TOHO
Posted: February 25th, 2008, 9:50 am
Friday: Paddletail arrived at my house at 6:10 Friday morning, loaded all of his stuff in my boat and truck, and we were off to meet up with the rest of the crew at SR 59 and the Interstate. After some millin around we headed south. Got to the city ramp in Kissimmee at about 1:30. This landing has 5 or 6 ramps and tons of parking. We pulled right up and launched. Problem was, there was no place to park. That's right, the tons of parking area was full, on a Friday.I had spent a little time studying the lake map, with several options in mind, depending on the wind direction. After determining wind direction and speed, we headed to spot number 1. Got to the general area to find out a LOT of other folks had the same idea. We worked our way into a lesser crowded part of the area and started chunkin. Managed to catch several fish during the afternoon. Back on the trailer at around 6, we headed to our hotel. Now the fun begins. Turns out there is an FLW tournament on Toho this coming weekend. Well, they were all there a week in advance. There were at least 250 boats in the hotel parking lot. Most of them had fancy graphics all over them. We finally got checked in, and found a place to park. Went to dinner, talked for a while and went to sleep.
Saturday: We got up at 5 Saturday morning, hooked up the boats and went across the highway, to Dennys, for a quick breakfast. Guess what! No place to park in the Dennys lot. It was full of boats and trucks. Parked in a lot next door and had breakfast. During breakfast we discussed the "Tournament Rules" for the day. 5 fish limit, 14" or better (State law south of the Suwannee), $10 per person, winner takes all (there were only 7 of us). Got to the landing at about 6:15. Now things get interesting. At 6:15, all of the parking lots were already full, and we were about 40th in line to launch. At least we were dealing with pros. It didn't take long at all to get the boats in the water. After launching, Paddletail and I headed to the same spot we had caught fish on Friday. After 3 hours we had caught several short fish, but no keepers. We decided to go looking. Toho is a big lake. I have never seen a lake that size crowded everywhere. It looked like the east flats on the first weekend of scallop season. We finally worked our way into an area and started watching and fishing, hoping we would get some ideas from the pros. We never saw anyone catch a fish, including us. Around noon, the wind started picking up, and the skies got cloudy. By 1:00, the entire lake was whitecapping, and it started raining. We decided we had seen enough for the day by 2:00, and headed for the landing. When we got just outside of the boat basin, Freddie was fishing right there. We asked him what he was doing. He said he had gotten beat up pretty bad running the lake, and was headed in when he discovered the area right in front of the boat basin had been dredged. The average depth of this lake, in open water, is 6'. I looked at my bottom machine to discover I was sitting in 20' of water. Freddie informed us he was fishing the dropoff and had caught 2 good fish. Soooo..........we started fishing. We caught a couple of keepers. Freddie had enough to beat us, and no one else in our group had any keepers. Freddie took the pot on Saturday. We loaded up about 4:00, and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday: Facing the long drive home, we decided to fish till 12:00. Same rules as Saturday. The wind was already blowing pretty hard when we launched. Freddie idled out of the boat basin to the same spot he was fishing Saturday. We idled to the same spot we were fishing. The other 2 boats in our bunch took note and found a spot and followed suit. That's right, we had driven all the way to Toho to fish the only ledge in the entire lake, right in front of the landing. All of the pros and locals would idle past us and look at us like we were a bunch if idiots. We're sitting in front of the landing, on Lake Toho, slinging Carolina Rigs. At 12:00 Paddletail and I had caught the only 2 keepers of the day. Freddie caught several shorts on his spot. No one else had a fish. My fish was bigger than Paddletail's. I won Sunday's pot.
We talked to several locals during the weekend. They informed us they had gotten a fair amount of rain during the week, and the bite had shut down. They also informed us that the lake is always crowded this time of year. None of us had ever been to Toho, so it was worth the trip. I would like to go back with better weather conditions.
Even though we didn't catch a lot of fish, it was a good time with good friends.
Saturday: We got up at 5 Saturday morning, hooked up the boats and went across the highway, to Dennys, for a quick breakfast. Guess what! No place to park in the Dennys lot. It was full of boats and trucks. Parked in a lot next door and had breakfast. During breakfast we discussed the "Tournament Rules" for the day. 5 fish limit, 14" or better (State law south of the Suwannee), $10 per person, winner takes all (there were only 7 of us). Got to the landing at about 6:15. Now things get interesting. At 6:15, all of the parking lots were already full, and we were about 40th in line to launch. At least we were dealing with pros. It didn't take long at all to get the boats in the water. After launching, Paddletail and I headed to the same spot we had caught fish on Friday. After 3 hours we had caught several short fish, but no keepers. We decided to go looking. Toho is a big lake. I have never seen a lake that size crowded everywhere. It looked like the east flats on the first weekend of scallop season. We finally worked our way into an area and started watching and fishing, hoping we would get some ideas from the pros. We never saw anyone catch a fish, including us. Around noon, the wind started picking up, and the skies got cloudy. By 1:00, the entire lake was whitecapping, and it started raining. We decided we had seen enough for the day by 2:00, and headed for the landing. When we got just outside of the boat basin, Freddie was fishing right there. We asked him what he was doing. He said he had gotten beat up pretty bad running the lake, and was headed in when he discovered the area right in front of the boat basin had been dredged. The average depth of this lake, in open water, is 6'. I looked at my bottom machine to discover I was sitting in 20' of water. Freddie informed us he was fishing the dropoff and had caught 2 good fish. Soooo..........we started fishing. We caught a couple of keepers. Freddie had enough to beat us, and no one else in our group had any keepers. Freddie took the pot on Saturday. We loaded up about 4:00, and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday: Facing the long drive home, we decided to fish till 12:00. Same rules as Saturday. The wind was already blowing pretty hard when we launched. Freddie idled out of the boat basin to the same spot he was fishing Saturday. We idled to the same spot we were fishing. The other 2 boats in our bunch took note and found a spot and followed suit. That's right, we had driven all the way to Toho to fish the only ledge in the entire lake, right in front of the landing. All of the pros and locals would idle past us and look at us like we were a bunch if idiots. We're sitting in front of the landing, on Lake Toho, slinging Carolina Rigs. At 12:00 Paddletail and I had caught the only 2 keepers of the day. Freddie caught several shorts on his spot. No one else had a fish. My fish was bigger than Paddletail's. I won Sunday's pot.
We talked to several locals during the weekend. They informed us they had gotten a fair amount of rain during the week, and the bite had shut down. They also informed us that the lake is always crowded this time of year. None of us had ever been to Toho, so it was worth the trip. I would like to go back with better weather conditions.
Even though we didn't catch a lot of fish, it was a good time with good friends.
My camera was in the boat..............the other boat.