warmer

feb 25th kissimmee, south end. noon - 3:30 2 in the 3lb range pitching 10" worm to visible fish on beds. females. 2 in the 2- 2 1/2 range on white spinner bait in 3-5 ft of water outside good spawning area and one large missed fish (just saw the boil and felt him for a moment) 3 2lbers on toad in clear water pads w/ grass mixed in. and about 6,000,000 gar following and/or striking.

rolo, what is the scenario w/ the beds im seeing? they are well defined. and vacant. does that mean: front moves in and they are waiting to move back in? one wave has come and gone and another is coming behind it? also, it seems to me that in early spawn like this i see a lot of beds shallow, but soon i dont see them as much, but i still catch spawning fish in a little bit deeper water.

kissimmee: friday feb 23 hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of empty beds. fished w/out a hook so as not to stick them before a friends tourny. i had several topwater bites in the 4+ lb range, but not overwhelmed by the ammount of fish. im starting to wonder if the spawn has moved deeper, or we are moving into a post spawn scenario, but didnt have the tackle or time to switch up and see...

i still cant figure out why you guys are concerned... al gore told us that the hurricanes are going to be more frequent and fierce because we are raping the planet with all of our co2 emissions... trust gore!

my local shop is the place... big fish outfitters lakeland, fl represent... fo sho' local guys you can call and order bulk and usually will cut you a better deal than any of the other retailers. and even if they couldnt... its hard to beat the personal service.

sounds like the fisherman have been working on toho. working real hard.

i got into an area loaded w/ muskie.

gotta saturate the ground before you start to get the heavy gains, so i say any rain is good rain.

apparently you didnt watch all gores movie on global warming. there will be heightened hurricane activity every year (including the droughts last year the year before) until we stop all this dangerous carbon dioxide emission. as soon as the cows stop farting, the lake will rise.

2/09 kissimmee: water - 70ish wind - up to 7 mph out of the nw with periods of calm my number was called 7:15 1 13 inch fish in the boat (exemptions) by 1pm. carolina rig on pads in 3ft - missed two good fish: one 3.5, the other just snapped on hookset, but felt solid. from 1pm - 3:45 i caught about 15 keepers. same approach, just found some nice hydrilla mixed in the pads. nothing big, but i culled out all the 13 inch stuff. 9lbs 9oz. 35th out of 98 boats. tough day out there. 20lbs won it, but dropped off hard and fast from there.

haines is tough fishing... so is alfred... id go w/ hartridge of those 3 options.

LOL! good one lee. i dont know if anyone said it yet, but go fish a couple of draw tournaments to get a feel for it before the one you care about.

it's private. they closed the ramp years ago. the water is pretty low, and i back my 20 ftr in there all the time on the grass and it never tears up the yard, so i would be surprised if it were a problem at your friends place depending on where he is on the lake.

wait a minute! how does everyone seem to know my honey hole?

kissimmee: jan 2nd water temp: never bothered to check. wind: howling from the south/then west/then northwest good pre-front. 1-2 ft of water on the south end. all topwater. 12 keepers, nothing under 14.5 inches and nothing bigger than 3.5 pounds. 8,000,000 boats on the water or so, most pre-fishing for a big tournament weekend out there.

left handed casting only.

good report, im glad to hear they are coming up to play.

not my smallest, but close...

scum frog big foot... i weight it with some twiston line sinkers on the hook to give it a little extra casting distance... great combo of hollow body and buzz frog.

thanks avid! dadding is a great sport.

she would have preferred a pink fuego, but her favorite real is indeed my red one...

good stuff boca, i fished a couple t's. last weekend in kissimmee... saturday: caught a 2.5lber on fry early, waited too long to bail, and went to my fish in kissimmee... filled a dinker of a limit on toad up shallow in the pads, and got back to the ramp in toho 1 minute late and dropped my monster 7lb stringer to 6lbs w/ the penalty... sunday: made some good adjustments, but... trolling motor stuck on constant on by 7:15, quit altogether by 9:30 when i had just 2 in the tank... so we improvised, climbed up the bank and grabbed a couple of tree branches. spent the rest of the windy day in pushing our way around protected areas culling out fish... managed an 11lb 10oz stringer... there were good fish caught that day. 19 won, and we were 10th of 36 boats. some fish on the beds... i was on that 2lb bite let me tell you.

the best advice i could give you is to crank up the truck and drive down to the kissimmee chain.

thanks roadwarrior. she would have definately brought tears to my eyes if she had filled that limit. funniest days with her, are when we are on schoolies. she loves to throw a toad, and if they are really eating, she will actually real it in rooting for the toad not to get bit. "cmon toad, you can make it!"

great thread: the easiest fishing trips w/ the kids are catfish/panfish fishing off of the dock in the pond behind my dads house, but... most of the time i fish with my kids (i have 4) in my boat i am pre-fishing a tournament, so i have to try to make it fun for them and productive for me my top three most important things... 1) keep them comfortable... i use a patio umbrella rigged in the seat post for the hot/sunny days. and on the colder days i bring a flashlight, camera, books, and crayons and clear out the rod locker for them. bring plenty of food and water/juice. 2) keep them entertained. i save all my torn soft plastics in a bag, and when they are bored of fishing i let them pull them out and play w/ them... about a year ago she was losing interest, so i graduated her to a spinning rod, and spray-painted it pink... that won her over and most importantly. 3) finish with a bang... that means a slurpy at 7-11, because the one thing they will remember is the last thing we did, and a well timed slurpy at the end can salvage a dismal day. most recently i fished a team tournament w/ my six year old daughter, and she insisted that i retie her after she broke off so that she could be responsible to "fill our limit" (her words).