fishing - 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!

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!

Florida Fall Bassin

That time of year is fast approaching us, the time of year that everybody has been patiently awaiting, Fall. The temperatures make a swing for the better, cooler air temperature and water temps drop, from what used to be bath water to bass busting water.

What does all this mean for bass fishing in Florida? It means its time for some of the best top water action of the year. The time of year where we can put the worms on the self, and dust off our favorite top water baits and enjoy some serious explosions on the surface. Bass will start feeding up in a big way again, fattening themselves up, once again for what promises to be yet another great spawning season
The typical summer pattern had been, very early top water action, and then the rest of the day was spent slow worming, or even a drop shot, and flipping, flipping, flipping. Water temperatures as of late have started out around 83-85 degrees first thing in the morning thanks to the summer rains we have finally gotten, which is roughly a 5 degree drop in temperature to start the day, which has helped out the bite throughout the day. But this is also my favorite time of the year, as clients generally won’t even ask about shiners!

Shiners are always a good bet to catch bass, but when fall rolls around and the bass start feeding up, they are what I consider a “needless expense” although some prefer the use of shiners, as they are generally wanting to relax and catch fish, they really are not needed and can save a person anywhere between $60.00 and $120.00 on a full day on the water.

Butler Chain, right here in the middle of beautiful Central Florida shows what we believe to be some great promise for yet another great fall/winter season. This great chain of lakes has a huge population of shad for the bass to feed up on and the typical fall season has always see some of the best schooling action around Florida. Bass on this chain feed up very aggressively and allows the angler a wide range of tactics to catch bass. From the typical top water action to using jigging spoons in some of the many deep holes this great chain has, that can be as deep as 43 feet. Northern anglers have really taken a liking to this chain, as it has allowed them to come to the south and still be able to use some of their all time favorite lures, such as Mepps Minnows, Road Runners and jigging spoons.

Kissimmee Chain, what more can we say about this great chain of lakes. Lake Kissimmee bounced back from the major clean up years ago, to produce a bunch of bass this year ranging from 10 to just over 16 pounds. Lake Toho, although at times was a hit or miss deal at times this year, produced some great bass this year also, as was proof at the 2006 Bass Master Classic, where records were not only set, but shattered!!

Harris Chain of Lakes, in beautiful Lake County Florida has been fishing really good as expected. Years ago this chain really had a bad drop off in bass fishing action due to over spraying, but has rebounded by leaps and bounds, great bass fishing action is once again expected, with the never ending possibility of catching a few stripers here and there can make the day on the water very entertaining.

Those are just 3 of the major fishing areas that show a lot of promise once again this year for some great fall/winter bass fishing, all within 30 minutes or so of all 3 major theme parks in Central Florida, which helps to make it the best choice for all of your family vacation action, the hustle and bustle of hitting the theme parks and then a relaxing day on the water with the family, setting hooks and catching bass, and believe me, nothing makes a vacation more complete, than seeing your kids holding up some great bass for pictures.

Florida Fall Bassin

Lake Toho

Butler Chain of Lakes

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