The Florida Fishing Experts
Specializing in Florida Bass Fishing on all of the Florida Freshwater Lakes.

1 – Around Lakeland, bass up to 25 inches this week at Tenoroc, about 8-9 pounds, in lakes 4, Fish Hook and Tern on junebug worms and spinnerbaits, reports Brian Fleming. Several limits of bluegill and shellcracker in lakes 2, C and Hydrilla at Tenoroc on crickets and red worms. Anglers wading along cattails at Lake Parker catching 10-15 hand-sized bluegill, reports Stacy Roberts at Phillips Bait and Tackle at Saddle Creek Park. Bluegill bite slowed down at Saddle Creek. Speckled catfish biting after rains at Saddle Creek. And lakes 4, B and Legs producing catfish at Tenoroc.

BLUEGILL

Limits of bluegill and shellcracker were commonplace over the weekend. Crickets and red worms were hot sellers. “I’m about out of crickets. They’re catching limits of bluegill just about everywhere,” said Ron Schelfo at Ron’s Tackle Box. “Pick your favorite lake.”

TRENTON BENNETT of Fort Meade, 4, reeled in this 12-pound, 4-ounce bass fishing with his grandfather, Joe Bennett, on Lake Kissimmee July 12. Joe, from Camp Lester, hooked up with a topwater plug and handed the rod to Trenton. “Joe said he had to hold the back of his life jacket to keep him from going out of the boat,” said Joanne Cosce at Camp Lester. PRO BASS FISHERMEN and top local anglers are switching to fluorocarbon line for casting soft plastics – worms, Flukes and Senkos. Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon is a popular choice in 10-, 12-, 15- and 20-pound strengths, said Brent Howlett at Stone’s Outhouse. Fluorocarbon sinks, unlike monofilament.

2 – At Auburndale, super week for bluegill and shellcracker just about everywhere, reports Ron Schelfo at Ron’s Tackle Box in Lake Alfred. Shellcracker bite continues on Lake Rochelle, where bank anglers using half-ounce egg sinkers to cast red worms over ledge in spot where there’s no shoreline grass near boat ramp. “There’s been hundreds of people going down there. It’s been great,” Schelfo said. Also limits of shellcracker on red worms and grass shrimp in lily pads at Lake Mariana, reports Stacy Roberts. Easy limits of bluegill at lakes Haines, Alfred and Ariana, said Schelfo. Bass very tough this week, but Telly Smith boated 7 1/2-pounder to win Ron’s evening tournament on Lake Alfred last Thursday with teammate Alex Holmes.

3 – At Winter Haven, bluegill creating some excitement on small city lakes and south chain, with lots of limits on crickets. Lily pads in south end of Lake Eloise one hot spot. Bass action tapered off with high heat and break in thundershowers.

4 – At Lake Hamilton, bluegill and shellcracker “absolutely great” over weekend with red worms and crickets, reports Gary Parramore at Chain O’ Lakes Bait and Tackle in Dundee. But only small boats can launch at public ramp. Bass up to 4-6 pounds perked up on medium-large wild shiners (6-7 inches long) on area lakes.

5 – At Lake Marion near Haines City, limits of bedding shellcracker and bluegill drew a crowd over the weekend with full moon on Friday, reports Ray Chase at Bannon’s Camp. He said 21 boats launched Saturday. Shellcracker moving back to deep shell bars between new and full moons. Lily pads “thick” with panfish, which are hitting grass shrimp, red worms and crickets.

6 – At Lake Pierce, daily limits of bluegill and shellcracker in lily pads on red worms and crickets at North Cove and around islands near fish camp, reports Jennings Camp. Bass decent, especially when it rains every day.

7 – At Lake Hatchineha, couple of shellcracker beds located over weekend with full moon, and anglers pulled in limits on red worms.

8 – At Lake Toho, big stringers in tournaments on Saturday, but Sunday as bad as Saturday was good. Took about 24 pounds to win Xtreme Series tournament. Fishermen casting topwater lures (chrome/black Boy Howdy or Devil’s Horse) around crisp hydrilla patches until sun comes up, said Brent Howlett at Stone’s Outhouse. Water level up 8-10 inches in past week, and anglers struggling for bites this week, said Mark Detweiler.

9 – At Lake Kissimmee, bluegill carried the weekend, although bass made good showing Saturday. There were two or three stringers over 20 pounds in tournaments on Saturday, but on Sunday, bass took a “nosedive,” said Leo Cosce at Camp Lester. Took just 13 pounds to win on Sunday. Cosce said there’s a lot of bass being caught on crankbaits and Rat-L-Traps. Trenton Bennett of Fort Meade, who’s 4, landed a 12-pound, 4-ounce bass fishing with his grandfather, Joe Bennett of Camp Lester, on July 13. Joe got the bite on a surface lure and handed the rod to Trenton. “That’s kid’s going to be hooked for life now. It’s great when you see that happen,” said Cosce. Limits of bluegill mixed with shellcracker around full moon in lily pads at Gobbler Ridge, Philadelphia Point, Lemon Point and Brahma Island. But panfish bite tapered off since Sunday with half-limits at best, Cosce said. Early risers catching 20-25 specks in North Cove with jigs (chartreuse/white, white/white) along hydrilla edges. Water level up 4 inches in past week, but off-colored.

10 – At Lake Walk-in-the-Water, lake usually overlooked for bluegill, but panfish have been active in lily pads. Bass not worth the trip.

11 – At Crooked Lake at Babson Park, extra-large speckled perch cranked up last week and still going at night on minnows in open water, reports Cindy Ritchison at Bob’s Landing. “Some of my anglers said they were catching ‘hellaciously’ big specks they said had to be a pound and a half or 2 pounds, easy,” Ritchison said. Mark Collier and his crew bringing in 20-25 per trip, as is Gary Earnst of Plant City. Bass up to 2-3 pounds more common.

12 – At Frostproof, panfish anglers loading up on bluegill at Lake Reedy, reports Ron Schelfo. Lake Arbuckle also good for bluegill in lily pads.

13 – In the phosphate pits south of Mulberry and Bartow, things about as quiet as they get with dog days setting in.

By Del Milligan

From Staff and Wire Reports
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Work could wrap up today on a $7.3 million project that dredged dozens of canals on troubled Lake Griffin.The massive effort — one of the biggest ever handled by the Lake County Water Authority — started in 2005 and fell more than a year behind schedule. Officials might call it finished today if they tour the lake and find that contractor E.R. Jahna Industries completed all the requirements of the dredging.

Crews removed more than 340,000 cubic yards of muck and sand from the bottom of 43 canals around Lake Griffin, disposing that material at a former muck farm on Griffin’s north side. The goal is to improve access so that residents along the canals can get their boats to the lake even when water levels are low.

That will be important when the St. Johns River Water Management District moves ahead with plans to increase seasonal water fluctuations to improve the health of Lake Griffin. One concern, however, is that Griffin and other parts of the Harris Chain of Lakes are near historic lows, and experts say it could take from months to a year or more before this area gets enough rain to bring lakes back to normal levels.

Another concern is how the St. Johns water district will handle the proposed change in water fluctuations on Griffin.

Water levels among the Harris chain are controlled by a series of locks and dams. During summers, Griffin typically is dropped up to 9 inches to prevent flooding of waterfront properties during seasonal rains.

Now that the canals are lowered, officials want to allow Griffin to drop a foot or more. That could help the large water body recover by drying out large portions of mucky shoreline and helping establish aquatic plants essential for fish habitat.

That is the plan that prompted the canal-dredging idea more than three years ago. But now the St. Johns district has a plan to allow city officials in Apopka to withdraw up to 1.8 billion gallons of water a year from Lake Apopka.

If approved, the district would retain water in Lake Apopka by cutting in half the minimum flow of water that is allowed downstream through the Harris chain. Water also would be held back in another part of the Harris chain.

Water panels lock horns

The average water level on Lake Apopka would increase 2.2 inches. Several lakes downstream would drop by a third of an inch, and Lake Griffin would drop an average of 1.8 inches.

The water authority recently filed a legal petition with the St. Johns to force it to establish required minimum water flow and lake levels for Apopka and the Harris chain before allowing withdrawals.

“The Authority believes that in the absence of ‘Minimum Flows and Levels’ set by rule, decisions by the St. Johns River Water Management District concerning the management of Lake Apopka and the Harris Chain will not protect the resources of this very important area of Florida’s surface waters,” Mike Perry, executive director of the Lake water authority, wrote in a letter.

Restoration group worries

Others also fear what the St. Johns district’s proposals could do to the Harris chain.

Skip Goerner, vice chairman of the Harris Chain of Lakes Restoration Council, said costly projects to restore Lake Griffin and the rest of the Harris chain rely on historically based water flows that the district could change to allow the Apopka withdrawals. He fears that could impair restoration.

“We have spent millions of dollars and plan on spending millions more on restoration efforts using this criteria based on historic flows and water levels,” Goerner explained. “We’re very concerned about the withdrawals and [the district] holding water back from us.”

The water authority is trying to improve water quality on the Harris chain by building a $7.3 million nutrient-reduction facility along the shores of Apopka-Beauclair Canal that will remove algae-feeding phosphorus and other pollutants flowing in from Lake Apopka. If the St. Johns district restricts the minimum flow of water from Lake Apopka, it likely would decrease the nutrient-reduction facility’s effectiveness.

Robert Sargent can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com

From Staff and Wire Reports
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Today I had the opportunity to fish with Steve Raimo and his 8 year old son out of Clewiston, Florida. I have fished with a lot of kids, this kid was a ace to say the least. Today’s weather was clear and calm, not want we really wanted on a hot summer day. In these condition’s you have to be almost sneaky and very patient when fishing your areas.

We had short day, but we were still able to catch some fish and see a lot of wildlife. The lake level is coming up nicely and we should be back fishing in the grass beds by next week. It has been two years sense we have fished the grass-beds and swamps of Lake Okeechobee. This is quite exciting going into the spawn for this winter. As history repeats it’s self, the fish will love all the brand new habitat already full of life. Looking ahead, this is going to be one of the most exciting times to fish the lake.

With all the new places to explore, each fishing trip is going to be a new adventure for every customer.

If you are visiting South or Central Florida for work or vacation and want to experience the best fishing that there is to offer then please give us a call. We can be reached @ (888) 629-BASS or email us @ fishing@bassonline.com

Good fishing,

Capt Mark Shepard
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What a good day we had today in the Everglades with Tony Miresse, his son Mark and his friend Eric Burton.

When Tony told me it was Eric birthday today and he ask, “how’s the fishing.” I said, it was a little slow in the Everglades but were still catching fish. I suggested to them, that they may want to go after the peacock bass simply because they have been more consistent. They said, “let’s go out in the Everglades I like the idea of the alligators and bird watching over urban development.

So, we decided on the Everglades and it turned out to be a good day the pictures tell it all!

This was also Eric’s first time bass fishing, “not bad for his first bass.” The fish today were caught on a good variety of fishing lures, although the bigger fish were caught on crankbaits.

I think we had as much fun as I hope all of you did. Till next time, tight lines!

Capt Brett
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St. Johns River from Green Cove Springs down to the Palatka area. There’s a great bite of croakers coming off the shell bars near Green Cove Springs. The Shands Bridge has been excellent, but sporadic like most summer fishing. Bream are biting all over the river and will only get better on this moon phase. Many are just hanging around the beds after the full moon last week. But should gather back together next week on the new moon. Catfish are biting in the Trout and Six-Mile creeks.

Area lakes (Lochloosa, Orange, Santa Fe): Bream fishing is good in Lochloosa. They’re off the beds and can be found up under the docks in 3 feet of water. Speckled perch are still being caught in the deeper areas of Santa Fe.

Rodman Reservoir area, the Bass fishing is especially good for schooling fish. The Oklawaha River is the best place for some excellent catfish action this week. Fish the deeper holes, especially near undercut banks.

Elsewhere: The catfish bite in the ponds at Hanna Park is good right now. Surprisingly, there was a report of croakers being caught on nightcrawlers this week.

By JIM SUTTON, The Times-Union

From Staff and Wire Reports
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