Hello Folks,
We are in the dog days of summer. It’s hot and not much wind blowin’ except in the evenin’ when the afternoon rains come. Of course, you don’t want to be on the water if it’s lightnin’ like crazy either. If it’s just rainin’, that’s OK but no lightnin’.
Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports that the fishin’ has been a little slow this week, but with the full moon havin’ been on Thursday, the fishin’ should pick back up. If you wanted to catch some bluegills or big shellcrackers, try fishin’ Lake Monroe or Lake Jesup. Get some red worms and crickets and cover a lot of water until you find a bed of ’em. Once you locate the beds, you should be able to catch a few and hopefully catch a good stringer of panfish.
Hopefully, some cooler weather will come next month, but until then, go early and get off early. Once that wind settles down, the fishin’ can get kinda tough. Kyle also reports that the bass fishin’ has slowed down a little as well for the folks in his area. The best places to catch a few bass have been in the Butler Chain, the Maitland Chain, and John’s Lake.
Captain Paul Solomon has been takin’ his clients out to the Butler Chain and doin’ pretty good. Most of their bass are bein’ caught freelinin’ shiners in the deep holes throughout the chain. They aren’t catchin’ any big ’uns, even though their biggest bass was four pounds. They did catch a few bass on plastic worms, too.
Rick was out last week on John’s Lake with his grandson and the only caught seven bass, but they we all nice sized bass. They caught most of their bass on slow-sinkin’ Senko-type baits. There is a weekly Wednesday night tournament on John’s Lake each week. You can only weigh in three bass per team. It’s been takin’ about 15 to 17 pounds to win the tournament. So with the full moon this week, you may want to try fishin’ at night this week. Also with all the rains we have been havin’, look for some runnin’ water. Try fishin’ the feeder creeks and in the mouth of the canals where the water is flowin’ into the lakes.
There has been a lot of conversation about the return of Orange Lake lately. In the winters of 2010 and 2011, Orange Lake almost went completely dry. Followin’ several years of high water and with the help of FWC and local stakeholders, they were able to manage the habitat back to where it is today. The fishery has bounced back and the fishin’ has been really good this year. There has been eight bass this year entered into the TrophyCatch program. There was a tournament held there on July 27. The University of Florida hosted 23 teams that day on Orange Lake. Chad Dorland caught and released a 13 pound, 5 ounce bass that day. He caught the biggest bass of the tournament. He caught his bass flippin’ the hydrilla with an artificial bait. In May of this year, a TrophyCatch bass was entered into the Hall of Fame. Brian Hammett’s caught and released a 15 pounds, 13 ounce bass he caught in Orange Lake. It sounds like to me the bass fishin’ has returned to Orange Lake.
I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’ this weekend. See ya next week.
Tip of the week: full moon.
Save a few and good luck!
