So, Thursday morning I drove down to Okee-Tantie and met up with my dad. The drive was absolutely grueling from my neck of the woods. Thick rain and heavy winds for nearly 3 hours until I hit Yeehaw Junction. Then it finally eased up a bit. White-knuckled that steering wheel the whole way, lemme tell ya.
Despite the incoming whether, we launched and set out to try and make some sense of these fish. Majority of Thursday was actually not too terrible weather-wise until later in the afternoon when the rain bands started coming in with the heavy winds. We tried a few spots along the river, fishing grass, dams, rocks, you name it. Caught a few bass off minnows. No specks, though. We headed in around 3PM when the weather made that decision for us.
Friday we went back out, this time focusing more towards the mouth of the river. Had one huge fish (what looked like a mudder or cat) just yank my Sedona combo straight into the water while I was tying on a different color jig. Needless to say, that set the tone for my day right there. After not having any luck there, we went under the 78 bridge and started jigging some pylons. No hits after about an hour of fighting the horrendous wind under there. We eventually called it a day after that.
Saturday, we decided to hoof it over to Harney Pond, since it was only about a 20 minute drive from Angler's Hotel. Got there before daybreak and started fishing the canal. Actually caught a few fish in the beginning and then it died off later in the morning. Turned back and jigged the plyons under the bridge to the right of the boat ramp(s). No dice. Ended up loading up and going back to Okee-Tantie to try a spot a bit outside of the river, now that the wind had eased up and we could actually not get completely beat to death on the lake. Fished in front of a dam on the east side of the lake and caught a couple, and plenty of freaking catfish, good lord. We went back to end the day fishing the pylons under 78 bridge (again). Caught one nice one, but we were both just worn the hell down after such a tough weekend.
We both had bad reports prior to going, but we decided to give it a go anyways. That was one trip that would have been better saved for a later date! At any rate, we ran into a guy that literally just tied under the bridge and fished that the entire day Saturday. Showed me his cooler and he had about 18. No minnows, just jigging. So, there's something to be said about that. They're just running through the river there, catch 3 or 4 periodically. Just gotta be patient and endure. Pretty sure those fellas were the only ones coming home with something to show!
Hoping that area improves over the next month or so. Such a shame to see the fishing as subpar as it is, especially compared to last year at this time. We absolutely slayed 'em.
Drove home super early on Sunday and immediately hooked up the boat to hit Floral City Pool. Got 3 real nice slabs in a few hours my buddy and I fished. He got a 15-inch, 1.51lb whopper that was beautiful. Confirmed all of them have roe, now.
Here's to a better report in 2019! Merry Christmas fellas!
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