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| Around 10% of the world's total fish species can be found just within the Great Barrier Reef. |
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| Starfish can re-grow their arms. In fact, a single arm can regenerate a whole body. |
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| Starfish do not have blood. Their blood is actually filtered sea water. |
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| Starfish don't have brains. Special cells on their skin gather information about their surroundings |
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| Not all animals with the word fish in their names count as fish. |
| Though their names may suggest otherwise, cuttlefish, starfish, and jellyfish aren’t actually fish. Generally-speaking, fishes must have skulls, gills, and fins. Surprisingly, though, not all fishes have proper spines. |
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| In three decades, the world's oceans will contain more discarded plastic than fish when measured by weight, researchers say. |
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| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Just how man species of fish are there? |
| As of 2020, there were 34,000 known fish species around world. That’s more than the number of species in all other vertebrates: birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians combined. |
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| Even Catfish are finicky |
| Taste Buds ? Catfish have a more refined sense of flavor than humans. Our 10,000 taste buds may seem like a lot, but catfish can have as many as 175,000. This helps them find the exact location of their next meal. |
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| A bit of Humor |
| My brother has 2 German Shepherds named Rolex and Timex. You guessed it they are Watch Dogs. |
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From Jan 01, 1999 To Apr 18, 2024
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May 6, 2007; 06:36PM - Lake Toho
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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Today Piero and I headed to Lake Toho, Piero came down from Wisconsin, Via Italy for some bass fishing and the bass did not let him down. We started the day on the southern end of the lake, where Piero hooked up with a bass fairly quick using a Brush Hog. After that, we made several moves, missing 4 more bass before they seemed to shut down, we were tossing everything I had on the boat, trying to muster up a bite. We moved to the north end of Toho and switched to of all things a Steel Shad, and in 2 hours time we boated another 18 bass to end the day with a total of 20 bass. We had spotted a few bass cruising that would have gone a good 5 pounds each, but they just would not take anything worked by them. Water temps were running 84.9 when we pulled of the water and the rain, yes folks, rain was heading in, good to finally get some rain. We did not see any schooling action to speak of, and some chatter at the ramp had several people struggling to muster up a limit of bass, the trusty Steel Shad came thru once again.
I’ll be hitting Toho again this week, as well as some scouting out on Clermont Chain, mainly to check water levels out on Clermont. Till my next report, Tight lines and great fishing!!
Capt Tim Fey
BassFishingFl.com
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May 4, 2007; 09:52PM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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Wednesday I was out on Butler Chain with Ryan. We had started the morning out using shiners on Butler, catching some good quality bass in 6 to 8 foot of water, with drop off close by. Once the sun got up and really started cooking, we moved into Lake Chase and tossing Tequila Green Zoom worms into grass beds picking up some very good numbers.
Bass were basically mouthing the baits and swimming off, so you really had to watch your line. I Did manage a few on a Rattle Trap before we called it a day. The previous week Capt Rowels covered my trips for me out on Butler Chain, as I had suffered a blown motor. So I resorted to picking up my clients in the morning and taking them to the ramp, and picking them back up at the end of the day. Everyone was very happy, catching between 16 and 20 bass a trip, with a 7 pounder and a 9 pounder being caught.
I’ll be back on Butler on Saturday and then Toho on Sunday.
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com
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May 4, 2007; 08:35PM - Harris Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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Thursday I had a trip out on Harris Chain with Dan and the gang. First I’ll start out by saying it does not look like Hickory Point Ramp will be open too much longer, there was only one double launch and one single launch open as the waters are very low. Those three slots are very close to being shut down, as I backed in, the trailer was at the edge of the end of the ramp. Other than low waters, the waters were as expected, very dirty and very warm, as we pulled off for the day, the temps were mid 80’s. Day started out pretty good with bass busting water, deep into grass beds, so working worms was the key to being able to catch bass. Big Harris and Lake Eustis were the 2 lakes we worked. Tequilla Greem Zoom worms, and the only spinner bait to catch a bass, Clown color were the baits, with a few bass being taken on shiners as well. Big bass for the day was right at 4 pounds and came on a shiner.
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com
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Apr 19, 2007; 07:16PM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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The past 2 weeks have seen some good bass fishing action out on Butler Chain. Starting with the Patterson clan, with shiners and artificial baits we worked Lake Butler and Lake Chase, with Steve tossing a spinner bait to get the “wildest” hook set award of the year. Steve was tossing a spinner bait in and around grasses and docks, when he gave her a toss to a dock, spinner bait going over the dock walkway, back into the water around a PVC pipe sticking up and under a boat. Thinking this was going to be a mess, he was right, as he tried to shake the lure loose, the line got pinned between a post and the walkway, when it looked like the rod got tugged on.
Steve assured me there was nothing there, and as he popped the line to shake her loose, we hear a splash from under the boat in the boat slip, Steve popped the line free from the walkway and the short lived fight was on. Stepping onto the dock, Steve had reeled up as far as he could, while I was hanging off the walkway, reaching for a bass that was not only hooked up solid, but was also tangled in someone else’s braided line left behind, after a few minutes of me teetering on sliding off a dock into the water, I did manage to just barely lip his bass, which weighed in right at 5 pounds. I honestly can’t remember the last time I had to work that hard to lip a bass.
The next day, Tuesday the 10th, saw Dave Fonder and his girlfriend back out on Butler, giving it a go with some fly fishing! Well needless to say, they gave it one heck of a go, before sitting down the fly rods and tossing around Steel Shads in the deep holes and drop offs to catch their bass.
Wednesday, Rod, coming from Canada gave it a run out on Butler with shiners and had a pretty darn good 4 hour trip, catching some good quality bass on Lake Butler and Lake Chase. Once again bass were caught in the areas where there was a deep water drop off close by, boat set up in 6 foot of water, and the bass coming from waters in 10 to 16 foot.
I have been enjoying the last few days off, still hitting the waters working with new lures. I have been catching bass out on Butler using a ChugRoller and a PopRoller with today being capped off with a nice 3.4 pound bass on a PT Spoon from High Roller Lures.
Lake Toho report will be posted in the next few days.
Tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
Bassfishingfl.com
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Apr 8, 2007; 09:13AM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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This past week has been yet another very busy week, with some very good and solid bass being caught on everything from live bait to artificial lures. With the bass spawn all but over, bass have moved for the most part away from shallow waters and have staged more towards deeper waters, close to drop offs. There has on some days been some very good schooling activity going on, some days the schooling bass will just hammer the live bait, while other days they seem to prefer t-rigged worms with a small screw in bullet weight.
Monday started the week off with Ken and Chris hitting Butler Chain with some live bait action. Lake Butler and Lake Chase were the definite lakes for the best bass action as these two guys caught some good quality bass with some very aggressive hits as the bass were doing some good schooling action in the cuts. The better quality bass where caught just off the grass bed edges with Chris getting the big bass of the day just shy of 5 pounds.
Kurt fished on Wednesday working nothing but artificial bait. With a high sun and no cloud cover to speak of, we spent a lot of time pounding grass beds, Kurts first hook up was on Lake Butler, using a High Roller PopRoller in Blue Shad color. From there it was a lot of slow worming using purple and black Christmas colored worms, with one other bass coming on a Yozuri Rattlin Vibe.
Some bass are still being caught in less than 3 foot of water, but main areas of focus have been in the 4 to 6 foot range with deep water drop offs close by. Rob from Fish-Hawk.net came down to fish Thursday with his brother and father to catch some Florida bass and the blue bird skies and minimal breeze did make things pretty tough on the guys, but being very persistent the guys did manage some good bass, with the two biggest looking like twins, one weighing in at 4.14 and the other coming in at 4.13 pounds on the digital scale.
Friday saw Sam and his son out on Butler Chain, this youngster was very impressive with his casting skills, working bait casters like a true pro, starting the day out catching the first bass in the first 10 minutes working a spinner bait thru the grass beds on Lake Butler before switching up to the worms and catching several more. Sam kinda hung out on the back of the boat and had a blast watching his son fish, and even had his son coaching him on where to toss his lures, with his dad getting a good bass on a rattlin vibe out of the deep waters on Butler. Weather was better today, with what should be our last cold front. Very minimal schooling activity was seen on the lakes that we fished today, but it’s only a matter of time before the waters start to really heat up with what will be a great top water bite.
Saturday I ended the week with Alan and his son out on Butler Chain for a 6 hour live bait trip. Alan is a local guy that wanted to hit Butler as he said he had little luck out there. We started out the day VERY cold for this time of year, water temps were down to 71 to start the day, with strong and cold winds. This was the perfect day for lock jaw, and the bass were very tough to catch as expected. Starting out on Butler and working grass line and thru the cut, Alan missed a few hook up, with his son landing 2 nice bass and having a beauty come unbuttoned as she danced on the water. From there we moved over into Lake Chase, I did spot some schooling action but no takers as we slow trolled along the grass beds, when Alan tossed his bait out, the second it hit the water it was hammered and the fight was on, with Alan landing a beauty of a bass coming in at 6.3 pounds on the digital scale. Happy Birthday Alan!!
In all the week saw some very good and solid bass being caught, with this front that is moving thru right now, water should hold to the mid 70’s for the better part of the week and that should help kick in some good top water action. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Easter.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
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Apr 1, 2007; 08:05PM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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This past week on Butler Chain had its ups and downs. Monday and Tuesday saw some good top water action on Lake Butler. During the early morning we saw a good amount of schooling action. Tuesday turned out to be the best day with bass being caught on High Roller ChugRollers in Fire Tiger. Big bass for the day came in at a solid 3.8 pounds, and just slammed the ChugRoller.
Wednesday I had the great pleasure of having Kathy Barker from ProBass Networks out on Butler Chain. Kathy surprised me thou, when we met at McDonalds she had Skip Collins from High Roller Lures there with her. What I thought was going to be a great top water action day on Butler, was anything but that.
The bass did not want to play fairly, as we did see some schooling action going on, but they avoided any and all top water lures thrown at them, Skip did manage 2 bass on his secret lure, while Kathy caught two more bass, with her landing the big bass for the day and the bragging rights. Only 5 bass made it to the boat, as the blue bird skies seemed to have just shut down the artificial bite.
Thursday I had the McClain duo, husband and wife out on Butler. We started out with Margarita working live bait, and Carl with top water baits. There was very limited schooling action once again, but Carl was very determined to nail a nice bass on top water. He started out with an Original High Roller, but then switched to a ChugRoller. A very solid bass, in the 4 pound class came up to slam the bait. Carl said he felt her hit the lure so he set the hook, but she was gone. That, unfortunately was the end of the top water action for the day. Margarita continued to work the live bait, missing her first bass as it chased the shiner to the surface. She got too excited and the hook up was missed. After a few coaching words, Margarita didn’t miss another bass. We actually had to keep an eye on her, as she never said a word, we only knew she had one on when we heard the drag. Her big fish of the day came in at 5.1 pounds.
Mean while Carl was tossing around a Gitem Shad in watermelon red, with a small screw-in bullet weight. Flipping to grass bed edges, Carl managed some good quality bass, with his big bass of the day coming in at 5.2 pounds on the digital scale. These 2 had a great time on the water catching as Carl said “some good quality bass.”
Saturday we ended the week with my son wanting to head out to Butler and do some relaxing fishing using live bait. We hit Lake Butler and right off the bat he had the first bass of the day in less than 5 minutes of us being on the water. We pretty much just slowed trolled the live shiners around the grass beds with deeper water drop offs close by. My son landing 5 good solid bass caught within 2 ½ hours on live bait. A quick switch to a Fat A and he missed what looked to be close to a 4 pounder right by the boat. When he decided he was more than happy with his catch for the day, we headed back in.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
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Mar 25, 2007; 08:53AM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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The past 2 weeks has seen some very good fishing action on Butler Chain, as well as a few days of some tough fishing. With a couple days of what was basically blue bird skies, made for a lot of moving around in order to catch some good quality bass. Days with the blue bird skies had us working deeper waters with live bait, fishing waters 10 to 20 feet deep in order to get good catches. The day before what is supposed to be our last cold front rolled thru, we had some great overcast skies, and that triggered some of the best top water action of the year so far. Lakes Butler and Louise were the top lakes when it came to the schooling action, and the High Roller Lures were getting creamed with 16 bass making it into the boat in 4 hours using the 4.25 High Roller in Perch and the 3.25 Rip Roller Florida Special doing all the catching, with bass weighing in from 2 to 3 ½ pounds.
Weekend saw the front roll thru and the bite did slow down pretty good, but with patience and persistence, the bass still did bite, with the bite very slow to start the day and picking up as the day warmed. As the Bligh brothers saw, Butler Chain has some good fishing action, as they spent 2 good days on the water catching some good bass, with Dennis landing the big bass coming in at 5.01 pounds and getting bragging rights between the three of them.
The soft plastics bite has been doing good, most of our catches have been coming using the Gitem Warlocks in June Bug and the Gitem Shads in Watermellon Red Shad, both with small pegged bullet weights and worked slowly. Spinner baits and Yozuri Rattlin Vibes have also produced some quality bass to 4 pounds in and around grass beds and eel grass, as well as scattered lily pads, areas of heavy lily pads have been best worked with the shads or warlocks real slow, almost dead sticked.
We ended the week with Shawn working artificial baits working Lake Butler and Lake Chase. Gitem Curly 10’s in Red Shad were the ticket to catching bass, although the numbers and size were down, as we experienced what seemed to be 3 different weather patterns. The day started out picture perfect with a slight breeze and heavy clouds, which fast turned into blue bird skies and no breeze to speak of. Catching a few here and there and missing several good bass as they came unbuttoned deep in the grass beds, and then the final weather change hit, stronger winds, all three weather patterns seemed to hit within 3 hours and definitely turned the bass of to hitting. Bites most of the day were very light, and you had to let them have the baits in order to land the catch. Grass bed edges or deep into the grass beds was the way to get them.
Till my next report,
Tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
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Mar 12, 2007; 07:44PM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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Week Ending March 11th
The past week I spent 6 days out on the Butler Chain with clients on a mix of trips again, some artificial and some live bait. First part of the week saw a very tough bite, even with live bait, as the bass were just mouthing the shiners and barely holding onto them. Sizing down on the shiners from Large to Mediums made the catch much better for the clients.
Shiners were all slow trolled in various depths of water, ranging from 4 foot to 22 feet deep, with numbers coming in the 4 to 8 foot depths, and size coming from waters 12 to 20 feet deep.
The artificial bite was fairly good for the most part, with the majority of the bass being caught on Gitem Shad, Gitem K.Os and Gitem Warlocks, dominate color being black with red flake and working baits very slowly with a 1/8th ounce screw in bullet weight.
Again working shallow waters, tossing baits all the way to shoreline, very tight to grass beds, and right up against the cypress trees in order to catch bass. Most bites were very light, so watching your line was very important. There was no spinner bait bite or even a rattle trap bite to speak of for most of the week. Several good bass were spotted cruising around the beds on several lakes, but for the most part, the beds were empty. Water temperatures were running 68 in the mornings and warming to as high as 72 by the end of the day. Look out, top water action is just around the corner.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
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Mar 2, 2007; 01:00PM - Butler Chain
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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The last 2 weeks saw us on Butler Chain for 12 days with a mix of trips, a few trips with live bait and a few with all artificial trips. Start of the week saw for some very tough bite as the water temps had an almost 8 degree drop, which really had the bass on a serious case of lock jaw. Gitem Shads with a small bullet weight worked in and along grass beds worked very slow, and I stress VERY slow in order to get the bites.
Mid week saw the bite pick up as the water temps started reaching the upper 60’s and bass started heading to the beds, with several bass in the 5 and 6 pound class being caught in and around the beds. Once again it was Gitem Shads and 10 inch black neon worms getting the bass to bite with an occasional bass being caught on all white spinner baits.
The shiner bite is still going strong on several lakes on the chain, with a few lakes actually having a drop off with the live bait bite. Two very memorable trips involved two youngsters, first was Edward fishing with his father, we had spotted a buck on a bed, and decided to give Edward a crack at catching this bass, with 4 flips of the shiner to the bass, she would not touch it, so the 5th try, the buck had knocked the shiner off the bed, and at that moment, the female came flying out of the grasses and nailed the shiner and the fight was on. Edward had worked this bass perfect and landed a beautiful 5.4 pound bass.
The second was with 7 year old Nick and his dad Greg. Greg had a bass boil up on his bait twice, but she would not commit to it, when Nick got his bait up there, and in a split second, this bass hit his shiner like a freight train. Nick set the hook and the bass headed straight into the grasses and with a little effort, Nick got her out of the grass, and off to the docks she went, after a brief battle, Nick had a beautiful bass, 22 inches long with a 15 inch girth, weighing in at 6.05 pounds, perfect enough to get his Youth Angler Certification from the State of Florida.
With the weather holding steady, and a consistent air temp, the waters have been warming up slowly, which will mean one thing, bass will be really hitting the beds and the bigger gals will start being caught. Several lakes on the Butler Chain are loaded with beds, most have been empty the last few weeks, so they should be showing up any day now. One consistent pattern has been, even though the bass were not on the beds, they have been holding up very close to them with the bucks right there.
Web site has been updated with all new pictures in the Photo Gallery and new video links on the main page, along with new testimonials.
Till my next report, tight lines and great fishing!
Capt Tim Fey
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Feb 26, 2007; 04:36PM - Johns Lake
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Category: Florida
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Author Name: Capt Tim Fey
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Last week I had trips on Johns Lake on the 22nd and 23rd, both days started out the same way, with some good schooling action first thing in the morning in the Deer Island cut and limited schooling action in the Horse Shoe area. Once the schooling activity passed, it was a lot of moving around and working grass beds and lily pads to catch the bass the rest of the day. Shiners of course were the top producer with bass up to 7 pounds being caught. Artificial baits that had produced were spinner baits, senko type baits and rattle traps. Winds both days had dictated how the bite was going to be, and it was a very light bite, with the spinner baits having to be slow rolled and soft plastics worked very slowly with a small bullet weight pegged, to help the bait with a slow fall rate, most hits came on that slow fall and were all in 5 to 8 foot of water.
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