Bass fishing on the Kissimmee Chain of lakes has been great! Most of our trips have been artificial bait trip and they have been producing good numbers of bass, 20 to 30 bass in a day, with some good size mixed in. Bass coming in at or just over 5 pounds have been common with the typical schoolie sized bass mixed in to help keep the action steady throughout the day.
The typical trip using artificial baits has been tossing a lot of senko type baits but the bigger bass as of late have been coming on a 7 inch ribbon tail in June bug color. The bass we have been catching have been mostly scattered but have been holding to a steady pattern of holding tight to scattered grass patches and areas of thinned out lily pads.
Red Eye shad and steel shad have been very good at producing some good numbers in open water areas, and ripped thru the scattered hydrilla. We have been tossing some top water plugs, and the Strike King Rage Tail but the bass have not responded too well to these baits as of yet.
Water temperatures in the morning have been in the mid 70's so maybe a few more degrees and they will light up on the top water. We fully expect the top water bite to light up like it did for us last year.
Live bait trips out here have been doing pretty much the same. We have been working mainly areas of 3 to 6 foot of water and slow trolling the shiner about 2 foot under a cork. With more productive spots I have deployed the dig in anchor, which slides in fast, easy and quiet and we have worked over the area really good before moving to the next spot. Key areas with the live bait have been the spots holding more hydrilla than any other type of cover.
