Big Uh O

[gar-tracker]

Man very tough up there.

 

As you can see from the Pros bags only one good day and the rest very small bags in comparison.

 

I fished up there Thursday and Friday and my tournament was Saturday. I had about 12 lbs Thursday, 15 Friday, and 7 on Saturday, my 3s turned into dinks. 15 lbs won our Toho Marine 1 Man on Saturday

 

I love those Pros there living the dream but Im glad Ill have my lake back.

 

If you notice none of the South Florida guys did any good, Mcmillian, Tharp had 1 good day but bombed., Kenny. The winners from Florida but up on the pan handle not the swamps.

 

My theory lots of changes,  waters dropping and the nights have still been real cold, fronts,lots of areas to hide their just not bunched up in mats like most years.

 

My prediction when the weather starts to become more stable we'll be waxing them up here.

[salmicropterus]

Your experience pretty much mirrored mine. Pre-fished on Friday when it was calm and did decently. Saturday, when it counted, couldn't run the Lake due to wind so I was pretty much locked into the same places everyone else goes to when it blows. One of my larger areas had 12-15 boats in it. If you have to fish inside you are pretty much screwed.

This is what I think: when the big storm occurred in the Fall and the water came up 3-4', there was an usual amount of agricultural waste water back-pumped into the Lake. We can only imagine what was in that water but we know it wasn't good. This may account for the unusually dirty water we are seeing. When the water went up the last time, no such problem as the wind this time around didn't just start to blow. There may be reduced dissolved oxygen in the back water due to contamination etc which is keeping the fish from moving up.

I know this sounds "out there" but we had a nearly identical water rise the year before and the fishing was extraordinary. Most of that water came from the north and while there is cowcrap in that water as well, not as much as what is specifically back bumped from Palm Beach and Martin counties where this water came from

[Gotfishyfingers?]

I think the Florida guys were stuck on strictly flipping maybe bedding and that hurt them. The top finalists seemed to be more versatile in techniques. Swimming jigs, chatter baits, Buzz baits & other top water. Heck the winner was throwing a buzz bait in the middle of the afternoon, minutes b4 weigh in and wacked a 7lber! Most likely Tharp, Mcmillan, Medlock, Martin(s) etc. were flipping majority of the time.

[South FLA]

Tough INDEED!  Between higher water levels, fierce winds, and muddy water I am not surprised.  I too will be on the Lake when the action is good, which I assume will be very soon, we need to have some steady wheather conditions, the national tournament guys to move on, and some dry weather to stop runoffs.  This should settle the lake back down a bit and the bite should be on.  The big'uns are out there though and can be caught with SHINERS, too bad they don't allow that for tournaments, lol.  I have been lucky since I have a couple of bites working locally, but would really like to be fishing the LAKE more often.

[piscicidal]

I was out there yesterday, mostly running/gunning trying to get some good video.  I fished by the winner (Benton) in the morning...I was running up to my spot and noticed about six boats there.  I look closer and notice that only one guy was fishing...the rest were following behind, watching.  I drove by him slowly and went to another spot.    

 

Benton mixed it up pretty good.  He spent his time moving back and forth between Turners Cove and South Bay and threw a lot of moving baits.   He fished that skinny dipper bait and chatterbait a lot.  Also sight fished with a craw.   He got a little bit lucky with that kicker.  He only had about 8-9lbs with seven minutes left to fish. Then he nails a 7lber on a spinnerbait.  Looked to me like that was in Clewiston Channel (see the video).  That was an Ike/Omori "never give up" moment....

 

Ehler finished second and he seemed to be throwing a lot of moving baits also...with some flipping.  Some cool video on FLW with Ehler yesterday hammering offshore fish with the birds diving all around. 

 

Neal finished third and I think he was mostly ledge fishing up by the Kissimee River mouth.

 

Hendricks finished fourth... He had a kicker each day and could have easily won the tournament.  Says he lost a 10lber early in the morning, yesterday.  He was doing a lot of frog fishing and it looks like he was fishing somewhere off the shoal.  He was definately on the west side, judging by the waves coming in there.

 

Cotten finished fifth, and did most of his damage flipping jigs to reed heads up in fish eating bay. He had 54 lbs day 1-2 and 12lbs day 3-4. When those fish moved in, he wacked em. Saturday they moved out and he struggled. He fished like the Florida guys fish...relying primarily on the flipping bite, which really hasn't turned on like in years past.   There was a decent flipping bite on Friday, and most of those guys pulled in good bags that day.   McMillian sacrificed his tourney on Friday, to help Tharp with an equipment issue, or he well might have had a big bag also.  

 

I understand why those guys do it....you just assume going into the tourney that somebody is going to catch 100lbs and the only way you're going to do it is to flip.  The lake is fishing a lot different this year though.  Those south side fish haven't moved up at all this year.  The whole South Side has been a mess....really hasn't cleared up since Sandy.  It will be clean for a day or two and then you get a little wind and the whole place is chocolate milk again.  I'm a little bit concerned about it.  We all know how windy it gets here in March.

[gar-tracker]

I don't think its a matter of the flipping bite being on or off, its just so much cover that their not as easy to find as years prior.

 

Another problem is that many more people flip now then before so the covers getting blasted, all that banging around runs them out.

 

The north ends water is beautiful  so I don't think the waist water theory is it, the fish just haven't moved back to where they usually are yet.

 

The difference between the water coming up this time as to before is that it never got completely dry like the first drought it just got real low, there was 5 inches of water for miles back allowing all that crap to grow. In the first low water the ground was exposed drying out all the weeds and vegetation, hence the great flats we had when it came back up.

 

Droughts are a natural part of nature and they rejuvenate lakes.

[chobee]

I went out Thursday and found one area that was holding fish I had a 4 and one 2 1/2 before one of the FLW boys sat down to fish the area stayed a little while and watched him fish then left. I tried to fish it Saturday and had waves rolling over the front of my boat I ended up with 5 lbs. Sunday was a different story with the wind mostly out of the east i went back to my area and caught just under 16 lbs and I was pretty happy with that

[South FLA]

I went out Thursday and found one area that was holding fish I had a 4 and one 2 1/2 before one of the FLW boys sat down to fish the area stayed a little while and watched him fish then left. I tried to fish it Saturday and had waves rolling over the front of my boat I ended up with 5 lbs. Sunday was a different story with the wind mostly out of the east i went back to my area and caught just under 16 lbs and I was pretty happy with that

 

Nice outing,