Oh those Florida cold fronts!

January 16, 2012 - Posted by Steve Dall Wow, what a weekend. With the state of Florida typically having warmer weather than the rest of country this time of year, the major tournament trails always seem to kick off their schedules here in the Sunshine State and that holds true again in 2012. With the FLW Tour Open next month on Lake Okeechobee and the FLW Everstart tournament this coming week on the same body of water, I will be fishing both events again this year. If you remember, I cashed two nice checks in both big events last year and the Everstart tournament was where I finished 11th out of 150 boats and missed the final day cut by a lousy ounce. See the blog post from last year, as it is quite comical now looking back. That all being said, this past weekend we had the first of five FLW BFL Gator Division tournaments on Saturday where we were met with frost on our boats the morning of the tournament and 20 mph winds straight from the northeast. Fun. I had an awful day to say the least. Sunday, I redeemed myself by taking 3rd place in the Ft Myers Bass Club’s first of 12 tournaments in 2012 and more rewarding was that my co-angler topped the field on his side, so it was a pretty rewarding day as far as redemption goes and seeing him do well. We culled a collective 8 times, so when that happens, you know you are on the right fish, especially in this awful weather. That boosted the confidence for me going in to this week’s Everstart tournament back out on Okeechobee. I had pre-fished for about 5 hours on Friday for the Sunday tournament out on Lake Istokpoga, just north of Okeechobee and probed about 6 spots and decided that I’d start Sunday on a hydrilla flat slow rolling some weedless swimbaits, but knew that we’d really have to grind it out. I found that my Phenix Recon 764 was the rod of choice, spooled with 33 pound Blackwater braid to horse them out of the heavy stuff. We really got dialed in to this area and never fired up the big motor until we left for weigh in. I am a big believer in that if you know there are fish in your area, be patient and figure out how to get them to bite, versus leaving fish to find fish. It really worked out for us on Sunday. I’ll be checking back in here early next week with some updates! Until then, tight lines and good fishing to you all!