Hello Folks,
Well, summer is almost over and some cooler weather will be here soon, hopefully. It’s been a hot summer but the good news is the fishin’ has been pretty good all summer.
Folks have been catchin’ plenty of bluegills and shellcrackers all summer long. You can still catch a nice stringer of bluegills if you haven’t had a chance to get on the water this summer. Folks are catchin’ panfish in Lake Woodruff, Lake Monroe, and the Kissimmee Chain. Folks are driftin’ mid-lake with crickets and red worms. If you drift across a bed of ‘em, keep driftin’ back and forth across the bed until they quit bitin’.
You can find some bluegills bitin’ in the St. Johns River in the pads and the laydowns in the river. Folks are catchin’ some nice catfish in the deep holes in the bends of the river. You can catch the catfish on small domestic shiners or night-crawlers. You can catch a mixed bag of panfish and some catfish in the Wekiva River as well. Fish the shoreline cover and the laydowns in the river.
The bass fishin’ has been really good at first light. Folks are gettin’ on the water early and catchin’ some nice bass before the sun gets up. You will find the bass feedin’ on bait-fish along the shoreline cover and just off-shore around the submerged grass beds.
The Butler Chain and the Kissimmee Chain have been really good early in the mornin’. Folks are catchin’ 15 to 20 bass before 10 in the mornin. You can use shiners or artificials. If you like to use artificials, try noisy top-water bait like a buzz-bait or Devils Horse. They make a lot of noise and that will entice the bass to bite. If you are fishin’ around grass and pads, you can try a Gambler Big Easy swim-bait or a Bitter’s swim-bait. Once the early-mornin’ bite is over, you need to move to deeper water and use a slow-sinkin’, Senko-type bait. You will find the bass hangin’ around the submerged hydrilla beds or eel-grass beds. If you don’t like fishin’ in the deeper water, you can try flippin’ the heavy cover with your favorite flippin’ lure. I like to use a crawdad type of bait. There are all kinds on the market so find one that can get through the thick cover pretty easily.
You will find some bass hangin’ around the run-offs with all the rain we have been gettin’. Folks are fishin’ the mouth of the creeks and canals in the St. Johns River and catchin’ some nice bass. The Kissimmee Chain has been good for bass, too. You will find the bass hangin’ around the mouth of the canals that feed from one lake to the next. You need to fish the mouths of the canals where the water is flowin’ into each lake. Look for bass to be feedin’ on bait fish. You can use a plastic worm or a Carolina-rigged plastic worm in those areas.
We have a full moon this weekend so the fishin’ should be really good and you should be able to catch some fish. See ya next week.
Tip of the week: full moon Saturday.
Save a few and good luck!
