What Is Wrong With My lake? The Algae Scourge

KILLENS –DOVER 9/15/10

We went to Killens today on 9/15/10 and found less than desirable conditions. I said to Skip, “What is wrong with the water?”, ” I have seen it green before but this is bad”.

We fished hard and caught just one bass. It was decent but it was poor fishing all day and if you know me at all, it was not for lack of knowledge or lack of effort!

I worked every water depth with more than 20 baits presented in a variety of ways to no avail, and we left. I said to Skip, “I have Seen this before but can’t remember what it is called or what it does to the lake exactly as it has been years since I retired and was involved in this on a daily basis.

I no sooner got home and picked up the new BASS TIMES magazine that I got yesterday, and started to read, and what to my surprise was right inside?? What looked like a picture of KILLENS POND with an article attached called, “THE ALGAE SCOURGE“, and here is what it says. I now know what is wrong with KILLENS!!

The algae scourge

Bass Times

Tue, 06/01/2010

By Robert Montgomery

More than pesky surface scum, new algae blooms are killing fish, poisoning wildlife and harming humans

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As pollution degrades our water, it also feeds a toxic outbreak that threatens our fisheries and our future.

“We are approaching a tipping point where we might not be able to get back to what used to be,” said Dr. Ken Hudnell, a neurotoxicologist and adjunct associate research professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

“We could lose ecosystems, leaving only cesspools of cyanobacteria that can’t be used for recreation or drinking water.”

The growing danger for fresh water, not only in the United States but worldwide, exists in cellular populations described collectively as Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are the most notorious, and some species are potentially harmful to humans. Golden alga, a dinoflagellate, is a relentless killer of fish. Didymo is a diatom that has smothered stream-beds in several states.

All are spreading and increasing the duration and intensity of their blooms.

For example, golden algae obliterated all aquatic life in a 30-mile stretch of West Virginia’s Dunkard Creek last fall. Until that kill, it was thought to be confined mainly to brackish waters typical of rivers and reservoirs in east Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Now, resource managers fear that another 21 streams in the state could be at risk because of similar water conditions, as well as waterways in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky.

Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of the Water Research Institute at West Virginia University, said the Dunkard incident was “the worst fish kill I’ve experienced in 21 years in West Virginia.”

In Ohio, meanwhile, the Akron Beacon Journal newspaper recently reported, “The number of [blue-green algae] blooms producing scary toxins or poisons is growing in frequency and duration in Lake Erie and many inland lakes and water-ways in Ohio and elsewhere.

“The threat is gaining attention as new testing shows the toxin microcystin from the planktonic bacteria is present in popular recreational lakes and city water supplies, including Akron’s.”

Late last summer, Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper Sandy Bihn told BASS Times, “Old-time boaters say the algae is as bad or worse than it was in the ’60s and ’70s. I think Lake Erie is poised for something awful that will make national news.”

In Florida, Hudnell said, studies have revealed that toxins from some of these blue-green blooms “are higher in drinking water than raw water because the cells are lysed during processing and release all their toxins.

“It’s very difficult to remove all cyanotoxins from drinking water, and utilities don’t monitor for them. They are only concerned about other cyanochemicals that cause taste and odor problems — and phone calls.”

In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Earthjustice said, “Potentially toxigenic cyanobacteria have been found statewide, including river and stream systems such as the St. Johns River in the Northeast Region and the Caloosahatchee River in the Southwest Region.”

Bill Frazier, a water quality expert for a municipality as well as conservation director for the North Carolina BASS Federation Nation, has been watching the growing assault on our waters and sounding the alarm for some time.

“HABs are a type of canary in the coal mine,” he said. “The fact that they are present is an indicator of an out-of-balance ecosystems. Nothing good can outcompete them for living space. And the space we are talking about is water — the substance that allows us to live on this planet.

“Add to that the fact that HABs are exchanging genetic material in order to allow them to adapt to conditions they otherwise couldn’t tolerate, and it no longer is a wakeup call. It’s more like a piercing scream. Unfortunately, only a very few of us are listening.”

In fact, Hudnell resigned from EPA because it would not start a freshwater HAB research and control program. He and Dr. Wayne Carmichael now are leading an informal coalition of more than 500 people in lobbying for passage of the Freshwater Harmful Algal Bloom Research and Control Act of 2010.

“It’s an emerging story, a fascinating story, a very scary story, and an incredibly complicated issue,” said scientist Julie Weatherington-Rice of Ohio State University. She was speaking specifically about blue-green blooms in Lake Erie and other Ohio waters, but her assessment also accurately describes the HAB problem nationally.

Why is this happening?

To simplify: All blooms benefit from four “stimulatory factors,” according to Hudnell. They are sunlight for photosynthesis, warmth (in general, the warmer the better), nutrients (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus) and calm, even stagnant, water (often brought on by drought).

“Good things just don’t happen in stagnant water,” he said. “A water body, like a human body, needs good circulation to function properly.”

But it is what we continue to discharge into our waters — dissolved solids, salts and particularly phosphorus-laden nutrients from our cities and agricultural lands — that drives this threat.

“In Lake Erie, the cure in the ’70s was the ban on phosphorus in laundry detergent, which reduced the phosphorus in the lakes,” Bihn said. “About 1995, the phosphorus curve reversed its downward trend and began once again increasing. This time, it is said to be dissolved phosphorus rather than total phosphorus.”

Hudnell added, “The No. 1 problem is too many nutrients. This allows HABs to dominate, to crowd out and shade out the good algae. As these occur for longer times and in more places, it’s going to be more and more difficult to reverse the trend.”

Cyanobacteria: A World Wide Nightmare

According to studies by the University of North Carolina, the algae bloom like engulfed Lake Atitlan last year is a world wide epidemic, endangering fresh water supplies at alarming rates

In fact, Hans Paerl, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences Professor and co-author of the Science paper, calls the algae the ‘cockroach of lakes.’ It’s everywhere and it’s hard to exterminate – but when the sun comes up it doesn’t scurry to a corner, it’s still there, and it’s growing, as thick as 3 feet in some areas.

Note: In Lake Atitlan, 85 per cent of the 30,000 acre lake was recently covered with the green scum, going as far down as 80 feet in some locations.

The algae has been linked to digestive, neurological and skin diseases and fatal liver disease in humans. It costs municipal water systems many millions of dollars to treat in the United States alone. And though it’s more prevalent in developing countries, it grows on key bodies of water across the world, including Lake Victoria in Africa, the Baltic Sea, Lake Erie and bays of the Great Lakes, Florida’s Lake Okeechobee and in the main reservoir for Raleigh, N.C.

‘This is a worldwide problem,’ said Paerl, Kenan Professor of marine and environmental sciences in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.

‘It’s long been known that nutrient runoff contributes to cyanobacterial growth. Now scientists can factor in temperature and global warming,’ said Paerl, who, with professor Jef Huisman from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, explains the new realisation in Science paper.

‘As temperatures rise waters are more amenable to blooms,’ Paerl said.

The algae also thrive in wet, soggy ground in areas experiencing periodic floods, like the U.S. Midwest. And in a drought, like the Southeastern United States is experiencing now, other algae and aquatic organisms die off, cyanobacteria thrive, waiting to explode

Warmer weather has also created longer growing seasons, and it’s enabled cyanobacteria to grow in northern waters previously too cold for their survival. Species first found in southern Europe in the 1930s now form blooms in northern Germany, and a Florida species now grows in the Southeastern U.S. Others have appeared recently places as far north as Montana and throughout Canada.

Fish and other aquatic animals and plants stand little chance against cyanobacteria. The algae crowds the surface water, shading out plants – fish food – below. The fish generally avoid cyanobacteria, so they’re left without food. And when the algae die they sink to the bottom where their decomposition can lead to extensive depletion of oxygen.

These cyanobacteria – blue-green algae – were the first plants on earth to produce oxygen.

‘It’s ironic,’ Paerl said. ‘Without cyanobacteria, we wouldn’t be here. Animal life needed the oxygen the algae produced.’ Now, however, it threatens the health and livelihood of people who depend on infested waters for drinking water or income from fishing and recreational use.

These algae that were first on the scene, Paerl predicts, will be the last to go… right after the cockroaches.

Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Public Health Advisories

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PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISORIES

Note: All information on this page taken from public health documents and web sites who freely pass on important health information that allow and encourage  reprinting in order to save lives!

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Steve vonBrandt BBWC World Champ 98 Hall Of Fame 2003

Fish For Cash!! Bounty Fishing

Fish anywhere you want for cash for a variety of species. To find out more info just visit http://bassfishingstories.webs.com Click on Cash tournaments or Bounty Fishing Banners.

Steve vonBrandt BBWC World Champ 98 Hall Of Fame 2003

Giant Bass With Sweet Beaver Baits

Reaction Innovations bait company is owned by FLW tour champion Andre Moore, and he has really come up with a winner. There hasn’t been a bait this hot on the market since the “Senko” craze first started.In April 2002, Moore won the Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake by sight-fishing, so the sight of a keeper largemouth hovering over a brand new bed just days before the 2005 Wal-Mart Open told him exactly what to do.Eight days later, Moore found himself holding his second Wal-Mart Open winner’s check for $200,000. For Moore, it was a case of déjà vu.Because of Beaver’s similarities to lakes in the West, Moore has always favored the scenic highland impoundment located near the town of Rogers in Northwest Arkansas. “Beaver is a lot like the lakes back home,” Moore said. “Deep, clear and rocky with all three species of bass living in the same environment.”“It’s not that my vision is any better than anyone else’s, I just know what to look for on the bottom,” he said. “It comes from years of deepwater sight-fishing out West – reading the bottom and anticipating where beds should be.As most bass anglers know, smallmouths and largemouths bed in different types of terrain. Smallmouths like deep rocky flats, while largemouths prefer more protected, shallower water. A key for Moore was locating both types of terrain within close proximity to each other so he could alternate between the two species based on the conditions.When it was calm, Moore committed to looking for smallmouths offshore in 6 to 12 feet of water. When the wind blew, like it did on day one, Moore ducked into pockets where he targeted bedding largemouths in shallower water.As a result, Moore’s weights increased on days two and three. After weighing in an 11-pound, 7-ounce limit on day one, he brought in a 13-10 limit on day two to make the top-10 cut. He then caught 14 pounds on day three to move into second heading into the final day.On the last morning, Moore quickly caught four smallmouths. He wanted to fill his limit with smallmouths, but unfortunately, Beaver Lake has a four-fish limit on smallies, meaning an angler cannot possess more than four smallmouths at any time.“I even culled up on my four-bass smallmouth ‘limit’ before I went to finish off my five-fish tournament limit with a largemouth,” he said. “That’s when I got bogged down on some fish and it started to get to me. You have no idea what it’s like to be looking at a pocket full of fish – any one of which would win you $200,000 – and you can’t make any of them bite. “Beaver Lake bass are some of the hardest sight-fish to catch. It’s like banging your head against the wall. I fished for a 6-pound largemouth for an hour and a half and never got her to go.”Moore eventually finished his limit and brought 10 pounds, 5 ounces to the final weigh-in.“I really didn’t think it was enough,” he said. “I kept thinking that 6-pounder was the tournament winner, and when I didn’t catch her, I figured Darrel (Robertson) would beat me.”But Moore did have enough. He ended up winning his second Wal-Mart Open by 9 ounces – the same exact margin he won by in 2002. Indeed, it was déjà vu.Moore fished the same general area near Beaver Dam where he won in 2002, but he said the fish were not in the same exact places.Another familiar aspect of Moore’s win this time around was his bait selection. When he won in 2002, he used a unique prototype creature bait of his own design, which, at the time, had no name.After his win, he named the soft-plastic lure the “Sweet Beaver” and it has become the centerpiece of his bait company, Reaction Innovations. Since then he has created a down-sized version of the Sweet Beaver called the “Smallie Beaver”.“I used the Smallie Beaver for most of the tournament this year,” he said. “I used white for the largemouths and a watermelon green pumpkin for the smallmouths.”With two Wal-Mart Open titles, $410,000 in winnings and his own soft-plastic bait company that was practically born on Beaver Lake, Andre Moore is quickly becoming a serious candidate for the “Mr. Beaver Lake” moniker.Andre Moore used a white or green pumpkin Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver to coax bedding Beaver Lake bass into biting. He rigged the soft-plastic creature bait with ¼-ounce tungsten bullet weights on 10- or 12-pound fluorocarbon line.These baits are very similar in appearance to many “Creature” type plastic baits you find on the market today, but with a major difference. They REALLY CATCH BASS like nothing else available on the market!Tournament anglers all over the country are standing in line to get these baits. They have accounted for more tournament wins so far this year than any other style bait. It is a phenomenon that is sweeping the tournament trails in B.A.S.S. and the FLW tour, all the way down to the federations and clubs. People just can’t get enough of them quickly enough. They recently moved to a larger complex and increased production trying to accommodate all the requests from tournament anglers and dealers, and still that hasn’t been enough. I got some of Andre Moore’s baits, the “Sweet Beavers” and field tested them on all the lakes and rivers in the northeast and all the way down to Florida with amazing results. These baits are the real deal! I took some giant largemouth bass on these baits and the photos can be viewed in the gallery at my new blog located at http://giantlargemouthbass.blogspot.com/ After the field testing results came in, I ordered as many of the “Sweet Beavers” as I could get.

I have no idea how long this phenomenon will last, but for the time being, it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. You can get some of these baits at 50% off retail for a limited time at my main website at http://bassfishingstories.webs.com inthe forums.

Steve vonBrandt BBWC World Champ 98 Hall Of Fame 2003

Fishing Soft Plastic Grubs In Delaware

Delaware and Maryland Ponds, Lakes, and Rivers are receiving more and more pressure as each year goes by, not just from weekend anglers, but tournament fishing as well. If you apply some new tactics with these spider grubs, you can be more productive in your recreational and tournament fishing alike.

Surprisingly, this deadly soft plastic bait is not a staple in everyone’s tackle box, but in many other states, it is a long time favorite lure when the going gets tough. Several companies make spider grubs, but I prefer the ones made by “Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits” the best. The grubs come in a variety of colors and sizes, from two to five inches long. They are absolutely deadly on spring largemouth and smallmouth bass alike. Most anglers like to use them on jig heads, and this is an extremely effective method, but I also like to rig them Texas style. The grub resembles a darting crawfish depending on how you fish it. It is the most effective in clear water, but also produces bass in stained and muddy water.The lure is compact like a jig and pig, as versatile as a worm, can be fished vertically or horizontally, fast or slow. You can pitch it, flip it, swim it, hop it, or drag it on the bottom. Here are some of the ways I like to fish it in Delaware and Maryland waters, and elsewhere throughout the country, that really produce bass.

Search Tool

When searching for bass, you want to try to cover the water quickly. The spider grub is a great search tool when you’re looking for bass that are feeding on crawfish around scattered weeds and rocks on shallow flats like the Susquehanna, or similar shallow areas. You can fish it faster than a jig, cover the water quickly, and trigger more reaction strikes, The earth tone colors are easy to match with the forage and blend in well with the surroundings. This is critical in clear water, when the bass rely more on sight. Sometimes I like to fish it fast, with an erratic, jerkbait type motion. The lure is always moving, but on or near the bottom.

When I fish the open flats with scattered grass, I rig it on a light jighead, or if the cover is thicker, I rig it Texas style. I found that I land more fish If the hook is exposed, and if it becomes hooked on weeds occasionally, I jerk it free, sometimes causing a reaction strike. I like to use 1/8 ounce or 1/4 ounce jigheads, depending on the depth of the water, wind, currents, or how hard it is to keep on the bottom. I also prefer to fish them on a 6 1/2 to 7 foot spinning rod with a medium action soft tip, in graphite. Using six to eight pound test P-Line.
Sometimes you can go to ten pound line, depending on the cover. The light line gives the bait more action, and is less likely to hang up in the weeds. I have used these successfully on the grass flats in the Potomac River and on the Susquehanna flats. Working it the right way takes some practice. You want the lure to scoot along in short bursts, on or near the bottom, without making excessive hops. Don’t pull it too hard, or you will lose contact with the bottom. Keep the rod low to the water, and on the side of the boat so the wind doesn’t bow the line and ruin the action of the bait.
Keep contact with the bait at all times, because many of the strikes will feel mushy or heavy like it is on grass, but most of the time when I set the hook, it is a bass. If it is just weeds, it pulls free and sometimes triggers a strike.

Different Techniques

Swimming the Grub

Sometimes I swim the grub like a jerk bait. Once in a tournament the bass were ignoring the jerkbait, so I switched to the spider grub, and fished it erratically over the weeds, stopping it occasionally. This triggered the strikes that I needed to win. Fifteen pounds of bass slammed the spider grub while ignoring the other jerkbaits and crankbaits that were being worked in the same area.

Dragging the Grub

Sometimes when I am fishing on a long, sandy, gravel point, I use a stand up jighead and just pull it slowly on the bottom. I work it very slow, and maintain contact with the bottom all the time. Also, I Carolina-Rig the bait, and when I feel it hit rocks or heavy cover, I start shaking the line, and this causes strikes to occur much of the time. This has been working real well in lakes in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but I have used it with success all over the country.

Suspended Fish

Frequently after a cold-front moves through, bass will suspend over some structure. When this occurs, You can rig it Texas style, on a very light weight, or with no weight at all, and let it float down to the bottom. When conditions are tough, this works wonders at times by keeping the bait in front of the fish longer. I have even tried drop-shotting this bait with success. They are more prone to strike the bait with this method, over a bait that moves quickly by them. When you are searching for fish, and the going gets tough, this is the bait to try. I like to use a good spinning rod, such as G.Loomis or St.Croix, and a good reel like a Shimano or Daiwa. Sensitivity is very important, and a combination such as this improves your chances of catching them when they strike. This technique has worked well in clear lakes all over the Midwest, and in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. I caught a lot of nice bass using these methods at Table Rock Lake, in Missouri also. Whether it is spring, summer, fall, or winter, this is a bait for all seasons

StevevonBrandt Big Bass World Champ/NAFC Hall Of Fame angler

Top Delaware Ponds

Some of the best ponds during the heat, day or night, have been Millsboro, Killens, and Canal pond. Millsboro pond pictured above has an island and can be a good spot at night.

First of the closest ponds to both upper and lower Delaware is Killens in Dover.

Killens is located right off rt.13. Turn left onto State Park Road, follow the road around the curve, past the main park entrance, and about a mile and a half down the road is the pond. It has parking for about six to eight trucks with trailers, with an adequate launching ramp. Killens is a state park, and they also rent boats and cabins, but you will find little competition for bass except on the weekends.

Most of Killens is one to five feet deep at the shoreline, except in the extreme upper end, where it is just inches deep. The lake has an Island in the center with some wood cover and grass. It drops off to six feet quickly on the channel side (main lake), and is about three feet on the right side. This is a particularly good area to work in the day with “Senko’s” in four and five inch sizes in black and watermelon on a 3/0 WG hook, with eight and ten pound test line. In addition, clacker type buzzbaits produce bass in the three to six pound range many times in this area, even in the bright afternoon sun.

A Tournament Frog, or “Sumo Frog” is a good choice for the pads especially in the daytime heat. The action will be slower, but you can connect with some big explosions through the grass and pads at times. A Tournament Frog is the best choice of topwater, and a 1/2 ounce in black works best all around. Vary the retrieve, both day and night, sometimes letting the frog sit after hitting the water, as long as thirty seconds, then use a few quick hops. If this doesn’t produce, try working it very fast and pausing only once, on the way back to the boat. This is especially effective in large pads.

Jigs in black and blue take their fair share of nice bass from here also, but you must be extremely accurate and quiet in your presentations or you will not connect. The bass will be in the heaviest of cover, lying in wait for a slow moving, crippled bait to come overhead.

“GO AT NIGHT”

Fishing at night when the water cools to seventy or seventy-five degrees, is the best time to connect with bigger bass now. Explore the shallow water right at the drop-offs on the left side of the lake with buzzbaits cast to the main channel edge. Do not be afraid to experiment with some older, forgotten baits, such as a “Devils Horse”, or similar prop baits. They work wonders sometimes in highly pressured lakes.

MILLSBORO POND

Millsboro Pond is in Sussex County, Delaware, in the town of Millsboro off Isabella and Main Street. It has room for only a few boats, and the launching ramp is very shallow, you can get off all right, but getting back on the trailer can be real tricky. Most of the lake is shallow, with lots of grass. It has several Islands, but the bass go to shallow water at night in the upper end. Buzzbaits are best, but Tournament Frogs work well also, in the day and night. Several bass have been caught in the three to six pound range in the past at night, using the frog and Senko’s mostly in the day. Cast the buzzbait wherever possible at night, it is worth removing the grass. Use Senko’s by the lower end of the lake in deeper water in the day, and do not forget to let them sit a long time, raise the pole once or twice, and then cast again. Use these techniques and bring plenty of insect repellent, and you will connect with some lunkers, and many others in the two to three pound range.

CANAL POND

Canal Pond is located by the railroad bridge in the C&D Canal area. Turn right under St.Georges Bridge and follow the road to the pond. It has beautiful structure, pads, and has a deep shoreline with a deep hole. This was where a few years ago, the thirty pound landlocked striped bass was caught. There are some real Lunker largemouth’s still there also. You will need a small cartop boat to fish it, but it is worth the trouble of getting in. It is about thirty acres of real good drop-offs, and structure, where bass up to nine pounds have been caught. Please remember to practice Catch, Photo, and Release so we can all enjoy the bass fishing there for a long time to come. Senko’s and four inch straight tailed worms work best throughout the year in watermelon and green. At times spinnerbaits and frogs will work, but this is a plastics lake.

Noxontown Lake

Noxontown has long been known for producing big bass. In the late seventies and early eighties largemouth of seven and eight pounds were not uncommon to hear of each week.
Since that time, with all the recreational and tournament pressure, its big bass numbers seem to have declined, or have they?

The answer is no! They are still there, just older and wiser. This was proven when I caught a 10.16 pound largemouth bass in 1999 in Noxontown, just ounces short of the state record.

That bass pictured below was featured in a full page article in the News Journal paper, in Bassmaster Magazine Lunker Club, North American Fisherman, and Bass Pro Shops Master catalogs.

The trick to getting these larger bass to strike is to fish the lake at low pressure times during the weekdays, and employing some western techniques such as swimbaits off the deeper points. Just because they are northern strain bass and aren’t 20 pounds, it doesn’t mean they don’t want a big easy meal.
Follow these tips and tactics in these Delaware Lakes and Ponds this year, and you will catch the trophy of a lifetime! More detailed information on these and other lakes, ponds and rivers in Delaware and Maryland are available at http://bassfishingstories.webs.com/

StevevonBrandt Big Bass World Champ/NAFC Hall Of Fame angler

Steve vonBrandt Catches Huge Florida Bass.

FLORIDA LUNKERS #1–2000 ArchiveCompiled by: Herb Allen
Where should I go for the best opportunity to catch that elusive 10-pound or bigger bass?
“Florida,” advises the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) ….. by a whopping margin (See Bassmaster® Magazine, February 2000)!
According to statistics compiled by the Bassmaster Lunker Club, our Sunshine State accounts for 26.6% of its world-wide entries from anglers catching a 10-pound or heavier largemouth. Runner-up Texas with 18.7% and third-place California (16.2%) round out the top-3 locales. Other states and countries represented on the Lunker Club roster include Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arizona, North Carolina, Virginia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Mexico and South Africa.
E.C. “Doodle Bug” Dressler holds “Millie,” the largest recorded bass (a 17.13 pounds) from Lake Lochloosa which was only ounces away from being a new official Florida record. The fish was caught on 11 March 2000 and now resides with cinematographer Glen Lau, where once reconditioned (she was post spawn when weighed), he hopes to spawn her. Photo by Greg Walker.
In the Bassmaster® Magazine feature written by Editor Dave Precht, Lake Walk-In-Water was cited for producing nine Lunker Club qualifiers, followed by Stick Marsh/Farm 13 and Lake Istokpoga with a half-dozen fish each.
Not surprisingly, live shiners generated the most monster-sized bass catches in Florida. However, on a world-wide basis, plastic worms were listed as leading baits used with 23.7 percent, followed by shiners (13.7%).
Other successful lures/baits itemized by percentages were jigs-and-pigs (11.2), spinnerbaits (10.1), crankbaits (7.2), lizards (6.9), jerkbaits (6.5), topwater plugs (4.7), soft jerkbaits (3.9), buzzbaits (2.9), plastic grubs (2.5), lipless crankbaits (2.2), plastic crawfish (1.8), live waterdogs (1.4), and live nightcrawlers (1.1). Precht’s stats show that most trophies are caught in March (20.2%), followed by April (17.3%), January and February (13.2% each), May (8.8%), June (7.4%), August (4.8%), July (4.4%), September (3.3%), October and December (2.6% each), and November (2.2%). More than half (53.6%) of Club admissions were caught in depths of 5 feet or less, while 26.4 percent were taken in 6 to 10 feet of water, followed by 13 percent in 11 to 15 feet, and 6.9 percent in greater depths.
Good news for those of us who hate to get up before daybreak. Only 10.8 percent of those fish qualifying for Lunker Club status were caught BEFORE 8 a.m.
Seems the very best time for connecting with big ‘uns is between 10 a.m. and noon (22.1%), followed by 8-10 a.m. (14.0%), 2-4 p.m. (11.7%), noon to 2 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. (11.3% each), 4-6 p.m. (10.8%), and after 8 p.m. (7.8%).
It’s interesting to note that Florida created its own Big Catch Program in 1990 and, last year, certificates issued paralleled those of BASS’s Lunker Club awards with Lake Walk-In-Water, Stick Marsh/Farm 13 and Lake Istokpoga nailing down the top-3 spots. The program is now sponsored by eAngler.com and recognizes bass that are caught legally in Florida and weigh more than eight pounds or are longer than 24 inches. Of 426 Big Catch certificates for bass issued in 1999, 134 were recorded at Walk-In-Water, 24 from Stick Marsh/Farm 13, and 23 from Lake Istokpoga, according to Jim Estes of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
In January 2000, John Balint of South Bend, Indiana, picked off a 14-pound, 8-ounce largemouth in Lake Kissimmee, while Steve von Brandt of Wilmington, Delaware, collected a pair of trophy bass from Lake Jackson on successive days that scaled 10.4 and 12.4 pounds, and all three of these released-alive prizes were captured between 10 a.m. and noon.
Since it has now been doubly confirmed that Florida has regained its Big Bass Capital of the World crown, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that the Sunshine State is the place to be for folks seeking that 10-pound or above wall-hanger.

Steve vonBrandt BBWC World Champ 98 Hall Of Fame 2003