Fishing Report
Hawthorne’s Allen and Billy Dyson snag 13-pound, 8-ounce bass in Orange Lake
Biggest fish hauled from a local lake in decades
By GARY SIMPSON
The Tackle Box, Hawthorne, Florida
Allen and Billy Dyson are no strangers to Florida bass fishing – and most especially bassing on Orange and Lochloosa Lakes. The Hawthorne brothers have been casting for bigmouths in their home lakes since the 1960’s when they were youngsters.
Since those days, the Dysons have caught lots of big fish and have a long list of remarkable angling stories to tell.
The most recent, however, will go straight to the top of the list. Casting an old favorite bass plug on Orange Lake Saturday morning, Allen had a huge swirl. As he called to Billy to cast to the spot, the fish unexpectedly struck again…this time, nailing the silver Devil’s Horse topwater lure.
“I thought it might be a big mudfish…or even a gator,” Allen recounted, “but I knew it was big.”
He battled the big fish until it ran into a bed of hydrilla…and when he worked the behemoth out of the grass, Billy was ready with the landing net. As Billy swung the full and writhing net aboard, the brothers were momentarily stunned.
“We both said, ‘My God, what a fish.’”
Allen phoned his wife and she drove to the boat ramp at Heagy-Burry Park with camera and digital scales. On the scale made by Berkley, the monster weighed 13-07.
The Rapala digital showed 13-08. After a thorough photographic chronicling, the Dysons took the brute back to the spot where she had struck, and released her in excellent condition.
Allen Dyson’s biggest bass up until last weekend had been 10-03, and now it will be nearly impossible to ever better his top fish. He doesn’t seem too upset about that.
At 13.5 pounds, the bass ranks as one of the largest pulled from an Alachua County Lake in decades – and should easily rank among the largest fish taken in all of Florida for 2009.
More fishing news
- Monday, Chris Beloso, Chris Norville, and Henry Manassa fished Lochloosa aboard a Twin Lakes Fish Camp rental boat. Bass fishers on Orange and Lochloosa must adhere to special rules. Each angler may keep up to three fish that must either be under 15-inches or at least 24-inches in length.
Among the 20-odd bass the three friends caught while casting soft plastic lures were nine legal fish under 15-inches long. Wednesday, Alicia Urbine of Cross Creek fished Orange Lake with Mike Bass to catch her biggest bass (besides Mike)…a 24-inch beauty that weighed 8-pounds.
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- Panfishers continue to report good mixed bags of speckled perch and and various bream. Sunday, Robert Sapp and Bobby Nilsson fished their favorite chartreuse crappie jigs on Newnan’s Lake – as they frequently have for weeks. And, again, they scored a fine catch, taking 35 specks, plus several catfish and warmouth.
The fact that one of the specks was wearing a pair of twenty-dollar FWC tags was just a nice bonus.
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- Saturday was, by most accounts, the only offshore-worthy day since gag grouper season reopened April first. Gator MacRae was ready when the opportunity arrived, and departed the Homosassa River that morning with his wife, Pam, and sister, Cathy Faulk.
He set anchor 25-miles offshore in water about 50-feet deep, and the three sent Spanish sardines to the bottom. Unmolested by anglers since January, the grouper were willing; and the day’s catch included eight very stout gags.
Speckled trout, though, are presently the number one target of the Gulf Coast angler. Fine weekend trout action was reported from the Homosassa, Crystal River, Waccasassa, Cedar Key, Horseshoe Beach, and Steinhatchee areas.
And that’s this week’s report.
Good fishin’ from The Tackle Box.
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