Hello folks,
I mentioned last week about the floodin’ goin’ on at the St. Johns River. We have been gettin’ lots of rain this past week and the St. Johns, in some parts, is higher than some folks have ever seen. Please be careful if you go to the river and, if you do go, make sure the ramps are open. I have gotten reports that some of the ramps are closed in certain areas of the river.
Some folks are catchin’ some panfish and a few bass in the river around the lily pads and laydowns. The bass are hangin’ around the mouths of the feeder creeks and where you have any type of current. Look for shell-beds and use a plastic worm or a Carolina rig in those areas.
The Harris Chain has been good for bass at first light. The bass are bitin’ on a variety of lures. You can catch ’em on lipless crank-baits, swim-baits, plastic frogs, and toads.
Once the sun gets up, move to deeper water and locate a submerged hydrilla or eel-grass beds. You can use a swim-bait or a lipless crank-bait over the top of the beds and catch some nice bass. Look for runnin’ water in the mouths of the lakes or run-offs and you should be able to find some bass hangin’ around those types of areas.
The same thing is goin’ on in the Kissimmee Chain. The water is flowin’ from lake to lake and you will find the bass hangin’ around those areas, feedin’ on bait-fish. Since we have been gettin’ all this rain, the bass are scattered out of the lake, though. You need to fish off the points of grass and reeds or pads. If they aren’t there, move in a little closer to the cover. You can also catch some bluegills and a few shell-crackers in the Kissimmee Chain. Most folks are fishin’ in open water just off the grassline. You need some crickets and red worms to catch ’em. If you don’t want to use live bait, try fishin’ with a Beetle Spin or Road Runner along the shoreline grass.
Well, what a difference a week makes. The bass are bitin’ again in the Butler Chain, and I even caught a few this time. I mentioned last week that I didn’t catch a single bass. Not one, zip, zero, nada. Well, Rick and I fished the Butler Chain again this week. It was a cloudy day and the bass were schoolin’ everywhere throughout the chain, so we decided that maybe there would be some bigger bass under the small schoolers. We started fishin’ for the schoolin’ bass with chatter-baits and lipless crank-baits. The bigger bass were under the schoolers and they were bitin’.
The bass schooled up all day due to the cloudy conditions and we had one of our better days on the water. We caught and released 34 bass and were off the water by 2:30 in the afternoon. The biggest bass was around 3 lbs. So, this week there was more catchin’ than fishin’. A lot of the guides who fish on the Butler Chain are catchin’ some nice bass on shiners. They drag shiners over and around the submerged hydrilla and eel-grass beds. You can also catch some bass by fishin’ a swim-bait or a Carolina-rigged plastic worm in those same areas.
As always, keep a lipless crank-bait tied on to one of your rods in case the schoolers come up. They don’t stay up long unless it’s cloudy.
Well, I hope you get to do some fishin’ this week. I’ll see ya next week.
Tip of the week: schoolers.
Save a few and good luck!
