June 2024
It was a month of neediness on Kit Lake, my home water, in central Florida's largemouth bass country. Work (and coworkers) exposed (and camouflaged) our neediness. Old colleagues found new reasons to need each other's support. And pod chasing began on Kit Lake, putting us in need of friends with good boats.
Air and water temperatures met, and the lake turned. Then later in the month, irregular rains began to refill, but not cool, the lake. So, our new fish are growing and moving.
Bluegill are establishing their own territories. So, anglers who fished Mrs. Springsteen's dock between her wake-up coffee and her late morning pressure washing, could only catch one or two. Using micropoppers that matched the sky, they would fool a couple aggressive fish. Then the action would die out and the anglers would move on. Where the docks end at the pasture, bluegill were found at the drop-offs. The same poppers brought them up from their hiding spots behind walls of vegetation that reached to the surface.
Young bass goofed around in the shallows. After rains they were occasionally tempted to strike various worm imitations, especially around lilly pads in several feet of water. But the big boys were offshore where the summer-chase-a-pod game began. Pairs and groups of Kit Lake boating anglers posted up in seven to fifteen feet of water then moved as quick as possible to water splashing elsewhere on the lake. Using fast gleeful strips to present bait fish shaped poppers like saltwater pencil poppers, or light sinking flies, they cast expectantly into the splashy spots.
Even if they didn't hook up, the anglers noted the spots for future fishing trips. With regular summer rains, our options will grow. So we might need more days off for fishing.
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