CLEWISTON, Fla. — Things kick off for the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats next week on Lake Okeechobee for what should be a fantastic season opener. This year, the Southern Division starts at the Big O, then hits the Kissimmee Chain in March for what should be a banger and finishes up at Lake Seminole.
In Toyota Series events, pros compete for up to $100,000 depending on contingencies and field size, and the winner of Angler of the Year takes home $5,000. Additionally, the Top 25 pros and co-anglers qualify for the Toyota Series Championship in the fall, which pays up to $235,000 to the winning pro, plus a REDCREST berth.
With the season starting soon, there is still room on both the pro and co-angler sides of the field, with a short waitlist of co-anglers. Pros entering will be confirmed to fish right away.
What to expect
Winter in Okeechobee is a refuge from the rest of the country, but the fishing still reflects the weather to a degree. According to Christian Greico, the event should be good if there is good weather.
“The lake is fishing good, but it’s really weather-dependent right now,” Greico said. “If it warms up, the bite will be really good. If it gets cold, it can get pretty tough. It really just depends on how the weather plays out over the next week.”
Greico said he expects competitors to rely on a familiar Okeechobee playbook – with a few modern twists.
“It should be a lot of the typical Okeechobee stuff – flipping, throwing ChatterBaits and popping frogs,” Greico said. “But we’ve got the added factor of getting up into some of the canals and LiveScoping with forward-facing sonar. That’ll be a big player, especially if conditions get tougher.”
If the main lake of Okeechobee is firing, with warm weather and fish eating and moving in the shallows, it’s hard to beat with canal fish. And, even if the canal bite is the move, pros will only be able to really take full advantage of it for three hours at a time, with at least some traditional Florida fishing in the mix by rule.
Baits to bring
For Florida in the winter, the staples are pretty well known. A frog, a ChatterBait, worms and something to flip will take care of the bulk of the action. In the canals, jerkbaits, glide baits and minnows will get play, along with Neko rigs and other finesse rigs.
What will it take?
Last winter, Robert Branagh won the Toyota Series event at Okeechobee with 73 pounds, 1 ounce, dropping 32-2 on Day 1 and riding it out. Steve Lopez finished second with 65-8, and the odds are good that something in the ballpark of 70 pounds will win the event, though Florida kickers and weather conditions put a lot of leeway into any weight prediction.