Hello Folks,
I hope you are havin’ a great week and you are gettin’ ready for the Christmas holidays. It won’t be long until Santa gets here and we will remember the reason for the season. Hopefully, you will get some time to do some fishin’.
The specks are startin’ to bite in most of the lakes in our area. Kyle at Bitter’s Bait and Tackle reports that lots of folks are catchin’ some specks in Lake Monroe and Lake Jesup. Most folks are driftin’ open water with jigs tipped with a minner and some folks are just fishin’ with minners. Kyle is gettin’ some nice reports of folks catchin’ a few specks off the seawall in downtown Sanford. So, if you don’t have a boat, get some minners and take the family and go down to the seawall and catch some fish.
Lots of folks are fishin’ for specks in John’s Lake. Most of the specks are bein’ caught driftin’ open water with minners. I fished out there last week and there were plenty of folks driftin’ for specks in the two main lakes. The specks are startin’ to bite really good in West Lake.
Mark at Big Toho Bait and Tackle reports that folks are gettin’ on the water and catchin’ plenty of specks in deeper water. As reported last week, fishin’ for specks has been the best between Mackinson and Paradise Islands. We had another cold front come in this week, so the speck fishin’ should get better each week.
The bass fishin’ is startin’ to pick up a little in most of the lakes in our area. Kyle reports that folks are catchin’ some nice bass in the Harris Chain.
There was a Bassmaster Team Tournament Championship held on the Harris Chain last week and it took almost 40 lbs. to win that two-day tournament. The anglers in the tournament weighed in some big bass as well. The biggest bass of the tournament both weighed in at 8.7 lbs. One bass was caught on the first day and the second biggest bass was caught the next day. The teams had to split the pot for big bass.
Mark at Big Toho Bait and Tackle reports that the bass are still bitin’ in West Lake on shiners. Most of the guides are usin’ shiners and they are catch plenty of bass each trip. You can go through five dozen shiners per trip.
The bass fishin’ on the Butler Chain has been good, but most of the bass have been on the smaller size. You can catch plenty of smaller bass durin’ the day on lipless crank-baits top-water baits, and swim-baits.
Congratulations to one of my fishin’ partners, Rich Niles. Rich won his club tournament Sunday on the Butler Chain. He weighed in 5 bass that weighed 11.18 pounds, and he also caught the biggest bass of the tournament that weighed 3.68 lbs.
Congratulations, Rich, on your win, I’m sure there are more to come in 2021.
Winter will officially start on Monday, December 21. Hopefully, the cold weather will stay for a while and the speck fishin’ will get better each week.
Well, that’s it for this week. I hope to see you on the water.
Tip of the week: Specks still bitin’.
Save a few and good luck!
