Butler Chain

[Florida Bassin]

Week Ending March 11th
The past week I spent 6 days out on the Butler Chain with clients on a mix of trips again, some artificial and some live bait. First part of the week saw a very tough bite, even with live bait, as the bass were just mouthing the shiners and barely holding onto them. Sizing down on the shiners from Large to Mediums made the catch much better for the clients.
Shiners were all slow trolled in various depths of water, ranging from 4 foot to 22 feet deep, with numbers coming in the 4 to 8 foot depths, and size coming from waters 12 to 20 feet deep.

The artificial bite was fairly good for the most part, with the majority of the bass being caught on Gitem Shad, Gitem K.Os and Gitem Warlocks, dominate color being black with red flake and working baits very slowly with a 1/8th ounce screw in bullet weight.
Again working shallow waters, tossing baits all the way to shoreline, very tight to grass beds, and right up against the cypress trees in order to catch bass. Most bites were very light, so watching your line was very important. There was no spinner bait bite or even a rattle trap bite to speak of for most of the week. Several good bass were spotted cruising around the beds on several lakes, but for the most part, the beds were empty. Water temperatures were running 68 in the mornings and warming to as high as 72 by the end of the day. Look out, top water action is just around the corner.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
http://www.bassfishingfl.com

[lizardsrule]

Just wondering, how many of your clients want to keep bass, either for dinner or trophy's vs strictly catch and release. Just interested in the % that usually keep them. BTW I'm OK with them keeping them as long as it follows the regulations. And thanks for the report.

Lizards

[Florida Bassin]

Originally Posted by lizardsrule

Just wondering, how many of your clients want to keep bass, either for dinner or trophy's vs strictly catch and release. Just interested in the % that usually keep them. BTW I'm OK with them keeping them as long as it follows the regulations. And thanks for the report.

Lizards

Lizards,
Its strictly catch and release, gotta put them back if we expect to keep catching quality bass.

[KeithsCatch]

I appreciate that Tim. I wish more Florida folks felt like you. Good job.

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by Florida Bassin

Lizards,
Its strictly catch and release, gotta put them back if we expect to keep catching quality bass.

The main reason I asked is you have one picture of a guy holding 3 bass at the same time I thought that would be pretty difficult to do with catch and release Just made me think about it.

Lizards

[Florida Bassin]

Those three bass were stressed when we caught them, so they spent a little time in the live well with " please release me" after about an hour, they were released and swam off very healthy I do everything possible to make sure all bass caught stay alive and returned back to their waters.

[lizardsrule]

Originally Posted by Florida Bassin

Those three bass were stressed when we caught them, so they spent a little time in the live well with " please release me" after about an hour, they were released and swam off very healthy I do everything possible to make sure all bass caught stay alive and returned back to their waters.

My best regards to you and your efforts. We all know sometimes we just can't save them, but the more we save, the better the fishing

Lizards

[islandflyfisher]

Nice fish and good report!