The Kit Lake Solace

AUGUST 2025

          It was a month of drainage on Kit Lake, my home water in central Florida’s largemouth bass country. Others sapped our energy. Hurricanes drew rain from our area. And our lake shallowed.    

      Summer rains missed our lake more than hit, leaving us with hot, low water. Kit Lake Anglers could not look for fish in the usual edge-of-the-lake, August places. Conditions were such that even hardware anglers were skunked on occasion, but several Kit Lake fly anglers found fish.

By leaving early, Gloria found some bluegill in the not-too-hot hours. She covered lots of ambiguous spots, more toward the center of the lake than usual, with light colored trout nymphs presented at moderate pace.

Bass minnows, from the size of a number 4 hook up to size 3/0, roamed the shallows (as they were) out to the edge to the drop-off. So she tossed a unicorn Clouser on a short leader under a Sprog and caught the bigger bass marauding The Whidden End into the late mornings. And on the dropoffs around the lake, anglers found articulated streamers in white, yellow, and chartreuse, presented slowly, attracted strikes down to 8 feet of water.

For most of the month, afternoon clouds in various shades of blue climbed high and swirled down to the ground on the horizon. They didn't affect our fishing, except to distract with their pretty shows. But even when rain didn’t fall, possible lightning chased anglers off the lake.

Then our view of the clouds changed, and hard times for anglers should change and make those fishy edges of the lake more fertile next year. So, we will begin again and plan for the future.