Kissimmee, Harris chains have been very busy

1761

Hello Folks,

I hope you are havin’ a great week and hopefully you got a chance to do some fishin’ over the weekend. We had a lot of folks fishin’ over the weekend in the Kissimmee Chain and the Harris Chain.

BassMaster held a tournament on the Kissimmee Chain last week. The tournament was won by Brandon Lester of Fayetteville, Tenn. Brandon weighed a three-day total of 51 lbs. 2 oz. of bass to take home his first BASS win. He won $52,500 for his win and earned a berth to the 2023 Bassmaster Classic.

There was also a Big Bass Tour tournament held on the Harris Chain last week. There were a lot of bass caught in that tournament as well. The biggest bass caught in the tournament was caught by Terry Free. His big bass weighed 11.17 lbs. Terry’s big bass won him a new boat and motor worth $53,420.  There were four fish caught in the tournament which weighed over 10 pounds each. So, I would have to say the bass fishin’ on the Harris Chain is doin’ pretty good right now. We have a full moon next week and some of the bass will move to shoreline to bed if they haven’t already done their thing.

Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports that folks are on the water and catchin’ specks. You will be able to catch some specks in Lake Monroe and Lake Jesup. Kyle reports some folks are catchin’ specks in the St. Johns River, too. Most of the specks are bein’ caught on minners. A few specks are bein’ caught in shallow water and I’m sure next week’s full moon will push those specks on the beds, too. So, whether you are fishin’ for bass or specks, the fishin’ should really begin to pick up over the next week or so.

The Butler Chain is fishin’ pretty good, too. My neighbor John and his nephew Chet caught and released 19 bass last week. They caught their bass on trick worms, jigs, and Senko-type baits. Their biggest bass was around 2-1/2 pounds.

Rick and I fished the Butler Chain last week ourselves and we caught only five bass. I was fortunate enough to catch a nice bass of 5 lbs. 8oz. We caught our bass on plastic worms and A-rigs. I caught that big bass on an A-rig. We didn’t catch any small bass as most of our bass were nice 2 pounders to 2-1/2 pounders.

I forgot to mention that Kyle reports some shad showin’ up in the St. Johns River last week. If you have never been shad fishin’, I would highly recommend it. You can troll for the shad with a spoon and buck-tail set-up or use minners. They are a bunch of fun to catch and they jump lake crazy and you will have a good time catchin’ ’em. The shad are called the tarpon of fresh water. They will put on a show for ya and they are a lot of fun to catch.

Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’ this week and I’ll see ya next week.

Tip of the week: full moon.

Save a few and good luck!