caloosa bug

Very nice. It’s been 20 years since I trout fished in a stream. Makes me really, really want to go again.

Agreed, good stuff Captain! No peacock here, but they aren’t too far away. Got this Oscar today. When I was a kid, these were the only exotics to be had. The jaguar have shown up the last couple years and are quickly multiplying.

Say hello to Winston. My wife has been begging for a little lap dog for a while. Kids have been wanting another since we gave our last dog away when we moved 6 years ago. He was born Christmas Day, and we have had him for about 6 weeks now. He has been a wonderful pup and has quickly adjusted to bedtimes and potty training. An awesome personality to boot.

Haven’t been taking many pics lately. Here’s some local variety from the last couple outings.

Sounds like someone has been feeding that gator and it has associated people with food. Most will come after a flopping fish but should shy away at a certain distance to a decent sized human with arms raised. Your friend should call fwc and they can relocate it.

Lol. Cool story. Yes, I learned long ago about the dinosaurs that may appear at night within arm’s reach beside a 12 foot boat if a something splashes around too much. Wish I had known about the screen shield back then. Farm raised, store bought tilapia…no thank you. I’ve seen some local- so called “tilapia farms” and I wouldn’t want to eat anything that comes from that water. Now, a wild river or lake caught tilapia. Oh ya! Pretty dang good. I have friends who gig them at night and have brought me some. But I’ll stick to keeping my freezer stocked with snook and panfish if possible. Now that I think of it..snook season opened here today.. gotta go..

Got a nice one from the bank this afternoon.

Got down to 31 here on the shores of lake o. I took the kids out to see the Florida snow this morning. Frost on everything. They could rub their hands across the deck of my John boat and get a handful of “snow “

Those look like they’d be fish catchers for sure.

Welcome, fellow Floridian. That was a good thread bump and interesting read. I watched this one over and over…he makes it look easy, but the concept is shown perfectly.

Go figure that me and my family headed out the day after Christmas to spend a week in the smokies. We bought all kinds of cold weather gear hoping to see snow. My 3 kids had never been across the Florida border. The entire time we were there..Sunday through Thursday temps ranged from upper 40’s in higher elevations, to 76. We got home Thursday and on Sunday snow fell as far south as southern Georgia. Sure didn’t want to drive in those conditions, but would’ve have been awesome just for them to see some. I think the week we were there, was the warmest in the past 3 months. Oh well..Still had an amazing trip. I enjoy our short lived Florida fronts. But when temps dip below freezing… 🥶

The great thing about Florida is that something can be caught in just about any body of water. Including any pond, canal, ditch, or mud puddle. Lots of good suggestions from chasing tails. And you’d be right next door to Mike.. When I’m not taking the boat out, or if I only have a little time, a simple drive down the street to a canal bank or residential pond can be a lot of fun with a fly rod. Largemouth and bluegill are pretty much everywhere in the fresh side. I can’t say much about the salt, but you’d be right on the coast. I’m sure if the move did happen you should be able to find some easy access to either salt or fresh close by. I’m 3 hours south west and would be honored to put you on some big copperhead gills if you did migrate this way. Peacock in Palm Beach are about the same distance also

It only had a half a tail. Had a torn lip too, but this gal hadn’t been missing any meals. If she had a full 🧹 of tail.. she might have gotten away. She sure caused a ruckus in reeds next to the boat though. I released her to grow and spawn the next generation.

Brought home a dozen speck over 10 inches this morning. also somehow landed this 8lber on a 4 ft ultralight spincaster. In the grass with a #6 aberdean hook and 8lb line.

Found em!!

Spent a nice afternoon with my middle son. The speck bite has begun on lake okeechobee and I’ve been itching to hit the lake. It’s been a good while.. maybe 5 months since I’ve been on the lake. After getting some chores done we loaded up after lunch. I wasn’t expecting to much but was going to hop around and dround some minnows. To see what we could find before it got dark. We had some good talks and he kept himself occupied. He was a navigator with the handheld gps. Letting me know when were fishing a new spot..Then “drove “ all the way back to the ramp. He saw an osprey with a fish, and some crazy looking insects. He didn’t catch any but had fun. I caught 3 channel cats and 3 speck. Only 1 was a keeper, that got released. Now I’m ready to go back.

What a fun last weekend of snook season. Let several fish go that were too big. I didn’t get pics of all the fish caught Friday and Saturday night. But here is a keeper 32 1/2”, and an oversized 35 and 36”

No, didn’t see the eclipse. I thought it was Thursday night/Friday morning. I went back last night for round two. The wind was howling and it took a little longer to figure them out. Instead of a slow rolled big rapala, it took a 4” paddle tail on a jig head to get this big upper slot beauty.

I haven’t done much snook fishing this fall season due to the lack of water releases. They just started lowering the lake this past week, so last night I figured I’d try my luck under the bright moon. Success! I landed a beautiful, fat, upper slot fish. Then released 5 others between 29 and 32”. Had the whole place to myself.

Great story! 😆 It’s always The Big One that wows you, then when you try to do everything right and think you’ve won the battle,.. smacks you in the face!

Nice. 👍. I’ve caught a few poons in the river here in the fresh, but few and far between. Snook fishing a dark moonless night last weekend, I hooked up what I thought was a snook. After a couple jumps in the dark and a good fight, I had the fish near my feet. Suddenly it jumped 10ft into a hyacinth patch. I was like what the?? I turned my headlight on to see the silver flash under the surface as it headed back out to open water. Then a big jump as my plug came flying out. They can sure the 🫀 pumping.

After finding reports of water releases on the army corps website, I trailered the boat 15 miles down river this morning. I launched at 6:00 am. At 6:20 I had a 29 inch snook in the live well, filling my limit for the day before the sun came up. Caught another small one, and lost 3 others. Tried the 8wt. for a little while and only managed a big Gill on a 1/0 streamer. The only pic I took was of this wonderful slab of awesomeness.

Great looking jigs Tidewater! Snook here inland, around lake O, would jump all over those.