St Johns in Astor area

Will be in Astor Friday morning to fish for 4 days! I’m getting mixed reports on whether or not the spawn is on or we missed it!

Can anyone from there tell me what’s the situation? Did we miss the spawn or are you still catching fish with eggs? Are they deep or shallow?

We’re thinking of going up to Tick Mud Lake and fishing the banks or even slow drifting the lake. We’’re not against fishing deep, but I feel like they are still confused. I’m hoping these days of temps getting up into the 80’s will bring them in to the shallows.

Please give me some info on the area!

Thanks in advance for your time.


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I have not cleaned any lately, but my guess is some still have eggs. On the Harris Chain the water temp is still down, last time out it was 64. I heard they like to spawn at 68 (per Shuorc). Additionally, I live on the water, and I have not head the noisy bullfrogs sounding off. Usually the spring spawn comes along with tons of blossoms on the orange trees and "very loud" morning/evenings. Not here yet IMHO.

I'll be in Astor from March 5th to the 20th. I'll be trolling the river, Dexter and Woodruff. First trip down in 6 years, I'm ready to fish some black water.

I'll be flying down to my Astor fish camp in the morning for a week of fishing. Was down last month but caught the virus and had to quarantine all week. :mad:

My folks are there and had some of their best fishing of the winter this past week. Sounds like the bite is good on the river and lakes both right now. :ThumbsUp

I can tell you this, right now, the bite is terrible! Graphing fish but no bites! We’ve caught 2 crappie and a bass in 2 days so far! We’ve tried drifting, spider rigging, long line trolling and jigging the pads! We are going to try to get in the grass this evening and cut holes and jig there! Group next to us, this what they’ve done so far and are catching fish, but no limits!
Water temps are in the low 70’s! We’ve tried a lot of things and are very frustrated! I guess this is why they call it fishing and not catching! [emoji23]


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hope you get on them soon.

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Originally Posted by icehouse

I can tell you this, right now, the bite is terrible! Graphing fish but no bites! We’ve caught 2 crappie and a bass in 2 days so far! We’ve tried drifting, spider rigging, long line trolling and jigging the pads! We are going to try to get in the grass this evening and cut holes and jig there! Group next to us, this what they’ve done so far and are catching fish, but no limits!
Water temps are in the low 70’s! We’ve tried a lot of things and are very frustrated! I guess this is why they call it fishing and not catching! [emoji23]


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Wow, not good. It's hit or miss here on the Harris Chain. They might be biting first thing in the morning, then they turn off. Have gone out briefly last two morning and at least that what I observed.

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Originally Posted by Slab

Wow, not good. It's hit or miss here on the Harris Chain. They might be biting first thing in the morning, then they turn off. Have gone out briefly last two morning and at least that what I observed.

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1 of the biggest problems between yesterday and today is the weekend water traffic! This morning by 9 am, we counted 37 jet skis and countless big boats just ripping up and down the river! Yesterday we were in the river toward lake George and got washed into the banks by all of the ripping and running, had to leave ! This morning we tried the grass areas! Ran the boat up in the grass and pulled out holes to drop jigs in! Caught 1 and lost 1! Hoping this evening to go back out, but the water is so choppy, it’s hard to control the boat enough to fish! We won’t make this mistake again! NO weekend or holiday days on our fishing trips in the future!

Anyone coming towards the St Johns River, the bite is bad right now! Water temps were 73 this morning and 75 when we came for lunch!


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by icehouse

1 of the biggest problems between yesterday and today is the weekend water traffic! This morning by 9 am, we counted 37 jet skis and countless big boats just ripping up and down the river! Yesterday we were in the river toward lake George and got washed into the banks by all of the ripping and running, had to leave ! This morning we tried the grass areas! Ran the boat up in the grass and pulled out holes to drop jigs in! Caught 1 and lost 1! Hoping this evening to go back out, but the water is so choppy, it’s hard to control the boat enough to fish! We won’t make this mistake again! NO weekend or holiday days on our fishing trips in the future!

Anyone coming towards the St Johns River, the bite is bad right now! Water temps were 73 this morning and 75 when we came for lunch!


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Thanks for the report. Good luck next time out. You'll get into them. The St. Johns never disappoints.

We’ve been fishing the river south of Astor the last couple days. My dad and son caught 7 yesterday and they were all nice then this morning I went with them and we caught a ton of dinks and 11 keepers. Biggest yesterday was 1# 13oz and today’s was 1# 10oz.
Spot locking in about 25fow and dropping minnows down from 1-10 feet.
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Very nice dog. Beautiful fish. Great report, thanks for sharing.

A video from one of our morning trips. :fish

https://youtu.be/XxQWS4qQzwE

Great video. Low key, I like that with my morning coffee. Good times with Dad. Good size limit he uses as well, not a lot of meat ono fish under 10" anyway. And was that first big one you netted a Channel Cat? I've been down here a while and not hooked into one of those. Plenty up North, but not seen one down here.

Lake George/St. Johns is an area I would really like to learn. I deer hunt in this area often from the skiff and would like to mix in some speck fishing with my hunting over the long weekends or offseason scouting trips. Thanks for sharing!

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Originally Posted by Slab

Great video. Low key, I like that with my morning coffee. Good times with Dad. Good size limit he uses as well, not a lot of meat ono fish under 10" anyway. And was that first big one you netted a Channel Cat? I've been down here a while and not hooked into one of those. Plenty up North, but not seen one down here.

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Thanks! Yep, that was a channel cat. Dad always throws them back but I've been keeping a few from the river and they're pretty darn good. Mild flavor like the ones I catch from our ponds up north.

A lil' trick I do with cats is to tear their gills a little, causing them to start bleeding. I put them on a stringer to bleed out further while still alive....when they stop swimming(belly up), I then put them on ice. Vastly improves taste/flesh appearance!:check:highfive