Smaller boats key in hauling area bass
Bass Boat Enviousness.
But as Bob Dylan once said, “he who is first now shall later be last, ‘cause the times they are a changin.'”
These days, the big, swift vessels cannot access some of North Florida's best bass fishing lakes or, at least, their owners won't gamble burning up expensive outboards in the muck that was recently clear, open water. On Orange Lake, for eg, few larger boats can be seen these days. Still, there are plenty of bass being caught here, and the smiling fishers are those folks with the scant boats and kickers.
Randall Taunton of Gainesville launched his aluminum boat last Saturday at Mike's Fish Clique, at the end of a canal on Orange's northwest side. At the canal mouth, water is shallow enough to prevent most sizable boats from making it out onto Orange. In his jonboat, Taunton press on-poled his way for about 60-feet with the little boat's belly dragging sand and muck.
Finally, a negligible dropoff allowed him to be on his way with his small outboard. In the lake's north end, the Gainesville angler cast Zoom Horny Toads in the Watermelon prize color to boat and release 17 bass in two hours. Eight of the fish were beauties Taunton estimated to be between five and six pounds each.
