Orlando Bass Fishing Report
September has seen us on Butler Chain for a few days. Waters have been gradually cooling off nicely with the rains we have been getting, with water temperatures running in the mid 80’s by days end. There has been very limited schooling action with most of those bass in the 1 to 3 pound range.
Early top water action has been steady on Lakes Tibet, Lake Down and Little Lake Down. High Roller Chugroller and the Secret Weapon Lures BuzzRbait getting the best action for us. Smaller swim baits, like the Storm WildEye Curl Tail have produced some quality bass along the drop offs in Lake Down as well as swimming them along the deeper water grass lines. Spinner bait bite has been gradually picking up with cooler water temperatures and some breeze on the water. All white spinner baits worked in and around grass beds has been the key to catching the bass. The typical Gitem K.O has still been producing along grass lines as well as around docks and areas of timber in Lake Blanche.
Working wild shiners in mid lake on Blanche and around deep drop off on Lake Butler have produced some quality bass, best action has come with the shiner set between 2 to 3 feet below a float, freelined shiners have produced some bass, but has been very sporadic. Water levels have been coming up very nicely on Butler Chain which means exposed structure that is now covered with water has been producing once again. With air temperatures finally coming down, we are now back to being able to do full day trips, and with the fall feed just around the corner, we are once again expecting some great action, not only with live bait, but some good top water action .
The past two weeks have seen some good bass fishing action on the Butler Chain, as well as a few other Central Florida Lakes. Butler Chain, the artificial bite has been holding pretty steady, with wacky rigged Gitem KO’s and Gitem Shads catching some good numbers as well as quality. Little Lake down has seen the best action, with Mike and his son getting a nice double, with Mike having his bass follow his shiner all the way to the boat as we were going to make a move. This bass struck at his bait twice, before finally getting hooked up, and his son immediately getting his hook up, had these two fighting side by side.
Lake Down itself, seen some good action in the north east corner, with some scattered schooling action, small Storm swim baits catching some good numbers in the deeper drop offs. Lakes Sheen and Tibet have held the same pattern now for several weeks, whacky rigged and T-rigged Gitem KO’s catching bass in and around scattered grass beds.
Top water bite has been doing ok, with Lake Louise seeing the best top water action for us. Secret Weapon Lures Buzzrbait has been a good do to bait, as well as High Roller Chug Roller. Hits have been aggressive. With the consistent rains, Lake Louise has been dirtied up, waters going from clean to coffee brown.
My old tournament partner and I hit Butler Chain for a few hours, one to get him out on the water, and two so I could experiment with some new lures. We had started the day out on Lake Louise working a Buzzrbait from Secret Weapon Lures. This lure worked great thru the water and made a ton of commotion and after 5 casts I had the first blow up and what I thought was a solid hook up. Working the bass to the boat, she suddenly let go of the bait, what would have been a nice 5 pound catch, turned into a 5 pound heart break, she apparently had grabbed the small willow leaf blade that was attached to the Buzzr. A few casts later and another crushing blow up, a solid 3 pounder was in the boat.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
