LAKE SEMINOLE IS FULL, STAINED & 62 DEGREES BY MATT BATY 229 726 0513

Bass fishing is good. The bass have moved on the beds now, and there are also a lot of nice fish cruising around bedding areas in the shallows. One good technique to use right now is to keep your trolling motor on about 70 percent and ride, and look for bedding bass to catch. While you are looking, there are several baits that you can fish around in the bedding areas that will catch nice fish. The first is a shallow running crank bait such as a Spro Fat John in clear chartreuse or a Stanford 1.5 Patriot in summer color. Use a heavy fluorocarbon when fishing these two baits to keep them running shallow. Try 20 pound test Sunline FC Sniper. The other technique to use in these areas is to swim a Big Bite Baits 7 Sugar Cane worm. This bait can be Texas rigged with a 1/4 ounce Fish Catchin Fool Tungsten and a FCF bobber stopper. It has a paddle tail action and when Texas rigged, you can swim it through grass and lily pads much like a swim bait. Once you find a bedding fish, then it is time to drop the Power Poles, which are great for shallow fishing, and begin trying to entice the fish to bite. The best bait on the market right now for sight fishing is a Big Bite Baits Warmouth. This bait is extremely awesome for bedding bass. There are several great colors to use, but we like the chartreuse bluegill color. It is a little tricky trying to rig this bait, but the Big Bite Baits website has an illustration of how to rig it on a 5/0 EWG Gamakatsu hook. Also, when bed fishing use a copolymer line with a little stretch such as 16 to 22 pound test. Sunline Machinegun Cast. There are also still a few pre spawn fish to catch on lipless crank baits. Use your Lowrance electronics to locate the edges of the spawning flats on the main lake and cast on top of the grass and rip your bait free. A good area to start is b/w the Firebreak and Ship Island which is the little island at the end of Fish Pond Drain. Learn how to use the Lowrance Structure Scan and Down Scan technology with Southern Fishing on the Water fishing schools [email protected]