Lake Toho Bass Fishing Report Nov 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Guides

The first half of November we spent a lot of time on Lake Toho doing some scouting and checking out lake conditions. There is a lot of matting out here and if you hit the right ones, you can catch some good numbers and size out here right now. Water temps are finally down, in the upper 60’s on the days we hit this great lake.

A few of the days we hit Lake Toho the winds were up some, so we focused on areas where we had a push coming thru cuts in the matting, and the bass were there and played pretty good for us. We had a good spinner bait bite going on as well as a wacky rig bite.
Open water areas that were holding bass produced pretty good with the Steel Shad as well as the spinner bait. Silver steel shad and a 1 ounce spinner bait seemed to be the most productive lures for us and bass seemed to be pretty aggressive when they hit these lures.
Northern end of the lake seemed to be the most productive area, with a few coming out of Gobblets Cove and a few scattered from the southern end.
Lake Cypress also seemed to be a good option, as we made a few runs down there and always managed to catch bass down there, with very little pressure on the days we were there, I think we may have seen 4 other boats there on the days we made the run.
Check back often as we will be adding more to this report for the last half of the month, with several trips coming up for lake toho. Also be sure to check out the bass fishing videos, as 2 more have been added from Lake Toho.
Bassfishingfl.com

Lake Toho, Johns Lake and Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report Oct 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

The month of October has seen some very good bass fishing action here in Orlando.
Johns Lake has seen some good schooling action in the early morning hours with us catching them on steel shad, gitem shad and curly 7’s.
Most schooling action has been in the Deer Island Cut with some action coming mid lake. Waters are up and bass have new feeding areas due to this, so some of the more common haunts have not produced as well as in the past. Making adjustments to your normal fishing patterns will make a big difference in what you catch, and how much you catch.
Grass beds and offshore submerged hydrilla have been a huge key to success in keeping the action going steady during the day. Top water action is here!  Gitem toads and torpedoes getting some good action.
Butler Chain has been pretty typical with the action coming mostly on wacky rigs skipped under docks. We have gotten on a good spinner bait bite as well along with rattle traps and c-rigged gitem warlocks. Lakes Butler and Down have been very good to us especially in deeper waters, working drop offs has seemed to be the spot as well as areas with sunken trees, as the bait fish have been stacking up in these areas pretty good as of late.

Lake Toho has been doing good, with a few runs out there lately steel shad have done very good in open waters, as well as working along hydrilla beds and grass edges. Toads and 10 inch worms have been great coming across topped out hydrilla as well as thru scattered grasses.

November is shaping up to be a great month for bass fishing. Temperatures, water and air are cooling down, making it much nicer to fish than the hot summer months, and with the cooler waters, bass are getting much more active. Live bait bite should be good as usual, and we should have some good top water action as well. Schooling action is typically good in November and we fully expect it to carry on right thru the end of the year. Just take a look at the pictures from previous Novembers and this is what you can expect to happen on any give cast. This is also the time to really start considering that Crappie trip, slabs will be plenty and makes for a very exciting time on the water as well as bass fishing.
Bassfishingfl.com

Johns Lake and Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report Sept 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Guides

September has seen some great fishing for us. We had spent several days on Johns Lake and Butler Chain, as well as once again mixing things up by doing some saltwater trips in Port Canaveral and Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.

Freshwater trips have been with artificial baits, mostly using Gitem Curly 7’s and Gitem K.O’s. Main colors of choice have been Florida Grass and Green Pumpkin, steel shad has been a very good producer as well when we have had to hit deeper waters for our catch. Butler Chain had been pretty steady working docks skipping a wacky rig K.O under them, with water levels up, the number of docks that we are unable to skip under have dwindled, but the ones you can get under have still been producing. Lakes Chase and Tibet have done well with the steel shad at the mouths of the canals and around drop offs, working areas in 10 to 16 foot of water.
Johns Lake has seen some schooling action, although the days we were there it was limited, they would surface and be gone within 15 minutes. Spinner baits worked thru the vegetation, scattered grasses and off shore hydrilla, has been a good bet at catching some quality bass, 7 inch worms worked thru thicker grass, slowly swimming them along the top of the slop has produced some very good strikes. Like Butler Chain, Johns Lake is up, and ramp is flooded, so be ready to wade the walkway to get to your boat after launching it.
Pan fish, brim and bluegill have been doing good on red wigglers and have hit fairly good tossing beetle spins both at Johns Lake and Butler Chain. Crappie have been scattered, but when you locate them, the size has not been too bad, with some coming in close to 2 pounds, bigger ones seem to be coming from Johns Lake, and mainly in deeper waters.
Saltwater runs have been nothing short of a total blast, Port Canaveral has had the best mix for us, catching snapper, jacks, blues and a few trout. The Wildlife Refuge has be super. We managed to catch a wide range of fish out here to include snapper, trout, a few small reds, and Erik capped off the trip by catching a very nice 22 inch Triple Tail, yet again, another first for him, great Job Erik!
We actually ended the month with our first cold front, or should I say “cool” front so maybe it’s a sign like last year, waters will cool down sooner turning on yet another season of some good top water action. Water temps for the most part have hung in the mid 80’s with the consistent rains we have gotten which has helped to maintain a good bite for the most part of the summer. October is shaping up to be yet again another fabulous month for bass.
Bassfishingfl.com

Johns Lake and Butler Chain Aug 2009 Bass and Saltwater fishing Report

Orlando Bass Fishing Guides
August we did a little switch up, we did some fishing on Johns Lake and Butler Chain and had some pretty good trips on both bodies of water. Bass for the most part were holding tight to cover after we had some early morning schooling action on both bodies of water. Gitem curly 7’s in Florida grass and junebug seemed to be the baits that were on fire for us.
The switch up comes with us doing several saltwater trips which have been producing some great fishing action with us catching a wide range of species. Summer time has always been a great time for some serious saltwater fishing and as usual the fish have responded with every run to the coast. Port Canaveral has been one of our favorite areas to fish saltwater and our runs out there have been producing some good grey snapper, mutton snapper, blues, flounder a few trout and some slot redfish.
Live shrimp has been the main bait to keep the action steady and the rods bending, but the DOA Shrimp and the steel shad have had their moments out there catching the reds and the trout for us. Shrimp rigs we have been using a 1/0 circle hook with a split shot weight around docks and bridges to get our catch, with us catching between 30 and 40 per trip, this makes for a very good day of fishing.


If anyone is interested in saltwater trips, just send me an e-mail or call as this action will remain steady thru the rest of summer.
Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report July 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Guides

July bass fishing has been good for us here in Orlando. Johns Lake as well as Butler Chain have been fishing pretty good, especially with artificial lures. Johns Lake the waters are up considerably which has opened up a lot of areas for the bass to get cover. Grasses have been a major key we it comes to catching them consistently. Swimming worms across the grasses have produced some great explosions on the surface, as well as catching some quality bass.

Butler Chain has been fishing as expected, with some top water action scattered around the chain and skipping under docks, the ones you can still skip under anyways, as the water is up! Gitem K.O’s have been a great producer on both Johns Lake and Butler Chain, as well as Curly 7’s in Florida Grass and Green Pumpkin.

Private waters have been just absolutely off the hook with fishing. Bass have been schooling pretty steady in deeper waters, where steel shad have been very effective at catching them. Drop shot has worked to some degree, but a Long A has been one of the better options here.
Afternoon showers have helped to keep water temperatures down and stable which has in turn helped to keep the fishing action steady throughout the day.
Remember we are also booking crappie trips again during the fall and in years past we have slammed some good crappie up to 2 ½ pounds! We do a limited number of these trips so it won’t interfere with our busy bass season so book your crappie trip soon!

Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report June 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

The month of June has seen some good bass fishing action on both Butler Chain and Johns Lake.
Johns Lake has been good in the early morning with some good schooling action in the cut, as well as some in mid lake areas where hydrilla is present. Water levels are great out here with all the rains we have been getting, which in turn has made one of my favorite patterns very successful, and the is dock fishing! Skipping Gitem K.O’s under docks, as well as Bitsy Jigs have produced some good action as well as some good bass. As the heat of the day comes down on us, 10 inch worms worked in deeper waters, where grass and or hydrilla are present have kept the action steady.


Butler Chain has held pretty steady for us for the month of June. Again dock fishing has been a strong pattern for us, with a few days where the bass have seemed to disappear on us, we have found them deep in the slop. Under docks has been the Gitem K.O’s and Warlocks, when the bass have moved off the docks on us, we have tossed the Gitem Shad or Curly 7’s to the back of the grass or lily pads, and slowly swam it back out to get some good blow-ups and some solid hook ups.

We have had some days with a very light bite, you had to really keep an eye on your line and watch it, as some bass were just picking up our baits and slowly swimming them right back to us, we have made a slight adjustment to this, we added JJs Dippin Dye to our boat, and let me tell you, we had a day where the bite was soft, and we dipped the baits and got slammed!! This stuff really worked great for us, you can find a link for them on my home page in the Bass Fishing News box.

July we are expecting more of the same, early morning bite should still be productive with live bait or artificial bait. Even though we are in full swing of summer, with it getting pretty hot, the bass have still been playing pretty good for us, and once again as in years past, it seems the bigger bass have still wanted to show their faces in the heat of the day, all this requires is placing the bait in the right spot, which is generally tight to the cover, under the docks, or in the slop!
Bassfishingfl.com

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report May 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

The month of May has seen some very good bass fishing action. Butler Chain has been producing some quality bass with a good majority of them coming from either under docks or the outside edges of the docks. Whacky rigged Gitem KO’s have been the best way to catch them under the docks, the slower fall of this bait helps keep it in the strike zone just long enough for the bass to hit it.
Working grass beds with the Gitem Curly 7’s and Curly 10’s has produced some more good bass for us, with the main lakes that have produced for us having been Lakes Tibet, Chase, Blanche and Sheen.
Johns Lake is still fishing the same and still one of my favorite lakes to fish. Some early morning top water action can be worked as long as you arrive early enough. Generally as the sun starts coming down the cut, the activity starts to pick up, first half of the month the top water bite was a quick bite in this area, usually lasting about a half an hour. From there we have generally worked the main body of water out in the middle working the Steel Shad and picking off some good bass.
This month has brought us a ton of rain, which was badly needed, water levels have been coming up very nicely on both Johns Lake and Butler Chain, this will change patterns some as the bass now have new areas to roam for food with some fresh vegetation now in the waters, we have been picking more bass off in much shallower waters due to this. Any shade of a watermelon color has been the main producing color as well as the Gitem Red Bass, if you have these colors on your boat, your sure to catch some bass.
We added a new twist to the fishing arsenal the last few days by getting back into saltwater fishing again. For years I did a lot of saltwater fishing but strayed away with my main focus staying on bass fishing, with the summer months now upon us, the saltwater fishing has been picking up very nicely and we have been catching a lot of good fish.
We just got back from 4 days down in Miami doing a combination of things, part one of our trip was to target some peacock bass, although they did not play very well for us, due mainly to constant rain, we did manage to catch some good one. Best part was when I had my best friend Erik out on the boat and in the same body of water, he not only caught his first ever Peacock Bass, but he also boated his first ever Jack, and the kicker fish was his first ever Tarpon! I think this will be a trip Erik will talk about for years. This was all done on canals around the Miami Airport.
From there we headed to Biscayne Bay and what a blast we had, catching a bunch of Jacks, snappers and I landed a nice red grouper. We spent a lot of time fishing bridges and grass flats, as the weather did not allow us to venture thru the cuts or around the cuts to the Atlantic Ocean as storms offshore kept the waters churned up just a little too much.
The next few months as summer heats up for us, we still fully expect a good bass fishing season and will be mixing in some saltwater runs for some more bull reds like Charles caught while we filmed a show for Reel Fishing, Charles managed to catch two bull reds, one on his first cast, again, it was another first, as Charles had never caught a redfish before, and he ended up catching two, one just over 40 inches and the other was I believe 35 inches.
I want to thank two of my main sponsors, Gitem Bait and Deep South Fishing Rods, the combination of these two companies have made my job a lot easier supplying me with quality baits and rods, please check them out, you will be very impressed with the quality and pricing.
Bassfishingfl.com