Hello Folks,
I hope you are havin’ a great week and, hopefully, you are gettin’ on the water and catchin’ some fish.
Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports that the bluegills and shellcrackers are bitin’ in the St. Johns River and in Lake Kissimmee.
We have a full moon this weekend and those panfish will be goin’ on the beds so the fishin’ should be really good. Most folks are usin’ wigglers and red wigglers to catch ’em. Kyle reports that the bluegills and shellcrackers are bitin’ the best in Lake Kissimmee. He went as far to say it’s on fire in Lake Kissimmee. So, if you want to catch a bunch of panfish, get a few buckets of worms and take the family fishin’ this weekend.
The bass fishin’ is still good in most of the lakes in our area. The Harris Chain is good and so is the Butler Chain and John’s Lake. My buddy Rich Niles won his club tournament on the Harris Chain over the weekend. He weighed in five bass that weighed a total of 17.7 pounds. The big bass of the tournament weighed more than eight pounds.
The Butler Chain is still doin’ good for bass. Folks are catchin’ 20 to 30 bass per trip. A few nice bass in the five-pound range are bein’ caught as well. You can catch ’em on a variety of baits, like chatter-baits, lipless crank-baits, slow-sinkin Senko-type baits, and plastic worms. Some nice bass are bein’ caught around the submerged hydrilla and pepper grass in deep water, too.
John’s Lake is still fishin’ good. The folks who fish the Wednesday night tournaments on John’s Lake are catchin’ some really nice bass up to eight pounds each.
Speakin’ of John’s Lake in case you didn’t know, the FWC’s TrophyCatch Program is celebrating its 10th season this year. They have released the name of 10 lakes that have big bass that have a pink tag in them. You can go to their website and see the name of the lakes that have these bass in them. The two closest lakes to us are John’s Lake and Lake Griffin.
If you catch one of these bass with a bright pink tag and you document your catch, each bass is worth a $5,000 gift card to Bass Pro Shops. Also, you will get a $1,000 gift card to AFTCO. You will also be entered into a chance to win an additional $10,000. Please go to the TrophyCatch website, click on 10-tag website, and see the rules for this program.
I hope everyone will support this new initiative to catch one of these tagged bass. So get out there and catch one. Tag, you’re it.
Well, that’s it for this week. Good luck to everyone and I’ll see ya next week.
Tip of the week: full moon.
Save a few and good luck!
