Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Hard to Believe this is Central Florida!

These photos were taken on a 10,000 acre tract of land in Central Florida, just a stones throw from the Rat Trap (Disney). This property has a 1,600 acre lake we are working on. It is incredible to be on the lake at daylight or dusk, with no sounds but nature. The buck in this photo is not the biggest we have seen to date. Sunday evening I saw his older brother with the same rack shape, maybe a hair wider, a lot heavier beams and G's and ten points instead of eight. He slipped into the woods before I could get my bigger camera lens on. The property has not been hunted or fished for 10-15-20 years, and may never be again, but it will also never get developed, so that is nice to hear. Kind of refreshing since Florida cannot get paved fast enough to suite some people!

1) What Florida lakes used to look like!



2) It is hard to believe this one is not the biggest we have seen!


3) This turkey has probably never heard a human call during hunbting season, no call shyness here!


4) Sandhill cranes.


5) A couple gents out for an afternoon walk in the warm February Florida sun!

Doing Some Largemouth Bass Resaearch!

I was electrofishing a 1,600 acre private lake in St Cloud (Osceola County), Florida this past weekend. Besides a general lake evaluation we are doing separate largemouth bass research and monitoring so it was three days of dipping bass. We weighed and measured approximately 280 bass. We did dip a few other fish that were exceptional. There is definitely a forage gap for bass in the 14-20 inch size classes, notice the big head and sunken belly. The larger and smaller bass appeared to be fat and happy. Water temperature was about 65 degrees F, and they will be spawning when it gets to around 68 or so. The black crappie were all in the Maidencane spawning already.

1) Laergemouth bass weighing 8.5 lbs.



2) Redear Sunfish weighing 1.75 lbs, 12 in. total length.


3) Bluegill weighing 1 lbs.


4) Typical Largemouth Bass shape when not enough forage (food) is present


5) This "Lizard" slipped in behind us and grabbed a catfish for lunch!