How did you do Saturday Jan 17

[BenFL01]

I had a family deal this morning so my fishing buddy and I could not get on the water until 2:30. It was sunny but pretty cool. Started longsleeves jackets off, finished with jackets on. Fished until 5:30pm and caught 1 fish, a 11" slab. Nobody else fishing that we saw, so we probably just went at a bad time. Fished Lake Howard on the South Chain of lakes in Winter Haven.

Now... I think we are doing what we have heard described as tight line spider rigging. I am going to describe the rigs, and ask for some feed back. We have a few 10' spinning reels (silstar rods by pennacle), and for the remainder we used 10' procrappie cane poles. 8 rods out. Today I wanted to try something like the way T_om has talked about fishing. We put a one ounce weight then a swivel and finished with a jig. Some tipped with minnows. The water in Howard is very stained, so we went with a mix of colors cause we were not sure.

We we started fishing, it seemed like we were trolling to slow and picking up the bottom to much. We trolled a bit faster and found a little deeper water. We have a 12v/24v with 5 speeds. Ended up running at speed 2 on 24v. It feels fast, as this is the fist time we have moved off slow fishing minnows to what I believe is called tightline pushing jigs.

We doing something wrong or is the front still just to strong, plus late day?

[flslabhunter1]

Hey man,

We had the same luck today at Crescent Lake where we have been killin em lately. I think the cold front has given them lockjaw!

[BenFL01]

Well we are going to try Howard again in the morning, and maybe one or two of the other lakes adjacent to howard. Cannon, and worse case, the ole deep hole in Lake May.

I really want to give T_om's jig pushing a try. Our poles will end up differently than his. Also in his notes, he pushes hot pink / neon red, chartruse, and white jigs. Howard is very stained. I think we will do a mix of 4 of one color and 4 of another.

[flslabhunter1]

Let us know how you do.

[BenFL01]

Got on the water a little late. Around 9am. Fished until 12:30pm. Caught 1 fish, a nice keeper my son just had to clean. He is 4 and it was the first speck he ever boated himself.

Fished with Red head white body 1/8 oz jigs and white body/ chartreuse tail 1/8 oz jigs tipped with a minnow fast trolling tight lines at 8' in 9 to 11 feet of water. I think about half way through the day I mixed in some green body chartreuse tail jigs on my 4 poles.

None of the other boaters or shore fishermen we talked with were doing that well either though.

[Phantom309]

I'm tellin y'all, they gone to the bank (makin nests)= Spawn.....
Not all of em, but, it's begun (spawn).....
Look for the deep drop offs/w/ weeds/hyanciths, layin in the water to three foot off the bank, they'll be 1-2 ft down, hangin out !
Damned ! never thought I'd be the one givin out all my secrets ! ! !
151= my weakness ! !