artificial baits - Bass Fishing Florida

Lake Toho Bass Fishing Early Feb 2010

Lake Toho Bass Fishing Report-Lake Toho Guides

The first half of February has seen some great bass fishing action, as well as a few days of tougher bass fishing with passing cold front. The days the bite has been tougher than normal, numbers were down, but the best part was size was up.

Live bait as well as artificial baits both were doing great right up to the last cold front, that was when the switch was made to use live wild shiners as well as the artificial baits.

Lake Toho has definitely been the place to be with both live wild shiners and artificial baits not only catching some good numbers, but some nice size as well. The northern end of lake toho has seemed to be the best producing area, with some nice 4 and 5 pound bass coming from right along Lake Shore Drive area. Flipping into the cover or pitching the wild shiners along the edges has been the best way to catch them. Water temperatures have finally started to climb back into the low 60’s and beds have been popping up everywhere, so the big spawn is just about to kick in.

When the cold fronts have hit us, they usually have brought higher winds, which has had us move to Conway Chain, now the bass as some would say are smaller on Conway Chain, with bigger numbers, But don’t tell Eric that, as he landed a sweet bass right around 5 pounds and she was looking very healthy. If you know where to fish this body of water, you will catch big bass and quality bass.

Kissimmee Chain and Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report March 2006

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

Kissimmee Chain

Fish the chain has been a mixed bag of tricks the last few weeks. Weather being the biggest factor of them all. From great picture perfect days to cold snaps and high winds have limited areas of good fishing. Shiners on the bad days has been the ticket to getting not only numbers but also size.

Freelined and slow trolled along grass beds has been the best way to really get the action started. Anchored up and pitched freelined to reeds has also been very good for both numbers and size up to 7 pounds. When the conditions are right, lower wind speeds, pitching Gitem Sugars into potholes in the grass beds has produced some very nice chunks.
Photos being added to web site shortly, some can be viewed at the Gitem web site already. GitemBaits.com

Butler Chain

Today we scouted for trips on Butler Chain.Waters look very good as usual with visability in areas up to or greater than 7 feet.
We worked several of the lakes to include Lake Down, Little Lake Down,Lake Louise and Lake Isleworth.
Several schools of bass busted water in Lake Louise and another up in Lake Isleworth. Spent the day tossing Gitem K.O and Long A’s catching several good solid bass to cap off a great day.

Lake Monroe
Spent Saturday out on Lake Monroe for local club tournament. Working very shallow hydrilla was key to catching 35 bass all on Gitem Toads with the chunker coming in at 5.95 pounds. Picture can be viewed at GitemBaits.com

Butler Chain

Butler Chain as of late has really been starting to heat up in a very good way.
Lakes Down and Blanche have been leading the pack as for picking up both size and numbers
on a wide range of baits. Gitem Toads and Gitem KO’s have been good baits out on the chain along with Gitem AKA’s and Zoom Lizards. Key has been just off the grass edges were deep drop offs are located, ranging from 5 foot of water to a drop off anywhere from 12 to 18 foot of water. Bass have been moving up and down all week long.
Last several trips have produce some good numbers and QUALITY bass being capped off with a very nice solid 7 pounder.

This often overlooked chain of lakes has some great bass fishing and is often refered to as “a northern” lake with its clean and deep waters, with several holes reaching 39 to 41 feet deep. This chain is a definate break from the typical florida waters where you need to step out of the box. Wide ranges of lures can and will produce some serious limits, Mepps Minnows and WeedWalks are just 2 lures that, altho not thought of very much can and will produce on this great chain of Lakes.

Butler Chain

This past week has seen us out on Butler Chain with shiner and artificial bait trips.
With great weather all week long the bite had really turned on. Morning bite with shiners generally started out a little on the slow side picking up one here and one there on Lakes Down and Little Lake Down. As the water temps warmed by noon time the action had really picked up great, Shad could been seen schooled up and getting blow up on by some good schools of bass, several which fell victim to shiners and Gitem Toads.

Gitem KOs in Red Bass worked around grass beds and deep water hydrilla saw several bass to 6 pounds being caught. Most bass were caught in waters 10 to 18 feet deep with a few others coming in waters 2 to 5 feet.

Todays trip 3-24-2006 saw the bass coming from very heavy hydrilla on a combination of worms with ¼ ounce weight worked slowly thru the hydrilla and Gitem Toads in white or Rainbow colors. Lakes that were the producers today were Lake Tibet and Lake Sheen. Weather today was a complete 180 turn from the rest of the week, with the high of only 72 and high winds 15-20mph. Water levels are down some on the chain so pay attention when moving in the canals from lake to lake as there are some with branches and water pipes for yard sprinklers.

Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report July 2007

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

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!!!

Lake Toho Bass Fishing Early Feb 2010

Kissimmee Chain and Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report March 2006

Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report July 2007

Lake Toho

Butler Chain of Lakes

Current Orlando Fishing Reports