OCTOBER 2022
It was a month of seismic change on Kit Lake, my home water, in central Florida’s largemouth bass country. Record storms and other attacks had rebuilding. And re-looking.
Hurricane Ian rammed through Florida and shaved away old fish holding spots. The storm and then the rare cold front that followed put the fish down for days. Waters were cooler than usual, leading us to use sinking flies. Flooding washed out formerly dry land, and created new holding areas of two and three feet of fishy water. But kids with cane poles fishing from the land had the advantage of us there.
We did have some success casting into new holding areas behind cattails and grasses where fry and small adult fish chased bait flushed down to them. Bumped reeds provided us with clues to these new secret corners.
Lily pad holding spots held fish less than usual, but we found bass and awakening crappie with deeper presentations. More fish were offshore in the newly deeper water, where patient anglers found them with fast sinking baitfish flies. With our usual hunting spots restructured by the storm, moving water was full of more fish than usual.
We are counting our blessings on the water, and off, and thinking of others as new seasons come upon us.
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