I’ve been waiting a while to make this post. As the title indicates, this trip was more for building character or “paying your dues”. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage and let me detail a tough trip. If you don’t like long posts, scroll on.😆We have been going to Florida for 6 or 7 years as a wintertime break. We have fished, Okeechobee, Kissimmee, Harris Chain and a fewer smaller waters. Some multiple times be the last 3 years it’s been headwaters. We’ve had some tough trips but none stack up to how this last trip to Headwaters humbled us. First, before the trip even started, my fishing partner who has a 2023 Ranger 520 with all the goodies (power poles, forward facing sonar, 5 graphs with the latest mapping, power pole move trolling motor, 4 stroke 250 merc, lithium batteries, etc.) decided he wanted a new boat and to save costs, he is moving some of his current setup to the new rig. As a matter of fact, I am traveling with him to the factory to pick up his new boat this week. Bottom line his current boat was torn apart and we had to take my boat. While completely functional, my boat has served to be the local platform, while his is the one we take on trips. In order to get my boat ready there were some things that needed to be addressed. Things I could procrastinate on if staying local but never would if trailering a long distance. I pit 4 new tires on the trailer, the current ones were 8 years old. I bought and installed a new console and bow touchpad and brain box because my push button start was acting up and a failure was imminent. New fuel filters and general motor maintenance, and 4 new batteries (1 AGM, 4 wet cell because I am cheap). Bottom line, I invested some coin in the old girl which only made the trip result sting a little more. I’ll cut to the chase and give you the reason why this trip kicked our behinds. The weather. We faced record breaking cold, 35mph winds and high 40° low 50 degree water temps. For anyone who has ever fished Florida strain largemouths, they do not do well in the cold. We’ve fished cold fronts in Florida before but this was totally different. Make no mistake, we were experiencing better weather than most of the country over that week but it was not conducive to fishing. We were averaging 1 bite per hour each most every day with a few flurries in between. We did find out we were doing better than those using live bait who were getting skunked. We had a good group of guys who were from Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, and Michigan so the camaraderie was a blast and we certainly paid our dues for next year.

Ps. That frost on my boat seats is in Florida. 😂😱

Sorry to hear that the weather, and the fish didn't cooperate. It still sounds like you had a safe trip with good friends, and caught a few fish so it wasn't all bad. Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy reading your trip reports.

Oh man ~ That's crazy talk.

When planning trips in advance anywhere, and we both know this,

the weather is the Big X factor.

Besides being a little butt hurt, it sounds like you, your buds, and your boat all came through it mostly OK.

And now your 'local' rig is sort of good to go for a while after those concerns were met before leaving.

As usual, thanks for sharing.

A-Jay

Gosh, that's tough, TOUGH fishing conditions. Still, you outfished the live bait anglers and that's impressive. Getting your boat ready sounds soooooooo expensive, really beyond my ken.

Here's what I do to get my boats ready for fishing: I flip them because I keep them upside down by the shore through the winter. Of course, if I'd fished at Headwaters when you did, my boats would have been sunk or blown ashore.

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Oh man ~ That's crazy talk.

When planning trips in advance anywhere, and we both know this,

the weather is the Big X factor.

Besides being a little butt hurt, it sounds like you, your buds, and your boat all came through it mostly OK.

And now your 'local' rig is sort of good to go for a while after those concerns were met before leaving.

As usual, thanks for sharing.

A-Jay

Even though everything I replaced would have to eventually be done, I decided to just knock it all out. I have a key backup for the touchpad, I exceeded my own rule on 5 years for the tires, my batteries were weak but still functioning. I did have a trim relay act up while there and I’ll have to fix that here in the near future. We had 1 warm day the entire week. We even got a heavy rain one day.

Well I feel for you as I plan my long distance trips in advance. You always try to maximise your chances but Mother Nature had her own agenda. You have set aside the time frame, made reservations & often in my case have purchased airplane travel which you can’t really back out of because of logistics. You really have no choice but to proceed & hope for the best. It is humbling & expensive to boot. As a Florida resident I realise your situation with cold fronts like the last one stacked upon previous cold front’s unrelenting disruption to the spawn. Usually a bad arse kicking is followed by redemption so stay positive & get ready for a good trip in your future.

6 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Gosh, that's tough, TOUGH fishing conditions. Still, you outfished the live bait anglers and that's impressive. Getting your boat ready sounds soooooooo expensive, really beyond my ken.

That's exactly what I was thinking, the expensive thing. It's probably more than I spend on my week long vacations. Although it is an investment in himself.

Also up until now I thought I was the only one who used "ken".

Agreed on outfishing the live bait guys!

Well I guess we’ll just have to look forward to a big St Clair report in a couple months! At least you made it there and back in one piece despite the weather. Nothing worse than the travel getting in the way of a trip.

It really stinks when you have the trip all planned out and then the weather doesn't cooperate.

On 2/16/2026 at 5:32 PM, TOXIC said:

Even though everything I replaced would have to eventually be done, I decided to just knock it all out. I have a key backup for the touchpad, I exceeded my own rule on 5 years for the tires, my batteries were weak but still functioning. I did have a trim relay act up while there and I’ll have to fix that here in the near future. We had 1 warm day the entire week. We even got a heavy rain one day.

It seems that is has been a crazy kind of winter this year. My pond temps went from 39 to 55 in one week. I went from fishless viewing to crowded water. I'm hoping you have a different kind of luck next trip and send us some hog pictures!