by
Don Wilson
When
Kevin Moran and fishing buddy Rob
Baker decided to leave Louisville
for a week's fishing vacation on Lake
Tohopekaliga, Moran had no great
expectations.Baker had
been fishing the Kissimmee Chain for several years,
coming back with tales of catching
11- and 12-pound fish.
Moran
wasn't expected to equal such feats.
If anything, all he wanted to do was
catch a largemouth bass that weighed
more than the
five pounds -- his personal best. Moran
didn't break that record . . . he demolished
it.
Fishing Monday with Bass Challengers
Guide Service's Eddie Bussard, Moran
caught two bass with
a total weight of 21-plus pounds
-- in just 45 minutes. His
feat probably insures Moran will
be a legend around Richardson's Fish
Camp for years. The day's fishing started fairly routinely
but didn't remain so for long. "Kevin
caught the first fish -- a five-pounder
-- at 7 o'clock. Then at 7:30, he caught the 10-5," Baker said.
Bussard produced a pair of digital
hand-held scales and weighed the fish.
Moran gulped.
"
I knew it was a big fish, but I thought
it weighed around eight pounds," Moran
said. " When I read the scales,
I thought . . . no way!" For the next 45 minutes, Baker said,
the pair caught five-, six- and seven-pound
fish with almost assembly-line regularity.
Then
Moran met Jaws. " At first,
I thought it was another six-pounder.
It pushed up the bait,
blew up on it behind
the bobber, and I didn't get a good
look," Moran said." Actually,
the 10-pounder felt twice the size
of the bigger one."
Then
the fish went airborne in a series
of acrobatic maneuvers trying to dislodge
the hook.
Moran knew then it was no six-pounder. Most anglers faced with a bass that
large would become excited.
Not
Moran. "
That fish came up and just danced across
the water. They both danced," he
said. Bussard was impressed.
"
He was really kind of cool, calm and
collected," he said. "But
he fishes a catfish tournament trail
in Kentucky and is used to big fish." The
guide produced the scales and weighed
the fish: 11 pounds, 2 ounces. After
posing for some quick pictures by Kissimmee
photographer Gary Clark,
Moran released the fish.
Fish
camp owner Dwight Richardson was
impressed by Moran's catch. " We
see a lot of big fish. Fred Varner
had two nines this morning, but two
fish that size, caught in 45 minutes, not real common," he
said.
"But
the bass have been jumping in the
boat this
week. One of our guides,
Jerry Kipp, had 21
bass to six pounds on a half-day trip." Bussard said the fishing has been exceptional.
"I
have had the best two months I've
ever seen on
this lake. I've probably
had seven trips in
the past two months where we had more
than 10 fish that weighed more
than five pounds," he said.
He is fishing open-water hydrilla
clumps in an area where the lake is
8 feet deep.
"The
big females are staging up there
before they
go in shallow
to spawn, then stopping there again after they've spawned," Bussard
said. "We're catching them coming
and going."
As
remarkable as the day's catch was,
it was not Bussard's best on the lake. " A
year ago May, I had a guy who caught
a 10-2, 11-7 and 11-11 in 45 minutes
on a buzz bait," he said.
But not everyone fishing Lake Toho
is happy with the bass bonanza.
"I've
got speck [black crappie] fishermen
who are
trying to catch specks
but keep getting bass that they don't want," Richardson
said.
For
Bussard, the fishing couldn't be
any better."
I think the lake is just at its peak," he
said. "During the past year, it's
produced the best fishing I've ever seen.
"Last
June I caught a 12-9 that is my personal
best."
Don Wilson can be reached at dwilson@orlandosentinel.com.
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