Undisclosed Location Fishing Report

1.18.12

Tide Incoming

Water Temp: 58

Captain Vic and I went fishing to one of his winter locations which can not be disclosed.  A promise made to Vic.

We were searching for trout that may be headed in the creeks for a winter hide out.  Due to the weather not being very cold, we were doing a search that may not work.

But, after the storm rolled through we headed out.

Vic got it going quickly, and promptly landed a trout on a pearl white grub.

A few short strikes later, we were figuring out that were a few fish in each hole, but they weren't stacked up.  So, we started bumping from hole to hole.

One bar yielded a handful of trout. I lost a nice one on the sinking bonk a donk.  And Vic had two nice come up and swirl on his grub right at the boat.

I managed to put a nice sheepshead in the boat off one oyster bar.  He decided that the  shrimp I threw at him was too tempting.

We managed to put four trout in the box.

After the skies cleared and the wind picked up from the north, the fish really shut down.  After about two hours of dry casting with no luck, we headed back to the ramp.

Vic cleaned the fish quickly and as we discussed the days bite and decided hunting and gathering was a pretty good deal on the Forgotten Coast of Florida.

Lake Okeechobee Bass Fishin' Cast Fest

January 7th thru January 13th, 2012

Weather: Beautiful, Air in the 70's

Water:  low 60's to 70 degrees

Trying to get a jump on the New Year, my brother Doug, my good friend Nick, his Dad, Larry in from Utah and I headed down to the Big O for a week of bass fishing.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and the cast fest began.  I say that because there were many, many casts between the fish for us.

One boat (ours) had many more casts between fish than the other boat (Nick and Larry).  But, as you can see by looking at these pictures you always thought the next cast would yield the Largemouth of your dreams.

Last year, Doug and I fished the Big O in February and caught 50 bass a day.  We laughed, at the end of our trip we don't think we caught 50 bass all week.  But, Nick and Larry kept texting us pictures of their catch, so it kept us going.

I am going to post the pictures below and just add a title, but in general, you needed to be casting a John Deere Green Big Easy in the Ranger and a spinnerbait in the Renegade.

We caught fish on all of the baits we threw, toads, worms, Big EZ's, Big and Little dippers and spinnerbaits.

The most unusual bait I caught them on was a Staysee Jerk Bait.  Doug and I had run into a school of nice fish in a canal heading out of Harney Pond one evening and we decided to fish them over and over, since we didn't have much else working.  We hit the pod once with nice fish in canal.  Doug caught a 5 lber. on a spinnerbait and I caught one just shy of 5 lbs. on the jerk bait.  Probably the only time these fish have every seen a suspending jerk bait in those waters.

The fishing was a little slow, but the company was great.  Lots of fun with three great guys and good fisherman!

Here are my pics.

Doug Starting It Off on Saturday

Tried Flipping.  This One Got it Through Both Lips

Caught this on edge of Peppergrass

Another Peppergrass Fish

Even I Caught One on a Spinnerbait

The Real KVD

5 POUNDER on Spinnerbait

We lost a couple more like this in a flurry of activity

Here are the two we caught schooling.

At the same time on the other end of the lake, Nick and Larry were busting them!

We took our rat fishing with us.  He enjoyed getting out of the trailer.

This cover is why you are excited on every cast.

There is one in there somewhere.

Or Maybe she is over here!

Or over here!

Anyone have a weed eater?

Another Jerkbait fish on the last day.

KVD's Evil Twin

The word is the Okee Rig is the way to catch the schoolers!

You can tell who the pro is.

Nick with another big'un

Larry said when Nick would slow down enough to let him cast, he could bust them too!

He said John Deere Green was all the worked on his Big EZ

I see a secret bait in the background.

Larry finishing up in the evening light.

Crooked River Bassin'

1.6.12

Incoming Tide

Air: 60's

Water: high 50's

Nancy and I tried new water today after getting a tip about the bass biting up Crooked River.

After getting some directions from Mike at Mike's Marine, we headed to a small gravel ramp at the end of NT Smith Road.  The water was clear and the ramp was accessible for the Nan's standards, so we slid the tin boat into the tannic waters of the Ochlockonee River.

We headed down stream and took the right up the Crooked River and soon realized why they call it the Crooked River as we weaved back and forth up the river looking for bassy water.

It started well, as I got a small bass at a creek mouth on the ultra vibe Zoom worm.

We bounced around heading up river and found some reed islands and some banks with thick mossy stuff on the surface.

We fished these two areas for over an hour and brought another 7 bass aboard.

No whoppers, but one was over two pounds.

I had brought a few aboard, when Nancy was lamenting the fact she hasn't caught a bass since we left Lake Lanier.

She promptly got a backlash and was picking out the knot in her line.
When she picked up the slack in her line I heard her say, "Hey, I got one!"
See, bassin' is easy!

They were all about this size, beautiful fish, dark backs in the tannic water.

The fog started rolling in, so we headed back to the gravel ramp and back to the house for a successful new water trip.

Five Bite Cigar

12.29.11

Lake Jackson

Air: 60's
Water: High 50's

Hunter wanted to go back bass fishing before he headed back to Charleston.  We decided to go back to Lake Jackson to attempt another outing like our last one there.

We knew it would be tougher with the bluebird skies that greeted us in the morning.

We tried power fishing the hay mounds that we caught them on a week ago, but to not avail.  We proceed to the north west side of the lake and found some old lilly pad stick ups.

We were needing some bites, so I picked up ol' reliable.  A nice dry cigar I had brought from the house.  I have learned from fishing past tournaments that if the bite was slow, the only way to get it going was to fire up a big stinky.

Sure enough the cigar magic began.  

I caught a pike and had a bass miss my chatter bait.  We slowed down and started casting Zoom Ultra Vibe worms.

I finally slowed it down enough that the bites started to come regular.
This cigar was worth five bites that equaled a couple of three pounders and another pike.

The rest of the day I picked up bass pretty regular sprinkled with some pike in between.

Our count was around 8 bass, a bunch of break offs (not happy with my new 50 lb. test braid) and 3 pike.

Hunter requested I not post his catch for reasons that only we know.  Hint (I had one of those days, and he didn't).

We released two more to a secret pond.  Here are the release pictures, as we hope to create our own bass honey hole.

Joining his friends

Going into a nice clear lake

Still VERY frisky

Granny and Her Fish

12.27.11

My Mom is down spending a few months in her new digs at Bayside Villas.
After much prodding she finally got down to the nice dock that is part of the community.
I told her the only reason to be on the Forgotten Coast is to fish and drink beer.
You can tell by her grins that she is finally getting the idea.

Santa Delivers Sand Trout On Christmas Eve

12.24.11

Tide: Incoming to High

Christmas Eve brought Hunter, Doug and I together for a trip out to the Ochlockonee River mouth.

We headed over to Chaires Creek with two dozen shrimp and some gulp and tried to duplicate the good fishing adventure we had the last trip out.  But, as usual, it is tough to duplicate the previous trip if the tide isn't working the same as the last time.  This time the tide came in late and just kind of hovered at high.  We used up a bunch of shrimp feeding little fellas on the bottom.  I did manage to put one keeper speckled sea trout in the box.

So, as the wind layed and the tide slackened, we headed over to fish in front of the 24 marker and try for sand trout.  The river rushes through there so hard, most of the time we don't fish it.  But, the conditions were right to drop 3/8 oz. jig heads tipped with gulp shrimp down to the bottom.  We were quickly on the sand trout where the bottom came from 28 feet up to 20 feet.

These were some of the nicest sand trout we have caught.  Hunter got us going with this one which was one of the smaller ones we caught.  (except for Doug, who caught some about the size of his gulp.)

The size of the mouth on these guys show they can eat about anything you drop down.

Doug started whacking them too.

As the sun set we were thinking of the times gone by and the presents we used to get at Christmas.  They included old cotton insulated underwear, green hunting boots that accelerated your freezing feet and blue jeans that seamed to be always frozen down by your shoes.

Here at the Forgotten Coast, that time was way behind us!

Lake Jackson Winter Solstice Bassin'

12.22.10

Lake Jackson

Water: WAAAAYYYY Down

Wind: raging out of the south

Temp: 70's

Hunter and I wanted to do some bassin' on the first day of winter.  It just felt like it, warm, humid wind howling, foggy.  Yep, that's winter.

I heard from my friend that they were catching some nice bass IF you could get your boat in at Lake Jackson.  We took a chance, and after some maneuvering around the boat ramp, we got the tin Nan in the lake.

We just put the trolling motor down and started slingin' and bringing' a Chatterbait, a Zoom Ultra Vibe and a Skinny Dipper throughout the weeds and coots on Lake Jackson.

Soon Hunter said he missed one and then I got in the action with a jack pike on the Chatterbait.

Then Hunter caught a nice little bass and then followed up with this nice fish.

We caught a few more smaller bass and then I connected on this 2 and half pounder.

The bite was consistent in the wind and fog.  I missed a really nice fish on the chatter bait and then set the hook on this really nice fish, tipping the scales at 5 1/2 lbs.

Hunter stabbed another bass and the sun broke out and the bite tailed.

After some creative boat loading skills, we headed home happy bassers.