lake Toho

Lake Toho Bass Fishing

My client Paul Fisler had been telling me about a new spinner bait he had found
and was bringing with him on his trip. This spinner bait can be seen at HoleShotTackle.com
Pauls first cast of the day landed this bass. We had a very good day numbers wise today.

When fishing on Lake Toho, or any body of water in Central Florida, one of the best go to search baits other than a rattle trap type bait is a spinner bait. These baits can be set up in various ways. From color to size, weight, and blade styles, these lures can pretty much can bass year long here in Florida. True you always want some kind of ripple on the water from a slight breeze, but many people will put down the spinner bait in favor of something else when the weather gets cold down here, or the wind picks up too much for them.

Key to fishing the spinner bait is really a lot on how you work it. Hotter days and when the sun is at its brightest, we tend to “slow roll” them, meaning we work them much slower than normal, almost letting it bounce off the bottom at times, or just “ticking” the tops of the submerged weed beds. This can and will trigger some very aggressive strikes.

One of the most interesting spinner baits I have come across is the one from Hole Shot. These spinner baits have a unique blade set up, as the blades are punched with holes. The blades being designed like this help to push water and create more vibration in the water column, which will attract bass from a distance, remember, bass have that lateral line, which can detect the vibration and draws them to the bait or lure you are using.

Bass Fishing Forecast for January

The Spawn is on! This is the official start of the bass spawning season. Largemouth bass have feed up good the previous two months and have taken their place in the spawning areas to nest. Here in Florida we have a very great spawning season, starting in January and running into March and sometimes April. We have on rare occasion caught a bass from a bed as late as May!
This is our major spawn, as bass beds will be scattered all over our lakes in waters ranging from as shallow as a foot deep to sometimes twelve feet deep depending on the body of water you may be fishing on.

Wild shiners are usually the bait of choice, as bass will attack them if they get anywhere near the beds. Although wild shiners are not always required to catch these trophy bass, they can at times make things easier. Creature baits worked on beds holding bass can and will produce vicious strikes from big females, as they protect the nest. Numbers of bass caught will remain steady, but size will increase, as it is not uncommon to consistently catch bass from five to seven pounds on a daily basis, and here in Florida, especially during the spawn, any given cast can result in that trophy bass of ten pounds or more.

Lake Toho and Johns Lake are very well known for producing some amazing catches during the spawn, with five bass limits easily approaching 30 pounds during tournaments. This is probably one of our best and without a doubt one of the busiest months for bass fishing. So if your looking to fish, you may want to consider booking soon.

Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing

World Famous Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing starts on covering 18,810 acres of what is indisputably some of the best trophy bass fishing in the State of Florida, and with very good reason. This amazing body of water can, on any given day or any given cast reward an angler with a 10 pound bass, what everyone considers a trophy bass, or a catch of a lifetime for many.

With many options for Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing, catching these trophy bass on wild shiners to crank baits, one thing is for sure, the possibilities are endless, the fun and excitement has no boundaries. Tournament anglers flock from around the country to fish tournaments here. Whether it be a B.A.S.S tournament, FLW, Extreme Bass or local club tournaments, these directors hold their tournaments here for a very good reason, BIG BASS!

Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing is fantastic depending on what time of year you wish to fish Lake Toho can play a role on the numbers, or the quality of the bass you will catch. Now everyone knows the summer months for bass fishing can be tough with the extreme heat, many anglers feel that the bass just won’t bite. This is very far from the truth. Generally the summer months the bass fishing will still be productive in the early morning hours and late afternoon. Many will say “the big gals bite early or late” but I can assure you they will bite all day long. Most of my biggest bass, 7 to 10 pounds have come between the hours of 11am and 3 pm, right in the heat of the day!
Fall and winter are probably some of the best times to bass fish on Lake Toho. Cold fronts will roll into Central Florida, lowering our air temperatures and also dropping our water temperatures. This will trigger baitfish, shad and shiners to bunch up in pods making them an easy target for largemouth bass to ambush. This will trigger the bass feeding frenzy as they fatten up for the spawn, which typically starts early January and will last sometimes into May.

Spawn season is typically our busiest time of year, as this is generally one of the best times for people to get a chance to go Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing and focus on catching a trophy bass on Lake Toho. Many anglers, even the most experienced, will request live wild shiners as their bait of choice just to increase the chances of them catching that Trophy Bass that many anglers may spend many years trying to catch.
Spring can be just absolutely off the hook bass fishing! Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing have finished their spawn by then, and what are they looking to do? Well this is the time that trophy bass once again go on a major feeding frenzy! They have laid their eggs and for the most part remained dormant, as they remain close to the bed, watching over the buck bass guarding the nest. Now if the buck has been caught and not released, the female bass will return to guard the nest. Once the spawn is complete for her, she will start feeding up to regain strength, and these gals can be very aggressive when they feed. This will make for some seriously fun bass fishing.

Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing

There is good reason these bass make it to 10 pounds or better, they are smart! We know the waters we fish, but remember, they know the waters they live in. Many may find that statement laughable, but think about it. Many big bass are not caught in wide open waters. They are usually caught from beds, which can be close to or even under docks. Close to or in openings in grass beds, or in and around sunken timber. Now when you hook one of these gals, they will make a run for cover, Hitting that dock, trying to get to thick cover, or tangling you up in that timber. That to me, and many other pro anglers says these bass are smart. It’s not just a matter of setting a hook, and reeling her in.

We must always remember when you do catch a spawning bass to handle her with extreme care. Please take that picture fast, supporting her belly and gently releasing her back into the waters. These trophy bass are also our “breeding stock” as we like to call them. It’s their gene that helps map our future in the bass fishing industry, and when these trophy bass are released alive and well it will increase the next bass anglers’ chances at also catching that bass of a lifetime, and who knows, that next angler could be your own son or daughter.

For additional information on Lake Toho Guides and Central Florida Bass Fishing in general please visit these site.

Lake Toho Bass Fishing Report Nov 2009

Orlando Bass Fishing Guides

The first half of November we spent a lot of time on Lake Toho doing some scouting and checking out lake conditions. There is a lot of matting out here and if you hit the right ones, you can catch some good numbers and size out here right now. Water temps are finally down, in the upper 60’s on the days we hit this great lake.

A few of the days we hit Lake Toho the winds were up some, so we focused on areas where we had a push coming thru cuts in the matting, and the bass were there and played pretty good for us. We had a good spinner bait bite going on as well as a wacky rig bite.
Open water areas that were holding bass produced pretty good with the Steel Shad as well as the spinner bait. Silver steel shad and a 1 ounce spinner bait seemed to be the most productive lures for us and bass seemed to be pretty aggressive when they hit these lures.

Northern end of the lake seemed to be the most productive area, with a few coming out of Gobblets Cove and a few scattered from the southern end.
Lake Cypress also seemed to be a good option, as we made a few runs down there and always managed to catch bass down there, with very little pressure on the days we were there, I think we may have seen 4 other boats there on the days we made the run.
Check back often as we will be adding more to this report for the last half of the month, with several trips coming up for lake toho. Also be sure to check out the bass fishing videos, as 2 more have been added from Lake Toho.

Lake Toho Spinner bait

Erik, who always seems to manage to pull off a first for himself every time we fish, finally catches his first bass on a spinner bait. We had done a couple trips on Lake Toho and had a good spinner bait bite going, when Erik finally got her on his first cast in the area we hit.

Big key for Erik to catching the bass he caught was holding the rod tip up high, which helped to keep the spinner bait higher up in the water and just above the weed bed we were working. The bass were relating to hydrilla out here and would come out of the scattered hydrilla to hit our baits. Working the spinner bait just above the hydrilla and at a steady pace with the sun light we had gave off just enough flash to trigger the bass into striking our lures. The big key here was when you have someone who wants to try something new to them, such as Erik with the spinner bait, you always want to try to get them to an area where you know is holding bass. The bass here were smaller school sized bass, but it was all Erik needed to gain confidence in a lure he has never really had any great success with.

Guiding to us is more than just people catching bass, we like to pass on our knowledge to our clients and friends, so they not only catch bass, but also learn new things such as different ways of working lures to help them trigger the strikes and land the bass. Clients always love to catch bass, but one thing they also will never forget, is the fact they learned something new, that they can later incorporate with their fishing back home to help make them the more complete angler.

The great thing about bass fishing is that it is a never ending learning process. New techniques and new lures always being created to help in the chase of that trophy bass.

Lake Toho Wacky

Short video of us having some fun on Lake Toho early November 2009. We did a lot of wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s dipped in JJ’s Dippin Dye. This combination has proven to be lethal when it comes to catching bass.

We go through stretches where we seem to catch a ton of bass on a wacky rig. Typically we have our stick baits, or senko type baits Texas rigged, but when the bass are just mouthing the baits or giving it that slight tap but not taking it, we will wacky rig the bait and start catching them like crazy.

When we are wacky rigging we will normally use a 2/0 circle hook and hook the bait in the middle, this gives it a nice side to side fall and generally the bass will hit this bait on the fall, although we have had a few chase and strike the bait on the lift. This type or rigging is very effective when working the front line of grass beds and along rock walls like you see in this video. Yet another good one is skipping it under docks. Skipping this set up under docks has proven to be very effective, as it leaves the bait in perfect position as it falls slowly to where the bass may be hiding.

Looking to spice it up a little bit? We will at times dip it into a jar of JJ’s Dippin Dye, not only can we change colors or the bait but it will also add the garlic scent to the lure, this has also been a big key to that soft bite. This is also a good way to go after bedding bass during the spawn here in Florida. One of the best things about Florida Bass Fishing is catching those trophy bass during the spawn, and working a wacky rigged bait in front of a bass has triggered several aggressive strikes. Being able to watch the bait slowly fall in front of the bass and coming to rest, then just barely twitching the lure, just enough to make it move without pulling it away from the bass can and will drive that big gal crazy.

Lake Toho Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing Forecast for January

Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing

Lake Toho Trophy Bass Fishing

Lake Toho Bass Fishing Report Nov 2009

Lake Toho Spinner bait

Lake Toho Wacky

Butler Chain of Lakes

Current Orlando Fishing Reports