Living the Dream: Lake Okeechobee, Part 2
Dave Andrews offers look at first half of official Lake Okeechobee practice
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Editor’s note: This is the second piece in a series of journal entries from Dave Andrews, winner of the 2007 TBF National Championship, which will be published at FLWOutdoors.com throughout the course of the 2008 FLW Series Eastern season. As winner of the “Living the Dream” package offered by FLW Outdoors through The Bass Federation, Andrews had his entry fees paid to test his club skills on the pro tour with the use of a fully wrapped boat and tow package. Andrews will chronicle his adventure in pro bass fishing during the season, beginning with his experience at Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. After Andrews has submitted his journal following each FLW Series event, segments will be posted approximately every few days. (Click here to read Part 1.
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Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern Division
Stop No. 1: Lake Okeechobee
Jan. 23-26, 2008
Official practice, day one
I flew back to Orlando on Thursday, the 17th of January. I had left the “Living the Dream” Chevy Tahoe in a park-and-fly by the airport. I arrived in Clewiston late in the evening and retrieved the Z-20 out of the boat yard at Roland’s Marina. The plan was to practice out of the Z-20 until the final practice day, when Chris Jones from FLW would get into town towing my new Ranger Z520. This would give me one day to get the Yamaha 250 HPDI Series II broken in prior to the start of the tournament.
The first practice day featured perfect fishing conditions. Hazy and warm with light winds and cloud cover is the recipe for some hot bassin’ in Florida. I was anxious to see how my practice patterns would hold up following the massive cold front and the two weeks that I was away. I headed north out of Clewiston and pulled off on a stretch of rock. I noticed quickly that the normal smell of burned sugar cane had been replaced by a hideous stench. It didn’t take me long to find out what was causing the odor. Apparently the cold snap that had hit the region just as I was leaving two weeks prior was one of the worst in several years, and it had killed thousands of armored catfish (an exotic species in 
Okeechobee). The rotting corpses littered the banks of the rim canal as hundreds of buzzards had quite a feast. I started with the Silver Bomber Long A and was into fish immediately.
The topwater bite was hot, and I had several blowups. I set on five or six fish to check the size and landed a pair of 4 1/2-pound largemouths. Most encouraging was the overall lack of boats that were working north in the rim canal. Most had ventured out in the main lake or headed south out of Roland’s. Satisfied that the fish I had in prepractice were still there, I made the long run out of Sportsman’s Cut to check on the shoal fish on the main lake. Once outside the rim ditch, I found a heavy fog enveloped the lake. Without the Lowrance GPS and my trace from practice, I never would have found my spot. I pulled up with one other boat nearby and starting chucking the trap. I had a 3-pound fish almost immediately. I half-heartedly attempted to hide the fish, and the guy in the other boat yelled out, “Let’s see it.” We both had a laugh, introduced ourselves and began to chat about the fishing and the spot we both had found ourselves in.
Soon the fog lifted, and I was surprised to see that we were essentially alone on this huge flat. I zigzagged back and forth and tried different depths, sticking with a chartreuse Rat-L-Trap and popping fish occasionally, each time punching the coordinates into my Lowrance unit. After a couple hours, I had had seven bites and had boated a 6-pound, 7-ounce bass. I headed back the only way I knew, through Sportsman’s Cut, and finished the day in the rim ditch. Without fishing really hard, my best five fish would have easily gone 22 pounds today.
Official practice, day two
A dense fog greeted the 200-boat field on the second practice morning. I got a call from a co-angler from New Hampshire who wanted to fish with me today. I picked up Dave Guichard before dawn, and we headed out of the launch area. Anglers hung out in a huge cluster just outside the lock at Roland’s Marina, waiting for the fog to lift.
I cautiously ran south in the canal and stopped along a section of rocky bank. I fished for about 10 minutes, but with the constant stream of boats zipping past me only a few feet away, I decided to get into a small cutback and get out of harm’s way. I shared the cutback with two other boats. I had caught small keepers in this spot both of the times I had fished it in prepractice. The water had dropped a bit in here, and Dave caught the only keeper, a 2-pounder on a worm.
Once the fog lifted, around 9:30 a.m., we headed south, checking spots along the way. The day was sunny and hot. Boats were clustered just about everywhere as we worked our way out into the main lake near Pelican Bay. We checked a few main-lake spots without success and then headed into a couple of the dynamite holes. Here we found good, clean water and a decent bite of mostly smaller fish. We boated nearly a dozen bass up to 2 1/2 pounds, mostly on June bug-colored Gambler Sweebo worms on the Giggy Head. At one point, I felt a tap on my worm and set the hook. Something big began to pull against the strain of the rod. The battle lasted several minutes, but it was clear that it was not a bass. Eventually I maneuvered the creature along side the boat and found it to be a 4-foot alligator. I told Dave to go ahead and lip him for me. He refused. Some partner he turned out to be. He soon got tired of being pulled around by the tail and surged, breaking the line.
Overall, the fishing was pretty slow, nothing like the day before, and I pretty much ruled out running south in the rim canal for the event.
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Editor’s note: Stay tuned for Part 3 of Andrews’ adventure on Lake Okeechobee, in which he’ll write about the second half of his official practice period.
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