Butler Chain 10 pounder

Today I had the great pleasure of having a great father and son trip on the Butler Chain.
Rod and his son Shawn wanted to get in on some great bass fishing action, and believe me, the bass did not let them down. The guys had opted for shiners and the bass agreed with their choice of baits, 2 minutes in to the trip, Shawn hooks up a beautiful 4 pound bass as she was cruising by one of many beds we spotted today. The guys were hooking bass here and there throughout the chain as we moved from Little Lake Down to Wauseon Bay, and over to Lake Chase. Every area we hit we had some action, and believe me folks, this was one of those days that dreams were made of, the guys caught one bass that was around 1 ½ pounds, and all the others were 4 pounds or better, with their best 5 bass coming in at just over 30 pounds.

The highlite of the days was when Rod had tossed his bait out, and in a matter of minutes the fight was on, this bass hosed his bait and ran all over the place, almost getting hung in the big motor, then making a move and almost tagging the trolling motor before Rod got her under control, and catching his first ever 10 pound bass, as this gal weighed in at a nice 10.25 pounds on the digital scale. Second biggest bass was caught by his son Shawn, which came in at just over 6 ½ pounds.

They did have another big gal hooked up but with a few shakes of the head, she found her way to freedom, close to having 2 bass over 10 pounds, but it just wasn’t in the cards for today.

Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!!
Capt Tim Fey

Bassfishingfl.com

Lake Toho and Johns Lake Bass Fishing

This report covers the last 2 weeks of Central Florida Bass Fishing, we have been very busy on the waters, which at times can make it hard to keep up with weekly reports.

The past week I have had several days out on Johns Lake, some scouting trips and some with clients. The waters have held a fairly steady temperature in the mid to upper 60’s. Bass overall have been hitting good, with one day of having to plug away hard for our catch, as the front rolled thru. Errol from LA worked long and hard for his catch, with a few bass coming on shiners and a few coming on Gitem Shads. The father son Trio of Kevin, Matt and Mark caught bass a Cotton Cordell Super Spots and Gitem Shad. Both of those trips showed very limited to no schooling action at all.

Today I hit Johns Lake again, in search of more bass for future trips next week. With perfect weather conditions and heavy clouds to start the morning out, the bass were schooling in mass once again. Bass were caught on a wide range of lures. Long A’s caught a couple, Gitem Shads caught a few, with the Gitem Toad and High Roller Chug Roller in fire tiger color getting the most action. A lot of shoreline and flooded timber was covered with spinner baits and Super Spots to end the day around 10:00 with a total for the day at 18 bass. I did spot several bass beds in different areas with no bass on them, just a lot of cruising, other than the early morning bite, most of the fish were caught in less than 3 feet of water, with most following the baits from very shallow water before hammering the bait.

The bite was definitely good and aggressive, once the winds starting blowing, the bite died off, so instead of flipping the grass beds, I headed for the ramp and called it a day, and a very productive day at that.

Today I had a 6 hour run on Lake Toho, with the front upon us, and rains expected, we knew it was going to be a tough bite, and the bass agreed, it was a tough bite. Phil and his girlfriend came up from Clearwater for some relaxing time on the water and to catch some bass, even though the bite was tough, they did land a few decent bass and missed a few good bass as well. This was a shiner trip, so that should tell you hw tough the fishing was out there, key to getting the bass was slow trolling the shiners, set a foot to 2 feet below a float and work slowly along the grass lines. We had several bass that seemed to just play with the baits and never committed to it, and when they did take the shiners, you had to let them have it anywhere from instant hook set to waiting 20 seconds.

Despite the breezy conditions and all, the day turned out pretty good.
Shiner Fishing on Lake Toho has been good, working in and around lily pads and the edges of hydrilla and grass bed. Bass beds have been showing up lately on Lake Toho, Butler Chain and Johns Lake, so it should be only a matter of time before the really big gals start slamming baits.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!!
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com

Lake Toho

Today I had a 6 hour run on Lake Toho, with the front upon us, and rains expected, we knew it was going to be a tough bite, and the bass agreed, it was a tough bite. Phil and his girlfriend came up from Clearwater for some relaxing time on the water and to catch some bass, even though the bite was tough, they did land a few decent bass and missed a few good bass as well. This was a shiner trip, so that should tell you hw tough the fishing was out there, key to getting the bass was slow trolling the shiners, set a foot to 2 feet below a float and work slowly along the grass lines.


We had several bass that seemed to just play with the baits and never committed to it, and when they did take the shiners, you had to let them have it anywhere from instant hook set to waiting 20 seconds. Despite the breezy conditions and all, the day turned out pretty good.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey

http://www.bassfishingfl.com/

Johns Lake

The past week I have had several days out on Johns Lake, some scouting trips and some with clients. The waters have held a fairly steady temperature in the mid to upper 60’s. Bass overall have been hitting good, with one day of having to plug away hard for our catch, as the front rolled thru. Errol from LA worked long and hard for his catch, with a few bass coming on shiners and a few coming on Gitem Shads. The father son Trio of Kevin, Matt and Mark caught bass a Cotton Cordell Super Spots and Gitem Shad. Both of those trips showed very limited to no schooling action at all.

Today I hit Johns Lake again, in search of more bass for future trips next week. With perfect weather conditions and heavy clouds to start the morning out, the bass were schooling in mass once again. Bass were caught on a wide range of lures. Long A’s caught a couple, Gitem Shads caught a few, with the Gitem Toad and High Roller Chug Roller in fire tiger color getting the most action. A lot of shoreline and flooded timber was covered with spinner baits and Super Spots to end the day around 10:00 with a total for the day at 18 bass. I did spot several bass beds in different areas with no bass on them, just a lot of cruising, other than the early morning bite, most of the fish were caught in less than 3 feet of water, with most following the baits from very shallow water before hammering the bait.
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The bite was definitely good and aggressive, once the winds starting blowing, the bite died off, so instead of flipping the grass beds, I headed for the ramp and called it a day, and a very productive day at that.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!!
Capt Tim Fey

http://www.bassfishingfl.com/

Kissimmee Chain/ Lake Rosalie

Sunday the 17th I spent the day on Lake Rosalie with my old tournament partner Rob out in Lake Wales. Our main goal was to do some scouting out on the lake to check several things, the main thing being the water levels. Water levels are easily described as LOW. When you start the day out having to idle thru a canal, motor trimmed up and still rubbing bottom, you know your in for a long day. When we finally made it thru the canal to the lake, we still had to idle close to 200 yards before getting to waters where I could come up on plane.
This lake I had done a bunch of trips on early in the year and it was a great producer of some very good bass, size and number wise, but with waters as low as they were, expectations were not very high. Several of the key areas that bass had been stacked in, were now only maybe a foot deep, if that much. The main ramp was closed as they are completely redoing it, Dock and all being added to it finally. We did watch one group launch a pontoon boat there, backing a good 70 feet into the lake before it finally came off the trailer.
Although the waters were shallow, they did look very clean and we did spot some good sized bass moving about in the grass beds, in very shallow water. We did take some time to work a few lures to catch a couple bass, motor oil colored worms, Junebug Gitem Shads and Gitem Toads did catch us a few good bass. Rattle traps and shallow diving crank baits did pick off a few smaller bass out in open waters. I will make a few more trips out there to keep an eye on this lake, as it is usually the hot lake for big bass during the spawn. There is a ramp right behind Lake Rosalie Bait and Tackle which is just before the point of no return on the road to Camp Mack.
Till my next report Tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com/

Butler Chain Bass Fishing

The past week we have spent a few days out on Butler Chain following various bait fish pods and watching the schooling activity in many of the lakes. Schooling fish have been spotted on several of the lakes on the chain with the waters cooled down nicely and still very clean. Saturday was a day spent targeting several different areas working several different types of lures with great success at catching bass in the 2 to 4 pound range.
Lakes Blanche and Chase were good producers using all white spinner baits in and around grass beds in 4 to 6 foot of water, in a slow rolled fashion. Watermellon/red shad with a small bullet weight, not pegged, worked along grass edges and very slowly did pick up a few good slot sized bass, most bites were very light, but we have noticed an increase in the quality of the bite.
Lake Sheen seen some good bait fish pods located in the center area of the lake, so that was the main target area, tossing a Long A and working slowly, after the first cast was complete, I actually had to pick bait fish off the hooks, second cast produced a nice 3 pound bass, picking up 3 more in the same fashion, I made a move into Lake Pocket. Working shoreline areas and drop offs, I found once again the bite to be very light, but in this case it was much smaller bass so I headed out to Lake Tibet to end the day. Tibet had scattered schooling action, which I avoided as I was looking for a solid pattern and that pattern was not chasing schoolers around.
The pattern was dictated early on in the day, slow rolled spinner baits, shads weighted with a small bullet weight in and around the grass beds, located closer to deeper water dropoffs, and Long A’s and rattle traps on the outside edges of grass lines, again with a deeper water drop off close by. Big key was to work the baits slow, even the rattle traps and the bass would hit.
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com/

Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report

We had a pretty good run out on Johns Lake Friday. Kevin from “Ultimate Fishing Site” came to fish Johns Lake and starting the day out was amazed at the schooling action he got to witness. Just as safe light cracked, the bass when to schooling in mass just about everywhere you looked in the Deer Island cut, catching quick bass with the lures he brought with him, the Bite Light Viper and the KickTail XL. As the bite slowed down, artificials were used with a mix of shiners to keep the bite going, picking up a few more bass here and there with a few pickeral mixed in. Saturday saw us back at it again, Kevin, as well myself with high hopes of some more great schooling action first thing in the morning with the exact same weather conditions, saw no schooling action to speak of in Deer Island cut and no bites.

We made a move over to the Horseshoe, and there was some schooling action, but very scattered and very little, Kevin was tossing a deep diving crank bait, Bite Light Cobra, fan casting thru the cut and working a slower than normal retrieve managed to pick up several good bass once again, having one after a descent fight come unbuttoned right next to the boat, slow trolled shiners, left over from the day before yielded a few blow up, one smaller bass and a monster bowfin. Most bass caught were right in the 2 to 3 pound range, with the big bass coming in at a very nice 7.4 pounds

Capt Tim Fey

Bassfishingfl.com