Thursday, January 10, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
The best water I’ve seen so far is in South Bay. It was clear, with a mix of eelgrass, hydrilla, and cattails. I went back there today to see if we couldn’t finally coax a fish into biting. We went out around 10:00, when the frost had melted off the boat seats, and stayed out until 2, and for four hours we wandered the myriad of trails through the cattails but never had one bite. By mid-day the weather had warmed to 70 degrees and the water got up to 55. The weather reporter says this is the end of the cold snap, but the fish haven’t figured that out yet. We’ve now been here at Lake Okeechobee for four days, and I have yet to catch my first fish.
We checked the EverStart results on the Internet tonight. They did worse today than they did yesterday. It took only 10 1/2 pounds over two days to make the Top 20 cut on the pro side, and less than four pounds on the amateur side.
So far this week, we’ve been going out late and coming in early. In case it sounds like I’m not working hard, that’s true. The FLW tournament is still two weeks away, and I’ve decided that my efforts at this point would best be spent learning the lake, since it’s changed so much from what we used to know, rather than figuring out exactly how to catch these fish. The fish are always bedding when we come here in late January, and I’ve already located two areas with beds, even in this fifty degree water. That’s what I need to concentrate on – finding out where they’re going to be in two weeks when the water warms up, the full moon arrives, and the fish move in to spawn.
Annie writes:
I went out fishing with Danny again, and we have not caught a fish yet. I did manage to get some of his tackle organized though. It was pretty chilly all day and I am ready for it to warm up. Inland it is nice, but when you are on the lake and it is breezy you do not feel the sun much.
We returned home about 3:00, and went for a swim in the pool. The water was 86 degrees. This is the way a pool ought to be. Dan went to the shower house while I cooked some dinner. Seeing it was still early we did the laundry. The final episode of Survivor is tonight and yes, I was hooked on it this season. As we have no TV in the tent, I hunkered down in the Suburban, which does have a little TV, and I watched the two hour finale. That was my first TV watching since we left NH.