The winter of 2023 was a good bass fishing season.  Largest bass was 9 pounds 9 ounces.  There other large bass, two over 8 and another 9 pounder were caught.  Here is the big Lake Rousseau bass.

Finally, a 10 Pound Bass

Dreams do come true!  After numerous attempts over the past 15 years, I finally caught my 10 pound bass on January 25, 2022.

It was a cold and rainy day on Lake Rousseau.  Good friends Chuck Widlowski and Keith Austin shared the boat.  We had a great day, 19 bass over 2 pounds were landed.  Six fish over 5 pounds made for a great day on the water.  I caught two bass over 8 pounds before the big one hit.

The big bass were up under floating mats of weeds.

We let wild shiners swim under the mats to entice the bass.  BOOM.  The bass would hit the shiners aggressively.

Read on in this blog to get an appreciation for this large lake, full of stump fields, running some 12 miles in length.

 

New G3 Fishing Boat

New for the 2018-2019 fishing season is this G3 with 90 Yamaha.  After many years of enjoyable fishing with Captain Josh Fritz (Salt Water) and Captain Keith Austin (Freshwater Bass Fishing) I have purchased another boat.  The quest for the 10 pound bass begins in earnest.  Note the boat is a saltwater boat so that we can enjoy the inshore fishing off Aripika, Florida as well at the fine big bass fishing on lakes Tsala Apopka and Rousseau.  The grandchildren helped me break the boat in.

In Search of the 10 Pound Bass - Februay 2018

It is a huge lake, Tsala Apopka, and there are some giant bass in there.  Captain Keith Austin was our guide and I was accompanied by my brother-in-law Spike Wellman.

We searched the canals for big bass.

Gene managed to catch a 5 pounder, followed by a 7 pounder.  Good start!

Then Spike set the hook on the big fish of the day, a 9 pounder.  What a fish.

Nice fishing trip, and nice sunset too.

We kicked off the 2017-2018 Bass Fishing Season today, October 3, on Tsala Apopka (Hernando Pool).  We caught 13 bass in unusually tough conditions due to high winds.  All fish, as usual, were returned to the water as we practice "catch and release" bass fishing.

Gene was joined by son-in-law Todd.  The largest bass, caught by Gene, was 5.5 pounds.  Enjoy a few pictures of our day fishing with Captain Keith Austin.

Spring Hill Fishing Club Trip of May 9, 2017

One of our 12 fish landed today was a lunker bass at 9 pound 3 ounces.  Here is the story.

Son-in-law Todd joined me on Lake Rousseau with Captain Keith Austin. 

First, it was a beautiful day on the lake.  Lots of bird life and a good number of alligators were present.

 What does it take to get a 9 pound bass into the boat?  A team effort.  I am on the camera while Captain Keith assists Todd.

Foliage was already abundant for early March.

 

Indeed, they have to spray to keep the green stuff from clogging up the lake.  They use these air boats to accomplish the task.

Great trip on a great lake!

Spring Hill Fishing Club Bass Trip of 2-27-2017

We finished our four trip winter bass season with another nice catch of fish.  We fished two trips in January and two trips in February in search of a 10 pound bass.  No such luck, but we did well.

We averaged 12 bass per trip.  Largest bass was 8.5 pounds for Randy, and 7.5 pounds for Gene and Chuck.  There were lots of six pounders, even more 5 pounders, and many, many over 4 pounds.

A big thanks to Captain Keith Austin for keeping us on the bass, regardless of the weather conditions.  Temperatures changed as much as 30 degrees during the last trip.  He navigated the many stump fields of Lake Rousseau and kept us out of trouble.

Action:

We learned a lot about free-lining large shiners over the winter and we look forward to a summer trip or two.