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Stick Marsh & Farm 13
Capt. George Welcome
June 19, 2002
Stick Marsh-Farm 13 - Freshwater Fishing Report
Ansin/Garcia & Stick Marsh/Farm 13
The rains in Florida have finally arrived and with the amounts that we are getting lots of good things are happening at both lakes.
Last Friday we fished Garcia and did quite well. The wind, what little there was blew from the west so we worked grass lines on the windward side. Just about anywhere we stopped produced fish to both T-rigged baits and weightless Senkos. We also did some flipping along the canal that heads to Rte. 60 and did well finding bass well back under the trees.
Yesterday we headed out on Garcia again and picked up where we left off. The wind was out of the SE but the west sides of grass lines were excellent again. The best grass line on both days was along the ditch that runs along the east side of the pit. Because of the rain we decided to check the weir that is south of Rte. 60. Two gates are wide open and the water is flowing quite quickly. Too much debris made this area un-fishable at the moment but I suspect it will clear in a couple of days and will be quite the hot spot.
We then headed up the Zig-Zag. Both pumps were going full blast as the Farm tries to lower the water that is flooding their ditches. We went up and took a look at the spillway into the Marsh and they have that gate at 6' open. It kind of looks like the Colorado river on the Marsh/Farm side.
Heading back down we hit the pump house that is located in the middle of the N/S run and there were fish everywhere near the current. We then check the bend where the canal transitions from E/W to N/S and found fish on both sides of the canal. A storm was heading in at about 1:30 so we decided to call it quits.
If you are going to Garcia I think you will find good fishing no matter where you give it a try.
This morning we launched at 7:00 onto the Stick Marsh. Our first stop was the cut into the Marsh and with the current it was alive with fish. We then ran to the spillway area to see if the water was clearing up but the bottom debris is quite heavy due to the heavy current coming through.
This part is important! Someone had tied up to the pole that the sign is mounted to. Instead of tying up to the pole however they put their line around the conduit that carries the wire to the light. With the current that was coming through the conduit broke, the wire shorted and the pole started on fire. Whoever it was didn't bother contacting St John's Water Management. However, it was grass-cutting time and the fellow that arrived to mow saw the fire and called it in. Scott and I offered our boat and with the maintenance people got the fire out. If you going to tie up down in the spillway area, tying up to electrical conduit is not too smart. To not report the damage and ensuing fire was downright stupidity.
Once the fire was out we headed off to our next spot to check. The pumps are running full tilt, all gates are open, and the spillway on the west end of the 54 is open, so there is current on the Marsh/Farm just about everywhere. All ditches, all intersections, all points, and all cuts are stacked with active bass.
All of the fish that we got today were caught on Carolina rigged Senkos. We did however see several shad busts and will be pursuing them on our next adventure out here. From the areas that we fished today we caught 279 bass. Our biggest bass was 11.75 pounds and was caught in the E/W ditch. Size mix ran the gamut but I would suspect that 50% or more were over 3 pounds and I know that 6 bass were over 7 pounds. It was simply a fantastic day.
I would suspect that we will be seeing the hot top water bite within the next week or so. This moving water will not only clean things up but will more than likely really turn on the shad and the bass. When the two come together it will be chug bug, chug bug, chug bug.
See you on the water.
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