Stick Marsh & Farm 13
Capt. George Welcome
October 20, 2004
Stick Marsh-Farm 13 - Freshwater Fishing Report
Submitted by: Scott Welcome
10/18/04
Recovery from Hurricane Charles, Frances, Jeanne, and
Ivan will be a sometimes slow and agonizing process, but its effects on the
fishing in Florida will be minor and will in fact improve the fishing for most
of the state. The turn-around from a slowdown on the Marsh due to high water,
floating debris, and dirty water is almost complete and the fishing in most of
the lake can only be described as fantastic.
Over the last two days the fishing has changed
very little, with the majority of the fish being caught in and around current,
and on the south end of Farm13. The best baits have been Carolina rigged
Senkos, rattletraps, crank bait’s, Long A’s and live bait. The water is
clearing up and the bass are as healthy as ever. Shad and shiners are there in
abundance and the bass are having a field day feasting on the bait. Water
levels are still very high so other than the occasional floater, running
around the lake presents no problems.
On 10/18/2004 I had Craig Alexander from
Midlothian, Virginia out for a day of sun and what would prove to be excellent
fishing. Craig is no stranger to the lake as he has spent many days on the
lake in the winters, however this experience would be his best ever as we
spent the entire day in the spillway catching fish all day long. The majority
of the fish were caught on Carolina rigged Senkos in dark colors. At 11:00am
St. John's Water Management personnel came down and lowered the spillway
to 2 feet, which of course cause the current to slow down, but the fishing
actually improved with less current. The best baits in the afternoon where
crank baits and Long A’s. We headed back to the ramp at 3:00pm after catching
over 175 bass.
On 10/19/2004 I spent the day fishing with David
Kuncl from Lincoln, Nebraska and his friend Mary Ebert. We headed to the
spillway and tied off on the pole. While David and Mary were busy catching
bass on Carolina rigged Senkos I set out a couple of rods with shiners that we
had. After a little practice David and Mary got the hang of fishing with
live bait and began catching with Mary do most of the catching. The bite on
the live bait started a little slow so David switched back to Senkos and
caught bass immediately. Early in the morning they decided to shut the
spillway completely but the bass continued to bite. We had more live
bait in the live well so I moved the boat up closer to the spillway. The
catching was strong and steady until we left at 3:00pm with countless bass
making there way into the boat. We never did catch the big bass today but with
the bass averaging 2 to 4 pounds they had a great time.
Submitted 10/19/04 by George: I got a call from Steve P.
who offered to take me out as my boat sits waiting for a new power head. First
light found us in the spillway working C-rigs, crank baits, and rattle traps.
We stayed until the gate was lowered and caught bass on most casts.
When the gate was lowered we headed out into the Farm.
After a very short time of looking we discovered a school that was active. We
anchored, we cast, and we caught on just about every cast. Today Steve was
keeping track of the bass and by days end, (1:30) Steve announced that we had
just broke 190 bass to the boat. We headed back to the ramp with tired arms,
shoulders and wrists after another great day on the unbeatable and famous Stick
Marsh/Farm 13.
We have a couple of days open in October so give us a
shout. See you on the water.
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