This past week we decided to mix things up a little bit and spent some time back out on the St Johns River and Lake Monroe. We had great weather all week long which made for great fishing conditions, water temps starting the day out in the upper 70's an ending the days in the very low 80's, what a nice change of pace that has been. Thursday we saw some schooling action, but other than that the waters had been pretty much calm.
Wide range of baits were used, from Sweat Beavers to rattle trap, only thing the traps got, were a few mullet that got snagged. Most action and fish caught were on the Beavers, Senko type baits and Fluke type baits. Lake Monroe itself fished pretty good, working grasses, hydrilla, and reed yielded some descent bass, but no aggressive hit, all the hits we got were very light taps, almost as if it were dinks hitting the bait, these bass were just picking up the bait and holding onto it, only reacting once you set the hook.
St Johns River itself looked pretty good, with a good flow, we were able to set a shoreline drift without having to tap the trolling motor, allowing us to be very stealthy closer to the shoreline, and flipping very tight to cover, again the bass were just very lightly tapping the baits, so you didn't know if you were setting the hook on fish or weeds, so every tap you felt, you set the hook, although several bass were missed, with most coming unbuttoned close to the boat, they were showing good size, and very scrappy fighters. The big key to fishing the river, was finding submerged trees with scattered grasses around or very close by.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com
