Sunday, March 1, 2009

Lake Kissimmee 2/26 Pre-fish

I pre-fished Thursday for our North Tampa Bass Club tournament on Saturday and the fishing was really tough as were the conditions. I launched from Thomas Landing on the west side of the lake at about 8:00am and it was immediatly apparent that wind was going to be an issue! It was blowing from the north east at about 10-15 mph with gusts to 20. I started on the west side of Lemon Point as I was looking for the Pig Trail but mis-calculated! It looked great anyway (what doesn't on Kissimmee?) so I put the trolling motor down and went to work. I tried flipping a few different plastics bit it was tough to get off any acurate casts as I was being muscled around by the breeze. I tried to anchor up and pitch to some pads but it just wasn't working and I was getting frustrated so I made a run to the south side of Lake Hatchinea to get out of the wind. It worked as I was able to flip and work a worm around in a couple feet of water with ease but the fish just didn't want to cooperate so after 20 minutes I bolted back down the Kissimmee River and decided stop in the Ox Bow where Camp Mack is located and flip some docks. After flipping some senkos around for a half an hour with still no bites I decided to run back out to Kissimmee and try and figure out my next move. I made the decision to head down Tiger Creek to Tiger Lake and see what was going on there. After the fun filled slalom that is Tiger Creek I arrived at Tiger Lake and immediately loved what I saw. Long docks everywhere with patches of grass in between. The water was cypress stained but clear enough to see the bottom in a three feet of water. I pulled out my junebug Bitters Slings and went to work. It didn't take long before I pulled a small 10 incher out from under a dock. I had missed him on the first throw but he came back for it on the next. Finally a fish at 1:00pm, now I can stop thinking about the skunk! I kept at it and pulled another small one out of grass patch 10 minutes later. I thought I was on to something and kept working the grass and docks all the way down the shoreline but those would be my only two fish of the day. If I was fishing a tournament, I would have gone back and worked the area where I found the two fish but I was prefishing so I needed to keep searching. At 4:00pm I decided to call it a day and hope for better conditions on Saturday for my tournament! At least I got some sun and didn't get skunked!

Thomas Landing
3952 Sam Keen Rd
Lake Wales, Fl 33898
863-692-1121

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