11-25-10 Making it look EZ with a 7.5lbs

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Clewiston)

WATER TEMP: 67-73

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: clean (even in hard bottom areas on the main lake)

WEATHER: partly to mostly cloudy in the morning till 10ish, lighter winds all day 5-10 E, becoming sunny and warm with highs in the low 80’s

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre-spawn, spawn

 

 

FISH BEHAVIOR: I had a pretty simple goal today and the weather was fairly conducive for it.  Find main lake or  main lake oriented pre-spawn and spawning areas within 30 minutes of Clewiston.  I started off near Uncle Joe’s cut tossing a Gambler Big EZ in a 3-4’ flat with a mix of Kissimmee Grass, bulrushes, and scattered submergent vegetation.  Took a 2lbs fish right away after hearing him pop up I simply tossed the bait in to the area – the grass was too thick to get thru so I simply shook it tangled in the grass and he came up and got it.  I pushed out a little further towards the outside grass line still tossing (and pretty much buzzing) a Gambler Big EZ.  I ended up whacking a 7-7.5lbs fish off some clumps of thicker Kissimmee Grass in 4’ of water.

 

 

 

 

I moved into the cut for a bit tossing cranks, traps, and a c-rig to see if there was anything on the bottom of the cut that would hold a school of staging fish.  I ended up taking a couple dinks and didn’t find any blatant rock piles or wood on the bottom.

 

Moved back towards the area I started the day in around the cut and worked the outside grass line with a Gambler Big EZ and a 5” Strike King Swimbait.  I took another couple fish and lost a couple not getting a decent hook set on them and decided to leave the area for the upcoming tournament.  All the fish came on a consitent retrieve sometimes buzzing it on top and sometimes slightly below the surface of the water.

 

 

 

 

I moved down to right around Clewiston and fished the area I’ve taken some dinks and a couple 4-5lbs fish off of.  Looking for beds I took a few fish on a weightless worm and found some fish under a few select hyacinth matts.  Males seemed stacked in pockets near some type of emergent cover (i.e. lily pads, bulrushes, etc).  I took one fish ~2.5lbs from under the hyacinth but nothing that would signal to me the females have moved up.

 

 

 

Finally, about 12ish I moved to a large flat just south of Clewiston.  The flat was only 2-3’ deep with a hard bottom and a mix of pencil, Kissimmee, and submergent grasses (and an occasional lily pad).  I started seeing fish immediately in the cut – a lot of males and small fish with beds everywhere (just nothing pinned to them yet).  I took some small fish tossing a Zoom Horny Toad – again just buzzing it.  Where the flat thinned out I started working the Toad in the thick stuff focusing on pockets and any change in vegetation I could see.  I had a bunch of swirls and blow ups – some of them were gar but mostly fish that just wouldn’t commit.  Then, in a pocket near a patch of lily pads I banged out a 5 and change – almost definitlely a bedding fish.  Had a few more big swirls working the flat then I moved into some isolated hyacinth matts near the flat and took a few fish up to 2.5lbs pumping the bait and holding it against the ceiling of the matt.

 

 

 

On the way to the matts I noticed a ton of beds – once again nothing pinned on them.  They were anywhere from 6” – 1-2’ scattered in what was fairly dense grass.  This was sort of a reminder that the fish didn’t need big open pockets.  There were a ton of beds I probably missed because they were situated in grass I saw as too dense.

 

 

 

I didn’t juice the spots so hopefully they’ll hold up for the tournament in a few days; if the weather stays consisitent I wouldn’t be surprised to see a ton of bedding fish on this flat.

 

11-21-10

 

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Clewiston)

WATER TEMP: 66-73

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: cleaner in the grass (still a slight tinge due to the consistent winds), and muddier in open water/unprotected areas

WEATHER: (day after a full moon) clear to partly cloudy, lows in the lower 60’shighs in the low 80’s, terrible winds again 20+ E

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre-spawn, spawn, fall

 

 

 

FISH BEHAVIOR: Unlike the Monkey box and other areas in the north  there is very little protection on the main lake out of Clewiston – and the wind blew again.  I ran north to Uncle Joe’s Cut and worked a  spawning flat that has become really skinny due to the falling water of late.  I turned to flipping Kissimmee grass and the “matts” of hyacinth and fallen over bulrushes that were wedged in the bulrush patches along the canal (adjacent to the spawning flat).  I ended up takinga 2lbs pumping a 1oz Paca Craw and then another ~7lbs (which didn’t record sadly) off the floating garbage that had blown up in the bulrushes.  I flipped some other areas around along with tossing a chatterbait around the edges and took another dink and had another bit but no other solid fish.

 

 

 

 

I moved down south and took a few dinks in a little area I’ve hit the past few weeks tossing a weightless mag worm and also took fish and had a bunch of bites flipping the 1oz setup to hyacinth matts adjacent to a 4’ opening with bulrushes and peppergrass.  The trick flipping was really taking your time and holding the bait against the “roof” of the matts.  I didn’t hit the area really hard, just enough to see if there were any fish moved up on beds/bigger fish.  Seemingly, there are still a bunch of cruiser males in the area and no fish on beds – I would assume that’s going to change in the upcoming weeks with stable weather.

 

 

 

I worked another area, briefly, south of Clewiston.  Another spawning flat, the water had become muddy.  There were still a few tiny males in some open holes but it didn’t seem promising at all so I headed back north.

 

 

 

 

On my way back to the Clewiston area I saw a 2lbs fish come up and smash a shad right  next to the boat in the rim canal.  I stopped and scanned over the the area with my graph to find a couple huge schools of shad.  I hit them with a Luhr Jensen Crippled Herring and took a few fish up to 2+lbs.  The bait was suspended but they seemed to want the spoon hopping just a couple feet off the bottom in a much slower way than I’d done during the late summer.  The area was basically a hump that spanned across the rim canal topping out with a flat of 10-11’ and dropping on each side to ~15’.  This was a lot like the shad schooling that occurred last time there was a full moon.  I did work the fish with a football jig to try to get a better bite without any luck.

 

 

 

I finally got back up to Clewiston and worked the same bulrush area with a 1/4oz Mag Finesse Worm.  I took a few more dinks tossing it in the same places as the weightless worm and shaking it – but again, no better bites.

 

 

11-20-10

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Moore Haven)

WATER TEMP: 66-72

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: clean in the grass, muddier into open water pocket/main lake

WEATHER: full moon, partly cloudy, lows in the low 60’s, highs in the upper 70’s, winds ~20 E

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre-spawn, spawn

FISH BEHAVIOR: Fished the day out of Moore Haven and spent all my time around the Monkey Box and juncture of the Kissimmee River.  Started the day tossing some topwater on some hydrilla mattts in 3-5’ of water I took fish out of during a strong cold front a few weeks ago.  Tossed a hollow frog and Rage Tail without any takers.  Pulled out the big stick and caught a 2lbs but didn’t have any other solid bites so I moved on and fished some of the cuts going out to the Kissimmee River juncture.

 

 

 

 

I took a few fish up to 2lbs throwing a Gambler Big EZ and a swim jig in moderately clear water 3-6’ deep.  The cuts all had a sandy bottoms and were a bit deeper than what I would’ve wanted  but problematic in that I couldn’t see the bottom well enough to notice any cruisers.  I probably could’ve caught a bunch with this approach but in the pursuit of bigger fish I started flipping the hydrilla matts.  I ended up taking a few fish up to 2.5lbs flipping a 1.5oz tube dart to the near edges and more defined matts in 4-6’ of water.  I ran around a bit and found a cut into the grass with a bunch of swept off areas and cruising dinks where I could actually see the bottom – no bedding fish.  I stopped back in this area 2 more times during the day without finding/seeing any bedding fish.

 

 

Towards the end of the day I ran further towards the main lake and fund a grass flat area with a “bulrush island” and hyacinth packed up in it.  On the outside of the island there were a ton of isolated hyacinth matts stuck among pepper grass and dying lily pads.  In between the bulrushes and pepper grass flat was a span of 30 yds of hard bottom and 4’ of water.  I took fish flipping both sides and lost a 3+lbs fish on a isolated (like 4’x 4’) hyacinth matt and broke a fish off on some hyacinth wedged in a bulrush island that was all by itself.

 

 

 

 

The area looked awesome but was getting a bit of fishing pressure.  There are defitely some big fish in there.  It’s just a matter of figuring out what to focus on (isolated or continual, type of vegetation, and how deep in to flip).

 

 

 

11-13-10 Weightless Wormin

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Clewiston)

WATER TEMP: 66-72

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: variable with areas way back in the grass clean to slightly muddy

 

 

WEATHER: clear, cool – highs in the mid 70’s and lows in the upper 50’s, high winds right off the bat up to 25 NE

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre-spawn, spawn, fall

FISH BEHAVIOR: The wind is becoming a consistent problem mainly due to my boat and weak trolling motor.  I was going to start the day running the main lake north from Clewiston however at safe light there were 2-3’ rollers out of the north canceling that plan; so I started the day just out of the Clewiston canal fishing the south side of a shoal sticking out to the main lake.  I tried some more reactive baits (Big EZ etc) without luck and started flipping some isolated hyacinth and penny wort matts in 2-3’ of water getting a few bites and taking a fish ~2lbs and losing another.  The wind became really problematic and I wasn’t getting enough bites to hang around so I moved south and started looking for spawning flats.  I took a couple random fish and got a few matt bites out of the area I hit in the afternoon (ironically the exact same mat I got bit out of the other day) but didn’t have many bites working some dying hydrilla and some areas next to the rim canal.

 

 

 

Towards the end of the day I moved back north to the Clewiston canal to fish a small area I hit in the morning and took a 4lbs fish off a couple weeks ago that looked promising for bedding fish.  I started flipping then switched to a weightless Zoom Mag Finesse Worm.  I took a few smaller fish up to 2 lbs tossing to open pockets in water 3-5’ deep with bulrushes and scattered peppergrass.  I would just toss the bait out and dead stick it then flick it up a bit.  Fish would bite on the drop or when I twitched the worm.  I sort of expanded the water I was fishing and focused on pockets and cuts in the bulrushes tossing the worm in the open and to areas where fish would bed.  I ended up getting a ton of bites and taking some more fish with one running ~4lbs.  I fished out to 4.5’ and got one good bite on a Big Ez but it seemed the fish were more in the thicker bulrushes in 4’.  The water was slightly muddy but still clear enough to see the swept off areas.

 

 

 

One thing that probably caused some of the short bites was that I was throwing the worm on straight braid and never switched to a fluorocarbon leader.  It was also an afternoon bite and could’ve probably caught some of those fish in the 4.5’ zone earlier in the day as they moved up.

 

 

11-6-10 The first of the cold

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee, out of Moore Haven

WATER TEMP: 63-70

 

 

 

 

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: clean and clear up in the grass, moderately clear in the rim canal (better than down south)

WEATHER: the first really strong front of the year went thru between yesterday and the day before dropping temps into the upper 40’s with highs only hitting 70, today was clear and sunny with really strong winds  – 20-25 NNE

 

 

 

 

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre-spawn/fall

FISH BEHAVIOR: I went up to Moore Haven to check out the Monkey Box area and the Moore Haven canal.  I hit some ledge/deeper water (8-14’) right away in the morning with a Carolina rig, football jig, and suspending jerk without luck.  I marked fish and even saw a couple bass come up and hit shad but just couldn’t get them to bite.

 

 

 

 

I started working the Moore Haven canal early flipping the hydrilla and floating matts in 3-5’.  I took a few 2lbs fish and had some bites on a Tube Dart but ran into issues with the wind and the way the wind had tightly packed the matts – making them almost impossible to get thru even with a 1.5oz.

 

 

 

I worked my way into the Monkey Box as the wind really kicked up and flipped isolated hydrilla and hydrilla matts mixed with big flat pads.  I started taking fish in a ~50yd section on a BB Cricket pumping it and dead sticking it on the “ceiling” of the matt.  I took fish up to 2.5lbs and had a few good bites in 3-5’ of water.  Early on it seemed key to pump the bait very slowly a few times then just dead stick the bait on the bottom or hold it against the roof of the matt.  The fish would just come up and knock it after a few seconds.

 

 

 

Bites came quicker later in the day as the water warmed up and I also found a section of hydrilla matts with scattered flat pads.  It seemed like the flipping to the individual flat pads nearest to the cut (i.e. deeper water) and holding the bait against the roof was a bit of a pattern for the area.  I got into one 20’ section where I got bit on almost every individual pad I pitched to.

 

 

 

I wasn’t able to get any good fish but I definitely got bumped by a few.  The wind, again, really held me back from exploring.  The vegetation up here in comparison to the south end is off the chain.  With matts everywhere a little bit of time and  little less wind is definitely going to produce some spots up this way.

 

 

 

10-30-10

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Clewiston)

WATER TEMP: 75-80

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: clean deep in the grass, however the mud is starting to bleed through in areas due to wind, the rim canal is still fairly muddy

 

 

WEATHER: post frontal, cool in the morning (mid 60’s) warming to the low 80’s, clear skies, and winds up to 20 NE

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: fall, pre-spawn

FISH BEHAVIOR: Yeah, that front went through.  The fishing slowed way down.  I may not have caught anything decent yesterday however I got a ton of bites.  Today, the fish stayed small and bites were tough to come by.  Right away in the morning I tried to beat the wind and run to that little area outside Uncle Joe’s Cut.  I got there and the wind had already picked up but I was able to fish it fairly thoroughly.  Tossed a Gambler Big EZ to all the same places I did yesterday and ended up with one bite I wasn’t even able to hook.

 

 

Left and ran down south to fish that flat I pushed into yesterday.  Same result.  Flipped some little mats at the entrance and took a 2.5lbs fish from an isolated mat of Penny Wort but then zeroed tossing swim jigs and the Big EZ on the flat.  The only bites I got on the flat came from  a couple of the little bedding “holes” I found tossing a weightless straight tail worm.  Yet, they were all small fish.  The water in there had become a bit muddier and the wind was a bit stronger than yesterday.

 

 

I spent too much time in there playing with dinks and moved out to flip a bit more in the cut that runs on the inside of the rim canal focusing on the line of Penny Wort – caught some small fish mostly holding the bait against the top of the matt (which has become a fairly consistent bite of late) but no decent bites.

 

 

I ran a bunch of new water at that point and tossed some baits but everything, although it’s opened up quite a bit due to spraying and the hydrilla dying back, seems too shallow or just doesn’t look right.  Hit a schoolie shoal briefly and saw a guide pulling a ton of dinks and a couple 2-3lbs fish around the corner from the shoal on shiners; but I didn’t even see suspended fish on my graph on the shoal.

 

 

 

I closed up the day hitting a little opening of hyacinth mats stuck in some cane I stumbled on late in the summer when I first came down.  I had never taken a fish out of there but it looks good with 4-5’ of water under the isolated mats and a bit of stain in the water.  I ended up taking a 4.5lbs fish pumping the bait under some dying hyacinth and then 2 dinks off another matt.  I flipped quite a few mats in between but it seemed like there were a couple choice mats that held a few fish and that was it.

 

 

Overall it was slow, but frankly I was expecting that due to my experience during the past few fronts that have gone thru.  A tried and true bite when this does happen though seems to be flipping mats and and holding the bait agains the “ceiling” of the mat and just waiting for a bite.

 

 

10-29-10

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Clewiston)

WATER TEMP: 75-80

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: tannic, clear in grassy areas, becoming dirty on the main lake and in the rim canal

WEATHER: clear sunny and warm, winds up to 20 NE

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: fall, pre-spawn

FISH BEHAVIOR: The bite was on; I just couldn’t make it happen.  I ran up to Cochran’s Pass right away in the morning and fished the cut going into Moonshine Bay tossing topwaters and flipping a bit without any luck.  Ended up wasting ~1.5hrs in there before running south and stopping at a spot right around the mouth of Uncle Joe’s Cut.  The area was a mix of Kissimmee grass, hydrilla, and pads with 3-4’ of clean water.  There was a ton of wind making it really difficult to fish but it was probably the reason the fish were on too.  I ended up having 5 fish fly out of the water and body slam a Gambler Big EZ (all of which were 3+lbs), but couldn’t hook one of them.  Whether it was the wind or the fact that you really have to let the fish take the bait – as I would learn later – I really don’t know.

I basically got blown off that area though and made my way south towards Clewiston.  I tossed the Big EZ on a couple other flats that looked a lot like the area around Uncle Joe’s but only had one other blow up.  All of the bites I got seemed to revolve around isolated patches of lily pads or stretches of flat dollar pads intermixed with the Kissimmee Grass and other vegetation.

From there I moved a couple miles south of Clewiston to push up in a flat I found while flipping a few weeks ago.  I flipped some Penny Wort on my way in and took a few dinks and a 2lbs fish pumping the bait and had a fish slam the Tube Dart twice then disappear.

I basically worked the flat under the impression there would be cruising fish tossing a swimjig and the Gambler Big Ez to holes and gaps in the vegetation.  I ended up knocking quite a few fish up to 2.5lbs.  I saw quite a few beds and took a few fish dead sticking the swim jig on the bottom in the areas with the beds.  However all the fish were smaller and I didn’t even see any females cruising around.  Once again, lily pads seemed to locate fish.  I did try to flip some of the water lettuce/hyacinth mats in the area thinking there would be females staging under them but didn’t even get a bite.

There is front going through tomorrow which is probably why theses fish are so active even in lieu of the clear skies.  It really perplexes me as to where the big fish were in that flat.  The water was clean, 3-4’ with a perfect hard bottom and nice scattered vegetation – there were even beds swept off.  It will end up being a spawning flat I guess it’s just not time yet.

10-23-10 10th Place Bass Buster Silver Division

 

 

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee (out of Clewiston, Bass Busters Tournament)

WATER TEMP: 76-78

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: most of the water is slightly muddy, my best spot had clean water with visibility to ~3’

WEATHER: clear sunny, warm, winds gusting to 25ESE, stable warm front has been in the area for ~4 days with highs in the mid to upper 80’s

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: fall, prespawn

 

 

FISH BEHAVIOR: I fished the Bass Busters Silver Division Tournament out of Clewiston today.  My plan was pretty simple hit 1-2 ledges in the morning to get a quick limit and maybe a decent fish or 2, then flip the day away in 3 or so spots.

 

 

It took me 40 minutes to get south from Clewiston but I had a limit of 1-2lbs fish off my first ledge in less than 15 minutes.  The fish were fairly active and busting shad everywhere.  I took fish on a Lucky Craft Flat CB, a 3/4oz Red Eye Shad, and a 1/2oz football jig.  I basically worked theses baits on the flat and drop off around the ledge.  One trick I didn’t notice until later watching the video from the day is that the fish seemed to want the bait burned by them.  I caught fish banging the bottom with a crank and Carolina righ when I found the spot, but this time all my better bites came reeling the bait in quickly to make another cast.  I tried to toss a Carolina rig and football jig to coax a better bite but nothing was happening in the finesse department so about 9ish I decided to hop.

 

 

The wind had already kicked up quite a bit and was coming out of the east southeast so I elected to skip running to my other ledge – it would’ve taken awhile to get there and back and frankly I had a limit and knew it would take better fish to be in play.

 

 

 

I quickly flipped the stuck matts near the Belle Glade bridge without luck and moved to my main flipping spot by 10:30.  I started working matted hydrilla in 3-5’ (the water was still fairly clear here) and no more than 5 minutes in took a 6lbs fish on the drop.  I worked the rest of the line and the isolated matts but by then the wind was insane.  If I took my foot off the trolling motor the boat would drop back 20’ in just a couple seconds.  I ended up taking another 2lbs fish out of an isolated hydrilla matt but he wind was not only problematic for boat positioning, it even prevented a 1 1/2oz from getting thru.  I switched to my penny wort area and lost a 2-3lbs fish way up in the matts and took a couple dinks.

 

 

 

 

I ended up getting blown back and re flipped my little penny wort section and took a 4lbs fish (I think the same fish I caught towards the beginning of the month) once again on the drop.  I rehit the area again and broke 2 fish off (not sure whether they were gar or bass).  Then I made the mistake of the day.  I had 2 other flipping spots I wanted to hit so I dipped and started hopping my way back towards Clewiston.  I had not hit all my spots in the area due to the wind and the bite was obviously on.  I just figured I could tap into some other fish that were a bit more protected from the wind.

 

 

 

I hit my 2 other spots and it turned out the water had muddied in one and the other was just off – not a single bite in either area.  I briefly hit a few areas on my way north to Clewiston but they were shots in the dark more than anything.

 

 

I ended up with 15.92lbs.  It took 29lbs to win with the top 5 weights being 20lbs and up.  There were 38 boats and I placed 10^th.  The big stringer didn’t seem to be bedding fish – but I really can’t be sure.

 

10-1-10

LAKE/LOCATION: Lake Okeechobee out of South Bay

WATER TEMP: 79-81

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: slightly muddy in the rim canal (1’ visibility), clearer in the grass

WEATHER: a strong front went through last night (with temps in the upper 60’s and between the front and the rain the water temp has dropped 3 degrees, today was clear, almost no cloud cover, and calm with highs in the low 80’s

 

 

 

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: summer (but fall is coming)

FISH BEHAVIOR: Tuff, tuff, tuff.  I didn’t work any of my water I found yesterday – I worked around it, but it seems that there’s something unique to that one section as I didn’t take anything decent out of the matts that were in a foot or so less of water (and over what seems to be a muddier bottom).  I got very few bites today and the bites I got usually came after pumping the bait 3+times.  I took a few random fish out of some areas I know hold one or two but there was nothing consistent to it.

 

I did take one 2.5lbs fish off a ledge on a casting spoon in the morning along with some dinks but that was it for the offshore bite.

 

 

 

It was all around ruff.  Frankly it was one of those days when you have to go where you know there are fish and work them out – bites had to be earned.

 

 

3-28-10

LAKE/LOCATION: Rodman

WATER TEMP: 64-67

WATER COLOR & VISIBILITY: tannic, clean

WEATHER: overcast/rain/storms, breezy after 9, winds 10-15 ESE

ESTIMATED CALENDER PERIOD: pre-spawn

BITE TIMES: 11ish

FISH BEHAVIOR: I started off fishing the channel cut that comes out of the state park near the dam.  Basically I wanted to just cover water to see if there was a school anywhere around the contour changes – there wasn’t.  With the wind picking up I moved into the lock canal and started cranking.  I worked the point and the north side of the channel picking up 1 dink on a crank.  I didn’t find any really good hard bottom however – except for right at the entry into the canal.

I decided to see if the fish from last weekend were still home so I fished the 3 cut back into the main lake.  I took 2 within an hour (2 5lbs) one on a trap and another ripping a crank.  Both fish were a bit shallower and relating to grass over the hard bottom area in ~8-10.  After that however, I couldn’t get bit.  I tried to get a football jig bite to no avail.

In retrospect I spent too much time there after those 2 bites.  If there weren’t any fish biting the football it was a sign I did what I could and should move on.  Also I wanted to run up canal to fish the little channel that intersects the lock canal after the bridge but a storm blew in and things got a bit hairy.