Lake Istokpoga, FL Fishing Report

Bass fishing continues to be very good, with good catchs coming from around the lake.Henderson's fishcamp weighted in a 9lb. 2oz. bass on Thursday that took a skirted worm.Trails End had a club tournament go out last weekend and the winning weight had a 30 lb. stringer with a bass that went 9lb. 3 oz  .Shiner fishing has been excellent.It's not unusual to go through 5 dozen shiners by mid-morning.We've had good luck  fishing bullrush islands on the south end of the lake but any of your deeper bullrushes will be holding bass and right now deeper can mean 4 ft. or deeper. Water level is coming down this time of year. Bass will pull out to the edges of cattails  and bullrushes and pads.Still catching bass on chatterbaits and spinnerbaits just off Bumblebee Island around where the county cleaned out that area that runs through to the north side of the island. Bluegill and shellcracker seem to be spotty. Some repotrs of people finding them and loading the boat and other reports of 20-30 being caught here and there. Try looking in heavy padfields or around the cypress trees west of Cypress Isle fish camp.

Excellent  fishing right now on Istokpoga. Last Sunday in John Woods tournament ,there were 26 bass over 6 lbs. caught by 27 boats. The winners had 33 lbs. 7 oz.. That's for 5 bass! You had to have 30 lbs. to get a check. Joe Medlock had the big bass with a giant that went 11 lbs. i4 oz.. Shiner fishing has been just short of fantastic with catches of 25-30 bass before noon.Speck fishing still strong in the scattered cattails on the east side of the Big island.Bluegill and shellcracker fishing is yet to kick into  the full spawning mode although I've heard of some fisherman that have found them. If you're running across the lake and you suddenly get a strong whiff of a pungent odor, spin the boat around and come back through that area and when you smell that strong odor, stop see what direction the wind and the smell is coming from and look for a padfield or a stand of bullrush etc.. and go drop a cricket or a red wiggler around starting on the edges and work your way into the cover. Alot of times, especially in a padfield, the fish will be moving around the root system of the pads and you will see the pads quivering for the telltale sign of bluegill or shellcracker spawning.With the water dropping, the bass have moved out to the edge of bullrushes, cattails,and pads. Most fisherman were catching their fish by picking up that flipping stick and pitching and flipping. I got a good report by fishing guide Ken Karoll whose party caught 38 bass up to 6 1/2 lbs. yesterday morning throwing Senkos around scattered cattails on the west side of the lake. Excellent fishing right now, get out and enjoy it because summer's coming and it will change.

Bass fishing has been just short of fabulous this week.Catches of 25 to 30 bass in a morning on shiners We were fishing scattered cattails on the east side of Big island and just inside still in scattered cattails we watched a family with some children just having the time of their life catching specks every couple minutes.Artifical baits like a black/blue jig are working also. Janice at Trails End weighted 3 bass over 9 lbs. late Tues. afternoon that came out of scattered cattails in the same area.Also the bass are in the bullrushes on the east side. I'm sure you could do good in the bullrushes and cattails and scattered pads on the west side of the lake also,we just haven't had to go very far to catch them.The shellcrackers and bluegills must be biting in the pads just out in front of Istokpoga Park on the right because there's alot of boats in there. They're a few weeks later this year,as we were already catching them bunched up spawning the first week of March last year.Be sure to catch Major League Fishing on Lake Istokpoga on the Outdoor Channel. The first show was last night but there will be 6 different shows shown during the next few weeks.It looked good  last night with different pros catching bass out of a variety of cover. The weather was good the first day but with Hurricane Sandy skirting the east coast, the fishing got real tough. Check it out.

Water level on Istokpoga is dropping. This is the normal schedule for South Florida Water Management and they will pull it down a foot to 38 1/2 ft. above sea level.On a lake where the average depth is under 5 feet ,this is quite a drop. Look for it to pull the bass out to the outside weed lines The wind and cold fronts have made it tough the past week.Tough on the fisherman but it did not slow the shiner bite down one bit.The hydrilla that parallel the south side of Bumnlebee island has been producing some excellent catches.Bullrushes on the east side of the lake has been producing also.Reports of shellcrackers starting to be caught out of pads on the east side of Big island.Specks are still being caught but slowing down I'm told. Hopefully  these cold fronts are over and we can get some more stable weather and better fishing.

In between the cold fronts and wind we've had lately the fish are still biting shiners extremely well. On the otherhand ,the artifical bite has been some what tough for bass. The fronts and the wind have the water temperature hovering around 60 degrees and has made the fishing sporadic. A few warm days and the bass start to bite better.Bass are still spawning and are still in shallow water.With this wind the spinnerbaits are a good choice. For Istokpoga's dark water, gold willowleaf with chartruse skirt in a 1/2oz. weight is a good choice. For a more subtle approach try a chatterbait, either a white skirt with a trailer and if that's not working then go to a darker color. The speck fisherman have been slowed by the weather also, but still catching specks up in the cover, like the cattails around the islands.I haven't heard of any bluegill or shellcrackers spawning yet but look for that to happen in the next couple weeks.

Cold fronts over the weekend slowed the fishing. The coldest night of the year was last night and continuing warm weather should help get the fish back to feeding again in a couple days. With the full moon coming up a week from today lets hope the weather holds up. Some consider February full moon to be the absolute best time to catch a trophy size bass and it can be,if everything falls in to place.Fishing was excellent before the fronts moved through with bass agressively hitting big wild shiners and artifical baits taking their share of big bass but nothing and I mean nothing beats a frisky,big, 7to 10 in. wild shiner, this time of year. I know you purist are cringing when I say that , but it's true and when you see that 10 lber blast that shiner out of the water, tell me it doesn't get that adrenaline going.Think shallow this week! Look around the areas where the state has been working cleaning out back inside on both Little island and Bumblebee island. On the northside of Bumnlebee a few days ago we caught 17 bass, mostly small bucks or male bass but we saw plenty of clean bass beds and the big girls will be moving in  for the upcoming moon. If you're lucky enough to catch her, be respectfull, handle her with care and if you're thinking about how good she would look on your wall at home, then take a quick length and weight measurement, some pictures to show your buddies and then release her gently so that others, maybe your son or daughter, might catch her and have a replica made of that bass. It's going to last longer and you have the satisfaction of knowing you did your part so that your children and mine will be able to enjoy bass fishing in the coming years. What a great example to set for them.Specks are still going strong, report out of Istokpoga Marine is the specksare not in the pads but right off the pads and also back inside of the bullrushes on the west wall.Specks on the inside and big bass on the outside edge of the bullrushes.

Find areas where the state hasn't sprayed the hydrilla and you will find bass in and around that hydrilla. I like to remind them that this is where we're catching bass and tournaments are being won.Doesn't make alot of sense to me  but then again I have been told many times that fishing is not the top priority on Lake Istokpoga.Go throw a spinnerbait or a chatterbait or a Big Ez or a skinney dipper aroun that hydrilla and you will be rewarded. Still producing is the area between Big island and Bumblebee and open water areas south of Bumblebee and in the far southwest end of the lake.The shiner bite continues to be good all around the lake. The bullrushes on the west wall or west side of the lake. Cattails on the east side of Big island.All up and down the east side of the lake. Bass are going to be shallow for the next couple months.Now is the time to get out on the lake. Weather has been stable and the fishing is really heating up.This is the best time of the year to catch a giant.Go fishing!

Bass fishing is excellent right now. With the full moon tonight, it's been primetime for big spawning females.In John Wood's tournament today,the team of Stoothoff and Day had 5 bass that weighted 37lb.13oz. They had a 9 lb.19 bass and a 9lb.30 bass. That is a very impressive bag of fish. There was 6 bass over 8lbs. out of 36 boats weighted in.Not everyone caught fish though, I spoke with a couple of excellent flippers and they only had a few bites. That's fishing.Speaking of live-bait fishing, it has been a very good bite, all around the lake, east side of the lake,bullrushes on the west wall, cattails and bullrushes on the Big island and the open water between Big island and Bumblebee island. Look for the topped-out hydrilla and move out into the scattered hydrilla-peppergrass. Speckled perch fishing continues to be very good. Vertical jigging in the cattails, bullrushes and pads with jigs and minnows. Keep moving and you'll find them in bunches.

Excellent fishing right now on Istokpoga.Both artifical baits and shiners are taking lots of quality bass. The bass are in great shape and lots of them are fat with roe.It's spawning season ! One of the best spots continues to be between Big island  and Bumblee island.Scattered hydrilla, peppergrass, pickerelweed or"indian feathers"as they're called,in 3 to4 ft. . Lots of baits will work from plastic worms to my favorite bait,Big Ez or skinney dippers, spinnerbaits, Senkos, Zoom speedworms in the "watermelon red" color. It's the "cut tail" that makes this bait work. Rig it weedless with a 1/8 to 5/16 bullet weight and throw it on braided line from 40 to 65lb. Always rig this bait with the tail down. Very important!  Also a Johnson spoon with a twin-tail grub. They love to come up and smash this bait. Fish it on the surface to a few inches below the surface. I throw mine on braided line also. Throw these baits in a little clearer water which you're going to have with the vegetation. If the water is not that clear, you're better off throwing a spinnerbait with gold blades, white or chartruse skirt.Lots of specks being caught. I see lots of speck fisherman back inside jigging around thick cattails on the east side of the Big island.

Big bass are showing up on Lake Istokpoga.Yesterday, a 37 boat tournament had 16 bass over 6 lbs. weighed in. Ken Karoll and Chris Crow won by .06 lbs. with 5 fish that weighed 30 lbs. 14 oz.They had a 10.19 lber and a 9 lber .E.J. Green and Scott Bradley had the "Big Bass" that weighed 10.86 lbs.Bass are moving back insideof grasslines  and cattails, bullrushes, and back inside protected areas to spawn. Lots of techniques are working on the lake from white spinnerbaits with gold  willowleaf blades to Carolina -rigged plastics in scattered hydrilla, swimbaits like the Big Ez and skinney dippers and also flipping a black-blue  Medlock jig in cattails and heavy bullrushes.Speck fishing is in high gear with some big specks being caught back inside of the outside cattails around Big island and in the pads out in front of Hendeson's Fish camp, and at night out in the deeper open water around Reedy island on the north end, and out from Rutledge canal on the west side of the lake, and also in Henderson's cove.

Inconsistent  weather patterns have kept fisherman off the lakes during the Christmas holidays.Water temperature this morning was 59 degrees on Lake Istokpoga.Cold... Combined  with a full moon and blue-bird skies following a front made the bite pretty tough this morning.Starting in the hydrilla this morning, the fish were there, they would boil on the bait but were not interested in eating .Moving around  different areas in the hydrilla produced the same results... nothing.Tried fishing some deeper bullrushes on the backside of the Big island, no luck. About noon we moved around to the east side of the Big island and started fishing a line of cattails and there they were. I don't know if it was the approaching front, or the cloud cover that moved in, or the water warming up or what but they turned on for us and we caught 16 in the next 2 hours in a 50 yard stretch of thick cattails. No monsters but we had 3 bass that went over 5 1/2 lbs.I guess the lesson here is to keep trying different cover until you hit on something. Lots of speck fisherman back inside the shoreline cover fishing thick cattails for spawning specks.

Fishing is good right now.Big bass are being caught using artifical baits like the skinney dippers, Big Ez's, Senkos, both the 5 in. and the bigger 7in., spinnerbaits work well if it's a little breezy. Try Chartruse , or chart./white, or white. The gold willowleaf blade in a size 5 or 6 with a smaller gold Indiana blade comes through the grass better.The12lb. 6 oz. bass last week was caught on a dark-colored Old Monster worm.The hydrilla between the Big  and Little island is still where you want to go. This is where the tournaments are being won and there's lots of room for everybody. Big specks are being caught all around the lake in both open deeper water and inside the casttails and bullrushes.Expect the approaching cold front to shut the bass down for a couple days if it gets pretty cold.

Bass fishing is picking up. A 12 lb. 6 oz  bass was caught using an artifical bait last week and weighted by FWC. Big specks are being caught using minnows in the cattails where they're moving in to spawn . Also catching them in the daytime and at night  in the deeper water using minnows and jigs.Bass are agressively hitting shiners around hydrilla between Big and Bumblebee islands and your deeper bullrushes along the east shore. Plenty of water in the lake . Hopefully they will leave it up for the upcoming spawn.

Weather looks good for the next few days and look for fishing to improve. While live-bait fishing is very good right now using wild shiners the artifical bite got a little tough on Sunday when the temperature dropped down in the low 40's. As late as Saturday quality bass where hitting white or chartuse/white spinnerbaits and rattletrap-type baits around hydrilla between the islands along with dark colored plastic worms. The same area is producing catches of 20-30 bass before noon using shiners.But the bite slowed with the cold night and the following blue-bird sky Sunday morning. Out of 84 tournament anglers Sunday, they caught 122 bass with 4 boats not weighing in  and 2 of those boats reported releasing small limits. Thats off for Istokpoga. Look for it to improve thiese next few warming days. Reports of big specks being caught in the weeds, meaning they're moving in to spawn. Full moon is Wednesday.The hydrilla spraying took place on Monday and finished on today.They mainly sprayed shoreline hydrilla this time and didn't spray offshore as in between the islands... yet.

Although the artifical bite has been a little tough, bass  have been hitting shiners very good. The bigger bass seem to be in the bullrushes but for numbers we've done  better fishing a topped out hydrilla line off the southeast corner of Bumble Bee island. It's easy to find and runs for about 1/4 mile. With the predominant east to northeast wind we've had for about a week it's pushing right into it and it's been fishable because the Big island blocks  the wind and allows you to fish it.Look for points and irregularities in the hydrilla line. If you don't have any luck on your first stop ,don't get discouraged and leave, just move down and set up again. When you find the right littlle pocket or point they will sometimes be stacked in there, as the case yesterday when we caught 24 off of one  little point with  a pocket behind it. I think the artifical bite is off because we had some cool days and nights and dropped the water temperature down in the low 60's but with a warming trend the next few days the artifical bite should pick up.

Now that the weather has taken a turn for the better, fishing has picked up.Fishing was extremely tough when Sandy was off our east coast, a couple weeks ago. Just ask the 24 pros that showed up for the "Major League Fishing" that took place for the whole week on Lake Istokpoga. Fishing was extremely tough with the wind and the rain, that was relentless the whole week.Under their format, none of the pros had ever been on the lake and only got 15 minutes to look around the designated part of the lake they were fishing that day. It just goes to show, when mother nature decides to rear her ugly head it does'nt matter even if you're Kevin Van Dam. They struggled for a few fish and I think the big fish of the week was a little shy of 8 lbs,It will be shown on the Outdoor Channel or NBC  sometime in April.Check it out, it's not your typical  tournament format where you weigh in your biggest 5 fish but where the pro brings the fish to the boat and it is immediately weighed by the accompanied marshall, recorded and released in about 30 seconds after boated. That information then goes out to all the other competitors' marshalls, who relay the updates to the pros in the boats so they know who's doing what and who is leading and how much weight they have . Puts a lot of pressure on the fisherman who's not catching fish.Even though the fishing conditions were tough, all involved, came away impressed with Lake Istokpoga and the citizens of  Highlands Co. Bass are hitting shiners really well, especially in your deeper , thicker bullrushes.Specks are biting minnows in the deeper water around Grassy Island. The artifical bite is picking up daily ,now that the weather is stabilizing.The forecast looks good.

Both fishing and the weather have turned downward the past two days and the forcast calls for 15-20 mph thru the weekend. Tough conditions.Fishing was good before the front with bass and specks both feeding. The weather system off the east coast will pass and better fishing will resume.The cooler nights have dropped the temperature down into the high 70's and some females are starting to have small roe in them.With all the rain we've had the lake level is up and should help the spawn tremendously by allowing the bass to get back into areas not available before. The county has opened up alot of area on the north end out in front of Spring Lake. Usually the water up in that end of the lake will stay cleaner because it's protected from the north winds. Running topwater frogs, various plastic swim baits like Gambler Big EZ, and skinney dippers will have those bass coming up and blasting your bait. Nothing like seeing that topwater bite even if you don't hook up.You'll certainly  remember it.They're not in there yet, like they will get ,but it's not far off,maybe a few weeks from now.

There's good fishing all around the lake right now. Both bass and specks are being caught.Lots of tournaments last weekend were going on all around the lake and reports were,lots of bass caught with a 11 lber being the largest. Sunday we were  fishing around the pads out from Josephine Creek and I watched a fisherman win a 2-day tournament swimming a jig throught the pads.Some early morning schooling action going on around Grassy Island .Register now at TrophyCatchFlorida.com for FWC's Freshwater Angler Recognition Programs and be automatically entered into a drawing for a Phoenix 619 Pro boat. Reward yourself  for releasing a trophy with 3 levels of recognition starting with the Lunker club 8-9.9 lbs.The Trophy Club, 10-12.9 lbs., and the Hall-of Fame Club, released bass heavier than 13 lbs. Prizes range from t-shirts to a free replica and $150.00 in gift cards, rod and reels, fishing clothes,depending on which category.

The bass bite has been pretty good the past week.At least one bass over 10lbs. was caught on the north end of the lake fishing topwater along the edge of bullrush in 4-5 ft. of water. Bullrush and thicker pads has been holding the bass for the past few weeks.Tried some late afternoon fishing Thursday and caught only a few bass flipping and pitching  and then stopped on the hydrilla that's out in front of "No Name" creek. I was on the outside line of hydrilla probably 300-400 yards out from the mouth of "No Name" when the wind picked up and the temperature dropped as some rain moved thru the area.Fishing a senko around a wind- blown point of topped -out hydrilla, the bass turned on and were readily slamming the bait every cast .Most were under 2 lbs. but alot of fun when you find yourself in that situation. Remember to be appreciative of those special times when you find yourself in that "right spot at the right time". You're lucky and you'll remember  those memories and that's what fishing is all about.

Fishing is picking up. Tuesday bass were aggressive and biting good out in front of Istokpoga Shores in the bullrushes. A  black/blue  Zoom brush hog and Gambler crawdad were getting plenty of bites.Lots of bass were caught Sunday in the Terry Bell Memorial tournament along the east shoreline, flipping and pitching the bullrushes. Also today we fished shiners around the 3 padfields out in front of Josephine creek with pretty good action,even though the sun was out and we got there around 11:00.Starting to see the speck fisherman in the deeper water around Grassy Island. Also got a report, specks were biting out in front of the mouth of Istokpoga Canal .Looking forward to some cooler weather which should improve the fishing .