April 28 2007
Clewiston-----Wow the Big “O” is back to producing good numbers of bass on almost every guide trip, Thank God. The weather has been great this past week and the fishing has really reflected on this, with bass being caught on wild shiners and artificial lures just as well. All of the areas that we have been fishing the past few weeks are the places to be like the Football Field, the 94 Hole, Uncle Joe’s Cut and the main channel from the Clewiston locks out onto the lake. Don’t leave home without a Rat-L-Trap or my favorite the Spro Aruka Shad which seems to produce better for me and my clients. Another bait that is working good is a shallow running crankbait made by local angler Sam Griffin called a Lil’ Katie, they are working great to crankbait the edges of the channels and dynamite holes. As far as plastic baits a Gambler Super Stud in watermelon-red and just plain watermelon has been working good to fish slower than the crankbaits when the bite slows down some, I have been fishing them on a 4/0 Owner Wide Gap Plus hook and Berkley 15# Big Game line. The bass have been eating up the wild shiners as fast as you can throw them in the water, with most of them being good solid three to four pound fish with an occasional one around seven pounds. Something else I would like to share with my reader is that I have started using circle hooks for shiner fishing the last couple weeks and have not deep hook but a couple bass. I would suggest anyone bass fishing with wild shiners give them a try, I have been using Owner 4/0 Mutu Light Wire hooks and love them. Just think how many bass that we have all deep hooked in the past and wondered if the would live, give these hooks a fair try I think they will work for you to.
A few words on the lake level, it is still going down but not as fast with the level at 9.99 feet above sea level as of yesterday and most of the area that I talk about are getting smaller but most are deep enough that the bass are holding in these areas. The only problem is that they are getting a lot of fishing pressure since there are so few places to fish. Please be courteous to other anglers fishing close to you, I’m sure they wouldn’t be fishing so close to you if there was somewhere else to go and if everyone can give just a little there are plenty of bass to catch. There has been a few bluegills and Oscars being caught on Okeechobee but if you really want to catch them you will want to head down to Holiday Park area of the Everglades where most are catching all they want. The bass fishing has also been good out of Holiday Park I was down with clients a couple times last week and caught over seventy five bass each time, most are small from one to three pounds but they are sure a lot of fun for kids to catch. Take lots of Gambler Super Studs and Aces both in watermelon-red color. Next week will be doing a special edition on the low lake level on Lake Okeechobee, if anyone has any info they would like to share about the last time the lake was low please e-mail me. Till next week God Bless and good fishin.
