I spent a week in Orlando, Florida. I never saw so many places to fish in my
life. It seems that the state of Florida will stock any body of water as long as it will hold fish. All you need to do is drive or walk to the nearest lake or
"urban pond" to fish. You do not need to fish with a guide. I fished several of the lakes designated as the "FAB FIVE" These five lakes are
design to provide trophy fishing opportunities in the Orlando area. Fishing can be done from a boat or from shore. Unfortunately, July is not the best time to
fish as the weather is Sunny & hot every day but I saw the potential. these bodies of water are literally over flowing with bass & panfish. The fish
are feed daily but this does not mean fish are easy to catch. It does mean that many fish weigh in the double digit range!
I was fishing for Crappie at Turkey Lake with a # 12 stalking bug. I had my new March Brown 8 wt rod. It was early afternoon when I had a take as I strip set the hook, I realized this was something BIG.
Then a log seemed to levitate out of the water. Short of a salmon, I had never hooked anything that large. My first thought was to get this fish on my reel. as I looked at my feet I realized that my semi auto reel would be of no use until I could untangle the ""cat in the cradle" wrapped around my leg. So now I'm standing on one leg, shaking the other leg, holding the rod and keeping the tension on the line. The bass probably sensed this, because he changed directions and dove deep. my rod was taking on the shape of an upper case"J". This and the strong pull of the beast cause me to turn about 45 degrees just to keep up with the fish. Finally I was free of the fly line. As I began to get the beast on reel, he dives deep again and shakes loose my #12.
