Hernando lakes. . .Big Goose Egg!!!

Left the Public Ramp this morning at daylight fishing the Hernando chain of lakes in search of specks. Did not catch a single one!!! Tried the pads in shallow (3' - 6'), tried deeper open water (8' - 12'), tried pads in the deeper areas and middle areas of the lake. . .used minnows, jigs, jigs with minnows - NADA!!! Did catch a bunch of bass, mudfish and several gar and one catfish, which passed the time and provided some "pull-back" and line singing - just not the targeted species I had in mind. Everyone I talk to seems to tell me to give up on the specks until November??? I understand that the spawn may be over, but the fish don't just vanish from the planet or go into hibernation like bears for several months. . .they have to be there and have to eat! Any advice from the seasoned veterans of my neck of the woods??? I have a long weekend coming up. . .thinking of a combo turkey hunt/speck fish'n/camping trip in the St. Johns/Lake George area, any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

The bite has turned off quite a bit over the last month. And that's on every body of water I've been on locally. Seems to me like they spawned a lot earlier in the season than normal. Only time I do decent lately is right at sunrise or an hour before sunset. Overcast and rainy days usually pay off a little better as well (in my experience) if you can stand it. They're going to be deeper with as warm as the water is around here right now. From what I understand it's tough fishing for specks right now in many areas in FL. Definitely come September things should start turning back around. In the meantime, it's time to transition to hunting gill beds which can also be a blast if you get on em.

Crappie bite is definitely off for me compared with last years results.
About the same number of trips at the same lake doing the same thing has resulted in about half as many fish.
Last year i only used jigs, this year im also using minnows with jigs and minnows on just plain hooks, but it makes no difference.
Minnows definitely help with the bass, but not as much with the crappies.
They sprayed very heavily a few months back which killed most of the vegetation along the shorelines where i prefer fishing.
All that eventually sunk to the bottom and new stuff is growing, but i really think it changed everything.
The lake is small with no water deeper than about 10’, so the weeds provided the best year round protection.
But im now able to see what appear to be new beds on the shoreline that i just assume are bluegill beds?

Try the Withalchotie river or up north 301 beyond Citra. Think it is Orange lake.

When I do get down to Central FL during post-spawn timeframe, I usually do pretty well trolling deep open water. 2D electronics will show pods of baitfish and I then troll my baits targeting a depth at the top of the baitfish. They always seem to be a little more shallow early morning and then a couple feet deeper by mid-morning


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