Hello Folks, It has been another great week in Central Florida with warm temperatures, afternoon showers, and plenty of good fishin’ in our neck of the woods. Some anglers in our area are catchin’ some nice bass in the Kissimmee Chain. Since we have been gettin’ some showers, it’s gotten the water flowin’ through the chain. If you can find some runnin’ water, you should be able to locate some bass. Most of the bass are bein’ caught on Carolina-rigged plastic worms or slow-sinkin’ Senko-type baits. If you can find a shell bed that has some runnin’ water you will find the bass hangin around those types of areas, too. The bass fishin’ on the Butler Chain is doin’ real good as well. Folks are gettin’ on the water early and catchin’ some nice bass along the shoreline at first light. Plastic frogs and toads will work best or a noisy top-water bait. Try a buzz-bait or a swim-bait fished across the top of the water and around any stick-ups like reeds or trees stickin’ out of the water. Once the sun gets up, move to deeper water and fish the submerged hydrilla and eel-grass beds. Try fishin’ a swim-jig over the top of the grass beds and if that doesn’t work, use a Texas-rigged plastic worm, or slow-sinkin’ type lure. Folks are catchin’ plenty of bluegills and shellcrackers in Lake Harney on crickets and red worms. You need to drift open water areas throughout the lake. If you come up on a bed of ‘em, keep driftin’ back and forth over the beds and you should be able to catch your limit. I got reports that some folks were startin’ to catch some specks in Lake Woodruff. Try driftin’ with jigs tipped with a minner or fish the minners “naked” which means usin’ a #2 or a #4 gold hook with a spilt-shot under a cork and you should be good to go. If you go over to the St. Johns River and you want to catch some bass, look for runnin’ water comin’ out of the feeder creeks and in the mouth of the canals. Look for bass feedin’ on bait-fish pods movin’ up and down the river. You should be able to find some bass hangin’ around the shell-beds, especially if you have some runnin’ water goin’ over the shell beds. Try fishin’ a Carolina-rigged plastic worm around the shell-beds and you should be able to catch some bass in those areas. I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’ this week and I’ll see ya next week. Tip of the week: movin’ water. Save a few and good luck!
