Congrats to our boy Casey Martin, with a 6th place finish at the 2013 Lake Okeechobee FLW Everstart Series. Casey is just off the hook good. Follow him in 2013 on the FLW Tour, he’s gonna crush it: caseymartinfishing.com
And here is Casey at the FLW Tour, where he again took 6th place! Can you imagine a Top 10 in your rookie event as a boater? Sick:
Trevor Fitzgerald is lethal around grass. He is a Florida native and gets it done around grass. He weighed in 25 pounds this day, and gives you some insights into his gear. Trevor and his wife operate Fitzgerald Rods and they are known as a solid, well built, quality rod, that are tested and designed (among other things) to handle heavy braided lines, big fish, and grass.
Keep an eye on Trevor. He finished 2nd place in this event, and actually tied the guy weight wise, but lost the tie breaker. I have the entire weigh in on film (most of it) and plan on sharing some highlights from the guys who were in the Top. Okeechobee is a wonderful fishery, and it’s interesting to hear how guys catch ’em and the gear they use. That Gambler Jig Zillais off the hook. The jig bite on Okeechobee is there, and this just adds another dimension. Adding your own creature/craw bait to a unskirted jig head, in the >1 ounce range.
Nothing makes me feel better than a good bite on a 8″ Huddleston! I finally got a day of fishing where the wind was <20MPH and was able to setup and just fish, and I caught a nice one. A lot of why I decided to come to West Palm Beach is access to Okeechobee. I have a sweet deal going where I store my boat at the lake and have a place to stay on the weekends, so that is just working out beautifully. I have a lot of bigbait sessions ahead of me I hope. The water level is 14.7 or something, so it’s falling out pretty quick. But, I’m looking forward to another couple months of fishing for sure. It was 85 degrees out there this day.
Hard grass and soft grass and black water. 3-4 feet deep.
The 8″ Weedless Huddleston is something I’ve been mentally preparing myself for a while. I just haven’t had many sessions with it, where I could commit and throw it the majority of the day. I really like the way the bait fishes. The line tie on the nose makes it a ‘superior’ bait? I don’t know if that makes sense, but I really like the line tie on the nose. It just swims and fishes and orients right to you. I am fishing it on straight 80 pound Power Pro Spectra, and Calcutta 400 TE and Loomis 966 BBR. I just love that setup and with braid, its like, plus one or plus two more better. I just love braid. The braid is key for snatching and snapping your bait free in the grass. If you muck up, a hard pop or jerk will often clear the bait and you fish thru. At distance, these are things that cannot be done with anything but braid. Couple that, with my experiences with the Grass Minnow, Weedless Shad and 6″ Weedless Trout, I know that braid is the deal with those baits, so to me, this was a no brainer.
Florida fish have an interesting frame. I didn’t weigh this thing. It didn’t cross my mind. Unless they get enormous, I just sorta eye ball them. I think it was about 7-8 pounds. But that is what I’m hunting. I need to figure out how to get 5-7 bites a day on this thing.
Don’t hate because I have that carp/orange trout color on the 8″ Weedless. Really, I have one. I really hope Ken and Dennis come up with colors like this, and make them staples in their lineup. I love the nightstalker color, and I love this color too. I really like the golden shiner color too. I just prefer darker/dark baits that would go good in the Okeechobee water. The Night Stalker color looks fantastic in the Okeechobee water. White has never been a good color of moving bait (save a chatterbait or spinnerbait) for me on Okeechobee with swimbaits/swimming worms. I know other colors of the 8″ Huddleston will work on Okeechobobee too. I’ve caught them on hitch on baby bass, the non-weedless versions.
Halloween Style.
I’m landing the bites I’m getting on the 8″ Weedless, and they tend to be >6 pound fish. They are awesome bites and you’ll have to be patient to see the film. I hope our next DVD might be a bigbait fishing thing in Florida. Grass fishing. Haven’t put it all together by a long shot, and if I’ve learned anything at 35, I know better to than to make claims and predictions, especially if they involve fish or women! You cannot predict the fish. You just don’t know how things will play out with the filming and footage and flow. I sure hope I find a balance of work, social life, fishing Okeechobee and surfing around Jupiter and North! I hope it works out and I make good decisions and have good flow. We shall see. It has been anything but an easy transition back into corporate life, in a new city I’ve never lived. But……8″ Huddleston bites do a man right!
From above, the 8″ Weedless Trout in a not so trout kinda color.
Slide slippin’ around some eel grass
This color isn’t generally available yet. Ken sent me one, and since I’m fishing Okeechobee, I have been throwing this color. Thought I’d show the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe Weedless Trout in action around some outside grass on Okeechobee. I have no insights into when Ken will have more 8″ weedless baits for sale, and what color schemes he will go forward with. I am just thankful to have gotten a few of them, and hope to show you some fish catches with them. MP
This is my 5th season on Okeechobee, and getting ready for my final tournament for a while. Okeechobee is a good 2+ feet higher than it was the last few years we’ve been here. The lake is choked out with grass. The low water years caused the grass to grow big and tall along the shore/super shallows, then add the 2-3 feet of water, and you have a jungle. It can be very difficult to get around, fish, and just get a feel for Okeechobee right now. There is a ton of punching and flipping water, with the current conditions. This is probably the worst swimbait bite I’ve experienced at Okeechobee in the 5 years. It’s just really hard to find fishable water where the fish are living, where you can swim a bait around and thru. Add to that, with vegetation that is 3-5 foot high above the water line, it can be really hard to visually see places you want to get in and fish behind the grass lines. I have been poking into various spots a bizzillion times, only to do a u-turn and come out because the magic pool was not indeed behind the reeds….
With the high water, in some places, the 3:16 Sunfish gets down a little deeper, and is working for me. Oddly, by fishing in 4 feet (vs. 1-2 feet) I’m finding I’ve got to get a bait down to ’em move. They won’t come up top for the other bigbaits I’m throwing. And it happens that Okeechobee fish hate bluegill/sunfish.
It’s not all doom and gloom. I’ve had some decent days, and once again, find that I’m having to make adjustments to get it done. I think I can catch 5 fish both days, and hopefully am good for a big bite or two, but without a big bite, I’m talking 8-10 pounds or so….But most guys are struggling too. It’s just an off year, thick mats of grass, that of course make for good punching at times, but so thick you cannot get your trolling motor thru or do anything but flip or throw frogs over it. One of the keys to the swimbait bite for me has always been finding the best bedding areas. This has been the worst year by far, for the amount of beds and being able to see beds.
This is where you want your swimbait. Right over top of a good bed. However, beds are hard to come by. Like really hard to come by, and the stuff is so thick around them, no swimbaits, not even the weedless kind can swim. The few bed fish areas are getting a ton of pressure too. Of course there are some off the radar bedding areas, but none I found, and believe me, I’ve looked.
It can be an eerie feeling, not having much going on to get excited about, going into a tournament. I can catch some fish, but man, I’m just not on ’em and the bigbait thing has been really tough. Okeechobee is in a tough cycle at the moment. Not to say some guys won’t be catching 30+ pounds, because they will, but I will need some super good fortune to get a 18-20 pound sack. I just haven’t got ’em figured out, and I’ve tried to become a puncher/flipper this year, spent days doing it, only to find myself disgusted with the results. The good news is I can fish freely and just go fishing, and usually that is when I fish best and good things happen.
The water is so black you can hardly ever see the bottom right now. The water can be red too right now, mixed up between black and brown. The fish are in both the black and red water, and guys will get ’em on the outside grass line, and inside grass lines.
I would be lying to tell you I’ve been in a ‘good’ mood or state of mind the last few months. I have been struggling with what to do with my life, where to live, having a social life, making money, and finding motivation. So, let me share some news. I recently landed on Lake Okeechobee, for the 5th season. I’m signed up for the 2103 Everstart on Okeechobee, and that is my only tournament for the 2013 season it appears. I would love to fish the 2013 FLW Tour, but it just isn’t in the cards for me. This time, when I packed up my truck and boat in the freezing rain of the Ozarks, I was packing not just for Okeechobee, I was packing up to relocate and move my life to Florida.
Back to Work
I recently accepted a job, with Beyond Trust, the company that acquired the company (eEye Digital Security) I used to work for. What that means is, yes, I’m going back to work—Territory Manager, South East. I am actually quite looking forward to getting back to business. I enjoy the stimulation of the business world, the sharp people, and the opportunity to make money. I need to get myself financially back on track, and I need to have my own place, and have a home base and settle down where I might actually be able to line up a girlfriend! I have been blessed with some great partnerships with guys like Scott Whitmer, Ken Huddleston, and Mickey Ellis and others, and I plan to keep the train rolling. My new job allows me the freedom to work from wherever I choose. After 6 months living in Cotter, Arkansas, a lovely small town in the Ozarks, I’ve realized some things, and for sure I’ve realized that I wasn’t cut out for small town living, at least not yet! So, after the Everstart on Okeechobee, I’m going to be finding a place to live in Florida, and start ‘back to work’.
Why Florida?
I could be wrong, but Florida suits me and my style. I like the general flow of Florida, it’s a good mix of town and country, it’s a good mix of liberal and conservative ideas and thoughts, there is surfing in Florida, and I love fishing in Florida. I’m definitely leaning toward S. Florida, but I’m totally up in the air about where exactly. Orlando area has my eye too. I will have the flexibility to travel and work from various regions and plan on continuing the search for the Southern Trout Eaters, but trout eaters are the low hanging fruit, their is no doubt about it, if you have trout, you are going to have a killer swimbait bite. Non trout fed lakes are the next thing for me. Cracking the code, utilizing the tools and lessons of the trout eaters, and applying the things you learn from tournament fishing—-that is where my head is at. I have been working on finding the bigbait bite on lakes without trout for years now, and I still have a lot of learning and progressing to do. The fish and the bite is there, it’s just going to take time and commitment to put it all together.
SSB Customs has been relocated, and will be relocated again shortly!
southernswimbait.com Going Forward
I have terabytes of film and photos I’ve never shared. I have 3-4 projects ongoing with film that might turn into DVDs or they might be extended YouTube clips. That is the thing with filming, you just don’t always know how things will play out, how the fish will respond, or how exactly to package it all up. I want to assure you, you can expect ‘business as usual’ at southernswimbait.com. I am pretty confident I could not make a single cast in 2013, and keep this blog rolling as though I fished full time with the footage and content I have on my hard drive(s) and brain. However, I do plan on fishing in 2013, just not as much as I have the last 4 years. That is why I’m choosing Florida to settle down. I have been bitten by the braided line + bigbait bug, and given the amount of water and big fish in Florida, to me it’s the most sensible decision all things considered. So, you’ll be seeing a lot more braided line (and I’d recommend braid even is super clear water, just add a 50-65# floro leader!), dark colored bass from the grass, sun, surf and some social life from me in 2013.
It takes money to make money. I have short, mid, and long term goals for southernswimbait.com. I have all kinds of things I need to pour money into. My truck has 175K miles on it. My boat has 1000s of hours on her. My computer, my video and camera gear—–they could all use an upgrade. SSB Customs, the Southern Trout Eaters DVD, our affiliate partnership with Tackle Warehouse, are all a work in progress, and thanks to you, are working and going in the right direction. However, it’s just not enough. I am not satisfied with the lifestyle and the amount of time it will take to get to where I want to go, with the status quo. I believe taking a step back and regrouping, will in the short, mid and long term be a much wiser and well executed plan. For example, I would like to have $ to sponsor a few FLW Tour or BASS Elite guys, like my friend Casey Martin. I need real $ to grow southernswimbait.com to where I want it. I have ideas and models that I think will be positive/healthy and better enable anglers to monetize their fishing, be accountable to sponsors, quantify returns on investments, be marketable, be real, and push the sport in the right directions. It will take time and capital to pull it off.
I fell in love with Florida back in January 2009. This was home sweet home, single wide trailer at Roland Martins Resort, just getting settled into a new life. Notice, that is President Obama’s inauguration on television.
