December 20th, 2013, it’s 2:00pm and we are off! My Boyfriend Logan and I started our winter vacation by hooking up the Lund and hauling it to Clewiston, Florida to fish on Lake Okeechobee. It’s always been a dream of mine to fish “The Big O” and I couldn’t wait to check it off my bucket list.
We were both really excited about driving through the US and being able to see Lake Barkley, Chickamauga, Nickajack, Guntersville and some of the other big bass lakes we always see on TV. About 33 more hours and we would be arriving in sunny Florida…or so we thought.
The drive down south was awful. It started with -30 degree temperatures and once we made it to South Dakota the weather turned on us. It rained until we crossed the Florida border…two days later! It wasn’t just rain either, it was a downpour with little to no visibility and there were even reports of flash flooding. Driving on the large interstates while hauling a boat is scary enough under regular circumstances but with the weather we had to drive through it made it almost impossible. Quite a few roads were closed down shortly after we passed through. We tried to stay ahead of the storm as best as we could. Luckily Logan is a great driver, we made it to Florida incident-free and it took us around 40 hours of driving time to do it. Along the way we stopped in Nashville, TN for a few hours of rest and stayed in a hotel. Within twenty minutes of us being there, tornado warning sirens began going off and kept going off all night. We watched through our window at the wind that was so strong, it was about to rip the tarp off of the boat. Luckily no tornado’s touched down (that we heard of) and after approximately three hours of sleep, we were back on the road. Once we finally crossed the Florida border it was 26 degrees, warm and sunny.
Before we stopped at Lake Okeechobee we spent three days in Cape Coral, Florida with Logan’s family for Christmas. Our first full day was December 23rd and we spent it on the water, touring around and exploring islands. His family took us out on their boat through the canals and on the Caloosahatchee River, close to the Gulf of Mexico. On December 25th we went back out on the boat, this time equipped with salt-water fishing licenses, ready to try our luck fishing in the Gulf!
At our first spot we anchored and we noticed there was a dolphin swimming around the boat in circles about ten feet away. I’ve never seen a wild dolphin up close before so it was really exciting for me. Within about ten minutes Logan had the first fish of the day on…but it turned out to be a lobster. He didn’t even let go of the bait he just hung on to it until we pulled him off.
Fishing for saltwater species is really neat; you never know what is going to be on the end of your line. In the few hours we fished we landed Snook, Sheepshead, Grouper, Snapper and a few fish that we really still aren’t sure what exactly they were.
On December 26th we were up bright and early and on the road to Clewiston. We were both as excited as a little kid would be on Christmas morning. We arrived at Lake Okeechobee and instead of unpacking or checking into our condo we drove straight to the boat launch, put the boat in, and fished until dark. It sure was different than fishing up here in Canada. Everywhere I looked there were birds of all different species. I felt like I was in a nature sanctuary, there really isn’t one place on Okeechobee that you can look around and not see a bird. On the first day we saw a huge snake swimming across one of the cuts. I wouldn’t let Logan get too close because it stopped and stuck his head out at us in attack-mode, but I zoomed in with the camera from a distance and got a few nice pictures. The main thing I wanted to see (besides a 10lb Bass of course) was a gator over ten feet. On the second last day after seeing many gators we finally saw one so big, it had to be about 13 feet long. We were able to get within about 20 feet of him slowly with the boat…they really aren’t exciting to watch on land, they sit there in one spot and don’t move much. Even so, I have to say it was neat to be that close to a true predator. When Logan and I were flippin’ mats we could see them pop up once and while to try to snack on the birds that run on top of the mats and lily pads.
The first two days of fishing we landed quite a few Largemouths, but none of the big ones that we hoped for. The third day we drove to a smaller lake nearby and the first fish of the day was a Northern Pike! We couldn’t believe the lakes that far south have them too, we were not expecting that. We didn’t catch enough Bass that day to want to return so we made our way back to the Marina on Okeechobee and spent our last four days fishing there. That evening we unhooked the boat and headed east to West Palm Beach. Seeing as it was only about an hour away we thought it would be nice to take a drive there and have dinner. We ended up driving down a fancy street covered in lights and lined with extremely nice cars on both sides of us…here we are in a pickup truck with a back-rack driving by Rolls-Royce’s and a Lamborghini! We turned a few heads, especially having the Manitoba license plate too. We had dinner at a place on the water, overlooking the docks where there had to be over fifty large yachts. It was a beautiful, fun place to visit.
The next day it was back to the grind on Okeechobee. We were using heavy & extra heavy, fast-action rods. My flippin’ stick was a 7’6” RType extra heavy, extra fast action rod with 80lb Sufix braid and a 1oz jig paired with a soft plastic creature bait. About halfway through the trip I switched presentations to a soft plastic creature bait texas-rigged with a 1.5oz bullet weight to punch through the heavy mats and cover. This is what Logan had tied on for himself and when he started landing twice as many fish as me, it didn’t take long for me to switch to his technique. I had to adjust quickly to keep up. The other rod I setup was a 7’2” RType medium-heavy, extra fast action rod with 30lb Sufix braid which I used to cast swimbaits and spinnerbaits. Both methods of casting and flipping worked well for us over the entire week. When we found an area that was holding fish we would put the Minn Kota Talon down, cast around the boat in every direction and then proceed to flip mats and reed edges, if any.
I learned quickly how important it was to be able to get those bass up on top of the weeds and in the boat as fast as possible. I lost a few really nice fish, they went down into the weeds where the hook would get hung up and the fish would get away. I always watch the anglers on TV and they make it look much easier than it really is. On the last five days I started to get the hang of it and started to land more fish than I lost. My advice for anyone fishing Okeechobee for the first time would be to make sure you use high-quality baitcasters, heavy braid and no less than a 7’2” rod with extra-heavy power.
Over the last three days the fishing was awesome. One day we managed to get over forty Largemouth Bass, and that’s not including the ones we lost. The biggest fish of the trip was over six pounds. I caught it while casting a swimbait along a weed edge. This is my personal best Largemouth to-date, it’s going to be hard to improve on that up here in Canada but I am always ready for the challenge. Quite a few four and five pound fish made it in the boat throughout the week, it was great. Next time we go back to Okeechobee we are going to try to fish for ten or more days. You always need a few days to experiment and locate areas that are holding fish. We wished we could have stayed longer our goal was to catch one over eight pounds and we didn’t make it. We ended up seeing a few fish over eight but we couldn’t get them to commit. I guess we will just have to go back next year!
After a day of fishing, on January 1, we started our journey home. This time it was mostly sunny so we were able to see all the different rivers, lakes and landscapes along the way. We drove through Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota & North Dakota. Along the way we stopped again in Nashville, but this time it was to visit the Bass Pro Shops near the Grand Ole Opry. This was our third visit to a Bass Pro over the holiday, and hopefully won’t be our last, that store is amazing. Anyone who loves to hunt or fish would really like it in there. Anyone thinking about going on a road trip or flying down to fish Okeechobee should not hesitate, it’s a fishing trip of a lifetime and I can’t wait to go back one day. It was a trip we won’t soon forget!