Good and Bad trip to Lake "O"

[macgyver]

Yes I made it back without any major problems. The trip seems very long although it wasn't. Left 4/21 about 5:00pm,(got home 4/26 10pm)by the time we stopped and picked up my dad it was 21 hours (4pm 4/22)later when we arrived at the Marina. We went out for a couple of hours and the only thing we caught was the DNR guy checking our licenses. Got up at 5am had breakfast, and met Art Ferguson(the Marathon Man) at 6am for the day of fishing. Before I go into details about the fishing I want to say that on 4/21 about 6pm(on my way driving to Florida) Art called me on my cell phone and explained to me that the Lake was messed up ??? The whole lake was very muddy, with only one section that had clearer water was where they were catching fish. This was all do to the Hurricanes. He wanted to see if we could go Friday instead of Saturday, since eveyone would be on this spot on Saturday. Needless to say we couldn't get there soon enough to fish Friday. I was not very happy that no one bothered telling me that the lake was messed up from the hurrines until I'm on my way to fish it. :-X

Well we jumped in his truck, and headed to the lake. I was more interested in picking Art's brain as anything, which I did all day. He's a heck of a nice guy, and it's obvious how much a PRO knows compared to me. We fished all day in this say 20 acre area where the water was clearer. My dad and brother fished off the back of his BRAND NEW Triton 21 footer 8), and I fished off the front with Art all day while asking questions. Art probably caught more fish than anyone(I didn't keep count), but my dad and brother took awhile to figure out how to set the hook, and catch the fish on the shiners, so the missed quite a few. I learned a new technique from him, that I was working with a barrell weight(1/16th oz), and a senko, attached with a leader of flourocarbon. :P I got a total of 9 bites during the day, and only landed 2 fish :-[ The only good news is I was concentrating more on watching and learning from Art, so my concentration and fish catching was very very very poor. I was actually a little embarrasssed by the whole thing. Anyway on one of the hooksets I had, the flourocarbon leader came undone at the knot(not broken just came loose) so I had to give Art some grief over that Since he tied it on. Well we could've caught tons of bass with all the fish missed, but still had a enjoyable and learning day. The next day we took my little boat out to the same place, without Art, and it was colder, and windier than the day before. Again dad and brother were fishing shiners, and I was fishing artificials. Big problem was the wind, and my boat, so we ended up having to anchor just to fish. Both of them caught several, with myself not catching a thing, just missed 2 one threw the hook at the boat :P Now you have to understand that at this point my frustration level was very high for lack of boating the fish, so I started getting pretty cranky. Ended up cutting my finger on trolling moter, and getting soaked to the bone from the wind and waves. I was freezing till 3pm that day. We then drove back north to ST Augustine, and had dinner and met my brother in-law to go fishing with us the Monday. We were going to Lake Rodman, since they had lowered the lake, and the fishing was supposed to be superb. Just so happens that Sunday night it was supposed to be a record COLD, and of course I knew the bite would be tough the next day. When we got to Rodman, we tried to find a boat to rent, which they didn't rent any at the lake. Well all of us couldn't fit into my boat, so we went to a nearby lake, and rented a boat there. Well they all went on the rental, and I went out looking for Bass on my boat alone. Got a nibble on a spinnerbait, and a nibble on a YUM Zellamander, and that was it. Other than the 30 or so Gators I saw all over. The rest of the guys ended up with 1 fish a piece with 3 or 4 missed. Now I found out also when I got down there that my dad had to work on Tuesday, so we decided to head home, instead of trying out another lake by ourselves, and we were pretty beat up after the long trips, and fishing. All in all I would give the trip a 7 out of 10 just because I got to spend time with my family, and got to pick Art's brain. The fishing was definately below what I expected, but I can take that with a grain of salt. I also found out that Lake "O" is truly not the states big Bass lake. There are many others that have had a lot more bigguns come out of them. It definately was a learning experience, and glad I went. Next time I will do a lot more research on the final destination before going. I also may go up to Michigan, and have Art take me out on Lake Erie for some smallmouth fishing. It's a heck of a lot closer. Well the total fish for me was 2 bass for 3 days of fishing :P :P Which was my fault for poor hooksetting. Also when are they gonna open the season for gators, you guys have entirely tooooooo many down there. Are they gonna wait until they overcrowd, and kill to many things first ??? Anyway, looking forward to my next trip, wherever that is, and enjoyed seeing some of my family. Hope all of you had better luck while fishing this past weekend. I did take a few pictures, but don't have them developed. I also spent about 30 minutes hanging out with about 12 manatees which was pretty cool 8)

Lizards

[zman]

Lizards, I guess this just goes to show a lot of this is timing - when you happen to hit the lake. I would say that 3 days fishing is pretty short for such a drive, when you take longer (the longest excsusion to fla I ever had, and the most successful was 9 days fishing), you even out your chances because at least a couple days you know have to be nice.

I'm suprised to hear that the hurricanes had that big of an impact on Lake O. Clewiston is south of where they hit. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the hurricane had either thined up or completly cleared away most grass beds on kissimmee - especially my honey-hole along a stretch of canal.

Heres hoping your next trip away from ye ole coal-pit will be more successful. Come to think of it, maybe in the next few years a few of us regulars can actually have a sort of fishing get together on a centralized lake.

[Rob Mak]

ya think the o is large when you get to erie you will know the meaning of "lake" just about every thing else is call pond.

zooker

[Bassin_Dude]

glad you made it back safe. sorry to hear about the poor turn out. atlest you got some good family time and got some more info. was this clearer area the monkey box? i've heard that that area is suposed to be great for fishing. also that it is crowded alot of times by boats. the weather must of had a big effect on the fishing. i think lake 'O' is overrated, but i would still fish it anytime. well anyway, im glad you had a safe trip. hope you do better next time.

[Infisherman1]

[quote author=zooker link=board=Tourneys;num=1114606436;start=0#2 date=04/27/05 at 17:15:42]ya think the o is large when you get to erie you will know the meaning of "lake" just about every thing else is call pond.

zooker[/quote]

Just a short ride over to lake Michigan, I've seen both lake erie and michigan, they're more like inland seas... erie is real shallow though, only about 100ft deep, michigan goes to 950ft.

[Rob Mak]

and both are great to fish. although i used to fish senca lake in ny and be in 600+ feet of water 30 yards off shore. belive it or not i have been on erie in a 17 foot lund with a 25 horse tiller moter and been out 15 miles ..


zooker

[macgyver]

[quote author=zooker link=board=Tourneys;num=1114606436;start=0#5 date=04/28/05 at 17:09:08]and both are great to fish. although i used to fish senca lake in ny and be in 600+ feet of water 30 yards off shore. belive it or not i have been on erie in a 17 foot lund with a 25 horse tiller moter and been out 15 miles ..


zooker[/quote]

That does explain a lot

Lizards

[mike0062466]

Liz,

Sorry the fishing wasn't better, but I enjoyed the story.

I think earlier this year when either BASS or FLW had their tournament there, the whole field had to fish that "monkey box" area.

[fredhatch]

Sorry to hear that the fishing wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I don't fish the Big "O" a lot. Maybe next time you can head towards Cent Fl. We got hit harder by the hurricanes than down south, but for some reason the fish have been really active. I truly believe that its because they are working harder to eat- chasing shad all over vs. sitting in ambush. Spending time w/ family is great though. Glad you had a good time. If you make another excursion down here give me a call, Ill blow off some work and take you to the Stick Marsh. That goes for most of ya'll. 8)