Lake Lochloosa Bass Fishing Reports

[pegleg]

I went to Lochloosa Monday. It was a bright sunny blue bird day, temp. in the mid 90's. Wasn't a very good fishin day but I needed to get on the water. The Spatterdock clumps that usually hold most of the fish are coming loose from the bottom. This is something that happens down here in the late summer and early fall. The water is at its warmest and the muck on the bottom gets full of gasses and it rises to the surface bringing the roots of the plants with it. Huge clumps of stinky mud are floatin in the middle of the weed matts. I guess the bass are in the deeper parts of the lake in the hydrilla. I should have gone earlier in the day. It was to hot to row that far out in the lake. I talked to several fishermen at the ramp while I was cooling off in the shade. Nobody seemed to be catchin any bass. Night fishing around the shore cover and weed matts is still the way to go in this hot weather.

[Swede]

Have any trouble with the pesky gnats down there right now??  Slow most places right now, but should start picking back up soon with cooler weather on the way - northern Minnesota already had a 17 degree night.  Fishing southern AL this weekend.  Hope the bite is on.  Thanks for the report pegleg.

[pegleg]

Swede, I didn't see any gnats but every time I rowed over to get in the shade the deerflies ate me alive.

[Swede]

Heard that by taking the household cleaner "Pine-Sol" and dabbing a little on cotton balls and setting them about the boat and a touch on your hat - the flies will vacate the premises.  Have not tried yet - interested to see how it works.

[FlippinFBF]

Good morning,

pegleg,

Did you see this report when it was in the Sun??

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041015/SPORTS/41015002&SearchID=73188063796179


Lake Lochloosa's revival



By TIM TUCKER
October 15. 2004 6:01AM


TIM TUCKER/Special to The Sun 
Gainesville angler Ron Kyls with a big Lake Lochloosa bass.

Although the recent onslaught of hurricanes were destructive to North Central Florida, there is one positive aspect to their passing - the rejuvenation of the region's freshwater fishing, particularly Lake Lochloosa's bass fishery.

The 5,700-acre eutrophic lake five miles south of Hawthorne has had a troubled history. Lochloosa was considered a quality bass lake until the mid-1980s when herbicide spraying for hydrilla and other noxious aquatic plant life in the late '80s through the early '90s killed off most of the lake's vegetation and put an end to the good times.

As a result, little native vegetation existed on the lake to provide shelter for the entire food chain. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists have worked for several years to improve the situation. Their efforts included planting desirable submerged weeds like eelgrass and stocking bass and crappie fingerlings.

But, like most other local fisheries, the cypress-lined lake suffered through years of low water during the region's lingering drought. It wasn't until the recent overabundance of rainfall recharged the entire system that local bass anglers had much reason to be excited.

The timing could not have been better for Jimmy Pease, who bought Yankee Landing fish camp on the eastern shore of the lake six months ago.

"I used to fish this lake when there wasn't any fish in here," said Pease, who purchased the fish camp from retired baseball star Wade Boggs and his father, Winn. Because of the lake's history, Pease said, "it doesn't get a whole lot of bass pressure. I haven't seen a lot of guys fishing for bass, but the ones that have been say they've been doing real well.

"That first hurricane brought the water up about 3 feet in three days. Now it's even over our docks. It's helped the fishing, no doubt about it."

The Bassmasters of Gator Country club held a tournament on Lake Lochloosa last weekend and reported catching impressive numbers of small bass (the fact that the club held a tournament there is testament to the lake's resurgence). There were some big bass caught as well. Gainesville's Steve Persinger won the tournament with two bass that weighed 11.85 pounds.

"Lochloosa is really coming back," said Persinger, sales manager at MicroCenter. "The hurricanes seem to have really rejuvenated the lake. The water has a nice tannic color to it, not that algae or chocolate brown color that it has had for the last couple of years. The bass are healthy, good quality fish.

"There are a ton of little fish in the lake. The last couple of spawns seem to be in good shape and there's a lot of big fish in the lake again because there is good cover. And with this high water you can get around anywhere on the lake and get to the fish. You can probably catch them throwing any bait that you want, but I think flipping will catch the bigger fish."

Persinger's success came flipping a junebug-colored Exude B-A Hawg creature bait teamed with a 1-ounce pegged (locally made) Penetrator weight and braided line. He used it to target areas where pennywort and hydrilla mixed with lily pads near the mouth of Cross Creek.

Eric Nagid, the FWC biologist in charge of Lake Lochloosa, is extremely pleased to see the high water level.

"I think it's the best thing that we could have happen right now," he said. "It really is. It's going to fix itself.

"You could already see when the water started to rise the plant community starting to shift a little bit. The knotgrass on the Burnt Island side looks healthier. The pads look good. We've got a lot of good coontail bands, which are submerged and a little bit of hydrilla in the open water out in the middle of the lake. I don't want to promote hydrilla, but if we can maintain a little bit of it that's going to help the fishery also."

The reflooding of Lochloosa could have a sustained, lasting impact on its bass population.

"Ever since we had the low water we were having stable populations with really no strong year-classes or recruitment in that fishery," Nagid said. "We weren't having any of those big bursts that you like to see. Then last year we had a little bit of water flood up in the springtime and flood all that knotgrass and actually got to the cypress. I thought we were going to have a big spawn last year, but again it was just average.

"I'm hoping this is the year if we can keep water up into the trees until March and April, we should get a good bass spawn and start to stack up some strong year-classes in there. That's my hope."

Tim Tucker is an award-winning outdoors writer who lives in Cross Creek.

[FlippinFBF]

The BassMasters of Gator Country held their monthly tournament on Lochloosa this past Sunday. I did not make the tournament but I will post what I do have so far (a little info that was E-mailed to me).

Orange/Lochloosa had these results:
1st Place     Benny Beckham
2nd Place    Billy Dyson
3rd Place     Todd Baker
4th Place     Ben Franklin
5th Place     Travis Blucher
Big Fish        Benny Beckham      6.30 lbs caught on an Ugly Otter using a
Kistler Rod in the little lake.
Boat Pot      Benny Backham and Bobby Hale

I will try to get the weights and more on the lake conditions and update the report later.

[Mike Cork]

Thanks for the update, looking forward to the weights and any secrets they might have let slip

[TeamFATBOY]

Copied from a report that I made in the October issue of The Fishing Connection Newspaper!


We just had a small get together with the BassBoatCentral.com Fl. Bass Club on Lochloosa / Orange out of Lochloosa Harbor Fish Camp (old Finway/Yankee Landing) this weekend and had 12 boats that fished the tournament. We did have the waiver from the FWC so we had a 12" five fish limit. All but three teams weighed in fish. Two 5 fish limits were weighed in. Big fish was just over 4lb's. There were several FloridaBassForum.com members that participated also and it was good to see them there! The fishing was tough at times as it is all over being summer and very hot! But Lochloosa and Orange offer a very good fishing oppertunity in the north central area of the state with the possibility of a trophy at any time. We caught a bunch of short fish as well as keepers. Horny Toads, Senco's and Trickworms seemed to be the ticket but the team that won was Flipping Pads.

All in all I would say that we had a good day on the water with freinds and had some good fishing even though it was hot! These are beutiful lakes and are rebounding from the drought quite well! Worth the trip and I will be returning much more frequintly than I have in the last few years!

At one time Orange Lake was my favotie lake to fish and was considered one of the best Bass Fisheries in the world but suffered severely when the lake almost went dry but both are on their way back and in a big way!

The Owners of Lochloosa Harbor are outstanding and really did what ever they needed to do to see that we enjoyed ourselves. If your looking for somewhere to go and stay for a weekend or a few day's getaway for some relaxation and fishing, i would highly recomend staying at Lochloosa Harbor and fishing Lochloosa and Orange! To me there's nothing that better than that fish camp atmosphere when hangin out resting between trips on the water and they have it here! Motel/Hotels just don't do it for me to enjoy the expeirience.

On a side note: The lakes are full of Big Warmouth and if you want to take a break from bass fishing this tasty tablefare also gives you a simple oppertunity for some fresh fish for dinner!




Me and Trickworm
Remember that me and Trickworm are big boys so we don't do the size of the fish justice and make them look smaller!
                                                                                          Fatboy

[spetro]

Great post Steve......one day I gotta get up there and let you guide me around

[Pferox]

Thanks for the Article, FATBOY, keep em comin. 

Someday I want to fish that part of the State, after I figure out Central Florida, in a bout 20 years. 

[pegleg]

Pferox you need to come try Orange Lake before Ma Nature pulls the plug again. Thats my home lake. Its about 15 min. from the house.

[spetro]

Does anyone know how big the fish is in FlippinFBF avatar?  He posted in this thread........God it looks like a monster

[TeamFATBOY]

Does anyone know how big the fish is in FlippinFBF avatar?  He posted in this thread........God it looks like a monster

Agreed! It's a HAWG!!!!!!

[earthworm77]

Nice!! I'm dying to get to Orange and Lochloosa. I'll likely shoot for them in the spring....unless the Withlacoochie gets really hot. It's tough to go anywhere else once you head up the Rainbow River and see 10+lb fish in the clear water. You get this mistaken sense that you can actually catch them. lol

[Pferox]

Hey guys this is a fishin reports thread. 

[CrossCreek]

Fatboy great report ! And your rite you and the rat do make them fish look small ! Sorry guys I'll call the foul on myself  just wanted to praise the fatboy !

[Nowsker]

Anyone have any reports, spots, ect on Lochloosa Lake up near Ocala? I am fishing it in April but I am trying to get a head start on some research. I know next to nothing about the lake and any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks 

[Keithscatch]

I went to Lochloosa with Brian (trf186fla) Saturday (today) and due to the nasty cold weather we got a late start and arrived around 8am.  Wind was already howling making life miserable so we headed to the NW portion of the lake and fished in a creek that had some nice water depth of 5 feet or so. I caufght a nice 13-14inch bass on a T-rigged black/blue Senko type bait. We left that area and fished eastward along the bank and I caught 2 more decent sized bass in the 12-13inch range all around the Cypress tree base and knees. Fished another creek that we found and didn't get squat in there and I caught one more dink in some spatterdock at the mouth of the creek.

I did find some Hydrilla growing sparsely around this area which was a welcomed site as the water color is looking real chocolate brown up there. Water temp was in the low 60's to mid 60's there.

We moved to the west side of the lake and I missed a real nice fish on a t-rigged Senko that pulled drag on me. I never moved it really and I didn't get a good hookset on it and she let go. That stunk. The water was allot dingier on the west side but was also noticeably warmer. It was 71.4 over there. This was also around 2pm.

Brian, sadly didn't catch anything today. Oh well, better times ahead my friend.

We left at 3pm. Wind was around 14-15mph today out of the NW.

[Swede]

That wind can make for a miserable day for sure if you can't get out of it - especially if cold and strong.  Wind killed my bite at Seminole.  Everyone had that happen from what I heard.  Morning bite was on - if you didn't get them then you didn't get it later.  Strange how all bass in a lake that size communicate and agree not to eat

[Nowsker]

Anyone been on Lochloosa, I will be there Sat/Sun. 

[Nowsker]

Just wrapped up my two-day tourny on Lake Lockloosa this weekend and the fishing was pretty good! First day I only caught 4 fish but 3 were quality fish so with a 3 bag limit I was set to be in good position. My biggest bass was 4.1 which lost big bass by an ounce. That was caught on a Rapala Shad rap in about two feet of water on the edge of some hyacinths. My other two were about 3 and 2 LB's each for a total of 8.10 lbs. They were both caught at the mouth of Little Lochloosa on the outer most weed edge with a Bitters Junebug sling (senko) in 6 feet of water. Weather was overcast all day just missing the rain. Rounding out the totals for day one: second place was 7.10 and third and fourth were in the 6's. Day two (today) was very sunny and hot, completely different conditions from day one. I only managed one bite all day but it was a 7-lb hog! . Caught her on the same senko bitters sling on the same weed patch and weedline as the two from day one at about 10am. She was enough to win it for me with 15.10. Second was 14+ and third was 12+. Lochloosa is a beautiful cypress lined lake, if you get the chance to fish out there, do it! We stayed at the Lochloosa Harbor fish camp and they were very hospitable and I would recommend staying there if staying overnight. Will add a picture of the biggin when I get one.

[Keithscatch]

Good report and congrats on your win. Catching a 7lber is a nice bonus.

I have only been 2 times and caught fish both times. The water was really stained last time. Is that still the case? Did anyone do any flipping in the grass?

I would probably go more often to this lake but it is so far away and with the cost of gas these days makes it unlikely I will go again anytime soon.

[Nowsker]

Yea, I flipped the outside edges of the grass with a TR JB Bitters Sling weightless. Most people were using a trick worm and caught more but smaller fish. The water level on the North side was pretty murky but the southend was a little better.