Florida Bassin

Well I made it home from my vacation and between all the Disney things and the quality time spent with my family I actually found time for a little fishing. My traveling partner Mike Maske and I found a small 150 acre lake that rented boats and on a warm Florida morning we headed out in an old 17 foot aluminum bass rig with an underpowered hand controlled trolling motor. The water temps were 75 degrees and the lake was rimmed with reeds, pads and other types of vegetation I could not identify.

Having never fished Florida lakes I only know what I see on TV so I had a big buzz frog, a big purple worm for flippin' and a rattle trap tied on. The first 45 minutes were spent trying to get used to the boat and casting to fish that would not bite. Florida is known to have fickle fish but they are still bass and I knew adjustments had to be made. I did have a few followers that did short strike near the boat so we figured the fish were off the bank a little bit. I tied on a soft jerkbait and moved to slightly deeper water and caught five fish in the next ten minutes. Mike did the same and it was game on after that. I followed up my Super Fluke with a senko as well and we ended up catching 30 fish over the next three hours and lost probably another 20.

Most of the fish were 14 inchers and the biggest was just under three pounds but that was ok because we slung every fish into the boat due to the fact that a 13 foot gator swam in the lake. We never saw him but he was in the back of our minds every time we ventured too close to shore. The water was a bit stained and the weeds were different than back home but bass fishing principles are the same everywhere. Pick the right bait for the type of water your fishing and fish the right water. Since the shallows weren't producing we just moved out deeper and were quite proud of ourselves to have such a good day on an unfamiliar lake. The weed clumps were the only other things to target and that's where the fish were.

Other boats were on the lake but the park director said they only had limited success compared to us. He also said the lake record is a 12 pounder but we never saw anything close to that. But I will be back next year to look for the big boy. The 12 pounder not the gator.