Jolly Gator Bass Series Returns in March

By Phil Wolf, Co-Publisher Coastal Angler Magazine

March always starts our new tournament season on the first Tuesday after Daylight Savings time startsMarch 14, 2023, at 5:00 pm boats will launch! This tournament has been running for so many years that we have lost track, your Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando’s staff has been involved for 9 years now, Co-publisher Phil Wolf is the official Weighmaster for these events and all results can be reviewed on the Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando Facebook page.

per event in 2021. Over $10,000 was paid out at last year’s Classic! Some of the best anglers fish with us, so if you think you want to give it a shot and learn how, come join us for an event. All Tuesday events start at 5pm and launch at CS Lee Park next to Jolly Gator just east of Sanford on SR 46 at the St. Johns River Bridge, Saturday events start at safe light till 3pm.

The public is also welcome at our events to watch our anglers bring their daily catches to the scales. Jolly Gator has great food and some of the coldest beer in town. Come join us for our events and become a regular fan! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at the weigh-ins – Good Luck from Phil.

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Thursday March 9th at 6:30 pm, Jolly Gator Fish Camp Bar & Grill will be the host for our annual Team registration meeting, this is the weigh-in site for all events. All tournaments are open to any 2 angler teams, $40 entry fee per event. Events are every Tuesday evening and one Saturday per month until our season’s Classic in mid-August. Payout is one place per 7 boats and $10 per boat for the Big-Bass of the event. Teams that finish in the top 10 in points or win an event and fish at least 21 events all qualify for the end of season Classic. The team with the most points at the end of our season and the seasons’ largest bass will win big bucks for their efforts. This Central Florida Bass Series has grown to be one Central Florida’s biggest and best weekly bass tournaments - averaging over 25 boats

Look for schools of live bait getting crushed by sunshine bass and schooling largemouth bass at the mouths of the lakes and in the deep river bends at first light or late evening. Topwater is the name of the game! Nothing beats that explosive topwater strike - these hungry fish will destroy a Heddon Spook Jr. in bone color, or you can also try your favorite saltwater topwater baits if they are small-sized. Second best are rattling crank baits –Rattle Traps and their look-alikes (no rattle works great too). If the bass are finicky, tie on a white jerk bait – first try unweighted and use a walk the dog style retrieve just beneath the surface.

March means trophy bass in the St Johns River. Large wild shin-

4-H Club Projects – Achieving Goals, Learning Responsibility

Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. These are the four Hs that stand for the values members try to work on in America’s largest youth development organization. There are over six million members learning skills that will lead them for a lifetime. 4H club members range in age from kindergarten to seniors in high school. Members of 4-H market programs can participate in projects that include beef, lamb, and hogs. An important part of raising livestock as a 4-H project is learning valuable life skills such as basic animal science care, management and responsibility!

Aubrie Winters got involved with 4H at the age of five raising chickens. At the age of 8 Aubrie completed her first market project. She raised a pig that she sold at the Central Florida Fair market auction. During her swine project Aubrie learned how to train, feed, care, and market herself but this was never her end goal. Aubrie has always loved the cows in the pasture. With the money Aubrie’s swine project brought and she had saved she purchased a young steer for her to raise and take to auction. Three years later she is growing her life skills and building her resume and savings account. This year Aubrie picked out a Maine Angus steer to raise. She named him Wallen. Aubrie and Waller have been attending shows all season competing against other 4-H members. This early March Aubrie will round out this year’s project at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. At the fair she will compete in events that judge her skills handling, grooming and livestock knowledge. Her project with Wallen will conclude on Sunday March 12th. There buyers can come and bid on Wallen at the auction or make a add-on donation and this will help Aubrie continue to learn and finance her project for the following year. Please join us at the event and see how 4-H is helping our youth set goals be responsible!

Interested in learning more on how you can help support Aubrie? Contact winters.4H.project@gmail.com to find out more info! Hope to see you at the fair!

ers are the best bait if you can find some. For giant largemouth, remember these female fish are the breeders for the future – lift them out of the water supporting their belly and hold them out of the water only as long as you can hold your breath. Avoid holding large bass vertically by the lower jaw. Take measurements of length and girth, take pictures to save and share the memory. Practicing catch and release for trophy bass is honorable.

Panfish will readily eat minnows. They love red worms, night crawlers, and crickets. Look for bedding areas in shallow waters. Bluegill and Shellcrackers will take over beds used earlier by bass and crappie, look in those same areas and concentrate efforts where there is a shell bottom near drop-offs, and nearby cover (lily pads). Crappie will be found in the pads during full and new moons, other times try longline trolling or spider rigging the drop-offs along the river.

The bite has been on again off again for both bass and crappie on the chain of lakes. Some good catches have been coming on or around the New and Full moon phases. It seems that they bite better 2 to 3 days before the moon phases or for several days just after.

March is usually the last month for spawning bass all throughout the chain of lakes. Get out on the water on the second or third day after the cold front passes for better results. The bass have been staging in the deeper grass edges, eel grass beds or in the lily pads and mix vegetation close to the spawning areas. The mouths of canals, both ends of Dead River, Haynes Creek, 9th Street area, Little Lake Harris have all been good places to check. Lipless crank baits, chatter baits (bladed jigs) and swim baits have all been producing bites. Once you get a bite or two in the same area slow down and work through the same area with a June bug or black-blue trick worm or Senko style worm, Texas-rigged or wacky style. Check the canals in or close to moon phases for the buck bass and big females as they push up into these areas when they are ready to lay their eggs.

The crappie bite has been equally the same, with some days better than others. Road-Runners tipped with a minnow or just a plain live minnow when fished in the heavy vegetation and very shallow near the moon phase is good. Eustis, Little Harris and Lake Dora have all been producing limits when the bite is on. Fishing multiple poles with minnow-tipped jigs is how to maximize the bite - long-liners and spider rig setups are the way to go.

Seminole Junior Anglers are up to their old tricks. Lake Seminole was the second stop of the Spring qualifying tournament for Florida Bass Nation High School. Lake Seminole is in Bainbridge, Georgia. This is an amazing lake and river system. The lake is bookended by the Flint and Chattahoochee River. This lake fishes a bit like our Florida lakes and our anglers dominate these waters nearly every tournament - and we did not disappoint. On Saturday, February 4, 2023, the team of Dalton and Mackenzie Bailey anchored our squad with nearly 17 lbs. of bass (five fish limit). This was good enough for a 2nd place finish. And on Sunday, February 5 our team of Nathan Bennett and Austin Mairena sacked up a nice limit of bass weighing just over 17 lbs. Rounding out a top 10 finish was Kam and Drew Bradstreet and Bryce DiMauro and Bryce

Our team is leading Club of Year right now, but many other Florida High School teams are on our tail. We are trying to repeat as Club of Year Champions and trying to win Team of the Year this year too. Florida Bass Nation High School has +/- 175 high school teams competing each month. This trail has some of the best high school competition in the entire

On another note, we just got the totals in for our SJA Fundraising Tournament on the St. John’s River back in February. It was an incredibly successful day for our club. Anglers from all over Central Florida came out to support our club. We had a great day of fishing and fundraising. The team of Thomas Ottrik and Keith Johnson won first place with over 23 lbs. Travis Hansen and Scott Laney finished second with 22 lbs. plus and big bass at 8.73 lbs. All proceeds go toward travel expenses for SJA teams to state and national fishing competitions this summer. The funds raised go a long way to help with our teams lodging, tournament fees, gas, oil, and food for an entire week. We would love to thank Coastal Anger Magazine, Gumbo Wars, Boat Tree Marina, and so many other incredible sponsors for helping us keep our student anglers on the water. We are so