I had the opportunity to fish with two brothers Neal and Evan Capizzano, Evan lives in Port Chester, NY while his brother Neal lives in Stanford, CT.  Both brothers are repeat customers and a blast to be with. We fished to places during this trip, the Florida Everglades and Lake Okeechobee. I sure enjoyed fishing with guys that were so in to the sport, very serious about bass fishing. I thank that they could become good tournament anglers.

Bass fishing is such a unique sport with so many skills to product day in and day out!

Good fishing,

Capt Mark Shepard
marks@bassonline.com

If you are visiting South Florida for work or vacation and want to experience the best fishing that there is to offer then please give us a call. We can be reached @ (888) 629-BASS or by email.

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 Well this is my 4th day with Phillip and its going to be a good day on Lake Okeechobee. Yesterday we discussed all of the options for other locations to fish and explained that there was a tournament on the lake and asked he would be intersted in fishing it with me. He got really excited and almost yelled, yes I would love to!

My game plane was to fish down South where I’ve been catching some good fish first thing in the morning. We missed a few good fish, then Phillip new what to do with another bait of his own, he then caught the next fish it was about 3 pounds… good job Phillip, his first Okeechobee bass. After the bite slowed down we moved to a flipping area that I have but the fish did not bite so we moved to another spot, caught a few more fish to get our limit of just under 14 pounds. First place had 20lbs, Second was 14.8 and third was 14.4 and we came in fourth place that was good for 20 plus boat field.

Phillip was so happy about fishing his first tournament he decided to fish next Sunday tournament also.

 He will be back next week for another 4 day sunrise to sunset trips.

 If you are visiting South or Central Florida for work or vacation and want to experience the best bass fishing that there is to offer then please give us a call. We can be reached at (888) 629-BASS or email me…

 Capt Brett
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  Hello everybody its been awhile, I have been on the road a lot and it sure is good to fish at home. The lake “Okeechobee” that is, is looking great and I am going out on the limb by saying this could be one of the best winters in the last 10 years.

 There is more cover(vegetation) to fish than I have ever remember. The cover is a little different than the past years, there is going to be a lot of adventures this year as we try to follow and locate these big bass…the up side is we should have plenty of water to ourselves.

 Just getting back from New York fishing Lake Champlain on the FLW tour, a beautiful lake good fishing but it’s nice to see Florida largemouth again, there giants here compared to Champlain. Today, I fished with Harry Swauger and his father both are very good fishermen with baitcasters and/or spinning reels, today they were on top of there game. We fished the glades and caught good size fish most of the day. The biggest fish of the day was 9lb largemouth, it sure is good to see how healthy Florida bass are.

 Well, I hate to run, but I have to go to Clarks Hill for the last FLW series tournament of the year. I will be back in about two weeks, I hope to bring some of the cooler weather with me. If we get some cool weather while I am gone that will be the thing to fire these fish up!

Until then good fishing…If you are visiting South or Central Florida for work or vacation and want to experience the best fishing that there is to offer then please give me a call. We can be reached @ (888) 629-BASS or email me below.

Good fishing,

Capt Mark Shepard
marks@bassonline.com
(863) 673-4966 cell
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To all bass anglers, if you considered yourself a “river rat,” you will be happy to know when fishing the north end of Okeechobee you now have the option of using the Kissimmee river again.

The locks at S65E and the new tailwater weir on the Kissimmee River above Lake Okeechobee were opened on Wednesday.

Anglers and boaters can now navigate north and south through the lock and weir during regular operating hours.

Those hours are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays year-round; 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. from March 1 to Oct. 31; and 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28.

Farther north, the section of the river at the north end of the restored river is closed to boats.

For information, call the SFWMD in Okeeechobee at 800-250-4200 and in Orlando at 800-250-4250.

From Staff and Wire Reports
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 Today I had the pleasure of taking out Shawn and Kelly from Ohio out on the Okeechobee . We started out on the South end of the lake in a spot that I’ve been doing good in since the recent storms. So, we can fish in the grass again and Shawn which is a real good fisherman caught on to throwing the frog really good. The frog is a top water bait and all of our fish came off the frog on this day, we had about 20 largemouth bass with several fish over 5 pounds.

Below is a testimonial Shawn &  sent  after there trip!

Shawn and I wanted to let you know we had a wonderful time.  It was Shawn’s dream to fish Lake Okeechobee for years and now I know why.  When Capt Brett took us out he made sure that we did have the trip of a lifetime. It was really exciting seeing the size of these bass on Okeechobee, its just not what we are used to in Ohio. You could not have taken the smile off of our face that day. He is still talking about it and probably will for the rest of his life. We don’t get to vacation much, but he is already planning a trip back. Shawn is in love with the lake and BIG fish…ha ha and thanks to you guys I will get to vacation more often.  I just wanted to let you know you completed a dream for us and we will be back every year. The guide service couldn’t have been any better, honestly it exceeded all of our expectations. Capt Brett is a great guy and fishing guide, he made sure we had an unbelievable time catching big bass. The fishing was just as unbelievable we can’t say enough.

Thanks again and hope to see you soon, again thanks for your wonderful service,

Kelly and Shawn Smith

If you are visiting South or Central Florida for work or vacation and want to experience the best bass fishing that there is to offer then please give us a call. We can be reached at (888) 629-BASS or email us fishing@bassonline.com

Capt Brett
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Three construction teams will beef up repair work at Lake Okeechobee’s aging dike in South Florida.

The Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $29 million contract on Wednesday to Hayward Baker of Maryland. A reinforcing wall is being built through the middle of the earthen dike and a supporting berm will be added around the outside. Two other companies were already approved to start work this month.

The 143-mile, 70-year-old Herbert Hoover Dike protects lakeside communities from flooding.

The companies will shore up the most vulnerable section, a 22-mile stretch between Port Mayaca and Belle Glade.

The project is projected to cost more than $800 million and take until 2030.

Summer storms prompted the corps to start dumping lake water out to sea to ease the strain on the dike.

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 A mere rainstorm isn’t enough to discourage FWC fisheries biologist Don Fox from working in Lake Okeechobee to ensure the lake’s good health. Fox was excited to find this clump of coontail growing on its own in the lake. Coontail is important to nurturing the bottom of the food chain that makes the lake a world-class fishery.

OKEECHOBEE — It used to be nasty, worthless muck inhibiting plants and wildlife at the bottom of the lake; now, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, that same muck is supporting turkeys, turtles, several types of mammals and even a covey of quail.

Don Fox, a commission biologist, said muck dredged from the bottom of Lake Okeechobee to help re-establish the plant life that nurtures the lake’s world-class fishery has been used to build islands, and a variety of plants thriving on the dried-out muck provide food and cover for the animals.

Lawson Snyder, the commission’s deputy director of habitat and species conservation, said the dredging began in 2001 when drought lowered the lake level, was postponed when hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 filled the lake and restarted this summer when the lake was at a record low.

“I won’t say a drought is ever a good thing,” Snyder said, “but it did give us the opportunity to get in and get this work done.”

Since then, Tropical Storm Fay has raised the lake to about 15 feet; but Snyder said the man-made islands in the marshy northwest still rise above the water.

“Even at 16 feet, you can pull up to the islands,” he said.

Snyder said the islands do not contain any of the arsenic-contaminated muck that was scraped from southern Lake Okeechobee and hauled away.

“All of the muck is tested before it’s used,” he said, “and everything in the area of the lake where the islands were made had either no contaminates or levels that were low enough to be acceptable for use.”

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(Sep. 29, 2008 - Okeechobee, FL)… Boater Alex Picos of Davie, Fla., won the Walmart Bass Fishing League Everglades Division Super Tournament on Lake Okeechobee with a two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 38 pounds, 14 ounces. The victory earned Picos $3,560 plus a $628 Ranger bonus.

Picos said he used a shad-colored soft-plastic jerkbait to target bass hugging isolated grass on the main lake.

Rounding out the top five boaters are Brandon McMillan of Belle Glade, Fla. (10 bass, 38-08, $2,095); Rene Gonzales of Lauderhill, Fla. (10 bass, 37-14, $1,396); Steve Fairtrace of Okeechobee, Fla. (10 bass, 36-10, $978) and Bryan Honnerlaw of Moore Haven, Fla. (10 bass, 35-10, $838).

Greg Sorrell of Fort Myers, Fla., took home the Boater Division Snickers Big Bass award, earning $465 for an 8-pound, 8-ounce bass that he caught on a trick worm on an 18-foot ledge.

Raymond Riendeau of Saint Cloud, Fla., earned $2,095 as the co-angler winner thanks to 10 bass weighing 29 pounds, 1 ounce that he caught while fishing a soft plastic frog near isolated grass.

Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Brock Stanaland of Jupiter, Fla. (seven bass, 24-14, $1,047); William Wood of West Palm Beach, Fla. (10 bass, 24-02, $700); Robert Wood of Jupiter (nine bass, 23-11, $489) and Ernie Johnson of Okeechobee, Fla. (nine bass, 22-10, $419).

Stanaland earned $116 as the co-angler Big Bass winner after catching a 5-pound, 3-ounce bass that he caught on a white soft-plastic frog.

It’s so great to see really good catch results on lake Okeechobee once again, the lake is on it way back!

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 Only two months ago at the start of August, Lake Okeechobee was still below the “11 ft above sea level” mark … and at the tail end of its record-setting 511 day streak below that level. The Lake looked like it was rising out of the cellar just like it did in 2001 (when it rose gradually through the summer and crested at 15 ft near the “wet season’s” end in mid November).

That scenario changed when Fay hit and the Lake topped the 15 ft mark by early September in record-setting speed.
Just like that it looked like the Lake “hopped tracks” over into 2004 chart-topping territory.

But those fears were premature … at least for now. Lake stage has crested, and as of yesterday, it officially dropped a notch below 15 ft, down to 14.97.

There are many people with special interest that would like to see the lake reach 16 ft, as anglers, outdoorsmen and true conservationist of the lake. We would love to see the lake stay between 12ft and 14ft, which is also recommended by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.

The self-interest opinions of where the Okeechobee lake level should be are not what we need, very few of those opinions have any real interest in whether the god gifted natural lake comes back to it’s old form as a world class fishery.

While there’s a stir regarding the sell out of U.S. Sugar and the economic impact that area will face, which is a feasible concern. Just maybe we should for once turn our focus to the lake and ask a couple of difficult questions, “what does it need?, what’s best for the lake?, what is the future?”

The lake has taken abuse for many years, while providing a huge economic impact to one of the largest industry in Florida, “fishing.” The Outdoor recreation industry supports more jobs then Disney World and bring some 5 Billion dollars to our states economy, Lake Okeechobee has always been a big part of that number. This alone deserves our attention, respect and continued support of all parties as it is a Worldwide land mark and a gift for our state. “Let’s start treating it like one!”

Capt Todd
todd@bassonline.com
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 Today I went out with Matt Dodge from Orlando, Florida.  Because of the resent success we have had, we decided to head up to the “Big O” Lake Okeechobee . With the recent tropical storm Fay the rains have raised the lake back up over 14 feet.  You can access the grass areas again where the bass really like to feed.

Matt and I decided to throw flapping shads, it’s like a rubber buzz bait. Simply just swimming it threw and across the top of the grass, it would cause explosions on the bait that would scare anyone that wasn’t dead already. It was just incredible, by the end of the day we caught over 40 large-mouth bass up to 6 pounds.

What a great day, it is so good to see the lake back to it’s old standards!

If you are visiting South or Central Florida for work or vacation and want to experience the best bass fishing that there is to offer then please give us a call. We can be reached at (888) 629-BASS or email us fishing@bassonline.com

Capt Brett
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