The 2011 Bassmaster Elite Series season will open with two tournaments in Florida, but not on the Kissimmee Chain.
B.A.S.S. announced Wednesday that the Elite Series opens March 10-13 on the Harris Chain at Tavares, then visits the St. John’s River at Palatka March 17-20.
While the Elite pros won’t be on the Kissimmee Chain, the Bassmaster Southern Open series may stop at Lake Toho in 2011, although the schedule hasn’t been confirmed.
Locks on the Kissimmee Chain are closed to boat traffic through the end of 2010 for repairs, but work is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 31.
The 2011 season actually begins for Elite Series pros with the Bassmaster Classic at New Orleans Feb. 18-20.
After the Harris Chain and St. John’s River, the tour heads to Pickwick Lake April 6-9; Toledo Bend April 14-17; West Point Lake May 5-8; Lake Murray May 12-15; the Arkansas River June 9-12; and Wheeler Lake June 16-19.
Bass anglers on Florida’s renowned Lake Tohopekaliga (Toho for short) have hit the jackpot – again. Anglers are catching their limits of trophy-size largemouth bass with astounding regularity, as the lake proves and improves its reputation as one of the top-five destinations in the world for those who seek the ultimate bass-fishing experience.
During the past several weeks, local tournament anglers have discovered a veritable bonanza of trophy-size bass, as catch rates continue to heat up. One possible reason, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologists, is that the extended cold winter delayed spawning and post-spawn feeding activity.
Last weekend’s Toho Open, a one-day tournament, saw the fifth-place finisher catch a five-fish limit tipping the scales at 31 pounds, while the winners, Jerry Williams and Jessie Windsor of Orlando, netted more than 38 pounds. Mark Detweiler at Big Toho Marina in Kissimmee reported that at local tournaments hosted there on Wednesday nights, participants boasted winning totals in excess of 20 pounds.
“Big bass have shown themselves in ever-increasing numbers since last fall. I’ve been fishing here since 1983 and I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s mind-boggling,” said Terry Segraves, a well-respected professional angler who lives in Kissimmee and serves as a tourism spokesman for the area.
According to local experts like Segraves, patterning the big fish is not difficult. Early morning anglers are finding schooling fish in the 1- to 2-pound range, with some much bigger fish mixed in those schools. However, the really big fish are feeding on the edges of the deep grass beds after the sun comes up. Typically, anglers catch the big fish a few hours after sunrise and a few hours before sunset, as is the case here. However, what is unusual is that they’re also catching big stringers of trophies throughout the day.
FWC fishery biologist and avid bass angler Marty Mann believes the great trophy fishing is the result of the agency’s aggressive management of Lake Toho, the birthplace of the first large-scale drawdown (1971) to improve of fish and wildlife habitat. In 2004, the FWC conducted its most recent in a series of drawdown projects on Lake Toho.
“One of the biggest problems for sportfish is decaying plant and animal materials that build up on the bottom of a lake over time. These sediments cover and suffocate the eggs of sportfish and rob oxygen from the water as they decay,” said Mann.
Improvements to fish habitat are accomplished by lowering the lake to expose mucky sediments to sunlight and air, thus allowing sediments to consolidate into a hard substrate. In some places, crews scrape dried sediments and truck them to disposal areas. The result is a clean, hard, sandy bottom. Once the water level returns to normal, the hard bottom provides quality spawning areas for sportfish and a substrate that promotes the growth of beneficial aquatic plants, where bass can feed and grow to trophy size.
Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Tom Lang welcomed the news that the fish are biting. “For our visitors looking for memory-making experiences to punctuate their vacation or holidays, this is good news. We recommend they get here fast, because you never know when the tide may turn with the fish.”
For more information on bass fishing in Osceola County’s Lake Tohopekaliga, go to the Freshwater Fishing area of MyFWC.com/Fishing and select Fishing Sites and Forecasts, or contact the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau at VisitKissimmee.com.
A new boat ramp just reopened to the public on Lake Hatchineha. From the looks of things they’re still doing some renovations but it’s always nice to have another ramp. There’s plenty of parking and you don’t have to drive down a dirt road meaning you don’t have to clean off all the dirt on your boat when you get home.
I had to check it out today and fished Hatchineha. Much to my surprise, I didn’t catch a single fish out of the reeds. Instead, I caught about a dozen fish doing everything under the sun. The fish were definitely biting, but nothing over 2.5 pounds. I caught my first and biggest fish about 30 minutes into the day flippin in Kissimmee grass with a junebug silver Gitem Sugar. I’ve been flippin a lot lately so I broke out a green pumpkin chatterbait with a swim senko trailer and caught a bunch swimming it next to pads. I then checked out the inside of the weed line and caught 3 fish on a frog.
All in all, I like having the new ramp and will keep it in the rotation. It’s free and open all day every day. What more could you ask for? View Larger Map
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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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BassOnline.com is Florida Fishing largest Freshwater Guide Service, specializing in Florida bass fishing in the Florida lakes, canals and rivers.
To learn more about Florida bass fishing, visit Bass Fishing Blog
Norman, OK – When morning dawned on the final day of the inaugural PAA Series tournament on Lake Toho, Shaw Grigsby found himself with less than a pound lead over a charging Steve Kennedy. With conditions similar to the previous two days, cold and windy, the remaining anglers knew that each bite would be crucial if they were to write their name in the record books as the first Carrot Stix PAA Series champion.With the shallow spawning waters cooling to the mid 50s, Grigsby found that his spawning fish had pulled a vanishing act and he came to the scales the final day with only one fish weighing 1.50 pounds.
With the door open, Steve Kennedy brought in a respectable 11.36 pounds on Saturday to remain in second when the scales closed. Lurking near the top of the leader board since the opening day, Todd Faircloth finished in third, after a final day effort of 14.52 pounds.
But the day belonged to Brian Snowden who entered Saturday in 3rd place nearly four pounds out of the lead after a nine pound bite anchored his Friday limit. On the final day, Snowden’s 17.75 vaulted him to the top of the leader board, where he stayed. With the win, Snowden takes home a $40,000 Phoenix bass boat and $10,000 in cash.
Overall, many of the anglers were impressed with the number of quality bass Toho surrendered throughout the three day event. In what Steve Kennedy called, “The cold front of the century” for Florida, Snowden’s final weight of 52.44 pounds made the win even more impressive.
Followers of the 2008 Bassmaster Elite Series may remember that last year, Snowden had nearly a 10 pound lead in Florida on the Harris Chain heading into the final day, but blanked and finished a disappointing 2nd. There were no ill effects on Saturday as his come from behind victory made him the first winner on the Carrot Stix PAA Series.
Here is what Snowden and Kennedy had to say about their tournament performances:
Brian Snowden
“It was slow but steady today. I didn’t get a bite until about nine this morning and then I ended up catching two real quick and then caught a 6 ½ pounder to fill my limit out by about two in the afternoon.
“I caught every fish on an XCalibur Xr75 rattle bait in 6 to 8 feet of water fishing the hydrilla and eel grass in Toho. I found the bite a little bit in practice and then when it got colder during the tournament, I decide to just stay out there and throw the rattle bait. Each day I’d get about seven bites and have five to six keepers.
“Even though they were spraying grass on Toho, they hadn’t sprayed the area that I was fishing in recently so it actually probably helped the way that I was fishing. The key was to find the grass that was still kind of green. Some of the bass were post-spawn and some were pre-spawn, so I caught a little mixture of both.
“It’s really just a great honor to win the first PAA Series event. I think this is something that is going to be really great for the future of our sport so it’s an honor to be part of the PAA. To get the win in the first one is a great feeling. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year and the growth of the PAA. It’s pretty exciting times for the anglers I think.”
Steve Kennedy
“This morning started out perfect. I went running down to my trap fish and I fired out there on my first cast and caught a bass outside of where I was expecting to catch one. When I got over to the little edges of the grass, I called my shots three casts in a row. My cameraman said that I was ‘Babe Ruth’en them.’ I had another little sweet spot off shore and it took me three casts to catch my fifth one. Within 15 minutes I had a limit.
“I fished my trap for about an hour after than without a bite and went to my flipping stuff and the little ones were biting good. I probably had eight bites in the first hour and I had one big bite and she shook her head and came off so I don’t know how big it was. As cold as it was, they were just really finicky.
After that, I went all day without a big bite and was only able to cull up a few ounces. The morning was as good as it gets. Yesterday morning I did the same thing – it just so happened that they were four pounders then.
There were several other boats that had worked through the general area and I think we just beat them up. I was throwing the KVD special, the Strike King Red Eye Sexy Shad – I watched him do it on TV down here. When I came down here I thought, ‘If Kevin can catch them on it, I can do it.’ It almost worked out. I was flipping a Kinami Palm Tree and a Beaver both in black and blue color.
I didn’t win it but it worked out pretty well for the amount that I practiced. I put in Monday at one in the afternoon and found those fish around three. I also went out Tuesday around ten in the morning just looking for a flipping bite and I didn’t practice Wednesday.
“Overall, it was pretty awesome and I really hope this turns out to be something big.”
Todd Faircloth
“I started out today with a flipping rod and that’s what I did all day. I had a limit by around eight this morning and caught a ton of fish today. I just only caught one big one right at the end of the day and I think the bigger one started biting later. I probably caught 25 fish today. I caught more today than any other day.
“I had two patterns that I was working. One was fishing a Sebile Flat Shad in the hydrilla and the other one was flipping a Yamamoto creature in the gnarliest stuff I could find. It seemed like the hydrilla bite faded on me and the flipping bite got better as the tournament went on. With the exception of the first day, all my fish came from flipping.
I fished Toho the whole tournament but the fact that they were spraying the grass really didn’t affect me at all.
“Overall, I think it was a good start for the PAA organization. We had 147 guys there, guys from BASS, FLW, and some guys who don’t fish either. I think that overall it was ran really well and a good start.
