After almost a year and a half of bad publicity, bad
fishing and uncertainty of the lakes future, Lake Okeechobee has a
bright star on the horizon.
Okeechobee was drained for who knows what reason back
in July of 2000. People were not sure what would happen to the lake
and we all just waited to see. The it appeared that disaster had struck
the second largest lake in the United States and everyone was asking
for an explanation, but then the rains came, the Water management started
back pumping (which carries some controversy), and the lakes to the
north started releasing water which could only end up in our back door.
The good in all this is that the lake is on the rise and the low water
has really had some GOOD impact on the lake.
When the lake
went down to 8.9 feet above sea level, the major tournament trails
started to scramble to make decisions for
the following year, out of five Major Tournament Trails only one jumped
the gun and decided to take there trail to a different body of water.
Bass Master Tournament Trail decided to move their tournament to the
ST. Johns River. All the other trails waited out the drought and are
all planning on returning to Lake Okeechobee starting with Jerry Rhyne
Fisherman’s Bass Circuit November 17th and 18th in the City of Okeechobee
out of Kissimmee River Park.
Larry Crossman
owner of the Wanna Linga Motel in Okeechobee and a member of the
Okeechobee Tourist Commission stated “as long as
the lake hold the level of water at eleven feet Everstart Series will
be here January 9th thru the 12th and the World Bass Fishing League
have agreed to hold two of there tournaments in the city of Okeechobee
for the 2002 season with one of them being on March 16th”. FLW will
be going to Clewiston in January as they have for about the past five
years.
Two weeks
ago I flew over the lake to see what was going on, and to my surprise
there were acres and acres of bass beds from
Uncle Joes Cut west to Cochran’s Pass with Shellcracker bed groups
the size of the dance floor at your local hangout. This should be an
inspiration to all of us who were scared to think of what was happening
to the lake.
As friends and myself have been venturing out into the
lake with the rising water, the fish are starting to explore and bunch
up in large groups around the lake. There has been a lot of work happening
on the lake while it has been low. There has been scraping going on,
fish attractors being placed in the lake at five different locations,
and bottoms moved around to make natural attractors in the form of
sand piles and ditches.
The ramps have taken a new look and there are more ramps
to get a face lift in the near future as in they will be starting next
week on Okeetantie ramps. The city will be dredging the basin and redoing
the ramps. The ramps will be lengthened and resurfaced.
We still need to keep an eye on the lake, but there
is definitely a bright star on the horizon and a freshness that has
happened to the lake. If they would put some control on things and
allow Mother Nature to handle most of the work then I think that the
drought the lake was in will greatly improve the fine resource we have.
If you look back at when all this started, Mother Nature was setting
us up for a drought by giving us all the rain and then man stepped
in and drain the lake and we did not receive the rain that we usually
do for the next year.
That shows that you should never mess around with Mother
Nature.
By: Brent Propst
Gambler Boat National Team Member
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