I made that trip to the “Big O” anyway this past week. I went with some of my longtime fishing and personal friends, and while it wasn’t the same without John, it was at the same time a great fishing adventure and a sad commentary on this unique body of water.
We fished three and a half days, and as one of our group said when leaving, he caught more bass in three days than he had caught in the past year in Georgia – and he fishes a lot in Georgia!
Launching out of Moore Haven, we fished an area known to locals as the “hole in the doughnut”. This area is actually a deeper – deeper is relative on this lake – part of the northern portion of Moonshine Bay. An area about a quarter mile in diameter is surrounded by grass and shallow bottom, and it actually looks like a lake within a lake. It was in and around this hole that we caught most of our fish.
Six anglers in three boats caught seventy to eighty bass each day – almost all of them were released to fight again another day.
Bryan Prevost, fishing with his dad, Doug, caught the big fish of the trip, a seven-pound lunker. Lots of fish in the three and four pound range and a ton of two pounders made this simply an awesome trip.
Ken Eastabrooks and his son Mike fished together in his new Ranger, and long time friend and former fellow employee George Matthews fished with me.
We caught fish on buzz baits, topwater, stick baits, spinner baits, and soft plastic lizards. Catching a four or five pound bass as it explodes on a buzz bait coming across the water can be heart stopping!
Our best day was actually our last day. The fish seemed to turn off a bit up in the doughnut, so we headed for the marina at the intersection of the Moore Haven canal and the Rim Canal to do some dock fishing.
The floodgates there to the Caloosahatchee River were open and drawing water from the lake, causing a pretty fair current at this intersection. Water in the rim canal was silty dirty and the clear but tannic water from the other canal was mixing with it.
