Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 1:

 TO-HO-PEK -I-LIGA. Now there's a mouthful! Locals and pros just callit TOHO. Actually, it's really West Lake Toho, as there is another completely separate lake in this Kissimmee Chain of Lakes known as East
Lake Tohopekiliga or just East Lake!
 The most obvious way to get onto the water on Toho is to launch at Kissimmee City Docks on the north end of the lake. However, others maller ramps are available at fish camps and recreation areas lining most of the lakes in the chain.
 
 Wind currents exist even on large, open lakes like Toho. Huge mats of hydrilla and other native and exotic grasses create calmer waters, while those in-between areas created by nature and by boaters provide more turbulent water when winds blow steadily cross the surface. These open avenues are readily identifiable by the chop and ripple caused by the wind.
 Anglers who know the water, especially local fishing guides who ply these lakes almost daily, mentally map the ate noting lanes between matsand grass beds. Some are better than others, but the regulars learn which ones produce fish consistently, and they return to them day afterday.
 John Leech lives in Kissimmee and guides on Toho and the Kissimmee several times each week. John knows the lake like the back of his hand, and he has his favorite spots. Launching at the south end of Toho weraced to a mid lake area with giant hydrilla mats and endless boating lanes running between the mats and grass beds.
 
 
 Arriving at his number one honey hole John was distressed to find another angler camped out on the best spot - one side of the down current end of the lane. The anglers were casting shiners into the lane and catching a few nice bass in the 3-4 pound range. John elected to anchor on the oposite side of the lane threading medium sized wild shiners on weedless hooks and joining the action.
 I had the pleasure of sharing Al Laman's boat with him and his guest, president of Smith Ltd. Lure company, Kunihiro Kojima. In the second boat, John Leech was accompanied by Jin-Ichi Suzuki, Managing Director of Smith Ltd., and Marc Gazeley, USA business associate.

 
 Together we managed to catch 24 fish, most of them small bass and a few toothy chain pickerel (a member of the pike family), but on this day, John's boat was to be the lucky one! Two chunky bass were caught by Suzuki-san weighing 7-6 and 7-8 each! Most of the fish - including the two big ones - were caught on Florida's wild golden shiners, though several of the others were caught on Smith Wiggy lipless crankbaits.

  Harley Smith is the person who used to write his fishing articles in Japan's oldest monthly bass fishing magazine, Basser. The title was called "Harley's Message from the Sunshine State" for 12 years. Not only reporting Florida's fishing, he'd covered tourney reports such as Bassmasters Classic and Redman All American as well. Now he is back and writes articles for basswave.jp. He will introduce all the readers his fun fising stories as a weekend angler's view.

Smith website : http://www.smith.co.jp/


| www.basswave.jp |