December has seen some great bass fishing action on Johns Lake, Butler Chain and the private waters we have been fishing.
Private waters have mainly been for crappie fishing the past month, and it has been producing some very nice slabs. Bait we have been using have been the SteelShad and jigs tipped with crappie nibbles.
Most trips have been 4 hour trips with us boating between 20 and 30 per trip and they have been running from 1 ½ pounds to 2 pound slabs!
Johns Lake we have spotted bass beds all over the place! Its that time of year for the big gals to show their faces and make clients very happy, as was the case with a father and son trip of Bruce and young Dave. Bruce had been tossing Gitem Warlocks and getting bass here and there, very scattered around the lake and towards the end of the trip, young Dave working a wild shiner got the wake up call of a lifetime! A beautiful and very solid 10.14 pound largemouth bass, let me tell you, this youngster handled this hawg of a bass like a pro! Our main areas of concentration on Johns Lake has been scattered and isolated grass patches, docks and a few areas of open water holding some good hydrilla.
Butler Chain has also had some good action going on, Bass beds have been spotted all over the chain. Altho the beds we have spotted have been for the most part empty right now, we have caught some very good bass in the general areas that the beds are. Areas we have concentrated on have been grass beds very close to drop offs, as the bass have been staging to hit the beds. Butler itself has been the main producer for numbers and size with several 6 pounders being caught on anything from steelshad, gitem warlocks and spinner baits.
Please remember to catch and release, and this time of year, be especially gentle with the big gals, afterall they are what make fishing in florida awesome!
