Stick marsh, Kenansville, Garcia

[JF1]

Coming from pa next weekend.  Staying in Vero Beach, planning on hitting each of the above for at least one day.  I know each one is shallow, I’ll be bringing the boat, anything specific to watch out for?

 

any tips for each Lake appreciated.  Not looking for someone’s specific area, just something to get me started in right direction.  

[roadwarrior]

Stick Marsh/ Farm 13 imight be the premier largemouth lake in the country, but you need to

be careful and stay in the lanes. Your best bet is to hire a guide for at least a day.  

 

[SC53]

Haven’t been to Garcia or kennansville in quite some time but fish the SM a lot. Wind direction will be the determining factor there. South end is the most productive area so you’ll need SE, SW or south wind to fish it. A couple of days of that and the water clears considerably. Most of the grass in the lake (eelgrass and some hydrilla) will be down there. LOTS of stumps still there and they extend out at least a few hundred yards from shore but are scattered. Best to come off plane and trim up and idle in a good ways out. 

Any out of north direction and water turns brown and fishing suffers greatly.

If you’re forced to go with N wind fish the south side of the center levee, north end of main east canal and the “north 40” as its called. It’s to the left of the ramp.  Go around the bird island and west. It’ll open up about halfway down. 

Baits that should work at the south end are swimbaits, speed worms, vibejigs and spinnerbaits. If the waters dirty, you’ll need some vibration to get bit. 

North 40 will be same except add rattletraps to the mix.

[SC53]

You’re welcome ? 

[N Florida Mike]

My friend used to fish there a lot, using shiners. He once caught several fish between 9-11 pounds in one day. He fished mostly open lake brush piles that were sticking up.

I went with him the next week or so, and we caught one 4 pounder, and we caught him in the rim canal to the right of the ramp coming out.  .It seems they had sprayed the lake for weeds, and it shut down the fishing apparently.( we didnt notice the sign until we came back to the ramp.) Most everyone had seen the sign and went to farm 13.

[J.Vincent]

 

On 2/8/2019 at 4:39 PM, JF1 said:

I’ll be bringing the boat, anything specific to watch out for?

At Farm Pond 13 watch out for the giant dinosaurs and the stumps....also my most productive lures on Farm Pond were Lipless Cranks and Live Shiners

[SC53]

Mike I’m guessing you are talking about Garcia.

JV, not as many Dino’s as there used to be.  Pretty sure they opened it up for gator harvest awhile back. Still a lot but not the big boys like you used to see sunbathing on the center levee.

Stumps are still there though ?

[SC53]

Just got a report on the SM.  

Buddy fished it yesterday 2/18, only got 14, all on shiners, nothing on artificial.  Biggest just under 6#.

He’s fished it a lot too and can put fish in the boat with the best of them on lures, so it was a tough day.

He counted 25 boats within eyesight, all fishing the south end of Farm 13, on a Monday.  This should give you an idea of the amount of pressure this place gets. 

[JF1]

Fishing went as follows:

 

Drove 16 hours after work straight to Garcia.  Caught a 4.5 and handful of smaller fish Saturday.  Wind picked up and trolling motor started to die quickly, turns out I had a bad battery, so we replaced it Saturday night.

 

Sunday went to Stick Marsh (I found a few stumps at idle in the Southwest corner of lake idling out of the shallows, got stuck had to use the big motor to get off.  Managed four fish between 3-4.5, one 5.5 and a handful of smaller fish. 

 

Monday went to Kenansville and had a banner day.  Best 5 went 8.6, a 5.10, a 5 even, 4.13, 4.10 and had a handful of 3.5-4.5 fish along with a lot of small fish.  Best day I've ever had in FL

 

Tuesday went back to Kenansville....wind shifted from East and bite dried up. We did manage a handful small fish and lost two giants.   Day was short because we went wheels up and had to drive 16 hours (turned out to be 19 due to weather) back home.  

 

[SC53]

Fished SM yesterday myself.  If you go there this time of year you better enjoy company.  I counted 40 boats in the south end alone. In all the years I’ve fished there can’t remember ever seeing that number. 

Lots of guys fishing shiners, probably half the boats I encountered.

Me, I’m an artificial guy myself and can’t fathom the idea of paying $25 for 12 baits. 

Anyway, the day started out with a bang with an 8-11 beauty on a swim bait. Bite was slow with only 4 fish by noon.  Found the right area and lure about then and proceeded to catch another 12 by 3:00 when we left including a 4-12, 4-3 & some fat 3#footballs. Lost a few more good ones too.