woodruff/ Dexter st.john's

[newlite]

Are these lakes good crappie lakes for that area?We went last year and our best day was around 20.The ones we caught were good ones just not very many.Are there days when you can catch good numbers or should I be happy with say 10 or 15 a day.Another thing is I'm used to catching them up by the bank or by something sticking up.So when everybody is catching them out in the middle of the lakes does that mean I should fish there or could I still catch them closer to shore?They say they will be getting ready to spawn next week when we are going to be there but will they do it out in the middle of the lakes or close to shore?We will troll,cast,drift,spiderrig,and jig with tubes,rr's,minnow's what ever it takes I 'm just trying to find a pattern that's more of my style.I hope I'm not asking for to much.Thanks ahead for any and all info. Good Fishing,Newlite

[GRIZZ]

Woodruff is a pretty decent crappie lake. Its fairly shallow and when people are fishing in the middle they are most likely fishing a weedbed for some kind of structure in the middle. I'd say go to those areas and try next time. Should be getting close to prespawn there now so theres gonna be some nice fishing there soon. There is a good guide on the lake with a fishcamp. I don't remember the name, but you wouldn't hurt yourself giving him a visit. He's easy to find.

I actually lived on the St. Johns river for a winter, and got some real nice crappie there, but like you I never really hammered them. I found the numbers to be similar to bass fishing, but real nice sized fish. I never caught more that 15- 20/day.

There are some very intersting fish in the St. Johns. The water from the springs comes out of the ground at a constant 72 degrees all winter, so around the major springs some fairly unusual fish show up. Saltwater fish come into the river that far and I've seen tarpon, redish, snook, and some I don't know what they were. Some kind of pufferfish or something way down in the deepest part of the deep pools near the springs. Keep an eye out for manitees. I saw them many times while fishing the river.

I lived in DeLand right next to Woodruff and the St. Johns. If you want to go somewhere interesting to fish - go to the Woodruff Wildlife preserve and fish the canals. They are full of bass, gar, panfish, and alligators - Big ones. There is one that suns himself on the back left corner of the preserve thats 14 feet long. I've been within about 50 feet of him. He's impressive. The birds there this time of year are awsome. Be there at sunset and you'll see something that will amaze you. I won't ruin it by telling. Also, go see the manitees at Blue Springs State Park.

[newlite]

HEY GRIZZ,THANKS A BUNCH FOR THE INFO.I THINK WE SAW THAT GATOR
YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT.I DON'T REMEMBER WHICH CANAL IT WAS IN BUT WE SAW THIS ONE 3 OR 4 DAYS IN A ROW.HE WAS HUGE.I EVEN GOT TO TO RUB HIS BACK ONE DAY WITH MY ROD TIP,AND WHEN HE TOOK OFF IT WAS SOMETHING TO SEE,IT ROCKED THE BOAT(20FT RANGER)!!! CAN YA GET TO THOSE CANALS BY PUTTING IN THERE AT BLAIR'S JUNGLE DEN,THAT'S WHERE WE ARE STAYING? I THOUGHT THAT WHOLE AREA WAS THE REFUGE??WELL I GUESS WILL JUST HAVE TO CONSIDER 20 A GOOD DAY.MAN I WOULD LIKE TO CATCH ABOUT 50 TO 100 OF THEM A DAY,WOULDN'T YOU!! I DON'T THINK WE CAUGHT ANY THAT WERE UNDER 3/4 OF A LB.SURE IS A PRETTY PLACE TO FISH EVEN IF YOU DON'T CATCH A THING.I THINK i KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT AT DUSK,YOU LOOK AROUND AND THERE EVERYWHERE.SPOOKY. IF THAT'S NOT WHAT IT IS, I'LL BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR SOMETHING!! I'LL TRY TO FIND SOME OF THOSE SPRINGS,THAT SOUNDS FUN,ANYTHING TO GET THE KINKS OUT OF THE LINE.LOL THANKS AGAIN AND I'LL REPORT BACK,GOOD OR BAD.I'M SURE I'LL HAVE SOME KIND OF STORY TO TELL.THAT PLACE IS WILD!!!! NEWLITE

[GRIZZ]

Man your nuts getting that close to that gator. He's a monster.

I didn't know you could get into the canals from the lake with a boat. I never saw a boat on them.

Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge - http://www.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/index.htm

http://www.hpfishcamp.com/welcomepage.htm

Heres a map of the preserve. - www.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/map2.gif

http://www.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/map1.htm - this is good.

Well I don't want you to miss it so, heres the cool thing I mentioned

treeswt.jpg (10092 bytes) Tree swallows are winter residents that sometimes roost in gigantic (10's-100's of thousands)(this is added by grizz - I'd say close to in the millions) of birds. They are most often seen in late afternoon( no - just before sunset-during sunset), swirling over the marshes and impoundments, as they prepare to go to roost. One of the truly stunning spectacles you may observe at Woodruff, if you are lucky, is what former refuge manager Leon Rhodes termed "the dance". Huge flocks of tree swallows perform highly synchronized swirling flights for 10-15 minutes before roosting, and can be seen from over a mile away as what looks like a swirling cloud of smoke. Here's my feeble attempt to photograph it. Watch for these display flights at dusk in midwinter, especially over the marshes to the west of Pool 3.

This picture is like watching niagara falls from 2 miles away, just doesn't do the spectacle justice, but you can get close to them in the preserve when they are doing it and its amazing to see.

http://www.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/tsdance.jpg

Basically what I saw was a dense cloud of birds that looked like they were 4-5 times higher than they would normally go, so thick it looked like a black ungulating giant ameoba floating up in the air and then its like someone pulls a plug on a drain and this tiney stream of birds drops to the ground in a stream that looks like they are flying through a clear tube in a tornado pattern, not one bird straying from the tube. The clouse just keeps undulating up there and draining down the "drain pipe" until they hit the ground and start to form a identical cloud of birds where the stream ends at the ground. Its like they drew a circle in the air uptop and they can only fly throught that to get down to the ground and that big cloud just drains down the tube like there is a big sink up there. When all the birds drop into the "tube" and the tube drains all the way to the ground the same cloud that was way up there is now on the ground about 5 feet thick above the ground. Its very noisy. then all of a sudden BAM - they all hit the ground and get silent and the show is over.

Its one of the most facinating natural spectacles I've seen in the wild and I hope you get to see it. Go to the park and get close to the far left back corner from the entrance to get close to it at least an hour before sunset. Its quite a hike to get there so get there early. You will be very glad you did if they do it for you to see.

[driller]

I lived on the St Johns for 5 years(owned Lunker Lodge in Georgetown). The wildlife is awsome and the fishing can be feast or famine. Alligators were a nuisance, I had to run them out of my yard before daylight in the mornings(didnt want the "guests" to know they had been sleeping within 20 feet of a gator all night---LOL.