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Lake Talquin Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Tallahassee's stump garden: an old Ochlockonee impoundment famous for crappie tonnage, live-oak shorelines and January limits.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~74 F est.
Air / High
78 / 79 F
Wind
NE 9 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Lake Talquin sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 9 mph, steady pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 79. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:14 AM-12:14 PM and 10:41 PM-12:41 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

White bassFair

Summer and early fall schooling season over open water; follow the shad, and try live bait on the bottom at night.

Tomorrow: Similar at 77 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Florida requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $17.00 for residents. What a Florida licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with FWC before you keep anything. The season dates for Florida, read off the agency, are on the Florida seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp78 F
High / Low79 / 49 F
WindNE 9-14 mph
Pressure1019.8 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:46 / 18:58
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Lake Talquin this week

The best day on Lake Talquin this week looks like Sunday Oct 25, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Sunday, Oct 25 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:14 AM-12:14 PM and 10:41 PM-12:41 AM
Minor period
4:35 AM-5:35 AM
Sun
07:46 to 18:58
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Partly cloudy, 9 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Talquin: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

White bass illustration

White bass

Best: the spring run up the tributaries, then summer surface schools

A silvery temperate bass of rivers and large reservoirs, also called sand bass, that schools in open water after shad and runs up tributaries to spawn in early spring. Summer and early fall schooling season over open water; follow the shad, and try live bait on the bottom at night.

When to come: the Lake Talquin calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Crappie
Catfish (blue, channel)
White bass
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Lake Talquin today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 81 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 81 F, wind to 8 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 77 F, wind to 9 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Florida requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Florida license. Crappie 25/day: check FWC. Navigation: unmarked stumps lake-wide.

Access

Williams Landing, Coe Landing, High Bluff (county/state ramps); fish camps along SR-20.

About this water

8,850 acres on the Ochlockonee River, Leon/Gadsden counties, FL. Tallahassee's historic crappie water.

Fishing Lake Talquin: the full guide

The capital's crappie pond

Talquin flooded the Ochlockonee in 1927 and kept its timber: today's lake is a stump field wearing Spanish moss, and its speckled perch (crappie) fishery ranks with Florida's best. Winter is the season: January-March fills coolers as fish school the river channel: the state's northern crappie culture centers here.

Speck seasons

Winter: drift or spider-rig minnows along the channel edges at 12-20 ft: the proven Talquin program: then March pushes spawners to the shoreline cypress and pads (jigs under corks). Summer specks suspend over the deepest holes at dawn: locals troll tiny jigs and call it a morning by nine.

Bass in the wood

The largemouth fishery works the endless cover: flipping stumps and cypress knees, frogs across the pad fields, and a spinnerbait bite after winter rains stain the river end. Talquin bass run chunky if not enormous: 8-lb fish come every spring from water most boats idle past.

Stump-field seamanship

Navigation is the lake's tax: stumps everywhere, marked lanes limited, and plane-speed shortcuts punished. Idle the unfamiliar, follow the channel markers, and fish the hazards: every prop scar on the lake maps a crappie school. Bank access at the state forest and fish camps keeps boatless anglers in the game.

Common questions

When is crappie season at Lake Talquin?

December-March on the channel schools, with the March shoreline spawn the finale: it is Florida's best big-water speck run north of Okeechobee's latitude.

Is Lake Talquin dangerous to run?

Only at speed in ignorance: stumps rule the lake. Idle-and-learn the first trips, run marked lanes, and the hazard becomes the habitat you fish.

Is fishing good at Lake Talquin right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Lake Seminole28 miSaint Marks River33 miApalachicola Bay55 miPanama City Beach75 miSteinhatchee88 miChoctawhatchee Bay104 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 30.4180, -84.5850 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.