Everglades Bass report 4-3-2010

[Shane Procell]

The last week of March and the first of April have been the peak of the spawn in the southern portion of the Glades. We have been catching both spawning and post spawn fish. The weather has been incredibly mild in the mornings and heating up nicely in the afternoons. Water temps have remained consistent and this should be the last few weeks of the spawn. I'am looking forward to the annual post spawn feeding frenzy that will be kicking off over the next few weeks. Many of the bigger bass caught in the everglades will be hung in April. So if you get the chance to hit the swamp... now is the time.

This past week was fish filled and I had parties from the Chicago Ill., Oklahoma, Long Island NY, and Knoxville Tenn. First up was Joe and the "Rooster" from Long Island. Joe was the first person ever dumped out of the boat into the gator pit. After the initial shock of finding my client in the water we all had a good chuckle. It was the funniest moment in all my years of guiding. I have never seen a big guy get out of the water so quick! Fortunately no gators were in striking distance. Here are a couple from Joe and his dad, the "Rooster".

Next up were Mark and his son Joel. Mark is the creator of the "Ball Stack" now being used by major league teams across the country. Mark asked about the Value Jet plane crash in the everglades back in the 90's. his best friend was on the plane and it was an honor to stop by the monument and give him a few minutes alone in memory of his friend. Back to fishing... these guys tore them up with over a hundred bass caught. Joel had one on for a brief moment which was by far the biggest bass I have ever seen in person. Unfortunately the line ended up parting after a monster struggle.

Next up was John from Chicago and his buddies Todd and Huey from Ok. They caught a ton of bass but the larger bass were not chewing despite a noble effort by all anglers.

Fishing was tougher this day which was a bummer considering John had fished with me on the "Best" day I have ever seen in the everglades. During the summer of 2007, John and I caught over 200 bass on topwater frogs on a drizzling rain soaked day. John has one of the pigs mounted in his office, so not getting him a hawg was sort of a let down for me.

The last trip of the week was John and Nick from south Florida. These brothers have fished with me for the last four years. They caught allot of fish and many brotherly insults were passed back and forth making for a very entertaining day in the swamp.

Fish on,

Capt. Shane Procell

[MaineBassMan]

Nice looking bass and cool pictures! You guys get to see alligators and I get to see Moose.

[firefightn15]

Looks like ya kept the boy's busy, nice pics.