Fotos

Fishing has always been a popular outdoor sport in Florida. It's been said that there are over 250 different species of freshwater fish in our our over 12,000 miles of streams and rivers, and 3 million acres of freshwater lakes.

Bordering the city of Kissimmee to the south, the 18,810-acre West Lake Tohopekaliga has long been a popular bass fishing lake for both recreational and tournament anglers. The Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society (B.A.S.S.) and Forrest L. Wood (FLW) bass tournaments have been held out of the Kissimmee lakefront park, very near the fishing pier you see in this photo. The largest bass documented from the lake weighed 17.10 pounds. The two men in this photo were fishing in the popular catch-and-release style ("We don't eat them," one man laughed), and they had already caught and released several "big ones."

In the spring of 2002, the Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) began a lake drawdown, or, lowering of the water levels in this chain of lakes, to help remove bottom sediments and stimulate native vegetation. That blue water you see here should actually extend all the way back to the dark line of trees in the distance. Fishing has improved in the meantime, as the fish have been gathered in the old deep areas of the lake.

I gathered some information here from the Florida Division of Freshwater Fisheries.

Post work includes cropping for the panoramic feel, clarify and salt and pepper filter, color adjust curves (which made the color fade, so I also saturated the color back up after I found the details in the green foreground with curves). Cloned out an annoying white cement square in the foreground, and sharpened. Comments and workshops always appreciated.