Spring is peak season for bass fishing in Florida. Hit any lake in the state this time of year and you stand good chance of bringing home a five-pound bass. Now while anglers may talk about legendary lunkers, to tell the truth, it’s not the size that matters. It’s the numbers.

That is why professional bass fishing tournaments have a five-fish bag limit. Anybody can get lucky once and catch a whopper, but it takes a skilled fisherman to catch several fish in the five-pound range.

And that is exactly what

Brackin caught most of his fish using crankbaits along the deep-water ledges of the Kissimmee River, a recently resored waterway that empties into “The Big O.”

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit www.FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Bass Online Staff Writer
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Chris White-Trophy Bass

Copland's Landing Okeechobee bass

World famous Lake Okeechobee fishing with Captain Mark Shepard.

Mark has had  a lot of  successful fishing vacations for May 2009.  The lake is doing great this month with average catches of (50 to 100) plus bass almost every day.

Customers Chris White and Copland Family are pictured above with an awesome trophy bass that Lake Okeechobee is known for producing. It’s been a great fishing with every body this season so many of you that fish with me every year and keep coming back with great enthusiasms of catching a bigger bass.

The number of fish have exploded on the lake thanks to successful spawning season. We are catching a average 1 to 4 lb with lots of  bigger ones too. The fishing has been good topwater and plastics easy and fun fishing. Here are some of the fish caught with great people and great times. Call today to reserve your date with Captain  Mark Shepard today 1-888-629-2277.

Everglades Bass Fishing

If even the darkest nights have clammy feelings, while the cloudless skies of day look upon the current drought have been absolutely golden for fishing in the Florida Everglades.

“Right now it’s really good,” said Ralph LaPrairie, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fisheries biologist. Great angling in the Everglades water conservation areas is an annual spring phenomenon that is better than ever this year, due to drought. The water conservation areas are vast marshes that support millions of fish over a total of 1,291 square miles. In the spring dry season bring the drying of the marshes lands, and all the fish in them are crowded into 2,000 miles of man-made canals that slice through the system. A recent canal sampling survey by The News-Press produced a bass, a bluegill, a Mayan cichlid, a warmouth and an oscar on not many more casts than the five it took to land each scrappy fish, all within hearing distance of Everglades Holiday Park off State Road 27, south of Alligator Alley in Fort Lauderdale. Within the first hour, two other bream species – stumpknockers and shellcrackers (redear sunfish) – were added to the species count. At one point Ralph Allen, who was fishing with a beadhead olive wooly bugger fly, said, “I can’t remember the last cast that didn’t draw a strike.” That was not an exaggeration. Allen is an inveterate counter, announcing every fish landed from the back of his Gheenoe. But eventually he was overwhelmed by his own sheer number of successes. Fishing in the Everglades is a numbers game. The area is known for its quantities of fish, rather than for their size. In the Sawgrass Recreation Area along U.S. 27, LaPrairie said electroshock sampling was producing 300 to 400 bass per hour – “a phenomenal number.” He collected a few of about 7 pounds, and suspects other big fish were in water deeper than that effectively sampled by electroshocking. Most of the bass are less than a foot long, but there are notable exceptions. Many local bass fishing guides reported, said local guide Brett Isackson and Tony Masiello a recent customer who caught several bass in the 4 to 8-pound range while fishing with us.

The fabulous fishing in the Everglades, which offers a choice of many canals within many miles of the free boat ramps, is no secret.

Many fish for bass early and late in the day, and catch panfish when the sun is highest.

“We like the bass,” Randy Reavis said. “We throw them back until the last day, and then just put a few in the cooler to take home.”

There are no shortage of bass boaters who take advantage of the bass fishing out in the Everglades. But fancy boats aren’t always necessary, but as Brett and Tony mentioned, :It does get you out to the big bass that see less pressure. Boats aren’t actually necessary at all location in the Everglades. Dozens of anglers fish from shorelines, docks and banks.

As one angler said, “You can come out and fish by yourself, and it’s safe,” she said of the park environment. Plus, she noted, the park restrooms and restaurant are very convenient in most location.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Bass Online Staff Writer
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Hey Todd,

  I just wanted to thank you for a fantastic (5) days of fishing. The first (4) days was out with Capt. Tony Masiello at a number of different places and man did we have a ball. We caught a ton of fish and had a great time doing it. Tony is a great guy and a hell of a fisherman, he makes it all fun to fish with you guys.

 And going out with you on my last day was a blast, we caught a ton of fish mostly small ones but thats ok with me. It always gives me more incentive to come down again, like in October for that big one that I keep losing…LOL .

Anyway I just wanted to thank you guys for a wonderful time and we both look forward to coming down again in October and fishing with you guys again. Have a great summer and we will see you soon.

Regards,
Joe & Athena Mitchell

Thank you Joe &  Athena,

We look forward to fishing we you again!

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Bass Online Staff Writer
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS