Learning Your Aquatic Plants to Catch More Fish

The world of aquatic plants is vast and diverse.  They live under the water, on top of the water, and grow out of the water.  Aquatic plants make good habitat for a wide variety of critters: larval insects, fish, amphibians, birds, and small mammals.  

A good way to start is to learn the common plants in the lake you fish or recreate in the most. The plants that grow out of the water are easiest to identify. Smartphone applications like my favorite "PictureThis" will give you the general class of plants and often gets the species correct just by the leaf characteristics.  If you can find a flower blooming on any plant, the PictureThis app is really accurate at giving you the species names. 

Underwater plants are a little more tricky in identifying with an app. When you pick up aquatic plants that live underwater they often fall limp and don't photograph well enough for computer app identification.  These are the plants you will need to learn by hand using my upcoming guides.  Once you know the species, there are some tricks I will share on how to catch more fish out of them.  

Look for future episodes coming soon.   

AquaticBiologyforAnglers.com

Numbers Can Be Misleading

My angler status and associated ranking does not fully reflect the story of my first year’s experience on the FLW Costa Southeastern Tour.  

Over two hundred anglers routinely fish in the FLW Costa Tour 

Yes, my ranking of 100th out of 268 is accurate, my weights were all properly recorded, but my numbers miss represent my 2018 story. 

In January, wind dominated southern Florida. The first event on Lake Okeechobee was very tragic. A pro boater’s judgement error and high winds played a key role in the death of fellow coangler Nik Kayler on day one. 

Remembering Nik Kayler - 2018

The tragedy caused the cancellation of the remaining tournament and only day-one weights counted.  A poor day of fishing showed in my pplace standing and a total weight of five pounds, two ounces. I was not on any solid fishing pattern so this finish was justified. 

Second stop of the Costa event was on Lake Seminole the first week of March.  Again, wind destroyed the lake the first day of the event and a lake wind advisory caused the cancellation of tournament day-one. 

A massive wind storm cancelled day-one

The full field was required to fish the next two days to determine the champion. 

In practice, despite the cloudy, windy days I found three solid fishing patterns that should have put me in contention for a top ten finish. 

Wind and weather had to be factored into the game plan

The fishing patterns were:  open water schoolers around isolated plant beds, prespawn bass in lilypads, and staging bass on 20-foot deep timber. 

Aquatic plants found to hold schooling bass

Lilypad beds where prespawn bass were holding

Deep water standing timber holding staging bass

The storm that passed the night of day-one wrecked my open water schoolers. I was only able to entice one bass in the three-pound class to bite my lure, but lost it at the boat. 

I also lost some numerous bass in the three-pound class fishing topwater frogs in the lilypads, and lost another four-pounder fishing jerkbaits in standing timber. 

In the end, my two day weight of 18lbs, 3ozs for eight bass gave me a finish mid-pack in the 238-angler field. 

Being in the bag line is a good thing

A large crowd gathered to see our fish

If I had landed any of the three-pound bass that I lost, I would have filled my allowable five-bass limit and I would have finished in the top 50 with a nice paycheck.  

In this last derby I played the weather correctly, developed a nice diversity of patterns to hold up for three days, and caught more weight in each consecutive tournament day. But bad execution cost me. I have relived every lost fish too many times to tell you, but I have also analyzed the cause of each loss and vow to correct the problems. 

Aquatic plants that grew underwater and chocked out spawning areas

A hard line where shorelines dropped steeply into the water

The “numbers” do not tell the whole story of how close I was to having a top finish!  

Remember, there is always a great story behind the scenes of how close each angler was to taking the prize, so do not take the numbers at face value. 

My best two bass landed on the final day of Lake Seminole event

Tight lines, and remember to learn your aquatic plants to catch more fish.    
Jeff 

Old Hickory Lake TN

2017 Ray Scott National Championship in Nashville, TN April 3rd-9th

While my tournament event did not go as expected, Cumberland River's Old Hickory reservoir in Tennessee was a beautiful system to fish the ABA National Champship. Dense angler fishing pressure and abnormal weather conditions threw a wrench in my fishing, eliminated anything I found during my single-day ride around, and shut down the bass bite to a slow crawl.

Bass Pro Shop Outpost in Chattanooga TN

With all three species: largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth bass, the possibilities for catching fish seemed endless.

Scouting

On the Tuesday I arrived water temperatures where reaching 67F degrees.  My plan started with several hours of scouting with my Lowrance Structure Scan unit.  Once I got a feel for the water conditions, I made my first fishing stop along the main river channel along a rocky bluff wall. In water 40ft deep, the logical thing to do would be to fish a jig down the rock outcroppings.

But I'm not logical and I surmised by the conditions that any bass out here would be pre-spawn, feeding in anticipation of soon heading shallow to spawn. With the predicted cold front on the way, this deeper area should hold heat longer.

Using a topwater walking bait, I fished the bluff and caught a good pre-spawn spotted bass that looked to be just under three pounds. So far so good.

First spotted bass of practice on a rock bluff

There was a large crawfish pincher sticking out of the fish's gullet.

My next fishing stop was all the way to the back of a creek to assess the stage of any spawners. I needed to find out if the bass were on beds yet or if they had spawned already.

On my first pass along the shallows I eye-balled five single bass on beds, and two paired with bigger females. No bass fry was present.  The beds were extremely different than our Florida Kissimmee Lake bass beds.  Old Hickory bass made very light colored beds and non-distinct bed on sandy bottoms. Male bass were observed in the middle of the beds and were extremely hard to see.  These bass lacked any mottling and were an almost silver in color.

The lighter color in the center of this sand flat was a bass on a bed

A nice largemouth caught fishing the shallows near beds.

Waterwillow plants were still brown from the winter but new sprouts were starting!

Since I had scouted both extremes (shallow and deep), my third fishing stop was mid-river to find bass closer to the river channel.  This group of bass should be a mix of prespawn/spawning fish but less subjected to the effects of the predicted cold front.  Cold temperatures often pull bass off beds, and may even pushed spawning fish back out to the main river until weather conditions stabilize.

It was in this mid-river area that I found the biggest largemouth and spotted bass. In fact, one largemouth bass-bed deep inside a fallen tree held a six pound female spawning with a three male!!

A six pound bass was seen spawning in the protection of this tree-fall.

Severe Weather

On Wednesday afternoon the American Bass Angler's Ray Scott National Championship registration meeting began. 

Angler registration and pairing meeting in TN Civic Center

 During the event the weather front officially hit Nashville TN. Along with rain and cold temperatures, the front also brought ludicrous-level wind speeds. With 45 mph gusts and small craft wind advisory throughout the night, the tournament organization was forced to cancel the first day of the tournament. The scheduled three-day championship turned into a two-day shootout.

I drew out as boat #29 in flight 2, so all night I wondered how the wind and cold would affect those big spawning bass. I contained my excitement of potentially catching that six pound spawning bass first thing in the morning.

  

Day One

Day one of the tournament started at 4am with predicted winds in the 30mph range and air temperatures in the low 40s.  After a 20 minute run up lake from the Sanders Ferry boat ramp, I could hardly feel my face or work my hands. The wind burn and cracked skin I received is still slowing my ability to type this blog a week later!

My first stop was a wind protected, deepwater bay just off the main river north of the mid-lake bridge. Sunlight was low and the morning was gorgeous. Working a rocky point in the bay I landed my first spotted bass over the required 12 inch limit. After catching a few short spotted bass, I moved to the back of the bay and caught my first keeper largemouth bass over 14 inches. As I was fishing, the sun was breaking the horizon on this bluebird sky day.  The warmth from the bright sunshine felt good and would hopefully warm up the shallows that sat in the mid 50s.  Surface water temperatures had dropped over 12 degrees!

As the sun rose, I noticed the water in the bay was dirty, and rising. My first thought was "Wholly crap, the main river was swelling due to rain and the lack of hydro-generation”. I fished all the rocky bluffs, creeks and bays I scouted as well as new ones with no success. Between the 12 degree temperature drop and incoming dirty water, my bass got lock-jaw.   My first day weigh-in at 3:15pm consisted of two bass for a miserable 130th place standing out of 156 pros.

Day Two

On the second tournament day it was even colder at 4am with frost all over my boat and Mercury engine. Being physically worn down from the cold at this point, I donned four layers of shirts and my BassProShop’s heavy duty rain suit.

My Triton/Mercury Marine rig was cold and covered with frost

My first fishing stop was again in the deep water bay where I caught my two bass on day one. I found the water up half a foot higher and dirty water from the main Cumberland river all the way back in my bay. After fishing for 40 minutes my coangler and I never got a bite so I called an audible.

Heading back out to the deep water of the main river I found parts of the river was clearing. Fishing the clear side along the river shoals, my coangler caught the first keeper bass off a wood laydown.  I had my first clue of the day.  But after working main river wood for an hour neither one of us got bit again.  “Some clues lead anglers in the wrong direction.”

Given the conditions, I moved to fish the deepest water in the largest protected creeks way off the main river.  My first stop was a large marina surrounded by 20 feet of water. Large schools of shad were swimming around the marina docks and my coangler caught his second keeper largemouth bass on a jerkbait. I worked hard with a jerkbait, shakeyhead, worm, and sinko around every dock and only managed to draw strikes from two short bass. 

Large, deepwater marinas held the shad and a few bass.

Fishing sinkos wacky-style earn a few bites but no keeper bass

Things just did not go my way and I ended the day officially skunked. First time I have been fishless in over 15 years fishing as a pro angler. Very disappointing to me and I felt I let my family and sponsors down. I wanted to do so much more for the Kids in Support of Soldiers.  All the yearlong effort to qualify for the national championship and miles of travel, everything at the time seemed worthless.  The highs and low of tournament fishing hurt, but that pain builds toughness, and the ability to shake it off is something tournament angler know all too well.  

On the 10-hour drive home I was able to review the event and shake off the pain and humility I experienced.

Internal Dialog

On the bright side, the ten-ton gorilla is off my back! The experience of being skunked allowed me to push through my fear of failure and stand tall despite my poor results.  Being skunked did not cause the world to end, people didn't laugh, sponsors didn't drop me, and no one posted ridicule on social media.  Wow!  Life continued…

As I write this summary, I am concurrently preparing for the second stop of the Bassmaster Southern Open trail on Tennessee's Lake Chickamauga!  Our Florida strain bass were stocked there beginning in 2000 and the bigger females are now making the local newspapers. Huge 30 and 40 pound bags of bass are winning tournaments in the area. Lake Chickamauga is set up to be a much different fishery than Old Hickory!

The lessons learned from Old Hickory Lake have greatly helped me understand the bass of Tennessee.   Stay tuned, I'll post my Bassmaster Southern Open experiences and results in the next blog.

I hope this helps you catch more bass on Old Hickory Lake.   Jeff

Lake Kissimmee Bass Fishing in the Summer

The Kissimmee River runs 134 miles long and is fed from Lake Kissimmee and four other navigable lakes.  Can you name them all? (Answer at the end of this article)




In this post I share my recent bass tournament experiences on the famous Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. This information successfully earned money in one event and a top 35-finish in another. The combined events should provide anglers insight into how Florida's largemouth bass transition from one seasonal pattern to another. 

American Bass Angler (ABA) Open Tournament Series - April

The event was held on the upper portion of the chain on Lake Tohopekaliga, managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  The weather conditions in April had bass in a post-spawn mode. Forage fish such as shiners, lake chubsuckers, shad, and sunfish were spawning. 

Hydrilla control treatments by State agencies were mostly complete. Native eelgrass and peppergrasses plants were finally relieved of the choking pressure from hydrilla and beginning to grow back. For anglers that want to understand more about aquatic plants and control measures, download the free publication "Biology and Control Of Aquatic Plants", or visit www.aquatics.org.


Even though winter winds were easing and southern winds dominated the weather forecasts, water clarity on the upper chain lakes such as Toho, Cypress, and Hatchineha remained dingy.

Dock talk was circulating that bass were feeding and easy to catch in practice on the clearer waters of Lake Kissimmee. The situation was announced that the Army Corp's navigational lock leading from Lake Toho to the lower lakes was being limited to nine boats at a time. Worries of heavy boat congestion and long wait times at the locks were the top concerns on angler's list of uncontrollable factors, including my own. 

First stop in the morning I fished an edge of a Kissimmee grassline. This mixed habitat included torpedograss and knotgrass and is great for finding post-spawn bass. 

"Kissimmee grass"

The morning started fun even though I caught numerous chain pickerel and only two small bass (14") using swimbaits.  I love catching fish and the small pike added a nice start to my day.  After moving to other grasslines, I was able to fill out a small five-bass limit by mid-day. I searched the main lake for clear water and found one area where I caught a few more bass and culled up by mere ounces. I still needed to find bigger fish.

My new mental approach of fishing without pre-conceived notions enabled me to keep an open-mind and totally change my fishing pattern. I have to admit it was unnerving to fish new water (meaning areas I had not fished before) in a tournament. It put me outside my comfort zone and made me leave the fishing pattern that had produced bass throughout the day. I was constantly battled my inner voice which kept telling me "never leave fish to find fish".  

Pushing through my mental war, I spent the last hours of my day fishing shallow water areas that appeared to be older spawning flats.  I was rewarded with catching two big bass on swimbaits, each nearly four pounds apiece! Talk about positive reinforcement! Those two bass really helped increase my 5-fish limit and gained me a final weight of 13.39 pounds.

 

Accepting a paycheck from ABA Tournament Director for 14th place

While the weight was not impressive, it was enough on a tough tournament day to earn me 14th-place money among a field of 73 pro anglers. More reinforcement for my new mental game plan! 

American Bass Angler (ABA) Open Tournament Series  -June

ABA Open Series weigh-in at Camp Mack's River Resort 

Two months later, the June event was held in the heat of summer on the lower section of the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes.  Most of the lake's bass population had moved into their summer deep water pattern. The shallows were teeming with newly born juvenile fish, and underwater plants were green and growing. Above the water, the sun was bright, air was hot, and the humidity challenged most angler's ability to focus in the summer sun. 

Before this event I was able to spend a few morning hours scouting the three lower lakes: Cypress, Hatchineha, and Kissimmee. Winds and evening rainstorms kept most of the lakes muddy. Lightening storms moved in and ran me off the lake by noon.

For this event we launched out of Camp Mack's River Resort & Fish Camp near Lake Wales on Lake Kissimmee.  Being on the lower end of the change eliminated the need to navigate the #ArmyCorp lock system. 

Launching out on tournament morning as boat 53 put me at a disadvantage for finding any fishing spots in the flowing water canals. Like in practice, overnight storms and winds continued to muddy the water.  I eventually stopped in an area that had good habitat but poor water clarity forced me to move shallower than I wanted. 

I worked the edge of bulrush to catch a quick limit of bass on worms. Both my coangler and I had small limits bass in the first hour. My first stop was a good choice and  set the tone for a fun fishing day.

Bulrush plants provided the habitat for a quick limit of bass

As the sun rose higher in the sky, I began moving around but was discouraged by even muddier water and lack of bass activity. I finally manage to entice a big bass about five pounds to hit a frog lure but lost it when the fish jumped completely out of the water and threw the bait. It would have made for some great TV footage!  In the end it hurt my feelings but fired me up to keep searching. 

Like the tournament before, I knew I had to leave my comfort zone and fish new water In order to catch bigger fish. 

After and hour of searching I finally found clearer water and started fishing this new area. My coangler Wayne earned the first bite on a swimbait and landed a three-pound bass. My first cast drew a hit but I missed the bass. My second cast with a worm picked up a 3lb bass that culled out a small fish.  The fish activity died quickly and I continued the search.  

With two hours left to fish, I picked up my flipping rod and began picking apart the plant habitat. Using a creature bait I found a few more bass resting under mats of heavy plants and debri. My biggest bass was about four pounds and really helped boost my small limit of bass up to 12.21 pounds.  

Keeping an open mind allowed me to switch fishing patterns and rewarded me with a few big fish to cull with.

Back at the weigh-in tanks anglers were talking about the good flipping bite they experienced in heavy plant mats. It always amazing me how similar bass act all across the water. 

While I solved the angler's puzzle of lure and location, it happened too late in the day. My one lost bass cost me a paycheck. Had I landed that five pound bass, I would have culled out a 13 inch bass and gained another four pounds in total weight. 

In the end, my stringer earned me 35th place out of 72 pro anglers. 

Video summary of the Kissimmee tournaments 2016

Direct link to my video summary of the pre-spawn fishing conditions on the Kissimmee chain: 
https://youtu.be/CHyuQlA1k8Q?list=PLB048ACEF1C040D01  

With these two tournaments over, the regular season of the ABA Open Series ended. Top ranked anglers move on to the higher level, two-day championship round.  I am happy to post that I will be among those competing in September. I remain ranked 10th place overall for the year in the American Bass Anglers Florida Central Division Open Series. 

I am really starting to settle into my new fishing approach and gaining confidence in finding bass in a short amount of time. This gives me hope that my journey to becoming a more natural and instinctive angler is moving in the right direction.  

Nice pre-spawn bass caught flipping heavy vegetation

Keep checking back as I share my work on instinctive angling!  Maybe you should give it a try as well. 
Remember to visit the angler plant identification guide presented by TVA.gov,
Jeff     

Answer to question: The navigable lakes that feed the Kissimmee River are West Lake Tohopekaligo, Lake Cypress, Lake Hatchineha, Tiger Lake, and Lake Kissimmee. 

The Lull in Between Events

What does a die hard angler do between tournaments to keep busy and focused?

I am finding myself with that delima and in an area of lull that is foreign to me. Basically, no planned tournament fishing. A storm is brewing in my head. 

The 2015 schedule for the Bassmaster Southern Open tour has a five month break over the summer.  I have enjoyed more family time than I can remember. Trip to California, to Hawaii, and a nice dinner at the German pub in Sanford, Fl. 

So far this year on the tournament trail I have struggled to make a check in the Bassmaster Opens. I didn't even place high enough to qualify for the BassFest extravaganza on Kentucky Lake. 

As I sit at home I happily support my roommate Shaw Grigsby, friend Paul Elias, and fellow angler Troy Boussard of Swamp People on their quest to win BassFest. 

When life takes us away from our goals we all need to embark on a "grounding", the process of going back to our roots, stoking up the flames of desire, and getting motivated to burn through the challenges life throws at you. 

I just celebrated my 28th year marriage anniversary with my wife Trish. We developed juvenile diabetes with our first child 28 years ago. I say "we" because we are a team and have to rely on each other for strength. 

Today, we enjoy three beautiful children, one angel, and a great son in law. My wife's diabetes and our fight to enjoy life has been a very inspirational and motivating experience. Her ability to push through the tough times and reap the rewards of hard work without complain makes me proud!!

The strength my wife shows as she endures against all odds makes me mad at today's lazy society that wants something from nothing. 

I love tournament bass fishing and I love to take on challenges, but is there more??  I believe there is. 

I want to recuperate and gain my mental strength that I seems to have withered. I know I can catch fish, I have proven it over four years in the Bassmaster Southern Open trail. Yet, I feel I need to take a moment to regroup. My famy and my career limit me to 2.5days of practice in my Open events. With such limited time against full-time pros and local experts, I fight an uphill battle to be the best. 

So, I am thinking about expanding my promotional ability to more anglers for my sponsor #AERF.  Surveys show for every high level tournament angler there are nine anglers fishing mid-level and club tournaments.  

I stand to gain a nine-fold increase in brand impressions by fishing the Florida Bass Nation trail and ABA Weekend Series as I regroup and fish in Florida for a while with my friends. That's a win-win deal!! 

During my mission to share aquatic plant education, my goal will be to qualify for the BASS National Championship through the Bass Nation schedule and earn a berth in the Bassmaster Classic.

During my sabbatical from the Opens, I intend to accrue the vacation time needed to balance family vacations with a full-time career as a  Pro Angler. 

Juggling family time against a full-time biology career and a parttime BasspPro associate career has been a hand full. 

If it works out that 2016 limits me to home waters, I look forward to being a local expert for awhile, then everyone else will have to compete against me! 

Soon, I will recharge and challenge my Elite tournament friends again! If I retire from my career anytime soon, I will look to be a threat against the Bassmaster pros full time!! 

Look out Shaw Grigsby, Gary Klein, and Paul Elias. I'm coming! 

....This is the rant of a die-hard bass angler....I hope you feel my struggle and share my enjoyment of competitive bass fishing. Don't forget to balance fishing with family. 

Jeff