NORTH CENTRAL FLORIDA

Now that hunting and holiday seasons are behind us, fishers welcome  the true “most wonderful time of the year”, especially freshwater  fishers focused on big bass. Our nicely-filled fresh waters will soon be producing large mouths at a hectic pace, but at present — not so much.  Truth is, despite their great looks, even the best anglers say our best bass waters have been strangely
unproductive

.
And so, a February forecast will be just that — a guess based on present  conditions and the February productivity through recent years.  Orange  Lake, for instance, put bass out better last year than it had in several years.  It might be stuck in neutral right now, but it’s a good bet that by the time you’re reading this, the well-loved lake will again be worth a trip.  If you’re looking for a starting point, try spinnerbaits and soft plastics in north end lily pad and hydrilla beds. The Lochloosa forecast is similar, and the same north-end-pads-and-grass thing again applies. There’s plenty of reason to hope that the Cross Creek waterway between Orange and Lochloosa will be wide open and easily navigable for the first February in a while.  Lake Santa Fe is also unusually high at the start of spawning season.  This is both good, and bad for bassers, as the beds in deep maiden cane  will be tough to see, but blind casting the flooded cypresses between  the boat docks usually produces well during a high-water bass spawn.  For bass fans, Lake George falls on the negative side this year.   The  big lake is not only still high from Hurricane Irma, it’s also a good  bit darker than usual.  To boot, the much-loved fields of eelgrass  that run for miles along the west shore are much thinner in spots.   In others, it’s gone.  The month doesn’t start with a great bass fishing  promise for folks determined to score a Lake George giant.  The hottest ticket might actually be smaller lakes and ponds that were  all but forgotten during their recent low-water past.  We have plenty
of indication that their neglected lunkers might really show out this  year.

Here’s one reason we feel this way:
Hawthorne bass angler, Jeff Kyle walked into Gary’s Tackle Box with  quite a fetching fish story.  His roll started on Christmas Eve while  fishing an unnamed Putnam County pond with his buddy, Sam Drake.  Casting Texas-rigged Senko-style plastics, Kyle hooked a good fish that would weigh 8.34 on his hand-held digital scale, but that was just the start.  He followed that fish up with whoppers weighing 9.14 and 9.28 before their release. After a Christmas Eve like that, you know where Jeff Kyle was on Christmas Day, and on Christmas Day, he hooked another big bass. When his fishing partner that day, Johnny Simpkins of Hawthorne, slid the net under this one, the men knew they had a giant. At 12.30-pounds, they were not wrong.  After releasing four pre-spawn TrophyCatch entries over two late December days, Kyle wondered how good his secret spot might be when
the spawn does begin.   Like a true bass angler, he mused, “Maybe we’ll  get the bigger ones”.

Gary Simpson
Gary’s Tackle Box
5721 NW 13th Street
Gainesville, FL
garystacklebox.com