crappie - Bass Fishing Florida

Precious Waters

The Butler Chain of Lakes is a great place to spend time with your family and enjoy the wonder of nature.

By Sarah Kezer
Photo by Anna Cary Photography

There are some precious waters surrounding Windermere. The Butler Chain of Lakes is a source of pride, beauty and recreation for Orange County residents and visitors, who enjoy boating, fishing and recreation there.
The 12 connected lakes are surrounded by old and new Florida homes, including those of celebrities Shaquille O’Neal and Tiger Woods. Lake Down is the northernmost lake, followed by Little Lake Down, Wauseon Bay, Lake Butler, Lake Louise, Lake Isleworth, Lake Chase, Lake Blanche, Lake Tibet, Lake Sheen, Pocket Lake and Fish Lake.
Lake Butler is the largest of the fresh water, sand-bottom lakes. It has an island bird sanctuary, which is off limits to people; but locals often dock their boats there and socialize on the weekends.

Though the scenery is beautiful, the main reason Capt. Tim Fey takes most of his clients out on the lakes is to fish. Fey, a licensed captain with the U.S. Coast Guard, has been fishing Central Florida waters for more than 20 years. “I get people all the way from Canada and United Kingdom and take them to the Butler Chain,” says Fey.

As an experienced fishing guide and Southwest Orlando resident, Fey says the area has clean, deep water and great bass and crappie fishing. Fey says that he and his guests are also usually lucky enough to spot other wildlife ranging from otters, alligators and an occasional eagle.

If you’re looking to take your own boat for a spin on these waters, consider joining the Orange County Sportsman Club. Members of the club enjoy private boat ramp access onto the lakes and additional recreation facilities. There is one public bank access area on Lake Down but parking is limited and usually fills up quickly.

Albert Gallof, president of Orange County Sportsman Club, says that their 1,700 plus members not only get to use the private launch site on Lake Sheen, but can take advantage of their pavilions, volleyball courts and meeting hall. “It’s a great family atmosphere,” Gallof says, “you’d never know we were back here but it is beautiful.” According to Gallof, the county limits the number of members the club can obtain so the waiting list can get pretty long. Gallof says the group can accept about 100 new members each year.

According to the Department of Environmental Protection, the chain of lakes is worthy of special protection because of its natural attributes, so it has been designated an Outstanding Florida Water. This recognition is applied to certain waters to conserve existing good water quality. Most of these areas are managed by the state or federal government as parks, including wildlife refuges, preserves, marine sanctuaries and aquatic preserves. This designation requires that activities requiring a water management district permit such as dredge, fill and pollutant discharge must not significantly degrade nearby Outstanding Florida Waters and be “clearly in the public interest”.

Organizations such as the Butler Chain Conservation Association work to protect the environment. According to their Web site, the association acknowledges that development is inevitable but insists that it can be done without destroying nature’s delicate balance. Protecting Southwest Orlando’s Butler Chain of Lakes ensures that these precious waters are available for future generations to enjoy.

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!

Johns Lake, Butler Chain, East Lake Toho and St Johns River Bass Fishing Report Sept 2006

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

John’s Lake September 6th

Today we did some more exploring on John’s Lake. Waters are still looking great out here, with water temps starting the day out at 85 degrees. Very light if any real breeze to speak of. We started the day in the cut to the Horseshoe, working the Gitem Drop and picking up 3 very quick bass before heading to the shorelines and doing some flipping.

Schooling activity was pretty much non existent this morning with only a few blows here and there but very small schools. Hitting the grass beds away from the cut to the horseshoe produced 2 descent bass on the Gitem Shad in watermelon red tight to the grass bed, before making another move to the main lake area.

Hitting the main lake grass beds was the key for the day, and fishing very slow was the only way to catch anything. Flipping the grass beds and just bouncing your bait around the holes produced a couple more bass. I did manage to flip a few of the docks out there and you had to work extremely slow doing so, pitching all the way under the docks and boats, and letting your bait just sit there, giving it an occasional twitch to get a strike. None of the hits today were by any means aggressive in nature, so paying close attention to your line was very important, as they would pick up the bait and slowly move, if at all.

Butler Chain

Today I had a good friend out on Butler Chain to help him scout out a few areas for a tournament he has coming up soon. We had started the day out in Lake Pocket working schoolies for about 20 minutes when they settled down, from there it was pitching docks and working shoreline with deep drop offs close by. With a move into Lake Sheen, the pattern had pretty much stayed the same, working shoreline that had deep drop offs close by and grass beds set up in waters 6-9 feet deep. Baits used in these 2 lakes were Mepps Minnows and Gitem Shads, with a small screw in weight.

Lake Isleworth, as usual was a good stop off for some drop shot action for about 45 minutes before making the move into Lake Louise, where we worked spinner baits and lizards thru the Eel grasses managing 2 descent bass in 12 foot of water.

Lake Down and Little Lake Down produced some good numbers using Gitem KO’s and Shads with no weight, and worked extremely slow in the 4-8 foot depths. Once again fish were just picking up the baits and moving slowly, so line watching was a big key to catching today. Fish were very scattered other than the schoolers on Lake Pocket. Total fish today was 16, with the best 5 coming in about 14 pounds. Not bad for numbers, but trust me on this folks, we had to work hard for the ones we caught, 16 fish with probably 20 moves around the lakes.

Hopefully the weather starts cooling down some soon, with the rains we have been getting, the water temps have come down a good bit, starting the day out with 83 degree water temps is a lot better than the 89 degree we had been seeing before the rains. Water levels out on Butler look great, and waters are still very clean with visibility in areas roughly up to 4 feet, we did hit a few areas where water depth was 9 foot and could clearly see the bottom, which makes for long casts and 10 pound test line.

East Lake Toho

Today I hit East Lake Toho for a few hours, My old tournament partner wanted, for some reason to tackle East Lake and get away for a few hours. Normally East Lake is pretty much a last resort fishing spot, as it has not really been producing that great as of late.

We started the day out searching the deep water brush piles in hopes of finding a good bite, managing 3 nice crappie on a drop shot, now this is an awesome lake for crappie.

Making the move to shallow water and working Gitem KO’s in baby bass color, and Shads in watermelon red we did manage to pick up a few here and there in and around the reeds and scattered grasses. Bit was very soft, so you really had to pay close attention to your line. We had one very solid, hard hitting bite, and I mumbled it was a mudfish, and after a few minutes of a good fight, it was a 5 pound mudfish!

From there we made a move to check out Boggy Cove, a few weeks back it was tough going to get in there, if at all, but with the rains, the lake is up atleast a foot, so we ventured back there and tried our luck. Using the same baits, we slammed a bunch of bass, a total of 28, but the sad thing is, of the 28, only 3 were of keeper size and just barely at that, as you can tell in the pictures. Lake levels are looking good, and the waters are very clean, have not seen the waters this clean in a long time. Water temps started out at 82.4 first thing this morning and when we pulled off they were right around 83.9, cooler temps have made the bite a little better, with more schooling activity going on around the offshore hydrilla beds.

We did manage to spot several good bass, in the 4 to 6 pound class cruising in and around the scattered reed, but as you know, generally if you see them, they have also spotted you. Other than the small size, it turned out to be a fairly good day. If we get the waters to cool down maybe another 10 degrees this lake should really turn on good.

St Johns River

This past week we decided to mix things up a little bit and spent some time back out on the St Johns River and Lake Monroe. We had great weather all week long which made for great fishing conditions, water temps starting the day out in the upper 70’s an ending the days in the very low 80’s, what a nice change of pace that has been. Thursday we saw some schooling action, but other than that the waters had been pretty much calm.

Wide range of baits were used, from Sweat Beavers to rattle trap, only thing the traps got, were a few mullet that got snagged. Most action and fish caught were on the Beavers, Senko type baits and Fluke type baits. Lake Monroe itself fished pretty good, working grasses, hydrilla, and reed yielded some descent bass, but no aggressive hit, all the hits we got were very light taps, almost as if it were dinks hitting the bait, these bass were just picking up the bait and holding onto it, only reacting once you set the hook.

St Johns River itself looked pretty good, with a good flow, we were able to set a shoreline drift without having to tap the trolling motor, allowing us to be very stealthy closer to the shoreline, and flipping very tight to cover, again the bass were just very lightly tapping the baits, so you didn’t know if you were setting the hook on fish or weeds, so every tap you felt, you set the hook, although several bass were missed, with most coming unbuttoned close to the boat, they were showing good size, and very scrappy fighters. The big key to fishing the river, was finding submerged trees with scattered grasses around or very close by.

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report April 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Reports

The first half of April has seen some good bass fishing action. Most of our trips have been done on Butler Chain and Johns Lake. Although we have seen some rather strange weather for this time of year for us, with a cold front coming thru, the action has remained steady for the most part, with us having to work harder for our bass on the day the cold front slammed us.Most of our action on Butler Chain has come from docks, wacky rigged Gitem KO’s and weightless Warlocks in Green Pumpkin have done a great job catching bass up to 5 pounds.

When docks have slowed in producing bass, we have moved to the cypress trees, tossing baits at the trees and letting it fall straight down to the base of the tree, this has triggered some very good action for us.Johns Lake has seen scattered schooling action fist thing in the mornings, usually just as the sun makes it half way thru the Deer Island cut. Docks have been excellent producers as well as my drift pattern thru the middle of the main lake, tossing Steel Shads, these baits have caught us a ton of bass out there, as well as a few 1-1/2 pound crappie. Offshore scattered grass beds have been holding some bass with the Twin Liz rigged with 1/8th ounce weight catching them all. We have caught a few bass on 1 ounce spinner baits, but that bite has not been consistent enough to keep us using them.The last half of April continued with some good bass fishing action. Butler Chain and Johns Lake have been the choice lakes to catch bass.

Johns Lake has been doing good for my clients wanting to use live bait. Early morning schooling action in both of the cuts have been good for numbers.Steel Shad worked in the middle of the lake on a drift pattern has been simply awesome at keeping the action going steady. Docks have held some quality bass using the Gitem KO whacky rigged as well as skipping a Gitem Sugar under docks.Butler Chain has seen some very good action around docks with Gitem Curly 7’s and KO’s. Areas with grass and lily pads have also been good producing areas to close out the month. Lakes Butler and Tibet have been the top producers, with some very good early morning action, once the air temperature warms up, it’s a lot of flipping and skipping.We have filmed a few more fishing shows which will be airing soon on our other site along with another Skill Zone episode showing how to tie a few more fishing knots. Be sure to check it out as we continue to add more content and videos weekly.

Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Alligator Chain Bass Fishing Report Feb 2008

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

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.

Clermont Chain, Johns Lake and Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report Jan 2008

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

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!

Lake Toho

Butler Chain of Lakes

Current Orlando Fishing Reports