December 2009, Big Christmas Bass!

December 31, 2009

I fished with Bruce Saunders from Philly today. Bruce and I fished with both shiners and artificial baits and had success with both, it was a great day. Good fishing and good company, a great way to end the year.







December 29, 2009
I fished with Mark Newton and Skip Shears
from Lawrence Kansas today. Originally the boys were scheduled to fish with me yesterday but due to a big snowstorm they were not able to get out of Kansas so we changed our schedules to fish today. The guys drove 27 hours to get to Okeechobee for their first fishing trip on the Big "O", arriving at the same time as a huge 2 day cold front. The air temperature was 38 degrees this morning and the water in the lake was 57 degrees, about 15 degrees colder than 10 days ago when it was 72. The fishing was a little slow we only had 12 bites in a half day of fishing. The bass we caught were all very fat and full of roe, ready to spawn, they had moved into the shallows in response to the approaching full moon to spawn. The good news is that this wave of fish will not spawn until the water warms considerably when we can get back out and catch them. The highlight of the day was this big 7 pound Bass that Mark caught on a shiner, it was his largest bass ever and he was very happy, as was I. I have many pictures in my archives of big Bass and in a large percentage of the photos the fishermen holding the fish are dressed in cold weather gear, it seems that the really big bass will still eat when the weather is dreadful.

December 28, 2009

I fished with John Ester and his 17 year old son Chris today. The guys are staying in Port Charlotte with their families for the holidays, but live in Wisconson. We had a good day of fishing with a terrific morning bite. It was a great day with nice people.










December 27, 2009

I fished with Edgar Needham, his daughter Daniele and her husband Rob today, all three are from Canada. It was a chilly and windy day that turned out to be a lot fun, catching bass and trading stories.







December 22, 2009

I fished with Jay Dean and his 9 year old son Nick today along with Jay's college buddy Tom. Jay and Nick are from Vero Beach and Tom is from Richmond Va. It was another cold and windy day on Lake Okeechobee, the day started rather slow and we had to move numerous times before we finally found some warmer water where the fish were willing to bite. Nine year old Nick is quite a sportsmen and it was fun to fish with him to watch his young enthusiasm for the sport, we had a great day and a lot of fun.



























December 21, 2009


I fished with Van Frankel from NY NY today and his son Dan. It was a very cold and windy day, but the fish still bit for us. The water temps have dropped around 10 degrees the last two day, should be interesting to see how things go tomorrow? We had a lot of laughs and a great time together!








December 20. 2009

I fished with Joe and Laura Rigdon from Otsego Minnesota today. It was their first trip to Lake Okeechobee, the weather was cold (48 degrees) and very windy, but the bass did not seem to care. the first spot we hit we caught bass after bass until the waves got too big and forced us to leave the area. We moved a couple of times after that and caught fish in every spot we hit. It was another great day of fishing on Lake Okeechobee. Laura caught her biggest Bass ever and Joe had a bass on that he will remember for the rest of his life, he got her half way to the boat and she came unhooked, it even hurt me when that big Bass came off!
































December 15, 2009

Today I fished with three generations from the Forgan family. Jim Forgan and his 10 year old son are from West Palm, and grandfather Ted is from Pennsylvania. We had a great day catching Bass on lake Okeechobee with wild shiners.





















December 12, 2009
Today I fished with Jay Molyneaux from Denver NC and his good friend Bobby Dalby from Texas. The Bass are still biting as you can see from the pictures. We fished one particular area where we caught fish after fish. We caught a lot of bass and had a lot of laughs it was another great day on Lake Okeechobee.

December 11, 2009

I fished with Mike Huck from Kentucky today and his friend Tahsin Mert from Ankurra Turkey. We had a wonderful day of bass fishing, catching bass after bass on wild shiners. We caught a lot of fish as well as some big Bass. The first picture with just one bass that Mike is holding is a Bass that was only 16 inches long but was shaped like a football as you can see. We had a great day laughing and catching fish.












































December 7, 2009

I fished with Jim & Bonnie Pickett from Kentucky today, they are former cleints that have become very good friends. They now own there own Ranger a very sweet Z22 that we went fishing in. I got to catch Bass myself today which was a real treat. We had a great day, caught a bunch of Bass and had lots of laughs at the same time. Life is good!



December 5, 2009

I fished with Pat & Dan Hofmann from Syracuse NY today. Bass fishing was a little slower than it has been, cold weather and 4 inches of rain put the bass off a little. We still caught a lot of Bass and had a great day of fishing together.









December 4, 2009

Today I fished with Sab Delango and his friend Dan. the guys are police officers from NY and love to fish. Neither one of them had ever caught big Florida Bass like they caught today. I was rainy and windy again today but we had a wonderful day. We laughed a lot and caught lot of Bass it doesn't get much better for me.
































December 3, 2009

I fished with Don Kurtz from Canton Ohio and Ken McGuffey from Indianapolis In. today. It was day 2 of our 10 boat trip and it was windy and rainy. We had a great day anyway although we got rained on for a good portion of the day. We caught a lot of Bass and had some laughs along the way. The Bass are spawning hard, when they come off the beds it should be an incredible bite.

December 2, 2009

I fished with Dan Sevcik from Ft Wayne In. and Jim Chapman from Macon Georgia today. We were part of a 10 boat guide trip that was sponsored by Prince Agri Products, 20 guys went fishing in 10 guide boats for a day of catching Okeechobee Bass. We had a great day catching a lot of very nice Bass. The large females seem to be spawning and are difficult to get to bite right now, the full moon is tonight so fishing will be getting better and better as the week progresses. We are all fishing together again tomorrow, so stay tuned for more pictures of Okeechobee Bass action!
















December 1, 2009

I fished with Don Harris from Pennsylvania today. It was just Don and I today so Don got to handle every bite himself. We caught 35 Bass in a morning of fishing with live wild shiners. The air temperatures are in the 80's and the water has warmed back up after the cold front. Throw in the fact we are looking at a full moon tomorrow and the catching picture gets better and better. We had a great day together.