Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

April 2008

The month of April 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.
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.
The last half 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.
Bassfishingfl.com

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

March 2008

The month of March 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.
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Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report
February 2008

February 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.
The last half of February 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.
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Orlando Bass Fishing

 Orlando Bass Fishing Report

January 2008

January 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.
Butler Chain has been doing very good for bass fishing. Most of the bass we have been catching have been coming from deeper waters ranging from 12 to 20 feet.Bass have been sitting on drop offs as they get ready to head to the flats for the major spawn.
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!
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Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

December 2007

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.
Bassfishingfl.com

Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

November 2007

November bass fishing has been good. 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.
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Orlando Bass Fishing

Orlando Bass Fishing Report
October 2007

October has 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.
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