The Okeechobee fish factory is back in business! The Bass bite has been very good, whether you are pursuing your favorite game fish with artificial baits or shiner fishing with one of Okeechobee's many talented fishing guides, the catching has been great.
Many different types of bait are drawing strikes, top water baits; skinny dippers and flukes are among the baits that can be worked rather quickly drawing reaction type bites. Casting a top water bait into the many holes in the grass have resulted in some startling strikes lately, although some of the pre-spawn bass will make a vicious pass at the bait without ever touching it, which can be exciting, but disappointing at the same time. If you are a patient methodical angler that likes to flip or pitch heavier cover, try a 10 inch worm or a soft plastic creature bait, they can be the hot ticket. There are many styles and types of flipping baits that can fill the bill; I prefer flipping a large Gambler tube, for the simple reason that I have caught a lot of big bass on a tube over the years. The paca craw, sweet beaver and the brush hog have all accounted for many big bass from Okeechobee as well.
The North end of the lake is producing big numbers of bass for those anglers that are on the lake daily. From Eagle Bay to the Monkey Box, anglers are finding groups of Bass that are willing to bite. On more than one occasion we have seen great numbers of baitfish, particularly small shad in the areas we were fishing. The shad had been steered or pushed by the wind and the current it created into a funnel type area. Fortunately the bass had found the bass too, and were eagerly feeding on the shad, as well as the shiners we were using for bait. We have one particular shiner fishing spot that we have been fishing daily for a month or so that produces bass nearly every time we fish it. Very rarely is the bite the same, some days we catch the very small year class size fish first and eventually may catch some of the bigger bass. The next day we will catch more quality size bass, with most of the bass being larger mature fish. We have been lucky enough to catch several bass over 7 pounds from this spot and two other bass over 8 pounds as well. It will be interesting to see how long this spot continues to produce for our clients. One particular section of this spot seems is an area that the bass are always on or around, from above it looks like open water, but just below the water's surface there is hydrilla and eel grass and the fish are drawn to it.
Captain Michael Shellen
www.OkeechobeeBassFishing.com
www.OkeechobeeBassFishing.blogspot.com
863-357-0892
email: SJMike7@aol.com
