We had the great pleasure of having Melanie and Ravi out for the morning on Johns Lake. Live wild shiners was the bait of choice with all the rains we have been getting as of late, and it was the perfect choice. The schooling action was fast and furious out here as Melanie starting the day swinging bass over the side of the boat at a pretty good pace.
Ravi was being patient as he knew his bass would come, after a few misses Ravi got his over the side of the boat and it was a good one. Turns out it was not only his first fish he caught in 8 years, but also his first ever bass before heading back to India. Schooling action held steady for about two hours, key way to catching them with the wild shiners was to freeline the bait. Johns Lake has always had some great action, and we fully expect it to continue on right thru the summer as usual.
Bass fishing on Lake Jackson has been off the hook folks! Eric and Russ came with me for their second day of bass fishing and Lake Jackson showed them why Florida is the Bass Fishing Capital of the World! Live wild shiners produced not only numbers but some good size as well. Once the live bait was gone, we switched up to flukes and the bass kept on biting for them. We had good cloud cover today and a breeze all day long so it made the fishing great. Flukes were tossed to the back side of lily pads and skipped across the top, if that didn’t trigger a bite we let them fall on the outside edge and that would get the strike. Big smiles and a lot of fish CATCHING stories for these two guys to tell for a while
Lake Toho has been fishing pretty good for us. All artificial fishing trips out here for us as of late and the bass have been playing good for us.
We have been doing pretty good out on Lake Jackson. Wild shiners have been catching a lot of bass out here and some good sized bass as well. Steve came out with us today for a couple hours of some of Florida’s best bass fishing and did it all with artificial lures. Numbers were down some but believe me the smiles Steve had when he caught his new personal best just over six pounds on a senko type bait made for a great day. This toad did a lot of jumping and put on a great show for Steve today. Early morning bite remains the best action as things will slow down some close to high noon. This does not mean fishing is off, just means we slow down the presentation and target certain areas a little harder to keep catching the bass!
Johns Lake has also been doing very good. Brian and Ryan Taylor came for some bass fishing with live wild shiners. Early arrival was the big key to catching bass out here today. The typical schooling bass were where they were supposed to be as usual and made for some good action for the day. The guys were surprised to see all the bass that were schooling as they said they never really see much bass jumping around back home in Ohio.
East Lake Toho has been good. Early morning bite has been the best part of the day here. Scattered grasses through-out the lake has been producing not only some good numbers, but some good size as well. This has been an often over looked body of water, but believe me, this lake is a sleeper. You just need to know how to fish it. Start planning your fall and winter trips out here for split day trips, fishing for four hours, breaking for lunch at one of the two fine restaurants on the lake, then fishing the last four hours.
With the weather calming down, cold fronts, or even cool fronts now a thing of the past, our water temperatures are now starting to warm up steadily. Early morning schooling action will be very common on Lakes Toho, Butler Chain and Johns Lake. Prop baits, torpedoes, buzz baits and toads will be very good early morning producers for some quality bass.
Grass beds and hydrilla will be very good areas to target using worms, senko type baits, spinner baits and shallow running crank baits. Depending on the body of water, docks will be holding bass as usual and typically some good quality largemouth bass.
November has been a pretty good month for bass fishing on Johns Lake. We have had several trips out on Johns Lake and for the most part of the month there is been consistent schooling action going on. Deer Island Cut is usually the best bet for the schooling action first thing in the morning, but as we witnessed on a trip with clients, who were fishing for strictly pan fish, the schooling action can kick in just about anywhere on this great body of water.
Spinner baits and blade baits have been the best producers out here and usually in wide open waters. Mid lake seemed to be one of the best areas to keep a consistent catching action going on. Docks had been holding limited amount of action skipping wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s and Gene Larew craws.

