Darryl Burkhardt
Lake Toho-BASS January 24-30
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1-24-05 Day one-Today I fished in two lakes, Cypress and Hatchineha, and had kind of a tough day, not too much fishing, a lot of looking.  The area is in a cold snap and cold is not good for Florida fishing.  The water is in the mid 50's although it warms up a little as the day gets warmer.  The Weather Channel is saying that it should get warmer here over the next couple of days, and we have a full moon tonight, which could bring a wave of fish shallow.

I had three bites today, fishing around gator grass with some hydrilla mixed in.  It also seems like there has to be some depth under the grass to hold fish.

When you go from one lake to the next here, you have to go through a lock.  This can sometimes be tricky because you are at the mercy of the locking schedule, but there is a lot of water to fish outside of Toho, and it's a chance many of us will probably take.

1-25-05 Day two-Today I had a much better day, I locked through to Cypress, passed through to Hatchineha and then to Kissimmee, (the biggest lake on the chain-not counting Okeechobee.)  Today I had 10 bites in an area that I fished in December when I was here.  I caught them on a Speed Worm and a few other things.  One area in particular I got five bites in a small section that interests me a great deal.  I am concerned because I saw several other anglers in the area, and they might discover the same thing.  I will have to look at where I draw out and then decide what to do, but I like what I have found.

It is warming up, we had 58 degree water today, and I am sure that within a day or two, there should be a big movement of fish into the shallows.

1-26-05 Day three-(note-Darryl is driving to launch and dictating this journal entry-5:26 AM est) I wanted to check some canals in Hatchineha that I didn't get to check on Monday.  I had four heavy feeling bites, (didn't set on them,) off of concrete walls in the canals.

I later went back to Toho, just to kind of help me set in my mind what I should do on the first day of the tournament.  I am going to Kissimmee today.  I have my Lamiglas 806 (flippin stick,) rigged to do some heavy duty construction on the aquatic vegetation in Kissimmee, that is where I had the best part of pre fish.

My intent is to start out flippin, and give it a good half day's worth of effort.  As the temperature comes up, I plan to throw some crank baits and other reaction stuff.  I also will look for bed fish.  The water temperature is just about right for some fish to move in, plus we have a moon phase that lends itself to a fish movement.

As I am driving to launch, it is very foggy and I won't be surprised if we are delayed.

 

1-27-05 Day One. Not bad.  Got to fish my stuff down in Kissimmee today, was there about 15 minutes when Terry Scroggins came in.  Then Gary Klein came in as well.  I saw him catch one and lose one.  I got eight bites down there today, I am flipping very heavy gator grass, and figured to lose about half of the bites I get.  My four fish weighed 8-00 and considering how tough it was for most people, I am in a pretty good spot.  41st place only about 3 pounds out of the top 12 cut.  If I could have got that last keeper, I might be in the top 12.

The bigger weights came from the later flights today, this time of year, the afternoon bite is critical.  When I came in today, (4th flight,) my weight had me in 7th place.  The better bags came from the guys who weighed in later, and were able to fish later into the afternoon.  I will be able to fish later into the day tomorrow.

I will go back to Kissimmee tomorrow, I spoke with Scroggins and he said he won't fish there tomorrow.  I know there are some good fish, and with the extra two hours, (remember we fished a shorter day because of the fog today,) I believe that I can get a better weight.

The weather is suppose to be stable with a little front coming in the afternoon tomorrow.
1-28-05 Day Two. We had some wild weather today, wind, rain-the weather in Florida just seems to come on so fast.  I couldn't get bit in my area in Kissimmee today, I knew the fish were there I just couldn't get them to bite.  I am happy with the way I fished, I had to scramble, and I knew when to make the decision to leave my productive area.  I had a small limit, I couldn't get the big bites.  Today I weighed in 6-14 which gave me 14-14 for the tournament, 43rd place and $2,400.00.  It is really important to finish in the top 50, if I can do this all season long, I will make the Classic.  That's a long way off, but this is a good start.

Desperate conditions, call for desperate actions and today, I was desperate.  I only had one fish when I actually broke out the Lamiglas drop shot rod.  I pulled into a canal and one angler was idling out, and another was fishing his way out.  I knew that these two guys had already fished the canal hard, and I wanted to do something else.  So, out came the dropshot rod, and I caught four fish along the edge of lilly pads in 2 1/2 feet of water.  Very unconventional, but I will so take it.

Small buck bass is all I could get, but it was nice to weigh a limit, and it is really good to feel like I am in the game still.