Lake Tarpon Report July 5th, 2010

After spending the 4th of July gorging on my buddy Kevins famous smoked ribs, watching my friend Jay nearly blow his hand off a dozen times, and drinking more than my share of Red Stripes it was time to relax, recover and do some bass fishing!

I took friends Kevin and Chris out on Lake Tarpon on the Nitro 929 Monday to see if we could hammer some bass after all the rain we've had. Should be a lot of run-off coming into Tarpon including from our main target Brooker Creek. Kevin was talking about a possible 100 bass day as the conditions seemed perfect with overcast skies and slightly lower temps than we've seen in the past few days.
The day started in front of Chris's house fishing his yearling infested (one-year old bass) man-made pond in his development. I was loading up the boat when I heard a Rat-L-Trap whiz through the air smacking something solid followed by an "OWW!" The first catch of the day would be Chris as he buried the barb of a rat-l-trap in his ankle. After a half-hour of digging around we finely got the barb turned around and snapped off. A little peroxide and a band-aid and we were on our way to Lake Tarpon!

After launching out of Chesnut at about 11:30, we started at Brooker Creek. There was a nice flow coming out but to our surprise there was very little action. We tried in the mouth and out in the surrounding flats but could only pick-up one small one. After an hour or so of working the creek we decided to head down the outflow canal towards the damn and see how that was flowing. We made a few stops and picked off a few schoolies along the way. When we got to the damn, the water was really flowing through but again the action was very slow and we came away from the damn with no bites. We worked back up the canal picking off a few more along the banks on our way back to Brooker Creek. We finished up at Brooker catching a couple more as the action picked up a little bit. Kevin caught a decent fish on a chug bug and I picked up a 17" fish on a junebug Bitters Sling. Overall, the total count was only 11 bass, just 89 short of 100!

Air temps: upper 80's

Water temps: 81 (76 inside Brooker Creek)

Overcast and Humid

Lake Tarpon Report 4/17/2010-Xtreme Bass Tournament

Finally, we got some active fish as we fished our 3rd Xtreme Bass Series Tournament on Lake Tarpon this past weekend. The weather conditions were perfect on Saturday for a healthy bite and the bass did not dissapoint! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a kicker in the boat but we caught over 30 fish on the day with a 9-lb limit. The top three spots were around 14, 12, and 11 pounds respectively with big bass about 4.5 pounds.
We started the day on the East side of the lake using topwater and texas rigged junebug culprits mostly. They were hitting topwater for about the first 45 minutes but the action on top died off and we started getting bit on the T-rigs dragged through the grass and reeds. We were able to get one keeper (14 inch) on top water and one on a worm before moving in and getting two keepers off of docks with a Junebug Bitters sling. After several hours, we decided to move on in pursuit of some larger fish. We hit the mid-lake area on the West side and were able to find a little better quality but still no kicker. We got a few in the two pound range under docks and another two pounder in the grass on a lipless bait to fill out our limit at around 9-lbs. Overall, the weather was great and the fishing was excellent! Oh ya,and the new Nitro 929 ran like a dream!! Kev and I had a great time on the water and thats what it's all about!

Water temp:74-75 degrees
Air temp: 70-85 degrees
Partly cloudy, pre-front conditions
wind: calm in the morning,SSW 5-10 w/ gusts to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Lake Tarpon Report 3/20/10 -Xtreme Series

We fished our second Lake Tarpon Xtreme Series Tournament of the year yesterday and again we had trouble locating keepers. We caught about 10 fish all day with 2 keepers (14in) weighing 3.14 lbs. The winners had over 12 pounds and there were several nice limits caught on a beautiful day with bluebird skies! Air temps started at about 50 degrees and warmed up fast to over 75 degrees. The water temps ranged from 60 to 66 degrees. The wind started calm in the morning but kicked up pretty good and was at least 10-15 mph most of the day shifting several times. We got both keepers on Bitter Slings, one on junebug and one on watermelon. We had no luck on lipless baits or texas rigged worms. Hopefully our normal money spots on Lake Tarpon will start producing with a warmer April!

Lake Tarpon Report 2/20/10 -Xtreme Series

Feels good to back fishing Lake Tarpon on a regular basis again as my bassin' partner Kevin and I have decided to fish the Xtreme Bass Series Lake Tarpon Division after taking a year off. Unfortunately the fishing was slow for us as we couldn't seem to get any bites until the afternoon hours. We tried fishing canals and the mouths of canals early but couldn't find any fish as the water temps lingered around 55 degrees until the sun came out around 11:00am. The warmest I saw the water temp was 59 degrees and the air temps ranged from the high 40's to the high 60's later in the day. We only caught about 6 or 7 fish all day with 2 keepers for 3.60 pounds. We got one keeper on a rapala and a 2-1/2 pounder on a Bitter's Sling. I saw quite a few anglers fishing traps but I don't know how they did. Winning team had 13.10lbs with big fish weighing 5.55lbs. Second place had 10.58lbs. There were a total of 9 teams with 3 teams catching their 5-fish limit. Hopefully, with a little warmer weather we can get some more teams out there in the upcoming tournaments!

Lake Rousseau Report 3/28

Wiinndy! With wind gusts up to 30mph fishing our North Tampa Bass Tournament was a little difficult today to say the least! Throw in a stump filled Lake Rousseau and it's a recipe for disaster!
My co-angler Greg and I battled the wind and stumps for a good part of the day but managed to put together a couple of decent 5-fish limits to finish 1st and 4th respectively and more importantly not go over board in the process! We ended are day out of the wind by fishing some docks in the canal by the Bass Avenue ramp with both of us filling out our limits there. The mix of wind and submerged timber lay downs everywhere was a challenge as at times we felt like we were in a bumper boat bouncing off stumps just trying not to fall in! Greg took advantage of the early morning bite before the wind kicked up and nailed 2 nice bass on a white spinnerbait with gold willow leaf blades and 2 more nice ones on rattle traps with one going 4.15 and winning big bass. I on the other hand had to scramble most of the day picking up a fish here and a fish there to piece together an 8lb limit. We both filled up our 5-fish limits hitting a row of 3 docks in a northside canal with junebug senkos/Bitters Slings. I was hoping the shad rap bite would be on as it was last time I was on Rousseau but it just wasn't there today so I did what I could catching one on a texas-rigged Culprit worm in x-mas, one on a shad rap, and 3 on junebug Bitters Slings under docks. Greg finished up with 11.11 lbs winning his first tournament of the year and probably putting him in 1st place in the AOY standings. Overall, we had 18 anglers catching 39 bass with 4 limits.

Lake Tarpon Report 2/23

Got out and messed around on Lake Tarpon yesterday for a few hours with mixed results. I started fishing about 1:30pm in Salmon Bay (Anderson Park) throwing a trap in the hydrilla with no bites in about a half-hour. I saw little surface activity or baitfish so I moved on. I tried a couple deeper residential canals with a rapala shad rap again for about a half hour with no hits. Again, no surface activity so I moved on to another spot. I tried the John Chestnut area, working some senkos around the shoreline but the Sunday traffic was to much so I again moved on. I decided to hit a canal on the west side of the lake where I figured there to be clear water and there are usually at least some small fish this time of year. I threw a Bitters Sling in X-mas (junebug with red and green flakes) and started to get some bites. I caught my first largemouth about 3:30pm under a dock at the mouth of the canal measuring 15 1/2 inches and close to 2 pounds. I continued down the canal tossing my Bitters Sling under pontoon boats while chatting with a resident sitting on his porch having a beer. He told me the fishing has been so-so and that the females haven't really moved up to spawn yet. I noticed a few nests with a few small males scattered around but nothing over a pound. I got two more small ones on the X-mas slings before exiting the canal and focusing on a line of docks in the mid-lake area. I got one more there at 5:00pm measuring 15" under a dock and decided to call it a day. Total came out to 4 bass-2 keepers and one missed at the boat. Temps were around 70 with water temp about 64. A small front basically moved in the whole time I was out there but only dropped the temp a few degrees. Either way it was nice just to get out land throw some casts!

Lake Tarpon Report 9/22

Got out on Lake Tarpon today for about an hour and half, mostly just to run the boat as it has been idle for a month but also to take a few casts and see how they're biten! Got out about 2:30pm and it was hot and muggy, probably 90 degrees with the wind out of the north at only about 6-7 mph and the water level seemed slightly higher than normal. Skies were overcast with some threatening clouds in the distance that eventually pushed me off the lake. In the small amount of time I was out there I was able to establish a dock pattern and get 3 non-keepers boated before giving in to the storm clouds. I was using 5" Bitters Slings in their rootbeer candy color. If you are not familiar wiith Bitter's Slings, they are put out by Bitter's Bait and Tackle in Longwood, Florida. They are what is commonly known as a senko, sinko or stickbait as some call it. I have fallen in love with them and they have been my go-to bait for the past several years. They are a little tougher than a Yamamoto Senko, which is the most widely known soft stick bait, but still have the action needed to make the Bass crazy! I order a years supply online as they are only stocked in a dozen or so bait and tackle shops around the state. The employees taking my order have always been very nice and helpfull and I recommend their baits over all other! Check out their website at: http://bittersbaitandtackle.com/