GobbleDog

Crooked Lake, aka Lake Caloosa, aka Lake Okhakonkonhee, aka the Lake with too many d**n names. April 13, 2008 The water clarity is stained, but generally clear. The northern parts are almost entirely comprised of exposed Kissimmee grass along the banks which in some places are in water as deep as 10 feet. The middle and southern parts look like flooded cow pastures which get very shallow along the edges with a mixture of tree stumps, Kissimmee grass, and other vegees. I can attest that there isn't one blade of hydrilla in all of Crooked Lake. In any case, Bob's Landing 7:00 am - paid the $7.00 launch fee, spoke with the unfriendly jerk running the ramp, and started off. Early in the morning the wind was calm and we started in the northern areas throwing weightless and c-rigged worms against the kissimmee grass and hooked into several bass, most of which were right at the 13-14 mark. It seems Crooked Lake has plenty of bass, but not too many big uns. There was a tournament going on that day and most of the anglers we saw were also working that Kissimmee grass flipping into little holes here and there. We eventually worked our way to south-end, but didn't care for any of the shallow tree stump areas. In between northern and middle parts there's a giant long hump with plenty of off-shore kissimmee grass, but by 1:00 it had gotten ridiculously windy and made fishing that area impossible. On a calmer day, it looked like a beautiful spot. So we headed back up to our northern spot to hide from the wind and see if the bite was still working. Sure enough, the fish were still there and my partner hooked into our biggest of the day, a 4.5 lber. By the end of the day, we'd caught 3 keepers (2 were barely legal) and about 15 dinks. Overall it was a good practice day. When we got back to the boat ramp we found out it only took 7 lbs to win that tourney. It seems getting bites isn't a problem on Crooked Lake, but finding bass with any real weight can be difficult.

Well, I finally christened the Fat Ika yesterday. Lake Caloosa in Central Florida - Early in the morning with calm wind, I was throwing it weightless against exposed kissimmee grass. It almost immediately started getting bites and after some misses I finally brought in a couple of decent bass. I still think all that plastic makes hooksets more difficult - even with a 4/0 widegap hook and after making sure the hook was fully penetrated (even somewhat exposed). In any case, it worked. Later in the day the wind picked up to 15 mph and made weightless fishing nearly impossible (especially in 7 to 8 feet of water), so I put the Ika on the end of a c-rig (1/8 oz weight) and sure enough, the fish kept biting. The Fat Ika rigged backwards (both weightless and c-rig) was getting it done. My fishing partner took notice to my success with this weird new bait. So he reached into his bag and pulled out something similar... I believe it was a Yamamoto Double Tail Hula Grub pictured below. He rigged it backwards, just like I was doing with the Ika, tied to the end of his c-rig (1/16 oz weight) and started catching fish as well. He commented that those Hula Grubs had been sitting in his tacklebox unused for about 2 years. He's now a believer in them rigged backwards. Each bait seemed to have its own benefits - The Ika made MUCH longer casts, but the Hula Grub could be fished with smaller hooks because it's nearly as thick. I also think the Ika's bigger overall size helps attract bigger fish than the Hula Grub would. In any case, thanks to everyone's input on the Ika. A creature bait rigged backwards. whodda thunk?

Let all the air out of his tires the night before.

Gotta hand it to ***; free shipping with a $50+ order. When I ordered a 7.5' fishing rod along with a bunch of other stuff, I figured that deal would go out the window... especially since some of the stuff was back-ordered and they'd have to make a few different shipments but nope, still free. And their worms cost 1/3 less than at the store. I'm still waiting on a few items that were back-ordered, but the rest of the stuff arrived within a few days. Including the giant tube which held my fishing rod. *** gets the GobbleDog seal of approval. (that's my seal)

I hated fishing with my dad. He stunk at it. And my grandpa stunk too. If an old friend hadn't showed me how to catch monster snook many years ago, I'd probably be collecting stamps or something.

And a GPS to steal all the boater's spots.

Last chance for Crooked Lake information. Heading out Sunday, in spite of the forecast for heavy wind. Heck, I'll even take mis-information. Whatever ya got. My current plan is to start out fishing the northernmost part of the lake in front of the college (got a hot tip from a friend that a recent tourney was won there), and then work my way westerly to the areas RoLo was talking about. From people I've talked to, I'm getting the feeling this isn't your typical off-shore grass fishing type of lake. More of a fish the tight cover type of lake. Sux for me because when it comes to flipping, I'm the suck.

That's exactly right about Lake Apopka. It was once considered one of the best bass fishing lakes in all of Florida. Then after decades of citrus fertilizer run-off it became infamous as one of the most polluted lakes. The state has reportedly been trying to clean it up for years now. In all my 6 years of club fishing, I've never heard anyone ever nominate Lake Apopka. It's gotten such a bad name that nobody wants to go there. I've never fished it and don't know anyone who has.

Yep. My club shrank a lot from last year when we had 25 boats. I think the rise in gas prices is partly the reason.

Small 15 boat club... I think it's officially "The Central Florida Apopka Bass Club".

We had this discussion once before and it ended badly. I think ole muddy is still ticked off at me. permission vs forgiveness

As the late Charlton Heston said: "From My Cold, Dead Hands !"

I've got a club tourney in Lake Yale in about 3 months. I don't think it connects with the Harris Chain. Surprising they never dug a canal to Lake Eustis considering how close they are. Looking at aerial maps, it looks like that there used to be a canal from Yale to Griffin, but since been filled in. Is that right, or is it just an optical illusion? Any of you Harris people know anything about that? :-?

Monroe is definately tough fishing. That water is so d**n dirty my worm fishing just doesn't work very well... probably cause they can't see it. I prefer to head north in the St. Johns River and fish the creek mouths and sometimes move into the creeks... I once put a (small) limit together in the Wekiva River.

PM sent.

I try to get away with as little weight as possible with my t-rigs, especially with Trick Worms. 1/16, 1/32 and yes... 1/64 oz. I recently ordered some 1/16 oz tungsten bullet weights because I liked the idea of lowering the profile of the weight, but what really made the bait monkey bite was the fact that you can order them in green pumpkin color. The same color as the Trick Worms I use. Pretty cool.

A man without a boat, is not a man. I didn't become a man til I was 26. :'(

Funny, I asked myself that same question right after I broke it. Doh!

95% of the time it's all about the tournaments and pre-fishing. The recreational part of bass fishing lost it's luster years ago. :-/

"So we just caught our limit!?!".... time to give a high five and do the funky fish dance! Then it's back to fishing.

I have no idea what the rule is in Florida. I can't imagine they'd require a permit for a small club with 20-25 boats. Honestly if it were up to me, I wouldn't pay it if there was one. That's ridiculous. We already paid for fishing licenses and boat/trailer registrations. And we're obeying all the laws and regulations. Why should people have to pay more government fees just to fish together? I could somewhat understand if it's 100+ boats, but not for small clubs. Government beurocracy

A lot of people use mono with cranks for the stretch, but I stick with good ole 10 lb power pro. One thing about those Rapala DT lures... they definately catch fish, but I've now had 2 DT lures break a different places along the plastic bill. The first one broke after getting hung up and jerking it back too hard, but the other one broke by just slapping the lure in the water trying to get some grass off. They might get a little brittle after sitting in my box under the hot Florida sun for a year or so, but I've never had that happen with any other crankbaits. Maybe it was just a fluke, who knows.

Lake Conway March 27, 2008 We got out on the lake around 6:00 pm and the weather was perfect partly cloudy, light breeze, 75 degrees. Pulled up to my spot in the first lake in about 9 feet of water in an area that used to be full of hydrilla, but is now mostly eel grass. We started throwing Trick Worms and Senkos and the bite was on from the start. By 9:00, we had 4 keepers (biggest around 3lbs), a few dinks and some missed bites. Fish used to school up in that area, but I haven't seen them in a while maybe in a few months they'll start up again. In any case, as it got later into the night the bite slowed down a lot (as usual), so I decided to draw a little more attention by switching to a 10 curly tail with a small glass rattle inserted in the belly. That did the trick as I got a couple more bass in the boat and a few missed bites. Overall, a fun fishing trip and an educational one for my fishing partner who normally shore pounds the dinks in Conway. Hopefully he now sees the benefits of that off-shore bite. 8-)

Well, I went fishing last night and this time I remembered to bring my new bag of Fat Ika's. Unfortunatley, I quickly realized a problem... 2/0 worm hooks work great with Trick Worms and Senkos, but they're entirely too small for Ika's. The hook barely penetrated the other side of the worm and it was pointless even trying to fish them. If I bothered to take one out of the bag when I first got em I would have realized it earlier. In any case, now I'm reading back through this thread and seeing most of yall use 4/0 hooks. Heck, as thick as those things are I'd assume wide gap hooks would help too. So.... the Ika christening will have to wait another week. Which stinks because last night we caught a boat load of bass and I'm sure the Ika would have brought in a few if I'd had the right hook. Despite that, I still gave it a couple casts just to see how it moves in the water and I was impressed with it's slow fall the way those tentacles wiggle.

"great bass fisherwomen" oxymoron Seriously though, it's a catchy saying and it seems logical. There probably is something to it, but I've never changed baits because of it. Besides, what hatch looks like green-pumpkin red flake? None that I know, but that doesn't stop bass from hitting my Trick Worm. Generally speaking I think most bass fisherman believe bait color isn't nearly as important as presentation, technique, location, etc. Yet ironically, those same fisherman (including me) lose confidence without their favorite colors.