FRESHWATER

from Coastal Angler Magazine | March 2023 | Miami Edition

TIES STATE RECORD

by Captain Mike Tojdowski

In March both largemouth and peacock bass will be in full spawn mode. e cold fronts felt during the last few months have triggered the sh to do the big dance and start making beds for their eggs to hatch in. For the most part, bass will protect their beds and strike uke baits that are watermelon color with silver ake. e Peacock Bass on the other hand become ultra-aggressive during the spawning months and will attack any bait presented within a few feet of their beds. e trick is to bother them enough to get an all-out attack and not just a warning tap or blow. e golden rule is only hook / catch one sh on a bed, leaving the mate to protect the eggs or fry. Most likely a released sh will return and pair up again insuring they will protect their eggs as a team and secure the future of their young.

Snook and tarpon are still being caught in deeper pockets of water near rock piles on the lake edges and on pilings in canals in water between 15-20 in depth. is time of year, we are running bigger 4 inch mullet plugs, suspending lures silver in color with red dot on back or live bait pair with a #2 circle hook either through both lips or behind the head on the top of the neck area allowing the bait to swim more naturally. Always remember to set the hook in an upward fashion and not sideways. We see this happen on charters all the time. Clients set the hook with a sideways motion which just pulls the bait out of the shes mouth rather than setting the hook in the top lip / bone. Tarpon and snook have boney mouths to begin with and it’s not always easy to set the hook.

Exotics such as midas and Jaguar Guapote cichlids are more active this month with the temperatures slightly warming. You can target them with either bread balls on a free line matched up with small octopus hook or 1/16 oz to 1/32 oz crappie jigs work perfect. You want your bait to gradually fall looking as natural as possible. Typically, they are bite shy at rst and therefore we like to get them going by chumming up the water with bread or cut pieces of sh for a few minutes before sending a small bait or bead ball with a hook in it down. Your best shot at catching several out of a school is to lead the sh you are ghting down the canal or lake and as far away from the other sh in the school as possible. Once the school notices you are catching them, they will refuse to bite and just go into deeper water avoiding your e orts no matter how hard you try.