N Florida Mike

My aunt passed away in NC at the age of 93 . She was the Last of the older generation in our family .? Funeral is next week on friday. I’m not so sure my old suv would make it up there and back. So… I’m renting something. I have rented one car in my life and that was probably 10 years ago. So Looking for suggestions. Anyone have stellar experiences with a particular car rental place? Suggestions? I’m mainly looking for fuel efficiency obviously. I despise cars but trucks would probably cost a fortune so…

The one I lost today was 4-5 , so I didn’t have too much of a meltdown over it …

I’m on a big fish slump too. Something always happens every time I hook a big fish lately.

The spring bite is on. Got a nice cloudy evening to fish finally. Light breeze giving way to calm. Low 70s. At first, they were all about the super flukes. When that slowed, I switched to yum dingers.. this is often the way the bite goes here… Got 4 between 17-19 inch. Ended up with 11. I got the last fish when it was nearly dark sitting 3 feet from the bank. Saw what looked like a bed in the faint light right by the boat , and I dropped the dinger in and got bit. It was the buck, but was still fun to get bit so close. The only disappointment was losing the biggest fish that bit.

Sounds good to me…

I caught one that looked similar but one side of his head was gone too, nearly to the eye. I figure a osprey or another water bird did it.

I fished one small lake many times that was stocked by the state, and the bass wouldn’t hardly bite a shiner OR an artificial. Never figured it out… There was a HUGE forage base in that lake though. Maybe that was the case where you were fishing. Just lots of bait already there so they weren’t impressed by just another shiner.

Jigs. All I catch with them is weeds. No success story though. Zoom lizards I have always done pretty good with them, but bass are on and off with them it seems. Spinnerbaits- I rarely caught anything with them and decided to fish them more often… and I occasionally get a few fish on them now. I think the simple key is to fish them more. Jerkbaits: The only jerkbait I do ok with is the original Rapala 2 -3 inch one with the red underneath the head. Kind of an off -white color. I keep trying them more ( see above principle), but I haven’t broken through with them yet… Top water frogs: Had some success more than originally but the bite is so slow with them, I wouldn’t call it a huge turn around. Did get a 7.3 on one. Chatterbaits , ned rig, whopper plopper have produced a whopping total of 2 fish total… Im a soft plastic T rig man. They are hard to beat where i live.

Early June isnt as bad as July or August. If you want to catch big bass , hire this guide- but call asap- he’s usually booked up for months… I think he primarily does Rodman, and the Ocklawaha river area… .

Try living in Florida where everyone is moving now lol. When I was growing up there were plenty of places to fish where you would never see anyone. Back then , although fights over fishing spots were uncommon, you never even thought of pulling your gun on anyone. But no one ( including police) gave much resistance to fist fights to resolve the problem. I used to have a hot temper and it was the wrong kind of pride. Fast forward 40 years: I want to live at peace with all if it is at all possible. I agree that I just want to enjoy the day, not ruin it by letting some jerk get under my skin. Im human though , so can still lose my temper. Last confrontation was surfers that only wanted to surf directly in front where we were fishing. We had been catching fish until they showed up and went right where we were .( even though there was the whole beach to surf at) We then stopped catching fish. I confronted the surfer directly in front of me when he came in and he moved- but his buddies didn’t. We packed up and left just to avoid trouble, because all 3 of us were angry. To tell you the truth, I’m still kind of mad about it and that was 10 years ago! I am afraid of what I might do if it got ugly. I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life in jail or kill or hurt anyone over a fishing spot, so I try to be the bigger man and walk away. I also pray DAILY about that.

Got this hybrid warmouth/Bream while bass fishing at my favorite work route pond. Caught him on a watermelon seed super fluke… Also caught 3 bass around 12 inches on the same… The pic looks more like a ‘gill , but he had a big mouth, even for a warmouth…he even swallowed the whole fluke !

I’m sorry to hear about that. Sending prayers for his friends and family…

I can go back through my bassresource posts in the “latest catch pics thread”. Other than that, I don’t keep a written record. I do keep a top 10 biggest fish record mentally, and my highest numbers day. I also track the number of fish over 4 pounds Ive caught in my home lake since 2007.

I haven’t noticed any odor with it. Bass seem to avoid it like the plague. I cant see it because it’s usually near the bottom .

We have a bunch of this very dark green goop. It’s an algae, I reckon. It wraps around the line somehow, and it’s hard to get off. It gets on all the baits, regardless of how weedless they are. The bass seem to hate it as much as any of the others.

What a tank! Congratulations!

Yeah, One of Florida’s nicknames is “ Lightning capital of the world”.

I told this one in a similar thread a while back. Me and 4 friends ( 2 boats) went fishing on 4th of july at Palestine lake ( Florida). Around 5-6 oclock pm we were fishing the North end of the lake , both boats in sight of each other. A thunderstorm started rumbling in from the northwest but it looked like maybe it would miss us. We decided to run the 2 miles or so back down by the ramp and see what it looked like. I remember wanting to go in for a little while but got outvoted. We all went over to the southwest side of the lake and hadn’t been there long when a black cloud suddenly loomed over the trees from the south. That storm was on us before we could hardly get the motor cranked. We pulled up under some big cypress trees and was treated to the worst lightning storm I’ve ever seen. Bolts struck all around us for an hour. Nearly continuous thunder. It was raining so hard the boats were filling up with water. We had a serious prayer meeting right there in the boat. When it ended ,,we just went right back to the ramp and left without saying much as I recall… We were treated to the fireworks display of a lifetime for a 4th of july!

But…, were the shiners commercially / hatchery raised or wild ? They know the difference. The wild shiners have that true golden color and maybe they taste better or give off a distinct odor that bass can’t resist… All I know is, Bass will usually eventually eat them if they are in the water, and bass are nearby. Most of the captivity raised ones have more of a silver color. Bass would rather eat a bream than one of them…A lot of bait stores sell them , and people buy them , not knowing any better…

Caught 8 in a couple hours, mostly on watermelon red super fluke. The biggest was 19.5 inch…

Thanks. Used corn to lure him in… I caught some several years ago when they were eating my bank then. Theres not any up there is there?

You got it! There’s a bunch of them in my lake. Yeah, I never tried one yet. I was thinking about it but didn’t have time to fool with him today with church and all. I let him go in a pond where there’s already a bunch of them. They have eaten nearly 3 feet in from my lakefront ! Not putting up with it anymore…

I swam in that kind of water for years and never had any problem. On second thought, maybe that’s why I seem to be slowly losing my mind!?

Guess what I caught ?

My wife grew up in a hunting/fishing family, where she was made to take care of her dad’s deer dogs, clean and cook fish and game. She has no desire to hunt, and very little to fish. But she doesn’t have a problem with me doing it. I do all the cleaning, but she’ll do some of the cooking. We used to camp and fish some, but haven’t in a long time now. She will listen to my outdoor stories, and gets somewhat excited if I catch a biggun. I used to be annoyed by her cutting into my outdoor pursuits with honey do’s, and always wanting me to go on activities with her. I got really sick and tired of all the conflicts about it we had. So one day, I was basically faced with the decision of “ love her, or lose her” I chose the former. I thought I would rarely ever be able to do anything I wanted to again. But when I stepped it up and started loving her unconditionally, which meant time and chores, I discovered that she was fine with my outdoor plans.