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Gator Division kicks off for real on the Big O

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Okeechobee can be a dream tournament destination. Photo by Rob Matsuura.
January 15, 2025 • Jody White • Phoenix Bass Fishing League

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. – After weather caused the Gator Division season-opener event on the Harris Chain to be postponed, the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Gator Division will really start the season at Lake Okeechobee on Feb. 8. Always a hit with anglers, Okeechobee is a bucket-list lake and a key to just about any tournament season in the Sunshine State. Still, water level fluctuations in recent years and reduced vegetation have made the lake a tough nut to crack.

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What to expect

Nicholas Hoinig is a super capable Florida angler. Photo by Justin Onslow

As is usually the case in Florida, and on Okeechobee in particular, the weather leading up to the event will be key. Cold, bad conditions will likely lead to reduced success for the field, while nice conditions will send bass into the shallows and coincide with angler success.

Nicholas Hoinig is an Okeechobee regular, fresh off a runner-up finish in another event there, and he’s expecting a difficult tournament.

“All it took was to catch one giant and four of those squeakers to finish second,” Hoinig said. “That’s about been the theme the last two months. The water level is dropping, and all the areas where there were a couple fish, the fish are losing real estate. Just getting a big bite or two in general, that’ll be the difference maker. And doing that is just pretty difficult.”

Falling water levels should be good for the overall health of the lake eventually, but they’re not helping anglers looking to capitalize on incoming waves of bass.

“It’s fallen a foot in the last month and a half, I would say,” Hoinig said. “And they’ve got the gates open, and they’re steadily dropping it. It will be good long term. You know, the idea is to get it down low for summer so they can hopefully get out there and scrape these areas that are just full of mud so vegetation can grow. But right now, for this time of year, the fishing, it’s not good.”

Notably, while the fishing in the formerly expansive grass flats around the rim of Okeechobee has been difficult, more and more anglers are turning to the canals and rivers around the lake instead.

“People have started unlocking that with LiveScope, just catching them on a minnow and doing stuff like that in the canals,” Hoinig said. “Now that the lake’s [not as good], the canals are more crowded, that’s for sure.”

For baits, Hoinig thinks that standards like a Gambler Fat Ace will play, as well as a wacky-rigged Gambler Ace. On the moving bait side, he likes a ChatterBait with a Gambler Little EZ trailer – obviously a key player in any Florida tournament. For probing in the canals, a Carolina rig with a 10-inch Gambler Ribbon Tail Worm gets the call.