FLW Tour
Lake Toho
Water Temp:
Practice: 73
Tournament: 65
Post Spawn/Pre Spawn



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I haven’t been able to post during this tournament because we have no internet service in the house we’re in. There really wasn’t much to say anyway. The fish are in a post/pre-spawn funk and everyone was complaining. Not so much that they couldn’t find fish, but that once they caught a good fish you couldn’t get another bite in the area. Gabe and I practiced in Lake Kissimmee the first day. Fishing was tough, but we caught a couple good fish. Gabe caught 4 and I caught 3; both of us caught a fish over 5lbs. The second day we fished in Lake Toho and that was worse than Kissimmee. I caught 3 small fish and Gabe caught 5 small fish. So the next day we headed back to Kissimmee to see if we could catch more fish in the areas where we had caught the decent ones the first day of practice. This day was even worse; between the two of us we got 1 fish after 5 hrs of practice. So we left Kissimmee and drove to Toho and launched there to finish out that day. We caught 3 or 4 keepers. The last day of practice we concentrated on fishing the Kissimmee grass in Lake Toho. The morning started off slow with Gabe and I both catching a few small ones. I was dead sticking a fluke and Gabe was throwing a topwater and a worm. About mid day I started smokin’ the fish. I caught one about 8lbs, followed up by a few good keepers.

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I shook off 4 or 5 before Gabe let me set the hook again. We moved about a ¼ mi down the lake and Gabe gave me the ok to set the hook; it was over 5lbs. Needless to say, I wasn’t allowed to set the hook anymore. Things were looking up. Many of the anglers were fishing this way and I was feeling pretty good about what I had learned. I felt like I had a pretty good chance of making the cut if I could get around the Kissimmee grass.

Jess

Are you using any weight in front of, or on the hook when dead sticking the fluke? I can understand if you don't want to say anything. Thanks for any insight.

Mark

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I ended up drawing a guy from Texas. Sometimes you get good draws, sometimes you get bad draws, and other times if you're really lucky, you get the, you're not even going to get a bite draws. When I met the guy at the meeting we discussed what kind of stuff we'd be fishing. When he told me we would be avoiding the Kissimmee grass and hydrilla, I knew I was in trouble. He was targeting the open-water shell beds out in the middle of the lake. He caught his one big fish on a jigging spoon in the middle of lake Toho; I’m pretty sure this fish was either lost or went out there to die. I guess there is a time when you can catch them out there, but this was not one of those times. I could see people catching fish on the edges of the hydrilla not far away, but just out of casting range. I ended up catching one fish on a Lucky Craft RC 2.5 when he drifted off his spot and we got close enough for me to rip through the hydrilla. He ended up zeroing, not catching one fish on his jigging spoon; imagine that! It was a frustrating day to say the least. Day 2 I got paired up with one of my buddies on the National Guard team, Johnathan Newton. I knew even if the fish didn't bite for us we would have a good time. Johnathan was fishing the shallow Kissimmee grass, so I would at least have some kind of chance. He caught 2 fish the day before and was hoping his fish would turn on. Fishing was really slow and I decided to try a reaction bait. I tied on a RC 1.5 and cast it out over the hydrilla. I caught my first keeper of the day as the crank bait went over one of the holes in the hydrilla. I fished the 1.5 for about an hour with no more bites. I looked down and saw that I had the wooden triple trout swim bait still tied on from lake amistad. I picked that up and on my first cast with it caught my second keeper. I figured if I could catch one more keeper I could probably get a check. No such luck. With 30 minutes left to go, we fished the Kissimmee grass patch just outside the off limits. Newton had his first 2 bites of the day, boating his only 2 keepers. I think had we fished there all day we could have both had limits. Unfortunately with the new FLW rules, co-anglers are no longer allowed to share information their pros. I fished this same area with Gabe in practice the day I had the 20lbs. This was the worst FLW Tour tournament I've had in 2 years. People keep telling me you have to take the good with the bad; I’d rather just have the good. Money is getting really tight right now. I've only won $800 since October of last year. Fortunately, when I won money last year, I paid my bills in advance for times when I wasn't winning as much. I have 2 tournaments in a row coming up; an FLW Series on Lake Wheeler in Alabama, and an FLW Tour event on Smith Lake in Alabama. Hopefully I can win some money and take some of the pressure off.

I'll second that jon s.
Jess, thanks for the heads up on the dead sticking.
It baffles me how some guys can remain pros. Do they just have money to burn?