Clermont Chain of Lakes Scouting Report

[Gene Jackson]

Fellow club member, Toby Lewis and I went down to Clermont Chain of Lakes yesterday to  check the lakes out.  Neither of us had ever been on this chain of lakes.  We spent a good portion of the day checking out 8 lakes on the south end of the chain.  Even with all the riding around, we caught five different species of fish for a total of a dozen fish.  

We launched at the Clermont Boat Ramp on Lake Minneola ($5 launch fee).  Since we didn't know anything about the lakes, we decided to fish shallow areas where we saw appealing structure.  Several of the lakes had some deep holes that warrant another trip to check them out!

It was a hot day with minimal breeze,  no cloud cover, and clean but stained water.  Water visibility was about 3 feet and water temperatures arranged from 89 to 95 degrees.  We only saw one other boat fishing for bass.  I did mention that it was really hot!  

Using topwater plugs and Texas rigged plastics, we managed to put a dozen fish close enough to put them in the boat.  The large mud fish and the needle nose gar we kept over the water as we released them.  We managed to catch bass ranging in size from just under 5 inches to just under 5 pounds (4 lbs 14 ozs).  We also landed a nice catfish and a big bluegill.

The Boat Owner group has an outing planned for this chain on Thursday, September 8th.  Based on what we saw yesterday, the September outing is a "must do" outing!