The Kit Lake Solace

     It was a month of disrupting opposites on Kit Lake, my home water in central Florida’s largemouth bass country. We traveled from home and met travel agents. We had to sign in to sign in to be out. And, we had two opposite periods of fishing per day.

Our water was still dropping despite rains beginning anew. Old posts were uncovered, giving new opportunities for fishing, and perches for birds. Sunrise fishing was good again, but not needed too much. Mornings were cool by our standards, but warmed quicky to set off bug activity. These unusual April conditions made for different fishing opportunities.

Water became murky, so darker flies were generally more attractive to fish. Also, mornings were good for small fish on topwater. So, Mr. Dearing used olive colored sprogs cast with his three weight into the mist coming off of the cooling water just after dawn. He found eager bass around the old redds and new plants.

  Then later in the mornings, deeper water became more important. Even though the take was tentative, Pere found a nice redear in four feet of water outside of the pasture channel. He presented a tan bead chain Clouser slowly enough that it did not disrupt the nearby anhinga drying his wings.

As the plant life grew and filled in, Mr. Kiefer found a good spot in Water Ski Bay. Out of the wind, he made good casts to a tight spot between lily pads and a small but scary mat of hydrilla. Small bass and big bluegill struck his dark sinking fly. Bigger bass were farther offshore and in deeper water. In water deepening from 5 to 10 feet, we cast to their surface pops with water pushers like whistlers.

Our fish were willing to give us distractions this month, once we found them. So we are mapping the opportunities of our new-old dock post stumps that might provide multiple fishing options in the future.