St. Johns River south to Green Cove Springs: The mullet runs seem to be winding down on the Shands Bridge as huge schools of fish stage up in the inlets, ready to head offshore and down the coast. There were few reports this week because of the weather. Surface temperatures on the St. Johns, in some places, dropped from 84 to 69 degrees this week.
St. Johns River from Green Cove Springs to Palatka: Your best bet if you haven't located bream is to fish the smaller creeks this weekend: Black, Six-Mile and Trout. There were a few smallish speckled perch caught under the bridges in those creeks.
Lake George area: There was a little action in the big lake for mullet and bream. With cooling water temperatures, look for the bass and panfish to move from deeper water into the shallows. The water is extra high from the river backing up in the face of north winds. The fish are moving into the weeds and lily pads, scarfing up bugs and other forage they could not get to with the water levels down.
Area lakes (Lochloosa, Orange, Santa Fe): Most all of the lakes picked up, with fish moving from deeper water to the shorelines. There are reports of fair stringers of speckled perch being caught in Santa Fe. Lochloosa remains the hot spot for speckled perch.
Rodman Reservoir area: The news here is that speckled perch have shown up on the Ocklawaha side of the dam. Anglers without boats can score well on these tasty panfish by fishing from the dam abutments.
Elsewhere: There were some decent stringers of bluegills taken from the ponds at Hanna Park this week. There remains a decent bite of whiting off the beach there, too.
