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

LAKE WALES, Fla. (Jan. 26, 2009) – Boater Jeremy Smith of Plant City, Fla., won the Walmart Bass Fishing League Gator Division tournament on the Kissimmee River Saturday with a five-bass catch weighing 28 pounds, 12 ounces. The victory earned Smith $4,271 and placed him one step closer to qualifying for the Clarks Hill Lake Regional Championship in Martinez, Ga., Oct 15-17, where he could ultimately win a new Ranger boat and a Chevy truck.
“Watching the Weather Channel I knew it had been cold all week. I just had a thought in my mind that the fish would pull out in deeper water,” said Smith. “When I practiced, I stuck with that idea that fish were going to be deeper and discovered that Friday before the tournament.”
Smith caught a total of eight fish between takeoff hours and lunchtime and kept the best five, culling only once. Smith said he knew that Saturday was forecast to be a nice day, and by mid-morning the weather had improved.
“I didn’t have to fish anymore, so I put my pole down and tried to help my co-angler catch his limit,” Smith said. The winning fish were caught on a Rat-L-Trap and a Yo-Zuri lipless crankbait.
“I normally don’t catch that much weight the day of takeoff. But I ran up to Lake Toho and fished in a new place. An angler before me caught a 9-pound, 2-ounce bass, and I thought he had caught the big one. But I fished it for a while longer and caught a bigger one,” Smith said.
Rounding out the top five boaters are Kyle Walters of Palm Bay, Fla. (five bass, 26-13, $2,136); John Stahl of Wesley Chapel, Fla. (four bass, 20-08, $1,424); Micah Silverman of Orlando, Fla. (five bass, 14-09, $997) and Miles Burghoff of Saint Cloud, Fla. (five bass, 14-06, $854).
Smith took home the Boater Division Big Bass award, earning $4,271 for a 9-pound, 11-ounce bass he caught.
Scott Kerslake of Henderson, N.C., earned $2,136 as the co-angler winner Saturday thanks to five bass weighing 15 pounds, 12 ounces.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Johnny Dease of Orlando, Fla. (five bass, 12-04, $1,068); Chris Youngblood of Dunedin, Fla. (five bass, 10-13, $712); Douglas Conklin of Harmony, Fla. (five bass, 8-13, $498) and David Lepsic of Haines City, Fla. (five bass, 8-07, $427).
Kerslake earned $2,136 as the co-angler Big Bass winner after catching a 15-pound, 12-ounce bass.
The next Gator Division event will be held on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Tavarez, Fla., Feb 14.
The top 40 boaters and 40 co-anglers in each of the BFL’s 28 divisions at the end of the season advance to a no-entry-fee Regional Championship where boaters fish for a new Ranger boat and a Chevy truck and co-anglers fish for a new Ranger boat. Seven regional championships will each send six boaters and six co-anglers to the no-entry-fee Walmart BFL All-American presented by Chevy, which features a $1 million purse and a top award of $140,000 in the Boater Division and $70,000 in the Co-angler Division. Anglers who compete in all five regular-season events within a division but do not advance to a Regional Championship are eligible to compete in the Chevy Wild Card, which will also send six boaters and six co-anglers to the All-American for a total of 48 boaters and 48 co-anglers advancing through BFL competition.
In BFL competition, boaters supply the boat and compete from the front deck against other boaters. Co-anglers compete from the back deck against other co-anglers.
As the nation’s leading provider of affordable, close-to-home weekend tournaments, the BFL is widely credited with opening competitive bass fishing to the masses. It also serves as a steppingstone for anglers who wish to advance to the Stren Series and ultimately the FLW Tour – bass fishing’s most lucrative tournament circuit.
Total awards are based on a full field of 200 boats in every tournament.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Capt Todd Kersey (todd@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS
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Till next time tight lines and good fishing….

From Staff Writer Capt Todd Kersey (todd@bassonline.com) – BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Fishing in the South Florida Everglades

Today was a slow day on the water for the Florida Everglades standards, but we managed to make it a really good day of fishing.

Today I had the pleasure of fishing with John Smith from Canada . John was very good at fishing, he was able to work every bait I gave him. As the day went on, we talked about how the fish react to the cold fronts, how it can slow the fish down. John asked me for a certain (top secret) bait that he likes to play around with up north. I said, yes I do have those baits. So I put it on for him and he manged to get this nice 6 pound bass and missed another one around the same size.

It proves once again, a bass is a bass. Whether he lives in Florida or Canada!

John is fishing with us for two more days, so I am sure you haven’t seen the last of his pictures or stories.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Capt Brett Isackson (bretti@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Lake Okeechobee

Today Capt Mark Shepard and I took the day to prefish and reflect on what has changed on the world famous lake over the years.

To reflect, you first have to phantom the size of this lake. It’s second largest body of freshwater in the United States, but only second to the great lakes that covers three states. The lake is an incredible average 9ft deep, the shallow depth we are fishing today on Lake Okeechobee are 2 to 4 feet. Okeechobee known for it’s vast region of spectacular freshwater bass fishing for a variety of reasons and species of fish. The lake unfortunately supports commercial use, which always has a way of being politically attached to most conversations when discussing the life of Okeechobee. While both of us agree, commercial interest have been a part of the long term present conditions of the lake. We both could not argue the point, that the hurricanes changed the lake more then man or industry could do so. The beauty that we both see in front of us today, was clearly created be a power larger and more powerful then we could imagine.

The sport fishing or tournament industry has help this lake become worldly renowned as one of the best fishing lakes in the world. Lake Okeechobee is nationally recognized for not only the quality but the quantity of its large mouth bass. In this outing you could not proved that to us, we both a well aware of the history on Okeechobee. That as famous as it is, fishing is still pure and not all days on the water are about the fish you catch. While we were out fishing today, we tried several patterns, flipping, top-water, plastic worm and Senko style baits of coarse. In the heavy grass, we covered lots of water with spoons, buzz-baits and spinner baits in the grass flats.

We could list many areas where we fished on Lake Okeechobee today, but as any true fisherman knows the big bass live in the water. While bass are comfortably in the there domain they only know of the true good fishing areas. Lake Okeechobee has been talked about a lot in the past few years, and rightfully so. Between Everglades restoration, Big Sugar buy outs and let’s not forget about low water conditions over the years. The media, as Sara Palin found out, does not always write things with there eye’s open. It seems to become a shaded deception of the truth or a partial denial of the facts. In some cases, it’s just a political benefit of someone or something.

Directly from our eyes today, there differently not seeing what we see. To understand the condition, the beauty and character of this lake you must first understand what diversity it has faced, the comebacks it has make and relate to the millions of happy fisherman it has entertained!

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….

From Staff Writer Capt Todd Kersey (todd@bassonline.com) – BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Florida Peacock Bass

Today I had the pleasure of taking long time repeat customer Dave Stolarek and his son Daniel all the way from the frozen tundra of Chicago, IL.  Dave and his whole family have been coming out with us for many years and we have developed a really good friendship.

Today was a very special day, as he brought his son down for two days of Florida freshwater fishing. I warned Dave about the cold fronts coming in and it may slow the peacocks down a bit. But, he really wants Daniel to catch a peacock bass, so off we when to peacock bass fishing in South Miami where the water is warmer. We started our day off with Daniel catching his first Tarpon, which started the day out pretty well. As the day moved on we picked away at the peacock bass, then I suggested to Dave, “lets check out one more spot.” That was where Daniel got this very nice 5 pound peacock.

I can’t wait to see the video of this catch, it was an awesome fight!

Looking forward to seeing tomorrow when we fish the Everglades.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Capt Brett Isackson (bretti@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS