Big ol' bass and a Gary's Tackle Box shirt!
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There have been reports that most of the gulf coast shallows have darkened with the fresh, tannin-stained water from a very rainy late winter and early spring. Doug ...more Stringfellow and I had to see for ourselves. Tuesday morning we headed over to the coast to check out Waccasassa Bay. Out on the rows of bars known as the Waccasassa Reefs, water was, indeedindeed, darker than usual. We agreed, though, that it was not as bad as we had feared. While the bottom wasn’t quite visible, we could see our jigs and jerkbaits down to about two feet. And the trout didn’t seem to have much trouble locating them. We boated a couple dozen trout, including eight of nice size.
But the biggest trout are coming from gulf shallows to the north, mostly between Horseshoe Beach and Keaton Beach. Poor weather kept the weekend fishing down, but good catches resumed by Monday. Fishing that day out of Steinhatchee with husband, Jeff, Debbie Evans caught one of the biggest trout seen over recent days at Sea Hag Marina. The big ‘speck’ weighed just over 6-pounds.
The big sheepshead that are spawning a little way offshore, though, are still the biggest deal here for anglers. Wednesday, Richard McDavid of Sea Hag and Randall Dasher, John Pfanzelt, and Clyde Sperring of McAlpin, Fl anchored on a spot with live, natural bottom in water 25-feet deep. For the next hour, the fish-catching was nonstop. They used live fiddler crabs for bait, and, Richard said, “No bait that made it to the bottom lasted for long”. The four men filled a combined 60-fish sheepshead limit in that one hour. With plenty of fishing time left, they decided to try their luck in the shallows; and there, their great luck continued with trout up to 23.5-inches and a 22-inch redfish.
Gary Simpson, a veteran tournament angler, operates Gary’s Tackle Box at L & S Auto Trim -
Orange and Lochloosa Lakes are brimming with water, and light tackle fishers are seeing the expected seasonal change in the fastest-biting panfish. Speckled perch ...more are vacating the pads and grass beds while shellcracker and bluegill numbers are growing fast.
Fishing out of Twin Lakes Fish Camp on Cross Creek late last week, Jim O’Brien dropped small Beetle SpinsSpins into open pockets in lily pads to take a 37 mixed bream. But we can’t be so sure that Orange Lake bream are likewise willing. Wednesday, another fisherman idled from Twin Lakes through Cross Creek to try for bream in Orange.
The wind, though, had plugged access into open lake with floating vegetation. -
After competing on Rodman and enduring the tough conditions Saturday, Scott Bryan of Gainesville decided to give Lake Santa Fe a try on Sunday. On the clear, cool, ...more and windy day, the Gainesville fisherman cast Strike King and Berkley swimbaits — pulling the minnow-imitating soft plastics through shallow cover. He only had three bass strikes, but they were very good strikes ... a four-pounder and two six pounders.
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The 4th Military Support Group Bass Tournament was held out of Rodman Reservoir Saturday ... a day that saw periods of exceptionally nasty weather.
Several of the ...more 36 teams locked out of the tannin-darkened pool and some stayed put, but every one spent parts of their day casting amid thunder, lightning, and cold, sideways rain. Despite the poor weather, overall catches were pretty impressive. Seventeen teams filled five-bass limits, and 16 catches weighed in double digits.
Jerry and Jason Gutierrez had the both the best limit and the top single bass. Their 15.28-pound limit was anchored by an 8.25-pound beauty. Close behind were Steven Thames and Thomas Rutkowski with 15.11 pounds; and Bobby Johnson and Judith Foxx-Johnson claimed third with a 14.64-pound limit that included a 6.07 Rodman chunk. -
Bass fishing on Rodman Reservoir is heating up as the water temps fall. Top Rodman guide, Sean Rush and his parties are finding fish in good number and size. Fishing ...more recently with friend and customer, Henry Knight, Rush reported a rare two-bass-at-once catch. Now, this occurrence is scarce enough using lures with treble hooks. With a live shiner fished on a single hook, it’s really near impossible.
It seems that an extra-aggressive fish blasted the shiner with such force the baitfish blew out through its gills. Apparently just then, another good fish took the stunned bait. Knight’s single cast with a single shiner on a single hook produced two nice Rodman bass.
Veteran’s Day was a memorable one for Robert and Hunter Dean. The Trenton father-and-son fished plastic worms in the Suwannee River near Fanning Springs to take five nice bass through the morning hours.
Then, a big midday bite topped off the trip. The Suwannee lunker weighed in at 7-pounds 2-ounces. -
A slower weekend of crappie-catching on Newnan’s did produce a number of limits, but most of us fell short of that goal. In my case, fishing with Buddy DeGraff and ...more Bill White, we finished our Sunday morning trip with just 11 specks. They were, at least, all nice-sized examples. Live minnows and chartreuse jigs worked best, but the bites were hard to come by out in the lake’s open water.
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Right around this time of year, the first big wave of speckled trout seeking to escape the chilling shallow flats, floods into gulf coast tidal creeks. Some have ...more learned to predict pretty accurately this influx of hungry fish — and among this group are Gainesville anglers, Keith Chapman and Don House. Chapman and House were in a creek near the mouth of the Suwannee River’s East Pass Saturday morning, and it didn’t take long for the men to see that their timing was right. They twitched Bomber 14A jerkbaits over sandy spots in the current to catch and release “around 100 trout”… unable to give a precise count, having lost track by mid-morning.
A couple of large flounder, a 15-inch snook, and three big redfish rounded out the stellar fishing day.
Ed Burgess, too, enjoyed the outstanding Suwannee fishing. Monday morning, the Middleburg resident fished the backwater creeks and canals between West Pass and Salt Creek. Live shrimp had been unavailable that day, so Burgess cut strips from small yellowtail he was able to catch. Fished on the bottom in a deeper hole, the cut bait drew bites from redfish measuring 27 and 24 inches — and trout of 19 and 27-inches. Fishing out of Suwannee last Thursday, Lynn Baxley of Hawthorne whipped twin 26-inch reds on back-to-back casts. The fine brace of reds took large live shrimp fished on the bottom in Bumblebee Creek.
While visiting friends at Suwannee Sunday, Mike Streicher of Gainesville was treated to a great day of fishing. After netting mud minnows for bait, he cast them into rocky-bottomed areas in a deeper creek. The lively baits produced several nice trout and reds, topped by a 26.5-inch beauty. The fall mackerel run in our nearest gulf waters has to be nearly finished by now, but Robert and Jennifer Hart of Alachua proved that the razor-toothed speedsters were still around off Steinhatchee Saturday. Trolling Drone Spoons in 70-degree water 12-feet deep, they caught six Spanish in forty minutes. The largest two macks were each better than 5 pounds.
And the Harts’ luck with Spanish mackerel wasn’t an isolated happening. Great near-shore catches were common at Steinhatchee and Keaton Beach last weekend, with trout and mackerel the primary species seen. Richard McDavid of Sea Hag Marina was catching Spanish in waist-deep water Sunday when he saw another fish chasing bait at the surface.
The feeding fish was within casting range, so McDavid cranked in his jig fast to make the cast. As he pulled his lure from the water, he saw another mack chasing it — but this was a fish more than three feet long … apparently a kingfish feeding in the clear shallows along with its smaller cousins. Last weekend was one for great trout catches at Steinhatchee. Both speckled and sand trout were caught in the river near channel marker 18 by anglers casting and trolling jigs and slow-sinking Mirrolures.
And Carl Wheeler of Gray, Georgia took a giant 30-inch trout Monday near Keaton Beach. McDavid summed last weekend’s fast Steinhatchee action up by declaring, “The inshore action was just ridiculous”. -
Chris and Susanna McConn with some really nice fish out of yankeetown last weekend. I bet that snook pulled!
