Pre Fishing the Harris Chain

I fished mostly Lake Eustis yesterday with the water temps starting at about 65 degrees and ending up about 70 and the only thing I figured out was that they’re not here. Thanks to Phil from Lake County Bass who showed me a few spots on Lake Eustis a couple of weeks ago.  I started out the morning throwing a wacky rigged watermelon red fluke along the bridge pilings in the dead river with no takers so I proceeded to go into a residential canal there that’s usually pretty consistent.

I tried shaky heads, wacky rigged senko, and a weightless senko to no avail, so I headed over to the mouth of the Dead River and pulled in a nice 3 pounder off the pads on a chartreuse LongShank spinnerbait with double colorado blades. It’s the area where Mike Mclelland won the Elite series event last year, but there were 3 boats fishing it already so I didn’t spend too much time there. I checked out the L canal where Peter Thilveros won the Elite series event a couple of years ago and not even a bite.

The cool thing about the Harris Chain is the people. Everyone’s super friendly and you can’t avoid talking with somebody. In both the canal in the Dead River and the L canal, the only thing I’d hear is that the fishing hasn’t been good this year… Yikes! It got me thinking that maybe I should spend more time on Lake Griffin. I did get some quality fish in the Yale Canal and the Ocklawaha a week ago, but just not numbers. You go a long time in between fish. 

Not seeing any signs of life in the canals, I determined the fish aren’t spawning yet and headed to Haines Creek where I caught a few at the base of the Cypress trees on a senko. I then looked for prespawn fish on the north end of Lake Harris. I flipped a junbug weightless senko and a black Chigger Craw with red flakes for 2 hours in the Kissimmee Grass without a hit before sunset.

Not a real productive day, but at least I know where they’re not at. 

I plan on fishing sun up until sun down this weekend and I’ll be focusing on some shell beds in Lake Harris along with prespawn shallow kissimmee grass and also the marsh areas in Griffin. I sure hope I find them this weekend.

Some Infamous Spots That Produce Giant Bass on the Harris Chain

Captain Mo from the Bassholes forum let me know about a few spots on the Harris Chain that’s reputed to hold some giant fish. One is the Gator Hole which everyone knows about located on the northwest end of Lake Eustis. It’s a giant hole that can produce some of the biggest bass on the chain at the right times.

The other spot is the old clay mining ditch on west shore of Lake Harris that ranges in depths of 15 ft to 17 ft of water with lots of shell beds scattered throughout the area. This spot sounds like a perfect place for the carolina rig or a deep diver in firetiger for pre and post spawners.

I’ll be checking out both these spots in the next couple of weeks and will report if these spots live up to their reputation.

I’ll also be checking some of the canals off Beauclair and the Apopka Beauclair Canal.