Lake Seminole Fishing Report February 2011

Seminole: Level: Full pool. Temp: 52 degrees. Clarity: Stained.

Bass: Good. “The bass are in their first stages of prespawn,” said Matt Baty. “Look for spots that are near to spawning areas, such as ditches that run through flats, as the bass will use these as highways to their spawning grounds. A Navionics chip for your Humminbird depthfinder comes in handy when locating these spots. Once you find an area to fish, the best search bait to use is a lipless crankbait such as a Spro Aruku Shad 75 in mudBug red. You don’t have to change the hooks on this bait because it comes out of the package with No. 2 Gamakatsu hooks. Allow this bait to sink all the way to the bottom before retrieving. It will get hung up in the grass, but with a good rod and some 20-lb. Sunline FC Sniper, you can rip it free from the hydrilla and fish it. Some of the hydrilla will still be alive, and some dead. I haven’t really noticed any difference because the fish have seemed to be relating to both. If the fish aren’t biting in the ditches, start moving up on the flats and fish the shallower water. A good bait for the flats is the New Spro Fat John in nasty shad. This bait allows you to fish a little more slowly and more methodically. The flats will be pretty thick with grass, so you can slow down and even stop the bait when you feel grass so it will float up and out of the hydrilla. This is a deadly technique for cold-water bass. With the warmer days ahead, look for the fish to start moving into the backwater to spawn. When this occurs, the flipping bite will start to get really good. Look for dead vegetation such as hyacinths and flip a Big Bite Baits 4-inch Yo Momma in hematoma color on a 1-oz. tungsten and a New 5/0 Gamakatsu Flipping hook. Use at least 60-lb. Sunline braid.”