A Flop at the FLW BFL Event in Palatka

My tournament in Palatka as a co-angler was awful. It was blowing 20 miles an hour and it started raining by about 10 o’clock. My boater and I fished Rodman Reservoir and I’m glad I didn’t have my boat out there. I’ve never seen so much standing timber and so many crab traps in my life. Needless to say we ran over a few.

It would have been all worth it if we found some fish but we didn’t. My partner and I both caught 3 fish but they were all around 12 inches and that ain’t gonna win nothin. Only the top 20 fished on Sunday and we didn’t make the top 20 for some reason. The funny thing is that I got paired with a guy who was fishing the event with his son. They practiced out there together and had 2 spots. We fished one of the spots in the morning and then we swapped places later in the afternoon.

His son pulled in 15 pounds from the same spots with the same Watermelon Old Monster worm. He just happened to hit them at different times. I was thinkin that we suck or timing plays a big factor with bass. Needless to say, the son hit both spots on the next day and weighed in only a pound. Maybe he got the timing wrong on Sunday.

I was really hoping that he caught fish on Sunday so I could go to those spots next year on the same dates at the Bassmaster Weekend Series event. I guess I’ll have to check out Salt Springs, Lake George, Seven Sisters Island, and Turkey Island later this year as well as crank and carolina rig some parts of the river at the right tide.

I’d like to say I learned something from this event, but I didn’t. The highlight was running into Terry “Big Show” Scroggins at the weigh in.

I was planning on fishing Sunday anyway, so I went out to the Kissimmee Chain to check out the Bassmaster Weekend Series event there to see where everyone was fishing. I ran Cypress, Hatchineha, and Lake Kissimmee and burned up a lot of gas. Of course, the winner fished open water hydrilla on Toho so I didn’t see where he fished. I’m thinkin fishing open water with a Rat L Trap is the way to go on Toho. I know of 3 tournaments that’s been won that way recently. I’ll have to find some good patches out there. The only problem is that hydrilla is everywhere and the bass seem to be in places where it’s a little less dense.

Bill Dance Brings Back Childhood Memories

I remember being kid watching episodes of Bill Dance and riding my Huffy down to the dock with delusions of catching monster farm pond bass like Bill catches on the show. He was one of my inspirations growing up and I looked forward to his shows as much getting the new Bass Pro Shops catalog in the mail.

Needless to say, I rarely caught bass the size Bill catches on his show and never ordered anything from the Bass Pro Shops catalog, but I sure did love to go fishing and loved looking at all the new stuff in the catalog. I was lucky if I could talk the folks into buying me a new Rapala or a bag of Culprits at the corner drug store.

In those days, I’d probably throw at the same row of reeds for hours on end and eventually I’d catch a fish. I still can’t figure out if the fish moved in there or just got annoyed.

At one point at about age 10, I remember taking an inflatable boat floating around in the pool that was really more of a raft and a Fischer Price like oar to fish on that lake. My mother spotted me on that thing in the middle of the lake freaking out and called for me to come in. I did catch one fish before she caught me and I distinctly remember the small inflatable boat spinning around in circles as I reeled it in.

Watching this video reminded me of those days and thought I’d share. Bill Dance is a goofball.

Testing Out My Theories on Fishing Current

my buddy Ralph’s biggest bass ever

Well, my theory about fishing in current was sort of right. I fished some current coming into John’s Lake and caught about 10 fish between 2 and 3 pounds. I got one on a black buzzbait and none on my 1/4 ounce spinnerbait. I tried the senko and trick worm and they wouldn’t bite for some reason. There was way too much timber for me to try the carolina rig, but I’m sure it would’ve worked. All the rest came on a watermelon red fluke made by Gitem Baits. I ran out of that color but it didn’t matter. They were biting the chartreuse and white ones as well.

Even my buddy caught a few and he can barely cast a spinning rod. I mean there was a few instances where I saw some flukes fly eerily close to my face, but heck it’s about having good company out there. He was really out there to suck down some Bud Light on the lake, but he was pretty excited about the biggest bass of his life so far. I told him I’ll get him on some bigger ones sometime soon.

All I know is everyone’s gonna know about this spot soon because some of kids that hang out at the boat ramp were asking everyone pulling their boat out of the water whether or not they’d found the spot with the gate, aka the place with the current. I told them that’s where I just came from. I normally wouldn’t care, but it’s a tough spot to find. I guess the current’s gonna stop soon and it won’t matter anyway.

A note to self. Don’t tell the kids at the ramp where the fish are.

Fishing for Bass in Current

I’ve doing a lot of fishing in current the past couple of weeks on John’s Lake and the Kissimmee Chain and the best baits have been a watermelon red & silver flake fluke, a drop shot rig with a junebug finesse worm, a chartreuse spinnerbait, and a red eye shad rattle trap in the chrome sexy shad color. They’ve been stacked up in the eddys and I was too busy catching them to try somethin else.

Now that I think about, I should have also fished a carolina rig, a Sworming Hornet Fish Head Spinner, a buzzbait, and probably a 1/4 ounce spinnerbait. My guess is that the bass are sitting in the current breaks waiting for shad to swim by and whackin’em. I thinkin this because the fluke has been the best bait.

I hope we get a lot more rain sometime soon so I can test out my theory.

Bass Loading up on Canals with Current on the Kissimmee Chain

View Larger Map

I fished the Kissimmee Chain early this morning and the bite was definitely on today at the canal to Hatchineha from Lake Cypress. There were probably 6 or 7 boats parked in this spot and we were all catching them with the heavy current washing the bait in. There were lots of 12 to 16 inch fish being caught with an occasional larger one sprinkled in. The baits that worked the best were a drop shot rig and a rattle trap.

After a while, I checked out the small canals on Hatchineha and there was no current so I didn’t spend too much time there. I then checked out the lock on Toho and the current was too strong to fish so I decided to go into work.

Buffet Line at John’s Lake

I had to check out the current coming into John’s Lake from Black Lake after work today and it was like I jumped into a buffet. The bass were eating everything and you couldn’t go too many casts without getting bit. Most of them were about a pound, but a Ranger boat I parked next to said he got there about a couple of hours before me and caught about 30 bass with a couple of them weighing 7 pounds (probably a couple of 5 pounders).

I caught about 10 fish in an hour, all small of course, and thinkin it was about time I luck out and hook into a big one but the sky opened up and it didn’t stop raining until dark. The fishing was so good I tied up at the boat ramp and waited for the weather to clear, but it kept raining.

I’m pretty darn sure this spots gonna be a mad house during the Wednesday night tournament which I’ll be skipping out on.

Fishing on John’s Lake after Fay

I checked out John’s Lake in Winter Garden on Sunday after Tropical Storm Fay and the water has come up at least a foot and maybe two. The fishing was a little slow with me catching 3 small bass and a gar in the morning, but the waters leading to many of the lakes and coves have become navigable so I spent a great deal of time exploring some new water.

It’s a whole new chain with at least 2 more small lakes and a bunch of coves that no one could get to before. One of the neatest spots I found was not new, but the water from Black Lake is just pouring in and creating a great deal of current. I caught one small fish with a texas rigged worm there, but later I talked to my buddy Del who caught an 8 and a 3 pounder in the same spot with a drop shot rig. Why didn’t I think of that?

Really, I did try it but there were 3 boats parked right where the water was coming in. I got a little tired of fishing in a crowd and decided to try elsewhere. I guess I should have tried the drop shot a little longer. One thing I didn’t think of was that my trolling motor was spooking the fish. My buddy said that he started catching a bunch of fish after he beached his boat and after the other boat next to him dropped anchor. I’ll have to put that in the memory bank.

I probably should have also tried a split shot or carolina rig lizard or trick worm. All I know is that the drop shot and carolina rig are gonna get worn out this week.

I also checked out the Clermont Chain this weekend and water hasn’t come up an inch. Somehow there’s always a delay because the water flows in from the Green Swamp in Polk County. The delay was at least a week after the hurricanes in 2004. I’d love to check out this chain but the water’s super low still.

I definitely plan on checking out the current coming through the lock at Lake Cypress on the Kissimmee Chain. It’s sure to be good and sure to be crowded as well.