The first signs of cooler weather signal the mullet schools in the St Johns them to move north of Central Florida heading first to Jacksonville, then south to warmer waters in their annual migration. Get ready for crappie season! American shad will soon follow.
Largemouth bass, sunshine (striped) bass, and black crappie will be the targets for September. Look for schooling bass early mornings at the mouth of the river on both sides of Monroe and Harney. Bass are eating lipless crank baits (Rattle Traps or imitations), shallow running slash baits (Rapala X-Walk), and topwater plugs (Zara Spook Jr.). Stripers are readily hitting topwater lures, 10-20 fish is likely before 8:00 am. Later in the morning move to the channel edges and throw deeper crankbaits for fish staging in the current downstream of structure, points, or sandbars. If you get lucky enough to cast net shad in open water in the lakes, don’t forget to send them down to the bottom with a ¾ ounce weight in a deep river bend for cat- fish and large bass.
Speckled perch (crappie) season begins in September with the first spawn usually happening in the second half of the month. Big fe- male fish can be caught when they stage up in the 6-8 foot depths while males are prepping the beds. Longline trolling with a minnow tipped 1/16th ounce jig at about 1.2 mph should do the trick. Ver- tical slow-trolling (spider-rigging) will also tempt the big ones and speeds may vary between .4 and 1.0 mph. Recommended baits: minnow-tipped naked Roadrunner 1/16th ounce pro series jighead in either white or chartreuse, Ron’s Zip Jigs, and Jiffy Jigs. (Don’t forget, always tip your jigs with a minnow to get more strikes)
Mark your calendars for the upcoming Shad and Crappie Derby – it begins November 1, 2017. Over $7,500 in prize! Watch for the October magazine’s full page Derby ad – listed will be all the sign-up locations. Good luck fishing!
