bigbassin'

Can’t really speak to bass fishing there, if you’re set on bass you could always drive over to the Tampa Bypass Canal. A lot of walking on riprap, but there are some good fish. If you look for pull offs on the road next to grass flats/mangroves in that area you’ll have a good shot at trout, potentially reds and snook as well. Your probably about 1.5 months from the beach snook action on fly, but I’ve heard some folks say further south they were already catching them in February. Seems early to me but maybe I’m wrong.

There’s some interesting folks out in ONF, probably pretty easy to get them confused with a skunk ape.

Anyone with skill would know the crescent wrench is a hammer.

You shouldn’t have any problems from gators as long as a little common sense is used. Don’t get too close if you see one, don’t drag a stringer in areas where you know there are gators and you’ll be fine. They’ll keep there distance if you do the same. I’ve only had a single incident where a gator got slightly aggressive. I paddled by an obvious slide during mid-summer (mating season) and a fairly large gator surfaced about 15 feet from me, raising it’s whole body out of the water. It stuck it’s tail pretty high up as well, which isn’t something I’ve seen before. I kept moving, at a normal pace and the gator lowered back into a normal posture. Wasn’t really aggressive, just letting me know it lives there.

I’ve only ever fished the east side of it. Small bass and an Oscar or two are all we’ve caught. No clue what the west side is like. IMO, if you have time I’d keep heading south to Tamiami. Not as many lmb, but they’re still there, tons of peacocks, Oscars, catch snook and tarpon off the hard structure occasionally. I’ve only fished the East Side on Tamiami as well but there were plenty of pull offs at least for the first 20 miles or so leaving Miami. West side is supposed to be very good land based snook fishing.

Fished it a couple of times, all I ever got were spots. I would consider the lake to be pressured. The folks that seemed to do well pretty much just threw shakey heads and tubes.

More of early morning fishing, but one time wading around 4:00 AM we were catching sea trout pretty much as fast as we could reel them in. The whole time I was hearing something crash in to the bait bucket I had tied to me about 6’ away. Finally saw it and it was about a 4’ shark just hitting the bucket, closed mouth. Luckily no stringer with fish for it to grab.

It would be neat if successful, I’ve got a lot of great memories fishing for them. With that being said, unless you’re controlling the water temperatures I don’t think they’d make it in a pond. The rivers they live in are effectively climate controlled by the number of springs. The river I typically fished never got warmer than 77, and never got colder than 53. I would think if they could survive warmer water they would have a wider range in creeks/rivers around central Florida. Conversely if they could handle colder weather they’d probably be more spread out in South Georgia. Lastly, I never caught one out of stationary water. They always came off of current and around hard bottom. Maybe if they didn’t have to compete with LMB they could survive in a pond setting but they seem to be outcompeted in this type of environment in the wild.

I enjoyed the read, this just isn’t a frequently visited sub forum as far as I can tell.

Most of my inshore catches that were worthwhile came while wading. I can’t really think of any good stories, but I do think about a snook I lost pretty frequently. For reference, I always wade with a medium fast spinning rod, 20 lb braid to a 15-25 lb leader. This has never been a problem with trout/reds but probably isn’t enough for a snook of any size. Wading a flat, I’d probably seen 30+ snook (18-25” range) in a little over an hour but a small jack was all I had to show for it. Right up against the end of the flat where it drops off, I see a roughly 30’ log under the water and toss my fluke past it. As the fluke passes the log, a massive mid-40” snook rises up and follows for just a foot or two. This was easily the biggest snook I’ve ever seen in person, and it was dark too. It must of been fresh out of the river with how dark brown it was, it blended into the log perfectly but was very distinguished when it kicked that foot or two over the sand. I take the same cast again, as my lure comes in front of the snook it began to move further off the log and slowly swims along the flat, I figure the fish just isn’t interested in my artificial at this point but a third cast couldn’t hurt. I lead the fish by about 20’ and just start working the fluke as frantically as possible. The snook charged the fluke and absolutely blew up the water surface when he struck. The strike was more disruptive than any tarpon I’ve ever seen. Keep in mind this all played out about 30’ from me. I set the hook and come tight with the fish. I don’t think it realized it was hooked as I was able to get 5-6 reel cranks in with minimal effort and the fish slowly moved my way. Almost like a flip was switched, the snook hit a 180 to turn away from me and took 2-3 swipes of it’s tail pulling drag at will before it’s head started to come out of the water. My 15 pound test leader snapped the instant it came out of the work. Fight lasted all of 5-10 seconds.

I’ve never been able to get one on the fly.

I know that lake, as well as Sinclair below it, are supposed to have phenomenal cat fishing. I’ve read here and there that Oconee has good bass fishing, but cat’s are what it’s really known for.

I’ve only tried Red Bug once from shore, caught a couple of specs on live shiners. I’ve thought about taking the kayak out there, it looks like it should be good. I wouldn’t paddle board on Jesup.

Pretty much every residential pond in that area will hold bass, with the exception of the ponds off Winter Springs boulevard. Not sure if the ponds are too shallow or too young, but they don’t really seem to hold much. They’re probably all posted now anyways. if you know anyone that can get you onto Bear Gully, Little Lake Howell, or Lake Howell I’ve always heard they’re good fishing. Secret Lake Park by you has good fishing and a kayak/canoe launch. We used to catch catfish on Lake Jesup, never tried bass fishing it.

How do y’all post multiple pictures on the same post? I’ve got a handful of flies I figured I’d share here, but it will only allow one picture.

Good info on the rivers, that’s what I assumed but wanted to be sure. I’d have to lay everything out in my kayak, not sure I have the space for the pedal drive and the stripping basket in mine. The more I think about, if I were to fly fish out of the kayak I’d probably be treating it like a SUP to help with spotting fish/easier to cast so I wouldn’t really even be using the drive.

I keep thinking about doing it, even just informally. I’ve got largemouth, spots, and shoal bass in GA this year. I’ve got Suwannee’s and smallmouth as well this year, just not in GA. Outside of shoal bass, Chattahoochee bass are the ones I’m most interested in. From what I understand, your best chance for them is in private “trout water”, which is more than I’m interested in paying.

I’ve been fishing reservoirs with conventional tackle out of a pedal drive kayak for about the last month, and so far the pedals are far superior to paddling for this application. I do have two questions for situations I haven’t fished yet: 1) When fishing rivers, do you still use the pedal drive or am I better off using my paddle? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use a pedal drive while river fishing. 2) For those that fly fish, how tangled up does your fly line get in the pedal drive? Is it to the point I’d be better off leaving the pedal drive at home if I’m bringing a fly rod?

Just depends on the current, typically t-rigged with a 1/8 or 1/4 oz weight. I don’t see any reason split shot or weightless wouldn’t work if the current permitted it.

There have been plenty of times I’ve caught river fish letting plastics just drift in the current without ever touching the bottom. Start standing perpendicular to the current, cast at a 45 degree upstream. Then using your body, face the lure and turn with it as it drifts. Reel just enough slack in as it works towards you to maintain a semi-slack line, allowing you to feel what’s happening with out impacting the drift. Once the lure is straight in front of you, just continue to allow it drifting until it’s about 45 degrees downstream of you. At this point your line tension will impact the lure, but it will appear as a baitfish struggling against the current. Once it’s at 45 degrees downstream, reel it in. You’d be surprised how many hits occur just after you start to reel. If you fly fish, think of swinging streamers. Effectively a marabou jig is just a fly with enough weight for you to cast with conventional gear. If you don’t fly fish, it still may be worth watching folks swing streamers just because that’s the best instruction for what I’m describing that I know of.

That topo isn’t detailed enough to tell us much. Do you have a map with tighter increments?

Outside of largemouth and Suwannee, which other black bass species are there? I know fwc lists shoal bass but from what I understand they’re pretty much nonexistent anymore down there.

I’ve been thinking of making my way up there, just haven’t done so yet. Any particular location you prefer to launch from? Been looking at putting in at the ramp closest to the river and working my way upstream.

Didn’t read everything so I’m not sure if this was already mentioned, but most people set the hook too fast with live bait. At 2 Mississippi reel tight to the fish, at 3 Mississippi sweep the rod.

Fished there yesterday, that’s what inspired the post. I’ve fished Lanier a handful of times, that’s where my PB came from. I’ve never crushed the spots but I do get 2-3 every time. I think if I spent more time learning the lake that’s the best chance at a monster around me, but there are less crowded lakes in the mountains if I go north of Lanier. You on a local GA forum as well? I think you commented on one of my posts there yesterday.