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Fishing Reports for Local Area - Location |
    
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 12
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008 - 9:01 am: | |
Tropical Storm Fay caused destruction all over Florida, and my heart goes out to those whose lives have been lost and changed forever because of the storm. It almost seem impossible that something good came from this storm, but as an angler the storm has significantly helped. John's Lake is the lake I fish the most and this past Sunday was the first time since the storm, that I was out fishing. The water level was almost back to its normal level, and fished like a brand new lake. Fish were shallow and I could reach areas again that I haven't been able to in almost two years. Water run offs into the lake caused the lake to have current, something I haven't seen in years. That current attracted fish all week long and with continued afternoon thunderstorms that current will continue for days to come. Shallow crank baits seem to be producing the most bites, followed by dark colored jigs. Jigs have been very successful around the docks. With the water levels being up and the fall quickly approaching, I see the bite only getting better, so now would be a great time to book a trip with any guide in Florida.
Capt Kevin Przybyl
Orlando Trophy Bass
www.Orlandotrophybass.com
"Casting Towards a Cure for Cystic Fibrosis" |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 57
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - 8:41 am: | |
June and July have seen some good bass fishing action. Most of our time had been spent on Johns Lake, with a few scattered trips out on Butler Chain. This time of year is typically hot and usually with very little breeze to help keep things comfortable, so we have been doing a lot of 4 and 6 hour trips to beat the heat.
Johns Lake has been pretty good on schooling bass first thing in the morning at Deer Island Cut. Spinner baits, rattle traps and a select few crank baits have done pretty good. Smaller swim baits like the curl tail minnow have been productive, as well as a 7 inch junebug worm crawled slowly across the bottom.
Once the schooling action stops, we have been hitting isolated grass beds as well as offshore hydrilla beds just below the surface. Seven inch junebug worms with a small bullet weight worked slowly has been the main producer once the air temperatures start cooking. We did have some limited success with drop shot in 12 to 16 foot water.
Senko type baits, as well as trick worms have been catching some bass off of docks, as well as the drop shot worked along the docks and worked slowly thru the passes in the docks.
Water levels on Johns Lake have come up slowly with the rains we have been having, markers are out there still, marking the sand bars to make sure people and boats stay safe.
Butler Chain water levels are still great, lots of areas with some good productive flooded wood and some very healthy hydrilla make for some good action. Early morning top water action has been ok, with some scattered schooling around the chain. Most of our bass have been coming close to deeper water drop offs, but we have still been catching bass in less than 2 feet of water in lakes Chase and Blanche.
One ounce spinner baits worked thru grasses and hydrilla have produced some serious strikes, as well as working the steel shad, typically the gold one seems to have worked best for us. Several bass have been caught working docks, big key here was to really work the dock hard, and very slowly. Drop offs have been holding some quality bass, especially around submerged brush piles.
Orlando Fishing Forecast:
September is now just around the corner and one last month of heat. 4 and 6 hour trips are still the way to go to still catch some good quality bass, early morning hours are the best bet with some good schooling action still expected.
Water levels on our lakes have come up very nicely with our afternoon rains and the tropicl storm that passed thru and dumped rain on us for 4 days.
Things are really starting to pick up, so start booking your trips for what will be yet another good spawning season.
Capt Tim Fey
Http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 11
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 02, 2008 - 12:41 pm: | |
Summer is deffiently upon us, everyday around 2 pm the thunderstorms are booming. This has been ongoing everyday for over a month, and I love it. Finally you can tell the water levels are rising. Instead of the usual 4 foot drop from the dock at the boat ramp, its now a two foot easy step. As for the fishing, this past week was a tough one. Bass were caught but the numbers were a little normal than they have been, and I have had to work for those bites. I have been fishing in 8 to 10 ft with plenty of grass and hydrilla in those areas. Like I said its been work, but the fish we are catching a decent fish in the 2.5-3 lbs range. I have noticed there has been less schooling in the morning, they are just not feeding as much, and can you blame them, just yesterday the water temp on lake conway was 88 degress. Those that aren't familiar with Conway, that lake gets pretty deep, many spots over 20ft deep, but again keep in mind its the middle of summer, and in a few short weeks, things will begin to change and the fish will start getting into a fall pattern. Even though its hard work, we are still having plenty of fun, so give me a call and book a trip.
Capt. Kevin Przybyl
Orlando Trophy Bass
www.OrlandoTrophybass.com
"Casting Towards a Cure for Cystic Fibrosis" |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 10
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 - 5:35 am: | |
I had several trips over the past week with some great guests and great fishing. The early morning bite has proven to be the most successful time of the day. All week I came up on a large school of bass, over 100 fish easily. They were caught with rattle traps, weightless sinkos and flukes. These schooling fish were chasing shade so lighter colors worked the best to catch them. These fish schooled each day for a little over an hour long. After that we started working docks with black/blue ¼-1/2 oz jigs. Jig fishing produced the bigger fish with several fish being over 6 Lbs. With the expected weather for the next week, I expect the fishing will not change very much, so book a trip with me today !!
Capt Kevin Przybyl
"Casting Towards a Cure for Cystic Fibrosis" |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 8
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008 - 6:15 am: | |
The summer fishing is in full swing here in Orlando . Early morning I have been fishing shallower water with weightless sinkos, and spinning baits. Once the sun comes up, I start my way into deeper water, fishing patches of grass and hydrilla. As the day progresses and the sun is beating down on us, I move into deeper water throwing deep water crank baits or a Carolina rig. In the deeper water I have been looking for deep brush piles or hydrilla. Despite the fact that the fish slim down during the summer months, fishing deep hydrilla is still producing fish in the 5 plus pound range. Occasionally I’ll run into a school of fish feeding on shad, and will throw a slightly weighted or weightless fluke. Depending on the afternoon cloud cover, I’ll switch gears and start throwing topwater baits around scattered grass, which is producing catches. Evening fishing has been non-existent most of the month of June because of strong thunderstorms. I love to fish in the evening hours so the past month has been killing me, but the rain is helping with the low water levels we have been facing the past year. If you can handle the heat and humidity, great summer fishing is a reality here in Florida . |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 56
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 7:31 am: | |
The month of May has seen some very good bass fishing action in Orlando. For the most part Johns Lake has been the place to be. Even though we have seen very limited schooling action in the mornings, we have caught some good schooling bass in the cuts, mainly Deer Island cut. Bass have been hitting on Gitem Warlocks around isolated grass patches, rigged with a very small bullet weight and worked very slowly.
Several areas in mid lake with hydrilla have been producing some quality bass using 1 ounce Sugoi spinner baits, Steel Shads and 10 inch worms. Several days of higher winds than normal had us working docks that were wind blown, which had been holding bass, some docks producing as many as 3 bass, which makes for a very good day.
Live bait has been producing ok, but we have been out catching live bait with artificial baits sometimes 3 to 1, clients really love this, as it is just that much more fun to catch bass using plastics.
Butler Chain has been fishing pretty good. Lakes we have worked have been Butler, Chase and Blanche. Butler has been a great lake to start the day out early on in the mornings, from there moving over to Lake Chase has been the ticket. Numbers and bigger bass have come later in the day on Lake Blanche, working the docks and the deeper drop offs very slow worming. Altho the bite has been what we call a “small tick” instead of the aggressive hits, quality bass have been caught.
For the most part, water levels on Johns Lake and Butler Chain are not too bad, Johns Lake, we do have a few sand bars to watch out for, one right at the ramp area, one coming off the point going into the main lake area, and one going into the Horse shoe area. Butler Chain the canals could use some water, but the levels are still safe to pass thru, and with the rains the last few days, should help out with those levels.
My tournament partner and I did venture out to Harris Chain mid month to fish a Fishers Of Men Tournament, with no free time to practice out there, we went according to old notes from years past and they paid off pretty good. With some tough fishing, we did get into some schooling bass, but we could only get them to hit very small floating Ugly Duckling crank baits, once we had our limit, we switched up to one ounce spinner baits and covered a lot of water to cull some smaller bass, with a nice 5 and change bass slamming a spinner bait, landing us in 11th place, just 2 spots from the money, which equaled out to a pound, also missing second big bass by a matter of ounces.
Waters at the ramp on Harris were very low, with only one of the ramps open, and apparently a boulder sitting at the end of the ramp making launching and pulling out entertaining to say the least. Next months tournament is State Championships on Lake Rousseau and from there we go to Southeast Regional’s the end of October, site still to be determined.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 55
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 12:00 pm: | |
Week ending April 30th
The last two weeks of April saw some good bass fishing on Johns Lake and Butler Chain. Schooling action on Johns had been very limited for us in the mornings, but always got the day off to a good start. For the most part on Johns Lake, our bass have been coming off some of our typical deeper water areas. Steel Shads and spinner baits being the best at catching the bass, a few have been caught on smaller series Ugly Duckling crank baits.
Butler Chain we had spent most of our time on Lake Chase and Tibet-Butler. Lake Chase has been good working Gitem Warlocks and heavy one ounce Sugoi spinner baits in and around thinned out grasses and lily pads. Tibet-Butler we did have some schooling action, and the heavier spinner baits tossed into the schools picked off the better quality bass. Docks have produced some good bass with the steady action coming mainly around grass beds and areas with hydrilla mixed with the grass. A few of the deeper water areas have held some good bass, working the Steel Shad like a spoon has been a very good way to pick up some from the deep drop offs.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 7
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 4:23 am: | |
Its been another few weeks of "Casting Towards a Cure for Cystic fibrosis" with the summer temperatures starting, upper 80's and low 90's temperatures over the past week. These hot temperatures are not effecting the bass fishing yet with the water temps being in the low 80's. My focus has been on John's Lake over the past month, in the morning and evening hours. Smaller fish are still being caught in shallow water around scarred grass with spinner baits and weightless sinkos. This week I began fishing in deper water 8 ft+ and its been paying off. With my new Hummingbird 797 with side imaging, I have been the bait fish. Once I locate them I begin throwing the strike king red eye shad right through the bait fish. Within seconds, the bait scatters and the bass strike. When they hit the shad I'll throw the strike king and if they don't hit or miss the it, I quickly follow with a weightless amber w/red flake sinko. |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 54
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - 6:23 am: | |
Week Ending April 13th
Sorry for the delay in my fishing reports, things have been very crazy around here. First half of the month has seen some pretty good bass fishing. Most of my trips have been done on Johns Lake with a few stops at Butler Chain. For the most part most of my trips have been artificial baits. Using a lot of Gitem Warlocks, spinner baits and of course the Steel Shads.
Johns Lake for the most part, the early morning schooling has slowed to a crawl, with a few bass being caught in the Deer Island cut in the morning. We have caught some good bass in wide open waters on the main lake, as well as quality bass around isolated grass patches. This seems to be a pattern that has held up for well over a month now. Several bass in the 5 pound class had made it to the boat in this time frame on Johns Lake.
Butler Chain was a little tougher fishing. Most casts were pin point under docks, and to grass patches with submerged wood close by. Lakes that produced for us were Tibet, Chase and Blanche. Memorable trip out there was with Chris G. We had been plugging away for some quality bass and Chris had told me his life long dream was to catch a 5 pounder. His previous big fish I believe he said was 3 pounds and it was not even a bass, so mid way thru the day, I told him lets head to what I call “ junk lake” Lake Blanche, with all the docks and submerged wood, there had to be a big bass waiting for him. We got on a good stretch of water using the Warlocks, when Chris got hit and the bass didn’t stand a chance, and yes, his dream came true with a solid bass coming in right at 5 pounds on the gripper. Great job Chris, and when your back next year, we have to catch one bigger.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 6
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008 - 2:22 pm: | |
Another couple of weeks where plenty of bass were caught, despite some strong winds. The beginning of the month ended with Shiv and his brother-in-law from New Jersey. They were new to the sport of fishing. After a quick lesson on casting with a spinning reel and some practice casts, they managed to reel in a few 2-3 lbs. bass on shiners. Unfortunately a front came through and slowed down the bite. Towards the end of the morning Shiv lost a 7+ lbs bass. The fish was up next to an isolated patch of grass, when it hit the shinner. As Shiv was reeling in the fish, it jumped out of the water at spit out the hook, just feet away from the net. However, a few minutes later they landed a nice 4 lbs bass in the same area.
This past week was spent throwing artificial baits under docks. Weightless sinko, and ¼ oz- ½ oz black jigs also added to the success of our catching. On windier days, we worked docks that the wind was blowing against, fishing painfully slow. Being slow produced some big fish over the course of the week, not to mention dozens of 2 pounders. |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 53
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 3:23 pm: | |
The past two weeks has seen some great bass fishing action, as well as some tough action as the cold front came thru. This front grabbed a hold of us for a good two days, and after some very good bass fishing action, it really put a clamp on the action. Bass were still caught, but we did have to work harder for our catch. We had a few days of combo trips, working live and artificial baits, for the most part, the artificial baits we used were Gitem Warlocks and 7 inch ribbon tail worms, both worked with a 1/16th ounce bullet weight in and around grass beds.
Tom and Robert had a day of high winds which limited us to certain areas on the lake, the bite was very scattered and very light, as the bass would just pick up the baits and swim some with it, heart breaking moment came with Tom getting a light tick and the bass swimming under the boat, only to turn and come back out and jump right next to the boat, this beauty was an easy 7 pounder, as she spit the worm and swam away.
Doug and Todd had two days with us on Johns Lake, the first day was once again very light hits on the baits, with winds still up and weather very cool to start the day, bass were scattered as we hit several areas to get our catch. Day two we had much better action with calmer winds and warmer weather. Big bass for them coming in at 5.13 pounds.
Brian and John had some good action as well on live baits, bass were schooling some in the cut but were very scattered, as most bass caught came closer to docks, with one dock yielding two bass within minutes of each other. For the most part, the live bait action has remained pretty steady on Johns Lake, schooling action has seemed to slow down some but the quality bass have picked up considerably as Doug and Todd saw on day two, catching only one dink, with the rest coming in between 2 and 4 pounds and very scrappy.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 5
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 03, 2008 - 5:32 am: | |
Over the past few weeks the fishing has been great. The majority of the fish being caught have been in 4-8ft of water on both John’s Lake, and Lake Conway. The bigger fish have been caught with medium sized shiners thrown to nearby grass patches. All the 2-3 lbs fish caught these past few weeks have been on a wide variety of artificial baits like top water horny toads, spinners, plastic zoon u-tale worms, and the occasional rattle trap. Many of my fish have been clumped in large groups along scattered grass patches. To sum it all up, these fish are feeding, and if its near them, they are hitting it.
Capt. Kevin Przybyl
www.orlandotrophybass.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 4
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 1:00 pm: | |
The fishing continues to be enjoyable. Most of the fish I have been catching have been in 4 foot of water or less around scattered grass. These fish have been caught with live shinners and 6 inch finese worms, texas rigged, junebug or black in color. When I have been fishing in deeper waters, its been around brush piles with rattle traps, carolina rig, or deep crank baits, all in which have been producing fish. In the areas I have been catching fish on both Lake Conway and Johns Lake, the fish would either hit the shinners or artificial, but one of them more then the other. Florida has also had several windy days, which was helping produce a great jig bite under docks that the wind and waves were crashing into. This past week I fished a late trip with Mark from seatlle, although it rained the entire trip, the shinner bite was incredible right before dark, Mark landed close to a dozen fish, and lost a large bass within the last 45 mins before dark. Mark also had a few fish strike a top water horny toad. Despite the rain it was a great trip. |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 52
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 7:31 am: | |
Week ending March 16th
The past two weeks has seen some great trips out on Johns Lake. For the most part, schooling activity has been great up until the 13th when they just seemed to disappear. We are still having great success using Steel Shads in gold or silver color to catch not only schooling bass, but also bass in deeper waters in the middle of the main lake. One ounce Sugoi spinner baits have worked great around scattered grass patches and around areas with hydrilla and lily pads. When the bass have been schooling, these heavier spinner baits have been great at getting below the smaller schoolers where the quality bass lay.
Once the schooling action ends, junebug trick worms with red, green, or blue fleck with a small bullet weight worked around isolated grass patches have been key to catching the bass. Work the patches very good, to the point if you see one blade of grass, throw to it, as they have been holding bass. For the most part, the bite has been good, but the strikes have not been aggressive ones, you really have to watch your line, as several bass we had to let them swim with the trick worms a few seconds before being able to get a solid hooked.
We have not had too much success with bass around docks, but several of the areas with brush have produced as of late, fire tiger Fat A’s worked around these trees have caught several good solid bass, and made for a fun fight trying to keep them out of the wood after hook up. Deer Island cut has been a good area to work a split shot rig with a trick worm. Main focus has been in waters 4 to 8 feet of water and key in on bird activity, circling or diving birds will guide you to some good fishing action.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 3
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 08, 2008 - 5:47 am: | |
03/08/08
This has been a very special week for me. Besides incredible fishing this week, it has been one year now since I stopped fishing for Disney and started my guide service; Orlando Trophy Bass. This past year has been wonderful for me despite some major health problems. I have had the opportunity to fish with some great people and learned many new things especially with my fishing. The most important thing I have learned this year was to keep good records. Last year I started keeping records of the fish I caught, weather, depth and bait. This week showed how important that was. I had several days where I lost count of the number of fish we caught. All because of my previous records, I did not necessarily go back to the exact spots I caught fish, but rather similar areas working similar baits, and again it paid off. To the newer anglers’ record keeping is a must, and in time will help you catch more fish and become a better angler. |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 51
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 03, 2008 - 6:07 pm: | |
The past two weeks has seen a lot of bass fishing action on both Johns Lake and Butler Chain. Johns Lake schooling action has been fairly consistent and bass have been caught with shiners in the cuts with relative ease. There have been a few days, doing combo trips, where the artificial bite has out produced the live bait, as Eric and Eddie saw, with 3 bass being caught in live bait, and another 11 bass coming on trick worms weighted and worked in and around scattered and isolated grass. Doug and the crew, fresh off the Daytona 500 had some good action catching some quality bass, with one of them coming from one of the coves, this bass not only took a shot a missed one shiner, but made a bulrush for a second one as we watched her dart along a grass bed after the bait, after landing her, she weighed in at a solid 4.9 pounds and was released to fight another day. Steel shad have also been producing some very good catches in open waters. Charlie fishing for some crappie, has caught some good crappie, but the memorable hook up, which turned into a serious battle on light action rod with only 6 pound mono and a road runner, landed a hefty catfish that wanted nothing to do with giving up, weighing in at 14 pounds. For the most part, the crappie bite has been very scattered on Johns Lake, but the ones caught have been of good quality.
Butler Chain is still producing some quality bass and some descent numbers as well. Eric and Eddie, fishing day two opted for all artificial bait, and the bass, although scattered played pretty good, as we hit lakes Pocket, Chase, and Louise to catch our bass. Once again trick worms, black with blue fleck, black with red fleck, and black Christmas catching 16 bass, with Eric catching the big gal from a school on a FinS to end the day. All trick worms as of late have been worked with a small bullet weight and crawled very slow, as the bass would just pick up the baits and slowly swim off, so watching your line was a big key. Most all bass were caught in waters between 4 to 16 feet with grass, lily pads or hydrilla very close by. Remember, Pic, Catch and release.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Kevin Przybyl (Kpsfishing)
New member
Username: Kpsfishing
Post Number: 1
Registered: 3-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 01, 2008 - 4:41 am: | |
This was another crazy weather week again. The beginning of the week the weather was perfect and so was the fishing. I started off looking for bedding fish, but didn't have much luck. So I changed up and put on a carolina rig with a watermelon w/ red flake worm on and began fishing deeper water. That change paid off, we caught several three pound fish in less than an hour. I stuck with this most of the beginning of the week and continued to catch fish. Then the cold front came in, strong winds, and rain killed off my fishing for a few days. Friday it warmed up a little but did change the water temp to much. The fishing improved but not where it was at the beginning of the week. The weather is supposed to be great for the next week so my bet is the fishing will be too. If your interested in coming out to fish, check out my website at www.orlandotrophybass.com. |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 50
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 - 12:10 pm: | |
Week ending Feb. 10th
The past week has seen a lot of trips out on Johns Lake. Stan and Carol came for some artificial action and caught some good bass working Steel Shads and Gitem Warlocks. Bite was slow and bass were very scattered on this day. The following day saw us back out on Johns Lake with Grant from Canada, working some live bait and artificial baits, Granted boated 5 bass on live bait, and 27 more bass were caught working Steel Shads, these bass were just hammering the Steel Shads with TWO bass slamming the bait at the same time. Schooling action remained steady pretty much the entire day to keep the action going.
Grant fishing day 2 of three days, we headed to Butler Chain, we find the bite to be very slow out here, picking up a bass here and there, with a nice 3 pounder as the big bass for the day. We experienced a complete change in weather, going from 80 degrees to a rather chilly morning and higher winds.
Grant on day 3, we headed to Alligator Chain, again with some serious fog, and higher winds, we worked for our catch, hitting a small cove, where in order to get in there, I had to trim the motor up, and push the boat in by hand, was the ticket, as several bass were caught in here, and a monster slamming the bait, ripping drag and snapping the line in a matter of seconds.
Overall a very good week of bass fishing, tons of bass beds were spotted on Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Alligator Chain, but all were vacant. Several bass were spotted cruising near beds on Butler Chain, but with only one bass making a play for our baits, but not committing to them. All bass were caught in 5 foot or less of water, with several being caught in less than 2 foot of water. The next 2 weeks will see us on the water with clients every day, so please be patient as I try to keep up with the reports.
Tight lines and be safe
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 49
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 25, 2008 - 6:30 pm: | |
Today was supposed to be a 6 hour combo trip, shiners and artificial, but after waiting at Johns Lake for the bait store to open and 15 minutes late, we decided we didn’t need the live bait to catch the bass. Hitting our first spot for the day, and throwing a gold Steel Shad, the bass played as we expected. There was a definite difference in air temperature, much cooler than the day before, and winds blowing 15mph out of the north made for a very chilly morning, bass had pushed out to deeper waters but could not resist these steel shad. John came for some action and had a great time, catching several good slot sized bass. During the action, John managed to snag into a brush pile twice, working the lure free, he kept at it, and I hear “ I got it again” John said he was reeling in and it just stopped, thinking he had the pile once again, until the pile started pulling back, after a few minutes, the battle was over as a nice solid 5 pounder found her way into the net for some pictures and a very gentle release, as we could see she was loaded up with eggs.
We had fished four different areas on Johns Lake today, with three of them producing bass, all coming on the steel shads in gold and silver colors, with the silver steel shad also producing a nice 1 pound crappie. Water temperatures only fluctuated 2 degrees, starting the day at 61 and ending at 63.1. More bass beds were spotted with several bucks cruising around but staying a fair distance off the beds. Numbers and size have been steadily increasing out here, and we only expect it to get even better as the bass hit the beds.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 48
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 1:59 pm: | |
Today I had the great pleasure of having Bill, Dave and Mike out on Johns Lake for a 4 hour shiner trip. Water temperatures started out at 61 degrees and ended the day at 63.2 degrees. With a perfect overcast sky and a slight breeze on the water, this should have the bass feeding, and the bass did not let us down. First bass was over the side of the boat within 20 minutes, and the action stayed pretty steady the whole 4 hours. Several bass in the 1 ½ to 2 pound class along with a couple 3 pounders and a nice solid 5 pounder, that Bill caught early on in the day. Schooling action was pretty steady until the last 30 minutes. With Bill really doing some serious catching, he decided to sit and watch Dave and Mike finish off the last hour, with the guys bringing 25 bass over the side of the boat for the day. Most of the bass were caught out in open waters that held some type of structure, submerged grass, or around humps, slow trolling the shiners.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 47
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 6:51 am: | |
The last two weeks has seen a mix of trips, some bass fishing and a few crappie fishing trips. With all trips being done on Johns Lakes, with one day on Clermont Chain. Johns Lake had been a mixed bag of tricks, one day you were just slamming bass, and the next you had to work for them. Limited top water action and a lot of slow worming and flipping on the slower bite days. We did spot a bunch of beds scattered around on Johns Lake so it won’t be very long now before the big gals are caught, and released of course. Early morning action has come from Horseshoe cut and Deer Island cut, with some good schooling action going on. Once the schooling action stops, we spent a lot of time flipping grass beds with craws and Gitem K.O’s. The crappie bite has been doing good, with several crappie coming in at a pound and a half, and with a very brief cold front coming in this weekend the 19th and 20th, we fully expect the crappie bite to be good.
Clermont Chain we found water levels very low, especially in the canals, with our bass coming out of Emeralds Lakes Estate and Lake Susan, all flipping a Possum Craw made by Riverbottom Lures. Again we saw plenty of bass beds, but not even a buck in sight, with some stable temperatures next week we fully expect to see the action to really pick up out there. Water temperatures at Johns Lake and Clermont were both in the mid 60’s to start the day, with temperatures warming to near 70 by days end. In previous years I was not doing the crappie trips, but have decided to do trips this year, it was normally something I did on my own as a day of rest, but I am sure plenty of people will have a blast catching these slabs like we have the past 2 weeks. Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 46
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 3:32 pm: | |
Week Ending December 31st
The last two weeks of December saw us out on Johns Lake a lot. Water temps were running mid 60’s to low 70’s in this time frame, and bass showed sporadic schooling action in various areas of the lake. Typical bass in the schools have been running right at 2 pounds, with several bass in the four pound class also being caught. Waters are still low, but very fishable, with some bass being caught in less than a foot of water on Gitem K.O’s and Gitem Shads. Deer Island Cut has seen some good schooling action, with bass being caught on Live bait as well as Storm WildEye Curl Tail Minnows, rattle traps and spinner baits.
Once the schooling action tapered off, offshore grass beds seemed to be the place to fish, especially the isolated grass patches, pitching weighted worms, and senko type baits to these isolated grass patches kept the action steady. The bigger offshore grass beds the bass would charge live bait that was slow trolled along the outside edges, with some bass being caught pitching live bait into small open pockets in the grass beds, be sure to have a good line, as when they hit, they dart into the heaviest areas of the grass and will break you off. HiSeas Black Widow line has done a great job at pulling those bass out of the grasses.
On a side note, I had the great pleasure of having Kathy ”Ketchup” Barker and RC from ProBass Network along with “Ketchups” dad Ken on Johns Lake and it was great watching Ken spank everyone when it came to catching the bass. Altho Ken was rather quiet, if you didn’t watch him, he would sneak a bass to the boat without even a peep, and from what I hear, he has not let up on rubbing it in to Kathy. Way to go pops, and keep bragging, you earned the right.
With my sister in town for the holidays, I managed to get her and my dad out on the water for a few hours on Johns Lake. With my dad not fishing freshwater since the 70’s, and my sister never having fished for bass, it took a few missed hook ups before they got the hang of things. Using live bait to make things easier for them, they managed to boat some good bass, with the big gal coming in right at 4 pounds.
We have been seeing bass beds starting to pop up around Johns Lake, so it should be only a matter of time before they hit the beds and the bigger gals start getting caught. Remember to handle these bass as little as possible and gently put them back in the water if your fishing the beds, these bass repopulating our great lakes is what makes fishing in Florida the place to be.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 45
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, December 22, 2007 - 9:33 am: | |
Week Ending December 15th
The past two weeks has seen some good bass fishing in the Orlando area. Butler Chain we finally started spotting some bait fish pods, although small and scattered, they are showing up. We had several runs out on Butler and with cooler weather, the water temperatures were finally dropping into the 60’s. This will get the bass on the feeding frenzy to fatten them up for the spawn which is just around the corner.
Lakes Louise, Chase and Sheen had been the best lakes for us, and seen some good quality bass caught. Numbers are starting to increase as well as size, with some very limited schooling action early on in the day. Spinner baits, weighted fluke type baits and wacky rigged senko type baits have been producing pretty good. Drop offs have once again been key to catching out here. We had a few days were the shiner bite seemed to drop off, but we still managed to catch them on the old reliable wacky rig.
Johns Lake has also been producing very good for us. Early morning schooling activity has been very good, with a lot of schoolie sized bass being hooked up. Once the schooling action slows, working the grass beds has been key. Outside edges of the grasses has been producing some quality bass, with the bigger bass coming by tossing T-Rigged Gitem K.O’s and Shads into the grass beds and swimming them back out slowly. The smaller swim baits, mostly the WildEye Curl Tail from Storm has been picking up some good bass and keeping the action steady out here, one key is to locate off shore grass beds just below the surface, as the bass seem to be stacked up in these areas.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 44
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 3:58 pm: | |
October 26th and 29th I spent the day out on Starke Lake with my tournament partner for what was some great bass fishing action. The 26th we got an early start, hitting the waters at 6:30am, still dark and tried some top water action, and we got none. With the sunrise, came rain and higher winds, so what should have been a bad day on the water saw us catching 16 bass on wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s and white spinner baits. All but 3 of the bass came from the main lake working tight to shoreline and scattered off shore grass beds. The 29th we headed out early once again, with live shiners and crank baits. To our surprise we boated no bass on the live bait, but the crank baits, a Big O in fire tiger pattern, and an Ugly Duckling in shiner pattern boated the bass, to the tune of another 10 bass. Crank bait bass came on the main lake and in Deep Lake. We keyed in on docks and submerged grass beds and found the bites to be very aggressive. We had seen some very good schooling action the first day, but avoided throwing to them and opted to keep searching the deeper water patterns. Storm WildEye Curl Tail swim baits once again picked up some good solid bass in the middle of Starke Lake itself as well as at the mouth of the canal on the Deep Lake side. With the water temperatures starting a nice cool down, I have noticed bait fish pods growing in size which will have the bass schooling up and feeding good to get ready for the spawn.
The past 2 weeks Butler Chain has also been fishing pretty good the past week. Bait fish have been a little bit more active and started to bunch up better, making it easier on the bass to feed up. Concentrations of bait fish have been showing up on the graph close to grass beds and in 10 to 12 foot of water we have seen some very good bait fish pods. Medium to deep diving crank baits have picked up some good bass in both Lake Down and Little Lake Down. Fire Tiger pattern and Crawfish patterns have been a big key to catching the bass out there. Early morning topwater has produced some good action using buzzbaits and High Roller Chug Rollers as well as High Roller RipRollers. Live bait action is still doing good, with most of the action coming from slow trolled freelined medium wild shiners. Deeper water patterns early in the morning and slowly moving to grass lines as the water temperatures warm during the day. Best bet being using a 3/0 or 4/0 circle hook, not only will this improve your hook up rate, but also is great since 9 out of 10 hook ups are in the corner of the mouth, like they should be. Remember, catch and release, so our kids can enjoy the same catching action that we do with their kids.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 43
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2007 - 9:03 am: | |
The past two weeks have seen some good bass fishing action in Orlando. With trips on Butler Chain and Johns Lake the artificial bite has been doing pretty good. Johns Lake we had some limited early morning schooling action at the Deer Island Cut and some decent bass caught along the grass lines in the same area. After the schooling action stopped, we headed for areas with a mixture of grass and lily pads, getting several blow ups on toads and flukes swam across the pads, missing several but still getting our fair share. Most all the bass caught were in less than two foot of water and all, except for the schooling bass were holding tight to cover on Johns Lake.
Butler Chain we had seen some schooling action on lakes Pocket, Fish, and Tibet. Canal going into Fish Lake is still very shallow but you can make it in there. There is a grass island blocking most of the canal before the final bend to the lake, but we were able to get around it with no problem. Spinner baits and rattle traps were the ticket in Fish Lake, while toads and Gitem K.O.’s where catching the bass in Lakes Pocket and Tibet. Water surface temperatures were running in the low 80’s with most bass being caught in four to six foot of water. Some bass were caught in deeper waters slow rolling a spinner bait. Busy season is now upon us, and with very low water levels once again in south Florida, we are expecting yet another very busy season, so be sure to book your trips as soon as you can.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 42
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 29, 2007 - 4:17 pm: | |
The past two weeks have seen us on Butler Chain for a few days. Waters have been gradually cooling off nicely with the rains we have been getting, with water temperatures running in the mid 80’s by days end. There has been very limited schooling action with most of those bass in the 1 to 3 pound range.
Early top water action has been steady on Lakes Tibet, Lake Down and Little Lake Down. High Roller Chugroller and the Secret Weapon Lures BuzzRbait getting the best action for us. Smaller swim baits, like the Storm WildEye Curl Tail have produced some quality bass along the drop offs in Lake Down as well as swimming them along the deeper water grass lines. Spinner bait bite has been gradually picking up with cooler water temperatures and some breeze on the water. All white spinner baits worked in and around grass beds has been the key to catching the bass. The typical Gitem K.O has still been producing along grass lines as well as around docks and areas of timber in Lake Blanche.
Working wild shiners in mid lake on Blanche and around deep drop off on Lake Butler have produced some quality bass, best action has come with the shiner set between 2 to 3 feet below a float, freelined shiners have produced some bass, but has been very sporadic. Water levels have been coming up very nicely on Butler Chain which means exposed structure that is now covered with water has been producing once again. With air temperatures finally coming down, we are now back to being able to do full day trips, and with the fall feed just around the corner, we are once again expecting some great action, not only with live bait, but some good top water action .
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 41
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 7:02 am: | |
The past two weeks have seen some good bass fishing action on the Butler Chain, as well as a few other Central Florida Lakes. Butler Chain, the artificial bite has been holding pretty steady, with wacky rigged Gitem KO’s and Gitem Shads catching some good numbers as well as quality. Little Lake down has seen the best action, with Mike and his son getting a nice double, with Mike having his bass follow his shiner all the way to the boat as we were going to make a move. This bass struck at his bait twice, before finally getting hooked up, and his son immediately getting his hook up, had these two fighting side by side.
Lake Down itself, seen some good action in the north east corner, with some scattered schooling action, small Storm swim baits catching some good numbers in the deeper drop offs. Lakes Sheen and Tibet have held the same pattern now for several weeks, whacky rigged and T-rigged Gitem KO’s catching bass in and around scattered grass beds.
Most of the bass being caught are currently in the 8 to 18 foot depth range, with a good majority of them suspended right along the drop offs in 10 foot of water. There has been some schooling action on lakes Tibet, Sheen and Lake Down, but for the most part, this action has been limited and usually early on in the day. Watch your electronics, as we have come across some big bait fish pods on lake down, with some good quality bass being caught in those areas.
I have also been scouting an old lake I used to fish years ago, a small Orlando lake, this lake is only 205 acres in size, but has some good bass in it. Early morning top water bite has been with the Secret Weapon Lures BuzzrBait and the Original High Roller 3.25 inch. Top water bite has been around the coontail in deeper waters with some very aggressive hits, with the top water bite dropping off by 8am. From there, moving into deeper waters and working the Storm swim baits have been the ticket to catching some good bass.
Scattered grass beds have been a good ticket also, catching several schoolie sized bass through out the day with Gitem KO’s and Shads, deeper water coontail beds have been good with 10 inch worms with ¼ ounce weight pegged for the quality bass. Being a line watcher is a big key, as the bass have just been picking up the baits and swimming off slowly, usually heading to the deep water drop offs.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 40
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007 - 12:59 pm: | |
The past 2 weeks has seen some great bass fishing action on Butler Chain, and has seen 2 days, where the bass just did not want to play fairly. For the most part, the action on artificial baits has been producing not only good numbers, but good size as well.
Gitem baits K.O. has been the top producer over the last two weeks, rigged wacky and Texas, working in and along the grass beds. First part of the two weeks saw most of the action coming from Lakes Sheen, Tibet and Pocket. Grass beds and some docks produced several bass to 4.6 pounds, as we found the bass were not aggressively hitting the baits, but just picking them up and swimming towards the deeper drop offs. As the rains consistently dropped water on the lakes, they had started to muddy up, which towards the end of the two week period, saw us moving to works Lakes Down and Little Lake down.
The Bay, as well as Lakes Butler, Down and Little lake Down currently have the cleanest water on the chain, and some of the better fishing action, with some schooling action being spotted on several of them. Schooling action we have come across has usually been mid morning, from 9:30 till almost 10:30 with some good bass being caught off them.
The kids as of late have been the big bass catchers, and they have had a blast, with several of the youngsters catching bass on soft plastics and really showing some great skills, at not only casting their baits, but working them properly and setting a hook that would make a Pro proud of them.
Electronics have been a big key, as most of the good bass being caught are coming from deeper water, ranging from 9 to 23 feet deep. With the water temperatures starting the day out in the upper 80’s, deeper waters will be the big key to catching quality bass especially as the day heats up. Top water action has been very limited early in the mornings and the spinner bait bite has all but disappeared for us over the last two weeks.
Afternoon showers have been a blessing, helping maintain and slowly bringing water levels back up, just keep in mind, if you hear thunder, lightning is also there, so be safe, and hit the ramp until the storms pass. Most storms have been coming later in the day, from 2pm and on, so you can still get in a good days fishing before the storms hit.
Be safe and drink lots of water, and don’t forget the sun screen!!!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 39
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, July 01, 2007 - 6:26 am: | |
This past week out on Butler Chain has seen some good bass fishing action. Bass have been relating to the grass edges, as we found out Monday, Matt and I tried to get on a good flipping bite, but the small bass seemed to be stacked up inside the grasses, so we moved off the grass and pitched wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s in Red Bass and Dark Mellon, catching several good bass between 3 ½ to 4.2 pounds. Gitem Toads got a few strikes with one hook up, as well as a Buzzrbait from Secret Weapon Lures. Lakes Fished were Lake Down, Lake Louise, Lake Pocket and Lake Sheen
Tuesday saw us artificial baits. Bob and Judy used Gitem K.O’s to get our catch. Morning bite was the best bite, as we closed in on high noon, the bite dropped off in a dramatic way. Most bass were caught on Lake Sheen, in and around hydrilla beds in 8 to 10 foot of water. Artificial baits drew several hits with missed hook ups, and a couple landed on Lake Blanche to end the day.
Wednesday once again had us working Lakes Sheen, Pocket and Blanche with live bait and artificial baits. Fred, Brian and Joyce got the best action using the live bait around grass beds that had deeper water hydrilla close by. Bass had been seen cruising between the two mixes of vegetation so that is the pattern we keyed in on. Once the live bait was used up, we switched to the K.O’s and worked grass beds, and threw to the base of cypress trees, getting a few good hits and misses, with a good hook up on Lake Blanche once again to end the day.
Friday, Jeff came for 4 hours of artificial bait action, and we saw ourselves really working to get our catch. T-rigged and wacky rigs were the way to get the bites, which were very light, as the bass would just pick up the baits, and VERY slowly swim off with it.Lake Sheen did not produce as it had in previous trips, so we made a move into Lake Tibet in order to get our catch, with the two biggest coming in just a shade under 4 pounds.
Saturday I ended the week with Matt and Mary out on Butler Chain. Matt wanted to get his wife out there and catching some bass, and have a good day so that she would continue to want to fish with him. Well the day started out the typical way, with the husband telling the wife he was going to catch more bass, I even tried telling Matt, women always out catch the men and catch the bigger bass. Mary did not let me down, as she started out with the shiners, catching two bass fairly early on, and Matt was still watching his shiner swim around. We had done some moving around on Lake Sheen, with Matt and Mary both catching bass, but Mary seemed to have the magic touch landing some nice bass, and working them like a Pro.
From Sheen we made a move into Lake Tibet, and Matt want to try some plastic baits, so I showed him how the wacky rig worked, and after a few tosses, Matt had a good hook up and landed his bass. Mary got a little quiet on the back of the boat, when things work up, and the drag was being pulled, a few minutes later, Mary was getting her picture taken with a very nice 4.12 pound bass, which would turn out to be the biggest bass of the day.
Matt had his moment about 15 minutes later, working a grass line with a Texas rigged Gitem K.O, he sets the hook and a good fight was on, we got a good look at this bass and Matt thought for sure he was going to have a bigger bass than his wife. Mary started to reel up her line as it appeared to be tangled in with Matt’s bass, but what had happened was, This bass was so hungry, it had taken in her shiner and was swimming around, and hit Matt’s T-Rigged K.O, so they ended the day with them both landing the last bass of the day together, coming in at 4.2 pounds.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
Capt Tim Fey (Florida_bassin)
New member
Username: Florida_bassin
Post Number: 38
Registered: 9-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 23, 2007 - 8:40 am: | |
This past week has seen some good bass fishing action on Butler Chain.
Top water bite has been doing ok, with Lake Louise seeing the best top water action for us. Secret Weapon Lures Buzzrbait has been a good do to bait, as well as High Roller Chug Roller. Hits have been aggressive. With the consistent rains, Lake Louise has been dirtied up, waters going from clean to coffee brown.
Soft plastic bite has been doing good, with a wacky rigged Gitem K.O once again catching not only good numbers, but good size as well. Lakes Sheen, Pocket and Chase have yielded the numbers and size, up to 5 pounds for us as of late. Working grass beds and scattered docks has been the key to catching bass, as well as working your baits very slow.
Did make a run into Fish Lake, a lake which I have not been in since early January, waters back then were so low in the canal, the bottom of my boat was banging the canal bottom. Going thru the canal, which is a ¼ mile long, I had to use the trolling motor, holding it up just below the surface of the water to get back there, and there was a tree blocking the canal toward the end, which saw me and my partner standing in the canal, him pulling the boat, and me pushing it around the tree to get to the lake. We finally made it back there and started to work the lily pads, swimming lizards across the lily pads getting several blow ups, with him missing a hook up on the edge of the pads, with what would have been an easy 6 pounder.
Rains have held the water levels pretty steady, finally getting water back into the lakes, with water temperatures holding around 84-86 degrees by days end. Limited schooling action in Lakes Pocket, and Tibet the last few days.
Till my next report, Tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.Bassfishingfl.com |
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