch a few Dukes of Hazzard reruns.They had app.40 acrres in pasture and woods.2 Fish ponds , cattle, chickens, gun range.Hunted deer etc.Several 4 wheel drives, 3 wheelers,Tractors etc.They were at the end of a long country road.Also in an area with a large family that had at least 20 household's of them.Then came the development.Slowly at first, it started at the other end of the road and worked its way to them.Finally, it was just to suburban for them So they sold out and moved to S Georgia( where change is much slower.)Now old farm has a road going through it and has become a park with soccer fields ( of all things)where our old gun range was.At least they haven't cut the old pine we had our target's on.It still has the scars from the bullets.Now the big family is down to a few household's left.Surrounded by suburbia.At least the road still bears their name.