Harris - Kissimee - Central Florida Fishing Report

[warmer]

feb 26th kissimmee, east wall

8am to noon, high wind out of nw

i stayed on the east shore and fought the wind sight fishing w/ clouds and wind, mostly to see if i could pull it off... i can say with a great deal of confidence that i can see that a power pole would make quite a difference.

i spooked most of them, but managed to catch three good fish in the 4-5lb class... other than that, just a few little bucks.

the 3 i caught were aggressive, i didnt have to work on them at all, just pitched a 10 inch worm.

a retro update: arrietta (standard dishpan sandy bottom central florida lake to 25 ft deep, no shorline veg w/ the falling water) saturday the 23rd my wife woke and announced that she had the morning off, so i loaded the boat w/ the four kids and put on the water around 11am.  the wind was howling and i had been shallow recently enough to know there were only little ones, and even if they werent the water is so clear you spook them a mile off... so i went deep.  

1 off of an old brush pile, one off of a ledge w/ muscle bar, then drifted w/ the wind and found a nice brush pile in 15ft... anchored and caught 12 in 15 casts... 5 above 4lbs and one at 7lbs (my 6 year old reeled the bigger ones in, the others took turns w/ the little ones.)  

about 1:15pm the rain turned from sprinkle to downpour and a chorus of crying and blue lips under the patio umbrella convinced me to head back in... oops forgot to close the sunroof and the windows on the car... cranked the heater, bought a few slurpies, ran them a warm bath and all was well.  in fact, my wife reported that when the one year old woke from her name she said, "shishy"  thats my girl.

all the fish off that pile were female, i see beds in the lake up to 9 ft deep... im sure these were prespawn, but does anyone know how deep they will bed?

[RoLo]

i see beds in the lake up to 9 ft deep... im sure these were prespawn, but does anyone know how deep they will bed?

To my knowledge, Nest Depth is pretty much tied to Water Clarity.

So if you can actually see the beds in water that's 9 feet deep,

there may be enough sunlight reaching the bottom to support photosynthesis.

(But that is "unusually" deep!).

Roger

[FD.]

Lake Alfred - Saturday 3/1

Air- 75    Water- upper 60s   Wind- light and variable with partly cloudy skies.

Nicole and I headed over to Ron's TB to pick up her new fenwick, and decided to go to try some early afternoon fishing.

Frogs provided to most activity with numerous strikes and 2 keepers boated.  10" black worm also boated 2 small keepers.   Fish were shallow and spooky.

[warmer]

(But that is "unusually" deep!).

it is unusually clear, and there is a lot of boat traffic from water sport folks.

lee, any size on those toad fish?

[FD.]

2-2.5 lbs.   Most of the strikes seemed to be defensive.  Had the frog  blown completely out of the water several times.

[warmer]

here is one of those deep bite arrietta bass i was telling you about.

[alger319]

Any of yall going out to watch the Elites on Harris Chain this weekend?

[GobbleDog]

I can't see it live, but I'm looking forward to seeing it on tv.  There's nothing cooler than watching the pros fish your home lakes.

Two weeks later they'll be down in Lake Kissimmee on the same day that I've got a club tourney in Toho. I wonder how many of them will lock through to Toho, like Ben Matsubu who won on Toho last year.  He's one of my favorite anglers and I'd freak if I saw him fish around me.  

"Yo Ben!!! Whazup!!!!"  

[RoLo]

Sunday Afternoon, March 9 - Lake Walk-In-Water

You couldn't ask for worse conditions, but it was my only opportunity to get out.

Major cold front - North winds up to 20 mph - Whitecaps everywhere.

Only morons were out today but on the upside, our little 14-ft tin can was one of the only boats on the whole lake.

Not unexpectedly the fishing was very slow and it was beginning to look like a blank.

I decided to run to the south end where the warmer top layer was blowing,

and sure enough the south side was 6 degrees warmer. Saving the day were two little guys on a rat-l-trap,

2 on a zipper worm (shaky head), 1 on a baby paca craw. All small fish, the Titan was 16.5" ;D

Roger

[warmer]

march 8th, kissimmee:

was it windy saturday?

i fished the bfl on kissimmee saturday, finally cashed a check.  ended in 6th of a field of 131 and caught 14lbs 5ozs.  all of them on a toad in 3/4 ft w/ mixed veg. one of the bites i caught after my rod snapped in half just above the reel.  hand over handed to where he was pinned to a pad.  id rather be lucky than good any day.  

sunday, 12lbs 5ozs and a 3rd place in the extreme tourny. couldnt make them eat the toad, caught fish on the spinnerbait in pads. one 6lber and 4 dinks (3 of which we caught w/ 20 minutes to go).  my bigger fish are out a little deeper than they were.

[GobbleDog]

march 8th, kissimmee:

was it windy saturday?

i fished the bfl on kissimmee saturday, finally cashed a check. ended in 6th of a field of 131 and caught 14lbs 5ozs. all of them on a toad in 3/4 ft w/ mixed veg. one of the bites i caught after my rod snapped in half just above the reel. hand over handed to where he was pinned to a pad. id rather be lucky than good any day.

sunday, 12lbs 5ozs and a 3rd place in the extreme tourny. couldnt make them eat the toad, caught fish on the spinnerbait in pads. one 6lber and 4 dinks (3 of which we caught w/ 20 minutes to go). my bigger fish are out a little deeper than they were.

A friend of mine was also in the BFL tourney... he finished 70th.  

I can't believe anyone caught anything on Saturday with sustained winds at 30 mph with gusts up to 40!  And you were throwing a top-water frog? That's amazing!   Congratulations!  

[warmer]

And you were throwing a top-water frog?

thanks!  in leu of a power pole i went with a drift sock and casted w/ the wind

still i almost got knocked out of the boat w/ a few of those wind gusts.

people caught fish in all sorts of ways... i think they were really eating well, it was just hard to find a place where you could actually fish that there werent tons of people already (i saw boat after boat checking the canals in the brahma island area).  some caught them cranking in hatch for good weight. some casting weightless senkos - how do you tell if you get a bite in that wind? winner caught them blind casting beds in toho, so go figure.

[alger319]

went out on the harris chain before watchin the elite weigh in. probably caught over 20lbs! no kidding! in the apopka-beauclair canal fish were pullin back on beds. caught some shallow crankin off grass in Beauclair. Caught a seven, two fives, and some two pounders. was really surprised at the low elite weights, but i understand its hard to leave what they've been doing so good on before.

[warmer]

cent florida:

bluegill are beginning to bed... hear em popping?  im thinking topwater plugs and frogs... jigs w/ that splash of blue or purple are just around the corner

[John C]

Fished a tournament out of Camp Mack,Saturday 22,had 78 boats.Water temp was 65 at 7:30 take -off,cloudy,light wind-NNE.We went to Cypress.

Flipping buggy whips,(where partner weighed in 18+ in Extreme event last Sunday).Right off,second or third cast a 13&3'4" partner caught 13.5"

We caught a bunch around that ALMOST KEEPER size.Finally 2 keepers and a few lost ones.Stayed here till 11:30,made a change to Philadelphia Point. Flipping more pads.Water temp was up to 69,raining,etc.Caught 4 fish here

but only 1 keeper. Stayed here till  weigh-in.Total 3 fish- 5.00lbs, even.

Top weight-19+,2nd 18.Nine places paid-12lbs got a check.Big Bass-I think was 7.65 for $1440.00.This was the only fish that team caught. ;D

I'll verify the above info after the results are posted later in month.

[warmer]

good report!

re: kissimmee... apparantly in addition to some spraying @ philidelphia point and extensive spraying @ the point to the north of tiger cove, it looks like everything south of grape hammock to the locks has been sprayed... WHY OH WHY?  

we need our man rolo on this.... what is the fwc justification?  what happens to all that fry, and forage?  i know the bass are gone from the area.

[RoLo]

it looks like everything south of grape hammock to the locks has been sprayed... WHY OH WHY?

we need our man rolo on this

I feel your pain Warmer, and the story is the same on my home lake too (Walk-In-Water) :'(

Though I haven't seen any published agenda for the state's aggressive spray program, this is my theory.

The FWC is accustomed to losing the battle against hydrilla.

Although hydrilla is a godsend to the bass angler, it can be a horror show for boating.

They know full well that once hydrilla exceeds about 60% of the lake's area, spraying is ultimately a losing battle.

Even though it may be taxpayer money down the drain, the FWC is nonetheless pressured by landowners,

marinas and local businesses to "attempt" to control hydrilla.

Enter the hurricane-trio of 2004, and Big Mama does the job that the FWC can only dream about.

Mother Nature literally tore megatons of plant life out of the bottom of the lakes, "root system" and all!

During the hurricanes of 2004 (especially Charlie), tall swells weighted by tons of plant life rolled over the lakes

like serial rows of churning paddlewheelers. Friends and lakefront residents described to me how rafts of coots and gallinules

took refuge under the docks. To no avail, they were sucked out into the towering rollers of churning hydrilla

that crushed them to death, along with docks, boats, pilings and piers. You can still see our Walden Shores pier

laying in the cattails (since replaced by a new one).

After the hurricanes of 2004, I couldn't understand why it was taking the hydrilla so long to resurge, then I finally woke up.

In my opinion, the FWC views today's spray program as money well spent, and the proof is in the pudding.

After all, here we are 3-1/2 years after the hurricane-trio and the FWC is still well ahead of the curve on hydrilla control (less Toho).

Anyway, that's my theory

Roger

[GobbleDog]

Over the past 5 years or so, I've noticed a big reduction of hydrilla in a lot of lakes throughout Orlando that used to be chocked full of it.  Lakes like Fairview, Killarny, and Jesmine come to mind.   Even Lake Conway doesn't seem to have as much as it used to and the hydrilla that is there is kinda mushy and seems like it's dying.

I don't know for sure that all those lakes have sprayed, but something's going on.  As a fisherman who thrives on off-shore hydrilla fishing, I ain't very happy about it.

[GobbleDog]

Lake Conway March 27, 2008

We got out on the lake around 6:00 pm and the weather was perfect partly cloudy, light breeze, 75 degrees.  Pulled up to my spot in the first lake in about 9 feet of water in an area that used to be full of hydrilla, but is now mostly eel grass. We started throwing Trick Worms and Senkos and the bite was on from the start.  By 9:00, we had 4 keepers (biggest around 3lbs), a few dinks and some missed bites.  Fish used to school up in that area, but I haven't seen them in a while maybe in a few months they'll start up again.  In any case, as it got later into the night the bite slowed down a lot (as usual), so I decided to draw a little more attention by switching to a 10 curly tail with a small glass rattle inserted in the belly. That did the trick as I got a couple more bass in the boat and a few missed bites.

Overall, a fun fishing trip and an educational one for my fishing partner who normally shore pounds the dinks in Conway. Hopefully he now sees the benefits of that off-shore bite.   8-)

[surfer]

Good to hear GobbleDog. I was here at work and could feel it in the air that it was time to go fishing . I Know a couple of things about Conway (literally 2 ;D), but would like to know more if you want to share sometime. I live just 5 minutes north of the Fern Creek ramp

[GobbleDog]

PM sent.  

[glennb2112]

does anyone know about the "lake" that the resort "westgate lakes is on"? i am going in april and fished it in the past. wondering if there are certain lures that work there. PM me any info you might have. thanks in advance.

[RoLo]

Saturday - April 5 - Lake Walk-In-Water

80 deg water - South winds 20 to 25mph - Thunderstorm!

What can I say, I've been on dry dock a long time and I was chomping at the bit.

I pointed the bow into the whitecaps and moved at quarter throttle into the head-sea (14-ft aluminum).

AccuWeather predicted 17mph winds but they were blowing steadily in the 20s (so what else is new?).

A wayward lightning bolt followed by a clap of thunder sent me packing into north Lagoon (Indian Lake Estates).

I asked Lois to take the spinning outfits out of the vertical holders and lay them down (Six lightning rods).

We couldn't see 50 yards during the heart of the downpour but our frogg toggs kept us dry.

In the protection of the lagoon I did manage to get five bass to the boat.

Although I worked a half-dozen different lures, the Strike King finesse worm caught all 5 bass (search me).

Every bass looked like it came from the same mold marked "small" >

On the upside, we didn't see ONE other boat on the entire 7,500-acre lake (gee, I wonder why).

I guess all the Vikings are dead!

Roger

[basslovr]

Hey, has anybody fished Harris Chain lately? Haven't heard any reports about this place since the "masters" were there back in Feb. Anybody shed any light?

Thanx!

Tight Lines,

8-) Basslovr

[surfer]

Conway on Sunday dodging rain storms. There were some real nice calm spots in between storms. I slept in and went for the lunch bite from 11 till 2. I had to hide under the bridge for two of the down pours but still fished for 1.5 hours. Caught 1 healthy 1.5 lber on 10" motor oil or watermelon seed colored worm in 12 ft of water. Strong fighter.