My first time at Tenoroc phosphate pits

[arul]

Hi all,

Came over to Lakeland for the Easter weekend, and took a crack at fishing Tenoroc State Park, which is a bunch of old phosphate pits ranging from 200+ acres to 10 acres, managed by Fish & Wildlife.

Since I am a total newbie when it comes to fishing these pits, I tried one of the smaller ones known as Fishhook pond. Conditions were no wind, solid overcast, with a few scattered rain sprinkles every few hours. I am used to fishing clearer water and was surprised to see the water actually pretty stained greenish with some brown detrital. Water temp was 70-73 degrees.

Like I said, I have never been on a pit before, and was surprised at the lack of shoreline cover. There was maybe a few feet of dollarweed along the bank, which dropped to about 15-30 ft. almost immediately. I was told to look for sumberged spoil piles, which I was able to find a few humps that would come up to about 10 ft. deep. I fished the shore and the humps with both a Watermelon Senko rigged wacky, and a Zoom Fluke watermelon texas no weight in these areas to with no luck whatsoever. I also tossed a X-rap (only got 1 hit on it all day) and a deep diving crankbait at the humps and didn't get anything either.

Finally trolled to the end of the pond where it was noticeably more shallow, with flats about 4 ft deep, with sandy bottom, and little to no vegetative cover. We anchored in the little cove end, I tossed the Zoom fluke and the Wife tossed the wacky Senko, and we both got hit the exact same time! They were just little baby bass, probably only 7 inches. We hung out there in the shallow end, and the wife caught 2 more tiny ones and I probably had a small 10 incher that came off, all on the fluke. We paddled around the end and saw obvious signs of old spawning beds worked out in the sand, but couldn't find any of the big mommas all day long.

It was a fun trip, but I obviously was missing something, and did not have much luck at all. From what I had read about Tenoroc I had been dreaming on 3-5 lbers all day long, which was obviously not the case.

I have a feeling they were tucked upped under the dollarweed along the shoreline, but I didn't have any jigs or know any techniques that would be able to punch through the thick mats.

I obviously need to learn a lot more about fishing these types of phosphate pit waterbodies. Anyone out there with the experience that could lend a few suggestions? I would love to give it another shot once I know what I am doing... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[JayW]

Fish Hook is one of my favorite pits. I caught a 12.11 and a 10.6 out there last April 2 weeks apart.  My friend caught a 9+ the same day I caught the 10.6 and we boated 52 Bass that day between 3 of us. I haven't been to Fish Hook in a few weeks since the ramp was/is closed to larger boats (I have a 20 footer). Last time I was there, the bite had slowed down, but we still caught 20+ Bass between 2 of us. I know that lake quite well, so maybe I could give you a few pointers via PM. That Lake has some BIG fish in it and it's a 30+ ft deep pit (it may not be now because of the drought, but it has some incredible drop offs).

[Grey Wolf]

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[YaHoo]

from reading ls1jay's report than arul's i think the fish must have been on vacation.

maybe i dont have an understanding of what the dollarweed is?

[JayW]

Little round pads that are the size of a silver dollar.

The front must have screwed up the bite, because I have NEVER been to Fish Hook without seeing double digits! Fish Hook has been fished hard though... some of the Tenoroc pits have there good days and then their bad days. Rule of thumb... if you're not doing any good... load up and go back to the ranger station and tell them that you want to try another pit! I've fished Lk B and caught 20+ Bass many times with some large ones. Last time we went... we caught 1 Bass and my nephew caught it! I was too busy trying to run the trolling motor in the wind and then the rain hit about 1 hr into our trip as a front was coming through. The week before I caught over 10 Bass out there in Lk B. This was a few weeks back. Last time I was at Tenoroc (I won't say what pit) we (2 of us) caught over 25 Bass with several nice ones in the 4 lb range. We fished 2 different pits. The first pit we caught mostly 12-14 inch Bass (16 to be exact). We then switched lakes and after 2 passes... we changed baits and the bite was almost instant! We started to see some nice Bass in the 2-4 lb range!  

Does this Lk look familiar?  

[JayW]

1 more thing... I was looking through my pics and found this one of my boat at Fish Hook. Notice the Dollar weeds around it.

[fishizzle]

That boat looks familiar Jay

I thought Tenoroc was your secret

Is that another Custom Rod by Jay?

[jrhennecke]

Welcome!

[JayW]

That boat looks familiar Jay

I thought Tenoroc was your secret

Is that another Custom Rod by Jay?

Hopefully next year I can take you to Tenoroc if you want to try it and can make it down on the right days (Fri-Mon). I do have some secrets about Tenoroc... that's all I'm saying!

And yes... that is an official Jay's Custom Rods.  ;D  

Here's a nice little 27" Fish Hook Lk Bass!

[XcoM274]

Well I can tell you that I'd be in that dollarweed with a 1 ounce jig, a flippin stick and 40 lb braid. That'd take it out nicely.

[JayW]

Well I can tell you that I'd be in that dollarweed with a 1 ounce jig, a flippin stick and 40 lb braid. That'd take it out nicely.

You might end up with one of these Fish Hook Lk trophies!

They too seem to love dollar weeds!  :-/

[arul]

Hahahaha I think we saw that same gator!!!! on the bank as we were making the turn.  It was a biggun....  I was thinking, "better not tip this canoe....." hahaah

[IneedAnewScreenName9886691]

Ls1Jay- I love the cross arm brace holding that Hawg!  May have to try that move.

Looks like a tasty pit!