Lake
Toho Surrendering Huge Bass
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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