JANUARY 2024
It was a month of odd magic on Kit Lake, my home water in central Florida’s largemouth bass country. Jobs, rules, and fish “sort of just appeared.”
In the middle of the month (our deep winter) steady overcast skies with cool rains kept the fish active. Anglers with time stalked the three to five foot depths late in the morning, waiting for changes in the sky. When sunshine just sort of appeared, they caught feisty bass on moderately sinking flies.
Dragon flies, their nymphs, and some bees were found at Kit Lake in periods of warmth. So sharp anglers quickly went to nymph patterns and pulled some taco bass from the weedy edges.
Tobi’s Dad was busy cooking sweet coffee cake. A few lucky anglers, warmed by this treat, patiently dangled small bait fish lures near deep structure and found hard pulling crappie on the other end.
The Thunder boys got a pellet rifle and target for Christmas, and the lake was the backdrop for their targets. So that corner of the lake was off limits. But that was ok because in this pre-spawn, the bigger bass our fish sort of just appeared beyond the first drop off. We luxuriated late into the mornings, then got in position around 11:00 am to play Drift-the-Drop. About 5 feet down, in deep water we found bass with weighted baitfish imitations, like the Schmidterbait.
What has appeared in your life? What are you waiting for to appear next month? You think about it, we will be on the water waiting for our fish to appear.
