My Hawg on an Evening Stroll

Well, the cold front has moved in Central Florida with rain and colder temperatures. I’ve been stuck inside all day, so I decided to walk my secret farm pond down the street from my house at around 4:30 when the rain stopped. I threw out my green pumpkin chatterbait a few times and hooked into this hawg on the fourth cast. This little pond is phenomenal and I’m glad I was throwing 20 lb test. I go here to get confidence with new baits. 

I’d say this fish was about 26″ and filled out as much as a fish can in these parts so I think it weighed around 8 pounds. She looks like she’s getting ready to bed already. The photo doesn’t show it that well, but it was a thick fish. 

I gotta get a john boat to take out on this pond someday. I catch one about this size or larger about every 5 or 6 trips which typically runs about an hour at a time. It’s a great place to clear my head and catch some giants. This place makes me think I’m a bassin genius.

Shallow Crankin Timber on Lake Susan

I spent a few hours on the Clermont Chain today and found some nice fish on Lake Susan. I concentrated on laydowns that extended out into deeper water with a Rapala DT Fat in the Parrot color. The extra buoyancy you get from this balsa crankbait made it a lot easier to swim through the timber in the areas I’ve lined on the map. The winds were howling out of the south and Lake Susan was one of the few places you could get out of the wind. It just so happens some nice fish were hanging around here as well. I caught a 5 and a bunch of fish between 2.5 lbs and 3.5 lbs.. I thought today would be a good day since there’s a cold front coming in this evening with temperatures dropping from a comfortable 80 degrees to a high of 66 degrees. Water temp was in the low 70’s but I’m sure it’ll be much lower after this cold front passes. Hopefully the water temp will drop quickly and stabilize so we can start seeing some spawning when we get a warm up.

download pdf: Clermont Chain Map

No Challenge for Me on Toho

Well, I’ve spent tons of money on gas and at least 7 days from sun up until sun down trying to find fish on the Kissimmee Chain and they are hard to locate. Every time I think I have a spot, I’ll go back and get blanked. I don’t think the fish have settled into their fall pattern yet and moving around a lot. Needless to say, I didn’t feel real confident about my spots so I decided to save my entry fee.

The most consistent spots were small clumps of reeds mixed in with kissimmee grass or lily pads. The cuts in the hydrilla were also good but I think the bigger ones are in the thick stuff. I thought they’d be on the east side of Kissimmee and they weren’t. The spots were on the north end.

I’m gonna start focusing on the Harris Chain for the rest of the year since the first event of the weekend series will be there. We’ll see how it goes. Phil from Lake County Bass said he’ll show me around a bit. I’m lookin forward to it.

I’ll be curious to see where everyone is fishing out on Kissimmee. I’m gonna take a spy trip for a few hours on Friday.

If The Cows Aren’t Graze’n, Then The Fish Ain’t Bite’n?

I went out on Lake Kissimmee yesterday and it was pretty tough. It took me all day to find some fish and they weren’t on the east side where I looked most of the day. I launched at Overstreet and noticed the cows laying down on the way in. My buddy Walt says if the cows aren’t grazing and there’s no birds then you might as well turn around and go back home cause the fish ain’t bite’n either. Well, I didn’t go back home after my hour drive but the fish weren’t bite’n.

I had about 5 hits early on with a frog and speed worm but couldn’t get any of them in the boat. After a while, I started giving them a lot of time to get the bait and still couldn’t get them. I mean I let this fish peck at my worm for close to 20 seconds and it just let it go.

I did finally run into a spot where I caught 5 fish in an hour but nothing big. It seems like the fish are on the reeds these days for whatever reason. I didn’t figure out much today. I hope I figure something out tommorow.

Flippin on John’s Lake

I went out on John’s Lake in Winter Garden yesterday for a few hours of relaxin and the fish are super shallow and real tight to the cover. The only way I could get a bite was to flip into some nasty places with a Junebug Silver creature bait from Gitem Baits that looks just like the Sweet Beaver from Reaction Innovations and a 3/8 ounce sinker. I think they’re still buttoned up from the cold front but should be getting real active next week with the water temps dropping into the 60’s and 70’s. The fish I caught were few and few between but all at least 2 pounds.

Fishing Lake Kissimmee With Howling North Winds

Well, I spent the entire weekend looking for fish on the Kissimmee Chain. The best places were an area on Lake Kissimmee where Terry Scroggins caught his huge bag to get into contention for the 2006 Bassmaster Classic and an area near North Cove. The water was in the mid 70’s and in the 50’s during the classic but they were still here.

The bass were in offshore hydrilla near North Cove and pretty much everywhere in the other area. The best baits were my 3/8 ounce chartreuse single colorado blade Booyah spinnerbait and the Yum Big Show Paddletail worm in junebug. I started the morning in North Cove because the winds were blowing 10 to 20 knots out of the north and I figured it would keep me out of the wind. The second area with fish was also protected from the north winds. Thank goodness I didn’t catch any pickerel on the chartreuse spinnerbait. I hate trying to get those toothy critters off the hook.

I fished all the way down to Jack Slough. The water was clearest here, but didn’t catch any fish. It’s the area Luke Clausen won pretty much won the 2006 Bassmaster Classic and definitely the clearest water. The fish should be in the clearest water so I’ll start here in the morning sometime this week and work my way south. The winds have been and will continue to blow out of the north so going south is much easier than going the other way.

It seems like the fish are just inside the main line of kissimmee grass from the main lake. I couldn’t get bit real close to shore. The one vegetation the fish are always on these days are small clumps of reeds mixed in the kissimmee grass with pink snail eggs on them. The fish are also supposed to be in the clearest water, but it seems like they like a little stain at the moment.

I’d also like to find them offshore since they tend to bunch up out there. I did catch a few on Toho and it seems like you need to fish the side the wind’s blowing onto. I also checked out the hydrilla bed near Southport but couldn’t get bit with a carolina rig. They’re hard to figure out. Somebody give me some more tips.

Another Bad Prefishing Day for the Toho Challenge

I checked out Lake Cypress today in preparation for the Toho Challenge and I can definitely rule this place out. I flipped the open water hydrilla, wormed the edges, and covered a lot of it with a Ribbit frog, a gold Xcalibur Xr75, carolina rig with a trick worm, and a Booyah Boogie Bait. You can’t fish any of the reeds because of all the hydrilla. The winds were howling and the only place I caught any fish was on a shell bed near Haines Creek. The only problem is that they were barely keepers. I don’t know if the cold front coming is shutting down the fish, but it wasn’t a successful day. I’ve got to find some big fish somewhere. 

I’ll probably check out the entire eastern shore of Lake Kissimmee and the south end of Toho next. I sure hope they’re there somewhere. I’ve covered a lot of water already and ready to find them. Either I suck or the fish are so deep in the hydrilla that I can’t get to them. I’m determined and will be looking from sun up until sun down for at least another couple of days.

After days like today, I start wondering if I’m missing something or if I just suck. I’ve got to get those thoughts out of my head and continue looking for the honey hole. I may have to try a Zoom Speed Worm. I’ve never really had too much success with them but the Ray Sedgewick and Scott Rook seemed to do pretty well on them in North Cove around pads.

Prefishing on Toho

I headed out on the Kissimmee Chain yesterday to begin my prefishing for the Toho Challenge and it wasn’t very successful. I started out on Lake Kissimmee in the 7 Palms area and caught a few fish in Kissimmee grass areas without hydrilla or pepper grass. I tried like heck to get some frog fish but couldn’t get any out of the matted vegetation.

The wind was pretty brisk this morning so I looked for some sheltered areas and found it near the Overstreet Ramp and North Cove. Both were about the same with a few small fish but not the size I’m looking for. All the fish in both areas came from a junebug Gitem finesse worm that’s pretty much the same as the Zoom Trick Worm.

Well, things started calming down and the water temps were hitting the mid 80’s so I decided to lock to Toho and fish some open water. I did find a few spots in the hydrilla patches in the middle of the lake, but again they were all too small to do any damage. There must have been a tournament yesterday, because there were 3 other boats around me netting their fish into the boat. I was lookin but no one else got any big ones either.

I think I’ll try to dedicate an entire day on open water in Toho this coming week. I’m pretty sure it’s a place where tournaments can be won here. It’s just so boring graphing the middle of the lake and carolina rigging all day. You gotta do what you gotta do. At least they’ll bite a Rat L Trap as well which will help break up the monotony. Ripping the Rat L Trap through the hydrilla and letting it rest in the open area seems to be working lately. I like to rip it, but if they like it better just sitting there, then I gotta let it sit.

Bass Moving into Coves on Toho

I checked out Toho yesterday and the bass are moving into coves here as well with the water temps only getting into the mid 80’s even in the hottest part of the day. The fishing should pick up from here on out. Most of the bass were caught in an undisclosed cove on Toho. I tried froggin it on the way in but didn’t get anything. I wormed it on the way out and caught a bunch 2 to 3 pounders. Again, the Yum Big Show Paddle Worm in junebug was the ticket for me.

I tried to check out Goblet’s Cove but the hydrilla is getting out of control. It was so bad, I started getting worried about clogging up my motor so I just turned around and got the hell outta there.

I got a little tired of wormin it so I broke out the Strike King Red Eye Shad in the Chrome Sexy Shad color and starting ripping through hydrilla in open water near Red’s Fish Camp/Lake Toho Resort. I love this bait, but the chrome comes off way too easily. It’s the worst out of all of em. The Xcalibur, Spro, and even Bill Lewis ones hold up a lot better, but it’s all about the shimmy according to KVD.

Anyway, whenever I found a clean spot just outside the hydrilla, I’d let it sit there for a few seconds and had the biggest fish of the day this way. I mean the bait was sitting there and WHAM, line starting ripping out. I got it close enough to the boat to see it at least. I’d say it was 7-8 pounds judging from the size and the way the drag was working. Well, it jumped by the boat and threw the Red Eye Shad. Uugh. Just painful.

If I were fishing in a tournament, I would have had about 13-14 pounds which is pretty good but not good enough to win anything. I think I know where to get a limit and where the big fish are hangin so I better camp out in open water with a carolina rig and rat l trap and make sure I can catch some bigger fish.

Finally Found Some Big Fish at John’s Lake

I finally found some fish on John’s Lake. I checked this spot out where the water goes from about 10 ft to 4 ft in the horseshoe cut and they are stacked up in there. It’s almost a vertical ledge. The good thing is that there’s some big ones mixed in. I caught a bass or two every pass I made on this spot and one about 6 pounds last night. All the fish I’ve been finding have been bunched up lately, so I know there’s more big ones there. Heck, I even threw one out into open water and still caught one.

I can’t figure out if they’re liking the depth change or the cover or combination. It could just be all the bait here. The shad were jumping all around me and I have no idea why they’re in this spot other than the fact that they’re supposed to make their way back into creeks and coves in the fall. I’ll have to check out some coves with deeper water and fish where the depth changes from deep to shallow.

All the fish came on a junebug color YUM Big Show Paddleworm with a 3/16 sinker. Why fix something that ain’t broke. I will have to try to graph some weeds along this structure and carolina rig this spot in open water. Heck, I should also possibly deep crank it, jig a spinnerbait, or swim bait it with a Wild Eye Swim Shad along the bottom.

In any case, I’ve got to start finding fish on Toho and Harris Chain. I checked out Lake Eustis and some of the creeks one morning and got skunked. I’m gonna have to check out Harris and Griffin next time. I’m thinkin you gotta flip and spinnerbait here, but I don’t have the answers yet. I hear the canals are good but there’s so much boat traffic. I’m gonna have to figure something out.