Just being on this beautiful lake makes you all giddy inside. The breathtaking sunrises and sunsets are so full of color. Looking in the distance over the lake's large expanse of water is like looking over the ocean with no land in sight anywhere. It's abundantly full of life as well as history. Cameron and I, as kids in Tennessee, would frequently talk and dream about trying our skills and techniques out on this wonderful big bass yielding lake.
The challenge of trying to figure them out was quite nice. It was neither too difficult nor too easy. We started out burning big plastic baits across the surface on heavy braid which is one of the typical and best ways to fish Okeechobee but, we didn't get a single bite. So, we knew exactly what to do. We need to go finesse and what better baits are there to fish finesse than a Venom skip shad and salty sling worm. That decision changed everything and the bite was on! We had to slow way down and focus. You couldn't just throw a skip shad out there and reel it across the top and expect to get bit. It was all about the long casts and patient slow twitching retrieves. You know the kind of retrieve I'm talking about; the kind of retrieve that's painfully slow. Another thing we found effective was to drop down from 40 pound braid to 14 pound braid and 12 pound fluorocarbon line. The fish were scattered over most of the areas we worked but every once in a while we would find a sweet spot with anywhere from 5 to 20 or more fish caught. Many of our bass were caught in Uncle Joe's cut and just outside the cut. One key in finding the fish on the main lake was the grass. There seemed to be more fish hanging around the very subtle grass lines we found in about 2.5 ft of water. Also if you're into catching bream and shell crackers they are on bed in the shallow flats and if you know Okeechobee bream they're like bream on steroids! Think how much fun it would be to catch a few of those on fly!
Fishing in the rim canal is good now as well. Our three biggest fish came from the rim. All in all, the trip was very successful and Rick captured some amazing images to help remind us of how blessed we are to be able to experience days like this.
The water is very shallow in the main lake therefore if you're unfamiliar with the lake don't try and run around out there while it's this low or you will definitely break something. The rim canal is even sketchy so stay in the middle if you head out there. My suggestion is to go with someone who knows the lake well for your first few trips just to get familiar with it.
If you like the photo's posted here call photographer Rick Sorenson to help you document your next trip at 305-987-5512.
This blog can also be seen on www.fishexplorer.com
Keep Fishing,
Thadeus Ragan
www.gladesbassin.com
