This report covers the last 30 days. Week ending November 15th. Things have been very crazy to say the least. We have had several trips to Johns Lake, Butler Chain, Conway Chain and a private lake.
Johns Lake has seen some good action, with early morning action coming from the Deer Island cut area working SteelShads and trick worms. Once the action slows in this area, we have been going into the marsh area working trick worms and brush hogs, all junebug colors, which have been producing some quality bass. Most of the action has been coming in open waters, with the baits being crawled slowly across bottom around grass beds and hydrilla. Main lake areas that have been producing for us have been the scattered isolated grass beds, once again, a single blade of grass produces a good catch. Jigs and whacky rigged senko type baits also have been producing around docks and submerged structure.
Butler Chain has also been pretty steady for us. Drop offs have been a major focus for us, tossing trick worms, craws and brush hogs into 16 plus foot of water, and slowly crawling the baits up into the shallower waters has been the ticket, most bass we have seen and caught have been suspended in 12 foot of water on the drop offs. Lake Butler and Little Lake Down have been the best producers for us, with Lake Tibet and Lake Louise also producing some good numbers.
Conway Chain faired pretty well, with once again deep waters being the big key to catching bass. Offshore weed beds were holding bass with rattle traps, steel shads and 7 inch worms catching the bulk of the bass. Several docks held some quality bass, with a whacky rig doing all the catching, as the bass would hit on the fall. Bite was light, so watching the line was big key to getting them out from under the docks.
The private lake we have been fishing on occasion has been producing very well. This body of water has seen some limited shallow water action, sitting in the middle of the lakes has been really producing some good numbers of not only bass but some 2 pound crappie. Steel shads have been the main bait for catching bass out there, and if worked like slow rolling a spinner bait, the crappie will slam this bait. Best crappie fishing action has been from 6:30am up to about 8am, then they just seem to shut down only getting a few here and there, very scattered, but you can usually get the limit by 8am. Best fishing waters have been in 12 to 18 foot of water, with bass mostly suspended in 8 to 10 foot of water, go deeper and you can catch some very big catch fish here also.
When we have gotten a good shallow water bite going, it has been mostly on brush hogs and trick worms crawled very slowly on the bottom. Water temperatures have been holding pretty steady in the low to mid 60's with schooling action going on most of the day as the bass are really starting to feed up good for the spawn. We have been seeing some scattered beds on Johns Lake, Butler Chain and the private waters so get ready for yet another great spawning season.
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com