Hello Folks,
I believe summer is here! I’m sure you have noticed it, too. We are in some need of rain. We are gettin’ a few showers here and there, but we need a gully washer. Our lakes a gettin’ very low and some rain would be great.
The fishin’ is doin’ pretty good in most of the lakes in our area. Kyle at Bitter’s Bait & Tackle reports that you can still catch a few bluegills, but the bite is slowin’ down in most of the lakes. There are still a few bream beds in the lakes.
I mentioned last week about MFL bein’ here for The Heavy Hitters tournament. Well, that tournament has completed and Jordan Lee was the winner. The championship was on Thursday of last week. On the final day, 10 anglers were fishin’ for $100,000 for the win. Everyone started at zero and you could only weigh in a bass that weighed 3 pounds or more. Jordan weighed in 27 pounds 14 ounces for the win.
As you know, West Lake Toho is covered in hydrilla and Jordan was able to put a pattern together by fishin’ a Berkley Swamp Lord frog. He caught a few punchin’ through the mats, but most of his bass were caught on a frog. I watched most of the tournament, and Jordan was leanin’ on his equipment to get those bass out of the hydrilla. He was usin’ a 7’6’’ heavy rod, his JLee signature series rods, to get those bass out of the thick grass. He was throwin’ his frogs on 50-pound Berkley X4 braid line. I’m not much on fishin’ a frog here in Florida, but watchin’ this tournament, I might have to give it a try in the future.
Also, the goat, Kevin VanDam, capped off his career by catchin’ the largest bass on championship day. He caught his big bass in Lake Cypress on a Strike King Thunder-cricket. His big bass hit the scales at 7 pounds- 12 ounces which was worth $100,000. He finished in 4th place which got him an additional $18,000. If you want more details, you can visit the MFL website.
Rick Mullins and his brother-in-law Greg Fugate are fishin’ this week. They are catchin’ plenty of bass and gettin’ off the water around 1 p.m. Rick told me by 1 o’clock, it’s gettin’ pretty hot, and they get off the water. If they have a breeze, it makes it a little better on the water. They fished the Butler Chain this week and they caught over 30 bass. Rick and Greg both like to fish with plastic worms, and they are catchin’ most of their bass by usin’ a green-pumpkin color worm.
If you haven’t heard yet, a Hall of Fame sized bass was caught in Fellsmere this month. Angler Doug Smith from Canada caught a 13 pound 2 ounce bass that was submitted to the Trophy Catch Program for approval. These big bass, 13 pounds and bigger, qualify for the Hall of Fame recognition reward. You also win a $50-gift card from Bass Pro Shop. If you haven’t registered yet, I would suggest you get registered for a great program here in our state. You can go to the FWC’s website and register for the TrophyCatch program.
Well, I hope you get a chance to do some fishin’ this week, and I hope to see you on the water real soon. See ya next week.
Tip of the week: Bass are bitin’.
Save a few and good luck!
