Hello Folks,

I’m so excited to share some great news with you folks. As I walked out to get the paper on Monday, I noticed a bit of a change in the air. The air was cooler, so I checked the temperature and it was 65 degrees. I said to myself, “Summer is over and cooler weather is on the way.” I don’t know about y’all but I’m ready for some cooler weather.

It has been a hot summer, but the fishin’ has been good, especially all the bluegills and shellcrackers everyone has been catchin’. Lake Monroe has been steady for bluegills and shellcrackers driftin’ with crickets mid-lake. I’m still gettin’ reports of limits still bein’ caught. John’s Lake is still hot for bluegills and shellcrackers. Folks are driftin’ with crickets and catchin’ a nice stringer of panfish.

The Harris Chain is still producin’ some nice stringers of bluegills, too. Again, folks are driftin’ with crickets and red worms. A buddy of mine is fishin’ the Winter Park Chain on Friday nights and he is catchin’ some nice bass on slow-sinkin’ Senko-type baits, and plastic worms.

The bass fishin’ has been good in most of the bigger chains in our area. Folks are catchin’ some nice bass in the Kissimmee Chain and the Harris Chain. You need to be on the water early, throwin’ a buzz-bait or a noisy top-water bait. Some folks are catchin’ some nice bass around the pads and isolated grass patches on plastic frogs and toads.

The St. Johns River has been good for bass, too. Most of the bass are bein’ caught around the feeder creeks and the mouth of the canals. The rains we have been gettin’ has the bass hangin’ around those areas feedin’ on the bait-fish where the water is flowin’ into the river. Also look for bass bustin’ on the bait-pods up and down the river. Once the early-mornin’ bite is over, try flippin’ the heavy cover or move to deeper water and fish the submerged hydrilla beds and eel-grass beds.

If you go to the Butler Chain, look for schoolin’ bass through out the day. You will find the bass bustin’ on pods of minners all day long. You will find the bass feedin’ on the minners along the shoreline cover and out in open water around the grass-beds. You can catch ‘em on Carolina-rigged plastic worms or slow-sinkin Senko-type baits. I like to fish with plastic worms and let my worm bump up against the submerged hydrilla or eel-grass. My rod will bend lettin’ me know that I’m hung on a strand or grass. When the worm pops off, the grass those ol’ bass think that the worm is gettin’ away from ‘em and they will nail it as soon as it comes off the grass. This is a good technique when the bass aren’t feedin’ aggressively.

Hopefully, we will get more and more of those cool mornin’s real soon. I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’ this week or over the weekend. See ya next week.

Tip of the week: get on the water early.

Save a few and good luck!