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Always come in to a waypoint downwind if possible. You might try to come in from the side of it so you aren’t casting straight into the wind and bring your cast by it on an angle. Move to the opposite side and try again.

What Crypt said. All ramps in Volusia county are closed. Probably Seminole county too. This includes a lot of the St. John’s river. Your best bets are isolated lakes not in a river system. Harris, Clermont or Winter Haven chains come to mind. Johns lake in Winter Garden is another.

Happens all the time here. A small white fluke works great. At times they want smaller. When that happens, I take a Pop R, remove back hook, add a short leader and tie on a small crappie lure.

My sister in Ft Myers has power but no water.

Probably the best one I ever owned was an Evinrude TM. That thing was quiet and virtually indestructible. They haven’t been made in years. Ran motor guides after that but eventually went to minn Kota. MK are quieter than the MG.

Thanks for the update Mike. N. Mike, yea Arcadia has the Peace River running through it and it connects to Charlotte harbor. Storm surge went way inland.

How was the water level?

Crypt, let me know how you do on Washington. It’ll be a good indication of what we can expect in the future.

Not sure exactly where Mike is but my sister is in Ft Myers. She lost power, Wi-Fi and water early on in the storm. She can only text, can’t call us. My guess he’s probably in the same situation.

Checking in from Debary. Lots of rain, strong winds to about 60mph and some flooding but no damage to our home. Some trees and limbs down in neighborhood and some minor house damage. St Johns is overflowing and will get higher as the water from down south makes its way here. If it’s anything like what we had 4 years ago, and I’m afraid it is, there will be a massive fish kill again. This is our community docks and how far the river is up already.

Good thing you canceled. Hurricane Ian sweeps away section of Sanibel Causeway, cutting off all vehicle access https://www.foxnews.com/us/hurricane-ian-sweeps-away-section-sanibel-causeway-cutting-off-all-vehicle-access

We’re as good as we can be. Being born and raised in south Florida like Phil, we’ve seen our share. as they say “ This ain’t our first rodeo “ lol Biggest thing is being right off the St. John’s river, the river is high right now, but we are a good distance away from it. Ground is pretty saturated so a good possibility that with all the rain and wind, some tree will come down. That usually is what takes out the power. And great offer Woody.

Bitters is about the only one left in central Florida proper ( they are actually in Longwood). John’s tackle selection there rivals any of the big stores. And he carries all the name brand stuff plus a huge selection of his brand of plastics.

Florida is free for freshwater and hunting after 65 but you still need a saltwater license if you fish from a boat ( shore fishing is free). You still need to buy snook & lobster stamps for saltwater and deer, turkey, duck and wildlife management areas for hunting.

Phil, being from south Florida and doing a lot of saltwater when I lived there, I remember Marsha. She could flat out catch fish, and looked good doing it. I used to fish Bob and Ruth Stoky down in the keys. Ruth held a number of light tackle world records herself.

Like Phil, my wife. She isn’t on here though. We’ve been together for 30, married for 27+. I remember when we were dating and we’re down in the Keyes and I said I would hook the live shrimp for her, she said “I can hook my own bait” lol I knew at that moment I won the lottery. Shes been my fishing partner ever since. From offshore saltwater, flats fishing to bass fishing, she’s done it all and is very successful at it. She can throw a bait caster better than a lot of my buddies.

Rage Craw followed by Bitters little naked swimmer.

Cbump you have my number. Give me a text or call when you head this way. No where close to knowledgeable about the Harris chain like Phil but I do know Stick Marsh and a few others.

I’ve done a lot on my list. Living in Florida my whole life I’ve been able to catch almost all the species of fish that live here. Fresh and saltwater. Been to Costa Rica 3 times but Panama is still on the list. Married the love of my life who loves to fish. While I’ve had my share of hot rods back in the days, still would like a 58-59 Chevy Apache truck. Still need to see the US west. Got a 4lb smallie on Dale Hollow but would like to fish where 5-6’s swim.

Phil I was born in Miami Springs but moved to Plantation when I was 5. Started fishing the canals around my house soon after we moved there. As I got older, I was able to fish the glades more. Sawgrass, Holiday Park, the Alley, Terrytown, Loxahatchee and Hwy 27. My biggest in south Florida was 7# off the Alley. This was before peacocks, but you could catch tarpon and snook in some of the canals. They’d be gold color that far west. In my 20’s I got into light tackle saltwater fishing off Miami and the Keys. But eventually went back to bass fishing as that is my first love. I can see we’ll have a lot to talk about when we get to fish together. Looking forward too it.

FSFA, Florida Sport Fishing Association, is the only club I know of but they are mainly saltwater except for a few of us. They are out of Merritt island but have a south chapter out of the Melbourne area.

Only a couple of things I’d have changed. One would have been to fish some of the lakes in their heydays. I did a lot of the Florida ones but would have liked to have fished some of the Texas ones like lake fork, Rayburn, Toledo Bend and Amisted. There’s others in other states but those stand out. Second was to take Shaw Grigsbys advise when I fished with him in a Redman tournament on Kissimmee Chain in 85. He said I had “it” and should persue bigger tournaments. Unfortunately I didn’t have the income to do that but would have been cool to see if I actually had “it”.

Eric, yes it’s to mimic a baby loon but, it’ll also mimic just about any small bird that’s dark colored. Here’s a baby coot.

Frogs in pads. But watch out for owls??

Seen baby coots eaten as well. That’s why you throw a loon/black whopper plopper down here in spring once you start seeing the babies.