Orlando, FL - Lake Toho, Clermont Chain & The Kissimmee Chain
Capt. Tim Fey
January 22, 2006
Orlando - Freshwater Fishing Report
Butler Chain
With a few more trips this past week at the Great Butler Chain under mixed weather conditions, the fishing is still going great. Cold front and high winds had dictated a much slower bite, bass holding tight to cover and not wanting to commit to artificial baits we had our clients pitching shiners to the edge of grass beds and into small holes in the beds to catch the bass.
As the weather greatly improved towards weeks end, the bass were still taking wild shiners, but not at the rate as expected as the shiner bite slowed, we switched over to Gitem KO’S and Gitem Shads, working grass beds and flooded timber yielded great numbers of schoolie sized bass. Water temps on Saturday the 21st started out in the low 60’s but as the weather warmed, the water temps rose to 67 and really turned on the bass.
Keys to catching was early morning hours we were fishing grass beds in 8-10 foot of water and as the day warmed we were able to hit the shallow waters as the bass are starting to stage up for the spawn. Beds are starting to show up in the shallows on the lakes that we had fished, Lake Tibet, Lake Chase, and Lake Blanche. The cut for Lake Tibet and Chase is still good early morning for a quick shiner bite, From there you can follow the old river bed with either drop shot, or Carolina rigged Gitem Warlocks to pick up some good slot sized bass. Cleaner waters of Butler Chain dictate lighter lines, generally 10 pound Mono will do just fine. Crank baits will get you good numbers using shad type baits, Shad Raps and Ugly Ducklings have been doing good. Smart money is to ALWAYS have a rod setup with a Zara Spook to throw at schooling fish as we have seen several schools busting the waters.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
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