Lake Okeechobee Florida

[sweetbecky]

Hi everyone,
My bf and I are going to St Pete next week then onto Lake Okeechobee for bass fishing. Has anyone been? What can we expect? He's a commercial fisherman (gill net and lobster fishing) so I think we've got more than the basics down, but any local tips?

[fitnessman]

Best bet is to contact the local bait shops in the area.

Have fun!

[Grind4Mine]

Hi everyone,
My bf and I are going to St Pete next week then onto Lake Okeechobee for bass fishing. Has anyone been? What can we expect? He's a commercial fisherman (gill net and lobster fishing) so I think we've got more than the basics down, but any local tips?
Damn, thats gonna be one hell of a trip...Like fitness man said, try and get ahold of bait shops or fishing guides down there....Be ready to catch some jug mouths though, thats all they do down there all year around is eat.

[sweetbecky]

Sounds good. I hope I catch my first fish down there. I'll have the camera ready and post when I come back!

[rambone]

Best bet to catch a trophy bass if your not to experienced with artificials is to use giant wild shiner suspended under a balloon right at the edge of a weedline that method is sure fire and works everytime on lake O as well as every other lake in central/south florida.

[Nainoa]

Best bet to catch a trophy bass if your not to experienced with artificials is to use giant wild shiner suspended under a balloon right at the edge of a weedline that method is sure fire and works everytime on lake O as well as every other lake in central/south florida.

Now personally I'm not a bass man...

However... One of the big trends with Bass is to always use artificials, casting plastics and lures because that's what people see the guys on the Pro Bass tour's doing...

The reality is that you can catch just as many bass, and argueably larger bass with live bait rigs. But people see the Pro's Cranking, and keep expunging the idea that cranking is the only way to go...

The reason the Pro's Crank is because they're under such a timing deadline, trying to catch a limit and then add in a kicker fish. It's also why they have those over expensive and over-powered boats.

Up here in the Land of 10,000 lakes, where we have a much larger diversity of fish species... I catch more bass (per hour) on live bait while trying to go for other fish, like Walleye and Panfish, than I do on those ever-so rare occasions when I purposefully Bass fish with Cranks & Lures.

[rambone]

Now personally I'm not a bass man...

However... One of the big trends with Bass is to always use artificials, casting plastics and lures because that's what people see the guys on the Pro Bass tour's doing...

The reality is that you can catch just as many bass, and argueably larger bass with live bait rigs. But people see the Pro's Cranking, and keep expunging the idea that cranking is the only way to go...

The reason the Pro's Crank is because they're under such a timing deadline, trying to catch a limit and then add in a kicker fish. It's also why they have those over expensive and over-powered boats.

Up here in the Land of 10,000 lakes, where we have a much larger diversity of fish species... I catch more bass (per hour) on live bait while trying to go for other fish, like Walleye and Panfish, than I do on those ever-so rare occasions when I purposefully Bass fish with Cranks & Lures.


You've obviously never fished Lake O, and how many 10lb+ bass do you see being pulled in during bassmaster? And the bass in Florida aren't the same species as the bass you fish for up north, ours grow much larger and mature faster.

[Grind4Mine]

Now personally I'm not a bass man...

However... One of the big trends with Bass is to always use artificials, casting plastics and lures because that's what people see the guys on the Pro Bass tour's doing...

The reality is that you can catch just as many bass, and argueably larger bass with live bait rigs. But people see the Pro's Cranking, and keep expunging the idea that cranking is the only way to go...

The reason the Pro's Crank is because they're under such a timing deadline, trying to catch a limit and then add in a kicker fish. It's also why they have those over expensive and over-powered boats.

Up here in the Land of 10,000 lakes, where we have a much larger diversity of fish species... I catch more bass (per hour) on live bait while trying to go for other fish, like Walleye and Panfish, than I do on those ever-so rare occasions when I purposefully Bass fish with Cranks & Lures.
IDK man, gimme a plastic worm i can throw anywhere and ill catch more bass in two hours then i would all day with minnows...I live in Southern Illinois, we use minnows of all sizes to catch crappie, you might catch a decent size bass here and there, ive never cought a largemouth over a pound and a half with live bait.....What kinda rig are you using when u catch em all??? I dont know, a weedless plastic worm is pretty much all i fish with anymore, anytime, anywhere.....Of course i dont compete with time, but i can throw a plastic worm in any submerged tree beds, root wads, wrip wrap, etc....

[Nainoa]

You've obviously never fished Lake O, and how many 10lb+ bass do you see being pulled in during bassmaster? And the bass in Florida aren't the same species as the bass you fish for up north, ours grow much larger and mature faster.

Well yeah, that's why I said in my post, that I'm no Bass Master, and I reference the pattern seen up here, not down there...

But they are the same species, the difference is that your growing season is longer in the south, hence more available food in the lake cycle from zoo plankton proliferation and other factors.

***
Up here there are drastic seasonal changes which means as an angler you are constantly adapting how you fish not only to the season but also to the lake. You don't fish the same way in July that you did in June... And you don't look to the same structure on a Mesotrophic lake that you do on a Eutrophic lake...

So you have to fall back on certain tactics to find the fish... The two ways to do that are Crank Baits, (Wether trolled or Cast.) Or structure fishing... Which is just to find some blatant strucutre, and sit on it with live bait. If it fails to produce you move on.

Between the two I've seen the live bait, regradless of how it's worked in the water, to produce bass.

With Cranking you're exposing the bass to the stimulus of Visual, Lateral, hearing And then the inspection by mouth when it goes to take the bait finds hard plastic and spits it.

With live bait, you're appealing to Visual, Lateral, hearing, SCENT, and mouth inspection passes because it's real food. With real live bait the bass sets the hook on itself.

***
What's happening when you're cranking these weedlines is that you're triggering the fish's aggressive feeding pattern... It's keeping him from having time to make an analysis, and forcing him to strike or loose the bait.

The marriage between these two methods is those scented tubes you see some guys fishing with, that to the bass are half live bait, and half crankbait strategys.

***
The biggest problem with Bass fishing is that it's been commericialized now... People see too many of these bass tours and think that the only way to fish bass is the way the pro's do, because they're pro's... The reality is that they're fishing a niche a certain way in an attempt to make money... It's only one of many strategies...

And in general when an angler marrys himself to one way of fishing, he eventually gets skunked. Diversity and style of adaptation are the keys to succesful angling. In the south you can get away with some singularization in tactics because of the limited number of fresh water species to target.

[bassing68]

Never fished it but would love to try. I have watched many fishing shows and they pull monsters from there.

The advise about asking bait shops is sound, even pros do that. A lot simply depends time of day, area, structure, weather, wind, pressure, etc...all the usuals. Personally I am fond of spinnerbaits and topwaters, they are just more fun.

[Grind4Mine]

Well yeah, that's why I said in my post, that I'm no Bass Master, and I reference the pattern seen up here, not down there...

But they are the same species, the difference is that your growing season is longer in the south, hence more available food in the lake cycle from zoo plankton proliferation and other factors.

***
Up here there are drastic seasonal changes which means as an angler you are constantly adapting how you fish not only to the season but also to the lake. You don't fish the same way in July that you did in June... And you don't look to the same structure on a Mesotrophic lake that you do on a Eutrophic lake...

So you have to fall back on certain tactics to find the fish... The two ways to do that are Crank Baits, (Wether trolled or Cast.) Or structure fishing... Which is just to find some blatant strucutre, and sit on it with live bait. If it fails to produce you move on.

Between the two I've seen the live bait, regradless of how it's worked in the water, to produce bass.

With Cranking you're exposing the bass to the stimulus of Visual, Lateral, hearing And then the inspection by mouth when it goes to take the bait finds hard plastic and spits it.

With live bait, you're appealing to Visual, Lateral, hearing, SCENT, and mouth inspection passes because it's real food. With real live bait the bass sets the hook on itself.

***
What's happening when you're cranking these weedlines is that you're triggering the fish's aggressive feeding pattern... It's keeping him from having time to make an analysis, and forcing him to strike or loose the bait.

The marriage between these two methods is those scented tubes you see some guys fishing with, that to the bass are half live bait, and half crankbait strategys.

***
The biggest problem with Bass fishing is that it's been commericialized now... People see too many of these bass tours and think that the only way to fish bass is the way the pro's do, because they're pro's... The reality is that they're fishing a niche a certain way in an attempt to make money... It's only one of many strategies...

And in general when an angler marrys himself to one way of fishing, he eventually gets skunked. Diversity and style of adaptation are the keys to succesful angling. In the south you can get away with some singularization in tactics because of the limited number of fresh water species to target.
Like u said, where im at, i only fish for largemouth, crappie, cats, and occasionally big bluegill.

I have cought 2 Walleye my whole life in the Lake of the Ozarks.....:D one when i was about 8 and then a couple years ago i was throwing a rapala in some rock dropoffs and landed one....It kinda stuns ya a little bit to pull one in when ur used to pullin bass after bass

[Nainoa]

Like u said, where im at, i only fish for largemouth, crappie, cats, and occasionally big bluegill.

I have cought 2 Walleye my whole life in the Lake of the Ozarks.....:D one when i was about 8 and then a couple years ago i was throwing a rapala in some rock dropoffs and landed one....It kinda stuns ya a little bit to pull one in when ur used to pullin bass after bass

Funny that you mention it... There's a Lake in Arkansas, that is synonymous for providing Trophy Walleye...

Another one which is a shocker, is this river resevoir in Washington state... I see this guys website, loaded with HUGE Walleye, from the background you can tell it's not the same fish, as it's all different seasons...

So I start reading... The guy doesn't even know that they're walleye...

His entrys read like "Caught this 13 pound 5 ouncer near some weeds, let the damn thing go."
"Caught this 12 pound nine ounce fish near a rock pile, brought it back and fed it to the dogs."

All told the guy caught like a dozen of these champion trophy Walleye, but since he'd never walleye fished he just disregarded them.

Only thing I could think was "I'm takin' a goddam road trip to Washington!"

***
But I'm a total multispecies guy, I have something I'm fishing for in any season... Which is the beauty of the upper midwestern lake systems...
(This year I'm graduating up to Musky, and begin practice casting tomorrow.)

I couldn't deal with just Bass, and Catfish...

[Ripped Mass]

Hi everyone,
My bf and I are going to St Pete next week then onto Lake Okeechobee for bass fishing. Has anyone been? What can we expect? He's a commercial fisherman (gill net and lobster fishing) so I think we've got more than the basics down, but any local tips?
I have been there many times but when I went the game was weak. Barely anyone was catching bass.

[sweetbecky]

Well, due to some rescheduling, we ended up at Lake Kissimmee/Lake Wales in FL, near a neat place called Camp Mack. I caught the only fish on the trip, a Cypress Bass. We aren't familiar with it, since we are from NH, but a freshwater Florida fish book said it could be called a bowfin mudfish. It was feisty!

[smokeater]

I'm in Ontario, Canada and I've heard fisherman talk about that lake very highly. We have some of the best fishing in the world in this province and many people go there to fish. I envy you.

[GREENFEATHER]

Well, due to some rescheduling, we ended up at Lake Kissimmee/Lake Wales in FL, near a neat place called Camp Mack. I caught the only fish on the trip, a Cypress Bass. We aren't familiar with it, since we are from NH, but a freshwater Florida fish book said it could be called a bowfin mudfish. It was feisty!


That doesn't look like a Bowfin to me. It looks more like some sort of hybridized Pike Cichlid, Crencichla spp. That's the problem with that area. When people tired of their large, nasty cichlids, carribe or pacu, they dumped them in the nearest waterway and they began reproducing.

[sweetbecky]

Really? I think it looks a lot like this: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nmfs/figb0512.htm

The men who identified it are commercial fishermen, but are unfamiliar with Florida freshwater fish, so it could be something else. I don't care either way, I just want to be able to tell people what I caught.