By Jimmy Tomazinis
mail@floridanewsline.com
Happy New Year! Here’s to having a safe, memorable, and productive upcoming year. As I talked about in the past, it’s a great time to set out plans and make goals for the coming year. Whether it’s catching your biggest bass or planning a trip to catch a new species of fish, you have plenty of time after sunset right now, so make good use of it. It is also pertinent to service boat motors, trailers, and fishing gear so you are not missing out when spring rolls around.
Specks were up and down through December, but they should be more consistent this month. Good numbers of smaller fish can be found in creeks around the area. A few larger fish will be mixed in, but they’ll still be mostly in the river. Minnows and jigs still have you covered. If you’re wondering where you can get minnows, we have a few options: Trout Creek Marina, Black Creek Marina, and Whiteys Fish Camp usually have plenty. If you have an aerator and a few buckets you can keep the ones you don’t use alive between trips. Change the water they are in and feed them every couple days and they can survive a long time. It makes it super convenient having them on hand.
Bass will be in the creeks and the river as well. I don’t spend nearly as much time targeting them this month as I do specks. When I do, I use large wild shiners since I am looking for bigger bass. Artificials will still be productive and if I can give any advice on selecting those this time of year, go towards a smaller size and work them very slow. Everything moves slower when the water cools down.
Stripers are also worth looking for in the cold water. If the river is calm, you can look for schooling fish in open water. Birds can show you where to look. Bridges will be the best bet in all conditions. Lipless crank baits, jigs, shrimp, and shiners are all good. Stripers tend to be near the surface early and late then mid column or towards the bottom when the sun is up. At least we still have some options out there. Tight lines.
