Hello Folks,
We have started a new season of TrophyCatch, which started October 1. You can go to trophycatch.com for information on submitting your bass for this season. The FWC will be holdin’ a few public meetings in December on some changes for the Orange/Lochloosa Lakes.
There will be three meetings that started on December 6. The first meeting on December 6th was at Sun’s Retreat in Ocala. Then there are two meetings that will be virtual meetings on December 13 at 6 p.m. The next meeting will be a virtual meeting as well on December 14 at 2 p.m. You can go to the FWC website or trophybass@myfwc.com for all the information on how to be involved in these meetings. The changes talked about in those meetings will hopefully create conditions that increase the potential to catch a bass of 15 pounds or heavier in these two lakes.
The first change introduced will require a largemouth bass of 20 inches or longer in total length to be released immediately. The second change will require circle hooks to be used with natural bait over 3 inches long. The last change will be to allow a potential state record bass to be processed for the purpose of certification once an FWC staff member has been notified of the catch. If you are interested in attendin’ any of these meetings, you can register on the FWC website.
Well, the speck fishin’ is pretty strong right now. We have a new moon comin’ up on the 12 of this month. I expect the specks to be bitin’ in most all of the chains in our area. We have some cooler weather comin’ to town this week, so that might slow ‘em down a little, but it just might turn them on as well. Specks are fun to catch, and they like cold weather and cold water. The temperatures will be up in the high 70s durin’ the day, so it won’t be too bad on the water.
Lake Monroe and Lake Jesup have been producin’ some nice stringers of specks. Most of the specks are bein’ caught on minners, and some folks are catchin’ ‘em on jigs tipped with a minner. Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports that folks in his area are gettin’ a bucket of minners and goin’ speck fishin’.
The bass fishin’ has been pretty good as of late on the Kissimmee Chain. The Xtreme Bass Series held their 10th annual four-man open out of Camp Mack for the benefit of Toys for Tots benefiting Polk County. There was a full field of 50 boats this year. It took a combined total of 10 bass that hit the scales at 44.80 pounds. The four-man team of John Stahl, Scott Stahl, Ben Harris, and Sharon Harris won the tournament to take home a $2,500 first-place prize. All the teams were able to raise between $8,000-$10,000 dollars in toys and cash donations. Congrats to all the teams that participated in the tournament and your contributions to a worthy cause, Toys for Tots.
BassMaster will be holdin’ their Bass Pro Shops Team Championship Tournament this weekend out of Venetian Gardens startin’ December 6 through December 9. The weigh-ins start at 3 p.m. each day, but by the time you get the paper, you will be able to watch the final weigh-in on Saturday, December 9.
Well that’s it for this week. I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’, and I’ll see ya next week.
Tip of the week: Cold Weather
Save a few and good luck!
