CLEWISTON, Fla. – It’s maybe a stretch to call Miles Burghoff’s best piece of water on the south end of Lake Okeechobee a “community hole”… but then again, maybe not THAT much of a stretch.
Burghoff, who has stacked 42 pounds, 15 ounces on the scales in two days of competition at the 13 Fishing Stop 1, has staked out a spot at the top of the leaderboard at the first tournament of the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit presented by Bad Boy Mowers. But he’s done it in the presence of plenty of company.
“All I see above the reeds when I look up is heads,” the Tennessee pro joked about the number of other anglers fishing the same area around Okeechobee’s West Wall. “There was a lot of pressure on Day 1, but at certain parts (of Day 2), it was definitely double. I had maybe two dozen boats around, fishing the same circles.”
So far, Burghoff has dealt with the pressure just fine.
He weighed in 26-2 the first day and 16-3 on Day 2 despite losing an estimated 8- or 9-pounder, and enters the weekend with a 3-pound lead over Skeet Reese (39-5) and 4 pounds on first-day leader Jim Neece, Jr. (38-9) and Dicky Newberry (38-0). With the 162-man field now cut to 50, and fresh, egg-laden females likely moving up throughout the day on Saturday, Burghoff leaves Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina this morning with a pretty black-and-white plan in mind.
“My best opportunity is to stay around that are and expand upon it,” Burghoff says. “I’m not one to just die on one spot, but I also know what my best opportunity is. Without knowing what kind of pressure my other spots up north have, I didn’t feel that good about it to begin with. I’m going to feel it out as the day goes on.”
As has been the case this week with most of the field, Burghoff’s biggest bites have come after 11 a.m., a fact that leads him to admit that patience will be a virtue on Saturday if he’s not thrilled with what he puts in the liv ewell in the morning.
“I’m going to try to just go with the flow and let the fish tell me,” Burghoff says. “We could see a new wave of females, or I could decide that my best shot is to scrap everything and go hunt for something else. Once I get five fish in the boat, I’ll be able to analyze the size I’m seeing and maybe make a better decision about whether to stay put, or go looing. I think I’m just going to stay in the area and bounce around a little until I find a fresh group of fish that nobody has touched it, if that’s possible.”
Reese Ready to Rumble
Lurking within one solid bite of Burghoff, Reese is the most explicit proof of how a big bite can put a charge into an entire day on Okeechobee. The Mercury pro boated the Berkley Big Bass of Day 2 – an 8-8 – shortly before noon to expand a good bag into the biggest limit brought to the scales on Friday.
Reese – whose 21-9 catapulted him from 17th place to second – expects to follow the same pattern he’s fished the first two days: dabbing around South Bay with a stick worm and swim jig, looking for fresh waves of bigger females to join bucks on beds.
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and get a big bite,” Reese joked. “That 8-8 was a game-changer, I didn’t get a lot of bites (Friday). I kinda pre-fished some, looked for some new water. What am I going to do (Saturday?) I have no idea.”
CONDITIONS
Temperature at takeoff: 72 degrees
Forecast high: 76 degrees
Sky/visibility: Mostly cloudy
Precipitation: 40 percent chance of thunderstorms after 10 a.m.
Wind: Southeast at 6 to 14 mph, with possible gusts of 20
TOURNAMENT DETAILS
Hosted by Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina & Resort and the Hendry County Tourism Development Council
Takeoff: 7:30 a.m. ET at Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina & Resort, 920 E Del Monte Avenue, Clewiston, FL 33440
Weigh-in: Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. ET Roland & Mary Ann Martin’s Marina & Resort
MLF NOW!® live streamed coverage: Starts at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday and Sunday. Weigh-in live stream starts at approximately 3:10 p.m. ET today.
Full tournament details here.