Travels - Key West, FL

Hot Toddy-ville?

My birthday is January 3 and this particular birthday was also the coldest in Key West history. There is so much planning one can do: check for monsoon season, height of summer/winter, epidemics, terrorism, crime, but the southernmost part of the continental US suffering 9 foot seas, the flats now suitable for deep sea fishing – if you could find a boat going out?!

Since it was the second visit to Key West, it was an adventure in restaurants. Even all the nude bars had been closed.

The closest we came to fish was feeding the eight-foot tarpon (if bass are bucket mouths then these are trash can mouths) at the docks and fish and chip lunches.

Travel - Pasco County, FL

Fish Naked

Pasco is probably the nudist capital of Florida, with (at least!) three landed resorts within 10-20 minutes of each other. A good time to fish weedless, that is with the hook not, um, exposed. Leave the crankbaits with their 6-9 hooks behind. Rely on plastics.

Caliente:

Resort is private so no fishing license is required to fish their five lakes. I don’t think a day went by without catching at least one 11” bass or larger. In fact, our last day there, an hour before we were to leave, I caught an 18” bass on one of the more bizarre rigs I have ever fished: a worm torn in two parts.

The most excitement was with a fish I was never able to land. Twice I locked up with what one bystander thought was a bowfin. The most fight I had, but not surprising as this was not your typical two pound bass. I have NEVER had a hook bent 90 degrees to the side before. When the fish that got away was close to the most fun …

Lake Como:

Perhaps 10-15 minutes down from Caliente. Take a tour. Pay the introductory day fee. Take a paddle boat out (private lake, no license required), but first while loading it up with tackle, just try one cast. 18” bass on the first cast, the largest up to that point for the trip. A wriggling bass that size sure feels more than a kilogram …

Paddling about was a non-event but coming back in at dusk, there were bass jumping all over the lake, but particularly around a filter. I tried all my topwater lures (popper, spook) until I decided to go back to the go-to lizard and just rip it across the surface. That was all I needed for a 12” bass. It was now so dark I could barely see the hook, which he/she/it had taken in a big gulp.

So this was Land O’ Lakes, but not your Florida bass of 7-12 pounds. Still to be fishing “unhampered”, catching 2-4 fish a day was still hard to beat. Would definitely take this trip again.