On the morning of March 18,  I got to spend time with the McDermott family from New York.  We went out  with two bass boats in the  Florida Everglades known for lots of action and it did not let us down!

This Group has been great repeats  since atleast 2005 and they’re always are a blast and a treat to spend time with. We caught over thirty fish on live bait  and Capt. Timmy won the big fish contest with this nice six pound three ounce bucket-mouth bass while fishing in the Florida Everglades. This was a good time for everyone, so good we are fishing Lake Okeechobee with them next week.

Thanks Guys!

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Capt Brett Isackson (bretti@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

  Carl and his son Carl Jr traveling from Texas to go fishing on Lake Okeechobee on August 13, 2009. 

I had the pleasure of fishing with this father and son for a half day on the Big O.  I suggested early, so they arrived at 6:00 am ready to fish.  We headed right out before the sun came up, when we got to my favorite fishing spot on the Big O everything was prefect. Carl was surprised by how big that world famous Lake Okeechobee really is, almost all of our customer are impacted like this. 

 We started the morning throwing top water and Carl senior missed some nice blow ups, but that happens to best of us. When the sun finally came up, we started throwing worms and Carl Jr. was on fire!  He started reel’em in, he put a hurting on his dad, with catching one right after another. At the end of the trip, Jr  had won catching more then dad, but the competition will be back on it March!

Thank you Pohl family  for the good time, we looking forward to seeing you in March once again!

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….
From Staff Writer Capt Brett Isackson (bretti@bassonline.com)
BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

Lake Okeechobee

Today Capt Mark Shepard and I took the day to prefish and reflect on what has changed on the world famous lake over the years.

To reflect, you first have to phantom the size of this lake. It’s second largest body of freshwater in the United States, but only second to the great lakes that covers three states. The lake is an incredible average 9ft deep, the shallow depth we are fishing today on Lake Okeechobee are 2 to 4 feet. Okeechobee known for it’s vast region of spectacular freshwater bass fishing for a variety of reasons and species of fish. The lake unfortunately supports commercial use, which always has a way of being politically attached to most conversations when discussing the life of Okeechobee. While both of us agree, commercial interest have been a part of the long term present conditions of the lake. We both could not argue the point, that the hurricanes changed the lake more then man or industry could do so. The beauty that we both see in front of us today, was clearly created be a power larger and more powerful then we could imagine.

The sport fishing or tournament industry has help this lake become worldly renowned as one of the best fishing lakes in the world. Lake Okeechobee is nationally recognized for not only the quality but the quantity of its large mouth bass. In this outing you could not proved that to us, we both a well aware of the history on Okeechobee. That as famous as it is, fishing is still pure and not all days on the water are about the fish you catch. While we were out fishing today, we tried several patterns, flipping, top-water, plastic worm and Senko style baits of coarse. In the heavy grass, we covered lots of water with spoons, buzz-baits and spinner baits in the grass flats.

We could list many areas where we fished on Lake Okeechobee today, but as any true fisherman knows the big bass live in the water. While bass are comfortably in the there domain they only know of the true good fishing areas. Lake Okeechobee has been talked about a lot in the past few years, and rightfully so. Between Everglades restoration, Big Sugar buy outs and let’s not forget about low water conditions over the years. The media, as Sara Palin found out, does not always write things with there eye’s open. It seems to become a shaded deception of the truth or a partial denial of the facts. In some cases, it’s just a political benefit of someone or something.

Directly from our eyes today, there differently not seeing what we see. To understand the condition, the beauty and character of this lake you must first understand what diversity it has faced, the comebacks it has make and relate to the millions of happy fisherman it has entertained!

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….

From Staff Writer Capt Todd Kersey (todd@bassonline.com) – BassOnline.com / 888-829-BASS

The agenda focused on boating issues, including proposed legislation on statutes related to vessels and vessel registration. Commissioners directed staff to proceed with proposing new regulations concerning anchoring, mooring and local governments’ jurisdiction for the Florida Legislature to consider. Also, Commissioners adopted new rules regarding boating restrictions in Martin and Okeechobee counties, based on a vessel traffic study and requests for revisions from stakeholders and governmental bodies.

Commissioners revoked a final order that permitted the City of Naples to post waterway markers in the Naples Bay area. The FWC granted the permit in March 2007, but an appeals court overturned the decision, requiring the Commission to execute a new final order denying it.

In addition, Commissioners heard staff reports on high water and wildlife issues in the Everglades and reviewed proposed rules to improve Florida’s quota hunt program for sportsmen who will use the state’s wildlife management area system during the 2009-10 hunting seasons. Commissioners directed staff to proceed with the new rules, which will come up for final approval at the February meeting in Destin.

In addition, Commissioners heard an update on a general management plan for the Big Cypress National Preserve Addition and a summary on the recent summit, “Florida’s Wildlife: On the front line of climate change.”

Also during Wednesday’s session, Commissioners voted to proceed with a land swap proposal by the Saddle Creek Corp., City of Lakeland and the state Board of Trustees concerning the FWC-managed Tenoroc Fish Management Area. The proposal involves swapping an FWC-managed 10-acre tract to go to Saddle Creek Corp. in exchange for 40 acres adjacent to state-owned land.

FWC Commissioners selected Rodney Barreto as chairman and Kathy Barco as vice chairman for 2009.

A final public vote on proposed rule amendments for gag and red grouper in Gulf of Mexico state waters was on Thursday’s agenda. Commissioners approved rules to reduce the recreational bag limit for Gulf gag grouper from five fish to two fish daily per person and prohibit the recreational harvest of Gulf gag grouper from Feb. 1 through March 31. This is consistent with gag grouper regulations in Gulf federal waters. The Commission also voted to increase the recreational bag limit for Gulf red grouper from one fish to two fish daily per person.

Other new rule amendments approved by the Commission include increasing the recreational minimum size limit for greater amberjack from 28 to 30 inches fork length and increasing the commercial and recreational minimum size limit for gray triggerfish from 12 to 14 inches fork length in Gulf state waters. These rules are consistent with current regulations in Gulf federal waters.

The new Gulf gag and red grouper, greater amberjack and gray triggerfish rules take effect on Jan. 1.

In other marine fisheries action, the Commission proposed a draft rule amendment that would make the recreational Gulf red snapper fishing season in state waters consistent with federal regulations. The proposed red snapper open season in Gulf state waters would be from June 1 through Sept. 30, if adopted by the Commission at their meeting in February.

Another draft rule amendment proposed by the FWC would end the moratorium on the reduction of lobster trap certificates and provide that the number of trap certificates be reduced by 10 percent to a purchaser only when they are sold or transferred to someone outside the immediate family of the certificate holder.

The Commission also proposed a series of draft rule amendments for the marine life (aquarium species) fishery. The proposed rules would add new fish and invertebrate species to marine life regulations, establish or change size and bag limits and gear specifications for several marine life species, and make other administrative and technical marine life rule changes.

In addition, the FWC proposed a draft rule that would establish six regional closed seasons around the state to the harvest of blue crabs with traps. These closures would extend for up to 10 days each to help identify and retrieve lost and abandoned blue crab traps from Florida waters.

Final public hearings on the proposed red snapper, lobster, marine life and blue crab rules will be held in February.

The full agenda is available online at www.MyFWC.com/commission/2008/Dec08/index.htm.

The next FWC meeting will be Feb. 4-5 in Destin.

Till next time tight lines and good fishing….

From Staff and Wire Reports

BassOnline.com

Lake Okeechobee‘s water level is at 12.52 feet above sea level on Friday. That is over one foot higher than it was before Tropical Storm Fay crossed the lake.

The South Florida Water Management District said at least 6 inches fell on the lake. And it will continue to rise as stormwater run-off from the Kissimmee River flows into the lake.

The SFWMD Web site, www.sfwmd.gov, indicated Okeechobee could rise to 12.80 feet in the next two weeks. That would be a total of about 1.76 feet as a result of Fay.

The lake was 2 1/2 feet below normal even after the 6 inches of rain fell, but a really good level for the lake.

Enjoying a last day off before school starts, kids used dip nets to scoop up catfish that swam into roadside drainage ditches during the storm, said Phillip Black of the Pioneer Estates neighborhood, off County Road 15A. Not far off, Bobby Hays, 11, Dakota Bond, 11, and Danny Hays, 7, rode skim boards in puddles left by Fay. Lake Okeechobee’s water level has risen half a foot, to 11.8 feet above sea level, and is expected to rise as water flows into the lake from the north.“We all are pretty excited,” about the lake level and the forecast for this winters fishing on Lake Okeechobee, said Lake Okeechobee fishing guide Mark Shepard of Clewiston, Florida. “We’ve had not seen the lake look this good in a couple of seasons. We need this, it is exciting.”

Around Lake Okeechobee, residents cleaned up some fallen tree limbs, fired up generators and patched roofs, after Fay walloped the north and west sides of the big lake as it crossed Florida. Among the highest damage estimates around the lake was on the east side, in Pahokee, where roof damage to city hall and sewer system damage clocked in at $1.5 million.

Flooding forced the closing of State Road 29 between Palmdale and LaBelle. A detour routed motorists around flooded lanes Wednesday along a short section of U.S. 27 south of Palmdale.

Even though water has been flowing hard through the Kissimmee River, weirs and other water-control structures in the river were not damaged by Fay, said Randy Smith, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District.

No problems with the Herbert Hoover Dike, with flood-control structures around the lake or with lake navigation were found following inspections Wednesday, said Steve Dunham, chief of the South Florida office for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Clewiston.

From Staff and Wire Reports
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