Lake Mattie In Auburndale Florida . Advice Needed!

[gillsnatch88]

New to the site so please bare with me . I live on lake mattie in aubrundale florida and i fish the lake quite a bit.

at one time the lake was almost 1100 acres of water but being the drouts and stuff its alot lower then it use to be.

I am asking for adivce on this lake if anyone has fished it with great success or could just give general advice. This lake is almost

completely surrounded by cattails . probably 80 percent of the edge is cattails. no lilypads no hydrilla hardly any grass and some

hisens in areas. the lake is sand bottom and i have yet to find any great drop offs or reasonable structure. there is 3 grave yards

of stumps that are unforgiving 1 nice size stump side just outside the cattails on the southeast side of the lake and 2 seperate stump patches on the west side of the lake . but the stumps are all in the range of a foot to 4 ft of water if the lake has had rain . The water is dark you lose site of your bait no matter the color anywhere from 8 inches to a foot under the surface.

i have caught good fish in this lake alot on top water and wormin and catch fish anytime i go but theres the days where you just cant figure them out. I know thats a problem anywhere you go you will have these days but being that its my home lake that i live on i want to try to figure these fish out better and am asking for advice or pointers tips etc... deepest spot i have found in the lake is around 10 ft and it very gradually slopes off to the 10 ft mark from the bank. I have never done good around the stumps and when i say unforgiven on them i mean if you throw 10 casts your hung 9 of them . haha.. I hope im not wasting anyones time i know its hard to point a direction like this but if you have any questions i would love to answer them to give a better idea.

thank you guys for reading and i hope you can help me out. thanks again and good luck fishing!

[rad07h]

I have never fished this lake but if it is lacking structure I have a suggestion you could try in the future. After Christmas go to the dump and collect everyones Christmas trees take them out to the lake and submerge them somewhere off shore. This will attract bass in a big way and you'll be the only one who knows they are there. You can do this with other structure but I have found Christmas trees to work excellent.

[gillsnatch88]

Haha I actually have 3 big christmas trees laying by the barn that I collected for that reason.

But thank you for the advice I will be sinking those as soon as I find a good spot for them.

[FD.]

You must be one of the 5 people who have access to it. I have tried to find access for years but never have. Anyway, I fish Arrietta and Arriana. They are both mostly offshore lakes and are structure related. Brush piles and a sand/shell bar are the only places I have caught fish consistently in either one.

I would try a spinner bait in the stumps.

It is important to strategically place the brush piles or they will not attract fish. If you want some help to pick locations let me know.

[gillsnatch88]

But that's the thing I have done quite a bit of searching for a stump in deep water or a pile or a good hump of a shell bed. But unless I have overlooked one or 2 I just can't find anything. I guess I need to really spend a day of just searching a trying instead of getting fed up and running to places that I know I can nickel and dime them. I have a spot picked out for the trees I just need to get out there and sink them. Ill keep y'all posted but deffinitely keep the advice comin. I hear arrietta is very clear but a great lake to fish. I jist don't think mattie is the same since the water got so low. Just my opinion.

[csweat95]

try a trick worm, when i caint figure them out it usually works for me , just fish it slow . i live in lake city , theres a lake similar to the one ur describing. june bug , bubble gum or cotton candy works for me

[MagicMoment]

You must be one of the 5 people who have access to it. I have tried to find access for years but never have. Anyway, I fish Arrietta and Arriana.

Yeah you cant even get through to Mattie now that the water is so low.

[The Guy]

One of my PB(9lbs) came from mattie about 10-12 years ago on a spinner bait. I grew up on juliana back when you still had access to mattie through the canal. I have access through some land that my father care takes and went out on it in Aug for the first time in about 10 years, the lake was almost unrecognizable. I didn't fish so unfortunately I don't have any current info for you, but we used to catch them on spinnerbaits and worms just working the weed line. There used to be a crazy population of bowfin there is it still that way?

[gillsnatch88]

Yes the lake is a lot different then 5 or 6 years ago. The water use to wash up to my yard and now its 50 yards from it . I have heard their is a guy in the little trailer park allowing people to put in , in his personal ramp but i also heard hes charging 10 bucks a pop. haha I cant say its worth it anymore. Now i have seen quite a few spec fisherman and i know theirs big specs but i dont know how they all have done either.. I have caught bass in this lake on just about everything but i can never keep a pattern on them . My personal best from this lake was 9 1/2 pounds and i caught her on a zara spook. My partner just 2 weeks ago caught a 9 pounder on a red eyed shad rattle trap. I mainly was just trying to figure out if theirs any holes that im missing or brush piles that anyone may know of. I'm still collecting and going to make my own brush piles and rock piles.

[gillsnatch88]

i caught a bowfin the other day actually but they dont seem to be as bad as before. But its not rare to catch one or a catfish .

[The Guy]

A few years back we fished from shore with livers and did alright with the cats. I am going to have to try it for bass again sometime.

[Billy Wilson]

I fished that lake yesterday for the first time. I felt like it was a big waste of my time when there are so many other good lakes in Polk County. I like fishing at Tenorock Fish Management Area.

 

I caught one small bass about 2 lbs right near your barn. My son had a small bass on but got off at the boat. We each caught a bowfin (mudfish) and I had some gar playing with my spinner bait.
Mattie reminds me of a big bowl that never gets deeper than 12 foot. To pass under the little foot bridge in the canal that connects Mattie to Juliana is a pain. We had to remove our seats from the pedestals and lay really low to make the pass. I was less than impressed with the lake for bass fishing.

[rboat]

Is there still access to Juliana? I went there maybe 20 years ago. I think we had to pay a couple bucks at a trailer park area to launch. We caught several small ones in Juliana and had a tough time getting through the little canal to Mattie. We never did get a bass in Mattie. I have not been back, but thought about trying it again, Just not sure if you can still launch on Juliana.

[Dwight Hottle]

23 hours ago, Billy Wilson said:

I fished that lake yesterday for the first time. I felt like it was a big waste of my time when there are so many other good lakes in Polk County. I like fishing at Tenorock Fish Management Area.

 

I caught one small bass about 2 lbs right near your barn. My son had a small bass on but got off at the boat. We each caught a bowfin (mudfish) and I had some gar playing with my spinner bait.
Mattie reminds me of a big bowl that never gets deeper than 12 foot. To pass under the little foot bridge in the canal that connects Mattie to Juliana is a pain. We had to remove our seats from the pedestals and lay really low to make the pass. I was less than impressed with the lake for bass fishing.

Did you know that this a 7 year old thread?

[MN Fisher]

Just now, Dwight Hottle said:

Did you know that this a 7 year old thread?

Another 'Attack of the Zombie Thread'?

[Billy Wilson]

5 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Did you know that this a 7 year old thread?

I do now.

[Billy Wilson]

On 3/10/2019 at 4:39 PM, rboat said:

Is there still access to Juliana? I went there maybe 20 years ago. I think we had to pay a couple bucks at a trailer park area to launch. We caught several small ones in Juliana and had a tough time getting through the little canal to Mattie. We never did get a bass in Mattie. I have not been back, but thought about trying it again, Just not sure if you can still launch on Juliana.

There is a public free  nice ramp about 3/4 mile past the trailer park that charges ramp fee (same side of the road). If you launch there, and go to the right as you are heading out from the ramp, You will see the canal leading to Mattie. Mattie is totally secluded with the exception of a tiny trailer park and one single home. The rest is wetlands. Last I knew the trailer park on Julianna is charging big bucks. I've fished Juliana twice now but have a lot to learn about that lake. I know it has big bass.

36 minutes ago, Billy Wilson said:

There is a public free  nice ramp about 3/4 mile past the trailer park that charges ramp fee (same side of the road). If you launch there, and go to the right as you are heading out from the ramp, You will see the canal leading to Mattie. Mattie is totally secluded with the exception of a tiny trailer park and one single home. The rest is wetlands. Last I knew the trailer park on Julianna is charging big bucks. I've fished Juliana twice now but have a lot to learn about that lake. I know it has big bass.

Have you tried fishing any of the Tenoroc Fish Management Lakes?

[Billy Wilson]

6 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

Another 'Attack of the Zombie Thread'?

I'm new to the forum. Sorry. I just did a Google search for Lake Mattie and stumbled on this thread. I joined just to post to the guy living on the lake. I know I saw his house because i'ts the only one on that big lake with the exception of a tiny trailer park. (maybe 5 or six trailers) The rest is wetlands.

 

Look, The thread is alive...

 

 

 

 

[Dwight Hottle]

Welcome. I just was pointing out it’s an old thread & the guy who started the thread hasn’t been on this site since 2012. If you click someone’s profile it shows their last entry. 

[Billy Wilson]

1 hour ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Welcome. I just was pointing out it’s an old thread & the guy who started the thread hasn’t been on this site since 2012. If you click someone’s profile it shows their last entry. 

Great information and I appreciate it. Thanks