Hello Folks,
We have been gettin’ some much-needed rain and we are goin’ to get some more this week. The water levels are comin’ up and I can tell it in the ponds around my house and in the bodies of water in our area.
The bluegills and shellcrackers are still bitin’ in most of the chains in our area, especially in the Kissimmee Chain, the Butler Chain, and John’s Lake on the west side of town.
The Harris Chain has been good for panfish as well. Lake Dora, Lake Griffin, and Little Lake Harris have been producin’ the best stringers of panfish as of late. Folks are driftin’ mid-lake with crickets and red worms. If you drift across a bed, keep driftin’ back and forth until they quit bitin’.
The Kissimmee Chain has been really good for bass fishin’. Folks are find-in’ bass hangin’ around the mouth of the canals where the water is flowin’ into each lake. The bass are feedin’ on the bait fish and they will bite on top-water baits like a Devils Horse, a lipless crankbait, or a shallow-runnin’ crank-bait. Once the top-water bite is over, try fishin’ the same area with plastic worms or a Carolina-rigged plastic worm. A slow-sinkin’ Senko-type bait will work as well.
If you get on the water real early, you can try fishin’ along the shoreline cover like the Kissimmee grass or pads. Try throwin’ a plastic frog, toad, or skim a swim-bait across the top of the water. You are tryin’ to get a reaction bite and to get those ole bass to come up and take your top-water lure. If you find some off-shore pepper grass, hydrilla clumps, or eel-grass, you can work your baits across the top of the grass and entice those bass to bite it.
A case in point: Rick and I got to go fishin’ on Saturday and we were fishin’ with plastic worms on the edge of off-shore grass fields. The grass was topped out so I decided to work a Bitter’s 5 in. Salty Sling across the top of the grass. I was able to catch a 4.5 lb. bass right on the edge of the grass. I had a couple more strikes but the wind got up and the top-water bite slowed down quite a bit. We did manage to catch and release around 10 bass and a Shoe-Pic. Rick is still the king of Shoe-Pics on the Butler Chain.
The St. Johns River has been good for bass, too. The water is flowin’ into the river from the runoffs from all the rain we have been gettin’. If you go to the St. Johns, look for some runoffs or in the mouth of the feeder creeks. The bass will be feedin’ on the bait-fish. A noisy top-water bait, lipless crankbait, or a slow-sinkin’ Senko-type bait will catch you a bass. The bass like to hang around those type of areas lookin’ for a free meal.
You should be able to catch some catfish in the deep holes in the bends of the river. Most folks are usin’ small domestic shiners, night-crawlers, or stink-baits for the catfish.
Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’ this week or over the weekend.
See ya next week.
Tip of the week: top-water baits early.
Save a few and good luck!
