Hello Folks,
I hope everyone is enjoyin’ this beautiful weather we are havin’. As they say, it’s been Chamber of Commerce weather for our area. It’s a good time to get on the water and do some fishin’, and take advantage of the good fishin’ and the great weather.
The bluegills and shellcrackers are startin’ to bite in most of the lakes in our area. They should be goin’ on the beds with this month’s full moon. The water temperature is movin’ up and that’s when the panfish do their thing. All you need is some red worms, crickets or grass-shrimp. Some of the best panfish lakes have been Lake Monroe, Lake Jesup, and Lake Woodruff off the St. Johns River. The Kissimmee Chain and the Harris Chain are also good chains to catch a mess of panfish. You should find ‘em around docks, reeds, lily pads, or laydowns up and down the river bank.
The bass fishin’ has been good this past week as well. Folks are catchin’ some nice bass on shiners along the shoreline cover in all the major chains in our area. The Harris Chain has been real good and a few bass have been spawnin’ lately. The bass that Rick caught last week in the Harris Chain, the 6-pounder, was full of roe, so there is still some spawnin’ goin’ on in the chain.
The bass fishin’ in the Kissimmee Chain is really good. There was a tournament on the Kissimmee Chain over the weekend and the bass were bitin’. The Florida State Team Championship was held out on Lake Toho. You could weigh in five bass per day. The team of Charlie Harrelson and Logan Murphy weighed in the first day of the tournament five bass that weighed 27.79 pounds. The next day they weighed in 5 bass that weighed 21.08 pounds. Their total weight was 48.87 pounds. They won the tournament in which the top prize was a $40,000 bass boat. They caught their bass on Carolina-rigged plastic worms and crankbaits. They caught their bass in Lake Kissimmee. Congratulations go out to Charlie and Logan.
The bass fishin’ has been good in the Butler Chain as well. You can catch a lot of bass on plastic worms and slow-sinkin’ Senko-type baits. Rick and I fished there on Saturday and we caught and released 35 bass. The biggest bass we caught was 3 pounds. Our bass were nothin’ like the ones that Charlie and Logan caught, but hey for two old guys who like to get on water and fish, it was great.
The bass fishin’ at John’s Lake is really good, too. You will catch most of the bass on plastic worms, spinner-baits, and frogs or toads early in the mornin’. Well, take advantage of the good weather and the good fishin’ and get the family together and let’s go fishin’.
See ya next week.
Tip of the week: fishin’ is great.
Save a few and good luck!
