Butler Chain

[Florida Bassin]

This past week out on Butler Chain has seen some good bass fishing action. Bass have been relating to the grass edges, as we found out Monday, Matt and I tried to get on a good flipping bite, but the small bass seemed to be stacked up inside the grasses, so we moved off the grass and pitched wacky rigged Gitem K.O’s in Red Bass and Dark Mellon, catching several good bass between 3 ½ to 4.2 pounds. Gitem Toads got a few strikes with one hook up, as well as a Buzzrbait from Secret Weapon Lures. Lakes Fished were Lake Down, Lake Louise, Lake Pocket and Lake Sheen

Tuesday saw us artificial baits. Bob and Judy used Gitem K.O’s to get our catch. Morning bite was the best bite, as we closed in on high noon, the bite dropped off in a dramatic way. Most bass were caught on Lake Sheen, in and around hydrilla beds in 8 to 10 foot of water. Artificial baits drew several hits with missed hook ups, and a couple landed on Lake Blanche to end the day.

Wednesday once again had us working Lakes Sheen, Pocket and Blanche with live bait and artificial baits. Fred, Brian and Joyce got the best action using the live bait around grass beds that had deeper water hydrilla close by. Bass had been seen cruising between the two mixes of vegetation so that is the pattern we keyed in on. Once the live bait was used up, we switched to the K.O’s and worked grass beds, and threw to the base of cypress trees, getting a few good hits and misses, with a good hook up on Lake Blanche once again to end the day.

Friday, Jeff came for 4 hours of artificial bait action, and we saw ourselves really working to get our catch. T-rigged and wacky rigs were the way to get the bites, which were very light, as the bass would just pick up the baits, and VERY slowly swim off with it.Lake Sheen did not produce as it had in previous trips, so we made a move into Lake Tibet in order to get our catch, with the two biggest coming in just a shade under 4 pounds.

Saturday I ended the week with Matt and Mary out on Butler Chain. Matt wanted to get his wife out there and catching some bass, and have a good day so that she would continue to want to fish with him. Well the day started out the typical way, with the husband telling the wife he was going to catch more bass, I even tried telling Matt, women always out catch the men and catch the bigger bass. Mary did not let me down, as she started out with the shiners, catching two bass fairly early on, and Matt was still watching his shiner swim around. We had done some moving around on Lake Sheen, with Matt and Mary both catching bass, but Mary seemed to have the magic touch landing some nice bass, and working them like a Pro.

From Sheen we made a move into Lake Tibet, and Matt want to try some plastic baits, so I showed him how the wacky rig worked, and after a few tosses, Matt had a good hook up and landed his bass. Mary got a little quiet on the back of the boat, when things work up, and the drag was being pulled, a few minutes later, Mary was getting her picture taken with a very nice 4.12 pound bass, which would turn out to be the biggest bass of the day.

Matt had his moment about 15 minutes later, working a grass line with a Texas rigged Gitem K.O, he sets the hook and a good fight was on, we got a good look at this bass and Matt thought for sure he was going to have a bigger bass than his wife. Mary started to reel up her line as it appeared to be tangled in with Matt’s bass, but what had happened was, This bass was so hungry, it had taken in her shiner and was swimming around, and hit Matt’s T-Rigged K.O, so they ended the day with them both landing the last bass of the day together, coming in at 4.2 pounds.

Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com