Big O Problems

[marlon crowder]

It’s kind of funny how Lake Okeechobee is the best Tournament lake in the state right now. In spite of FWC miss management. I am not defending FWC in any way but I have been hearing the lake is dead ever since they killed every blade of hydrilla in harny pond. yet the lake continues to put out some of the best tournament weights in the state

[Gamblerman65]

Year round or just in the bedding season?

[Bandwagon]

I took a look at the weights and of the 219 anglers from the recent open only a handful really caught any weight. For a lake that big it should produce. Lack of habitat will eventually catch up to the anglers. Look at the bottom 100 guys....

[Mickstix]

Scott Martin said the reason for his recent record weight and tx win was due to the lake only having x acres (can't remember the actual amount) of preferred water (depth, clarity, vegetation) for the fish to spawn in. Said it was a parking lot of boats.

Lake is massive and only has a tiny area (left) where they prefer to spawn is sad. And they'll probably rush in and spray some more where the spawn happened, since the anglers showed them where it was.

[Aj14]

Scott Martin said the reason for his recent record weight and tx win was due to the lake only having x acres (can't remember the actual amount) of preferred water (depth, clarity, vegetation) for the fish to spawn in. Said it was a parking lot of boats.

Lake is massive and only has a tiny area (left) where they prefer to spawn is sad. And they'll probably rush in and spray some more where the spawn happened, since the anglers showed them where it was.

5 acres

[Rick H]

Year after year I keep thinking this BS has got to get better. I thought maybe with Johnny Morris building on the lake could help.

It really seems that they "Florida" would prefer to turn the Big O into the largest Dead Sea in the US!

Can we get Texas to take over management of the Big O?

[marlon crowder]

I took a look at the weights and of the 219 anglers from the recent open only a handful really caught any weight. For a lake that big it should produce. Lack of habitat will eventually catch up to the anglers. Look at the bottom 100 guys....

It has been roughly 10 years since FWC started its hydrilla eradication program on Lake Okeechobee. I would think that you would have seen some substantial reduction in tournament weights by now? Last year they had a tournament in May they had 20 bags 30 pounds or more and that went on for a couple weeks! Is the lake in rough shape? Maybe? I am no expert, but no one can argue with the tournament results. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the fish. I mean what is the argument here? That the only reason the lake looks good “on paper “is because the fish are concentrated because those areas are the only areas habitable by bass? Well I can tell you one thing the areas they catch them in down there don’t have any hydrilla or eel grass. And one of the areas is a literal mud hole. I say all this to say that the fish are not reflecting all the hysteria that the anglers are propagating. Is spraying hydrilla bad? In my opinion the answer is yes. Is the water too high? In my opinion the answer is yes. But all this is temporary we had an extremely wet winter and they were forced to hold the water. In my opinion they should be releasing water slowly instead of dumping billions of gallons of fresh water into or coastal estuaries which intern kills all grass on the coast. The whole system seems to be miss managed.

[Bandwagon]

It has been roughly 10 years since FWC started its hydrilla eradication program on Lake Okeechobee. I would think that you would have seen some substantial reduction in tournament weights by now? Last year they had a tournament in May they had 20 bags 30 pounds or more and that went on for a couple weeks! Is the lake in rough shape? Maybe? I am no expert, but no one can argue with the tournament results. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the fish. I mean what is the argument here? That the only reason the lake looks good “on paper “is because the fish are concentrated because those areas are the only areas habitable by bass? Well I can tell you one thing the areas they catch them in down there don’t have any hydrilla or eel grass. And one of the areas is a literal mud hole. I say all this to say that the fish are not reflecting all the hysteria that the anglers are propagating. Is spraying hydrilla bad? In my opinion the answer is yes. Is the water too high? In my opinion the answer is yes. But all this is temporary we had an extremely wet winter and they were forced to hold the water. In my opinion they should be releasing water slowly instead of dumping billions of gallons of fresh water into or coastal estuaries which intern kills all grass on the coast. The whole system seems to be miss managed.

Big bags for a couple weeks does not constitute a healthy lake in my opinion. For example, look at St Clair during the summer and see how many guys come in without a limit or anything less that 15Lbs. A couple of guys will always figure something out but what speaks volume is the bottom half of the field. 20lbs had you out of the cut line on St Clair this past summer. Okeechobee looks terrible on paper in my opinion. The percentage of guys putting anything together is very small. When a lake is suffering the guys in the top 10 are the last ones impacted.

[marlon crowder]

I agree big bags for a couple of weeks do not constitute an example of a healthy lake. This is just one extreme example of how well the lake can fish at times. Okeechobee produces more 30 pound bags than any tournament lake in the state for over a decade, the 3 day record for heaviest weight was just set on Okeechobee the next week 33 pounds won an ABA event and 4th place was 29 pounds. The following day a team event was won with 27 pounds the locals are catching them just fine. Look at the weights from the BASS elite last year and on and on….. I am not sure if you have ever fished a tournament in Florida but there is a saying down here that if you aren’t around the boats you probably aren’t around the fish meaning these giant lakes fish small and they always have I have been fishing tournaments for 20 plus years and I can tell you that is very true to some extent. And it goes without saying that the bottom 2/3 of any tournament are not catching fish and you can’t compare a small mouth tournament on St Clair to a large mouth tournament in Florida. Firstly small mouth are only pressured for a small portion of the year and Fl bass get hammered day in and day out 365. On top of that small mouth are about the dumbest SOBs ever fished for and yes I have been small mouth fishing before and it’s night and day compared the fishing for Fl bass. I fished a Toyota last year and my co was complaining about how FL sucks and how every Co angler on Champlain will have a limit, I was trying to explain that the fishing is not easy in FL and most of the time we down here are only fishing for 5 bites.

[marlon crowder]

One more thing I will add, having experienced fishing up north for small mouth. The fishing down here absolutely sucks by comparison. You guys up north have it easy those fish straight up bite. Down here not so much

[Bandwagon]

1. Small mouth fishing up north takes place from roughly April to December, fish up here get pressure, lots of it. All those guys you see in the parking lots, guess where they are all summer and fall.
2. Small mouth are not "dumb fish" I winter in Florida and tournament fish and could say the same things about "stupid largemouth". Heck I caught 20-25 per day every day over the past 3 days.

[marlon crowder]

Jacob wheeler has a video of him catching small mouth on a baby’s pacifier. You should try that the next time you are on one of your 25 fish days down here

[Bandwagon]

I caught a fish this week after the bait was just hanging over the side of the boat. Try that the next time you are up north.

[cg2fish]

I’ve fished up north and found fishing easier. If smallmouth are there they bite. Not so with largemouth.

[enforcer410]

I find it amusing that everyone says the hurricanes and spraying are the problem, but no one ever mentions all the bed fishing that takes place. I think the tourney fisherman play a role in this problem. And for the record i think Florida has ****ed the lake with poor management , including spraying and water levels.

[Rick H]

Thats true too but the combination of all of the above amplifies the problem.

[Fishshooter]

Just got back from a week at Okeechobee. Talked with a guy doing creel survey at Harney Pond Canal ramps. He told me they are targeting hyacinths. I didn't see any hyacinths on main lake areas I fished from Kissimmee River down to South Bay. Seen obvious signs that rim canal has been sprayed everywhere I went. Dead vegetation had floated & blocked the main bridge opening by Slims Fish Camp. Found 4 spray boat trailers back in Dyes Ditch. Spent most of a day near Buckhead Ridge water tower & the cell tower & seen 5 spray boats in area & saw 3 spraying same area about 1/2 hour apart. Left & came back & could smell spot we were fishing had been freshly sprayed, probably because there was some pennywart nearby. Monkeybox is non existent. Dollar pads where they were are scattered at best. Now have acres of pad roots floating & exposed. Pelican Bay pad fields virtually gone. Hayfields at South Bay gone. Tinhouse Cove basically gone. Only seen some patches of Kissimmee grass. Hard to believe this lake has changed so drastically since I first went there 10 years ago. My best day was 16-17 lbs best 5. Another from my group had 2 30 lb days. Lake is definatly in trouble. Just don't understand why they need to keep spraying. Hope somehow it can be stopped.

[Rick H]

Contract is still enforce its all about the cash and nothing else.

[Bjxds]

WOW, Everyone has their opinion. This argument has been going on longer than the FFS Debates. Someone will always catch fish and the pros catch more/bigger fish than most of us, because they are pros……

I am surprised there has not been any data released based on overall weights for say the last 10 years. I know the major tournament series have that data.

[merc106]

Wow! We are not talking about weights per sack! What we are talking about is amount of fish caught on an average day. Even the pros say the lake is in trouble. Yes they are still catching good sacks truthfully in my opinion due to technology but again good sacks is nothing new. And no, some of these opinions are facts!!