another way to put it "fishin' was tourable today!" About 6 weeks ago, Skeetbum Tim planted another seed of exploration when he mentioned an area I had never heard much about. After finalizing the meetup day and time, the plan was set for a Lake Maitland ramp meetup located on the Winter Park chain of lakes. A permit is required available online, my choice, or locally for day/annual usage. Two ramps are available within the chain of 7 or 8 lakes interconnected by 12' wide, wooden bulkheaded canals that often times resembled a toboggan course. I was right on time scheduled @sunup, until, the inevitable occurred on 414 with stop & go(mostly stop) traffic due to an accident that closed one lane. Quick call to Tim of current events resulted in a 45 minute delay. Upon arrival @ramp area, Skeet was proudly waving a largemouth over his head while skinny-mini fishing from his already launched rig. It actually reminded me of a fish sock wafting in the wind!:Rofl It's size was definitely bragging size...in about 5 or 6 years! He also boated a few gils during the wait. The plan for the day was to longline early, single pole boathouse shoot/skinny-mini, minnows under bobbers, pad dippin' etc. Heavy cloud cover, wind was influential but within 15 minutes my fish-on alarm sounded with 4 hits inside a 30 yard drop off zone. Beautifully marked healthy specks made their way to see inside Tim's meticulous BUMBLE BEE. Biggest(pic) was 13" with some eaters that were released. Tim soon followed with a stubborn, hefty 15" green fish, and then my turn with a green fish that acrobatically threw the hook after 2 jumps. Overall it was not a great bite-seeing day(around 8-9 specks, 4 lm, couple bluegills) but it was a "phenonenal" sight-seeing" outing. However, the catch of the day occured while pad-dipping and I snagged a fishing line tangled within pads that were within casting distance of a college campus pier. Skeet said " be easy with that, it's liable to have a Lucky Craft lure on the end" I retorted "Nah, probably a Yozuri"! After Tim got his arms wet, he pulled out an almost brand new YOZURI topwater plug...only thing missing was the box and sales receipt!:yikes The Chain has some multi-million $$ mansions(see pics), also a pay-for tour boat fleet of 6-7 30 foot open outboard driven flat boats that make their circuit via canal network. The narrow canals are somewhat lengthy, and depending on your "luck" can present a delay because their width accommodates only one boat at a time. We were lucky with two encounters with eye sight, end of canal timing.
Unfortunately, Skeetbum Tim had to say "If you think these mansions are eye opening, you need to see Butler Chain of Lakes that is SW of here." Thanks Tim another seed plant! Thanks again Tim for your show on Tuesday, it was a very enlightening, jaw-dropping experience. See pics below- Incidentally, the blue roofed one is Shaq O'Neals 32,000 sf, 5000 sf indoor basketball court w/bleachers, 12 br/13 bath, giant aquarium FOR SALE, comes ready with his many Superman logos @-22M reduced from 28M in Windemere on Butler chain. He paid 3.9M. My fav mansion seen was the tan/white roof US flag flying estate located on a wrap around point:yikes
Enjoy
u2s
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