I just found this NG and wanted to say hello to everyone. I used to
live in South Florida and was an avid bass fisherman who could be found
on the weekends at Sawgrass, Holiday Park, or the Big O with my Storm
Bass Boat. Live was good.

I then decided it was time for a move so in 1993 I moved up to North FL.
I sold my boat before the move and bought a Proline 18' Flats Boat
because I was switching over to fishing the flats for Reds. First thing
I found out was a flats boat was not the best choice for fishing around
all of those oyster bars. After a year or so I traded the flats for a
16' Xpress Tunnel Hull aluminum john boat with a 60 Yamaha on it with a
jack plate. That was a nice boat and perfectly suited for fishing the
flats and backwaters around Ozelo & Crystal River area's.

Then back around 1998 my wife and I split up so my intentions were to
move to Nashville since I was there on an average of a few days every
month. Yeah I'm a musician who thinks he can play guitar. Well I
sold the Xpress because I wouldn't need it where I was heading. Long
story short is my wife and I are still married but the boat was long gone.

My Dad gave me a Hewes Bonefisher with a 115 Suzuki that he had at the
lakehouse at Buckhead Ridge on the Big O but since he sold the LH he had
no use for the boat. I also bought a used Sylvan 14' aluminum boat with
a 2 stroke 40 Yamaha to get back into Bass Fishing. I haven't seriously
fished for bass since 1993 but I imagine nothings really changed as far
as catching bass.

I was planning a trip to the Big O but I'm being told by just about
everyone that Okeechobee is pretty much a dead lake since the hurricanes
of 2004 ripped it apart. Any truth to this?

Anyway the above is kind of a long first post and I hope I don't bore
any of you with it. If any of you have suggestions for where to fish
for bass in North FL I'd for sure welcome them. Glad I found this NG
and hopefully I can contribute.

Jim