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.
What can I say, the months of March and April have seen some very good bass fishing. We have been hitting several different bodies of water. East Lake Toho had been doing good for us for a good stretch and then the action started to slow down a bit too much for my liking. Spinner baits, flukes and stick baits had been the hot ticket baits out here until things slowed down.
Lake Jackson has still been fishing great. Live wild shiners have been producing not only some good number but some darn good sized bass as well. Just ask Vonda Ward, as her and husband Mike came down for some great bass fishing action on Lake Jackson. Vonda had informed me that she had never caught a largemouth bass before, plenty of catfish and such, but never a bass. I told her not to worry she WILL catch some bass, and folks she was on fire! Her first bass of the day, took a little long than expected, maybe 30 minutes but she handled this big gal like a true pro! Gave her one heck of a fight, and in the end she was holding this 7 pound largemouth bass for some pictures and some great memories for sure.
Folks I have to tell you I see a lot of new product all the time in the fishing industry, but this one really has me excited. I spend a lot of time on the water, which like many of you means taking some kind of snack or even a sandwich out on the water so we can eat during the day. Now you start catching bass and unhooking them to release them back into the water, or worse yet you have to handle live wild shiners, your hands will smell like bait or bass for the rest of the day.
Ari and Karl fished 6 hours out on Lake Jackson with me on Sunday and had a pretty darn good day. I believe final numbers were 16 bass boated and a few others missed. Bait of choice was wild shiners and it was a good choice for sure. The guys boated a couple bass that went three to four pounds with the big gal coming in just over six pounds.
This required patience on our part where it seemed at times we were letting them have the bait for twenty seconds before we could set the hook, and with the circle hooks they were set perfect right in the corner of the mouth like they should be. The guys did a great job out there and we all had a blast.
For the most part the bass were slow to commit to our offerings of wild shiners, just mouthing the baits and swimming some with them before really taking them. This meant patience once again on our part, but the guys got their hook ups and boated well over 20 bass for the day.
The last few days has seen some really good action out on Lake Jackson. The lily pad fields have really thinned out in a big way since the state sprayed them and this has opened up a few more areas for us to bass fish. Hydrilla is still very healthy out here and so are the bass.
Tom came back once again, along with good friend Frank and they had a blast out here. Between the two of them they boated right about 20 bass in six hours, along with 2 nice catfish and a huge bowfin. The bass the guys were catching were running from school sized bass to the big gal which was just over 7 pounds. Mix in three bass at an easy five pounds a pop, that makes for one great day of Bass Fishing in Florida!
