Big O to fish small

‘Bent-rod pattern’ to prevail at EverStart Series season opener

CLEWISTON, Fla. – Pro anglers call it “fishing small” when a large lake is reduced to small patches of fishable water due to adverse conditions. That is exactly what is happening this week at the $262,000 EverStart Series Southeast Division opener on Lake Okeechobee.

“The Big O has become the Little O,” said FLW Tour pro Koby Kreiger, who now resides near the town of Okeechobee, Fla. “The lake was fishing pretty good this fall after the hurricanes, but during Christmas we had a lot of cold, windy weather and it really muddied the whole thing up. I’d estimate that 70 to 80 percent of the lake is unfishable because of mud.”

This is the complete opposite of last January’s Lake Okeechobee when ample vegetation and clear water made a majority of the lake’s perimeter fishable.

“Last year, it was wide open,” Kreiger continued. “You could fish anywhere and anyway you wanted and never see another boat. Now the clear water is only in certain predictable areas and boats are all wadded up in those places.”

“The bent-rod pattern has returned to Okeechobee,” Kreiger chuckled. “Everybody is out there fishing within casting distance of each other and when you catch one, they all come your way.”

Kreiger confirmed that most of the vegetation along the lake’s east side is gone.

Also, Bay Bottom is now bare.

“In the BASS Open a couple of months ago, there were still some reeds down that way,” he said. “But now you can see straight across from Winnie’s Cove to House Boat Cut.”

There is still vegetation around the Monkey Box area, but it thins out coming down the West Wall. Even looking out from the Clewiston Lock, the Big O looks bald.

Clearing possible

Thinning vegetation, higher water and heavy winds have all contributed to the biggest obstacle: finding clearer water.

“Last year, if the water visibility was a foot, we called it muddy water; this year, if you find a foot of visibility, it’s called clear water,” Kreiger said. “Even when you find clearer water, it’s still that dark black color.”

What all 200 pros and 200 co-anglers do have in their favor this week is excellent weather. The forecast is calling for highs in the low 80s and lows in the 60s into the weekend.

The stable weather should bring clearing conditions to new areas of the lake, which is exactly how BFGoodrich Tires pro Chad Grigsby of Colon, Mich., sees the event being won.

“You want to find one of those places that is just starting clear today, but has been written off by everybody as being too muddy during practice,” he revealed. “It’s like trying to find a clear-water window that’s just starting to open.”

With water temperatures warming into the upper 60s and a new moon on the way, both Grigsby and Kreiger believe that some big fish will be brought to the scales over the next several days.

“The big females are fat and ready to spawn,” Kreiger added. “It should be a heck of a big fish show.”

The day-one weigh-in begins at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Roland and Mary Ann Martin’s Marina.

Wednesday’s conditions

Sunrise: 6:55 a.m.

Air temperature: 71 degrees

Water temperature: 62 degrees

Wind: from the east at 13 mph

Day’s outlook: partly cloudy, high of 82, wind from the east-southeast at 10 to 15 mph