What's working on Toho?

[frogbite]

Hello all.  New to the board and finding lots of useful information.  I will be fishing Lake Toho in Kissimmee this weekend.   I know the bite is slow for most of the southeast, but was wondering what people are catching them on this lake now besides shiners?    There are some beds but males I have seen on them don't seem interested in anything and have yet to see a female on or near one.

Thanks

[FD.]

I have not been on it in two weeks but....gambler cane toad, black/blue flake ace/stick bait/ popnR...worked two weeks ago.

[John C]

For what it's worth,the guys that won the Gambler Bait tournament were in Toho pitching 7&1/2 black&blue shadow Ribbon-tail worms to reeds mixed in with hydrilla.Their weight was 24.5 out of 167 boats.I'm sure you re aware Brown;s Point has bedding bass in the pads.

[frogbite]

Thanks all.  Yeah, I've seen what looks like beds in a few areas.  I fished browns point 3 weeks ago and saw several boat along the west shoreline and figured they were hitting beds.

I also see lots of pitching and flipping going on but have not seen anything of size being caught that way.  I know this is working very well on Lake Kissimmee but had not seen it working too well on Toho.

[GobbleDog]

I've got a club tourney in Toho next month, so I'll have better information after I get some practice in.

But in past years I've usually done well working the shell beds along on the east and west sides of the lake, near Red's Fish Camp. If you watched Ben Matsubu on TV win on Toho last year, I think that's basically where he was fishing. And I generally do what Ben was doing... spend the whole day throwing a C-rigged worms around the area. I also occassionally see some bass schooling up there and snag a few barely legal dinks.

That's pretty much all I've got on Toho right now. The lake has changed so much over the past 5+ years from when it used to be chocked full of hydrilla grass and seemed like bass were everywhere (especially along the edges of the thick matts). But nowdays there's hardly any left. I think they keep spraying it back.

[RoLo]

Is this THEE Gobbledog?

Wear ya bin fella??

Roger

[GobbleDog]

Hey Rolo man!  I lurk quite often, but don't post as much as I should.   The start of a new fishing season always inspires me and my club just started up again in January, so I'll be around for a while... at least, until I fall out of the standings.  

I fished Lake Harris in January (took 3rd) and fished Lake Butler yesterday (took 1st), so I'm feeling extra fishie today.  The club has shrunk down to 15 boats and the competition ain't what it used to be, but I'm off to a good start.  Now if I can just put something in the boat on Toho, I'll be doing alright.  Which is why I'm posting today - looking for all the tips I can get. I totally bombed in my last 2 Toho trips.

[RoLo]

Hey Rolo man! I lurk quite often, but don't post as much as I should.

That's right, you don't post enough.

You'll notice that there's a lot of new names on the boards, and they can learn a lot from someone like you.

Great job on Butler, and nice hearing from you again

Roger

[warmer]

sounds like the fisherman have been working on toho.  working real hard.

[GobbleDog]

Anyone fish Toho last weekend?  I'll be out there next Sunday (for the first time in a year or two) getting some practice in and I'll report back what I find.  I've heard the hydrilla has made a big comeback throughout the lake.

We're going to start off looking for the off-shore bite on shell bed areas and hopefully find some scattered grass clumps. Then we'll start looking for some beds along the shoreline near Wailey's where we've seen them bedding in past years.

[warmer]

i hear good things about the offshore bite, on grass.

[GobbleDog]

West Lake Tohopekaliga - Sunday March 2, 2008

The hydrilla has come back with a vengeance since my last visit a year or so ago. It's completely topped out in some parts and the once barren shell beds around the middle parts of the lake are now littered with off-shore grass.

Just after sun-up we pulled up to a spot near Red's Fish Camp and several other boats were already there working the off-shore hydrilla grass. We went to the first edge of the grass we found and started fishing, but with no bites we trolled around looking for something else on the depth finder. We finally settled on an area in 6.5 feet with spiked hydrilla grass (as opposed to the flat hydrilla in most other places), anchored up and started throwing C-rigged worms. We got a few bites, but didn't put anything in the boat until I threw my T-rigged trick worm and hooked into a couple of solid 3 lbers. That little worm in the open water grass seems like a needle in a haystack, but it worked continually popping it over and through the grass. We expected some action on shad raps and jerkbaits, but only had one missed bite to show for our efforts.

By 12:00 we'd caught 2 keepers, 3 dinks and a few missed bites. Eventually the wind picked up to 15 mph and the off-shore bite became difficult to feel with a worm, so we headed out to my partner's top-secret spot (somewhere in the southern area of the lake). That's where my fishing partner caught a 4 lber on an ugly firetiger crankbait (normally used in dark water like Lake Harris). Then he started screwing around with a giant swimbait that looked like a sunfish on steroids. I was laughing at his choice of baits, but I shut up and grabbed the net after he hooked into a fat 5 lber. By the end of the day, we had 4 keepers weighing about 15 lbs and now we're pretty confident heading into the tourney in two weeks. The off-shore hydrilla bite is back in Toho!!!

On a side note, Sunday was the final day of FLW tournament which started out of the Kissimmee boat ramp. After they launched, the boats were racing towards us and the camera helicopter was hovering right over one of the leaders. Very cool to watch as they roared past us. I heard the winner only had 13 lbs, and caught them all down in Lake Kissimmee in an area with a mixture of grass hyacinth, hydrilla and kissimmee grass.

[warmer]

good report.

sounds like that flw mixture is north cove.

[GobbleDog]

West Lake Toho - Sunday March 16, 2008 - tournament day!

We immediately went to the off-shore hydrilla I was talking about in my last report. The wind was unusually strong yesterday morning, but we did our best fishing the grass. After 2 hours or so, we only had a 2 lber in the boat off a Trick Worm.  So we headed out to my partner's fishing spot in the southern end of the lake near the lock. After two hours of nothing we hooked into 3 legal bass in a matter of 30 minutes, all of which came on C-rigged senkos. By 1:00 the sun was beating down, the wind died and the bite got slow again.  So I decided to run back to the open water hydrilla and give it that our last couple hours.  This time, the bite was on!  Fish were schooling up EVERYWHERE. We must have hooked into a total of 15+ bass or so. Most of which were dink schoolies caught on husky jerks ripped through the feeding frenzy, but we also managed to hook into some solid keepers with Trick Worms in the open grass (biggest was 3.5 lbs).   I kept hoping my giant swim bait would nab a big fish while they were schooling up, but it never happened.  They kept schooling up like that even while we were leaving at 2:45.  

By the time it was over, we'd caught 9 legal fish. Our best 5 weighed 11.5 lbs, which was surprisingly good enough for 2nd place out of the 15 boats in my club. (I think we have the stingiest scale in the world, but whatever).  Most anglers I talked to also reported getting most of their bites later in the day in the open water grass.  I have a feeling that a lot of people wasted time trying to pick beds like the pros have been doing all week.  Unfortunately for them, Sunday was too windy for that and the water had gotten somewhat murky.

On a cool side note, while we were in the southern end of Toho we eventually started fishing around the lock.  That's when KEVIN VAN DAM drove up next to us on his way to lock through heading back down to Kissimmee.  And I mean he drove up RIGHT NEXT TO US. I could have literally cast INTO his boat.  We'd already seen a few pros go through, but seeing KVD pull up was the coolest thing in the world. Me and my fishing partner just stood there in shock. He was throwing his crank bait around while his camera man filmed behind him. About his 6th cast he missed a bite at the front of lock wall.  Then he put his poll down and locked on through.   I found out later that we'd also seen his boat (and his crowd followers) earlier in the day when he was fishing the off-shore grass on the western side of Toho.   As everyone now knows, he won.  One thing that struck me while I was watching him fish was how intense and methodical he is.  Not just fishing but everything from the time his engine cut, that trolling motor was in the water and he was making casts. Every-second-counts type of fishing.  I'm still waiting for my partner to send me the pictures.

Took 2nd place and saw KVD fishing up close. It was a pretty good day.   8-)

[warmer]

sounds like fun gobbledog!

[RoLo]

West Lake Toho - Sunday March 16, 2008 - tournament day!

Took 2nd place and saw KVD fishing up close. It was a pretty good day. 8-)

Great report Dog, and congrats on 2nd place

I have a gut-feeling that your buddy and I like the same spot on Toho (NE of S-61).

BTW: Practically every pro we've ever heard of has locked-through Southport Canal.

I had an interesting chat with the lock proprietress and her personal favorite is Ish Monroe.

If it were me, I think I'd have locked through behind Van Dam

just to see his charts stops on Cypress and the Big-K

Roger