Orlando Bass Fishing Report

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

May 2007

The past two weeks has seen some good bass fishing out on the Butler Chain. The two main lakes that I have spent most of the time on have been Lake Sheen and Lake Pocket, they have not only been producing some good numbers but some descent sized bass on a pretty regular basis. With the water temperatures on the rise, the bass have gone full swing into their summer pattern, with the early mornings still getting some top water action, before having to really slow down your approach to catching the bass. Most of my recent trips have been using soft plastics, either wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s or 7 inch worms rigged with a Spot Sticker or Spot Remover worked in and around grass beds with deep water drop offs close by. The more quality bass have come with the deeper water drop offs close by, with a few good bass in the 4 to 5 pound class coming on a drop shot.
Two week period ended with Anthony having a good time on Butler, mixing it up between wacky rig K.O’s and some top water action, catching some good bass on top water and he was amazed at how well the bass fought him, and how strong they were, thinking he had a 5 to 6 pounder on, but when he landed her she was just over 3 pounds. We had to work hard for our catch that day, but Anthony caught some good bass and even mustered up some top water action in the heat of the day.
The chain as a whole, has not had the typical schooling action like we had last year, but the top water bite has still been there in the early AM and late afternoon. For soft plastics, watermelon and watermelon red have been the dominate colors.
This past week on Butler Chain has once again seen some great bass fishing. I had spent two days out there by myself mainly doing some scouting working shallows and deeper waters, and to check water levels in all the canals. Canals are getting very shallow, having found myself having to trim the motor way up to navigate thru them, only lake I did not go into was Fish Lake. This canal is ¼ mile long and is usually the first canal to dry up when we go through a drought like we are and I was banging bottom out there back in February. Only canal you need to really be careful in is the canal going from Lake Louise to Lake Butler, just past the overpass, there is that concrete slab that you will hit as it is very shallow to one side.
Main areas that I had fished were once again Lakes Pocket, Sheen and Tibet. I had tosses a few crank baits with very little success, higher winds had pushed me to working calmer sides of the lakes and some slow fishing using T-Rigged Gitem K.O’s and wacky rigged K.O’s. Bill Thomas and the gang were out there Friday with me with shiners in tow and the artificial bite blew away the live bait, 4 hours and only one bass on live bait, but they did get a few hits and a couple misses on top water, with Bill getting hammerer on a High Roller ChugRoller only for this big gal, once again shake off on us. I’ll have to call this particular bass the Possessed bass, as Sid from last week and myself have hooked a bass in the same area with the same results, this gal has a lot of attitude.
Following that miss there was maybe 2 other bass landed on top water, along with a Gar and a Pickeral when we made a move and switched up to the wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s and they guys started catching the bass, with Wes getting hammered buy a sweet one, looking to be every bit of 5 to 6 pounds, she danced and made a mad run right under the boat and broke off. Day ended with a total of 17 bass caught n 4 hours of fishing!
Saturday was a total flip of the action we had seen all week long, higher winds and the look of rain all morning long had the bass bite way off, only catching one here and one there, with several missed hook ups. Most all of the bass caught this past week were on a wacky rig working real slow, with the key being grass beds with deep water drop offs very close by, grass beds were generally in 4 to 6 foot of water, with a drop off of 8 to 22 feet within 10 feet of the grass beds. Most all of the bass would just pick up the baits and make a run straight for those deeper water drop offs, so you really had to keep an eye on your line.
Bassfishingfl.com

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

April 2007

The past 2 weeks have seen some good bass fishing action out on Butler Chain. Starting with the Patterson clan, with shiners and artificial baits we worked Lake Butler and Lake Chase, with Steve tossing a spinner bait to get the “wildest” hook set award of the year. Steve was tossing a spinner bait in and around grasses and docks, when he gave her a toss to a dock, spinner bait going over the dock walkway, back into the water around a PVC pipe sticking up and under a boat. Thinking this was going to be a mess, he was right, as he tried to shake the lure loose, the line got pinned between a post and the walkway, when it looked like the rod got tugged on.
Steve assured me there was nothing there, and as he popped the line to shake her loose, we hear a splash from under the boat in the boat slip, Steve popped the line free from the walkway and the short lived fight was on. Stepping onto the dock, Steve had reeled up as far as he could, while I was hanging off the walkway, reaching for a bass that was not only hooked up solid, but was also tangled in someone else’s braided line left behind, after a few minutes of me teetering on sliding off a dock into the water, I did manage to just barely lip his bass, which weighed in right at 5 pounds. I honestly can’t remember the last time I had to work that hard to lip a bass.
The next day, Tuesday the 10th, saw Dave Fonder and his girlfriend back out on Butler, giving it a go with some fly fishing! Well needless to say, they gave it one heck of a go, before sitting down the fly rods and tossing around Steel Shads in the deep holes and drop offs to catch their bass.
Wednesday, Rod, coming from Canada gave it a run out on Butler with shiners and had a pretty darn good 4 hour trip, catching some good quality bass on Lake Butler and Lake Chase. Once again bass were caught in the areas where there was a deep water drop off close by, boat set up in 6 foot of water, and the bass coming from waters in 10 to 16 foot.
I have been enjoying the last few days off, still hitting the waters working with new lures. I have been catching bass out on Butler using a ChugRoller and a PopRoller with today being capped off with a nice 3.4 pound bass on a PT Spoon from High Roller Lures.
This past week has been yet another very busy week, with some very good and solid bass being caught on everything from live bait to artificial lures. With the bass spawn all but over, bass have moved for the most part away from shallow waters and have staged more towards deeper waters, close to drop offs. There has on some days been some very good schooling activity going on, some days the schooling bass will just hammer the live bait, while other days they seem to prefer t-rigged worms with a small screw in bullet weight.
Monday started the week off with Ken and Chris hitting Butler Chain with some live bait action. Lake Butler and Lake Chase were the definite lakes for the best bass action as these two guys caught some good quality bass with some very aggressive hits as the bass were doing some good schooling action in the cuts. The better quality bass where caught just off the grass bed edges with Chris getting the big bass of the day just shy of 5 pounds.
Kurt fished on Wednesday working nothing but artificial bait. With a high sun and no cloud cover to speak of, we spent a lot of time pounding grass beds, Kurts first hook up was on Lake Butler, using a High Roller PopRoller in Blue Shad color. From there it was a lot of slow worming using purple and black Christmas colored worms, with one other bass coming on a Yozuri Rattlin Vibe.
Some bass are still being caught in less than 3 foot of water, but main areas of focus have been in the 4 to 6 foot range with deep water drop offs close by. Rob from Fish-Hawk.net came down to fish Thursday with his brother and father to catch some Florida bass and the blue bird skies and minimal breeze did make things pretty tough on the guys, but being very persistent the guys did manage some good bass, with the two biggest looking like twins, one weighing in at 4.14 and the other coming in at 4.13 pounds on the digital scale.
Friday saw Sam and his son out on Butler Chain, this youngster was very impressive with his casting skills, working bait casters like a true pro, starting the day out catching the first bass in the first 10 minutes working a spinner bait thru the grass beds on Lake Butler before switching up to the worms and catching several more. Sam kinda hung out on the back of the boat and had a blast watching his son fish, and even had his son coaching him on where to toss his lures, with his dad getting a good bass on a rattlin vibe out of the deep waters on Butler. Weather was better today, with what should be our last cold front. Very minimal schooling activity was seen on the lakes that we fished today, but it’s only a matter of time before the waters start to really heat up with what will be a great top water bite.
Saturday I ended the week with Alan and his son out on Butler Chain for a 6 hour live bait trip. Alan is a local guy that wanted to hit Butler as he said he had little luck out there. We started out the day VERY cold for this time of year, water temps were down to 71 to start the day, with strong and cold winds. This was the perfect day for lock jaw, and the bass were very tough to catch as expected. Starting out on Butler and working grass line and thru the cut, Alan missed a few hook up, with his son landing 2 nice bass and having a beauty come unbuttoned as she danced on the water. From there we moved over into Lake Chase, I did spot some schooling action but no takers as we slow trolled along the grass beds, when Alan tossed his bait out, the second it hit the water it was hammered and the fight was on, with Alan landing a beauty of a bass coming in at 6.3 pounds on the digital scale. Happy Birthday Alan!!
In all the week saw some very good and solid bass being caught, with this front that is moving thru right now, water should hold to the mid 70’s for the better part of the week and that should help kick in some good top water action. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Easter.
Bassfishingfl.com

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

This past week on Butler Chain had its ups and downs. Monday and Tuesday saw some good top water action on Lake Butler. During the early morning we saw a good amount of schooling action. Tuesday turned out to be the best day with bass being caught on High Roller ChugRollers in Fire Tiger. Big bass for the day came in at a solid 3.8 pounds, and just slammed the ChugRoller.
Wednesday I had the great pleasure of having Kathy Barker from ProBass Networks out on Butler Chain. Kathy surprised me thou, when we met at McDonalds she had Skip Collins from High Roller Lures there with her. What I thought was going to be a great top water action day on Butler, was anything but that.
The bass did not want to play fairly, as we did see some schooling action going on, but they avoided any and all top water lures thrown at them, Skip did manage 2 bass on his secret lure, while Kathy caught two more bass, with her landing the big bass for the day and the bragging rights. Only 5 bass made it to the boat, as the blue bird skies seemed to have just shut down the artificial bite.
Thursday I had the McClain duo, husband and wife out on Butler. We started out with Margarita working live bait, and Carl with top water baits. There was very limited schooling action once again, but Carl was very determined to nail a nice bass on top water. He started out with an Original High Roller, but then switched to a ChugRoller. A very solid bass, in the 4 pound class came up to slam the bait. Carl said he felt her hit the lure so he set the hook, but she was gone. That, unfortunately was the end of the top water action for the day. Margarita continued to work the live bait, missing her first bass as it chased the shiner to the surface. She got too excited and the hook up was missed. After a few coaching words, Margarita didn’t miss another bass. We actually had to keep an eye on her, as she never said a word, we only knew she had one on when we heard the drag. Her big fish of the day came in at 5.1 pounds.
Mean while Carl was tossing around a Gitem Shad in watermelon red, with a small screw-in bullet weight. Flipping to grass bed edges, Carl managed some good quality bass, with his big bass of the day coming in at 5.2 pounds on the digital scale. These 2 had a great time on the water catching as Carl said “some good quality bass.”
Saturday we ended the week with my son wanting to head out to Butler and do some relaxing fishing using live bait. We hit Lake Butler and right off the bat he had the first bass of the day in less than 5 minutes of us being on the water. We pretty much just slowed trolled the live shiners around the grass beds with deeper water drop offs close by. My son landing 5 good solid bass caught within 2 ½ hours on live bait. A quick switch to a Fat A and he missed what looked to be close to a 4 pounder right by the boat. When he decided he was more than happy with his catch for the day, we headed back in.
Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain

Week Ending March 11th 2007

The past week I spent 6 days out on the Butler Chain with clients on a mix of trips again, some artificial and some live bait. First part of the week saw a very tough bite, even with live bait, as the bass were just mouthing the shiners and barely holding onto them. Sizing down on the shiners from Large to Mediums made the catch much better for the clients. Shiners were all slow trolled in various depths of water, ranging from 4 foot to 22 feet deep, with numbers coming in the 4 to 8 foot depths, and size coming from waters 12 to 20 feet deep. The artificial bite was fairly good for the most part, with the majority of the bass being caught on Gitem Shad, Gitem K.Os and Gitem Warlocks, dominate color being black with red flake and working baits very slowly with a 1/8th ounce screw in bullet weight.

Again working shallow waters, tossing baits all the way to shoreline, very tight to grass beds, and right up against the cypress trees in order to catch bass. Most bites were very light, so watching your line was very important. There was no spinner bait bite or even a rattle trap bite to speak of for most of the week. Several good bass were spotted cruising around the beds on several lakes, but for the most part, the beds were empty. Water temperatures were running 68 in the mornings and warming to as high as 72 by the end of the day. Look out, top water action is just around the corner. Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!

Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain

Report Date March 2nd 2007

The last 2 weeks saw us on Butler Chain for 12 days with a mix of trips, a few trips with live bait and a few with all artificial trips. Start of the week saw for some very tough bite as the water temps had an almost 8 degree drop, which really had the bass on a serious case of lock jaw. Gitem Shads with a small bullet weight worked in and along grass beds worked very slow, and I stress VERY slow in order to get the bites. Mid week saw the bite pick up as the water temps started reaching the upper 60’s and bass started heading to the beds, with several bass in the 5 and 6 pound class being caught in and around the beds. Once again it was Gitem Shads and 10 inch black neon worms getting the bass to bite with an occasional bass being caught on all white spinner baits.

The shiner bite is still going strong on several lakes on the chain, with a few lakes actually having a drop off with the live bait bite. Two very memorable trips involved two youngsters, first was Edward fishing with his father, we had spotted a buck on a bed, and decided to give Edward a crack at catching this bass, with 4 flips of the shiner to the bass, she would not touch it, so the 5th try, the buck had knocked the shiner off the bed, and at that moment, the female came flying out of the grasses and nailed the shiner and the fight was on. Edward had worked this bass perfect and landed a beautiful 5.4 pound bass. The second was with 7 year old Nick and his dad Greg. Greg had a bass boil up on his bait twice, but she would not commit to it, when Nick got his bait up there, and in a split second, this bass hit his shiner like a freight train. Nick set the hook and the bass headed straight into the grasses and with a little effort, Nick got her out of the grass, and off to the docks she went, after a brief battle, Nick had a beautiful bass, 22 inches long with a 15 inch girth, weighing in at 6.05 pounds, perfect enough to get his Youth Angler Certificate from the State of Florida.

With the weather holding steady, and a consistent air temp, the waters have been warming up slowly, which will mean one thing, bass will be really hitting the beds and the bigger gals will start being caught. Several lakes on the Butler Chain are loaded with beds, most have been empty the last few weeks, so they should be showing up any day now. One consistent pattern has been, even though the bass were not on the beds, they have been holding up very close to them with the bucks right there. Web site has been updated with all new pictures in the Photo Gallery and new video links on the main page, along with new testimonials.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!

Capt Tim Fey

Bassfishingfl.com

Johns Lake

Report Date Feb 26th 2007

Last week I had trips on Johns Lake on the 22nd and 23rd, both days started out the same way, with some good schooling action first thing in the morning in the Deer Island cut and limited schooling action in the Horse Shoe area. Once the schooling activity passed, it was a lot of moving around and working grass beds and lily pads to catch the bass the rest of the day.






Shiners of course were the top producer with bass up to 7 pounds being caught. Artificial baits that had produced were spinner baits, senko type baits and rattle traps. Winds both days had dictated how the bite was going to be, and it was a very light bite, with the spinner baits having to be slow rolled and soft plastics worked very slowly with a small bullet weight pegged, to help the bait with a slow fall rate, most hits came on that slow fall and were all in 5 to 8 foot of water.
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain

Report Date Feb 16th 2007

Butler Chain has been fishing pretty good, with a stable weather pattern, either extended warm or extended cooler periods, the bass have been active and feeding pretty good. Two of the top producers over the past 2 weeks has been Lakes Chase and Down. Grass beds have been the best way to catch the bass, some days it has been a case of working the outside edges and other days it has been working the inside of the grass beds, scattered and or thinned out grass beds have produced some good quality bass to 4 pounds slow rolling spinner baits through them, as well as using Gitem Shads or K.Os worked very slow.
Butler Chain bite has seemed to be a little better closer to high noon, with the sun warming the waters, with surface temperatures reaching 64 degrees. I have been noticing more bass beds showing up, but with fronts coming in, they have been getting pushed away from the beds for the most part, with several bass being caught that have already spawned, colder mornings and mornings right now in general have dictated a much slower presentation until the sun warms the waters, best action has come in waters ranging from 6 to 12 feet deep. For the beds that are currently empty, working the general area slow with anything from lizards to Senko type baits has yielded some good solid buck bass, as they are cruising the areas.
Last week I did come across some good schooling action on Lake Down, and a few days with warmer air temperature a few bass were pick up off beds, with most in the 4 to 5 pound range, with on bass not wanting to touch anything that was worked by her, until I tied on a HighRoller 5 inch Fingerling in the trout pattern, as soon as this lure made contact with the bass bed, the gal turned and pounced it without any hesitation.
Cooler weather this weekend, so slow down and be patient. Till my next report, Tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com