Hello Folks,
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend and you got a chance to do some fishin’. It’s still kinda hot and not too many folks are gettin’ on the water and fishin’. Most of the activity on the water this past weekend was folks who were partyin’.
The folks who did go fishin’ were able to catch a few bluegills and some bass. Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports some folks are startin’ to catch a few specks in Lake Jesup under the State Road 417 bridge. You can catch ’em on minners and jigs tipped with a minner. You can still catch a few bluegills in Lake Jesup and the St. Johns River. Most folks are catchin’ ’em on red worms. You will find the bass feedin’ on baitfish in the St. Johns River where the water is flowin’ in from the feeder creeks. Also look for baitfish on the shellbeds and a few bass will be feedin’ there as well.
Kyle was able to get on the water over the weekend and he reported that the bass were bitin’ pretty good in Lake Eustis and Lake Dora. He caught most of his bass around shaded areas in the lake. He found a few bass in deeper water around the submerged hydrilla and eel grass beds. If you can locate the brush piles in Lake Dora and Lake Eustis, you will find a few bass hangin’ around those areas as well.
The bass fishin’ on the Butler Chain has been good for numbers. Lots of folks are fishin’ the submerged hydrilla and eel grass beds throughout the chain and doin’ pretty good. Plastic worms and slow-sinkin’ Senko-type baits have been producin’ some nice stringers of bass.
Mark at Big Toho Bait and Tackle reports that things on West Lake have been a little slow this past week. Mark reports that not too many folks are fishin’ due to the hot weather. The folks that come down to fish West Lake get there at safelight and then they are off the water by noon time. Over the years that I have been writin’ my article, folks have always wanted to know what’s the best lure to catch a big bass on here in Florida. Well, we have science to prove what works best here in Florida. As you folks know, we have a program here in Florida and it’s called TrophyCatch.com. This is where folks catch and release bass of more than eight pounds. They weigh it and take a picture and send it in to the program.
You can win prizes and get a certificate recognizing you as a Trophy Catch member. Well, they have a category called Hall of Fame bass. These are bass that are caught and released that weigh more than 13 pounds. Do you know that more than 41 percent of those big bass are caught here in Florida are caught on plastic worms? The next lure that folks use is called other soft plastic baits. I would guess plastic lizards, Senko’s, frogs, flippin’ baits, to name a few. These baits account for 30 percent of the big bass caught. Also jigs caught 11 percent of the big bass. I think that’s pretty impressive.
If you want more information on how to catch these big bass, go to the TrophyCatch.com website and you can see when, where, depth, time, that folks caught these big bass.
Fall is about 12 days away and I can hardly wait. See ya next week. Tip of the week: plastic worms. Save a few and good luck!
