Got out to George’s lake today. Temps 70s and low 80s  A lot of people were actually swimming today in the 70 degree water.  We caught 16 , mostly on June bug UV speed worms and a few on Bama bug yum dingers. They were not relating to docks today, but I pulled out several from under pontoons in one canal. I also tried pitching into the thick stuff but nothing there. We tried out Jeffs new depthfinder and found a deep hole with a few fish in  it but no bites on crankbaits, rattletraps or big worms fished slow . We caught all the rest of the fish from maiden cane edges. Most of the fish were 12-16 inches.

The fish bit better as the day wore on. No big fish but it was good times anyway. Jeff and me have fished together for 45+ years . Couldnt ask for a better friend to fish with !

Had a family vacation in Orlando to see the usual theme parks and other things that people usually come to Orlando for, but got to negotiate (read demand) for a couple of days of guided fishing.  I had lined up both days with a guy who ended up getting out of the business, and so I had to schedule much later than expected.  On the advice @.ghoti., I contacted Lee Harrelson, but also booked another day with a guide that does live shiner fishing.  Radically different approaches and experiences, and I guess I got a good experience of central Florida bass fishing.

 

Day 1 (29-Dec-2021) was with a guide who's name I won't mention that does live shiner fishing as a specialty.  I would imagine he's well known in the area, he's been doing it for decades.  We went and bought 4 dozen shiners and went off to a field of nearby grass.  You just put a live shiner on a hook with a partially inflated balloon a ways up the line.  The bass (or mudfish in one case) takes the bait, you wind up your slack after a 4-5 count and then set the hook.  All the fish in the pictures came in that way.  The other technique used was to look for birds diving on bait, and then to race toward them, casting where as close as possible to where you saw them dive with a flutter spoon or a trap of some sort.  Both techniques were surprisingly effective, the shiners around grass decidedly more so.  I probably caught 15-20 fish, all the bigger ones on shiners.  It was a good experience, but I don't know that I'll do it again unless I'm with someone else that hasn't had the experience.  As for the guide, he delivered everything he should have, but he was obviously worn out from guiding, and was looking to retiring.  I don't have any other experiences to compare it to, but thinking of what he must go through day in and day out, I can see how a person gets to be that way.

 

The other day with Lee was very different.  Great communication before and great conversation during the entire trip.  You can just tell the guy loves to fish and does his best to put you on fish.  He did put me on what would have likely been my PB bass - I just didn't get it to the boat, but I did get to look at her.  Anyway, it was a tough day to get bit.  The day started off with fog that was too thick to run in.  We started on Lake Hatchineha and fished a little around the place he picked me up.  The fog didn't burn off for almost 3 hours, so we couldn't run up to Lake Kissimmee until later in the morning.  Very soon after we got to Kissimmee we started fishing a huge grass field and that's where I got to see the big girl.  She got off probably 10' from the gunwale, made me sick, but I'll get over it.  Lee had actually seen her in the area a couple of days back and had left her alone for me to have a chance at her.  Anyway we fished the same area and I caught a couple of bass within a few minutes, neither would have been much over a foot.  He hasn't sent me the picture yet of the one I did pose for or I'd have posted it.  The rest of the day, we fished what looked like prime bass territory, but no more boated fish, not even movement.  We both got a few bites pitching or fishing a swimming worm through the grass, and Lee got a good bite on what looked like a trick worm.  I left a happy customer, and I can't say enough good about Lee.  He answered all of my questions, did his best to give me first opportunity at all the prime spots (and pointed them out), and gave me pointers without being overbearing.  I brought my own rods, but Lee's were really nice custom rods he makes himself (I used my own flipping stick) and his boat is definitely fully-loaded.

9 minutes ago, CountryboyinDC said:

Had a family vacation in Orlando to see the usual theme parks and other things that people usually come to Orlando for, but got to negotiate (read demand) for a couple of days of guided fishing.  I had lined up both days with a guy who ended up getting out of the business, and so I had to schedule much later than expected.  On the advice @.ghoti., I contacted Lee Harrelson, but also booked another day with a guide that does live shiner fishing.  Radically different approaches and experiences, and I guess I got a good experience of central Florida bass fishing.

 

Day 1 (29-Dec-2021) was with a guide who's name I won't mention that does live shiner fishing as a specialty.  I would imagine he's well known in the area, he's been doing it for decades.  We went and bought 4 dozen shiners and went off to a field of nearby grass.  You just put a live shiner on a hook with a partially inflated balloon a ways up the line.  The bass (or mudfish in one case) takes the bait, you wind up your slack after a 4-5 count and then set the hook.  All the fish in the pictures came in that way.  The other technique used was to look for birds diving on bait, and then to race toward them, casting where as close as possible to where you saw them dive with a flutter spoon or a trap of some sort.  Both techniques were surprisingly effective, the shiners around grass decidedly more so.  I probably caught 15-20 fish, all the bigger ones on shiners.  It was a good experience, but I don't know that I'll do it again unless I'm with someone else that hasn't had the experience.  As for the guide, he delivered everything he should have, but he was obviously worn out from guiding, and was looking to retiring.  I don't have any other experiences to compare it to, but thinking of what he must go through day in and day out, I can see how a person gets to be that way.

 

The other day with Lee was very different.  Great communication before and great conversation during the entire trip.  You can just tell the guy loves to fish and does his best to put you on fish.  He did put me on what would have likely been my PB bass - I just didn't get it to the boat, but I did get to look at her.  Anyway, it was a tough day to get bit.  The day started off with fog that was too thick to run in.  We started on Lake Hatchineha and fished a little around the place he picked me up.  The fog didn't burn off for almost 3 hours, so we couldn't run up to Lake Kissimmee until later in the morning.  Very soon after we got to Kissimmee we started fishing a huge grass field and that's where I got to see the big girl.  She got off probably 10' from the gunwale, made me sick, but I'll get over it.  Lee had actually seen her in the area a couple of days back and had left her alone for me to have a chance at her.  Anyway we fished the same area and I caught a couple of bass within a few minutes, neither would have been much over a foot.  He hasn't sent me the picture yet of the one I did pose for or I'd have posted it.  The rest of the day, we fished what looked like prime bass territory, but no more boated fish, not even movement.  We both got a few bites pitching or fishing a swimming worm through the grass, and Lee got a good bite on what looked like a trick worm.  I left a happy customer, and I can't say enough good about Lee.  He answered all of my questions, did his best to give me first opportunity at all the prime spots (and pointed them out), and gave me pointers without being overbearing.  I brought my own rods, but Lee's were really nice custom rods he makes himself (I used my own flipping stick) and his boat is definitely fully-loaded.

Awesome!  I bet that was a ton of fun!

13 minutes ago, CountryboyinDC said:

Had a family vacation in Orlando to see the usual theme parks and other things that people usually come to Orlando for, but got to negotiate (read demand) for a couple of days of guided fishing.  I had lined up both days with a guy who ended up getting out of the business, and so I had to schedule much later than expected.  On the advice @.ghoti., I contacted Lee Harrelson, but also booked another day with a guide that does live shiner fishing.  Radically different approaches and experiences, and I guess I got a good experience of central Florida bass fishing.

 

Day 1 (29-Dec-2021) was with a guide who's name I won't mention that does live shiner fishing as a specialty.  I would imagine he's well known in the area, he's been doing it for decades.  We went and bought 4 dozen shiners and went off to a field of nearby grass.  You just put a live shiner on a hook with a partially inflated balloon a ways up the line.  The bass (or mudfish in one case) takes the bait, you wind up your slack after a 4-5 count and then set the hook.  All the fish in the pictures came in that way.  The other technique used was to look for birds diving on bait, and then to race toward them, casting where as close as possible to where you saw them dive with a flutter spoon or a trap of some sort.  Both techniques were surprisingly effective, the shiners around grass decidedly more so.  I probably caught 15-20 fish, all the bigger ones on shiners.  It was a good experience, but I don't know that I'll do it again unless I'm with someone else that hasn't had the experience.  As for the guide, he delivered everything he should have, but he was obviously worn out from guiding, and was looking to retiring.  I don't have any other experiences to compare it to, but thinking of what he must go through day in and day out, I can see how a person gets to be that way.

 

The other day with Lee was very different.  Great communication before and great conversation during the entire trip.  You can just tell the guy loves to fish and does his best to put you on fish.  He did put me on what would have likely been my PB bass - I just didn't get it to the boat, but I did get to look at her.  Anyway, it was a tough day to get bit.  The day started off with fog that was too thick to run in.  We started on Lake Hatchineha and fished a little around the place he picked me up.  The fog didn't burn off for almost 3 hours, so we couldn't run up to Lake Kissimmee until later in the morning.  Very soon after we got to Kissimmee we started fishing a huge grass field and that's where I got to see the big girl.  She got off probably 10' from the gunwale, made me sick, but I'll get over it.  Lee had actually seen her in the area a couple of days back and had left her alone for me to have a chance at her.  Anyway we fished the same area and I caught a couple of bass within a few minutes, neither would have been much over a foot.  He hasn't sent me the picture yet of the one I did pose for or I'd have posted it.  The rest of the day, we fished what looked like prime bass territory, but no more boated fish, not even movement.  We both got a few bites pitching or fishing a swimming worm through the grass, and Lee got a good bite on what looked like a trick worm.  I left a happy customer, and I can't say enough good about Lee.  He answered all of my questions, did his best to give me first opportunity at all the prime spots (and pointed them out), and gave me pointers without being overbearing.  I brought my own rods, but Lee's were really nice custom rods he makes himself (I used my own flipping stick) and his boat is definitely fully-loaded.

Wow, nice fish. I love live bait 

Months ago on here, I made fun of the idea of fishing Ned rig deep....that I didn't have the patience to find out how long a 1/16 oz head with buoyant plastic would take to drop 20+ feet.  I am glad I tried it.  Caught a couple dozen keepers last two days, most on a Baby Goat, and many over 17 feet deep.

3 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Months ago on here, I made fun of the idea of fishing Ned rig deep....that I didn't have the patience to find out how long a 1/16 oz head with buoyant plastic would take to drop 20+ feet.  I am glad I tried it.  Caught a couple dozen keepers last two days, most on a Baby Goat, and many over 17 feet deep.

Nice. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to sink as long as they eat it 

On a Bass Pro Shops Tube and Jighead. 

 

Dobyns Fury 702sf w/ Shimano Sedona 2500HGFI 10# Power Pro Braid 

It's a fun day to catch little spotted bass. At least I'm pretty sure this is a Spotted Bass. I'm frankly terrible at positively ID'ing bass. One of the things I hope to be better at in 2022.

33 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Months ago on here, I made fun of the idea of fishing Ned rig deep....that I didn't have the patience to find out how long a 1/16 oz head with buoyant plastic would take to drop 20+ feet.  I am glad I tried it.  Caught a couple dozen keepers last two days, most on a Baby Goat, and many over 17 feet deep.

Piscatorial epiphanies are the best kind!

23 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

It's a fun day to catch little spotted bass. At least I'm pretty sure this is a Spotted Bass. I'm frankly terrible at positively ID'ing bass. One of the things I hope to be better at in 2022.

That one is a little tougher than most but I think you are correct 

Fished from 7 - 2 today in heavy fog. Caught 6 Spots, 3 on JB and 3 on the Ned. The fish were locked down until the fog rolled out at 12:30.

Made it out for a few hours on a beautiful last day of the year. My very first cast produced an 18" fish on a Stunna.

 

slowed down a lot from there but I caught 11 or 12 on the jerkbait and a Ned rig. The Ned himself was out there also, snuck a fish out from behind him, on a Ned rig ?

Not the most productive trip but 5" of snow and sub zero temps in the forecast this week, wanted to make the best of it.

This one is pretty certainly a Spotted Bass, 2.2lbs PB. I've found my spottie spot. Great way to cap off 2021. Happy New Year, y'all!

 

(Edit: I had to count everything but today was my best numbers day of the year - 15 bass from the bank. My thumb callous is roughed up pretty good. Biggest was this spottie but there were a couple 1ish lb LMB in there too. Cheers, y'all)

Not going to lie - I was pretty happy when the first fish I got today was one over 4 lbs....even cooler was getting to watch that fish come up from below the bait, just appear, and then open his mouth and suck the bait in - but then the next bite I got was one over 8 lbs. - my second largest bass ever and a pretty huge fish for Indiana. What a way to end the year!

 

Interesting side story. Retied my bait before heading out and checked my trebles. Decided they were a little dull from previous trips, so I hit them with a file. Still wasn't happy with how they felt afterwards, so took a couple minutes to pull out the split ring pliers and replace them with some brand new Gammi's I just purchased. Can't say whether it would have made a difference or not in landing these fish, but it sure didn't hurt, and hit me as kind of a, "I'm sure glad I took the time and did that" kind of thing after getting each to hand.

 

Here's a few shots of the big one:

 

 

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Not going to lie - I was pretty happy when the first fish I got today was one over 4 lbs....even cooler was getting to watch that fish come up from below the bait, just appear, and then open his mouth and suck the bait in - but then the next bite I got was one over 8 lbs. - my second largest bass ever and a pretty huge fish for Indiana. What a way to end the year!

 

Interesting side story. Retied my bait before heading out and checked my trebles. Decided they were a little dull from previous trips, so I hit them with a file. Still wasn't happy with how they felt afterwards, so took a couple minutes to pull out the split ring pliers and replace them with some brand new Gammi's I just purchased. Can't say whether it would have made a difference or not in landing these fish, but it sure didn't hurt, and hit me as kind of a, "I'm sure glad I took the time and did that" kind of thing after hooking and landing those fish.

 

Here's a few shots of the big one:

 

 

 

 

 

That's a pretty fish

19 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Not going to lie - I was pretty happy when the first fish I got today was one over 4 lbs....even cooler was getting to watch that fish come up from below the bait, just appear, and then open his mouth and suck the bait in - but then the next bite I got was one over 8 lbs. - my second largest bass ever and a pretty huge fish for Indiana. What a way to end the year!

 

Interesting side story. Retied my bait before heading out and checked my trebles. Decided they were a little dull from previous trips, so I hit them with a file. Still wasn't happy with how they felt afterwards, so took a couple minutes to pull out the split ring pliers and replace them with some brand new Gammi's I just purchased. Can't say whether it would have made a difference or not in landing these fish, but it sure didn't hurt, and hit me as kind of a, "I'm sure glad I took the time and did that" kind of thing after hooking and landing those fish.

 

Here's a few shots of the big one:

 

 

 

 

 

In an pond??? Holy smokes!!! I didn’t know that was possible up there. Congrats 

26 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

In an pond??? Holy smokes!!! I didn’t know that was possible up there. Congrats 

Oh yeah..you guys down there don't get all the big ones..we want some to

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Not going to lie - I was pretty happy when the first fish I got today was one over 4 lbs....even cooler was getting to watch that fish come up from below the bait, just appear, and then open his mouth and suck the bait in - but then the next bite I got was one over 8 lbs. - my second largest bass ever and a pretty huge fish for Indiana. What a way to end the year!

 

Interesting side story. Retied my bait before heading out and checked my trebles. Decided they were a little dull from previous trips, so I hit them with a file. Still wasn't happy with how they felt afterwards, so took a couple minutes to pull out the split ring pliers and replace them with some brand new Gammi's I just purchased. Can't say whether it would have made a difference or not in landing these fish, but it sure didn't hurt, and hit me as kind of a, "I'm sure glad I took the time and did that" kind of thing after getting each to hand.

 

Here's a few shots of the big one:

 

 

 

Excellent. Those big girls will find the weak link if you leave one.

 

 

24 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Oh yeah..you guys down there don't get all the big ones..we want some to

An 8 is a lifetime size fish for big rivers/reservoirs . An 8 bank walking a pond is wild!!!!!!. We barely even have ponds and the ones we do have are mostly tons of 11 inch bass fighting over the worm 

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

An 8 is a lifetime size fish for big rivers/reservoirs . An 8 bank walking a pond is wild!!!!!!. We barely even have ponds and the ones we do have are mostly tons of 11 inch bass fighting over the worm 

A 3.5 from a pond is biggin to me lol! An 8 would be PB for a lot of folks from many major reservoirs where I'm at, too. I want to know what that pond life is like.

1 minute ago, thediscochef said:

A 3.5 from a pond is biggin to me lol! An 8 would be PB for a lot of folks from many major reservoirs where I'm at, too. I want to know what that pond life is like.

I did know a cow pond growing up that produced some DD largemouth, but biggest I got there was 6. I have absolutely no clue why that pond was better than the rest

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

I did know a cow pond growing up that produced some DD largemouth, but biggest I got there was 6. I have absolutely no clue why that pond was better than the rest

I see all these farm ponds and such on YouTube, producing tons of bass that would be well above my average. I need to meet someone with one of these farms...

I was able to get out briefly after an all day rain and get on the board for '22 even if they weren't particularly impressive. Jan. can be a tough month here so I though I better jump while I had a window. Trying to keep my 12 months of bass streak going.

8 minutes ago, The Bassman said:

I was able to get out briefly after an all day rain and get on the board for '22 even if they weren't particularly impressive. Jan. can be a tough month here so I though I better jump while I had a window. Trying to keep my 12 months of bass streak going.

You’re a machine 

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

You’re a machine 

Yeah but 67 yrs. old and getting creaky.