Lake Kissimmee

The last 3 nights have locked the jaws of the Crappie here. The next couple of days in the mid 70's will probably turn them on. They are holding in deeper water, 7 to 16 feet and just loaded with eggs and will very soon do it. Looks like the dark of the moon will be the trigger here. Hope so.

Before it got so cold, a number of fish were being caught and we caught some real nice ones, filleted 22 all over 11 inches. Yummy.

I think we might stay a couple of days longer and try to get it in the good ones.;)

Pepper

Figures they've got lockjaw there too...

We've been chomping at the bit to get down to Camp Mack and get down the the river. We never really got on to a mess of them in the Lake... although it's so effing huge there's endless possibilities for spots!

But I'll tell ya, go in the locks and hit up the canals that run in and out of that river all the way down until you get tired. There's pockets that drop from 2-3ft to 11-12ft. We hit up those little nooks and cranny's, and had to just stop ourselves we were hammering them so bad. Easily bring home 50-60 in a 4 hr period.

I'd give that a shot before you leave if you not too far from the locks :)

We did a bit of that before it got so cold, want to stay a bit longer and let things thaw out a bit. Most of the fish we have caught have been from the river as we are staying at Camp Mack, 1st time here but will not be the last. It is just too natural.

Found one hump in the river that came up from 14ft to 8ft and got the best catch of the trip. An 11 inch double on the 1st drop, just at or near the top of the hump. Learned a bunch about reading my fish finder, we have learned a lot about our Eagle, see lots of locals who are floating and jigging at 5ft or less and catch nothing. Gonna try below the camp tomorrow near the lake as we did a little propecting down that way late this afternoon and marked a number of fish near 7-8ft.

More info tomorrow, hope it will be better. Wife and I are having a blast spending most of January down here.

Pepper

Yeah let me know how you do. We are debating Kissimmee, Hatchnenha or Walk-in-water for our early morning trip. Going someplace tonight too... not sure where.

Heading to Port Hatchnenha in the early AM and fishing til the boats filled up.

Going with tight lines.

Not too bad today, fished a couple of hours and caught about 20 and cleaned 11, not too bad. Fish turned off at 2:30 this afternoon.

Tomorrow should be interesting as the bass tournament will be going here tomorrow at Camp Mack, man there are bass boats everywhere tonight. Think I will get up and watch the start and the finish for sure.

Seemed to mark fish a little shallower today.

Pepper

Fished two parts of Hatch... Gator Cove, which produced two small fish and a stump knocker. Moved over to the main part of the lake, called the hour glass and fished 6' to 7' of water, trolling fast on straight line trolling rigs set to about 5' we caught 18 keepers. We had about 4 fish break off lines, only for sure one of them was a spec. All were big fish though. Going back tomorrow to try more.

We used 1.5 inch white tubes on 1/16oz jigs tipped with minnows. The jigs have #2 gold hooks, which I think is the smallest hook you would want to use if you are tipping with minnows.

This was under 1oz weights, per T_om's straightline fast trolling approach.

Not quite a perfect match for T_om's rig, but close. We felt like we were catching more fish than others. Most we talked to were still catching some though.

About 20 boats around the same area as us.

It is getting hot, we caught about 35 and kept 22 of the that were 10 inches or bigger. One of the females had half her tail gone from fanning a bed, no eggs in her so she had spawned.

Just fishing the river, marking fish at 14-16 feet and jigging for them with minnows tipped on crappie rigs, 1 oz of weight to keep you vertical. Can hardly weight till tomorrow and Monday.;)

Most all of the fish we are catching are within 18 inches of the bottom. Have seen several people trying to catch them in shallow water but they are not there yet.

Will keep you posted, if you are near the north ean of the river going into Hatch, come by and visit.

Pepper

Walliz here. Wife & I are in a 16' Alumacraft Magnum with a 75HP Mariner.
Would love to see you tomorrow on the river. What kind of boat do you have? We are here on vacation from Minnesota & are newbies to Florida fishing! No idea what to do~love to get some pointers!! We are used to fishing Walleyes in NW Minnesota. Thanks! John & Susan

I have a 16 ft Lund with a Mercury 60, it is painted duck boat brown. Wife and I will be out and up the river from Camp Mack. If you are staying at Camp Mack, we are in site # 50.

Gonna be 80 here today and wife wants to lie by the pool this afternoon and read, been with me everyday so I will be by myself and may go to Lake Kissimmee and try for some bass. I put one of the tournament guys yesterday on a limit of bass and he told me where to go and maybe catch a biggen.

Please look me up. I love to visit. My 1st trip down here as well.

Pepper

Got to meet a very nice man and his wife who are from the cold state of Minnesota, came to Florida to say a month back in December and are staying till April.

We visited and caught some fish anchored near each other today and had a great time visiting. He caught some fish and so did we. Hope Im was able to show him what was working for us.

One more day for us and then back north on Wednesday.:(

Pepper

Does your lund have a walk thru windshield and a bimini top. Don't see alot of lunds and saw one today on Hatchnenha tied up to a pontoon boat.

The Lund is a wide open with no windshield, we were close to Hatch today but were not all the way there. My boat is just a plain old duck boat color, duck boat brown, Lund painted it in 1991.

Having a blast in Camp Mack and fishing everyday.:D

Gonna try to catch some more tomorrow in the am and then to Lake Kissimmee to try and catch some bass.

Pepper

We had a fun day! Enjoyed meeting you 2! Good luck in the morning! We decided to do a Walmart day & fry our crappies at Mom's house tomorrow night! We may go out Tuesday morning. Got enuf today for a small fish fry! Thanks & have good trip back home! Maybe we'll meet sometime again! Keep in touch with us! If you ever come to Minnesota, we'll show you where the bigguns are! If you come back in March, let us know & we'll see you again wherever you are! Hit private message on the top & we'll give you our email & phone #! Take Care & Enjoy your day tomorrow! J & S

We caught most of ours, later in the the day too, so getting up early was just useful in letting us test out the big motor. Finally got a few doubles this weekend. I am wondering about going to 8lb test to the swivel then 6lb test as a leader. 4lb seems so small some times. Those fish we lost would have been nice to see closer.

We had 4 just drop off at the boat, lifting them in, We have not caught any 12 in or bigger fish since the cold snap. Wonder wherethey went.

We had 5 doubles yesterday, we are culling all below 10 inch so we can still have some fun.

Going home tomorrow.:( Snow storm at my house tonight and tomorrow.:eek:

Pepper