Lake Okeechobee Bass Fishing Reports

Clewiston-----The lake has continued to improve this past week even though the water level is still dropping to a level of 10.39 feet above sea level. The wind has given us a little reprieve and the water is cleaning up in most areas if you can get to them. The great South Florida weather has been showing itself this past week with warm temperatures and no rain, I have had numerous families the past couple weeks enjoying spring break and the fishing on the Big “O”. The bass fishing with wild shiners has been good all week with most all of the guides reporting that the bite has improved throughout the week. Some of the places that you may want to try and catch bass with wild shiners are Uncle Joe’s Cut, the Football Field, and most of the dynamite holes south of Clewiston. Another area that should start to be good is the Clewiston channel from the locks out to the water tank, although this will depend a lot on the wind and water clarity. We are still getting some good shiners at Roland Martins Marina and George plans to keep bait all summer long for us. The bass bite on artificial lures has improved a lot over the past few weeks with Rat-L-Traps and Carolina rigs being the main players. The cuts that go from the rim canal out onto the lake are some of the better places to start and than you will want to work on any canals or main channels out to the lake. Crankbaits like the 200 series Bandits and Rat-L-Traps in chrome and black color are great search baits to locate bass and than you can slow down and probe the area with a Carolina rig or a Senko to catch more fish. As the wind slows down and the lake starts to clear up you should be able to drift out in open water up to a mile or more off the grasslines and catch bass on any structure or differences in the bottom contour and on Okeechobee that can be a small ridge a ledge that may only be a six to twelve inch difference in bottom and water depth but these areas will hold the fish, you should also look for any holes in the bottom especially out on the reefs or shoals for they will also hold bass. Another factor that you will want to consider is bait, if you see birds diving on bait out on the lake this will be a great place to possible catch some schooling bass so keep a Rat-L-Trap or swimbait handy for these occasions. The Everglades is still producing some nice bass at both Holiday Park and Sawgrass Recreational areas, try throwing a Super Fluke or Senko and if the bass seem aggressive try a Super Spook topwater lure. The bluegill bite has been on fire at Holiday Park with over a hundred boats a day out catching large numbers of bluegills on crickets.