Prefishing the SC on Okee

I arrived in Florida Monday afternoon and went straight to the Pier 2 to meet
up with Jerry. We had talked by phone as I was driving down and I knew he had
arrived that morning. I told him I was going to my dad's for the evening but I
would be heading out to Doc's first thing Tuesday to pick up my boat and Doc
and I would spend part of the day on the water if he wanted to join us. Jerry
agreed to go and I picked him up early as Doc lives a ways out from Okeechobee.
After getting the boat and Doc, we finally hit the water around 9:30 am. Not
having fished the lake for the past 6 months, I decided to try several areas
that normally produce fish this time of year. The first area we started in is
called the Pass and is a weed filled flat full of eel grass, hydrilla, pepper
grass and bulrush. The water level was down to 14 foot above sea level and the
grass was right on top. This made fishing the area tough and open areas were
hard to find. We did manage 2 small fish from the area and Doc lost a good one
but I knew this would be almost impossible for some of the guys to fish. We
left the area and ran to Tin House Cove about 10 minutes west of where we were.
Once there, the bite was on. It was now around 11 am and each of us were
catching fish to 2 1/2 pounds. No big fish but lots of tournament keepers. We
figured we had boated 20 bass or so by the time we had to leave around 2:30.
Jerry had to drive to Orlando to pick up Shawn and his buddy Drew. So in 5
hours we had between 20 and 25 bass, mostly keepers and all on soft plastics. I
believe Doc's big bass he missed had blown up on one of Rich Z's salad spoons
he left with Doc. Back at the motel, we found several of the guys had arrived
and I told Harry and his brother Michael that they could come out with me the
next day.

Wednesday morning arrived and it was a beautiful day. We launched at Okee-Tanie
and ran to Eagle Bay Island to see what the fish were doing there. My how
things can change on the lake in 6 months. I finally found a boat trail and
worked my way inside. Steve had followed in his boat and stayed on the edges to
check that area. After about an hour and 2 dinks, we picked up and made a run
to the East side of the lake between Henry Creek and the J&S locks. This is a
spawning area and once the fish spawn, the don't go far from the beds here as
there is really no place but open water for them to go. We worked our way
through the boat trails and made a few new trails of our own until we got to
the pencil weed and bull rush areas I wanted to work. I was throwing a June bug
colored Trick worm, Michael was using a Senko and Harry a little of everything.
We began to stick fish after fish, most were solid keeper fish but still no big
fish. Then Harry had a 5+ nose his fluke, sure enough, she was bedding and
twice we say her push the fluke away with her nose but she never took the bait
in the mouth. Then I had a big one grab the trick worm by the tail and move it.
While we never stuck a big fish, I knew they were here. Michael, who's best day
of bass fishing was 4 bass, beat his record and boated 5 nice fish. By the time
we called it a day and went back to the ramp, another 30 bass had made there
way to the boat to be released. The best was around 3 pounds and the majority
were good keeper fish. Steve and his party had also taken some good fish on
spinner baits and flukes.

Thursday I was taking Shawn and Drew out in the morning. We launched at the
motel so I could get back in by noon and get ready for the nights drawings and
get together. We locked into the lake and again ran to the Henry Creek area.
About the 3rd cast with the Trick worm, I stuck a nice fish. She picked up the
worm and just moved sideways through the grass, I knew I had some slack on the
hook set and prayed I had enough hook in her to hold. The fish wrapped in the
pencil weed and I trolled over to lip her. As I grabbed her by the lower jaw,
the hook fell out. I lifted her into the boat as Shawn's jaw dropped. The scale
read 7.10 , that was the kind of fish we were looking for. We put the fish in
the live well so we could take pictures back at the dock. I put my pole away
and told Shaw and Drew that it was up to them, I didn't need to stick any more
fish in the area as I knew now that both good limits and big fish were
available. Plus, I wanted both Shawn and Drew to have a shot at a nice fish.
Drew missed a monster fish with a spinner bait and then stuck a beauty, 6.65 on
the scales. Into the livewell she went for pictures too. Shawn, not to be left
out boated a solid 4 pounder. That was 3 fish over 17 pounds total -- not bad.
The boys had a good morning laughing and joking and of course boating fish. We
went back to the ramp at 1 to meet up for lunch with the others and get ready
for the tournament. I had a good starting point and everyone appeared to be on
fish.

I will post the tournament days in a different post.
--
The most precious thing we have is life, yet it has absolutely no
trade-in value.
Good Fishing - Moe
Moe's Guide Service (Lake Okeechobee) - http://moebassguide.com
Outdoor Frontiers http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com/index