Orlando Bass Fishing Report
June and July have seen some good bass fishing action. Most of our time had been spent on Johns Lake, with a few scattered trips out on Butler Chain. This time of year is typically hot and usually with very little breeze to help keep things comfortable, so we have been doing a lot of 4 and 6 hour trips to beat the heat.
Johns Lake has been pretty good on schooling bass first thing in the morning at Deer Island Cut. Spinner baits, rattle traps and a select few crank baits have done pretty good. Smaller swim baits like the curl tail minnow have been productive, as well as a 7 inch junebug worm crawled slowly across the bottom.
Once the schooling action stops, we have been hitting isolated grass beds as well as offshore hydrilla beds just below the surface. Seven inch junebug worms with a small bullet weight worked slowly has been the main producer once the air temperatures start cooking. We did have some limited success with drop shot in 12 to 16 foot water.
Senko type baits, as well as trick worms have been catching some bass off of docks, as well as the drop shot worked along the docks and worked slowly thru the passes in the docks.
Water levels on Johns Lake have come up slowly with the rains we have been having, markers are out there still, marking the sand bars to make sure people and boats stay safe.
Butler Chain water levels are still great, lots of areas with some good productive flooded wood and some very healthy hydrilla make for some good action. Early morning top water action has been ok, with some scattered schooling around the chain. Most of our bass have been coming close to deeper water drop offs, but we have still been catching bass in less than 2 feet of water in lakes Chase and Blanche.
One ounce spinner baits worked thru grasses and hydrilla have produced some serious strikes, as well as working the steel shad, typically the gold one seems to have worked best for us. Several bass have been caught working docks, big key here was to really work the dock hard, and very slowly. Drop offs have been holding some quality bass, especially around submerged brush piles.
Several areas in mid lake with hydrilla have been producing some quality bass using 1 ounce Sugoi spinner baits, Steel Shads and 10 inch worms. Several days of higher winds than normal had us working docks that were wind blown, which had been holding bass, some docks producing as many as 3 bass, which makes for a very good day. 
My tournament partner and I did venture out to Harris Chain mid month to fish a Fishers Of Men Tournament, with no free time to practice out there, we went according to old notes from years past and they paid off pretty good. With some tough fishing, we did get into some schooling bass, but we could only get them to hit very small floating Ugly Duckling crank baits, once we had our limit, we switched up to one ounce spinner baits and covered a lot of water to cull some smaller bass, with a nice 5 and change bass slamming a spinner bait, landing us in 11th place, just 2 spots from the money, which equaled out to a pound, also missing second big bass by a matter of ounces.
The month of April has seen some great bass fishing action, as well as some tough action as the cold front came thru. This front grabbed a hold of us for a good two days, and after some very good bass fishing action, it really put a clamp on the action. Bass were still caught, but we did have to work harder for our catch. We had a few days of combo trips, working live and artificial baits, for the most part, the artificial baits we used were Gitem Warlocks and 7 inch ribbon tail worms, both worked with a 1/16th ounce bullet weight in and around grass beds.
Doug and Todd had two days with us on Johns Lake, the first day was once again very light hits on the baits, with winds still up and weather very cool to start the day, bass were scattered as we hit several areas to get our catch. Day two we had much better action with calmer winds and warmer weather. Big bass for them coming in at 5.13 pounds. 
The last half of April saw some good bass fishing on Johns Lake and Butler Chain. Schooling action on Johns had been very limited for us in the mornings, but always got the day off to a good start. For the most part on Johns Lake, our bass have been coming off some of our typical deeper water areas. Steel Shads and spinner baits being the best at catching the bass, a few have been caught on smaller series Ugly Duckling crank baits.
The month of February has seen some very good bass fishing action here in Orlando. We have had most of our focus on Butler Chain and one of the private lakes that I fish. Butler Chain we have had some good bass come off beds, despite high winds that had consistently pounded us along with what seemed like an endless run on cold fronts.
Most of our trips this month were with artificial baits, with steel shad and a wide range of Gitem Baits catching most of the bass. Steel Shad have been doing a great job in deeper waters when fronts have hit us, working them mostly in 10 to 16 feet of water, almost slow rolling them, with the very tight wobble and close resemblance of bait fish, these baits have been awesome.
Gitem Baits have been plugging the bass for us in and around scattered grass beds, offshore hydrilla beds and docks. The Twin Liz and the Curly 7 have been doing great tossing them under docks texas rigged with a 1/16th ounce screw in weight. The Gitem Curly 10 has been great pulling it thru heavy eel grass to catch some nice quality bass, one day numbers will be up, and size down, but only to be followed up with some very solid bass being caught the next day.
towards the end of the month. Shiner fishing has been doing good, slow trolling the shiners with no float around deep drop offs on Lake Butler itself has produced some quality bass. Lakes Chase and Blanche have also held some good action, Chase has been good in areas where the lay downs are as well as Blanche. Blanche has been very good around the docks as well as just offshore from the docks, finding the offshore hydrilla has produced some very good quality bass.
The month of March has carried over pretty much from the same action we have seen in February, although the majority of the bass had already spawned, we still were catching some bass off beds, or cruising around the beds. Butler Chain we have been catching most bass just off the grass beds and under docks, wacky rigged Gitem KO’s have been doing great under docks as well as the curly 7’s.
