This week’s rain helps maintain water level of lakes

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Hello Folks,

We got some much needed rain this week and that will help maintain our lake levels goin’ into the spring.

The fishin’ has been pretty good in most of the lakes in our area. The speck fishin’ is gettin’ better each week and should continue into spawnin’ season.

Captain Joe reports that the folks in his area are catchin’ specks in Lake Harney, Lake Monroe and Lake Jesup. Folks are still driftin’ mid-lake and coverin’ lots of water. Captain Joe says to put your jigs at various depths and cover lots of water. The brightly colored jigs are workin’ the best for the specks. Good colors to use have been pink, chartreuse, and lemon-orange.

If you drift or troll for the specks, folks are catchin’ some nice specks on beetle spins and Road Runners. Once you locate the specks, just keep driftin’ back and forth until they quit bitin’. If you want to catch some specks in the Harris Chain, try fishin’ in 10 ft. of water in Lake Dora around Deer Island. If you fish the Lake Beauclair side of the island, stay in 8 ft. to 10 ft. of water and use brightly colored jigs tipped with a minner. The specks are bitin’ pretty good in Lake Griffin and Lake Yale.

The bass fishin’ on the Harris Chain is pickin’ up as well. You can catch some nice bass on swim-baits and plastic worms. Folks are also catchin’ some nice bass on shiners in the mouth of the canals and driftin’ over the hydrilla and eel-grass beds.

If you go fishin’ in the St. Johns River for bass, you need to fish the mouth of the canals and the run-offs from the rains we had this week. You will find the bass feedin’ on the bait-fish in those areas of the river. Lipless crank-baits, swim-baits or shiners will catch some bass in those areas.

Folks are catchin’ plenty of specks in the Kissimmee Chain as well. Most folks are driftin’ open water with jigs tipped with a minner. The bass fishin’ on the Kissimmee Chain is gettin’ better each week. Folks are driftin’ with shiners over the submerged grass beds and pickin’ up 20 to 30 bass per trip, up to 6 lbs. each.

Some good bass fishin’ continues in the Butler Chain and the Conway Chain. You will find the bass feedin’ on bait-fish along the shoreline cover and you will find schoolers feedin’ on bait-fish just off the shoreline. You have a lot of options in both chains. You will do best with a lipless crank-bait, swim-baits, and shallow-runnin’ crankbaits. Some folks are pickin’ up some nice bass on Carolina-rigged plastic worms, too. You need to fish in about 10 ft. to 12 ft. of water around the submerged grass beds. You can also catch plenty of bass on shiners.

We have a new moon comin’ up on January 20, so the bass fishin’ this comin’ weekend should be real good, dependin’ on the weather. We have some cooler weather comin’ into town this week. It’s gonna be in the 40s at night and up into the 70s during the day with a slight chance of rain, so this weekend should be a good time to be on the water. I hope you do get a chance to do some fishin’ and I’ll see ya next week.

Tip of the week: take the family and go fishin’.

Save a few and good luck!