The past 2 weeks have seen some good bass fishing action out on Butler Chain. Starting with the Patterson clan, with shiners and artificial baits we worked Lake Butler and Lake Chase, with Steve tossing a spinner bait to get the "wildest" hook set award of the year. Steve was tossing a spinner bait in and around grasses and docks, when he gave her a toss to a dock, spinner bait going over the dock walkway, back into the water around a PVC pipe sticking up and under a boat. Thinking this was going to be a mess, he was right, as he tried to shake the lure loose, the line got pinned between a post and the walkway, when it looked like the rod got tugged on.
Steve assured me there was nothing there, and as he popped the line to shake her loose, we hear a splash from under the boat in the boat slip, Steve popped the line free from the walkway and the short lived fight was on. Stepping onto the dock, Steve had reeled up as far as he could, while I was hanging off the walkway, reaching for a bass that was not only hooked up solid, but was also tangled in someone else's braided line left behind, after a few minutes of me teetering on sliding off a dock into the water, I did manage to just barely lip his bass, which weighed in right at 5 pounds. I honestly can't remember the last time I had to work that hard to lip a bass.
The next day, Tuesday the 10th, saw Dave Fonder and his girlfriend back out on Butler, giving it a go with some fly fishing! Well needless to say, they gave it one heck of a go, before sitting down the fly rods and tossing around Steel Shads in the deep holes and drop offs to catch their bass.
Wednesday, Rod, coming from Canada gave it a run out on Butler with shiners and had a pretty darn good 4 hour trip, catching some good quality bass on Lake Butler and Lake Chase. Once again bass were caught in the areas where there was a deep water drop off close by, boat set up in 6 foot of water, and the bass coming from waters in 10 to 16 foot.
I have been enjoying the last few days off, still hitting the waters working with new lures. I have been catching bass out on Butler using a ChugRoller and a PopRoller with today being capped off with a nice 3.4 pound bass on a PT Spoon from High Roller Lures.
Lake Toho report will be posted in the next few days.
Tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com