N Florida Mike

Went on a camping/fishing trip to Rodman and the Ocklawaha river. Most of my immediate family and some friends went. We took 2 boats and were mostly focused on bream and catfish. There’s no telling how many we caught, but we only kept the bigger fish mostly. Got 15 or so small channel cats, and caught most of the native bream varieties. I would guess we caught 100 or so including throwbacks. We couldn’t find the quality fish on average like we did last year., but the Ocklawaha is very low , and the fish aren’t full on with bedding yet. The last day of the trip ( today) it turned cool and windy with a lot of rain. Not sure if we’re getting out today or not…

That’s a pretty home ! Sometimes half the fun is in the planning. I am currently trying to fix up my house on the lake . My fisherman and handyman son is motivating me since he’s been back. He’s already done several projects and it’s getting me excited about it again. Keep us in the loop as things move forward!

I just heard this song yesterday, and it got to me. Reminds me a lot of how I grew up…

I somehow missed this last year. You’re in my prayers, and if you just want someone to talk to about anything, please send me a pm.

I’m a hat guy. I probably have over 100 of them. Nearly all are baseball type, including some trucker hats. The way I define trucker hats is hats that have more of the cap in front , they stick up higher, and are mesh in back. I have some of them, mostly bass pro in various colors. They were really popular in the 70s and 80s, and have made a comeback recently. Then you have what I call flat bb caps. They don’t have much depth, and sit flat on top of your head. I like what I call medium hats. They dont stick up like trucker hats, but they don’t lay flat on your head either. I can’t stand the new bb caps that have the wider brim , and stick up high on your head. And nobody folds the bill, the style dictates that it stays straight. Here is a pic of one of my favorite “ medium” hats- my Florida man hat ! The bill is much shorter than it looks.

Another bullhead. This one was beautiful… for a bullhead. 2nd one in 2 days caught while bass fishing.

I don’t remember ever having one. I am much more selective with my trips now though, which drives my son crazy. He goes spur of the moment. I am kind of at an impasse now though. It seems that many of the ponds I used to do well in are not very good now. I need a few more good ponds to refresh my motivation!🤠

Got this bullhead on a live bream.

Hopefully Desantis will veto it.

A shiner.

Man, those fish have beautiful colors !

6 pounds 15 oz. I confess , I weighed it several times to see if It would get it to 7 🤠 Released unharmed of course.

More like losing the colder weather we’ve had this year. I haven’t caught a bass in my lake in app. 1 month. All I can seem to catch is 1-2 fish a week in the church pond mostly, but they are quality !

3 pounds , 10z

Fished my lake for catfish and only got 2 butter cats ( yellow bullheads )

Sorry I missed this . I’ve fished it . We had good success with red shad culprit worms there in the past. It is a numbers lake with a lot of small fish. It is also full of yellow bullheads( butter cats). The lake is rather dirty- it’ll leave a stain on boats. Mud bottom , and cypress trees . I had the worst camping experience I ever had there, involving partying by others late into the night, theft of my lantern and cooler , and the area was so swampy we got wet from the bottom of our tent. Give us a report please, bad or good.

My son got a few big slabs in Crescent lake today…

I once hooked a small bass and when I was reeling him in , a much larger bass swallowed him. I didn’t hook the bigger bass, because the hook was buried deep in the little basses mouth. More than likely you aren’t catching anything on shiners because they are commercially raised ones. Those often have a silver color. Wild golden shiners are like fillet mignon to a bass !

3 pounds 15 oz. Lost one around 6 on a jump…

I decided to fish yesterday afternoon, right before a front . The weather was very windy and cloudy, temps in the low 70s. I had decided I wanted to fish with shiners, so I went to my secret shiner pond back in the woods. I really had to work hard, but finally was able to catch a couple. Then it was off to another pond to throw them out. Tried one good spot and got one about 1.5 pounds, which ate the 9-10 inch shiner. I moved to another good spot, and cast the remaining shiner 3 times . He would immediately swim back towards me into the 25 knot winds. Like he was scared of what was there. On the 4th cast , he stayed near where I threw him ( probably was getting tired). This fish was the result. Just a little over 7 pounds. In all honesty, I may have caught this fish before but I can’t be sure. He doesn’t look exactly like the one I caught in the same pond last year that was the same general size. This one seems to have a bigger head , one eye looks like it’s going blind , and she seems to have more of a pronounced coloration on her sides…

Old Henry was a good one !

Got out for a rare evening of night fishing. Our friend dale had already got a 3 pound bass, and a catfish, bream and warmouth before we got there. We didn’t catch anything , but it was a great evening in a fairly wild area of N Florida off the St Johns river…

The Good, the Bad , and the Ugly was like that. It was top shelf, but yhey should have cut some of the unnecessary dialogue, esp. the part before they blow up the bridge. My wife is like that too. She got us “ Once upon a time in the west” to watch , and neither one of us liked it. It had high ratings but I can honestly say it’s the worst western I’ve ever seen. She hasn’t tried to find us a western since lol.

I was down by the intercoastal waterway today.

We usually catch bass all winter here in Florida, except for 2-3 days after a cold front. This year all of January was a cold front!! I honestly haven’t seen any difference in the sun. Not that I look at the sun much !😎 I would definitely try shiners. But , a word of caution: If they are not wild shiners the fish don’t like them near as much. Hatchery raised shiners are often silver , and the bass can tell the difference.