Fishing Reports Central > Out of State Reports | Menu
Last | Next

Author:
Pappy
Date:
Feb 26, 2011
Subject:
Central Florida Bass Fishing - The good, the bad and the ugl
Message:
Took two good trips and one really bad one while down here for vacation this week, hence the title. The first was an artificial bait only trip on Harris Chain of Lakes, with Shawn Carptenter from BassOnLine.com on Tuesday. It that failed to produce. (THE BAD). But Shawn was a great guy, who I really enjoyed fishing with and I didn’t learn a few things from watching him and his instruction. He told me fishing had been tough over the last couple of weeks. The temp has been very warm down here for the past two weeks and in talking to a number of guides prior to booking they all said it's caused major problems with the fishing. Air temps are in the 80's and water temps in the low 70's. Normal temps are much lower. As a result unlike the normally long spawning period which the fish should be in, many fish have spawned and should be in post spawn. This looked like it was the case as we saw quite a few empty beds. Had a 2nd trip scheduled for Friday this one on Lake Toho. Again it was supposed to be artificial only trip and again the guide said fishing was off. In this case so was the guide. He was as even more rude, obnoxious and condescending in person than my dealings with him after paying my deposit and prior to showing up at the ramp. After having two call him at 9:00 p.m. the night before the trip to get directions because he insisted he didn’t know where we were going to fish, although he claimed to have sent them 3 hours prior, which somehow never materialized in my email anywhere. I finally get to bed about 10:00 p.m. in order to awake at 4:00 the next morning and travel two hours to meet him at the launch. He gives me an address of 100 Lakeshore Blvd and when I pull into the ramp the plaque says 250 so I walk with my wife up to a Marina to use the facilities which they tell me is #101. We were there 15 minutes early but by the time I walk up and back and use the facilities I'm 5 minutes late. I proceed to tell him "we'll be right there." He proceeds to ask "who's we" I tell him me and my wife. He says “I only brought one set up”, which wound up being a lie. So I said that's ok she doesn't fish. He then proceeds to tell me that I shouldn't bring her because it is unfair to her to be on the boat for the whole trip and not fish. My wife really wanted to go. She loves being on the boat when I fish. I found it pretty amazing that he, a single guy, is telling me what my wife of 37 years wants. On the way out he stops twice complaining about his engine and saying he might have to cancel the trip. He gets to a spot that we fish for about 90 minutes. I start out fishing a baitcaster with fluro and am doing fine. He switches me over to braid to switch out the bait and I am nesting the thing about every third cast. He tells me how I need to cast, etc. all of it to eliminate the birdnesting. I do my best to follow his tips, but it keeps birdnesting. After about 15 minutes he doesn't switch me back to the fluro set up but asks for the braid, looks at it and says "oh a smart guy huh" as he loosens the casting knob so the bait will fall freely instead of not dropping at all. I told him I didn't touch the set up as he insinutated I had. I told him as the guide I was expecting that when he put the new bait on he would have adjusted the reel properly and therefore never checked it. For the remaining hour I do fine, but catch nothing. He catches two shorts. Yet when he hooks up he never even attempts to pass the reel back to me to land the fish. In addition I’ve been fishing completely from the back of the boat for the the entire trip so far as directed. I fished from the front all day with Shawn on Tuesday. When he finally decides to move out of the area, he still complains of the motor running poorly, calls off the trip and brings us in over very choppy water (the wind was 20 mph +) and he doesn't slow down for the waves bumping my wife and I all over the boat at points. He tells me he'll refund my deposit and drops us off at the launch about 90 minutes into the trip which is less fishing time than driving time. He says he's had his engine treated "last week" and it's been getting worse every day since then and didn't want to get stuck out on the lake. First I’d heard of it. But I try to just chalk it up as a UGLY experience. I ask him if he could contact another guide to see if he can hook us up on a replacement trip to which he makes a disparaging remark that any guide who would be available would be "the bottom of the barrel." This guys name is Steven Boyd. His web sites are: www.floridabassadventures.com and www.orlandobassguide.com It should be obvious I provide the websites not for an endorsement but to alert others. At that point we bid Steven good bye and good riddens and I called BassOnLine.com who set up my first trip. They were awesome and told me if I was willing to hang around the Orlando area, they could hook me up with a later afternoon trip with one of their guides, John Leech. As promised John was at the launch at 3:00 waiting for us to board. He told me the artificial baits weren’t producing well and suggested we scrap that approach in favor of live bait. At this point I just wanted to catch some fish and readily agreed. It was supposed to be a three hour trip. After hearing what we’d gone through earlied, John kept us out for 3 and a half, no extra charge. In fact, he gave us a discount on the cost for the bair as well. I landed 7 bass in the 3 and a half hours and had a couple gar on before they like the pickerel up north bit through the line and got away. I almost landed one which was well over 30 inches but once he saw the boat he took off and finally jumped completely out of the water before being able to turn his head enough to bite through the line and get away. The best of the bass from the trip which came at the end was this 8# 8 oz beauty. [img:1d887e941d]http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubbthreads/attachments/userpics/2501/Pappy(PW)-20929-TohoFishCTF.jpg[/img:1d887e941d] The largest by far I’ve ever landed! Here's one with my guide. [img:1d887e941d]http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubbthreads/attachments/userpics/2501/Pappy(PW)-20930-TohoFishwithJohnCTF.jpg[/img:1d887e941d] If you’re ever in Central Florida and looking for a GOOD charter I’d recommend BassOnLine.com. They have about 60 guides that work for them throughout the state of FL and my two guides were first rate fisherman and classy individuals as well.
Author:
CTBASSIN
Date:
Feb 27, 2011
Message:
Nice report. Sorry to hear about the bad but the good sounded real good. I have been dying to fish for Fla. large mouths. Nice pics.
Author:
DirtyDawg10
Date:
Feb 27, 2011
Message:
Nice fish!! Congrats!
Last | Next
Home | Topics | Menu