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.
