Lake Okeechobee 11/1/15

SFL BassHunter · November 01, 2015, 03:14:24 PM

Lake Okeechobee 11/1/15

Went out to Lake O with LMG and had a great time. I am very grateful for his hospitality, letting me backseat on his MudPuppy.

It was a rough outing where you just have to grind it out. We started fishing the flats with 0 wind and eventually determined this area was not going to be productive despite my biggest fish of the day. Cast after cast after cast with just 1 sign of life.
It was a far cast between two thin stumps, and after just short time swimming my hand poured chartreuse with black flakes swimbait I got the strike. This bass took her vitamins this morning for sure because she was fighting hard. 2 jumps in the distance had me thinking she was going to be at least 20 inches but I was wrong. As I got her to the boat she surged to the left and as I tried to get leverage to swing her back around and into the boat she side swiped a stump and it seems ended up with a nasty scrape.

We continued fishing the area until we moved to another cut. Matt determined it was time to grind it out and punch some heavy cover. Pulled out my PQ and went to work. Soon we discovered that even punching was going to be tough.
I tried my new Cobra hooks and was very impressed with the sharpness and the bait keeper. After a while I managed to get a bite on some black and blue creature bait. Good hookset and I had the fish. Eventually I hit a snag though, I was unable to force the fish out of the heavy cover. Matt had me keep the pressure on while he swung the boat around to try and wedge into the cover. At this better angle I realized the fish was still hooked and it's head was out of the stuff but I still couldn't pull it out. Decided to climb onto the front deck to get higher and more leverage. From this angle I was able to lift the fish out and put it in the boat. It was a nice size bass. Again I am happy with the hooks.

We continued on and I think Matt may have missed a hookset or two before I got my third hit.

At this point I was hoping the fishing gods would assist Matt in catching a fish. Getting skunked sucks. He was finally able to get one in the boat. Now it was his turn, a bit later he landed his second fish.

Eventually I landed my 4th and final fish of the day.

We both were struggling to continue and Matt called it around 1.

I am happy that I didn't lose any fish. With such a tough outing losing fish would have been devastating.

Capt. BassinLou · November 01, 2015, 03:45:41 PM

Thanks for the report Rick. Sorry you guys couldn't get into them. But at least you guys weren't skunked.

Lipripper · November 01, 2015, 04:30:51 PM

Thanks for the report Rick and glad you and LMG had a good day together. Any day you catch fish is a good day.

LgMouthGambler · November 01, 2015, 05:56:51 PM

Tough day for sure. It was a struggle for me personally in the morning. Lol. Here are some more pics.

And my 2 dinks. Lol

I dont know if it was the tournament that they had yesterday, but it was a slow day for sure. Oh well, it beat working. Lol.

MCS · November 01, 2015, 06:09:29 PM

nice report guys at least u got a few

Lipripper · November 01, 2015, 06:33:11 PM

LMG I would be happy if I caught a couple that size every time I went out fishing.

MCS · November 01, 2015, 07:40:28 PM

LMG's problem was lack of camo, not sneaky enough...Next time don;t show up to work as causual matt when you got a job to do son

SFL BassHunter · November 02, 2015, 05:40:03 AM

Actually sneaky wasn't the factor. Though I didn't have my camo ford hat either. But we didn't start catching fish until LMG started playing some blues/jazz. Seems he woke those lazy fish up. I mean just as soon as the music hit I caught my 2nd while punching. We also didn't catch anything during pandora commercial breaks. Seems the fish didn't care for those.

FLStorm · November 02, 2015, 08:17:14 AM

Good report guys.

Swede · November 02, 2015, 05:11:23 PM

Look at that beautiful green hyacinth - thanks for the reports fellas. You are off and running for Nov bragging rights. Many of us are under pressure to go catch something this weekend to catch up....a little.

Lipripper · November 02, 2015, 05:21:21 PM

Quote from: Swede on November 02, 2015, 05:11:23 PM
Look at that beautiful green hyacinth - thanks for the reports fellas. You are off and running for Nov bragging rights. Many of us are under pressure to go catch something this weekend to catch up....a little.

Just do it swede