Hello Folks,
It was a great weekend and lots of folks got on the water to go fishin’. There were a few showers here and there but nothin’ like we have been havin’, so it was nice to have a sunny weekend.
The fishin’ is still doin’ pretty good in most of the lakes in our area. The rains we have been gettin’ have the water levels up in most of the lakes in our area. The bluegills and shellcrackers are still bitin’ and folks are gettin’ after ‘em. You may have to look a little harder now that the lake levels have come up.
If you do go panfishin’, all you need are some crickets and red worms and you are good to go. Up on the Harris Chain, folks are catchin’ plenty of bluegills and shellcrackers in Lake Dora, Lake Beauclair, and Lake Griffin. Most folks are driftin’ mid-lake tryin’ to locate some panfish on the beds. You will still find some bluegills and shellcrackers on the beds in most of the bigger chains.
The Kissimmee Chain is still producin’ some nice stringers of panfish in West Lake and Lake Kissimmee. Folks are driftin’ with crickets until they locate a bed and then they anchor off and fish the bed until the bluegills quit bitin’.
The bass fishin’ has been hit or miss. The high-water levels in the lakes have got the bass scattered out more than usual. You will have to really fish hard to find ‘em. They may not be located in the same areas you have been fishin’ over the summer. Rick and I found that out real quickly last Saturday when we went fishin’ on the Butler Chain. We have had a good summer of fishin’, but the bass were scattered throughout the chain. We have been fishin’ the shoreline grass and the offshore grass and eel-grass beds all summer. We have had some good days but Saturday was a little different. The bass weren’t in their normal areas of the lakes, so we had to fish some new areas in order to catch some bass. The bass were here and there and not on any type of pattern. We were able to catch around 10 bass up to 4.5 lbs. each. We caught most of our bass on plastic worms.
Hopefully, things will get back to normal this week and the bass fishin’ will improve this week. The bass fishin’ on the Harris Chain has been a little tough and most of the bass are bein’ caught by flippin’ the heavy cover. You will have to cover a lot of shoreline in order to catch some bass.
The bass are still hangin’ around the movin’ water in the Kissimmee Chain. Folks are fishin’ the mouths of the canals where the water is flowin’ from lake to lake. Slow-sinkin’ Senko-type baits and Carolina-rigged plastic worms should catch you a bass or two. You need to keep a lipless crankbait tied on your rod in case the bass start bustin’ on bait-fish. You never know when they are goin’ to come up schoolin’, so make sure you are ready.
Well, I hope this weekend is a good weekend to catch some fish. We have a full moon this weekend so the fishin’ should improve if we don’t get too much rain. See ya next week.
Tip of the week: cover lots of water.
Save a few and good luck!
