There’s no doubt the numbers and quality of the bass in Lake Okeechobee’s 734 square miles of water is as good as it has been in years. However, the amount of fishable water this week may be as low as it’s been in years.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Steve Kennedy, who has posted a strong track record in his 25 years of fishing bass tournaments at Lake Okeechobee. “The water has been high and pushed all the grass back. Now it’s falling. And it’s the dirtiest I’ve ever seen it. There’s no clear water anywhere.”
That cold front of last week and strong winds that have shifted directions from day to day have left few fishing options. Bill Lowen, coming off his Elite Series win at the St. Johns River last week, was positioned in one of those clear-water options in the final hours of practice Wednesday afternoon.
“Right now, I’m in the best water I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” said Lowen, who then started counting other Elite Series anglers in the boats around him. He stopped at eight. “That’s just the ones I can see. I think you’ll see a bunch of guys ganged up in the canals, and I think you’ll see a bunch of us in the river.”
Lowen was referring to the Kissimmee River. In 2023 Tyler Rivet had the river to himself when he won the last Elite Series tournament here with a total of 86 pounds, 15 ounces. There will be plenty of traffic in the river when the four-day Champions Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite begins at Lake Okeechobee on Thursday.
“(Rivet) won’t be there by himself this time,” Lowen said with a laugh. “I can assure you of that.”
It’s not Rivet’s pattern that Lowen or anyone else will be trying to duplicate. It’s just the search for clear water.
“The guys that practiced in the canals are going to have the most stable environment,” said Drew Benton. “The guys that have practiced out here on the lake are playing with fire.
“There’s one positive (trend). We’ve got a new moon (Thursday night). It was 80 degrees today, and it’s only going to get down to 64 tonight. It’s going to be 80 tomorrow. That’s the positive. You’re going to have to be in the right place at the right time, and they move in on you.”
Benton admittedly enjoys targeting spawning fish. He thinks there are many pre-spawn bass in the lake now. But he likes to have a few more options when fishing Okeechobee.
“I like it when bream beds are in play, and post-spawners are in play,” Benton said. “It gives you more options versus this year you’ve got to find clear water where they’re coming to spawn.”
Brandon Palaniuk didn’t care to pick a single angler or two that might have an advantage in this event. “I think you’re going to see a lot of flip-flopping in the standings,” he said. “It fished small the last time we were here, but I think it’s going to fish even smaller this time.
“I found one place that I feel like I could catch a decent bag, and I highly doubt I’ll be there by myself.”
But don’t be swayed by any of the practice talk. This place has an abundance of big bass, as proven by Scott Martin’s three-day bag of 90 pounds, 6 ounces in the Bassmaster Open last February. It broke the all-time B.A.S.S record for a three-day event, which was 83-5 set on California’s Clear Lake in 2000.
“The fish are here, and somebody’s going to catch them,” said Kennedy. “You know that. There’s a year-class of 10-pound fish in this lake. There’s just not a lot of water to fish for them.”
