The power to replenish
Big O’s bass factory will be tested today
CLEWISTON, Fla. – One of the phenomenons unique to Lake Okeechobee which makes it such a magical place to fish is the way bass funnel into specific areas by the hundreds during the spawn.
On sudden warming trends, like the one going on right now at the Walmart FLW Series BP Eastern event, Okeechobee’s main lake is like a bass factory that stamps out bass and delivers them to the shoreline on a conveyor belt.
Like a bevy of bluegill which congregate together to spawn, Florida strain bass seem to have this same tendency to make multiple beds in small areas.
As an example, at least five pros in this event: David Dudley, Mike Surman, Clark Wendlandt, Ray Scheide and Koby Krieger are all fishing the same bedding area. All five are in the top 20 and collectively they have pulled 95 pounds of bass from one of those special places where bass keep herding in off the main lake to spawn.
BP pro Ray Scheide, who won an FLW Tour event on Lake Okeechobee in 2004, has a theory on why these bass keep coming to the same areas day after day and year after year.
“I’ve been coming down here for five or six years now and what you notice over time is that so much of Lake Okeechobee’s bottom is made up of a silty muck,” Scheide reasoned. “But there are small places where the bottom is made up of good hard sand. And when you have so many bass looking to spawn at the same time, they have to crowd into these small areas with a suitable bottom to build beds.”
“When you spend a lot of time in one of these areas and get tuned into to it, you can literally experience the fish coming in in waves on these warming trends,” he continued. “Usually when you first get to an area in the morning, the fishing is good and I figure those are fish that moved up over night. Then, from about mid-morning to early afternoon there is a definite lull in the action. Then sometime late in the afternoon the bite picks up strong again and I believe that’s a whole new wave of fish moving in.”
But how long can this last? Does Okeechobee still have the power to replenish? That’s the $100,000 question this week.
In years past, these type areas on Okeechobee could support intense fishing pressure for days on end while bass replenished the shallows. Some, however, believe Okeechobee does not currently have the shear numbers of bass in it and that such replenishment will not be as strong in this event.
Today’s weigh-in will tell the tale as all of these pros plan on returning to the same bedding area they fished yesterday. The continued warm weather should keep bringing new bass up into the toasty shallows for the pros to pluck.
The day two weigh-in of the FLW Series BP Eastern will begin Thursday at 3 p.m. at Roland & Mary Ann Martins Marina & Resort located at 920 E. Del Monte Ave. in Clewiston.
Wednesday’s conditions
Sunrise: 7:10 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 65 degrees
Expected high temperature: 79 degrees
Water temperature: 65-70 degrees
Wind: S at 10 to 20 mph
Day’s outlook: sunny and warm