Paul Fisler and HM1 Shane Gilley catching bass on Lake Toho using steelshad. They caught a bunch of schoolie sized bass and had a great three days of bass fishing.
The SteelShad have probably been one of our most productive baits for several months. These baits have been catching everything from slab sized crappie to some pretty darn good bass. These lures have been very good for clients and especially tournament bass fishermen, as they can load the boat fast when your trying to get your 5 bass limit quickly, but don’t be fooled, the steelshad has landed plenty of bass over five pounds.
Keep in mind, these baits are the perfect size to mimic bait fish such as shad and wild shiners, the flash and the tight wobble of this lure make it very attractive to feeding bass as well as lethargic bass. There are several ways you can work this lure. Steady retrieve will usually produce some pretty good strikes with it, but one of my favorite ways is to do a yo yo retrieve, that’s where while your retrieving the lure, you raise and lower your rod tip, causing the lure to come back in a erratic up and down motion. This has proven to be very effective and it seems to really get some of the bigger bass to be more aggressive.
For the crappie guys, we have fished this lure slow and deep, almost like slow rolling a spinner bait for bass, every now and then you will lose the feel of the lure, this typically is when the lure is hit from the side, but the crappie did not get hooked up. When reeling this lure in and a crappie hits it, just a simple “lift” of the rod tip seems to have been good enough for setting the hook on the crappie. We have caught a ton of crappie from 2 to 2 ½ pounds like this.
With 5 colors to choose from, Silver, Gold, Trout, Red and Fire Tiger, you have plenty of options.
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.
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. 
August we did a little switch up, we did some fishing on Johns Lake and Butler Chain and had some pretty good trips on both bodies of water. Bass for the most part were holding tight to cover after we had some early morning schooling action on both bodies of water. Gitem curly 7’s in Florida grass and junebug seemed to be the baits that were on fire for us. 
Live shrimp has been the main bait to keep the action steady and the rods bending, but the DOA Shrimp and the steel shad have had their moments out there catching the reds and the trout for us. Shrimp rigs we have been using a 1/0 circle hook with a split shot weight around docks and bridges to get our catch, with us catching between 30 and 40 per trip, this makes for a very good day of fishing.
The month of May has seen some very good bass fishing action. Butler Chain has been producing some quality bass with a good majority of them coming from either under docks or the outside edges of the docks. Whacky rigged Gitem KO’s have been the best way to catch them under the docks, the slower fall of this bait helps keep it in the strike zone just long enough for the bass to hit it.
Johns Lake is still fishing the same and still one of my favorite lakes to fish. Some early morning top water action can be worked as long as you arrive early enough. Generally as the sun starts coming down the cut, the activity starts to pick up, first half of the month the top water bite was a quick bite in this area, usually lasting about a half an hour. From there we have generally worked the main body of water out in the middle working the Steel Shad and picking off some good bass.
We added a new twist to the fishing arsenal the last few days by getting back into saltwater fishing again. For years I did a lot of saltwater fishing but strayed away with my main focus staying on bass fishing, with the summer months now upon us, the saltwater fishing has been picking up very nicely and we have been catching a lot of good fish.
The next few months as summer heats up for us, we still fully expect a good bass fishing season and will be mixing in some saltwater runs for some more bull reds like Charles caught while we filmed a show for Reel Fishing, Charles managed to catch two bull reds, one on his first cast, again, it was another first, as Charles had never caught a redfish before, and he ended up catching two, one just over 40 inches and the other was I believe 35 inches.
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.
Things have been very crazy to say the least. We have had several trips to Johns Lake, Butler Chain, Conway Chain and a private lake. 
Butler Chain has also been pretty steady for us. Drop offs have been a major focus for us, tossing trick worms, craws and brush hogs into 16 plus foot of water, and slowly crawling the baits up into the shallower waters has been the ticket, most bass we have seen and caught have been suspended in 12 foot of water on the drop offs. Lake Butler and Little Lake Down have been the best producers for us, with Lake Tibet and Lake Louise also producing some good numbers.
The private lake we have been fishing on occasion has been producing very well. This body of water has seen some limited shallow water action, sitting in the middle of the lakes has been really producing some good numbers of not only bass but some 2 pound crappie. Steel shads have been the main bait for catching bass out there, and if worked like slow rolling a spinner bait, the crappie will slam this bait. Best crappie fishing action has been from 6:30am up to about 8am, then they just seem to shut down only getting a few here and there, very scattered, but you can usually get the limit by 8am. Best fishing waters have been in 12 to 18 foot of water, with bass mostly suspended in 8 to 10 foot of water, go deeper and you can catch some very big catch fish here also.
