Lake Okeechobee Report

Where to begin?  Well first off I have to send a big thanks out to one heck of a fisherman and my friend Tim Zdrazil.  He invited me along on a tournament scouting trip to the Big O and I will never be able to thank him enough for helping scratch off one item on my bucket list.  As I stated in my previous article I have always viewed this lake as the Holy Grail of bass fishing and it sure held up its end of the bargain.  Of course I'd been lost without Tim's help so a lot is owed to him.  I met him at Roland Martin's marina which in itself was exciting but nothing could take a bass fisherman's breath away as much as the view we had starting up the canal towards what I hoped would be a day to remember.

 
Needless to say it was a beautiful morning that was full of hopes and dreams.  As Tim cranked up his Ranger and brought her on plain my mind was racing; looking for something in my many years of fishing that prove I could hold my own on the Big O.  As we went by many areas that looked fishy in my book without slowing I wondered where we would stop and I'd make my first cast.  It didn't take too long, time wise to get there, but in my mind it was taking forever.  As Tim slowed the boat he explained the plan to me.  I'm sorry but I'm not going to pass along Tim's game plan here as he does have a tournament in the near future.  We did cover this area well with various baits.  I started with a Throw-n-Thunder Table Rock Shad that I had one fish chase it to the boat but never hit and another that slapped at it but didn't get the hook.  I then switched to a Santone Lures Rayburn Swim Jig in Baby Bass but didn't have any takers.  As we moved deeper in the cover and mean cover like I've never seen on any other body of water, I pulled out a QuickBaits Tube Craw and started pitching.  This produced my first Big O bass.

It wasn't a Big O Giant but it did break the ice for the day.  By the way it is alright for you to laugh at my head gear as I had to video tape the day.  I'll release the video in a few weeks so as not to give away too much on what Tim was using to catch his fish and the area we were fishing.  Tim also caught one in this spot so even though we didn't catch any numbers it might still be promising to fish in a few weeks.

Spot number two was a place Tim had caught a couple of big girls in the past and had also located some schooling fish.  As we moved up into the cover to see if we could flip for a big girl I once more pulled out the tube craw.  We gave it our best shot but no big girls seemed to be home.  We kept working the cover hard until we saw some bass chasing shad in the open and we moved off to see if we could get them to hit.  As we made it to the area I grabbed my Throw-n-Thunder Table Rock Shad and Tim grabbed his secret schooling bass bait.  First casts and Tim hooks up and then I also hook up as we fought a pair of fish to the boat.

Here is a picture of the Table Rock Shad Spinnerbait that I used.  These 4 blade spinnerbaits really look like a school of fish coming through the water and should be the ticket for schooling bass eating shad.

After us both hooking up on our first casts we thought we were on them good. This all changed when cast after cast and no bent rods.  Did this mean we had just gotten lucky on those first casts or did we catch all the bass that were chasing shad?  Neither of us knew for sure so we started to experiment by trying other baits.  I switched to a Santone Lures Rayburn Swim Jig in the Acid Perch color with a smoke purple flake swim bait trailer.  This combo proved to be my magic bait for the Big O but not at first.  The first couple of bass that hit it spit it out before I could set the hook and that is when I remember I had not put any of my Rage Fish Attractants Liquid Mayhem on my bait.  I put some of the Garlic Minnow or what I call Garlic Bread with Minnow Spread on my trailer and the catching began!!  In fact on the very next cast I was hooked up with a really solid fish, and man these bass seemed to be fight twice their size.

 

Here is a picture of the Acid Perch Rayburn Swim Jig that I used. If you notice the RSJ has a flat edge on the head under the line eye.  This causes the bait to wobble during a retrieve giving it an even more natural appearance than other swim jigs on the market.  

I went on to catch 11 bass for the day and Tim was right there with me.  In other words we were having a Big O ball catching the fish and figuring out some things that could help Tim big time in his up coming Tournament.  Here are a couple more of the more solid fish I caught.

 

The only reason we know I caught 11 is Tim took a picture of all my fish.  I haven't had time to watch all the video yet to determine how many Tim ended up with as yet but I'm betting it was 10 or 11 also.

So what did this trip to the Big O teach me.  First off if you have never fished the Big O then you need to go with someone who has.  I would have been totally lost on this huge lake and would have likely been skunked by myself.  The lake is huge and has cover everywhere which means everywhere looks like it should be holding fish.  This is not the case so going with someone that has fished the lake will give your a better chance at having a day to remember like I now have.  Second off I learned that Throw-n-Thunder spinnerbaits will catch fish on the Big O, but I really wish it had been a better spinnerbait day to have been able to fish them more.   The big thing I learned was that Santone Lures Rayburn Swim Jigs will catch bass anywhere you throw them.  Of course that is if you remember to put on some Garlic Bread with Minnow Spread, what I mean is put on some Rage Fish Attractants Liquid Mayhem in Garlic Minnow.

I have to Thank Tim one more time for a day I will always remember.  Hopefully in the future I can have him as my guest on Lake Sam Rayburn and show him why the Rayburn Swim Jig has that name.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!