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:
I really suck at tournament fishing sometimes. My buddy Casey Martin, finished 5th place, running the same pattern, in fact, we stayed in the same hotel room for the event, and he whacked ’em to make it all four days and I went home a kook, again, at the Everstart Championship. The Ouachita River is like 70 miles of main river, and another 70 miles of other tributary creeks and rivers and bayous and backwaters galore. There were no less than 25% jon boat in this event. Guys came prepared for stump jumping and fishing in the extreme backwaters. I did not. I came to fish my game, and found a pretty decent pattern on the first day of practice, drop shotting4.5″ Roboworms in Bold Bluegill in the mouths of pockets/backwaters, just off the main river channel. In fact, there were fish in the main river channel, on any point or rock pile and in the laydowned trees. Now, you have to understand that catching 5-7 keeper 12 inch fish right now is pretty much whacking them. It took 6 pounds per day to get paid. I caught 5 pounds per day. I had a good gameplan, and Casey just did what Casey does and it speaks volumes to his fishing versus mine. My practice became San Diego style worm fishing. However, it was a popular pattern, as many guys stayed close and fished around the weigh-in/release area and did well. I had the right idea, but what I will let Casey tell you for sure is that he found the better quality fish AND got them to eat. Umbrella rig for sure and Casey had a trick one, and the Boing topwater lure on Day 2 with a solid 3-4 pound fish that escalated him to 8 pounds per day, which he for sure was in the drivers seat, just because cutting to 20 and the 10 boats (in days 3 and 4 consecutively), he would have much freer reign on the mouths of creeks and pockets and his prime choice point/mouth which was at the intersection of D’Arbonne and the main river channel. Duh. Ask anyone about the Ouchita River and D’Arbonne is the most popular creek/bayou and it’s big and gnarly and is like 45 miles with 5 MPH zones and an abundance of stumps, logs and bayou. It’s where some fish got caught, but this tournament wasn’t dominated by back bayou water necessarily. Some main river played in bigtime, but understand, you have giant cypress trees and oaks and black or really dirty coffee with cream style water. Heck, this where the Duck Commanders live. Monroe, LA you were great, but man, you guys got some tough fishing around there. Especially when it comes to boat handling and navigation. Rivers are not generally what I like to see after the name of a body of water. I’m a lake guy, but as the White River, where I live and watch daily, I’m learning.
Casey fishing another Top 10 Cut at the FLW Everstart in May 2012 on Guntersville. Casey ‘slipped up’ this day, when low 20s pound bags suck. Justin Lucas had 30+. Sickness.
Great job Casey Martin, and the BETTER news is Casey just signed up for the 2013 FLW Tour as a Boater!!! Casey will update his blog about his tournament and he can fill in the gaps and day 3 & 4. I’m such a loser, I didn’t even hang around for Days 3&4 which I almost always do. I am a little lost and did sit still easily lately, but anyway… I am so stoked, pumped and definitely jealous that Casey and many others are fishing the Tour in 2013. It’s a great schedule and with only 6 tournaments for some guys and Casey is one. Fewer tournaments is less risk for some of us (me included), and the lakes are lakes I feel like I know pretty well (save Grand Lake), and Casey too. I’m just sick to not have my deposits in. Casey knows how to fish tournaments, and is just on fuego. He has fished the FLW Tour the last few years as a Co-Angler, which means, the non boater who gets partnered with the Pro for the day. Casey has won like $150K from the back of the boat, and does really well at the Everstart and BFL Levels as a boater, so it’s not like he can’t or doesn’t fish from the front of the boat well, he was just wise to take the education that fishing as a Co-Angler affords, and took that to off the chart levels, so this is a natural progression. Casey is up for the challenge and I know he will do really well. I am just so lost at times with where I’m at, and so addicted to tournament fishing, yet even more addicted to throwing bigbaits, and I love the blogging, but I’m just struggling financially and in no position to fish the FLW Tour in 2013, even though I’d like to. I asked Bill Taylor if he’d take 3 deposits (vs. the required 6) and a handshake, he just laughed. I have to laugh too. I’m crazy to be flirting with the FLW Tour. I’m just hoping to fish the Everstart on Okeechobee in early January, win the damn thing, and go from there!!! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH. How is that for an addict?
There is a direct relationship between the amount of photos and videos I shoot and how well I’m fishing. I took very very very few pictures, and zero video. I figured I could catch 5-6 pounds per day and did. Bold Bluegill is color of Robo Worm I highly recommend. Throw it in 4.5 or 6 or 7 inch and in the dirty Ouachita River, it was catching them really well. One of the staple drop shot worms and colors for me.
Casey staked out the BEST mouth of a creek. The most major creek with the most history in it, he choose that one to focus on (I decided the ones upriver were less pressured and could be milked better), and what was key to him was it had better fish on it. And not only that, Casey had better tricks up his sleeve than most to catch them. He found an angle he could throw a prototype Picasso A-Rig called the ‘bait ball’ and he told me he had like 18 fish the Day 1 of the event fishing the exact same cast (uphill) with his umbrella rig that features tiny blades and a much smaller profile than most u rigs you see. That is how Casey caught 8 pounds the first day, and followed it up with 8 pounds on the second day. Guess what he caught the big fish on Day 2? A Boing Topwater bait. This is a new walking bait with a cool ball on wire noise maker rattle inside that gives it a strange ‘boing’ sound, but clearly the fish ate it. He caught one 3 pounds on it. The bait was thick all over the Ouchita River. I mean, you find and see bait everywhere. And occassionally fish would push the balls to the surface and could be caught. I caught fish on the Picasso School E Rig with 3″ Big Hammers (silver phantom), and J-Will Swimbait heads in 1/8 Ounce in the tournament. But my fish were squeakers. In fact, I didn’t have 5 fish on Day 2 either, so that really hurt, but ultimately one more fish I was on wouldn’t have helped. I needed high 12 pounds, like 12-10 to get paid. I had 10-2 for the event, and never caught one over 2 pounds in the practice or tournament, and lots of swimbaits got thrown. No swimbait bite to speak of, besides the U Rig. No backwater fish for most, but some did find good sacks. Is Brandon Medlock sick or what? Guy broke down on Day 1, comes back on Day 2 with 14 pounds and is like Top 5 and then sticks 15 on Day 3 before struggling on Day 4….but dang, a 14 or 15 pound sack for 2 days in a row, you gotta be bad to find that on the Ouachita River I saw! Some guys found some backwater fish, but the main river was a player for sure. Lots of guys cashed checks fishing within site or around the bend or two from the weigh in. I fished there myself some too. You will have to read Casey’s blog post to get the full scoop on his tournament. I yo-yo’d Red Eye Shads, fished umbrella rigs, and drop shotted the mouths of creeks mostly, but had a few good channel swings, clay points, and banks that seemed to be holding fish. The problem of course was many guys found the same fish, because the backwater were sucking and the main river became the clear choice, so it wasn’t easy friendly fishing all the time out there. You had to defend spots and try to manage water best you could. The wind was either blowing the wrong way for me, or not at all for my red eye shad bite. I had 2 sneaky spots I felt I could load up and get some good keepers, but they never panned out. Anyway, congrats to Casey and boo to Matt. Is it time to go to Florida yet? MP
"Simplification is the Ultimate Sophistication" (Da Vinci) After reading the Steve Jobs Biography, I realized something basic about simplification in bigbait fishing. Softbaits get the most bites (and tend to catch the biggest fish, ala 8" Huddleston). So when in Rome, throw a softbait! Okeechobee validated what I already knew: The Vortex Tails catch the biggest fish, and the Boot Tails (3:16 Rising Son Jr) get the most bites. Making the 3:16 Rising Son Jr. the better tournament swimbait, among other reasons. Now, when I did get a bite on the 8" Huddleston, it was a magnum, they were just hard to come by.
You can expect full details, video/film and more photos to back this subject up, however, those things will take me much more time. Fishing bigbaits in shallow grass is like everything else an ongoing discussion. I’ve just arrived at Lake Seminole, and the shallow grass and bigbait assault continues. I’m a bit in a holding pattern on some video production stuff, trying to find my path on some directions and paths to take with various projects and pursuits that will remain private for now.
Okeechobee, outside grass line. 2012 is the first year I've been to Okeechobee in the winter where the fish were holding on the outside grass lines. The inside grass lines were choked out from the low water overgrowth, and the water clarity was good in the mainlake, which I've never seen either. The fish were more in their summer pattern that I've ever experienced, which made them a bit more accessible with baits with hanging or partially hanging trebles, especially those that weight > 2 ounces!
Preparations:
My mental preparations began for Okeechobee this past summer, when sitting and talking with Mickey Ellis for 3:16 Lure Company. I was reminded of some simple lessons and things I used to know. Line thru swimbaits, in particular, can be fished in shallow grass really well because they tend to swim high in the water column, and I knew that coupled with braided line, I could keep those baits even higher in the water column, literally on or just below the surface. Braided line adds weedlessness, trust me on this, its a combination of buoyancy and ability to snatch your bait clean.
The other preparations I had for Okeechobee came from reading the Steve Jobs Biography this fall. Laugh if you will. You ready? “Simplification is the ultimate sophistication” was the quote. Leonardo Da Vinci is the source of the quote, but Steve made me aware of it (along with a few other tidbits of Da Vinci wisdom). Let me attempt to walk you thru this. When you simplify your bigbait approach on a foreign lake or foreign conditions, you need to start with SOFTBAITS. When I assessed what baits I’ve caught the vast majority of fish on, it was clear to me that softbaits are what get bit more often, under most conditions. Of course I had my Triple Trouts and 22nd Century Bluegill on, but unless they are killing your softbaits in shallow grass, they probably aren’t going to kill your faster swimming and moving hardbaits in shallow grass, either. Forget the trout eaters here, we are talking shallow grass fishing, in less than peak heat season. With all the challenges of getting on a bigbait bite on tournament day, the one thing you can do, when conditions present themselves is keep is soft, stupid.
K.I.S.S: Keep it Soft, Stupid! You know I love certain hardbaits, but rarely do you go out and just pounce on hardbait fish on lakes without a lot of history of swimbait action, especially those without trout. Also, when you have a tournament minded approach, boot tails get bit quite a bit more than the the 8" Huddleston Vortex tail at times. It's a tradeoff. The 8" Hudd catches magnums, the boot tails catch 3-7 pounders and those are the fish I'm hunting on tournament day, not lake or world records. Add to that, Rate of Stall, a subject we have only just begun to propose, boot tails have more drag, and the 3:16 softbaits tend to have excellent Rate of Stall due to buoyancy and lift.
I had a phone conversation with Steve Pagliughi (“Urban”, is his online handle) in November. Steve is a Huddleston guy and a 3:16 guy. Steve and I have never met, never fished together, and just had a conversation about bigbaits and fishing. Steve implored me to take a look at the 3:16 Rising Son Jr. He told me the bait just flat out gets bit. Excellent, that is what I needed to hear, along with his other tidbits of insights about Huddlestons, grass, and line thru swimbait approaches. I don’t pretend to be a ‘know it all’ and find myself laughing at people and fisherman who take that approach. The most talented professionals I’ve ever been around have some common traits, and at the top of the list is humility. Being human and consciously recognizing your human flaws means you are aware that you cannot know everything. You cannot be master of all. You have to leave yourself open to continually learn, make adjustments and keep an open mind and mix the new things you learn into the pool of wisdom and experiences you have, and adopt/apply new things accordingly. California, the Bay Area in particular, excels in an open minded approach to everything. People seek out diversity and different because they know it ultimately enriches them. When you take the approach that you ‘know it all’ or otherwise close your mind to things because they are ‘different’ or don’t come from the same mold you came from or come from outside your world, you stop LISTENING. Folks may hear all and think they know all or are aware of all, but unless you really listen and process the information and take the time to do so, you aren’t really knowing everything. You are just hearing it, and it goes into the bucket of clutter along with everything else we are exposed to in today’s connected world. You don’t know everything, and even if you did, you cannot apply it in real time or in appropriate time. I really appreciated my conversation with Steve because it was so on time, and so honest and something I really enjoy, learning something new, especially in the world of bigbaits. Just hearing Steve’s confidence and experience with the Rising Son Jr. and some of his Huddleston applications got my head right well in advance of leaving for Okeechobee.
The Rising Son Jr.
When you take a look at the Rising Son Jr. it looks like you’d expect a line thru swimbait with a boot tail. Here is what you may not immediately grasp. Notice, there is no ‘hardware’ in the line-thru. There is no metal involved. The bait is 100% soft plastic with the 3:16 Line Thru block glued under the chin/throat. This makes the bait extremely buoyant (it damn near floats). Buoyancy equates to ability to fish the bait over and thru super shallow grass, which is perfect for Okeechobee. Also, buoyancy equates to greater ability to stall (Rate of Stall) the bait and keeps the bait overhead longer. This is a key point to understand, especially at Okeechobee, where you’re targeting fish that are “about” their beds. Big females are rarely locked on the bed. When they are, you sight fish them. Most times, they are ‘about’ their beds, meaning, you want to swim your bait over the bed, putting your bait in their nursery, and keep it there, swimming along, for the longest amount of time possible. The idea being, they aren’t biting out of hunger, they are biting because Mother Nature and natural processes dictate that anything a bass can fit in its mouth will get eaten if it spends time where it shouldn’t during spawn time. Your bait is seen as a threat or an intruder or something that needs to be taught a lesson. Some baits move out of the nursery too quickly, and aren’t the best choice (ie, fast moving hard baits). Buy yourself some 3:16 Rising Son Jrs, and get to work. These things get bit, they catch big ones, and they catch the medium sized ones really well too. Stay tuned, more to come on this bait.
Trap Hook: One 1/0 Owner ST-36 harnessed to a #4 Owner ST-66 (when in doubt, fish the stock hook provided, it works great, I just like the insurance of a second stinger back further in the bait. Stay tuned, more to come on the trap hook setup).
The 3:16 Lure Company Rising Son Jr. Let me try and net out why this bait was so effective: Rate of Stall (buoyancy, drag, and swim), size and profile, ability to fish with braided line, trap hook setup (not shown above), and where and how the fish were positioned on the Big O, winter 2012. You get a feel for what I was fishing over, near topped out hydrilla, in this case a few hundred yards from where Randall Tharp would win the FLW Tour Event, punching the thicker hydrilla mats.Day 2, FLW Everstart Lake Okeechobee. Two of my four fish that weighed 18 pounds. I only had 6 fish for the entire tournament, and 5 of them came on the 3:16 Rising Son Jr. The other one came on the Huddie. All six fish I weighed at the Everstart came on the bigbaits. Finished 21st place, a major leap forward in my tournament fishing, committing to the bigbaits and getting it done. Day 1 was rough with only 2 fish for 6 pounds, but that played into the game. When you're down and need to make up a lot of ground, throw the bigbaits, if you dare.
The 3:16 Sunfish/Bluegill
So, you might be wondering, when did you throw the 3:16 Bluegill or Sunfish (same bait, two color options, both of them excellent) vs. when did you throw the Rising Son Jr? When I first arrived at Okeechobee around Christmas time, the water was approx 13.75. When I left Okeechobee in Mid February 2012, the water had dropped below 13.25. Half a foot on Okeechobee is significant. Falling water on Okeechobee is a chronic problem we face each winter. As the water falls, it creates less and less swim lanes to throw baits in. The grass starts topping out and you better be on your game to keep you bait up and out of the grass while fishing. The 3:16 Sunfish/Bluegill is not as buoyant as the Rising Son Jr. and it tends to fish a little deeper, so as the water level dropped, I had fewer and fewer places to fish this bait effectively. I found that Okeechobee bass really hated bluegill and sunfish baits swam over their beds/nursery areas too. Bluegill/Sunfish tend to be an enemy of bedding bass because they eat the bass eggs and/or the bass fry. Bass love to eat bluegill/sunfish, and it’s honestly something I’ve never committed that much time to. I get asked all the time, what bluegill bait do your recommend? Now I have an answer, because I committed a ton of time to learning the bait and getting familiar with it. I really hate recommending baits or tackle without having any experience. Expect more to come on this bait too. Need a bluegill bait? Fishing around bedding fish? Throw a 3:16 Bluegill or Sunfish and see what happens.
Hook: Owner ST-41 Treble Hook 1/0 (no trap, just single hook, no rings, just direct tied to hook)
Okeechobee Trout Eater. Of course there are no trout on Okeechobee. Golden shiner are the obvious choice, but I found other colors like the Hitch color to get bites too. Here is a nice one on the ROF 5. I fished both the ROF 5 and ROF 12 on Okeechobee the Winter of 2012 and had some fantastic bites. Try fishing an 8" Huddleston with 80 Pound Braid and a 400 TE from Shimano. You won't believe the torque and power you have with that reel and braid.
I’ve written and filmed plenty about the 6″ Weedless Trout, the Grass Minnow and Weedless Shad, its about time to shed some light on the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe Trout on Okeechobee. I wasn’t fishing the Rainbow Trout color, but I’m sure it would work. Of all the generally available colors of the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe, I’d pick the Golden Shiner or Hitch Color to start. Understand, you need to be prepared to fish both a ROF 5 and ROF 12, so have 2 rods ready. I fished the ROF 12 with just the single top jig hook, because with braided line, it fished extremely well in the grass and could be snatched clean. The ROF 5 was fished with the “Southern Trout Eaters” Huddleston Rig, and I loved that the ST-66 Owner Stinger Trebles matched and handled the braided line very well. I fished the 8″ Huddlestons on the outside grass edges, edges of lilly pads, edges of Kissimmee Grass, edges of reeds, and over top hydrilla. The bait fished pretty darn well. Depending on wind and depth and amount of water I had to work with, would depend which ROF of Huddleston I’d fish. When you lob cast a bait that weighs almost 5 ounces, its going to sink down at least 6″ or so when it hits the water at the end of your cast. So as the water was falling on Okeechobee, again, it became harder and harder to fish certain areas without constantly being mucked up in grass. Even with braid, 400 TE reels and a stout 8 footer, you cannot snatch clean from super thick hydrilla and pads from the outset of your cast. So, fishability at times was a challenge, but not impossible. It can be exhaustive fishing, like when you’re fishing a buzzbait and really working to keep the bait on the surface 100% of time, getting it running right just after it hits the water from the end of your cast. I didn’t catch lots of fish on the 8″ Huddleston, but the ones I caught were STUDS. The bites were awesome too. Just crushed the bait. Looking forward to getting back there and working on this bite more. Again, stay tuned, more to come on 8″ Hudds in the grass.
Okeechobee is such an awesome place, I miss it already. I just love the warm winter weather, the fishing, the tournaments, the Tiki Bar and the entire Roland & Mary Ann Martin Marina & Fishing Campus, and shallow grass. Okeechobee was the first place I fished after resigning from corporate life on Dec. 31 2008, and my first week on Okeechobee in early January 2009 almost killed me. I wrecked my boat once, got lost a couple times, got eaten by mosquitoes , and couldn’t buy a bite, but my how things have changed. I settled down and got right. Three seasons later, I’m finally putting together a bigbait bite, and gave ’em a run at the FLW Tour and Everstart with the bigbaits. Didn’t quite pull it off perfectly and have a lot of room for improvement, but I sure enjoyed progressing and taking bigbaits to the shallow grass of Florida.
Punching requires more than one setup. Here Casey Martin made an adjustment to the Gamber BB Cricket and 1 ounce Picasso Tungsten, because the smaller profile Cricket and 1 ounce weight punches just as good or better than a Sweet Beaver and a 1.5 ounce Picasso Punch Weight. But the smaller profile gets more bites and at times, slides into the thick stuff better. There is significant difference in the size of the Sweet Beaver vs. the BB Cricket, and the hardcore grass punchers have both on deck at all times.
Without a doubt, punching thru hydrilla and hyacinth mats is the winning pattern on Okeechobee right now (well, unless the big girls move up on the beds, which was happening when I left Okeechobee, but still, get a handle on punching if you’re headed to Okeechobee or have shallow grass in your domain). Randall Tharp blew away the field with a 4 day total over 100 pounds (again). Punching is all about putting a small profile bait into and thru the thickest and gnarliest stuff you can find. Heavy rods, heavy braid, strong round bend hooks and small compact baits that slide thru the grass are the tools of punching. The keys to being the best puncher you can be are location, location, location, approach, boat position, and being able to mathematically make the most and best punches (meaning, you rarely have a bunk cast where you don’t punch thru the mat and have to re-try, or spending less time cleaning off your bait of grass, and/or making the highest percentage punches, knowing where the fish are likely to be holding and keying on those areas). Find mixes of ‘good grass’ where hydrilla and hyacynth mix together, or reeds and hyacynths or wherever multiple grasses come together, and find the thickest places you can get a bait and go to work.
Owner Twistlock Flippin Hook--I asked Casey to try them to help me 'test' them. He was pleasantly suprised at how well the hooks not only rigged the baits, but how beefy and robust the hooks were to withstand the rigors of heavy braided line and stout flippin. sticks. These hooks don't require a snell knot either. Give 'em a try sometime.
Grass mats come in all shapes and sizes and have an endless number of places to put your bait. Remember, smaller profile baits require less weight to get them to punch thru, and if the fish aren't responding the Beaver, downsize and lighten up a hair, you'll be suprised how well the fish will respond. They see a lot of Beavers on 1.5 ounce weights!!!
The Gambler BB Cricket is to punching and heavy grass fishing, what the Speed Worm or Skinny Dipper is to swimming baits and worms in shallow grass fishing...one of those, don't leave home without its.
Other Punch Baits to Consider: The baits below were working on Okeechobee too and might fit your style or you might want to deviate from the norms a bit, but know they were absolutely catching fish on Okeechobee for the 2012 FLW Tour and Everstart Tournaments.
Huge congrats to Randy Tharp for his 2012 FLW Tour Open Victory on Lake Okeechobee. Nobody has worked harder in preparation for this event and no one is more in tune with mat punching on Okeechobee than Randy. Almost 102 pounds of fish in 4 days. Randy broke the 100 pound barrier for the second year in a row. Randy’s work ethic in pre-practice and in just arranging his life and lifestyle to compete at the highest level and be the best angler he can be are second to none. Randy’s wife Sarah, is just awesome and she is an integral part of Randy’s game. They are a team, and they’ve been working at this together for years, things are lining up and it couldn’t happen to better people. Randy’s career is already stellar, and he’s just getting started. The sky (and the fact that Randy is forced by mother nature to sleep, otherwise, he’d be fishing 24 X 7) is the limit for the Tharp’s. Way to go Randy and Sarah! Randall dedicated his win to Jimmy and the McMillan family, and we included some material to honor the life and legacy of Jimmy McMillan. He was definitely proud of his boys this past week.
With over 100 pounds for the second consecutive year, Randall Tharp wins on Lake Okeechobee.
