Hello Folks,
Well, we have been prayin’ for rain and our prayers have been answered. We are finally gettin’ some rain and it’s fillin’ our lakes and rivers back up, and believe me, that’s a good thing. It also replenishes our aquifer.
Well, on to the fishin’. Folks are gettin’ on the water and they are catchin’ plenty of bluegills and shellcrackers. All you need are some red worms or some crickets and a bed of panfish, and you are good to go.
Folks are catchin’ their limits in Lake Woodruff, John’s Lake, Lake Griffin, Lake Dora, and Lake Harris. So you have plenty of options of lakes to fish so get the family and get some bait and let’s go fishin’. You can drift open water until you locate a bed of ‘em and once you get on ‘em keep driftin’ back and forth until they quite bitin’. Also check the pads and docks or anything that provides some shade for the panfish. The bluegills will be hangin’ around those shady areas gettin’ out of the sun.
You can catch some catfish in the deep holes in the St. Johns River on night-crawlers and stink-baits. Some folks like to fish with small domestic shiners for catfish and they will work as well. You will find the bass feedin’ in the mouth of the canals and the feeder creeks, especially after all the rain we have been gettin’. You can use a noisy top-water bait at first light. Also try a lipless crankbait while the bass are bustin’ on the pods of bait-fish. If the water is flowin’ into the river into a shell-bed, you can also try a Carolina-rigged plastic worm around the shell-beds and you should catch some nice bass.
The bass fishin’ on the Kissimmee Chain has been good as of late. Folks are catchin’ some nice bass early in the mornin’ on plastic toads and plastic frogs. You can also catch some bass at first light on swim-baits skimmin’ across the top or a buzz-bait comin’ across the top of water.
Have you heard about an angler named Dave Ochs? He manages the Lake Rosalie Bait and Tackle shop. He was pre-fishin’ Lake Kissimmee for an upcomin’ tournament. He caught a monster bass on a weightless Yamamoto Senko. She weighed 19.20 lbs. on an old dial scale. He did take a picture, got some measurements, and released her back to the water to be caught again. The bass measured 27 inches in length and 24 inches in girth.
If Mr. Ochs would have weighed the bass on a certified scale and the fish was certified by a Florida Fish and Wildlife biologist, he would be the holder of the new Florida record for bass. He would have eclipsed the current official state record of 17.27 lbs. Well, what can you say other than Mr. Ochs caught the bass of a lifetime and released her to be caught another day. Oh, by the way, you might be thinkin’ why didn’t he put her in his live-well and bring the bass in to be weighed and certified? He couldn’t get the bass in his live-well, and he didn’t want to let her die, so he did the next best thing and let her go.
So, my friends, that goes to show you we have some big bass in our Florida waters and you need to get on the water and go fishin’. See ya next week.
Tip of the week: slow-sinkin’ Senko’s.
Save a few and good luck!
