A Big Start on the Big O
The 2015 season started off in fine style on Okeechobee this past Saturday. Each Walmart Bass Fishing League Gator Division season-opener on the Big O since 2011 has featured a first-time winner. This year’s was Benny Townend of Boynton Beach, Fla., who caught the first 10-pounder of the season, a lunker that was worth $1,000 on its own and keyed his $6,000 win.
The tournament was notable for more than Townend’s first career win. The event featured 229 boats, a 28-boat bump from 2014. The weights were also up, perhaps buoyed by the field size, but more likely raised by the simple fact that Okeechobee is fishing great right now. This year, an even 10 limits heaver than 19 pounds came across the scales – there were only seven limits matching at last year’s opener. Townend’s winning limit weighed 27 pounds, 9 ounces.
“I caught that big one with about an hour to go,” says Townend. “I pulled into an area with no boats, and it just felt right. It is the first 10-pounder I have officially caught. I was just speechless when I lifted her into the boat. I compared it to a 3-pounder I had, and it made it look like a minnow.
“When you’re fishing in a crowd of boats you need to find a way to slow down,” Townend adds. “I was flipping needlegrass with a green-pumpkin-colored Gambler Why Not with a 1/2-ounce weight.”
Interestingly, Townend and runner-up Robert Crosnoe both fished the south end of the lake, an area that has been a little out of favor in recent years.
“Every bag that has been winning tournaments lately has been coming out of the south end,” says Townend. “With the water being higher this year, the south end is the best water on the lake. I knew I could go down there and catch 18 or 19 pounds.”
Crosnoe bagged 25 pounds, 7 ounces of Okeechobee bass. The Citrus County deputy sherriff and the winner of last year’s BFL Regional on the St. Johns River earned his 24th BFL top 10 in the process.
“I fished the south end in the hayfields, way up on the inside edge in the morning,” Crosnoe says. “I caught about 20 fish, and I had around 12 pounds by 11 o’clock. I kept waiting around because I thought the big ones would move in, but they never did.”
The Florida veteran made his move after lunch, swapping from the inside edge to scattered clumps of cattails on the outside. Flipping the cattails produced – Crosnoe reported landing all of his big fish and about 30 others between 12:30 and 2 p.m.
“I saw about 10 boats fishing that area in the morning,” says Crosnoe. “But, in the spring the bigger fish always like to pull up later.”
Crosnoe flipped a tramp stamp-colored Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver with a 3/4-ounce weight.
The next Gator Division BFL tournament is scheduled for Jan. 31, and the next FLW tournament action will take place at the Rayovac FLW Series event Jan. 22-24 on Okeechobee.
Lake Okeechobee Results
Click here for complete results from the season-opener.