Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I was fortunate to have been invited to get out with Greg's BIL (Roy) for some bass fishing. Roy's house is near Jupiter and Stick Marsh is 75 miles north of that.

Webiste write up: The St. Johns Water Management Area (SJWMA), known to most anglers as the Farm 13/Stick Marsh, is a 6,500-acre impoundment located along the east coast of central Florida in northwest Indian River County. Water depths range from 4 to 8 feet. Boaters unfamiliar with the SJWMA are advised to navigate to fishing locations with extreme caution due to the number of man-made and natural hazards present. This water body is noted for its excellent bass fishing due to the special no harvest regulation on largemouth bass. The SJWMA is one of the top 10 trophy bass spots in the state.

This was the BEST bass fishing I have ever experienced!

It was cool and misty when we started but the sun did finally come though to warm us up.....

Greg and Roy took the skunks off the boat but it took a bit for me to do so.







But when I did, it was big! My personal best (>8lbs)!







For the rest of this report, I think I will let the pictures tell the story....it just didn't stop! I will summarize it at the end.

































We think we caught over 50 fish...maybe more, who knows. Very few dinks (under 2 pounds). Lots in the 2-4 pound range, several 5 pounders with the biggest two fish coming in at 7 and 8. We did not measure or weigh the fish so it's best guess. We think my top 5 were between 25-30 pounds....give or take. After I caught my 1st fish, I said, "OK, now what? I just caught my biggest bass ever!".

Roy is an excellent fisherman (he definitely caught the most) and he had studied up on the lake to make sure we had a good experience. Greg caught chunk after chunk. It was a GREAT experience.

Mostly we used swim baits and wacky worms. A couple were caught on spinnerbaits and I had a nice blowup on a frog.

In the afternoon, in came the teeny bugs. Millions of them. They like white and green. My buff was green and I was inhaling protein like crazy. The cigar smoke was ineffective. Roy was wearing white....



But this is a bucket list lake for sure!

Roy's ham/cheese/pickle sandwiches were a highlight.

We had a blast and I am hoping for another invite in the future.