World Class Florida Bass Fishing!
East Lake Toho Boat Ramp
East Lake Toho Boat Ramp is located on Lakeshore in St Cloud Florida. With two great places to break for lunch during the day, East Lake Fish Camp or Crabby Bills. Both offer great food. Plenty of Trophy bass have been caught here in years past, and this great body of water is making one heck of a come back with the trophy bass showing up once again.
Map Below is for Lake Toho boat ramp
View Lake Toho in a larger map
Address given for Lake Toho Ramp is for Big Toho Marina, ramp is just past the bait store
A six-lane boat ramp with a floating courtesy dock is located on Lakeshore Blvd. From the intersection of Highway 192 and Highway 441/17-92 in Kissimmee, travel south on Main Street 0.6 mile to Monument Avenue. Turn left onto Monument Avenue and follow to Lakeshore Blvd. Turn right on Lakeshore and follow 0.3 miles to ramp on left. Pier and bank fishing is allowed. A marina is located approximately 0.2 miles north of ramp.
Orlando Bass Fishing Report
The month of October has seen some very good bass fishing action here in Orlando.
Johns Lake has seen some good schooling action in the early morning hours with us catching them on steel shad, gitem shad and curly 7’s.
Most schooling action has been in the Deer Island Cut with some action coming mid lake. Waters are up and bass have new feeding areas due to this, so some of the more common haunts have not produced as well as in the past. Making adjustments to your normal fishing patterns will make a big difference in what you catch, and how much you catch.
Grass beds and offshore submerged hydrilla have been a huge key to success in keeping the action going steady during the day. Top water action is here! 
Gitem toads and torpedoes getting some good action.
Butler Chain has been pretty typical with the action coming mostly on wacky rigs skipped under docks. We have gotten on a good spinner bait bite as well along with rattle traps and c-rigged gitem warlocks. Lakes Butler and Down have been very good to us especially in deeper waters, working drop offs has seemed to be the spot as well as areas with sunken trees, as the bait fish have been stacking up in these areas pretty good as of late.
Lake Toho has been doing good, with a few runs out there lately steel shad have done very good in open waters, as well as working along hydrilla beds and grass edges. Toads and 10 inch worms have been great coming across topped out hydrilla as well as thru scattered grasses.
November is shaping up to be a great month for bass fishing. Temperatures, water and air are cooling down, making it much nicer to fish than the hot summer months, and with the cooler waters, bass are getting much more active. Live bait bite should be good as usual, and we should have some good top water action as well. Schooling action is typically good in November and we fully expect it to carry on right thru the end of the year. Just take a look at the pictures from previous Novembers and this is what you can expect to happen on any give cast. This is also the time to really start considering that Crappie trip, slabs will be plenty and makes for a very exciting time on the water as well as bass fishing.
Lake Toho and Orlando Bass Fishing Report
Lake Toho
Today we had a 4 hour run out on Lake Toho. Water temperature started out at a cool 72 degrees to start the day, and finished the day at 72. Finally cooler consistent water temps to help get the bass active and feeding up. This trip was part of a 10 boat deal and everyone had high hopes the winds would hold off till we were finished up. We started out with a quick run to the mid lake area working isolated hydrilla patches in deeper water and after 20 minutes and no activity we made the move back to the northern end of Lake Toho. This was the move that made the day.
Positioned in a cut with a good breeze coming thru, bait fish were being pushed down the cut and along the grass edges, and yes, this caused the bass to school up good. We had one small school move in on us and roughly an hour later another good sized school followed right behind in the same path. Although even with the schooling activity the numbers were not high like we had hoped, with 7 bass making it to the boat and a few others missed, but the action was steady. Bass were feeding, but they were mouthing the baits, so the bite was not very aggressive as we had grown used to.
Word at the ramp at the end of the day was everyone boated about the same amount of bass, numbers were 5 to 11 bass per boat which made for a great day on the water for the entire group, all of which said they had a great day on the water. Winds did hold off pretty much most of the time, and started to pick up as the trip ended. Big bass of the trip came in at just over 5 pounds, with our big one coming in at 4.2 pounds. All the bass caught were very healthy and of course released alive after pictures, for you, the next angler to enjoy catching them.
Johns Lake
Today I was out on Johns Lake for a few hours. It has been awhile since I had been out here as the fishing had really dropped off with the high water temperatures.
Today the waters were perfect, starting the day out right at 70 degrees and when I pulled off the lake 4 hours later, the temps had barely made a move. The day had started out in the cut to the Horseshoe, with no real signs of any schooling action.
I had started chunking a spinner bait, and as I would retrieve it, I could feel the line drop off as it would get smacked but no hook ups, even with the trailer hook. I made a quick switch to the Mepps Mino and that was the ticket for the rest of the day.
Picking up 5 real quick bass in the first half hour I knew it was going to be a good day out there. I sat the Mepps down and tossed a 10 inch worm, Black with red flake for a few to try to get some deep water action in the cut, with only one serious bump which hooked up, a nice 4 pounder and that was it.
Switching back to the Mepps and moving around the lake, working scattered grass beds and shallow waters, the Mepps Mino was the definite ticket as the total for the day was 16 bass to the boat, 3 more that shook off and of course the typical pickerel.
With the cooler water temperatures finally here, the action has definitely improved greatly. There was minimal schooling activity in scattered areas of the lake from the Horseshoe area to the cut going into Clear Lake, I did see two smaller schools in the main lake area and noticed in increase in size in bait fish pods.
Johns Lake
With 2 days on Johns Lake this week, we had 2 different scenarios. Day one was a day of chasing bass flipping the grass beds catching one here and one there. Day 2, Saturday the 18th, had bass schooling up in the Horseshoe catching a few before the action died off. From there a quick move to Dear Island cut saw yet even more schooling action, with once again a few being caught. Baits of choice today were rattle traps and white spinner baits, the Mepps Mino which had been the hot go to bait as of late, saw no action at all.
Bass of size are still a little off as the numbers are up, most bass have been running in 1 ½ to 3 pound range and the bite has been aggressive, even when not working the two main cuts, bass were being caught more in the open waters. Crappie bite seems to be doing good also, as we were working a grass bed area over, we noticed a boat in mid lake catching crappie left and right, last count before we pulled away they had boated 13 crappie in roughly 20 minutes.
Water Temperatures started the day out at 67 degrees and when we pulled off the temp was running 69.8 degrees. Cooler waters have turned the bass on and heated up the schooling action as of late. Cooler temps predicted for all of next week, will only help to turn the fishing on and get them schooling up even more.
Butler Chain
This week we also spent two days out on Butler Chain, Thursday and Friday. The run did on Thursday started with us on the water at 11:30, after the storms had rolled thru and safely passed by us. Action was scattered across several lakes and most bass were caught on Rattle Traps worked thru eel grasses. Fridays action was more of the same, a lot of moving around and tossing rattle traps, we did have a few caught on the Gitem Shad working tight to cover. We had also taken some minnows with us and did a few drift patterns across the lakes to get an idea of what the Crappie fishing was like, picking up 12 good crappie.
Johns Lake
This past week has been a week of tough bass fishing. With the major cold snap taking its toll on the bite the first part of the week, and the high winds at mid week, fishing SLOW was key to catching bass. Schooling activity on Johns Lake was “ok” at best, with bass feeding up and disappearing just as fast as they surfaced. Rattle Traps did catch a few here and there along with smaller swim baits worked slowly and deep as well as Carolina rigged Gitem Shads.
Swim baits and Carolina rigged baits worked best in the cuts and around any kind of drop off, most notably with at least a 2 foot drop off. Bass had been a little more scattered than in weeks past so patience was key to catching them. Rattle Traps as usual produced the numbers, covering a lot of water, working the cuts, drop offs and along as well as thru scattered grass beds.
Gitem KO’s and Gitem Shads had produced some good bass pitched into grass beds and dead sticking in the potholes of the grass beds. Bite has been light so line watching was very important. Top producing colors had been, Rattle Traps in Black/Chrome, Gitem Shad in white, swim baits pearl color and the Gitem KO in Baby Bass color.
Today we ended the week, Sunday the 26th with Mike Sr. and Mike Jr. out on the lake, Mike Sr. celebrating his 36 anniversary and his With Jackie surprising him with a trip bass fishing, and Mike Jr. sneaking into town without his dad knowing this morning.
Day started out with great promise as the guys got a quick double hook up, from there it ended up being fish scattered here and there and winds kicking 10 to 20 most of the day made the bite even harder. In all it was a great day on the water with two great guys, Mike Sr., retired US Navy/ US Coast Guard, and Mike Jr. still proudly serving in the US Army.
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.
Orlando Bass Fishing Report
Butler Chain and Johns Lake
Week ending June 3rd
We had a few days where we were able to get out and spend some time working drop shot baits from Gitem Baits, and toss around a few lures that just don’t get used a lot, or are not talked about much.
We started out with a run to Butler Chain, bass had moved off the grass edges and were suspended in deeper water, so the perfect bait of choice was a drop shot.
Working in 14 foot of water on various lakes we did manage to get a few good keepers.
We had also tossed around a small swim bait which did very good, allowing it to fall to the bottom before swimming it back was the key to catching the quality bass.
John’s Lake
With the schooling activity slowing drastically, the deeper water bite and flipping bite has been the way to out here. Flipping Gitem Bugs in junebug has been very productive. Bass have been holding tight in the pockets and with the cleaner waters here, a line switch from braids to 15 pound test Berkley Big Game has been the ticket. Spinner baits and a Mepps Minnow worked on the outside edges of grass beds has produced a few good catches, with a very early morning bite on Pop R’s and spooks. Something t remember on both John’s Lake and Butler Chain, these are NOT your typical Florida waters, these bodies of water are much cleaner, which dictates when using lures you make those longer casts and focus more on the mono lines and try to avoid the braided lines. With the dog days of summer here, a slower presentation will be the definite way to go.
Harris Chain
Saturday the 10th we spent a few hours out on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Lake County.
Not having been here in several months, we opted to start our day off on Little Lake Harris, working mainly grass beds. With our day starting at 6am, we spotted some bass feeding on the surface along and inside of scattered grass beds, trying spinner baits and topwater baits along these grass beds produced not even one strike. We made the switch to the good old flipping stick with a Gitem Bug and on the second flip, picked off a nice 3 pounder.
With a move to the northern end of Big Lake Harris, we followed the same pattern, flipping the grass beds, but here the focus was more aimed at the isolated holes further back into the heaviest grass beds. Here we opted for the Gitem KO pitched back into those little pockets, generally 20 to 25 feet back, managing to pick up a few more good bass, but not the ones we were looking for.
By 10am, the sun was already scorching hot and no breeze to speak of, so on our run back to Little Harris, we made a stop and tried some drop shot and swimming some jigs under the bridge, with no takers, we worked our way back into Little Harris, continuing the pattern of working the grass beds, slowly and methodically was the key to catching anything, along with pitching under the docks.
There were several tournaments being run out there this weekend, which made for some heavy boat traffic in areas. Word is that Lake Griffin and Yale Canal has been the hot spot to catch good limits up to 25 pounds, but it has also had its days of small limits with all the pressure it has been getting. With us putting in at Hickory Point, the run to Griffin really was not an option. We will be heading out there again in the next 2 weeks and launching from Buzzard Beach, we will check out Griffin and report back as to how it is and if the pattern out there is still running consistant.
Lake Toho
Lake Toho Week ending June 17th
We had a few runs out on Lake Toho over the past week. Waters are on the low side, going into the far backside of Gobblets cove, past the St Cloud canal, the waters are VERY shallow, if your not on plane coming out, expect a slow ride coming out as you will be bumping bottom in several areas. Waters were looking good otherwise with scattered schooling activity going on.
Toho had produced some good bass for us on a wide variety of lures.
Spinner baits, spooks, toads and worms were the main lures used. Main areas to target were Reeds, but the best producing reeds were the scattered ones, especially the stands with a grouping of 4 or 5 reeds, bass were held tight and hit very aggressively. North Steer Beach and the cut into Gobblets Cove were top producers when it came to the reeds.
Good hyrilla patches off the islands held some descent bass, working worms slowly thru the patches along with heavier topped out hydrilla yielding a few good toads. The bite at times has and can be off and on, but with some patience, the bass are there. This seems to have been the pattern on most lakes as of late
Shiner bite has been best around the reeds, deeper water hydrilla and around the islands, free lined in the deeper waters, and bobbers set to about a foot off the islands has produced good bass to 5 pounds, with a few break offs which were pushing the 7 to 9 pound range. Although the waters are not crystal clear, mono lines are still recommended as you will notice your hookup rate is much better.
Clermont Chain
Today we had a run out to Clermont Chain to do some scouting for up coming tournaments. Started the day out at 6am on Lake Minneola, working grass beds and docks, we were throwing rattle traps with one good thump and a miss, made a switch to a Gitem Toad in Black/red flake and picked up 3 quick bass. From there we made the move heading to Wilson and checked out the river, River looked horrible with all the spraying that was done, be careful navigating it. Lake Cook looked great as did Wilson, a couple schools were blowing water in the river between Wilson and Cook, but it wasn’t schooling activity we were looking for.
Top water bite was pretty good, Slim Dogs were the hot bait as the sun came up and got HOT fast. Best way of working this bait was to walk the dog and let her rest, we generally leave the front hook as original, and switch the back hook to a bleeding bait series, this has faired well for us, I hit Capt Al on the radio and had him come join in on the action, we nailed a good toad and she wrapped us up in deeper waters, tried working her lose but with tapping the tip on bottom, revealed the old train tracks that were dumped in the lake.
Water levels on the chain are way down, which has pushed the bass out of the marsh areas and out into more open waters, most all bass were caught in 6-8 foot of water off of submerged grass beds with one or two being picked up off of stickups.
Butler Chain
The last two days has had us out on Butler Chain of Lakes. Yesterday the day had started out pretty good, with bass coming from deeper waters on Lakes Down and Little Down, shiners slow trolled was the definite way to go and has been the case for several weeks now. Around 11:30 we hit the ramp for to take cover as a storm rolled in and it was the smart move. This storm produced a ton of lightning, and as we sat in the truck by the ramp, watching the storm roll by and keeping an eye on the boat tied off to the dock, we heard the spookiest noise we ever experienced, a bolt of lightning wizzed by the truck, hitting a cypress tree and exploding the tree, sending timber flying some 50 feet in every direction.
Today, the 28th we were back out on Butler again, with a two boat party from New York.
Fishing was hit and miss most of the day, bass were schooling up, and you could manage one good bass from each school as they disappeared as fast as they appeared. Most all fish were caught in 18 to 32 feet of water, the guys hooked up some good numbers, and lost just as many. This is definitely the time of year, where shiners are going to be your best bet, and deeper waters will yield some good bass, as the guys said, these babies fight like small mouth bass. Despite the little to no breeze, and being HOT, the guys had so much fun, they will be coming back in March, when the weather is much cooler.
Attached is the picture of the cypress tree that was hit by lightning, folks we cant stress it enough, if you see a storm coming in, position up close to the ramp, if you hear thunder, or see ANY lightning, GET OFF THE WATER!!!!! Its great catching bass in Florida, but your safety and the safety of others is more important than any green fish.
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