By Sally Hernandez
The south end of Lake Okeechobee is producing excellent catches! One of our local guides caught an 8, a 9, and a 10 pound largemouth bass all in one afternoon on wild shiners. You read that right! Another boater, who witnessed this awesome catch, also caught 3 five pounders the same afternoon on a fluke. These awesome fish were all caught in Pelican Bay. Look for hyacinths, hydrilla and other water plants where big bass like to ambush shiners.
The Speck, Florida crappie, are really biting well this month and the locals are coming out to get them several days a week. Although the Florida crappie can be caught during the summer months, they really are at their best from late fall to early spring. Specks can be caught using minnows or jigs. Minnows should be suspended at various depths to locate schools. When jig fishing, you can cover a great deal more area. The secret to successful crappie fishing is to move often until you locate a school. The big difference in jigs is the weight when crappie fishing. If you’re fishing 14 feet of water on a day with 15-mph winds, it may take a 1⁄ 4-ounce head to keep the lure down within a couple of feet of bottom where the fish are likely to be biting. On the other hand, on a calm day you’ll catch more fish with a smaller head, down to 1⁄ 64 ounce. Take a selection to match whatever conditions you may face. Or better yet, do like most of the locals do and stick a minnow in their face, set the hook and start heating up the frying pan as we say here on Okeechobee.
Even the youngest anglers are reeling in the big ones at Slim’s Fish Camp. Four year old little Miss Charlee Vann of Loxahatchee, FL caught her first nice sized bass on a domestic shiner from the shoreline and it weighed in at just under 4 pounds. Slim’s Fish Camp carries both live bait and artificial baits, so come by us and see us! We will be happy to hook you up. Have a safe and happy holiday season from all of us here at Slim’s. Happy Angling!!
Sally Hernandez / Slim’s Fish Camp / 561-996-3844
