N Florida Mike

5 pounds 7 oz in the home lake…

I’m not exactly sure what this song is about , but I first heard it attached to a video about saving wild Florida…

In other words, Most of us have a “low eye for a high fence” ,lol..

I had a bass boat , and a 12 foot little tri-hull boat, along with access to a jon boat. I enjoyed the bass boat at first, but it did not serve me well at tournaments because it was too tempting for me to crank up and enjoy riding around looking for a better spot. I was very glad to get rid of it in the late 80s. I quit fishing tournaments then too, which also increased my happiness ( and fish caught! ). I went out snd bought a 12 foot jb, along with a little gamefisher kicker. I fished out of the same boat yesterday ! I now have that boat, a bass hunter, a canoe, and a ( very leaky ) kayak. The main reason I got the last 3 is because of the deals I got them for. I paid a total of 210.00 for all 3. I rarely fish out of them though. When I got the JB, I never got a trailer. I had constant problems with my bass boat trailer, motor , and the boat itself. with the JB, I just slide it into the back of the truck and out to fish. I spent years fishing small waters that would not be accessible to bass boats. I am kinda over the big lake scene, because there is just too much pressure. So to summarize, I downsized 40 years ago, and have never regretted it. I still have a couple Friends that have boats that I can go with if I have the time. I have caught many more fish than I would have, without all the hassle …

Fished the home lake this afternoon. It was Cloudy, calm, and high 70s temp. I managed 10 , 9 of them on the speed worm… Lost several larger fish in the eelgrass. They take a few turns in it and get enough slack to get loose. They weren’t biting as good as I thought they’d be with a front coming in…

I’m very sorry to hear about this. Will include my prayers for you and yours.

It was semi rural here when I was younger. I have many great memories from those days. And we were 7 miles out from downtown then, 6 1/2 now ! Now, I’m like a fish out of water. We are the redneck family in the neighborhood with several pick up trucks in the yard lol. 🤠 I wish I could get out but both jobs I have are somewhat close.Even Living one county away would just mean I’d be driving more than I am now. At this point, I’d nearly have to live 2 counties away to get far enough out to feel like it was worth it. And I plan on working until I physically can’t anymore. so it looks like I’m stuck here in suburbia. At least I have a nice lake to fish!

Yeah, that ship sailed a long time ago. I just hope they never come to me like that. Not because I’m the least bit scared but because I don’t have time for the aftermath of what would happen. As far as I’m concerned, they can go their way thinking they are the bigger man. And I’ll go my way without caring what they think. Easier said than done sometimes for an ol southern boomer like me. But that’s the goal anyway…🤠

@Fishlegs I’m not giving up on artificials though…. I work security at my church and do the overnight shift on Friday night/Saturday morning. It puts me in a position to fish the ponds right at daybreak . I have been dialing into shiner fishing there and I do it occasionally at my home lake . It’s a fun change of pace.

A.J , I think I’d be better off to live somewhere away from cities . In the country, there’s just less people so there’s less chance for stuff to happen. It gets worse and worse every year here. The more rats you put in a barrel, the more frantic it gets.

It is so much fun to see a bass blowing up on a shiner! That one today was my PB in that pond after fishing it for almost 30 years. Edging closer to big mama that I think I’ve hooked a few times and lost. Somebody will probably judge me for fishing with them but I fished that pond with artificials until kind of giving up 2 years ago. Biggest bass I caught in all those years was 3.5 on artificials. I have tried all kinds of baits with all kinds of presentations, many , many times. My opinion on live bait is that it’s completely fine as long as you don’t break the law. It’s harder in some ways than fishing with artificials. I catch my own shiners, and have to keep Them alive.

Katie, I use a rather small pencil cork , and run about 2 feet of line down where I tie a gamakatsu shiner hook on, and hook the shiner behind the dorsal fin. There are two spots I fish in the good pond . I threw the shiner out once , but he swam away from the best direction. I threw him out again , and in a couple minutes he starts getting real nervous. Then, a huge blowup but a miss. I waited , and in a few seconds, the shiner is jumping out of the water, preceded by a 2nd huge blowup. She got the shiner that time !😉

So I’m coming home this morning and stop a few miles from home to get gas. I’m in a good mood, although tired from being up all night doing security. I get my gas and start pulling out towards the road. At the exact same moment, another guy begins backing up and keeps coming . I stop and honk the horn lightly because I don’t know if he’s going to stop before running into me. At the exact moment I decide to back up to give him room to get out, he yells for me to back up ( I have the right of way , but he’s yelling at me. ) I yelled back “ I AM “. He said something else that I didn’t understand, but it wasn’t thank you , have a nice day. I hadn’t done anything wrong up to that point. I then said something I wish I hadn’t, he said something,etc etc. He pulled out with me behind him. I decided to turn off and go a different way home just so nothing else would happen… years ago I would not have done that… I’m tired of it…the last thing I need is drama. I just want peace with my Creator and fellow man. Thanks for letting me vent a little… I’m sure that’s never happened to any of you before…😉

A 9 inch shiner.

Another productive morning- A 7 1/4 pounder Out of the church pond…

I wonder why there’s fewer smallmouth than largemouth? I’ve never caught one so … maybe it’s obvious but I don’t know much about them.

Looks great ! I should know this from your posts already, but do you catch many smallmouths in it? It seems like it’s got plenty of largemouths… I need to do this kind of thing with my little lake !

I haven’t fished the lake much either tbh. I lost what I consider the biggest bass I’ve ever hooked in there though. I’ve fished several sections of the river, and my favorite is immediately south of the dam for a few miles. I love doing bream and catfish trips there. Bass fishing is harder if you aren’t used to a 3 knot current!

Got another good fish in my honey hole pond. 2 hours- 1 bite, 1 fish.

That’s the same one I saw…

I’m pretty sure they are just lowering the lake again like they do occasionally. I just read another article yesterday that was trying to convince people to support destruction of the dam is a good thing. The opposition to it was at least 3 to 1 against vrs for. They would have quit lobbying for more support if it was a done deal. I hope they don’t change it back. The fishing there and in the Ocklawaha is outstanding.

I used to camp a lot , and fish and hunt in many out of the way places. All in Florida except for a few times in Georgia. I can’t remember being terrified of anything, but a few things made my skin crawl a little.The closest thing to panic was gettIng hemmed in by 2 big gators when I was wade fishing in the St Johns river. The sun went completely down and I had to walk towards one of the Gators to get out. I walked right over where he had been ( he sank when I was 50 feet from him) . I didn’t step on him thankfully, and kissed the ground when I finally emerged from the swamp at my truck… Another time I was wade fishing Palestine lake in N central Florida. I was wading along a deep cypress swamp. I heard a big splash way back in the swamp, and then could hear something coming . I covered the 1/4 to 1/2 mile distance back to the ramp in record time lol ! Still got a validation from my friends on the man card from wade fishing in there at all…🤠 Once we were camping in the Ocala Nat. Forest and heard a strange catlike grunt. Very loud from a long distance. I lean towards it being a bobcat, but my friend was sure it was a panther…Never heard anything like that before or since… Another time our motor wouldn’t crank up in the Ocklawaha river. We were miles downstream, and had to paddle against the current for 4 hours at night to get back to the landing. Pitch black, and around 1/3 of the way back our one flashlight died. We would paddle aways, get tired , and have to grab onto something to hold and rest. You know you’re in wild Florida when you have to beat the stump or limb with the paddle to hopefully scare moccasins off before you grab ahold of it… At some point , barred owls began hooting. Dozens of them . It was other worldly… Most of my somewhat apprehensive moments were from humans ( other Florida men ) though lol.

Fished a pond back in the woods that I’ve tried before and never caught a bass there . Same results today , so I moved to another pond , and got this 7 pounder on my last cast. It was a well built fish that really gave up a great fight…

Off topic but I had to comment on your cholesterol medicine. I was taking resuvistatin and began to get weakness in my legs. I thought at first it was from stress. I decided to quit taking it , and it seems like most of the symptoms have gone away. I hope your legs get better.