Week Ending December 31st
The last two weeks of December saw us out on Johns Lake a lot. Water temps were running mid 60's to low 70's in this time frame, and bass showed sporadic schooling action in various areas of the lake. Typical bass in the schools have been running right at 2 pounds, with several bass in the four pound class also being caught. Waters are still low, but very fishable, with some bass being caught in less than a foot of water on Gitem K.O's and Gitem Shads. Deer Island Cut has seen some good schooling action, with bass being caught on Live bait as well as Storm WildEye Curl Tail Minnows, rattle traps and spinner baits.
Once the schooling action tapered off, offshore grass beds seemed to be the place to fish, especially the isolated grass patches, pitching weighted worms, and senko type baits to these isolated grass patches kept the action steady. The bigger offshore grass beds the bass would charge live bait that was slow trolled along the outside edges, with some bass being caught pitching live bait into small open pockets in the grass beds, be sure to have a good line, as when they hit, they dart into the heaviest areas of the grass and will break you off. HiSeas Black Widow line has done a great job at pulling those bass out of the grasses.
On a side note, I had the great pleasure of having Kathy "Ketchup" Barker and RC from ProBass Network along with "Ketchups" dad Ken on Johns Lake and it was great watching Ken spank everyone when it came to catching the bass. Altho Ken was rather quiet, if you didn't watch him, he would sneak a bass to the boat without even a peep, and from what I hear, he has not let up on rubbing it in to Kathy. Way to go pops, and keep bragging, you earned the right.
With my sister in town for the holidays, I managed to get her and my dad out on the water for a few hours on Johns Lake. With my dad not fishing freshwater since the 70's, and my sister never having fished for bass, it took a few missed hook ups before they got the hang of things. Using live bait to make things easier for them, they managed to boat some good bass, with the big gal coming in right at 4 pounds.
We have been seeing bass beds starting to pop up around Johns Lake, so it should be only a matter of time before they hit the beds and the bigger gals start getting caught. Remember to handle these bass as little as possible and gently put them back in the water if your fishing the beds, these bass repopulating our great lakes is what makes fishing in Florida the place to be.
