FWC officially designates Florida Bass a separate species

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Hello Folks,

I hope you are havin’ a great week and hopefully, you got to go fishin’. I wanted to go but all my fishin’ buddies were busy.

Kyle at Bitter’s Bait & Tackle reports that the folks in his area aren’t fishin’ too much. After the storm, only a handful of dedicated folks went fishin’. Some folks are still gettin’ a few shiners in the mornin’ or late in the day and fishin’ off the docks or banks along the river.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) has made it official on largemouth bass. Florida Bass has now been designated a separate species from largemouth bass. Regulations will stay the same since they are visually undistinguishable, but research has shown that there is enough genetic differences to warrant the separation. So, after all these years of catchin’ largemouth bass in our state, we now have our own species of bass, “The Florida Bass”.

I wanted to update everyone on the progression of the new hatchery bein’ built in Webster. It’s goin’ to be called the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation building. The new FWC Florida Bass Conservation Center in Webster is bein’ built to aid in aquatic habitat restoration and to house bass brood stock. Hopefully, it will be completed in September of this year.

Last weekend on Sunday, the X-treme Bass Series held their monthly tournament on the Kissimmee Chain. Congrats to the team of Kyle Brewer and Cheryl Brewer on their big win. They brought to the scales 5 bass that hit the scales at 22.57 pounds. Folks, that’s a great job considerin’ how hot it’s been lately. The big bass of the tournament was caught by the team of Jonathan Semento and Rick Bak. Their big bass hit the scales at 6.66 pounds. There were 25 boats in the field. The X-treme Bass Series, Johns Lake Division, was to ne held on August 4th, but was moved to August 25th due to Hurricane Debby. The Johns Lake Wednesday Night Shootouts are held on Johns Lake each Wednesday. Last week’s winners were Don Fisher and Shane Ness. They weighed in 3 bass “which is the limit” that hit the scales at 11.60 pounds. Big Bass was caught by the team of Randy Blackburn and Uby Rosell. Their big bass weighed in at 6.12 pounds. So, even with the hot weather we have been havin’, some folks are still goin’ fishin’, and that’s a good thing.

The bass fishin’ on the Butler Chain is still doin’ good. You can catch some keepers on a variety of baits. Most of the bass are bein’ caught on plastic worms, slow sinkin’ Senko-type baits. Some folks are catchin’ some bass on chatter-baits as well.  You can also try top-water early in the mornin’ at first light.

Well that’s it for this week. I hope to see you on the water real soon.

Tip of the week: Early or late.

Save a few and good luck.