Florida Frost Bite

Cold weather and Florida don't really sound like they go together but that is what we had this past week. Daytime temperatures had been consistently hovering around 75-85 degrees F and the water temperatures in the lakes were around 69-73 degrees F. In a period of 24 hours the temperature dropped down to 30-37 degrees F! It was a change of at least 40 degrees that lasted a little over two days! I felt like I was in the movie “The Day after Tomorrow” (Spoiler alert, if you haven’t seen this movie the whole world turns into an ice cube). Not to mention the water temp also dropped 10-15 degrees. Coming form Canada cold fronts are nothing new to me but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a cold front of this magnitude before. As a lot of you know, cold fronts generally slow fishing down substantially. With that thought floating in my head I was a little skeptical about what my end result would be, but that didn’t even come close to stopping me from hitting the water.

When I’m faced with challenges, such as cold fronts, I try to do things to make myself more comfortable and confident. In order to make myself more comfortable this week I picked the lake that I knew the best. There were a few other lakes that I had wanted to try but I figured rather than try a new lake that I knew nothing about I would stick to one I knew and already liked. As soon as I left the boat launch I drove directly to one of my spots that had held a lot of fish prior to the cold front. The first spot didn’t pan out real great at all. In fact, the first hour I was out there I only had one bite but that one bite was good enough to give me a lot of confidence. The next hour things got a lot better.  I moved to another area that had a lot of confidence in and I went from using a 7.5” to a 10” Texas rigged worm. With in minutes I’d boated two bass and lost /miss four other ones. Even though my hook up ratio looked a lot like the Minnesota Vikings record, I still managed to get quite a few more hits. Actually, I was almost getting the same number of strikes as I did before the cold front but the way the fish were hitting the bait was way different. Before the cold front the bass were hitting the hard and you could move the bait rather quickly. After the cold front they were hitting ultra light. Out of all the hits and fish that I caught I never felt one of the entail strikes. All I would feel is dead weight, like the feeling you get when you are hung up on a weed. The only way I could tell I had a fish was to hold tension and watch the line. Also, the way I moved the bait was way different. I had to slow down and fish everything a lot more thoroughly.
Overall it was a pretty good day. I think the biggest key to the day was heading out to a lake that I knew well and had confidence in.
Anyway… My brother in-law Byron and I are going to go wing a bass derby. Neither of us have fished this lake and we are fishing against a bunch of retired locals… We are probably going to get beat like a redheaded stepchild but you always learn something from a good beating. At least that’s what my dad thinks.

Hey Hey!!!

Hey everyone! I'm kicking off my new blog from the sunshine state.  Although we're supposed to be getting record lows tonight, the weather is beautiful and I've been spending a lot of time fishing on Lake Istapoga just outside of Sebring, FL.  My goal this winter is to catch a bass over 7 lbs... we'll see.  First things first... the fishing update.

So far, I've managed to crack a few 3 lbers... but the big ones have gotten the better of me.  Most of the days I've had decent numbers, I've caught them on Texas rigged worms and creature baits around the reeds in two to three feet of water. One of the biggest difference about fishing down here is how much you need to pay attention to your water depth. For example, in our lakes at home a one foot difference in water depth doesn't effect the fish nearly as much as it does here. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of the lakes I have been fishing are 12'-13' at the deepest point.   

Kind of weird for a northern boy being down here in Florida... I'm constantly seeing things that (I'll admit) make me a little nervous.  Like 10 foot gators, and some sort of water snake.  However, the amount of visual structure down here is amazing... you could spend years flipping and pitching and never seem to hit the same spot twice.  In spots, the hydrilla grows so thick that birds can walk on it like it is solid ground and if you drive through it your motor will bog down, clog your water pump, and smoke your engine... Not cool... Don't worry the Basskitty (my boat) is still purring. It is also pretty nice to be able to fish in T-shirts and shorts in the middle of January, and I've done some serious upkeep on my raccoon eyes.  I've met three good hooks down here named Sherill Brown, Jerry Boyce and Pete Matson, they've showed me lots of new water in the area.

Anyway,  I have to go give Kari a whooping in cribbage but thanks for checking this out. I'll probably be updating this once a week or less until the spring.