Trout Lake Bass Fishing

Happy Monday, Spacefish!

This week I am going to dive back into the Alligator Chain of Lakes, which crosses over 192 in St. Cloud, Florida. Last week I went and fished my 3rd lake on this chain, bypassing Alligator Lake and Lake Lizzie. I went to Trout Lake and fished for several hours, and experienced my best day of fishing on this chain both in the quality and quantity department.

Trout Lake – Where to Launch

When you turn onto a road called “Bass Highway” there is a feeling that a good day of fishing just has to be in store right?!? Well, I turned onto Bass Highway and had a good feeling about how the day would go. There is a public boat ramp operated by Osceola County, there are no public restrooms, but ample parking and a great place to launch a kayak off to the side of the boat ramp.

Trout Lake Run-Down

One thing that I liked about this lake, is that it is relatively small, which means you can cover a good bit of it in your first trip. Like many natural lakes in Central Florida, it is a soup bowl shaped lake, with emergent grasses running from close to the shoreline to 30-40 yards offshore. On the south end of the lake there are houses with docks, and fields of lily pads in between them. I spent an hour fishing topwater but also going through trying to establish a pattern. I ended up getting my first bite on a swimbait a little over an hour later, and for the next 3 hours fished swimbaits and speedworms on the outside edge of the grasses and caught roughly 25 Bass.

I was able to cover about half of the lake in 4 hours. I also worked lily pads when I came across them catching Bass amongst the pads, but these were smaller than the ones I was catching along the edges of the grass. On the south-east corner of the lake there is a cove. This area was the most productive of the trip for me. But my advice to you, if you got and fish this lake, be prepared for them to possibly be in another pattern, but this time of year, the offshore edges of grass/reeds, or any sort of emergent vegetation and structure is a good bet.

What Worked Well

The biggest fish of the day were caught on a Fish, or Die swimbait called the “Minutemen” in Bugle (Green Pumpkin/Purple Flake) – which is a great color for dark tannin stained water. If you’ve ever caught Bluegill in black water, you will understand what I mean. I worked this bait in and around lily pads, and worked it along grass edges. Most of the Bass on this day were up in the outside parts of the emergent grasses, and hanging in depth contours along the edges of the grass. I had this 3.5 inch swimbait rigged on a 3/0 Mission Fishin’ Screwlock hook with a ⅛ oz weight.

If you are interested in checking out these swimbaits for yourself, you can order them from this link – but don’t forget to use promo code “Spacefish (Recruit)” for a discount! I threw this bait on a 7 foot Bass Pro Shops Fish Eagle Casting Rod, with a Kastking Brutus bait casting reel with 30 pound green Power Pro braid tied straight to the hook with a Palomar knot.

The bait that caught the most fish was a Texas rigged, Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm in Junebug Red with the 3/16 oz tungsten weight pegged with a bobber stopper on a 3/0 VMC Extra Wide Gap Worm Hook. I had this presentation on a 7 foot Berkley Lightning Rod Casting Rod, on an Abu Garcia Black Max reel, rigged with 30 pound green Power Pro braid, tied straight to the hook with a Palomar knot. This presentation generated the most bites and catches, but what it provided in quantity, it lacked in quality with none of the fish being above an approximate pound. I worked the same outside edges of the grasses, but also landed a few in the lily pads closer to the shorelines in between residential docks.

I also tossed weedless and weighless jerkbaits and top water frogs in these areas, as well as skipping them under docks with zero play, and fished my two primary bite-getters for the time I was out of the water. This is a piece of advice that I would give novice Bass anglers no matter if they are in a boat, kayak, or from the shore. Be prepared to throw several profiles of baits, and once you get bit and establish a pattern stick with what they want.

Conclusion

This was the 3rd lake I have fished in this chain, this has been my favorite so far (I previously covered Lake Gentry and Lake Buck). I liked that it was smaller, and that I caught more Bass in a shorter time frame than the others. I caught 2 in what I would guesstimate to be the 3-4 pound range, so all in all, it was a great day in my book! From my house in Melbourne it was roughly a 40 minute drive to the launch, and from the ramp to the fishy spots, there was not a whole lot of paddling involved which I always appreciate!

I hope everyone has a great week, gets a chance to get out on the water and finds their rods getting bent, and their lines getting tight! Until next time…