You may recall.....................................I used to post on here and write articles way back when.

 

It has been a while B/R. I've been floating around, writing a couple of books, watching my kids grow up. I haven't written an article here in ages but I've been fishing a ton. When I got down to Fl. in 2006, I quickly realized I would be spending a lot of time finesse fishing because my local water was gin clear. That didn't discourage me because that is what I did on NY. Once I got used to how clear the water really was, I started catching a ton of fish. Some of my friends, who have fished this water their whole lives, didn't believe that I was catching 40, 50, 75 even 100 fish a day. They were so intimidated by the clear water they avoided it at all costs. Only when I got them out on the boat did they see that we really could catch that many fish, and some big ones at that.

 

Finesse fishing is the name of the game, 6lb test is the heaviest I employ in the clear water, even when jig fishing. The water comes out of the springs at 72 degrees and doesn't get much past 75 degrees even when the air temp is over 100.

 

Ned Rigs

 

Drop shot rigs

 

Enormous fish on light tackle

 

Shakey head rigs

Wacky rigs

 

Neko rigs

 

even small jig n pigs produce good fish.

 

I fish here pretty much at least once a week

 

In the cool weather I throw a hair jig that I tie to resemble a float n fly, on a 1/8oz jig and no float and I drag it on the bottom and just clean up with it.

 

One without the hat.

Very cool!

Some beasts! Nice work

Livin' large!

 

The Rainbow and the Ocklawaha are my favorites. Health issues have prevented a visit the last couple of years but hopefully this fall when the weather cools. 

 

Keep posting - I can at least fish the Rainbow vicariously thru you.

I just love seeing the deep bright red gills.  You know it's a good fish when you can see the gills when they come to the surface shaking their heads. 

Wow, some nice bass on light tackle. It definitely takes skill to land big bass using 6# line. Bravo Sir. 

Awesome Craig!  

 

Roger

Wow,  I used to live in north central Florida and did some fishing in the Mill Pond and Chipola River near Marianna, fishing those springs was some of the hardest fishing I've ever experienced. That was before I learned about finesse fishing, looks like I really missed out, those are some nice clear water bass!

Those are some nice fish, what springs are you fishing? It look like something I wanna check out

Nice looking bass!

That is so darn cool. I love clear water, particularly when it throws other anglers off!

Nice catch.

I Used to fish the Ocklawaha and Sante- Fe rivers.Never caught a lot,but never got skunked either.They are both app. 1 1/2 hrs away,so I never got to fish them as much as I would have. Every time I fished the Ocklawaha ,something would go wrong.Motor conked out several miles downstream of our camp once,and we paddled 4 hours against a 3 knot current to get back.