July best bets – Summer is definitely here. Hot fishing awaits anglers searching the waters of Central Florida lakes and rivers. The Kissimmee chain is at low water levels making room for all the June rains. Our lakes are slowly filling up due to the summer showers and the fish will seek cooler, dense cover. The Bass bite has been good early morning and late evening. Try and beat the heat. Most bass are being caught out in open water vegetation. Bass are still chasing schooling shad in open water. On West Lake Toho most anglers are using soft plastics, Carolina rigging them using a one ounce weight to get thru the vegetation. I have been having good success trolling live wild shiners up and down the hydrilla patches. East Lake Toho is still one of the better artificial lakes to fish during the summer. Fish open water peppergrass – I personally like using a zoom vibe magnum worm Texas-rigged. Check flood control gates for flow, they usually hold good fish. Swim baits are another good bait of choice.
Panfish – Blue gill are spawning in the canals and any place that is sandy and having any type of flow near it. Bait of choice is crickets. Popping bugs also work well this time of year. Shellcracker are in very shallow water spawning. I have found most of them by accident running the airboat in shallow water – best bait is red wigglers.
Crappie – Specks are in open water doing their usual summer time feeding early morning and evening. Minnows trolled in open water work best.
