N Florida Mike

Got this 18.5 inch fish under my boat just now. Caught it on the Uv speed worm - watermelon red color. Got a couple of his friends too- all in around 20 minutes. I hope to get out for a couple hours later in the day also after some chores…

Yes …

Best thoughts and prayers for you both…

Ive had them here as long as I can remember too. I personally can’t tell much difference with them here. We have ospreys too but they don’t seem to deplete the fish population much either. Otters on the other hand…

What I’ve observed is that they eat the catfish first. If they stay after that, they start on the bass, especially the bigger ones. I haven’t seen much difference in the bluegill population. The golden shiner population hasn’t been great since before our fish kill. I attribute that to bass predation though… I’ve also heard they kill turtles. We don’t have very many, but there’s a big soft shell that’s been hanging around my dock for years. Seems like the otter would’ve got him too. Dont want to ever see another one in the lake, but if one does come I wish they’d eat the muscovy ducks and geese while they’re here!!

Coming in late to this thread. My small lake is much like a pond in many aspects. The fishery here is good, but not great, like it used to be. The lake is still out of balance from the massive fish kill in 2011. The bass had recovered nicely. ( Got a 8 pounder in 2018), but since then the fishery has declined , due to otters. They cleaned out all my catfish and most , if not all , the big bass. The biggest bass caught in the last 2 years that I know of, was the 4.2 caught at my dock this year. That is so aggravating, since I so carefully managed the big fish , and released any i caught over 3 pounds for the last 15 years. The numbers are down to, which in the long run is probably a good thing. 2 years ago , I caught 35 in app. 5-6 hours. My best numbers day in the last year is just 16. I tried trapping the otter to no avail. I would have used another method , but it never came close enough. I resorted to prayer, just like I did with the one we had 14-15 years ago. I think this one(s) gone now just like the other time! @Blue Raider Bob ,the amount of pond work you do shows a lot of dedication! Hoping it pays you good dividends in the future!

I was fishing with 2 good friends that are Brothers. We were fishing the cypress tree line in the St Johns near Welaka Fl. We had seen several cottonmouths in the trees. The younger brother Jeff ( who I still fish with) said quietly to me “ watch this “ . He had took the hook off his line and tied the biggest worm he had to the line. I was in the middle, and the older brother Jack in the front. Jeff quietly slips up next to me and flipped that worm on Jacks neck. You’d have to know Jack, but he is a outdoorsman and man’s man . That’s what made it doubly hilarious when he came absolutely unglued. He was thrashing around wildly and hollering. I think he would have jumped in the water and took off had he not heard us laughing. Once he realized what happened he came at jeff and I was in the middle. I was successful in stopping an assault that day.🤣

It depends on where I fish. Best bag in recent years was 15 pound s. Average is probably around 8 pounds…

Nope. I’ve never hired a guide. Mostly because I never could afford one…a little because of pride.

Got to fish the home lake for a couple hours before dark. Clear skies, low 70s, no wind. I decided to stay close to home so I started on the northwest , fishing south. Only got 2 on that side, both on the speed worm. I think one on watermelon seed, the other pumpkin. Switched over and fished towards home on the Northeast side. Got 4 on that side, with each fish getting bigger. 1 more on the speed worm, and 3 on the pumpkin blue flake yum dinger. I caught the 2nd to last one by a backhand skip up under a dock. It went around a piling but I winched him out. The last ( biggest fish) was caught a cast or two later along a concrete bulkhead that has treated me right many times before at that time of day… I couldn’t get the scale to work , so I measured it. I think it was 18.5-19 inch but it was hard to tell because of the light and angle of the fish in the bottom of the boat…Looked bigger than that. It was a very heavy fish for the length…Not complaining - I’ve been on a dink binge lately…

Hit another work route pond today. It was raining and the fish were fired up. I caught 10 and lost nearly as many , all about the same size. I caught 7-8 of them on a uv speed worm. The same one. It was so torn up I could just barely hook it. I finally cut it about 1/4 inch and caught another one.Caught the rest on a yum dinger that was already torn up! And no, I’m not on the clock!

We did our Georges lake trip today, even though a front had come through. Low Temps in the high 40s . When we launched it was bluebird skies and in the 50s. Wind 10-15. Later went up to 15-20. So we launched, get to our first spot, and the TM won’t work. Dead batteries. So back we go to the ramp. Jeff goes to the closet town to get new batteries. Finally get back on the water and try to fish our normal way, which is the northside to the westside of the lake. But the wind has really picked up. So out of necessity we went to the only fishable water, which is the SE corner of the lake. This is the part we rarely fish. We’ve been going there now for 40 years, and Ive fished that corner maybe 3 times.Scattered docks, pads, and sparse grass patches. We ended up catching 15 , but nothing big. I got the dink of the day honors and most fish caught. Jeff caught most of his fish on the red shad culprit. I caught all of mine on the uv speed worm. Not too bad considering the weather.

As much fishing as I have done, 99% of it has been in Florida. The only other states I’ve fished is Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee,and Michigan. Florida fishing is excellent. Can’t really speak to the others much.

B. It gets confused with Lake George in name only. Even with all the development Florida is experiencing, it is still well off the beaten path.

Fished a favorite pond on the work route and got a few on the watermelon red speed worm and speed craw…the cypresses are turning a little…

I haven’t felt real motivated lately either. I think it’s mostly that I work 6 days a week, and I stay tired because of it. I did fish a work pond for app. 1.5 hours last week, and just caught one dink. A buddy and me are planning a trip this Thursday, so hopefully it’ll be a productive day and perk me up…

I’m not into horror movies at all now, but Halloween 1 was My favorite back in the day. I dont remember the name of it, but the one with the scarecrow in the cornfield was pretty good. The scarecrow was the ghost of a man that was killed but was innocent. He comes back to kill ( in various ways on their farms) the men that killed him.

I have a story similar to @GRiver Not about fishing either. My wife and daughter got in a terrible wreck in SC. They got run off I-95, and the firestone tires blew in our Ford explorer. They started flipping end over end and landed upside down on 95. My wife said she saw a yellow car coming and it hit them , knocking them off the highway and rightside up on the shoulder, which was obviously a much safer location. A man and woman approached and told my wife they were in the yellow car. They said they were trained paramedics , and helped until the other emergency responders got there. Miraculously, neither my wife or daughter were seriously injured, although they had to spend the night at the hospital. The next day, a state trooper came to to take their statement . When my wife told the part about the yellow car, the trooper said “ Mam, there was no yellow car.” My wife insisted, but nobody else on the scene had seen a yellow car… Draw your own conclusions…

Im a 10 at providing fish dinners of all kinds. Bass fishing ? Overall around a 5 I’d say. Higher in my home lake - at least an 8 in there…. some of the time anyway?

Tilapia fishing this morning in a friend’s pond…

Glad they caught it in time. I took Lisinopril for awhile. It worked on getting the blood pressure down. But it started making me cough, so the doc switched it. I have a friend that had the same symptoms with it. Now I’m on hydrathorathyriside ( not sure of spelling). It really works but makes you pee a lot…?

Congratulations man!

Welcome to the forums!