Orlando Bass Fishing Report
Johns Lake
We had a pretty good run out on Johns Lake Friday. Kevin from “Ultimate Fishing Site” came to fish Johns Lake and starting the day out was amazed at the schooling action he got to witness. Just as safe light cracked, the bass went to schooling in mass just about everywhere you looked in the Deer Island cut, catching quick bass with the lures he brought with him, the Bite Light Viper and the KickTail XL.
As the bite slowed down, artificials were used with a mix of shiners to keep the bite going, picking up a few more bass here and there with a few pickeral mixed in. Saturday saw us back at it again, Kevin, as well myself with high hopes of some more great schooling action first thing in the morning with the exact same weather conditions, saw no schooling action to speak of in Deer Island cut and no bites.
We made a move over to the Horseshoe, and there was some schooling action, but very scattered and very little, Kevin was tossing a deep diving crank bait, fan casting thru the cut and working a slower than normal retrieve managed to pick up several good bass once again, having one, after a descent fight come unbuttoned right next to the boat. Slow trolled shiners, left over from the day before yielded a few blow up, one smaller bass and a monster bowfin. Most bass caught were right in the 2 to 3 pound range, with the big bass coming in at a very nice 7.4 pounds.
Butler Chain
The past week we have spent a few days out on Butler Chain following various bait fish pods and watching the schooling activity in many of the lakes. Schooling fish have been spotted on several of the lakes on the chain with the waters cooled down nicely and still very clean. Saturday was a day spent targeting several different areas working several different types of lures with great success at catching bass in the 2 to 4 pound range.
Lakes Blanche and Chase were good producers using all white spinner baits in and around grass beds in 4 to 6 foot of water, in a slow rolled fashion. Watermellon/red shad with a small bullet weight, not pegged, worked along grass edges and very slowly did pick up a few good slot sized bass, most bites were very light, but we have noticed an increase in the quality of the bite.
Lake Sheen seen some good bait fish pods located in the center area of the lake, so that was the main target area, tossing a Long A and working slowly, after the first cast was complete, I actually had to pick bait fish off the hooks, second cast produced a nice 3 pound bass, picking up 3 more in the same fashion, I made a move into Lake Pocket. Working shoreline areas and drop offs, I found once again the bite to be very light, but in this case it was much smaller bass so I headed out to Lake Tibet to end the day. Tibet had scattered schooling action, which I avoided as I was looking for a solid pattern and that pattern was not chasing schoolers around.
The pattern was dictated early on in the day, slow rolled spinner baits, shads weighted with a small bullet weight in and around the grass beds, located closer to deeper water dropoffs, and Long A’s and rattle traps on the outside edges of grass lines, again with a deeper water drop off close by. Big key was to work the baits slow, even the rattle traps and the bass would hit.
Lake Rosalie/Lake Kissimmee
Sunday the 17th I spent the day on Lake Rosalie with my old tournament partner Rob out in Lake Wales. Our main goal was to do some scouting out on the lake to check several things, the main thing being the water levels. Water levels are easily described as LOW. When you start the day out having to idle thru a canal, motor trimmed up and still rubbing bottom, you know your in for a long day. When we finally made it thru the canal to the lake, we still had to idle close to 200 yards before getting to waters where I could come up on plane.
This lake I had done a bunch of trips on early in the year and it was a great producer of some very good bass, size and number wise, but with waters as low as they were, expectations were not very high. Several of the key areas that bass had been stacked in, were now only maybe a foot deep, if that much. The main ramp was closed as they are completely redoing it, Dock and all being added to it finally. We did watch one group launch a pontoon boat there, backing a good 70 feet into the lake before it finally came off the trailer.
Although the waters were shallow, they did look very clean and we did spot some good sized bass moving about in the grass beds, in very shallow water. We did take some time to work a few lures to catch a couple bass, motor oil colored worms, Junebug Gitem Shads and Gitem Toads did catch us a few good bass. Rattle traps and shallow diving crank baits did pick off a few smaller bass out in open waters. I will make a few more trips out there to keep an eye on this lake, as it is usually the hot lake for big bass during the spawn. There is a ramp right behind Lake Rosalie Bait and Tackle which is just before the point of no return on the road to Camp Mack.
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.
