North florida bass fishing!

[Beaufoshow]

Okay so new to the forum i look at it alot but just now made an account. Recently purchesed a g3 17 ft gatortough cc. Perfect for the smaller lakes around north to centrel florida. Ive grown up fishing the st marys river and catch alot of fish out of it. But really wanted to get out and fish bigger water like st johns, lake george, kissimie, seminole, and even some smaller likes like palestine, orange lake, sante fe, but went to st johns around welatka and got on the water and was just out of my element, not a lake fisherman, didnt know where to even start. Could someone tell me some good starter lakes i should be giving a try and tactics to fishing them? Ive always justed fished a river. Small at that. Just tips for near my location would be helpful. Thanks and look foward to being on the forum

[INEEDANEWSCREENNAME030718]

Look for out side points, down laid trees, stumps, Lilly pads, rocks, and  grass flats.  Remember 90 o/o of your fish are usually found in 10 o/o of the water so if you look for these things you should quickly become a productive lake angler. I've been tournament fishing for over 30 years.

[Beaufoshow]

8 hours ago, INEEDANEWSCREENNAME030718 said:

Look for out side points, down laid trees, stumps, Lilly pads, rocks, and  grass flats.  Remember 90 o/o of your fish are usually found in 10 o/o of the water so if you look for these things you should quickly become a productive lake angler. I've been tournament fishing for over 30 years.

Thanks, yeah where i live i fish all of that but when i see people out in deep water with crankbaits i just have no idea. I have a gps but im just more of a shallow structure and hittin banks with trees down and whatnot. Would love to get good at punching into thick grass but when the grass is everywhere what grass do you throw in. Guess i just gotta put the time in. Haha thanks!

[N Florida Mike]

Welcome to the forums ! I grew up fishing most of the places you mentioned. Im like you because I just never mastered "offshore " fishing. But ive done pretty good with structure fishing laydowns, docks , Cypress, and various grass beds etc.

You mentioned Palestine. Thats a fun lake. I never caught a lot of numbers there but did ok there using moccasin culprit worms in the cypresses and maiden cane. The southwest corner had big cypress trees out in the lake a good distance from the bank and was the best producing area. You also dont have to worry about pressure at palestine from other anglers. 

Ocean pond is near there, and we did well there the one time I fished it. Same pattern as palestine + docks.Orange and

Sante fe are great lakes too, and Sampson and Rowell lakes near Starke.

In the st Johns  running  from dock to dock and fishing eel grass edges in between works well..The more northern part of the river is tidal and I love fishing Cypress at high tide as well.

 

[Beaufoshow]

6 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Welcome to the forums ! I grew up fishing most of the places you mentioned. Im like you because I just never mastered "offshore " fishing. But ive done pretty good with structure fishing laydowns, docks , Cypress, and various grass beds etc.

You mentioned Palestine. Thats a fun lake. I never caught a lot of numbers there but did ok there using moccasin culprit worms in the cypresses and maiden cane. The southwest corner had big cypress trees out in the lake a good distance from the bank and was the best producing area. You also dont have to worry about pressure at palestine from other anglers. 

Ocean pond is near there, and we did well there the one time I fished it. Same pattern as palestine + docks.Orange and

Sante fe are great lakes too, and Sampson and Rowell lakes near Starke.

In the st Johns  running  from dock to dock and fishing eel grass edges in between works well..The more northern part of the river is tidal and I love fishing Cypress at high tide as well.

 

Thanks for the info. I will have to get out there when its not as windy!!

[bigbassin']

On 3/7/2018 at 4:55 PM, Beaufoshow said:

Thanks, yeah where i live i fish all of that but when i see people out in deep water with crankbaits i just have no idea. I have a gps but im just more of a shallow structure and hittin banks with trees down and whatnot. Would love to get good at punching into thick grass but when the grass is everywhere what grass do you throw in. Guess i just gotta put the time in. Haha thanks!

Which lakes have you seen people out deep with cranks?  I've fished all of those bodies of water once, except for palestine and seminole, and I think Sante Fe is the only one I ever saw people working away from shore.  I'd be interested in knowing what people are fishing out there, I'd guess grass flats since most of those lakes are shallower than 10 foot with no real structure to the best of my knowledge.

 

Never been on Sante Fe with a depth finder, but from what I understand it does have some pretty good structure.  If I've heard correctly, there is a ridge about 100-150 yards offshore that is 8ft surronded by 20 ft water, and if you can find grass or stumps on it you're set for a good day.  I could see crankbaits being effective there if that's actually the case.  All I managed to get were channel cats when I tried.

[Beaufoshow]

7 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Welcome to the forums ! I grew up fishing most of the places you mentioned. Im like you because I just never mastered "offshore " fishing. But ive done pretty good with structure fishing laydowns, docks , Cypress, and various grass beds etc.

You mentioned Palestine. Thats a fun lake. I never caught a lot of numbers there but did ok there using moccasin culprit worms in the cypresses and maiden cane. The southwest corner had big cypress trees out in the lake a good distance from the bank and was the best producing area. You also dont have to worry about pressure at palestine from other anglers. 

Ocean pond is near there, and we did well there the one time I fished it. Same pattern as palestine + docks.Orange and

Sante fe are great lakes too, and Sampson and Rowell lakes near Starke.

In the st Johns  running  from dock to dock and fishing eel grass edges in between works well..The more northern part of the river is tidal and I love fishing Cypress at high tide as well.

 

Thanks for the info. I will have to get out there when its not as windy!!

56 minutes ago, bigbassin' said:

Which lakes have you seen people out deep with cranks?  I've fished all of those bodies of water once, except for palestine and seminole, and I think Sante Fe is the only one I ever saw people working away from shore.  I'd be interested in knowing what people are fishing out there, I'd guess grass flats since most of those lakes are shallower than 10 foot with no real structure to the best of my knowledge.

 

Never been on Sante Fe with a depth finder, but from what I understand it does have some pretty good structure.  If I've heard correctly, there is a ridge about 100-150 yards offshore that is 8ft surronded by 20 ft water, and if you can find grass or stumps on it you're set for a good day.  I could see crankbaits being effective there if that's actually the case.  All I managed to get were channel cats when I tried.

Ive seen in sante fe and seminole (only on bassmasters) along with st johns and lake george using cranks all the time out in the middle or off shore 200 yds sorry didnt mean palistine lol 

[Michael Ennis]

Im new to the forums as well. I grew up fishing the st johns, lake george, rodman reservoir, Crescent lake.  Beaufoshow if you want to fish deep cranks you need to go to Rodman Reservoir. It has tons of shell bars, ledges, an old river channel. But the bad thing is that there are two stump fields and tons of hydriella. If you are good enough with a crankbait you should not have a issue. On the st johns there are tons of shell bars and areas that are good for throwing crankbaits certain times of the year. i have a tournament sunday out of welaka and i can let you what i caught my fish on and everything.

[Beaufoshow]

6 hours ago, Michael Ennis said:

Im new to the forums as well. I grew up fishing the st johns, lake george, rodman reservoir, Crescent lake.  Beaufoshow if you want to fish deep cranks you need to go to Rodman Reservoir. It has tons of shell bars, ledges, an old river channel. But the bad thing is that there are two stump fields and tons of hydriella. If you are good enough with a crankbait you should not have a issue. On the st johns there are tons of shell bars and areas that are good for throwing crankbaits certain times of the year. i have a tournament sunday out of welaka and i can let you what i caught my fish on and everything.

Yeah im not looking to use a crankbait because if its up to me thats the last thing i would want to use but just seeing people and tv shows fishing them areas with them and having way more luck than me with soft plastics lol but yeah let me know if you would just to have an idea of what to use thanks!

[N Florida Mike]

By the way, the St Mary's is probably the prettiest little river Ive fished. Dont take it for granted ! I would enjoy fishing it again someday.

[Beaufoshow]

13 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

By the way, the St Mary's is probably the prettiest little river Ive fished. Dont take it for granted ! I would enjoy fishing it again someday.

Haha oh yeah its right behind the house and for being so small where im at (between hilliard and st george ) ive caught some nice bass. With one being 9 lbs! 

[N Florida Mike]

A 9 lbder is huge for the St Marys. Ive only fished the stretch between hwy 301 and the railroad trestle. 

[Beaufoshow]

On 3/11/2018 at 8:07 AM, N Florida Mike said:

A 9 lbder is huge for the St Marys. Ive only fished the stretch between hwy 301 and the railroad trestle. 

Yeah ive fished alot of that river from where it starts all the way to the ocean but mostly from about st george to scotts landing it gets really shallow in the summer months whwre a boat cant even go down it !

[AmateurVA540]

I have an itch to come down to Florida from Virginia in the next couple weeks for a bass fishing trip. I will not have a boat. I prefer bank fishing as well. Any recommendations on super excessive accessible northern Florida freshwater areas!?

[N Florida Mike]

The Jacksonville area has dozens of ponds that are accessible for bank fishing. The wild lakes and rivers really don’t have much bank access. 
If you are going to be near Duval or St Johns counties, hit me up. I can tell you some that you can fish specifically.