Stepping into a new day

Surprises in store for some competitors on day two

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. – The great thing about Lake Okeechobee is you never know when a 7- or 8-pound bass is going to turn your life around.

Let’s say you’re plodding along with an average 10-pound limit in the livewell – the same exact weight you had the first day – which left you in a meager 70th place after day one.

Then you look down, and out of nowhere, a giant Big O lunker has locked on a bed right in front of you. One pitch, a couple of twitches, the fish rolls up, inhales your lure, the fight is on and in one cast you’re up to 17 pounds.

The charge you get from puts you on a whole new playing field. You begin to see the water differently. You know where to make your next cast before your brain does. Another 4-pounder culls you up again.

At the weigh-in you get a pleasant surprise when your “just keepers” are a little plumper than you thought and the digital readout on the scales passes the 20-pound mark.



A single pitch turned you from an also-ran in the middle of the pack to a contender for the top five.

That very scenario is going to happen to several people fishing day two of the FLW Series event on Lake Okeechobee today.

Yesterday several pros noted that there are not near as many fish biting as there should be.

This morning second place pro Anthony Gagliardi reiterated that notion by saying, “Yesterday, once the sun got up and I saw how many fish I had fished over during the low light morning hours, I was shocked. I’m telling you, they’re just not biting. If they were, I would have caught a lot more numbers of fish yesterday.”

A lot of pros who weighed in 10 pounds yesterday are actually fishing in places where 20-pound limits are within a cast of their boat. If the big fish in their area suddenly decide to bite some real surprises could happen.

The day-two weigh-in will begin at 3 p.m. at C. Scott Driver Park.

Thursday’s conditions

Sunrise: 7:12 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 50 degrees

Expected high temperature: 75 degrees

Water temperature: 65 degrees

Wind: NE 5 to 10

Day’s outlook: sunny and warming