If you're headed to Lake Okeechobee in January, figure on flipping, deadsticking and sight-fishing to catch your bass. All of those techniques were employed by the 2nd- through 5th-place finishers at last week's Okeechobee FLW, as well as the anglers who finished below them.
2nd: Chris McCall
Chris McCall keyed on bulrush islands. "The whole key to my gameplan was looking for areas within the reeds that had clean, clear bottoms where I could see shell beds," said Chris McCall. "That's where I caught my fish. You also needed to have a little bit of scattered lilies and hydrilla.
"Anywhere you could find a point of reeds, or little holes inside the reeds, I'd throw a spinnerbait." He started with that bait every morning, and used two different types. One was a 1/2-ounce three-bladed Gambler Ninja Spin spinnerbait (gold blades and gold skirt) and the other was a 1/2-ounce Stanley Wedge (with a 4 1/2 gold and silver kicker willows, and a gold skirt). "I threw the Ninja-spin more in the calm water, and when the wind picked up I went to the Stanley spinnerbait because it stayed down in the water a little better.
"That was my main deal for the first 2 hours every morning, but the first day my 3 big ones all came flipping mats – real thick bulrushes with hyacinths on top of them," he said. He flipped the mats with a 7' 2" Falcon Pro Grass rod (extra-heavy), Shimano Curado reel, 65-pound Stealth braid, a 1 1/2-ounce tungsten weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline hook, and a 3-inch Gambler B.B. Cricket or a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, both in black/blue.
He said that one of the "real keys" in doing well with mat-fishing was the rod. "(FLW Tour pro and Gambler co-owner Mike Surman helped design it, and you can horse those gorillas out of there with that rod. I honestly don't know if I could've gotten them in with another rod.
> Main factor in his success – "All the people who supported me after the bad news I had. I just can't say enough about all the people at FLW Outdoors. They were super-supportive, and the camera guys last the 2 days talked to me and kept me in it when I was letting mind wander and getting a little down."
3rd: David Dudley
David Dudley's main pattern was sight-fishing. "When I go sight-fishing here, it's kind of a no-brainer: Just go to where clearest water is. There are so many fish in this lake, if (you find clear water) you'll eventually come across areas where they're spawning."
Clear water was the biggest key to his pattern, he said. "You have to be able to see more fish than the other (anglers) are seeing. And the more fish you can see, the better chance you have to spot a big one. That's a no-brainer."
He found clear water that was "pretty deep. I had a 1/4-ounce sinker on and it dropped a good way, say 4-5 feet." He also fished into the main lake, something typically avoided on Okeechobee in favor of the ample shoreline grasses.
His gear: Custom 7' Kistler Helium XX heavy rod, Shimano Curado reel, 17-pound Berkley Trilene XT, 1/4-ounce lead weight, Gamakatsu 4/0 round-bend hook, Zoom Brush Hog (watermelon red) and Zoom Speed Worm (watermelon). "I use watermelon and green pumpkin 99 percent of the time," he noted. "I don't play the color game. Those two colors will catch them all over the place."
> Main factor in his success – "Probably being able to see the fish, and relying on God, really. This is the first tournament that I didn't have any fish to go to the first day. Most times when sight-fishing is going on, you have them lined up. And God blessed me with two 8-pounders the first day."
4th: Shinichi Fukae
Osaka, Japan's Shinichi Fukae is one of the best bass anglers in Japan, and he showed what that meant at this event, his first American tour event. He apparently felt at home sight-fishing among the vegetation, which is all he did to catch his fish.
He sight-fished the north shore around cattails in 3-4 feet of water. He alternated between a dropshot with a white scatter shad (that might not be the exact name), a white tube and a white 1/16-ounce crappie-type feather jig. The plastic baits were fished on 16-pound fluorocarbon, and the jig was fished on 30-pound braid. He also spinnerbaited a little in the morning, but all his fish came sight-fishing.
FLW Outdoors didn't have a translator on hand (and unfortunately there were way too many jokes about Fukae's poor English skills) so that's all the info that was available about his pattern.
5th: Dave Lefebre
Dave Lefebre fished "a huge cove" that was about 2-3 feet deep. As far as vegetation goes, it had "everything. I had 3-4 main areas that had peppergrass, pencil reeds, hydrilla – just a huge mix. Everything that's in the lake was in there. I could put the boat in one spot and see 8 different types of weeds."
On days 1-3 he caught all his bass fishing a Stanley Wedgetail soft-plastic and deadsticking a Kinami Norie's Bug or Kinami Flash (Senko-type bait). The Wedgetail "is like creature bait, but has knobs and vibrates like you wouldn't believe," he said. "I'd cast it out and let my co-anglers feel it, and ask them to guess what it was. They all said a crankbait or a 'Trap. I was casting that when I wanted to cover water, and was casting to open holes (with the other baits).
On day 4 he caught them flipping the Kinami Norie's Bug and the Reaction Innovations Boom Boom Tube. H said the tube is a "softer bait," which was key because "fish are hard to hook under the mats."
Colors on the soft-plastics were watermelon and green-pumpkin. He added a little bit of chartreuse on the tails when the water in his area got a little dirty on day 3. "It seemed to help," he said.
He fished the Wedgetail with a 7' 11" medium-heavy Rogue rod, Shimano Chronarch reel, 30-pound braid, 1/16-ounce Penetrator weight (not out yet) and a 3/0 Gamakatsu Extra Wide Gap Superline hook. His deadsticking rig was: 7' 6" Rogue light flipping rod, 15-pound Triple Fish Fluorocarbon line and the same hook: 2/0 for the Bug, 3/0 for the Flash and 4/0 for the tube.
> Main factor in his success – "I didn't have a whole lot of time to practice (3 days)."
> He's from Pennsylvania, and noted that a "10-pounder sitting on the bed looked like a 30-inch muskie sitting there."
Chris McCall went after active early-morning fish with a spinnerbait, and then flipped.
