steel shad - Bass Fishing Florida

Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report Oct 2008

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

The first half of October has already seen some very good bass fishing action with some good catches. Most of our time has been spent on Butler Chain this month along with some scouting of other local lakes. For the most part bass have been tighter to cover on Butler Chain. We have caught a lot of bass working grass beds and docks with some bass coming from submerged structure in deeper waters.

One bait that has once again become hot for us has been the Steel Shad. This bait has once again become a bass catching machine. This bait we have been working more around waters with deep drop offs and we have been catching the bass that are cruising back and forth from deep holes to shallow waters chasing bait fish. The Steel Shad has been a perfect match when it comes to the bait fish in size and color, with the silver one really catching some good numbers.

There has been scattered schooling action out on several lakes on Butler Chain, with Lake Tibet and Lake Sheen being the top producers for us, with Steel Shads and 1 ounce spinner baits catching quality and numbers from these schools.

Spent a few day out on a private body of water with Franky V and Eric, the guys fished half a day in the morning and we broke for lunch and returned to fish until 7pm. Open water areas had seen schooling action pretty much all day long with steel shad catching some good numbers. Franky was slow rolling a spinner bait over a brush pile and managed a few good keepers off of it. Shoreline and dock areas had seen some slower action, but a few good bass fell to the old trick worm. Water temperatures and air temperatures have finally come down to very comfortable levels, and this has triggered some very good bass fishing action and finally some good top water action. Average catches have been running between 20 and 30 bass a day now, with artificial baits doing most of the catching.

The last half of October has seen steadty fishing action. Schooling action has picked up greatly and given us a pretty good early morning top water action. Once the top water action has died off for the day, spinner baits and rattle traps have kept the action going during the day.

In my spare time after trips, I have started pouring my own soft plastics, and they have been producing not only good numbers, but some size as well, so look for my new store front on the web site, should be launched by January 1st.

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report June and July 2008

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.

Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Harris Chain Bass Fishing Report May 2008

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

The month of May has seen some very good bass fishing action in Orlando. For the most part Johns Lake has been the place to be. Even though we have seen very limited schooling action in the mornings, we have caught some good schooling bass in the cuts, mainly Deer Island cut. Bass have been hitting on Gitem Warlocks around isolated grass patches, rigged with a very small bullet weight and worked very slowly.

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.
Live bait has been producing ok, but we have been out catching live bait with artificial baits sometimes 3 to 1, clients really love this, as it is just that much more fun to catch bass using plastics.

Butler Chain has been fishing pretty good. Lakes we have worked have been Butler, Chase and Blanche. Butler has been a great lake to start the day out early on in the mornings, from there moving over to Lake Chase has been the ticket. Numbers and bigger bass have come later in the day on Lake Blanche, working the docks and the deeper drop offs very slow worming. Altho the bite has been what we call a “small tick” instead of the aggressive hits, quality bass have been caught.

For the most part, water levels on Johns Lake and Butler Chain are not too bad, Johns Lake, we do have a few sand bars to watch out for, one right at the ramp area, one coming off the point going into the main lake area, and one going into the Horse shoe area. Butler Chain the canals could use some water, but the levels are still safe to pass thru, and with the rains the last few days, should help out with those levels.

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.

Waters at the ramp on Harris were very low, with only one of the ramps open, and apparently a boulder sitting at the end of the ramp making launching and pulling out entertaining to say the least. Next months tournament is State Championships on Lake Rousseau and from there we go to Southeast Regional’s the end of October, site still to be determined.

Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report March 2008

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

The month of March has seen some great trips out on Johns Lake. For the most part, schooling activity has been great up until the 13th when they just seemed to disappear. We are still having great success using Steel Shads in gold or silver color to catch not only schooling bass, but also bass in deeper waters in the middle of the main lake. One ounce Sugoi spinner baits have worked great around scattered grass patches and around areas with hydrilla and lily pads. When the bass have been schooling, these heavier spinner baits have been great at getting below the smaller schoolers where the quality bass lay.

Once the schooling action ends, junebug trick worms with red, green, or blue fleck with a small bullet weight worked around isolated grass patches have been key to catching the bass. Work the patches very good, to the point if you see one blade of grass, throw to it, as they have been holding bass. For the most part, the bite has been good, but the strikes have not been aggressive ones, you really have to watch your line, as several bass we had to let them swim with the trick worms a few seconds before being able to get a solid hooked.

We have not had too much success with bass around docks, but several of the areas with brush have produced as of late, fire tiger Fat A’s worked around these trees have caught several good solid bass, and made for a fun fight trying to keep them out of the wood after hook up. Deer Island cut has been a good area to work a split shot rig with a trick worm. Main focus has been in waters 4 to 8 feet of water and key in on bird activity, circling or diving birds will guide you to some good fishing action.

Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Alligator Chain Bass Fishing Report Feb 2008

Orlando Bass Fishing Report

February has seen a lot of trips out on Johns Lake. Stan and Carol came for some artificial action and caught some good bass working Steel Shads and Gitem Warlocks. Bite was slow and bass were very scattered on this day. The following day saw us back out on Johns Lake with Grant from Canada, working some live bait and artificial baits, Granted boated 5 bass on live bait, and 27 more bass were caught working Steel Shads, these bass were just hammering the Steel Shads with TWO bass slamming the bait at the same time. Schooling action remained steady pretty much the entire day to keep the action going.

Grant fishing day 2 of three days, we headed to Butler Chain, we find the bite to be very slow out here, picking up a bass here and there, with a nice 3 pounder as the big bass for the day. We experienced a complete change in weather, going from 80 degrees to a rather chilly morning and higher winds.

Grant on day 3, we headed to Alligator Chain, again with some serious fog, and higher winds, we worked for our catch, hitting a small cove, where in order to get in there, I had to trim the motor up, and push the boat in by hand, was the ticket, as several bass were caught in here, and a monster slamming the bait, ripping drag and snapping the line in a matter of seconds.

Overall a very good week of bass fishing, tons of bass beds were spotted on Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Alligator Chain, but all were vacant. Several bass were spotted cruising near beds on Butler Chain, but with only one bass making a play for our baits, but not committing to them. All bass were caught in 5 foot or less of water, with several being caught in less than 2 foot of water. The next 2 weeks will see us on the water with clients every day, so please be patient as I try to keep up with the reports.

The last half of February has seen a lot of bass fishing action on both Johns Lake and Butler Chain. Johns Lake schooling action has been fairly consistent and bass have been caught with shiners in the cuts with relative ease.

There have been a few days, doing combo trips, where the artificial bite has out produced the live bait, as Eric and Eddie saw, with 3 bass being caught in live bait, and another 11 bass coming on trick worms weighted and worked in and around scattered and isolated grass. Doug and the crew, fresh off the Daytona 500 had some good action catching some quality bass, with one of them coming from one of the coves, this bass not only took a shot a missed one shiner, but made a bulrush for a second one as we watched her dart along a grass bed after the bait, after landing her, she weighed in at a solid 4.9 pounds and was released to fight another day. Steel shad have also been producing some very good catches in open waters.

Charlie fishing for some crappie, has caught some good crappie, but the memorable hook up, which turned into a serious battle on light action rod with only 6 pound mono and a road runner, landed a hefty catfish that wanted nothing to do with giving up, weighing in at 14 pounds. For the most part, the crappie bite has been very scattered on Johns Lake, but the ones caught have been of good quality.

Butler Chain is still producing some quality bass and some descent numbers as well. Eric and Eddie, fishing day two opted for all artificial bait, and the bass, although scattered played pretty good, as we hit lakes Pocket, Chase, and Louise to catch our bass. Once again trick worms, black with blue fleck, black with red fleck, and black Christmas catching 16 bass, with Eric catching the big gal from a school on a FinS to end the day.

All trick worms as of late have been worked with a small bullet weight and crawled very slow, as the bass would just pick up the baits and slowly swim off, so watching your line was a big key. Most all bass were caught in waters between 4 to 16 feet with grass, lily pads or hydrilla very close by. Remember, Pic, Catch and release.

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report Jan 2009

January bass fishing has been off the hook! The month started out with a big bang, as Ari came to fish, saying he never caught anything over I believe 5 pounds, well Butler Chain did not let him down. Ari caught two beauties, one coming in just over 7 pounds, and the other coming in just over 6 pounds! Both bass were caught on Butler using live bait, although the bite that day was rather slow, the size more than made up for everything this day.

Early part of the month I showed a tournament angler around the chain, giving up a few of my good spots, word back from him was as a co-angler, he ended up in second place, while his boater walked away with first place, all the bass coming from the areas I had taken him to, shameless little plug for myself there, but always a pleasure to hear back from guys on how they did in their tournaments, very happy things went great for these guys.

Johns Lake is still producing some good quality bass. Most of our catch has been coming from around docks and deeper water grass beds.Warlocks and Gitem Sugars have been the main producers for us, along with of course the trusty steel shad.We had a few runs out to Conway Chain of lakes and did very good using the Storm curl tail swim bait, steel shad and Carolina rigged gitem warlocks, all bass were coming from deeper waters, with most of our focus coming from fishing in the middle of the lake.

Private water we have been fishing is still producing not only some good bass, but also some very good crappie. Bass have been coming from mid lake areas using mostly steel shads and one ounce spinner baits, shallow waters have been producing with Gitem Warlocks, Gitem KO’s and the Gitem Curly 7’s.Paul Fisler and his nephew HM1 Shane R Gilley came for 3 days of some very entertaining fishing. Paul had been trying to get Shane to join us, and Shane finally got some time off to enjoy the great Florida waters and did an outstanding job catching some bass and crappie. I personally want to thank Shane, as well as all the service men and woman who proudly serve our great nations armed forces, because if it was not for them, I would not be able to make a living the way I do, God Bless all of you.

Butler Chain Bass Fishing Report Oct 2008

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report June and July 2008

Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Harris Chain Bass Fishing Report May 2008

Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report March 2008

Johns Lake, Butler Chain and Alligator Chain Bass Fishing Report Feb 2008

Butler Chain and Johns Lake Bass Fishing Report Jan 2009

Lake Toho

Butler Chain of Lakes

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