Lake Jackson 5/29-5/30/14 The New Moon of May

Use this area to post freshwater fishing reports from the area lakes and rivers. Please try to include relevant information such as:
Location, date, time, water conditions, weather conditions, baits, techniques, species caught, etc.

Moderators: bman, Chalk, Tom Keels

Post Reply
Poopong McPlop
Posts: 108
Joined: May 27th, 2013, 10:18 pm

Lake Jackson 5/29-5/30/14 The New Moon of May

Post by Poopong McPlop »

My phone corrupted my photos from 5/29 so I had to come back out today and crush them again and take photos of our epic fishing experience. We were going to fish Talquin for the big moons of june and may, since Talquin has a nearly inexhaustable supply of panfish, but my water pump busted on the way to Little River last weekend. I'm glad I caught it and so did the outboards electronics and I did no damage to my Honda outboard. I'm stuck with trolling motor only for the week while I wait on the impeller, so we decided to crush the big ones of Lake Jackson. On 5/29 we trolled around checking new spots and I noticed there seemed to be no fish anywhere in their typical feeding areas. The surface temperatures started in the very low 80s and ended in the mid 80s. After 30min I had a strong hunch the fish were not feeding and were concentrated on beds somewhere. We immediately went to a spot I had found a couple weeks prior that seemed to hold fish in the non feeding times and had only 3 open water entrances/exits closely bunched together. We slowly fan-casted around and located a fantastic bed. We yanked 14 huge titty bream, all were 1.5lbs or larger and caught about 40 fish total keeping 20 for the day before the winds picked up and the giant bream moved off. The pattern we noticed is that the huge bluegills wanted a quick exit to openwater, and they wanted it to be very calm openings in the maidencane and of course sandy bottom. We could see huge bubbles where they were fanning away. Unlike Talquin where you can find them in 2-3ft of water very close to the shoreline, ours at Lake Jackson seemed to prefer 4-6ft of water and hard or sandy bottom just like anywhere. They seemed to go on bed a good bit before the feeding times and exited 30-40 minutes after the solunar feeding time end. They were sporadically on bed during the non feeding times as well, but not in high numbers. There were about 8 boats out, all fishing just off the maidencane. A couple of boats were on some very productive open water beds that were on humps with vegetation.

Today we once again got out early and hit our spot. It rained a little the day before and it dropped the water back into the high 70s where it remained all day. It was cloudy just like the day before and it kept the water temps in check. I found 4 active beds and Jo Anne fished the open water entrances while one poling with her bream buster. We had our best day ever of Bream fishing. With me fishing the beds today and her taking the open water we caught well over 100 bluegills and shell crackers between the 2 feeding times. There were 12 boats within 200 yards of us and they were all employing similar anchoring strategies as us. We anchored in the maidencane to conceal the boat and it paid dividends. We caught about 40 1.5lb or larger bluegills and kept just under 70 fish today. Our best days last year we were only catching 15-20 huge gills or shell crackers. We are really lucky to be in Florida with our year around growing season and Florida strain coppernose bluegills that mature to 1lb quickly and sometimes under 3 years in some cases. If we were up north it would take 9-10 years for them to reach this size and you wouldnt be able to plunder the beds the way we can and do in the south. I switched between bottom bumping and suspending red worms just a hair off the bottom. I lost 2-3 in the first feeding and paid the price in fish exiting the beds. The 2nd feeding time I was nearly 100% in landing the big ones. The bluegills and shellcrackers went on bed 30-40 minutes early and stayed on bed for another 40 minutes past the feeding times. The bluegills we caught were beautiful they had purples, blues, peach and white in their faces, very much like bream from the famed Lake Miccosukee Gator Hole. Ill be fileting and analyzing their stomach contents when I get a chance. I have a feeling their bellies will be full of baby bass and other forage minnows. Another great new moon of May at Lake Jackson!

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Last edited by Poopong McPlop on May 31st, 2014, 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
SS-342
Site Sponsor
Posts: 1819
Joined: March 25th, 2010, 3:04 pm

Re: Lake Jackson 5/29-5/30/14 The New Moon of May

Post by SS-342 »

Now that is a MESS of fish! Fun pulling those kind in. Thanks for the good report.
SS-342
198DLV CS 115HP
13' Gheenoe 6HP
Post Reply