Tuesday, December 27
Anglers: Rafe Sanson, Nicholas Sanson and Willie Fortuno
Lake location: South part of lake on West side
Bait: Live shrimp
Trip details: Got to the lake about 7:00AM. Since I can't launch my boat without unhitching it and walking it out to the drop off, it took longer to get fishing than it should have, but by 7:30 we were fishing. We basically fished the whole west side, but didn't catch anything until we got to the sign at mid lake. We caught all but one of our fish there. Only caught two trout but both were 17-18 inches. Of the 12 redfish we caught, only one was keeper size at 23 inches. All in all it was a good day, but I wish they would fix the ramp.
Catch:
Reds: 12
Trout: 2
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Wednesday, October 1
Anglers: Mark and Sara
Lake location: Six Mile Landing area
Bait: Shrimp
Trip details: What a day. Started out early launching at SML and heading south. Stopped at several points and casted shrimp and cut mullet. Stayed all afternoon, caught tons of redfish around 12-15 inches. Got one small black drum.
Moved almost 1/2 mile south (which takes a while with only a trolling motor) and found a decent looking spot to stop. Caught quite a few more small reds, and a couple 15-17 inch black drum. Got a hit on cut shrimp on a float and I was floored!
Instead of another small red, it was a 22 inch black drum! Took a while to land, but I got him in. After a while and several other small reds, my rod on the bottom went down, and another long fight was on!
This monster towed my boat and a ten pound anchor around for about ten minutes... with some patience and good drag control, and a lot of help from my fiancee with the net, I landed a 30 inch black drum. I couldn't keep from shaking. I thought that I would lose it the whole time; I was only using a 20 pound leader.
I let that monster go back where it came from, so it's still out there.
Good fishing, and tight lines.
-Mark
Catch:
Reds: 15
Black drum: 6 Photo
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Wednesday, October 1
Anglers: John and Adam
Lake location: South side close to the dam around grass
Bait: D.O.A. shrimp
Trip details: My buddy and I put a my jon boat in at the dam and began working our way around the western edges casting D.O.A. shrimp.
It was nearly dark when we got there so we didn't have much daylight to fish. We both casted several times and began to complain about the no-see-ums when my buddy felt a huge strike and nearly had his rod jerked from his hand.
He fought the fish for a good while and got him to the boat where I had a nice dip net ready for him. As I reached down to scoop the fish, the net got tangled in a crab line I had hanging from the boat with a chicken wing on the end.
Hanging on to the chicken wing was a humongous blue crab that nearly fell in the net but was pushed aside by the Huge jack Crevalle that my buddy had been fighting.
It was an awesome fight and an equally awesome fish. We left soon after and agreed to return this Sunday morning more prepared. Needless to say, it's obvious this place is infested with fish.
Catch:
Jack crevalle: 1
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Sunday, August 31
Anglers: Chris & Carole
Lake location: 3 miles north of the dam
Bait: Lures and Pogies
Trip details: Get ready for a real fish story. We started out throwing lures and decided to catch some live bait. There seems to be a large number of pogies in the lake this year.
Anyway, while Carole was hooking her pogy , the
boat was drifting towards the bank when I heard a loud hissing sound. 6' away on the bank was one angry gator getting ready to attack the boat.
I tried to kick the trolling motor in reverse, but it did not turn on. Still drifting closer to bank, I dropped the engine fired it up and got in reverse before impacting the bank. God knows what else would have happened. We decided to move from this location and leave this gator alone.
10 minutes later while fishing with pogies, I had the rod I was using (Carole's rod) go over the side of the boat with a fish on. We tried to retrieve the rod with no luck.
10 minutes later Carole got hooked up on a large fish. As she reeled in, she was hooked to the pole that got pulled over board earlier. I grabbed the pole and reeled in a very tired red fish that was still hooked.
Always something exciting going to happen when you fish in Guana.
Catch:
Trout: 4
Reds: 2
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Saturday & Sunday, August 2 and 3
Anglers: Rafe and Nicholas Sanson
Lake location: North end close to tower
Bait: Live shrimp on Cajun Thunder
Trip details: Fished both Saturday and Sunday. Caught a good many fish, not great quality. On Sunday we did catch two nice redfish, 23 and 24 inches. 3 keeper trout and 1 drum. Easily launched at SML with a pretty heavy load. Was fishing by 6:45AM in the morning.
Catch:
Trout: 10
Reds: 10
Drum: 1
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Friday, July 11
Anglers: Rob Murphy & friend
Lake location: South end
Bait: Topwater lures
Trip details: Took a buddy from out of town this morning to fish the south end. Topwater was on fire from dawn until about 8:30 am. Missed a lot of fish.
Reds caught, 18 1/2", 20", 22". Lots of trout from 12" to 19".
Lost a big one when my buddy was unhooking a fish from my lure and his live bait rod got pulled over board right from under his legs that were holding it. The rod was recovered but the fish got away.
Catch:
Trout: 13
Reds: 3
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Saturday, July 5
Anglers: Tim & Courtney
Lake location: South end
Bait: Assorted live bait
Trip details: We fished Saturday from about 10:30 am to 4:40 pm and did great most of the way through. It died off a bit at the end, but not quite dead.
The two largest were the 23 inch Trout (Courtney), and the 25 inch Red (Tim). The red had five spots on one side, and two on the other, but no camera with us & no contest entry. The lake is back!
Catch:
Trout: 8
Reds: 6
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Friday, July 4
Angler: Stu Valentine
Lake location: SML to near the observation tower
Bait: Dead shrimp
Trip details: I headed out very early today, determined to cash in on the benefits of early morning fishing, arriving at my first spot at 6:15. And I was not disappointed.
It wasn't like the old days, but decent enough to declare that Guana Lake fishing has greatly improved.
First, the water level has risen another inch since last Saturday; the water is now touching the concrete ramp. I was able to use my motor for two thirds of the launch canal.
Second, there are plentiful fish in the northern area now. The trout population is especially high and I would recommend targeting this species. Not that the reds aren't there, it's just that the trout have them substantially outnumbered.
The word must be out on the trout explosion, as there were no fewer than ten kayak anglers and five or so motorized craft on the lake throughout the morning. And from what I could tell, they were all after the trout.
Heck, I may even try buying some minnows just to get in on the fun. Continuous casting of lures is out due to an old shoulder injury.
As I was saying, experience has taught me that the earlier you begin fishing, the more fish you'll catch. I caught all of mine between 6:30 and 10:00. By 10:30 it was all over.
Since I was fishing with dead shrimp, I probably caught fewer trout than others did. But I did catch some.
Today's results were just good enough to get back out on the lake again soon.
Here is a review of my catch:
Trout: 3 (best was 18")
Reds: 3 (best was 17")
Black drum: 1 at 14"
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Saturday, June 28
Anglers: Chris & Carole
Lake location: Six Mile area
Bait: Live Mullet and Mud Minnows
Trip details: We fished early and caught some nice ones. Carole got the big one 22" Red. I had a big trout right at the boat and then lost it before I
could net-um. The big trout was hooked on a 3" curl tail minnow. Talked with one guy throwing a skidder walk and he was having a ball catching trout.
See Ya out there,
CT
Catch:
Trout: 18
Reds: 4
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Saturday, June 28
Anglers: Rafe and Nicholas Sanson
Lake location: West bank of lake from Dam to within sight of the observation tower
Bait: Live shrimp and minnows
Trip details: Based on the reports I have been seeing on the website, I figured it was time to go to Guana again. I had become frustrated with the lack
of action. We fished really hard from 7:00AM to 1:00PM and only caught 6 undersized trout.
However I talked to some of the other regulars and they said they had done very well the weekend before. So I either missed the window of opportunity or I have completely forgotten how to catch fish at Guana. Hopefully I just missed my window.
Not to worry we'll be back, but not until I can launch at SML. Still looks like a little too much work to get to the main channel from there.
Keep the reports coming so I can tell how things are going.
Catch:
Trout: 6
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Saturday, June 21
Anglers: Chris & Carole
Lake location: North end
Bait: Live Mullet and Mud Minnows
Trip details: Broke my summer golden rule, fish Guana from 6:30 - 10:00 and your fish count will be higher. I got to the ramp about 9:00 just in time to talk with a guy and his 3 trout over 20" as he was leaving.
Oh well, I generally don't fish with live mullet in Guana but gave it a shot. We broke off two very large fish, most likely reds judging by the power and the speed they went on prior to the line breaking.
Other than that it was slow. Next Saturday I will be fishing by 6:30.
See Ya,
CT
Catch:
Trout: 2
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Saturday, June 21
Anglers: Stu Valentine, Eric Glasnapp, and Eric's brother-in-law Bobby
Lake location: North end
Bait: Dead shrimp, cut fish
Trip details: It was great just to be able to launch from Six Mile Landing (plan on paddling out to the channel). But we didn't fish near the launch area. Instead we motored to an area located about a half mile north of the tower on the west side.
Within ten minutes, I had caught a nice 18" red. We caught nothing more in this spot and continued to move south, fishing in 8-10 more spots.
While we did not catch any more fish of size, we did catch a wide variety of species between 8AM and noon.
Note: I took the time to measure the water depth at the pole at the end of the launch canal - it was 31 inches. As the year goes by, I'll report on changes in the water depth.
Catch:
Reds: 4
Trout: 3
Croaker: 4
Sting ray: 2
Ladyfish: 1
Stu
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Monday, June 16
Anglers: Chris & Carole
Lake location: North end
Bait: Lures
Trip details: Good News, the water level is just high enough to launch at six mile. With some work you can push out to the channel! We fished yesterday evening 6 - 9 pm.
Felt good to be back in the North half of the lake. Got one trout in the slot 20" all the others were just under.
Saw a lot of dead fish floating, I guess with the water level down only the strong fish will survive. Looks like we are back in business on the North end.
Catch:
Trout: 8
Note from Stu - The dead fish were apparently gar, most likely killed by the influx of salt water.
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Friday, June 6
Anglers: Scott Gann
Lake location: Guana Dam River Side
Bait: Live and dead shrimp
Trip details: Got there on a dead low tide around 7am, lot of bait fish around. Waited for the in-coming and tossed out a live shrimp into the honey
hole...BAM!!!...18in Red. Bite slowed a bit, and then picked up with 3 Black Drum between 14 and 20in. A couple of guys fished the Lake side the night
before and slayed the Reds while the Dam was running.
Catch:
Reds: 1
Drum: 3
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Sunday, May 18
Anglers: Chris Tripp & Carole
Lake location: North end
Bait: Live shrimp
Trip details: Hi everyone,
I got up early Sunday morning after patching a hole in the Geenee Saturday and tried Fishing intercoastal. After 1 hour of frustration I went to Guana. Fishing was ok, water level is the lowest I've seen in 5 years out there. I wonder when they are going to bring the water level back up.
Catch:
Reds: 4
Trout: 1
Drum: 1
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Saturday, May 3
Anglers: Victor Jackson
Lake location: South end
Bait: Mullet color skitterwalk
Trip details: One 17 in. trout in 2 1/2 hrs. Caught this trout at 6:45 am trolling a mullet skitterwalk behind a hobie kayak. Friends caught two trout
much later further from the dam on live shrimp. I have much better luck at SML but water is too low right now.
Catch:
Reds: 0
Trout: 1
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Wednesday, April 9
Anglers: Rob Murphy
Lake location: South end
Bait: Live croaker
Trip details: Caught 2 trout in sight of the dam Wed. 1 at 26.5" and 1 at 17". They were caught back to back. Fished for about 2 hrs.
Catch:
Reds: 0
Trout: 2
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Friday, April 4
Anglers: Stebink and Kayla
Lake location: Six Mile Landing
Bait: Shrimp
Trip details: Really, really, really windy...so windy that me and my daughter had the place to ourselves. We launched at SML at about 6:00pm, headed south towards the tower area, and had a "picnic dinner" on the water. Kayla caught two
reds, both slot, during the picnic. Headed home about 7:00.
Catch:
Reds: 2
Trout: 0
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Saturday, March 29
Anglers: Rafe Sanson & company
Lake location: Six Mile Landing
Bait: Live shrimp
Trip details: Got to 6 mile at 7:30AM. Fished from just south of the tower all the way back to 6 mile and caught only 2 undersized trout.
There was a lot of bait activity on the surface. But just couldn't get them to bite. I don't know if it had anything to do with it but I saw more gators on the surface that I have in a long time.
The water level is extremely low. I had to lift my motor and pole my way part of the way from the launch to the main channel. If it goes down much more, will not be able to launch at 6 mile.
Moral to story is more very slow fishing.
Catch:
Reds: 0
Trout: 2
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Saturday, March 22
Angler: Stebink and Full-Tilt
Lake location: Six Mile Landing
Bait: Artificials
Trip details: Only one fish (red-24") before 10am. Found the rest hiding between 10am and 11am. All reds between 22 and 26 inches. One trout was small, the other was 25".
All fish released to fight another day.
Catch:
Reds: 7
Trout: 2
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Sunday, March 16
Angler: Rob Murphy
Lake location: South end
Lake conditions: Water was very salty and dirty.
Bait: Plastic jigs
Trip details: Caught alot of small trout between 10"-17" all over the middle to eastside of the south end. Wind was alot stronger than weather man predicted. Fished in the afternoon.
Catch:
Trout: 20+
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Saturday, March 15
Angler: Stu Valentine
Lake location: North end, west side in sight of observation tower
Lake conditions: The water level has fallen about 12-14 " since the beginning of the month, making it a bit difficult to get out of the Six Mile launch canal. The water, even as far south as the tower, continues to contain very little salt.
Bait: Dead shrimp
Trip details: Today was the first time in two years that I had a motor on my Gheenoe. And it was sweet. Although I managed to catch my fair share of fish without a motor, having one greatly increases my possibilities (like being able to easily get around in the strong winds today) and maximizes the use of my fishing time.
After launching, I headed straight for an old favorite area in the tower area on the west side of the lake near an angled pole.
Within minutes of casting my baits I got a ferocious bite on one. In amazement, I literally watched the pole rise up, jump over the edge of the boat, and land two feet from the boat before I could react. I casted my other line until I managed to snag the rig and bring it in, sans fish. I'm sure I had missed a nice red.
Soon after, I got another bite and missed this one as well. Boy, am I out of practice!
I continued to work my way towards the tower, eventually catching two reds, both about 17-18".
Catch:
Reds: 2
Missed fish: 2
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Friday, March 14
Angler: Kapn & Trey
Lake location: Mid lake
Bait: Top water dog and gulps
Trip details: Windy and more slow day; nice finish
Catch:
Reds: 1
Trout: 2
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Sunday, February 24th
Fishing was poor for us today in the north end of Guana Lake, so slow that we did not get a single bite in 4.5 hours of fishing with dead shrimp and artificials. We talked to several others who said they caught relatively few fish.
Anyone who has fished Guana has experienced this at one time or another. Sometimes the fish just shut down and there isn't a thing that can be done about it. All you can do is forget about it and start planning your next trip.
Stu Valentine
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Saturday, February 16th
Anglers: Rafe and Nicholas Sanson and Steve Parker
Lake location: North end in sight of observation tower
Bait: Live shrimp on Cajun Thunder
Trip details: All fish were legal size ranging from 20 to 26.5 inches. Caught in the same spot, all before 10:00AM.
Catch:
Reds: 8
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