Last Casts: A look back at the FLW Tour event on Okeechobee
As Shin Fukae weighed in on days three and four, it was obvious that he had tapped into a different population of fish than most of the competition.
(Editor’s note: Freelance writer and Wal-Mart FLW Tour co-angler Rob Newell will be providing post-tournament wrap-up coverage for every FLW Tour event of the 2006 season in the form of his latest column, “Last Casts.”)
“I knew I should have gone down there!” That’s likely what a lot of the 200 pros who fished at the FLW Tour opener on Okeechobee are saying to themselves this week as news of Shin Fukae’s win in South Bay made its way through the ranks. Whether he intentionally avoided the crowd or, due to the language barrier, just didn’t get the Moonshine memo that stated, “… fish only live in Moonshine Bay,” Fukae managed to avoid the Moonshine Madness and pulled out an impressive win from the south end.
“Where did he get those 3-pounders?” As Shin Fukae weighed in on days three and four, it was obvious that he had tapped into a different population of fish than most of the competition. Whereas Moonshine Bay anglers often compiled limits that included four 14-inch bass and a 6- to 9-pound kicker, each of Fukae’s bass were in the 3- to 4-pound class. Okeechobee expert Mike Surman, who finished 50th, was not surprised. “Okeechobee is so big that it’s like several completely different fisheries in one,” Surman noted. “Up in Moonshine, it’s obvious that a couple of bass year classes are missing in that 3- to 4-pound range. South Bay, however, is just the opposite: It has mostly 2 1/2- to 4 1/2-pound class fish, but the 7-pounders are much rarer.”
Big fish lottery … Surman went on to say that he considers Moonshine Bay to be a big-fish lottery. “You’re just waiting for your number to come up to get a 6-plus-pound bite up there,” he said. “If you can get a big bite for two days in a row (in the top 10), you’ll win in Moonshine. But as it turned out, Harrison, Pace and Jordon all had a big bite one day and not the other, and Shin’s steady 14 pounds per day delivered.”
When life throws you flotsam – fish it! Given the number of boats running through Moonshine Bay during the week, beds of vegetation got mowed down by boat props. The chopped up vegetation floated to the surface and drifted up against the reed clumps, forming new mats by the day. Kelly Jordon actually turned each day’s bumper crop of vegetative flotsam into a pattern. “That fresh-cut stuff would raft up into the reeds and create new mats every day,” he said. “It didn’t take fish long to get in the new stuff. Each day when I returned to my area, I had a bunch of new mats to fish that weren’t there the day before.”
Optional O … Though the fishing areas on the Big O were limited, the fishing options were not. Fish could be caught in a variety of ways, and as a result, many pros’ decks were stacked with heaping piles of rods. “I know at some points in the tournament, I had nine or 10 rods out,” runner-up Chip Harrison said. “And the funny thing was, I felt like I could have caught a fish on any one of them at any given time. Sometimes I’d just pick up a random rod and throw what ever was on it.”
Okeechobee’s Top 5: Amid an armada of boats slinging lures in Moonshine Bay, the top five lures whizzing through the air included these: Chatterbaits (of course), Horny Toads, flipping craws, Zoom Speed Worms and spinnerbaits. The Mann’s Baby Minus 1 took an honorable mention as more than a handful of pros discovered a unique pattern around Moonshine Bay’s dead reed stems on the ultrashallow-running crankbait.
Points watch: Being the first FLW Tour event of the season, how the pros finished is how they currently stand in the points race. 2004 FLW Tour Angler of the Year Shin Fukae is out of the gates on top again. And here are some notable names digging themselves quite a large hole in their championship hopes: Tom Mann Jr. (191), Aaron Martens (181), J.T. Kenney (180), Wesley Strader (170) and Andy Morgan (132).