Florida Cracker Will Survive

Well Phantom 309 met up & we launched bout 8:30 Saturday morning to temps in the 40's & wind 10-12 mph & would turnout to be the worst of the day, but never really fell under 7 mph.....what a trooper, he outlasted the thermos of coffee till noon & we were just alertly cold, thereafter. 1st pass, dictated by the wind yielded 8 keepers & things looked outstanding. We would experience 1 more good pass & 1 here & there the rest of the day. Colors varied as started over- cast & 2nd half sunny. Ended the day single poling, but nothing happening. Part 2 of the day was unfortunately tragic. When we launched "late" there was only 2 other boats in parking lot, however, FWC & other law enforcement , air boats, other boats, & helicopter search parties all day was looking for fisherman's body missing since last Tuesday. Found out talking to relative when we got back, you think they would of advised us as went out in morning? Prayers sent to the family for closure. ...final note on the [emoji226], had several Violet hits & caught a gar as the females seam to be moving in to spawn, where @ appears to be a mystery....Attachment 392435Attachment 392436Attachment 392437Attachment 392438Attachment 392439Attachment 392440Attachment 392441Attachment 392442Attachment 392443

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Yep, Speck Detector tried to freeze me to death LOL .......
Was a good day (took all day) but had good conversation ..
I left the house at 7am and got back to the house 6:30pm,
almost 12 hours on the nose.
Was going to post the fish/cleaning/packaging pics but he did ......
We only had bout three of four 13 inchers, the rest were 11's, 12's,
Might of had a couple 10.5"s sneak in but we watched fairly well for size
limits ....
(numbers within the circles indicate number of fillets in the pkg)

Once again = Thanks Jeff, for another great day on the water ! ! ! ! !

Fun times for sure!
Congrats on a good trip!

Day of endurance, enjoyment and encounter. Thanks for sharing.
Doug

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Y’all did better than Jim and I did. We finished with six that Jim took home. We both made poor choices on clothing, as in not enough of it. About 10 I was cold to the core and we headed in. No giants but solid fish. We had ideas of single pole, maybe dipping some. All those ideas fell by the wayside. Fished just over 3 hours, slow the last hour for us, no sunshine came our way. We could see it over your way but it didn’t come visit. Glad y’all got out and found some, sure enough cold!

Nice post and pictures. WTG on the crappies.

cld day but some hot fishing. some nice pictures. I am going to have to get back on Jessup soon.

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Originally Posted by up2specks

Day of endurance, enjoyment and encounter. Thanks for sharing.
Doug

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Incidentally Doug, @ the end of 1 pass, we to caught that trot line, thankfully, we had 8 of 10 poles in & only 2 snagged, circled around & got both untangled....that guy has moved them since I've been out there the last couple months...we noticed he's put floats in between surface jugs to keep lines off the bottom... he's asking for trouble, as many fish that area & probably won't be as kind as we were, no harm no foul for us....he had them off SE side of bird island before.....

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Been wanting your opinion Jeff and others on the validity of Jesup's past reputation and now updated(experienced) status on "heavily infested" Gator lake. We saw a small one last week probably 3 foot hanging curiously around us staying mostly 150' away. The dozen or so times I've fished it, I haven't seen more than a tolerable few.:dono Other Florida lakes and past experience on St. John's and Santee Cooper measurably surpass this one!??
Also, last week while doing the trotline tango and Rubik's cube rumba, I mentioned a commercial fisherman in small jon boat that confronted us. He informed us that just lifting the line, even to untangle our lures, would be subject to "significant" wallet down-sizing if witnessed by FWC!!:bash I did mention that I would arrange my calendar to introduce myself to the judge!:Rofl He wasn't hostile at all even telling us that they use soap, marshmallows, hot dogs, chunks of cheese, small pieces of 1/2" square aluminum foil(that was what we saw) thankfully no cookies Ed (w/whiskers):highfive Didn't see or hear any fish during our unscheduled, unwanted "line dance"!:Rofl:Rofl He was cast-netting Tilapia this day with marginal results @best. No doubt in our mind that he was trying the retirement check "twist" with us!rotfl Don wanted to know if they catch any crappie on the foil baits. It was unnerving later on as I caught Don watching me unwrap my sandwich, LOL!!:ThumbsUp

Doug:twocents:fish

From my experience, though limited, of being on and passing over Jesup, I think it does have a good population of gators. I don’t agree with the term infested. I’ve passed over the bridge in the warmer months, early morning, and counted as many as 12. Some large but most in the midsized ranges. While on the water I haven’t seen more than one now and then, and have never seen one approach or act aggressively. I’ve also seen a lot on Monroe along the 17/92 drive, numbering just as many as my trip across Jesup. Up to you to decide which has more. Jesup has better visibility from the bridge which may account for some of its stigma.

Lucky dogs!!
High temp is maybe 35 here in Indiana.
Chuck


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Plenty of Gator in Jesup, when the sun goes down you'll see more red dots to the lights than most would be comfortable with. Been a while & don't make a habit of being OTW @ evening hrs, but have been surrounded by as many as 50 @ dusk...Also have witnessed cannibalistic behavior once, by a larger Gator. Don't know if it's still practiced, but back in the day every time a gator was found in Orlando/or in surrounding areas from retention ponds, they were always relocated to Jesup. Does this make Jesup more volatile than other lakes?:dono However, caution is recommended while navigating any Florida waters, as the saying goes, "if there's water" could be a gator lurking...it was very interesting when pulling up articles on Jesup's fatalities over the yrs, how many incidences have occurred, for whatever reasons....heightens my awareness on that lake for sure...

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back in the day every time a gator was found in Orlando/or in surrounding areas from retention ponds, they were always relocated to Jesup

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That was what I had always heard, pretty sure that may have been before the 417 went across it.

Saw plenty gators out there this year gator hunting but mostly small, we only got 1 10 footer. It is a popular lake for gator hunting because when they hit the
bottom & move around that lake gives off lots of bubbles so they tend to be easier to find & get a hook in. Harney doesn't give any bubbles so it is harder.

Several questions for those w/opinions, theories or facts as to why or how any State agency(FWC in our case) evaluates Gator "relocation sites". Also, to Brian/others was a question of a lake's BF..."bubble factor"(aka- FFF "fart formula frequency":Rofl) My personal experience has shown me that "gaseous passeous" is generated through the foods we choose- eg. nanners, beans, legumes, oily/fried foods, beer(Danny?), hopefully not COOKIES Slab!:Rofl(Although, that may explain why you fish alone most times, me too:highfive) Bodies of water, IMHO, have varied bottom-composition elements(sand, gravel, rocks, mud, shellfish population, bottom-dwelling fish/excrement etc. Jesup seemingly has a high volume of commercial fisherman(catfish, tilapia, shad, shrimp?, etc.) that could fit into the Gator relocation site formula. All of God's creatures have an expiration date to include fish die-off that contribute to decomposition>bottom(especially muddy)>bubble-trouble!:twocents Well, I'm off to buy a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the new learn about, you hopefully guessed it = BUBBLING...thanks Brian:Rofl:cheers2
You can blame this posting on Brian (aka Specktacklure) OR probably more appropriately on my PARENTS(sorry Mom & Dad, RIP):banghead:yikes

u2s:fish

***Note added- Actually, maybe that Jesup bubbling is caused by the Gator's "get-away/escape" laughter. I have that problem when I laugh too hard!:Rofl:Rofl