Fishing on Lake Istokpoga

We spent several days on Lake Istokpoga in Central Florida.  Normally we manage to land a few lunker bass on this lake but this trip The Elusive Bass got the better of us.  Cold fronts  create a drastic change in a bass’ lifestyle.  When the water turns colder, bass become lethargic and change their eating habits.  Their slower lifestyle induces anglers to choose a lure that will  match a bass’ sluggish pace and diet during these cold snaps. ”The fish’s metabolism is slowed down and they are not going to do much chasing, so you have to stay in the strike zone a little bit  longer”  It’s my experience that the bass move offshore, but there is no detectable structure so with the higher than normal summer rainfall the fish are scattered all over the lake.  Talking to some  local fishing buddies, they reminded me when we first started coming to Florida, when we had no bass boat of our own, we would hire local guides to put us on fish. The guides mostly used live shiners and you were guaranteed a great days fishing.  You drop your live shiner along the weed edge or out it in some hole in the middle of the hydrilla.  It is like fishing back home in Ireland on a boat or the bank of a local river with a worm  but I guarantee you it is a lot more productive. We have had  days when we landed thirty and forty bass in a couple of hours.  We like fishing with artificial lures  as we have to work harder to catch them big lunkers. We always find the fishing here in Florida better when the bass have spawned and they are still in the shallow warm waters.  The bass start spawning here sometimes as early as late December depending on the water temperatures.