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2/13/2008
Okeechobee FLW TourHaven't updated in a while simply because it's been wide open lately. Figured I would write a
little something before Toho. The winter break was nice but not enough time. Three weeks after Baja I finally
admitted that my left wrist was toast. Went to the specialist and ended up with a cast on my arm till last week.
No big deal but it does make it a little difficult for a left handed caster. So the good news is I finally managed to
learn how to cast right handed like most of the world. At least something good came out of the deal.
Okeechobee
was a tough deal. Long story short was I located a similar area to eventual winner J.T. Kenney's area. This
spot was also located on the main body of the lake. It was LOADED, the first day I caught twenty in twenty
consecutive casts in one small area. There were so many in there your lipless crankbait would literally bounce off of
two fish before the third one would cream it. It was crazy! The first day I made about twenty casts in there and
the second day I made six casts in there and had over 15lbs. It was loaded with three pounders. Later that afternoon
I located a second school about 100 yards away from the first school but these were 4+ pound fish, the better ones.
I found these because they were a little harder to get too and off the beaten path. I found them with about 20 minutes
to go and lost three good 5+ pound fish. (one jumped off, one straightened split ring, and one weld came undone on a Gamakatsu
Treble, just bad luck stuff) No problem though ended the day in 7th and it was time to blast them the third day because
I haven't even fished a total of one hour on them both days. Next morning the front came through and trashed the
main lake, no game. No big deal because I would just fall back into the rim canal with everyone else and shoot for a
limit and when the winds died on the fourth day make up ground. I ended up getting a little greedy and cranking most
of the day trying to catch one or two quality fish on the crank before settling on the shaky head like everyone else.
Bad mistake! I had a good cranking deal working in practice but it died in the tournament. I was throwing a normal
sized square bill and the fish were beat on so bad they wouldn't eat it. A few friends of mine ended up catching
them on crappie cranks and one even made the cut. Should have been all over that but missed the boat. Finally
fell back on the old Porky's but never got in the right groove with it and only managed two. I was pretty dissapointed
simply because I should have layed up earlier and just played it conservatively but I still wanted to go for the win and try
to nail two good ones before laying up and it just didn't happen. That's the price you pay for that attitude,
about a 90% chance of bombiing and 10% of success. This year I need to lay up more often because generally it's
all you need in these situations. I like to play very aggressive and it costs me sometimes. I hate fishing if
I don't feel like what I'm doing can win, and a lot of times that will kill you in multiple day events.
Stopped
at Toho on the way home for an afternoon of driving around. The lake look good, lots of grass and especially hydrilla.
I expect it to be like a lot of Florida events, giant weights for the top few guys and a struggle for the rest.
3:12 pm
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