My first experience with Okeechobee...

Joe and I arrived and checked into the motel somewhere around 4:30am on
Wednesday. All I wanted to do was hit the bed and get some sleep. Jerry
Barton called about an hour later wanting us to join them for breakfast, but
the Krystal hamburgers were still eating away at my stomach, and sleep was
all I could think about, so I turned him down.

My first trip out to the lake later that morning was the first time I had
actually seen the main body of the lake, and Joe, Kevin and I went searching
for our first Okeechobee largemouth. The water in the river channel was
about 13 foot deep. "That wasn't bad at all", I was telling myself until the
moment we hit the lake. Only had about 6' showing on my finder, but I
pressed on anyway. I knew the lake was shallow, so it wasn't until I looked
down to see 1.5 flashing on my finder that I panicked and came off plane. I
was sure by the sound that the lower unit made as it scraped across the
bottom of the lake that I had just killed my prop. I shut down the motor,
trimmed it up, and all was well minus a few little scratches and some
missing paint. If I were on any lake here in Tennessee and repeated this,
I'd probably be missing the entire lower unit. The motor started back up and
we eased towards the deeper water again and motored to an island that Joe
had fished late last year. I was amazed by the grass, weeds, muck, and
whatever else was growing, but was also pleased that it wasn't quite as
nasty as Boom Lake, in Wisconsin.

We started fishing plastics, as advised by Moe and was just getting a good
feel for the lake. I, of course, was texas-rigging a plastic worm while Joe
was using this ugly colored fluke type bait known to him as the Electric
Chicken. He offered each of us one of them, but I politely refused. Not long
afterward, I think he switched colors because he had his first Florida bass
headed to the boat. Not knowing what size this fish was, and expecting all
of them to be monsters, I sat my rod down on the boat and went for the net.
We had successfully put the first fish into the boat!

While helping Joe, I forgot about my rod. But, when I returned back to it,
my line was moving toward the right. I picked it up, set the hook and had my
first Okee bass as well! Neither were monsters, but were both prettier than
the bass we have here in Tennessee. We decided to pack it back up, load the
boat, and meet up with a few of the others for lunch. I took it pretty easy
going back to make sure that I stayed in the boat lanes and keep my prop.

There was a restraunt across the street from the hotel that everyone had
gathered, and I have got to say that I'm glad to have taken the advice of
others and ordered the Okee-Burger. That was one huge burger and served on
Pita bread instead of hamburger buns. I almost couldn't eat the whole thing,
but forced myself into it. Joe suggested we head east to the rim canal after
we ate, and that sounded good to me.

Randy joined us for this trip and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.
This is where most of our video was taped and the word of the week was
formed. "Garrrr"! There were plenty of them, as well as alligators in the
rim canal. I didn't care, just glad the there was deeper water.

We caught bass there on Watermelon/Red flake Trick Worms, as well as Flukes
in the same color. My largest bass came from this canal that measured 22" on
Joe's tourny board. I can't wait to see the pictures of that fish! We were
suppose to meet back up with Moe and the rest of the gang at 5pm for chicken
at the Baptist Church, but decided to skip that meal for these fish. We were
all still stuffed from the Okee Burgers anyway.

We fished until just about dark, then packed it in and headed back for the
hotel. I had already had the best day of the year, and there were three more
days ahead of me. I couldn't wait until Thursday, when Moe was going to take
us to his honey-hole.

I want to say, that a good GPS is highly recommended on this lake! It has
been some of the best money that I have spent in a long time. Since I am
here at work... suppose to be working, I'll post Thursdays adventure later
tonight.

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