Pemble Narrowly Ahead After Day 1 on Okeechobee
CLEWISTON, Fla. – On Day 1 of the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Southern Division opener on Lake Okeechobee, finding success came down to letting success come to you. As southern Florida continues to thaw out following a wicked cold snap earlier in the week, waves of big Okeechobee bass continue moving up shallow, and the anglers who found themselves atop the leaderboard on Day 1 typically stayed ahead of those fish and mined areas where they knew the bass would be coming to.
Count Lance Pemble among them. The Leesburg, Florida, pro spent most of his practice days poking around the shallows of the Big O in areas he thought bass should be coming to. For his efforts, Pemble put together a solid 20-pound, 9-ounce bag to pace the 271-boat field and grab a 2-ounce lead over Christian Greico after the first day of competition.
“Yesterday (in practice) I was still looking for clean water,” he said of his strategy. “I did very little fishing. I finally found some clean water, and like they’re supposed to do, the bass showed up. They weren’t there (initially), though.”
The key to his plan, Pemble said, was finding the right bottom composition and sticking close to those areas.
“We tried to stay on good bottom for them to bed in and spawn on,” he explained. “Bottom composition is the biggest thing on this lake. There’s a lot of soft bottom, and you’ll waste all your time on that if you’re not careful. I found the right bottom and found the right fish.”
That might be an understatement considering the fact that Pemble only had five bites all day. Those five bites just happened to be the size he needed to grab the lead on a stingy Okeechobee, and they all happened to come late in the day.
Fortunately, Pemble thinks he can go to his same areas in the south end of the lake tomorrow and reproduce his efforts. On the other hand, 271 boats can blow up a secret spot in a hurry.
“I feel like the area could do it again, but then again, there’s no secrets on this lake,” he said. “Somebody may get them before I do.”
Like the majority of the field, Pemble is “just flipping” in what he believes are high-percentage areas, though he chose to remain quiet about the details of his presentation.
Top 10 Pros
1. Lance Pemble – 20 – 09 (5)
2. Christian Greico – 20 – 07 (5)
3. DJ Timms – 20 – 01 (5)
4. Lee Stalvey – 20 – 01 (5)
5. Willy Dennison – 19 – 00 (5)
6. Brandon Medlock – 18 – 05 (5)
7. Kyle Weisenburger – 17 – 14 (5)
8. Laker Howell – 17 – 13 (5)
9. Wendell Causey Jr. – 16 – 04 (5)
10. Reid Heard – 15 – 02 (5)
Wilson Lands Trio of Tanks for Sizeable Strike King Co-Angler Lead
Brian Wilson of Interlochen, Michigan, decided to fish this event at the behest of a friend (who fishes both Phoenix Bass Fishing League and Toyota Series schedules) and with the intention of using the trip as a mid-winter vacation to escape the harsh northern weather. He certainly did that, with the added benefit of weighing in a monster bag to take the Strike King Co-Angler lead on Day 1 by almost 5 pounds.
Wilson leaned on three Okeechobee brutes to weigh in 17-3 – a bigger bag than all but eight pros managed to weigh in. Wilson’s best fish came after he watched his boater catch six fish in front of him first thing in the morning, prompting the co-angler leader to switch to a swim jig and cover water, which is something he’s more than a little familiar with.
“I don’t know these lakes,” Wilson said of Florida fisheries in general. “I fish a lot in Michigan. I thought it was going to be completely different, but it wasn’t. I was going with what a lot of other people told me to do, and then I scrapped all that once my boater was catching them. I had to do something different.
“I was doing what I do on Portage Lake or Green Lake or Duck Lake where I live. I was just swimming that jig.”
Wilson admitted he’s not confident he can reproduce what he did on Day 1, but he’s certainly seen what works and where it works. And if he does manage to make something special happen tomorrow (and potentially on Championship Saturday), this “vacation” may prove to be something else entirely: the first event of a Southern Division schedule he wasn’t even planning on fishing the entirety of prior to this week. Now, assuming he does well throughout the rest of the event, Wilson admits he’ll “absolutely” have to fish more Southern Division events with a realistic shot at a Strike King Co-Angler of the Year title.
Top 10 Strike King Co-Anglers
1. Brian Wilson – 17 – 03 (5)
2. Andy Niles – 12 – 05 (5)
3. Stephen Toth – 11 – 09 (3)
3. Joseph Solenski – 11 – 09 (5)
5. Scott Howell – 11 – 06 (5)
6. Brent Jones – 11 – 05 (5)
7. Rod Clos – 11 – 00 (5)
8. Davis Elleman – 10 – 13 (4)
9. Carson Arrington – 10 – 10 (5)
10. Brady Lunsmann – 10 – 08 (5)