All of our fishing reports, current and archived are written by Gary Simpson.

Already a serious angler, Gary was hired at The Tackle Box in January of 1976. At the time, he expected the job to be a short term one at the area's hub of fishing activity. But a funny thing happened. He fell in love with the place.

The diverse and colorful clientele, the co-workers, and the exchange of information that kept friends and acquaintances connected with the top fishing spots, baits, and trends. This proved to be more than a young man with fish juice in his veins could leave. Now, thirty-odd years later, Gary remains content in the role of helping people to catch fish.

In 1986, he began recording a weekly call-in fishing report. A year later, his reports could be heard on an area radio station. In 1996, the reports began appearing in the Gainesville Sun, and they became a regular weekly feature in 1997.

Every week he talks to anglers, guides, camps, and marinas to compile an accurate, up-to-date picture of what's happening in the North Florida fishing world.

Below is our current report and we encourage you to checkout the archived reports as well.

3-8-11 

Spring is always an exciting season for freshwater and saltwater anglers.

Our final Tackle Box fishing report comes at a time of low water in nearby lakes, but fast-biting fish almost everywhere make that inconvenience bearable.

It’s late in the speckled perch spawn and a tad early for bream to bed.  Both are biting fairly well, though, and cane pole fishers using grass shrimp for bait are frequently pulling in mixed bags of panfish.  Mike and Alicia Bass proved Monday that the Orange Lake slabs aren’t done in the shallows just yet.  The Cross Creek couple fished freshwater shrimp in lily pads on the lake’s south end to take 32 nice specks.

Area bass fishing seems to have hit high gear.  Saturday, the annual Bald Eagle Open Spring Tournament held on Lake Santa Fe drew 27 competing teams and saw some really impressive catches.  Chris Kadlec and C.K. Ryan had a 9.26-pound lunker to anchor their 23.16-pound five-bass limit…and Chuck and Nick Foster edged that total with a 24.22-pound bag of fish.  But it was the Jason McClellan and Clint Sheppard team that toted the winning catch to the weigh scales.  Their five bass weighed 30.82-pounds. 

Santa Fe hasn’t made a lot of noise recently among the bassing crowd, but that’s very likely to change following this output.  Bald Eagle’s 6-to-9 p.m. Wednesday night tournaments will start up March 16^th.

Fishing late last week with top Rodman Reservoir guide, Sean Rush, Eric and Jeff Fabian of Ocala hauled in 27 good bass.  The best single fish of the day was an 11-pound whopper that, along with the rest, took a large wild shiner.

Commercial wild shiner supplier, Carl Thompson, spent a couple of weeks catching bait on Lochloosa.  During that time, he was surprised to inadvertently catch a half dozen big bass of at least eight-pounds…in his cast net.  Of course, he released all of the big fish unharmed.

Speckled trout numbers are growing in the warming grass flats all along the Big Bend coast---but nowhere better than in the Homosassa area.  Jason English of MacRae’s Marina promises, “You can’t help but catch trout right now”.  When I phoned for a report Tuesday morning, nine trout guides had already taken their daily parties out and the marina’s live shrimp supply was already exhausted.  Most captains, English said, are having their customers fish shrimp on jigheads, set under rattling floats.

And the sheepshead spawn is finally underway in earnest as far north as Steinhatchee Reef.  Last weekend, folks tight-lining shrimp and fiddler crabs on the reef commonly filled 15-fish limits of the toothy favorites.

You could call this report our ‘last cast’ after 58 years as Gainesville ’s fishing headquarters.  We’ll be open (with deep discounts) for a few weeks yet, and hope you can stop by.

We have always tried to gather good, honest information and tips, and hopefully, we’ve helped you catch some fish.  

And so, for the last time,

Good fishin’ from The Tackle Box.