any one in Central fl??

I was fishing lake joseohine last week with a young lad of 10 and basically was testing out my boat and depth finder so was just drift fishing from west to east. There was a very light wind and we were fishing in about 8 feet of water using nightcrawlers for bait.. As luck would have it ,he caught his first crappie (keeper sized) on his first boat ride! Is there anyone here that regularly fishes either lake june,. lake Josephine, or istapoga? I could use some info on what to fish in any of the three to catch more crappies myself! I know minnows are better than nightcrawlers. Should I keep drift fishing until I get one then anchor ? or should I probably concentrate on the lilly pads all around the edges of the lakes?

Lots of times Drift fishing with minnows, several rods varying detph from 3 - 8 ft
is the way to go especially on a new lake - can use bobbers or vertical.
can use various color jigs 16th, minnow tipped.

Watch depth finder - mark location of hits - will give a general idea of what going
on lake- also your contour map on detph finder will give you at what lever fish
are active

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fishin813

Lots of times Drift fishing with minnows, several rods varying detph from 3 - 8 ft
is the way to go especially on a new lake - can use bobbers or vertical.
can use various color jigs 16th, minnow tipped.

Watch depth finder - mark location of hits - will give a general idea of what going
on lake- also your contour map on detph finder will give you at what lever fish
are active

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well..I got back out to Josephine this morning around 8:30. Stopped to get minnows but the bait shop was out so got some nightcrawlers. I tried drifting in the deeper water at first with no luck then decided to fish the pads at the drop off area between the two lake halves. Nothing at first but about 9 am some redears started biting. I got five within about an hour. All big except for one which swallowed the hook completely so I kept it. As I wa about to completely give up and most of the fish were leaving the ff screen ..,I threw close to a lily pad and something just completely gobbled it and ran! About ten foot away a bass jumped up out of the pads attached to my hook...but not for long. Snapped it almost immediately after the line tightened. This one was probably in the four lb range .Even with the miss I had a great time! The fish were on the beds in 3 ft of water. Two were females and full of roe. I'm going back Monday really early with worms.,crickets and minnows this time . Tried the lures but nothing even bothered to check them out. Oh..and there apparently had been a mayfly hatch..They were thick!!

Being the Full Moon time - shellcrackers should be in the pads.
move to pads and watch for pads to move - no movement in pads in that area go
to another. Shellies are bumping the stalks of pads to knock bugs into water.
Use a red worm - (worm-hook- split shot - slip bobber = set depth so that worm
and hook actually hit the bottom and bobber lays over with about 2" of slack out the
top - when you see the slack start to move - set the hook.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fishin813

Being the Full Moon time - shellcrackers should be in the pads.
move to pads and watch for pads to move - no movement in pads in that area go
to another. Shellies are bumping the stalks of pads to knock bugs into water.
Use a red worm - (worm-hook- split shot - slip bobber = set depth so that worm
and hook actually hit the bottom and bobber lays over with about 2" of slack out the
top - when you see the slack start to move - set the hook.

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That's what I did. I saw them striking on the top at the mayflys moving pads. How long will they bed?

This is commin close to end of main bedding season -

Usually 3 days before & 3 after the full moon.
They meaning not all bed same time but that is the normal cycle usually
starting in late Febr through May. They than scatter but into deeper water.
The Shellies actually only bed once a year whereas Bluegill are very sexually
orientated on monthly cycle almost year round.
Istokpoga is excellant lake for bluegill-shellies and crappie's (mostly known for bass
due to large amounts of Hydrilla.

Have caught spec's coming out of Henderson cover up in pads,
North of public boat ramp off Childs rd, south end in the contour depths from 6-10ft
west of the island before west land side