Lake Okeechobee Bass Fishing Reports

Clewiston-----Hope everyone had a Happy Holidays and got to spend some time with the family. The bass fishing has really started to improve with everyday this past week my clients catching good numbers of quality bass. With the full moon approaching the week after next we caught a lot of small bass that are the buck bass making beds for the females that are starting to show up a few at a time. If the wind will give us a break everyone should be able to enjoy catching some nice sized bass the next few weeks. A quick reminder to please get a picture of these larger female bass and release them unharmed back into the lake so that they will still spawn and insure that we will have lots of bass to catch in the future. The water level is still going down and most of the areas that we have all been fishing is starting to get real shallow, please be careful this big lake has a lot of hidden surprises under the shallow water that we have been running our boats over. The better areas this past week to catch bass was from Uncle Joe's Cut up the lake to Cochran's Pass, this area has stayed clean even with the hard winds we received a few days this past week. A Gambler 10" junebug colored worm was my artificial bait of choice this week catching most a good number of bass in the three to four pound range. I fished this worm with a 1/4 ounce weight and the new Spiderwire Ultracast line ( 50# test ) attached to a Garcia Revo reel and was able to just horse these fish out of the joint grass, remember to use a superline hook or you will bend lesser hooks with this line.I did have one day that we were able to catch some of the buck bass on frog type baits I was throwing the Gambler Cane Toad and the Berkley Gulp Batwing Frog both worked equally well. I also had a great week catching bass on wild shiners in the same areas, with the grass points being the better places to fish. You will want to stay out from the grass and make long casts as this water is crystal clear up the shoal. We have been getting some great looking wild shiners in at Roland Martin's Marina. I have had reports of bass being caught in Pelican Bay but the bass have been few and far between and most are small, I have also heard that a few guys are catching some bass in the rim canal but most said they are here today and gone tomorrow. Another place you might want to give a try is the dynamite holes south of Clewiston, they are also holding a few crappies. The crappie fishing is still about the same with most not catching limits but catching a few everyday. The area around Uncle Joe's Cut and Harnie Pond Canal have been good and minnows seem to be the bait of choice. I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.

Bass Wishes
Capt. Scott Martin / Capt. Mark King


Dec 11th, 2006

Clewiston-----The bass bite has been improving by the day as we start into the winter season, and if we could get the wind to blow a little less everything would be great here on the Big "O". The bass were really eating good the beginning of the week and than as the weekend approached and another front came though the area the fishing got tough again. The East Wall and the West Wall both have been producing a fair amount of bass for both the guides and other anglers. Both of these areas are contingent on the wind direction and how hard it blows, as the dirty water from out on the lake will push into both the West Wall and the East Wall if we get a hard northeast or east wind. Capt. Ed Steady who guides out of Roland Martin's Marina and Resort reported catching a number of bass over eight pounds and a couple ten pound bass last week from these areas. These areas are getting shallow so you will need to idle or use your trolling motor to access these areas and wild shiners are the bait of choice but Senkos will also catch a few of these bass. The area from Uncle Joe's Cut up to Cochran's Pass has been good this past week with most of the points of grass holding fish that could be caught on wild shiners and on artificial lures. This area of the lake has been staying relatively clean even with the wind blowing on it for three or four days at a time, the problem is it with the wind blowing from the east at ten miles an hour and above it makes it had to fish this area and hold the boat so that you can fish it properly. Senkos and Gambler 10" worms in junebug color have been my artificial lure of choice this week to catch these bass on this outside grass line and on the trails that lead back into this area. With the lake level at 12.07 feet above sea level a lot of the areas that I have been referring to in my fishing reports are getting real shallow, what this will do to the bass is make them back out to deeper water usually closer to the outside grass line. Another area that I fished last week was the Harnie Pond Canal, we caught a few bass on Spro Aruka Shad lipless crankbaits and Bomber 7A crankbaits cast parallel to the bank in about seven to ten foot depth range, most of these bass are around two to three pound range. You can fish in this canal if the wind gets to blowing real hard and it is hard to fish out on the lake, just use caution if you are running in here from out on the lake because it can be tricky if you don't know where you are going there is a lot of shallow water in this area. I have had reports of a few bass being caught around Horse Island but most of this area has been dirty from the wind blowing on it from the passing fronts. I still haven't gone down to Pelican Bay to check this area out but I have had a few reports that the bass are trying to move into this area from out on the lake hopefully to spawn, this area was hit real hard from the hurricane last year and is just now starting to signs of improvement. The crappie report is about the same as last week with a few being caught around Uncle Joe's Cut, Harnie Pond Canal and the Kissimmee river, but I have not heard of anyone catching very many at any one time.

Bass Wishes
Capt. Scott Martin / Capt. Mark King

Dec 4th, 2006