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RECOMMENDED BY JIM PORTER
FARM 13 / STICK MARSH FISHING REPORT
FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL 2002
April 22, 2002
 Working with noted angler Louis Daniels, we spent time working the poor-looking waters at the west end of the Stick Marsh. As we have said before, it only looks bad in that area. The fish are very cooperative, IF you find them. We worked slowly through the area of dead palms in the NW corner and out into the open water to the west, covering approximately 1/2 sq mile of that NW area. Here is what we found. The bass appear to be in loose schools and moving. When we found a concentration, there did not seem to be many fish, or they moved out rather quickly. 3-4 fish would come quickly and then we had to move on. But, we found a number of these groups of fish. We also found some to be BIG bass (see photos).  The presentation key was to work the lure slowly. That is important. We used the middle-size Cordell Big O (2 1/4 inch) and the shallow Bomber Model A (model BO2A, 2 1/8 inch) with slow, rod-tip-high retrieves. These lures were adaptable to the cover present, which was grass at 3-5 feet down. They also run rather flat, instead of nose down, allowing them to bounce off the many submerged stumps well. A spinner bait also produced, again worked very slowly. Color did not seem to matter. The plugs were in FireTiger, crawfish, and gray - all produced. The spinnerbaits were white and a couple of loud combination colors. I suspect a Johnson spoon, with its slow undulating wobble will work, too. Summing up: go slow, fish slow, and use a lure that meets the presentation requirements.
April 20, 2002
It was our pleasure to share a day on the water with Mike and Melanie Morey from Springfield, Mo. Having been married only two years, avid angler Mike was still getting Melanie introduced to the sport of bass angling.
On our day out, she also got introduced to a few OTHER things, too.
Free-lining shiners proved to be sporadic action. 2-3 bites all at once and then 30 minutes of dead time. But, some events livened the action:
- In the clear water where we were set up, we could see down some 4 feet. And, we saw a large chain pickerel stalk Melanie's shiner and suddenly rush to engulf it (see photo).
- We also saw a couple of bass run out from the grass to nip at a shiner tossed in close. Almost like a dog running another dog away from his territory. The problem was that they would not take the shiner, but only bit it on the tail. It was odd.
- We had a big fish run a shiner to the surface and blow it up, actually taking the shiner in its mouth and spitting it right out while in the air. Usually, a bass will hit a shiner in this manner twice and then take it on the third strike. However, this fish never came back for even the second strike at the hapless shiner. Very odd.
- Every time we had a fish on and it made a splash jumping, one of the resident alligators would come our way to see if there were any groceries for him. I assured Melanie that the 'gators would not approach a big boat.
- Two snakes, one a harmless water snake and the other a big Moccasin, kept swimming out to the boat as though they wanted to join the party. That kept everyone watching the transom for uninvited guests. Your friendly guide gave one snake a major headache, from which I doubt he will recover.
 When two shiners were taken at once, the guide proceeded to move the other rods out of the way to prevent line crossing and major tangles. This worked fine. On one of the rods, the shiner appeared dead and was left hanging over the side of the boat and 1-2 inches ABOVE the water. While re-baiting the other rods, the guide was suddenly drenched by an explosion next to the boat, as a four-pound bass blasted the suspended dead shiner. Luckily, the guide managed to grab the rod as it disappeared over the side of the boat and hand it to Melanie. She cool-handed the fish on a short line and got that puppy! (see photo)
 Later, we decided to move across to the SW section of Farm 13 and toss a crank plug or two. Everyone was using a different lure to see what the bass might hit. Of course, the guide (Never let the guide fish except when trying to find fish; he is usually too lucky!) immediately catches one on his little crank plug. So, everyone ties on one of those and starts beating the water to a foamy froth. Melanie, inexperienced at bass angling at that point, decided all this 'casting and retrieving' was a lot like work. So, she very efficiently just trolled the plug behind the boat as we moved across the stump flat. Guess who caught the fish?! (clue: it wasn't Mike or the guide)
Moving over on the west wall of the SW corner of the Farm, Melanie and Mike finally got to see 'Old Moss', one of the largest 'gators in the Farm. If you ever see him, you will know it. His head looks something like a full-grown horse's head, only with big teeth! For some reason, Old Moss decided something attracted him to our big STRATOS boat and he suddenly came at us at a very fast pace. The guide did not like that and was almost cranking the big motor to make a hasty departure, when the reptile stopped and just watched us. I think he, like other gators, was attracted to splashing around the boat.
So, we continue to fish along a stump line that borders the submerged canal along that west side. I can't say we got a strike --- until we got to the end of the canal where the grass mats form a barrier. Then, Old Moss decided to catch a top water plug. And, he surely did, too. Mike is a big guy, but that Wally Gator pulled the boat and all its occupants with ease, stripping line from the reel with a whine. Going under the grass mat cover, Old Moss stopped and settled to the bottom. The guide, being more cheap than smart, decided to save all the Fireline he could and went up to the edge of the grass mat. Fishing clients were not too enthused with this devil-may-care approach to 'gator hunting, noting the guide only had a small pair of scissors in his hand. But, Old Moss stayed put down in the mud and the guide cut the line as close as possible to the grass mat. In hindsight, Fireline may not be THAT valuable.
Deciding we could never compete with TV's Steve Irwin as Crocodile hunters, our crew beat a retreat to the NW section of the Stick Marsh.
Greeted by the yellowish water of the NW corner, Mike proceeded to foam up the water again with cast after cast. Melanie, by now having enjoyed about all the Stick Marsh 'adventures' she could stand, was working with some sun block and a big towel to try and avoid getting more of that famous Florida sun. (I just don't understand - tourists come to Florida for that sun and tan and then hide from it. Well, possibly it was because Melanie had already 'enjoyed' 9 hours of sunshine and about ¾ of a bottle of sunblock. There can be too much of a good thing, I suppose.)
Mike decided it was about time to call it a day (probably prompted some by Melanie beating on him severely about the head and shoulders with a boat paddle), when - bam! - a good fish went on the crank plug (see photo). That did it and our visiting angler said let's go to the ramp.
April 18, 2002
With the recent poor water conditions and
lack of decent fishing at the Stick Marsh, a lot of anglers have been
reluctant to make a drive to fish the place. I live close by the place
and I stayed off the waters, too. But, things appear to be improving, so
I though a quick and direct status of the Stick Marsh might be appropriate
and give some assistance to planning for some.
I went Wed and Thurs afternoons for a few hours. Wed, we caught at least
one fish everywhere we fished (and we were moving fast and not stopped to
search for the concentrations). We also caught them on a number of
different lures (shallow crank plug, spinnerbait, buzz bait, topwater
popper). So, it may be that topwater will start soon. The water still
looks bad in the west end of the Marsh and north end of the Farm.
HOWEVER, we did catch fish in the west end of the Farm. The water just
looks dirty brown, but the algae is about gone. The south end of the
Farm looks good and that is where the topwater was. We only got to fish
that Farm section for 30 minutes before it got too late, so there is
potential.
Yesterday, I checked all different places with about the same
result - I could catch something most anywhere. But, it was not fast
action. EXCEPT - I took a look at the big gate in the SE corner of the
Farm and it was running strong. I don't think it had been on too long,
as there were not gangs of bass in there yet. But, there were some and
I did pretty good on C rigs and deep crank plugs. But, that gate is an
on again/off again thing that cannot be depended on.
Here’s how to judge
the big SE corner gate: 1 inch of rain will usually cause the gate to
activate in about 7-10 days 2 inches at one time will activate it in
about 5 days What drives thing is the time it takes for the runoff to
drain from all the thousands of acres of marsh and farmlands to the
east and south. That drainage comes together in the Garcia reservoir
and starts to back up at the drainage gate that empties into the
Farm 13 side of the Stick Marsh impoundment. It takes time, no matter
how much rain falls. This gate usually runs 3-7 days. But, the gate on
the eastside of the Farm, midway down that east wall, will run in a
very short time, IF there is a heavy rain in a short period.
Usually, a 1-2 inch rain will cause that gate to be opened within
24-36 hours. This gate will run only 4-8 hours at a time, usually
in the mornings.
April 7, 2002
 With the major algae bloom in the Stick Marsh and the sustained high winds recently, we have been advising guide trip clients to save their money for a better period of time. A number agreed and thanked us for being up front with them. But, a few were in travel status for other activities and had to fish 'now or never'. So, we did our best.
Bob and Ellen Singaers came over from Orlando, where they were attending a convention at the Orange County Convention Center. Shiners were somewhat poor, but the artificials worked well in the Farm 13 stump fields. There were no big fish taken, but 4 did approach 5 pounds. And, that ain't bad. As fate would have it, we managed to lose the digital camera's pictures out there in cyberspace somewhere. Sorry guys.
Mike Hood and his fishing buddies called for three boats and we got Randy Sanders and Brian Shafranek (Palm Bay Fishing Outfitters owner) to come along. Randy wound up with a boat problem shortly into the trip and had to head out for maintenance. Brian managed around 20 bass on jerk baits, while Mike, his Dad and I got a few on crank plugs and spinnerbaits. Mike had the big fish for the group with his white spinnerbait.
Duane and Colton Olsen (Father and son), and Loren Redetzke, Duane's Father-in-law, were at the 'Mickey Rat' attractions in Orlando (Colton is 9 years old). They get my vote for 'most deserving' to be out of the cold north, in that they are from upper-upper Minnesota. They mentioned that there was still 2-3 feet of ice on their lakes back home, as they smoothed on the sunblock. I explained the fishing might be slow, in that 15-25 MPH winds were forecast and a front had just passed through. However, they unanimously indicated it was STILL great weather compared to 'back at the Minnesota ranch'. Duane indicated that our primary goal was to have Colton catch fish, with the intent that he continues to develop an interest in it. So, with cranks plugs and a few crickets in hand, we set out across the whitecaps.
Whereas, I usually work by the rule of the guide not fishing, we all agreed it would be a good idea to do so until we located fish and found what they would hit. Starting with different lures, we began our search in the foamy, rolling surf of the Farm 13 'Nursery' area (coordinates B2 of on website map). For just exactly why the guide should NOT fish, I caught the first one, a good 2.5 pounder. Passing the Firetiger Big O plug to young Colton, he proceeded to almost immediately nail one slightly bigger all on his own.
Switching to a shallow Model-A Bomber plug, I found an old sow around 7-8 pounds that couldn't stand the plug bouncing off a stump (there's that guide rule again!). Handing the rod to Colton, the youngster play the big fish like an expert until she jumped at the boat and tossed the lure into our laps. Working the Nursery area by drifting with the strong winds, we took around 8-9 total bass for the short day.
Loren reminded us of the crickets and all my bragging about the 'giant' Stick Marsh bluegills, so off we went in search of a protected area where we could 'bobber' a cricket. Anchoring the boat over an old sunken barge, we tossed out the crickets and quickly found that the tales about huge bluegills were no idle statements. It was all Colton could do to hold on, while the feisty panfish got sideways to us and cut a wake back and forth along the side of the boat.
The run back to the ramp reminded my why I have that big 20-foot STRATOS. It is safe and dry. And, with some of the biggest waves I have ever seen in the Farm side (even during close Hurricane encounters), it proved itself again.
Over the past 2 weeks, the Farm 13 side has cleared a good bit in the south end, while the waters of the Stick Marsh remains very algae-laden. However, there have been some claims of good bass catches periodically on the Marsh side and I suspect some are very true. The fish are there and you need some edge to catch them. There are some springs in the center and west end of the Marsh side of the impoundment. If the winds lay and you can spot the difference in water clarity in the vicinity of the springs, you may find some great action. A surface temperature gauge will also tip off the locations. But, so long as the high winds prevail, the water will mix too fast for any indications to be visible.
The 5.5 miles of 'bad road', from the paved highway to the ramp, is in excellent shape. Part of this is due to the 75% reduction in traffic on it, coupled with a scheduled grading.
Today's Weather for
the Stick Marsh Area
Past Fishing Reports
Farm 13/Stick Marsh Information Guide
Email questions to jporter@jimporter.org.
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