Going

Son in law this morning and my buddy Ernie tomorrow to Monroe. Gotta be better than workin. Will keep ya posted. I know I'm ready for it.

Go get em Tim. Hope you have a great day.

Hope you have a great day today

Can't wait to see the pictures. Everything up here is muddy and unfishable.

Good luck Skeet, have fun, will be watching for your photo's.

Good luck, we only managed 7 today at Crescent, got too hot to stay out there.

Good luck, went to hit the saltwater fishes today...........water temp was 73.6 only caught one sheepshead, nobody was catching anything.

the wind over here S.E. blowing hard and humidity feels like it needs to storm it's so sticky out.hope the fees he's over there are not feeling it and bite goid for u

As I said today was the day. The glassy water in the pic didn't last. Started up on the north end and had some action but nothing to write home about. Several fish that were eligible for the box, one was a good 13 1/2", 12", and a couple of others that were just plain old good fish. Today was a special day for me as the crankbaits I painted did better than they ever have since coming south. The one pic of me is of one that crossed the 14" mark on a purple and chartreuse model. The other pics were other fish of the 17 that visited us today. 8 made the box and a friend came by to take them home for a split with Grandma and lunch. The best Christmas present I could think of. It got windy and we ran for cover and dropped the lines as we cleared the fenders and you see the results. Boat traffic was crazy but the fishing surprised me. We made another pass before time made us go and all we could come up with was a 3' gar that was thicker than my forearm. He only got three lines before we got him in and got my CRANKBAIT back. I was glad he didn't make off with it, my painting stuff is still packed. Overall a very good day and I can't wait for tomorrow.

No no no! No crankbaits! I wanna keep believing they dont work down here. Got enough money just keeping up with em pulling jigs. Good seeing yall having fun out there today.I had Wood Ducks buzzing me at daylight, with hens cackling and carrying on in the background. Saw deer and pigs and caught feesh too. Had a blast until the wind started howling.

Good to see you too Mike. I told my SIL that next time the bigger rods would stay home and we would do something different. That got a big smile, he likes what we're doing. Meant to put that in my post but hey, I guess I can't remember everything. I remembered to get him home on time, mission accomplished.

Man that brings back some good memories. I see it didn't take you long to get back in that front driver seat.

What's up Skeet! Jackie and I are planning on going in a few hours. Maybe we'll see ya out there. I see you were near the power plant…we may just start there and see how it goes. I'm dreading Monroes open water in my little dinghy. Wish us luck!!

I'll be out there somewhere with my friend Ernie. But if you're up at 3 I hope you're into taking naps!!

One of those 'anticipation things'!! Woke thinking the alarm was about to go off, look over only to find out its 2:45am. It's been a while since I've taken her out…the boat that is.

Weather was almost a carbon copy of yesterday with a stunning sunrise. The difference was I knew what to expect and did things a bit different. I never went to the lake knowing the wind would be bad and I didn't see the need for Ernie and I to go through that again. I motored out of the marina and dropped the TM and put lines out. Once again I had a soup to nuts thinking when I rigged the rods so there was a wide swath of color and presentation. Should something show up better than I would adjust. Turned out that wasn't necessary. Nothing really showed any better than the others so our offerings stayed the same all day. A pass out the fenders under I-4 and turned around and headed back to begin what would be a few miles trip down river. Enough fish showed up to make the day productive, I was in good company, and I was in shorts and a T-shirt the weekend after Christmas. Another plus was that no Gar showed up to foul the lines and further foul the carpet in the boat. I knew my time in that stretch of the river would be short lived so we began the trip with a smile. We picked up 3 pretty quick and settled into the run north and here comes Alex and Jackie from work, also known as My World of Sand. Good to see you two out today. Glad you made the right move staying in the river. I'm sure that we would have caught more but the weeds had been blowing into the river for days and cleaning jigs was the order of the day. A couple of 13's showed up but Alex will have to bring us up to speed on just how big they were as he had a catastrophic failure of his livewell system and our fish went home with them. I was happy with the final take as we pulled up and headed for the ramp at just after 10 sometime. Just too many pleasure boaters had time off and wanted to spend the day throwing fishermen around like rag dolls. I fell down on the job as clicker monitor but it still said 17, some of which were less than hand size, and the beads on the lanyard said 9 keepers. No fish to clean, half the day left to enjoy, and chores either done or put off we both headed home to relax and maybe a good nap if we're lucky. Black/chartreuse and chicken did well and HS put the whammy on my cranks as they didn't produce any at all. Back to the grind tomorrow and no indication as to when I'll get to go next. I'm thankful for the time I've had and the people I've been able to spend it with. Happy New Year everyone, nothing but good things to come. Thanks for taking the time to read this........Skeet.

Great weekend for sure. PM sent.

Good looking slabs

Excellant update my friend, along with pictures to back it up.
Glad to see that your hand painted cranks doing the job...........
Excellant pictures of Monroe especially at daybreak.............
Thanks for sharing

Sunday was definitely a good day. Not very productive 'fish-wise', just nice to finally get the 'ol Johnson wet, no pun intended. The wife and I ran into Skeet not more than 5 minutes into our run down the river and shadowed him pretty much all day. *Note to self: Remember to bring the fish strainer (ghetto live well) back onboard before throttling up wide open. Rope snapped and lost it. Luckily we only had one keeper in it who's unlucky enough to be at the bottom of the St. John's right now. Win some, lose some. Jackie caught our only 2 keepers of the day, about 14" each, both caught on the 'Funky Chicken' Skeet had given me a few weeks ago along with some jig heads and sickle hooks. She always seems to take a bad day and make it awesome! Love my girl! At any rate, Skeet and Ernie were gracious enough to donate their catch, about 10 or so, to our Crappie taco Tuesday fund which made our day. Not bad in size either. Real pigs, most full of roe. Looking forward to next weeks 'cold-snap' of 60 degree weather. Gotta love Florida winters.
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...f7e74321af.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...e67c2d55cd.jpg

Glad to hear they'll be put to good use. Little better than Crappie Tacos. Glad to help. And just for the record, electric chicken, but funky works for me. It was a good day til the pleasure boaters showed up. I did the same thing with my basket years back. Til next time......Skeet.

Good looking pics Skeet & Sandman:highfive