piscicidal

Not quite 9lbs. Took the kids to Holiday Park this afternoon. Was very surprised at the good bite...only went out a couple hours but caught about a half dozen like this and a bunch of 2-3lbers.

Showtime, Welcome to BR. I fished once in this cold front...that was Saturday at Okeechobee. The fishing definitely has been affected. Had to downsize and slow way down to get bit. We managed a good bag but we really had to work for them. Gonna try this afternoon for a little bit at Holiday Park,

Another good day on Okeechobee today with Leo. Brutal conditions...cold, bluebird, winds gusting over 30 out of the North in the morning. North wind is my nemesis out there, but today we got the better of her.

There was an empty boat going around in circles down around the rim ditch by Pahokee. They found the body a couple days later..not sure if he drowned/had a heart attack??? I don't think a crash was involved.

Thanks Lou. Feels pretty good to start seeing the results of our work there. We were boat #5 and we have a pretty fast boat (~72mph). We got to our first spot well ahead of the pack. We start fishing a line of heads and Brandon McMillian pulls in on the other side of the head and starts fishing. That's when you know you are in the right spot. Might try and hit Holiday Park tomorrow for a few hours. Will likely be with my Dad so probably not going to hit it too hard.

Looks like we lost about 5months worth of posts here... Leo and I finished 2nd at Giblets and Gravy out of Clewiston yesterday with 24.5lbs. 60boats. Leo would have had big fish also, but his 8.5lber coughed up a 10" mullet in the livewell as we were loading her up in the weigh in bag. The half pound mullet wouldn't have been enough to give us first (1st place = 25.5lbs) so complaints. Caught a bunch of fish and gave ourselves a chance to win...one more big bite in the last two hours and we would have it. We're starting to figure it out pretty good out there. Three straight trips well over 20lbs. Figures...just about the time we start going back to the glades...

Not even close to "the man" at Okeechobee, but I'm getting better. Appreciate the sentiment though. Went out yesterday...ran some new water. Had about 16lbs...Two 4lbers.

Had a really good session at Okeechobee yesterday. Five biggest "only" about 23lbs but it was probably one of the best days I've had out there...had a 6 and a 5 and a pile of 3s and 4s. Probably caught a hundred pounds of fish, total. I'm doing something a little different than the pack now and I think it can hold up for awhile. We'll see...gonna put it to the test in the Giblets and Gravy tourney coming up.

Fished Okeechobee with Leo yesterday. Pretty good day. Five biggest about 21-22lbs...enough to have won the tourney out of Slims if we had chose to fish it (Burke won with 20.5). Planned on quitting a little early though (2:00) to get back to FTL. Had three fish over 4.5lbs, including this 7lber. 3 of my last 4 trips to Okeechobee, I've caught 7lbers....I probably should have fished the Big Bass Challenge today. Looks like a perfect day for fishing...

Actually, my fish in post #763 is a little bit bigger than this fish. They are both in the 8lb range....mine was a little over and his a little under. But who's counting....

Thanks George. Went to Lox Friday afternoon with my Hawg Tech partner Robert (SouthFla) and went yesterday afternoon with my son Luke. Five fish over 5lb this weekend, including two giants. More Lox pics.... Yesterday: Friday afternoon (with Robert)

George, Leo and I kind of flamed out in the RMMC tourney. Long story short, we took a wrong turn on a trail and couldn't back track due to all the boat traffic coming thru. By the time we were able to get to our spot, our buddies were sitting right on it. They weighed 22lbs for 3rd place. We dumped 11-12lbs. I fished with Jack (shallow thinker) the following week at Ghosts and Goblins. We weighed 13.84lbs and I had the 3rd biggest fish for the tourney (me on the right: 6.92lb) It's a common theme for me at Okeechobee...one big fish and a pile of 2lbers. The fish are so scattered and the weights are showing it. Only two boats over 20lb in the Ghosts and Goblins tourney (over 70boats). I know where the winning bags are coming from now, but it's not a situation I care to deal with. 50 boats competing for the same few fish. Had an awesome weekend at Loxahatchee though. Ripped some giants out there.

Have another tourney at Okeechobee this Saturday. Payout is really good. ~$6000 for 1st place. Leo and I are starting to figure it out a little bit there. Probably not enough to compete just yet, but we have a puncher's chance. Last two times out we've had fish over 7lbs and five fish limits over 17lb. I got one two weeks ago Thursday just over 7. Last Saturday, Leo got a pretty good one...this fish was about 26" long. A little fatter and she was double digit for sure.

Lou, that's awesome. I love catching big fish on frogs. I'm glad you like the handle also...certainly does make fishing more enjoying IMO. I went out to Okeechobee Sunday with Leo. We did a little prefishing for the tourney next Saturday out of Roland Martins. Our five biggest went right around 15lbs...had one fish that went about five, and the rest in the 2-3lb range. We left our best stuff alone. I don't think we are on the kind of fish to be competitive against the big sticks showing up for this one ($2500 first prize) but we'll see.

Post #708 I mentioned I would put you guys on my fish. I was feeling charitable for the charity tournament! I did not prefish at all. Leo prefished one morning two weeks ago...he caught about 17lbs. We are pretty good at reading the water and knowing where to go under certain conditions. Leo found the kind of water we were looking for in his prefishing and we knew if we had certain conditions we would go there. Obviously we got those conditions. We went straight there and had 29lbs by 9:00....10 fish over 4lbs. We could have really wrecked em there to the tune of 30+ lbs if we had chosen to. We gave em the mercy rule.

Thanks Bruce. I did catch the two biggest (7.6 and 6.4) but Leo probably caught more. Dude is a friggin vacuum.

Leo and I won the memorial tourney today for Melissa Fellows at Holiday Park. It was a pretty good turnout for August...about 35 boats. We raised over $10,000 for the Fellows family and I think the support they received today will help them move forward with their lives. Leo and I donated our winnings to the family as did the second place anglers. We weighed 28.72. Second place was 23.10. I had big fish of the tourney: 7.62lbs (I had second big fish also). We caught our fish early...made one pass through our primary stretch and had our weight. We ran three other stretches we had and didn't get a bite. Our fish were getting a little stressed so we weighed in early...right around noon. Sorry, no pictures. We really just wanted to get those fish weighed and back in the water. Anyway, we had a chance to put together a serious bag today. I am pretty sure we could have sat and pounded our stretch for 35lbs. We lost two fish that would have put us well over 30lbs. One of you should have taken me up on my offer to put you on my fish. You would have had a day you'd never forget!

Thanks George. I'm looking forward to my next Lox trip also! Everglades Bassmasters had a tournament at Lox last weekend...I really wanted to do that one but just had too much going on. They don't give out many exemptions to fish tourneys at Lox so when someone gets one, I'm normally on it! Anyway, 15lbs won it and 11lbs got 2nd place. Not to be too presumptuous, but I like my chances getting 15 out there. I don't think I've caught less than that once this summer. Heck, Eric catches 15lbs with two fish at Lox!

I appreciate the positive comments but to be honest, we are no where near dominant. Steve Forssell is the undisputed "King" of the canals when the water is low...he has won +30 tourneys out there. Hank Kreig/Skip Reed are dominant in the flats when the water is high. Tim Feller (current KOTG champion) is a beast...the guy is a threat anytime/anywhere. Feller is a guy who will show up for three tourneys a year in the Glades and win two of them. Our goal right now is to be in the discussion when they are talking about some of the top teams, but we are not at the level of those guys I mentioned.

Thanks Lou. I've been fortunate to have had good partners over the past few years: my buddies Jack (shallow thinker) and Leo. Guys who are not only good fishermen but good people as well. I've been fishing that King of the Glades club for 5 years now. These guys are good. Like in golf, it always helps to compete against guys who are better than you. Especially when money is on the line. You either up your game or go broke fishing against these sticks...

No fishing for me this past weekend. My tourney partner Leo fished Holiday on Sunday and caught ~17lbs. Still a few good fish to be caught, but it is tougher. There is a benefit tourney this Sunday for King of the Glades angler Wayne Fellows. Wayne's wife Melissa died in a scuba diving accident in the keys about 10 days ago. She was 36 years old. Wayne and Melissa have two young children. I will be donating some stuff at the raffle and will be fishing it with Leo. Leo and I have cashed a check in every tourney out there since March but I plan on donating anything I might win. This is not going to be a real competitive deal. 1:00 weigh in. If you come to the tourney, come pull me aside. I'll share whatever info I have with you.

I have four jig rods: two DX745 for 3/8-3/4oz and two 805C (FLIP/PITCH) for 1oz - 1.25oz jigs. I have several 735C rods...I don't like the action on that rod for jigs, but it is an awesome rod for throwing moving baits...toads/small swimbaits/etc...

The fishing is not fast/furious by any means but there are still some big fish to be caught. Right now there is a lot of water moving north to south so fishing in L67 and L68 is going to be very slow. I would start by looking at the canals which have clean, slower moving water and go from there. The fish are a little lower in the water column also...the better bags are coming outside the pads with traditional ledge fishing techniques.

That's awesome Lee. I am in the process of selling a rental house here in Fort Lauderdale and if things work out I am going to roll that into a lake house on Istokpoga. I'm following gar-tracker's model...fix the place up over the years and eventually retire there. Would love to join you guys on the porch one day....

An 8 and two 6s. I love "slow days" like that at Lox! Good job, Eric!