Hello Folks,
As I mentioned last week, we are almost in September, and I’m lookin’ forward to the changes that happen in that month. Hopefully, we will get some cooler days and the hot weather will be behind us for a while. The fishin’ hasn’t been too bad this summer, it’s just miserably hot on those days when the fish ain’t bitin’ and the sun is beatin’ down on you. The good news this past week is that the fishin’ seemed to pick up a little.
Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports that the specks started bitin’ again in Lake Jesup. Folks are gettin’ a bucket of minners and fishin’ under the State Road 417 bridge for specks. This summer has been a good time for specks in Lake Jesup. The bluegills and shellcrackers have slowed down a little but you can catch a few panfish in Lake Jesup and Lake Monroe. Those two lakes have been good all summer long for panfish. A mixed bag of panfish and a few catfish are bein’ caught off the seawall at Lake Monroe.
The bass fishin’ has slowed down a little but you can still catch some nice bass in Lake Maitland. Kyle reports that the bass are still bitin’ on wild shiners on the chain. Most of the bass are bein’ caught on shiners bein’ free-lined out the back of the boat. You need to free-line the shiners over the submerged hydrilla and eel-grass beds throughout the chain.
The Butler Chain bass fishin’ has been good for numbers of bass but the bigger bass seem to be a little shy about bitin’. There has been lots of schoolers in the chain as well. Kyle reports that he had one angler in the store who reported that the schoolers have been bustin’ on baitfish in Lake Down like crazy.
The bass are schoolin’ in Lake Butler and Tibet Butler as well. Look for the divin’ birds or the schools of baitfish and you should be able to catch some bass. You can use a variety of lures like a noisy top-water bait, a lipless crank-bait, or Kyle’s favorite, a Zoom Fluke, or a Bitter’s Skip Shad. The best colors to use if you fish with a fluke, has been watermelon-seed red flake, junebug, or pearl white. Once the sun gets up, you need to move to deeper water and fish the submerged hydrilla and eel-grass beds throughout the chain. Always make sure you have some type of bait tied on to one of your rods in case the schoolers come up. You need to be able to pick up that rod and cast to the schoolers. Those schoolin’ bass usually don’t stay up very long feedin’ on the baitfish, so make sure you are ready when they come up.
Hopefully, you will get a chance to go fishin’ this weekend and I hope you have a great time on the water. See ya next week.
Tip of the week: schoolers.
Save a few and good luck!
