Harris Chain Bass Fishing

May 3, 2010 by Outdoor Web Designs


Another Harris Trophy. Corey Fey, 15, shows the 10-pound, 8 ounce Largemouth bass he caught last week on Harris Chain.

Recent catches prove things are thriving
Ever since Lake County’s Harris Chain bass fishery all but crashed and burned more than a decade ago, its 40,000 acres have been bypassed by big-bass hunters.
In January, local tournament angler Richard Patterson caught a 12- pound, 15.5-ounce bass near the mouth of a Dead River Canal.
Then the CITGO BASSmasters Tour event came to town Jan. 29, and on the first day, pro Alton Jones caught a fish that weighed 10 pounds, 13 ounces.
During the first two days of the tournament, the anglers caught 1,168 bass with a total weight of 2,946 pounds, according to a report filed with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Last week, Corey Fey, 15, a ninth-grade student at Dr. Phillips High School, caught a 10-pound, 8-ounce largemouth on Lake Harris using The Original Fishing Snake.
The lifelike lure was co-developed by Mark Abernathy of St. Cloud and noted big-bass expert Doug Hannon of Odessa.
Fey said he saw the wake of a large bass head into the maidencane that rings the lake. He cast the lure into the grass, retrieved it in short twitches, and once it exited the weed, stopped it and let it float.
“There was a swirl, and the snake disappeared,” Fey said. “The fish headed back into the grass, and I had to wrestle it back out of the grass.”
After a picture, the fish was released.
Fey’s father, Tim, is a bass guide and chief field pro for the Natural Motion Lures Co., which markets the lures.
Oddly enough, it’s not Corey Fey’s favorite bait all the time.
“Sometimes I don’t have the patience for it, because you have to work it very slowly,” he said. FWC biologist John Benton said he has been encouraged by the reports of the large bass being caught in the chain’s lakes.
In the early 1990s, the chain’s bass fishery seemed on the brink.
The fish were hard to find, and many appeared undernourished and with pink rather than bright red gills.
Angry tournament anglers and Hannon blamed overly eager weed- control authorities who eliminated the exotic plant hydrilla from the chain.
The offshore stands of underwater plants were the favorite gathering places for larger bass, when they weren’t moving to the shallow waters to feed.
Without the grass, the anglers said, the bass had scattered.
In addition, they claimed, the sudden death of the plants released excess nutrients they had been storing. The sudden flood of free nutrients caused a plankton bloom and then sudden die-off that torpedoed the levels of dissolved oxygen in the lakes.
Biologists studied the fish, sending samples to experts at several universities, but never could find out what was causing their illness and die-offs.
Benton said they now believe it was caused by what is called the Largemouth Bass Virus, which was unknown to scientists then.Eventually the viral attack ran its course and left the chain with a fair bass population.
But it still had a poor reputation and caused many people to avoid fishing the chain, which helped more fish survive.
Then came an unexpected event, the drought of 1998-99, which acted as a mini-drawdown and helped improve the fishery’s habitat.
It also concentrated bait fish and made them easy prey.
“These big fish that are being caught now are old fish, and during the drought, they sure fed well and have bulked up some,” Benton said.
The rainfalls that ended the drought helped improve the water’s clarity and the spread of eelgrass, an important nursery plant for young bass.
“The eelgrass is all over the place now,” Benton said. “The water transparency looks better than it was in the 1990s. Overall, I’m very happy with what we’re seeing out in the chain.”
Copyright 2004 by The Orlando Sentinel)
Don Wilson can be reached at dwilson@OrlandoSentinel.com or 407-420- 5397.

Precious Waters

May 3, 2010 by Outdoor Web Designs

Precious Waters

The Butler Chain of Lakes is a great place to spend time with your family and enjoy the wonder of nature.

By Sarah Kezer
Photo by Anna Cary Photography

There are some precious waters surrounding Windermere. The Butler Chain of Lakes is a source of pride, beauty and recreation for Orange County residents and visitors, who enjoy boating, fishing and recreation there.
The 12 connected lakes are surrounded by old and new Florida homes, including those of celebrities Shaquille O’Neal and Tiger Woods. Lake Down is the northernmost lake, followed by Little Lake Down, Wauseon Bay, Lake Butler, Lake Louise, Lake Isleworth, Lake Chase, Lake Blanche, Lake Tibet, Lake Sheen, Pocket Lake and Fish Lake.
Lake Butler is the largest of the fresh water, sand-bottom lakes. It has an island bird sanctuary, which is off limits to people; but locals often dock their boats there and socialize on the weekends.

Though the scenery is beautiful, the main reason Capt. Tim Fey takes most of his clients out on the lakes is to fish. Fey, a licensed captain with the U.S. Coast Guard, has been fishing Central Florida waters for more than 20 years. “I get people all the way from Canada and United Kingdom and take them to the Butler Chain,” says Fey.

As an experienced fishing guide and Southwest Orlando resident, Fey says the area has clean, deep water and great bass and crappie fishing. Fey says that he and his guests are also usually lucky enough to spot other wildlife ranging from otters, alligators and an occasional eagle.

If you’re looking to take your own boat for a spin on these waters, consider joining the Orange County Sportsman Club. Members of the club enjoy private boat ramp access onto the lakes and additional recreation facilities. There is one public bank access area on Lake Down but parking is limited and usually fills up quickly.

Albert Gallof, president of Orange County Sportsman Club, says that their 1,700 plus members not only get to use the private launch site on Lake Sheen, but can take advantage of their pavilions, volleyball courts and meeting hall. “It’s a great family atmosphere,” Gallof says, “you’d never know we were back here but it is beautiful.” According to Gallof, the county limits the number of members the club can obtain so the waiting list can get pretty long. Gallof says the group can accept about 100 new members each year.

According to the Department of Environmental Protection, the chain of lakes is worthy of special protection because of its natural attributes, so it has been designated an Outstanding Florida Water. This recognition is applied to certain waters to conserve existing good water quality. Most of these areas are managed by the state or federal government as parks, including wildlife refuges, preserves, marine sanctuaries and aquatic preserves. This designation requires that activities requiring a water management district permit such as dredge, fill and pollutant discharge must not significantly degrade nearby Outstanding Florida Waters and be “clearly in the public interest”.

Organizations such as the Butler Chain Conservation Association work to protect the environment. According to their Web site, the association acknowledges that development is inevitable but insists that it can be done without destroying nature’s delicate balance. Protecting Southwest Orlando’s Butler Chain of Lakes ensures that these precious waters are available for future generations to enjoy.

World Record Bass

May 3, 2010 by Outdoor Web Designs

Japanese lake may claim largemouth bass record
By Ed Zieralski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Originally published 3:04 p.m. July 2, 2009, updated 8:24 a.m., July 3, 2009

In this photo taken and distributed by Takanari Shogawa of Japanese fishing tackle maker deps Co., Japanese angler Manabu Kurita raises a black bass after he caught it in Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan, Thursday, July 2, 2009. – AP Photo/Takanari Shogawa, deps Co.

Japan’s Lake Biwa, one of the oldest lakes in the world, may be claiming a largemouth bass that might tie the oldest and most cherished all-tackle world record in freshwater fishing.

Reports indicate that a 22-pound, 5-ounce bass (10.12 kilograms and 73.5 centimeters in Japan) was caught by Manabu Kurita, a pro angler who represents Deps Tackle Company in Japan. He was fishing in massive Lake Biwa in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan. Girth measurements were not given in the reports, but there are several pictures of the bass posted on various Web sites. And the bass was reportedly weighed on a certified scale.

It’s been exactly 77 years and one month since George Perry caught a 22-pound, 4-ounce bass out of Montgomery Lake in Georgia on June 2, 1932. It has been the International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record ever since.

“I heard about it, but we don’t have any details,”
said Jason Schratwieser, the IGFA’s fishing records and conservation director.

Schratwieser said the bass would have to be 2 ounces heavier than Perry’s catch to establish a new record.

“It will tie it if that’s the weight,” Schratwieser said, indicating that IGFA rules stipulate that for record fish weighing less than 25 pounds, the replacement record must weigh at least two ounces more than the existing record.

“It looks like the real deal,” said San Diego County bass angler Mike Long, recognized as one of the top big bass anglers in the world. “The girth looks right. Everything looks right about it.”

Said Ken Duke, senior editor for BASS publications: “It seems closer and more of a real deal than any situation we’ve seen.”

Lake Biwa is Japan’s largest lake and covers more than 259 square miles. It’s also said to be one of the oldest lakes in the world. It is surrounded by mountains and famous for its scenic environs. Its crystal-clear water is more than 300 feet deep.

In recent years Japanese officials have reacted to concerns by commercial fishermen there and tried to eliminate invasive species from Biwa, and black bass, or largemouth bass, are on that list of invasives. An unconfirmed report indicates that a 25-pound largemouth bass may have been netted by one of the commercial fishermen. The Lake Biwa Museum Restaurant serves largemouth bass on its menu.

The previous Japanese bass record weighed 19.15 pounds and was caught by Kazuya Shimada from Lake Ikehara on April 22, 2003, on a swimbait.

Many thought the next world record bass would come from a California reservoir that gets stocked with trout. Dixon Lake in Escondido, north of San Diego, served up a 25-pound, 1-ounce bass in March 2006, but angler Mac Weakley of Carlsbad inadvertently foul-hooked the bass and never submitted it for record consideration.

Other Southern California lakes such as Mission Viejo, Lake Murray and even Lake Cuyamaca, because of the amount of stocked trout they get, have been considered contenders to turn out a world-record bass. The larger bass eat stocked trout and get much heavier than bass at lakes that aren’t stocked with trout.

One exception was Lake Hodges, which turned out a 20-pound, 4-ounce bass in 1985.

Diamond Valley Lake also is considered a top candidate for producing a world-record bass. It is stocked heavily with trout, but bass fishermen must work from rental boats there. The lake’s launch ramp is out of service due to California’s drought conditions.

Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225;