milepost43

THANKS....

Still live in GA but fished out of Erie,PA for 2-3 weeks shortly after ice out from 2005 to 2011 with my +45yr fishing buddy. Never forget how it was always "just another 4#"...lol Now that Dwight is in FL. I need some Erie reports with pics....thank much.. 8#-1 and 7#-3 ...

Go to REEDY......

Been following water level since our trip last April when it was about 11' and we were scared every time we went out...LOL....any concerns that the high level will kill some of the vegetation.....are some species vulnerable? Thinking of planning our trip this year around the WL...no more 11'ish....if the WL starts down, is there a level the OKEE "experts" would target for a trip? THANKS.....

We made our first trip to OKEE last April when WL was falling rapidly. Had a great trip but just wondered what the bassers lucky enough to be able to fish OKEE regularly do when WL jumps 2' almost overnight...thanks....

Ckd this out with Navionics after I bought the chip...following is their email reply... Thank you for contacting Navionics. The pool elevation at the time of survey for Lake Okeechobee was 15FT. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Jennifer Pereira Customer Service

From fishing up north have quite a selection of spinnerbaits, but have these questions for OKEE trip next week: What are your favorite spinnerbait blade combinations? What are your favorite skirt colors? What are your favorite trailers? Can you use a trailer hook in weedy OKEE? Thanks......

Thanks South FLA. PM sent.

Staying in Okeechobee, but can run or trailer to any area. thanks.

My 45 year bass fishing buddy and I will be fishing Okeechobee for the first time April 9-17. We have only missed fishing together 1 year since we started taking a spring bass trip in 1967. I sold my BW Dauntless 220 this winter so we are trading our annual spring trip(since 2005) to Lake Erie for smallmouth for Okeechobee. This year we can only stay a short time but plan to come annually for at least 3 weeks between Mar 15 and April 15 in the future. We are staying in Okeechobee and my friend has a fully equipped Ranger minus PowerPoles we will be using. Have spent the last few days GOOGling fishing reports/articles about Okeechobee this time of year. To say we are excited would be an understatement. Seems the lake has really come back and will just be getting better in the future. Some conclusions...yes? no? maybe? I have the Navionics mapping chip. +12' Lake level will allow us to generally move around as needed. Most fish will be post-spawn and moving towards main lake. Should have a top water bite, spinnerbait, rattle trap bite Bluegill will be starting to spawn and provide a bite. Will be rigged for swimjig, big worms, and lures like Big EZ Not planning on heavy duty punch baits or sight fishing Since time is short this year, we want to use the time as efficently as possible to begin to learn the lake in prep for future trips. From the reports/recent tournaments, seems we will need to plan our fishing locations based on wind direction and strength. Yes? No? I realize the lake is HHHUUUGGGEEE, so any thoughts on how to break it down into fishable areas would be great. Should we try to hit 2 or 3 areas or just stay in one? Thanks for any advice....

Have been trying to find IGFA line class records for SM. Found this on IGFA site: Any visitor to our site can view most pages. All-Tackle records can be viewed by anyone. However, line class, fly rod, state and Junior records are limited to IGFA Members. Anybody a member and can post the smallmouth line class records? Thanks.

CONGRATS especially on the 6+....have WT moved up?...

CONGRATS...and I am in GA..AAARRRGGGHHH....Has the water cleared up?....Do you think the 6#+s are already gone?...Any 12"ers?....Thanks for the reports....

it's a 10....this SideScan says it all....caught over 50 smallmouth off this boulder/rubble field including 2 > 6# in the first hour after finding it..........

We arrived at the Colonial motel for our 7th year on Tues April 12 just like in '10. Wed started cold with rain. Finally stopped about 3 pm so we fished till 7:30ish. WT was in high 30s.....NO HITS...2 guys at motel who have been coming for 10 years fished ALL day Wed IN THE RAIN....NO FISH...OK maybe we were getting a little worried !!!!!..Thurs April 14 was cloudy but light wind...fished ALL day...ran all our areas from NE Marina to PI....I caught a 5# lake trout on Silver Buddy...go figure....my buddy never had a hit and I had NO smallmouth hits....only saw fish on the HDS a couple of places...maybe they were lake trout..LOL....not sure where Dwight found the blue sky.....in '10 we had 108 with 10 >5# and 4 >6# in first 4 days.......Fri started with E wind +20k and rain......Sat W wind gusting over 50mph with rain...Sun more of the same and went to NE Marina hill to ck mud line....what mud line??..it was over the horizon!!!!!!!!....Ckd 14 day weather on Mon morning...basically more of the same.....FWIW the jet stream was basically blowing straight from Oregon to NY....ck it now....TX to PA with some southerly winds.....800 miles later I was back in GA and REALLY DEPRESSED and counting the days till 2012.......guess with 6 great years out of 7 we shouldn't complain.....BUT WE ARE.......

The LakeMaster® ProMap Michigan Version 3 Card is plug & play, which means you simply insert the chip into your Lowrance unit, turn it on, and the lakes automatically appear on your screen. It's that simple. Lake Erie -All of Lake Erie -1 ft contours Talked to LakeMaster http://tinyurl.com/4nkeqlg office today about the 1' contours in the Erie PA area. Said that I would need to go to one of their dealers like BPS and put their chip in a unit and take a look to see if I thought it would be of value. Has anybody used this chip? Comments appreciated...only 2.5 weeks from dropping the Silver Buddy over the side......assuming the water isn't "hard".....

You may want to ck out the BASS Elite tournament in April on Pickwick. Alabama Charge Pickwick Lake, Florence, Ala. April 6-9, 2011 http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=5343422

historical ice pics....Mar 2010 breakup...note west to east current...sorry about link...you will need to put it together... http://search.usa.gov/search?sc=0& query=eastern+great+lakes+ice+cover+shots&locale=en& m=false&affiliate=nws.noaa.gov&commit=Search

wonder if 2011 will be a more normal year....

Oops, CRS had kicked in...meant to add...go early with plenty of jerkbaits and Silver Buddys.....

My +40yr fishing buddy and I have been going to Dwight's "backyard" since 2005. I can agree that 2008 was definitely DIFFERENT. Since I was an engineer in my other life, I have kept records of our trips. Attached is 2008 vs 2010. In fact, in 2010 we didn't catch A FISH on some structure that in all the other years always produced at least one +50 fish day. Only about 80 days till we should be saying....FISH ON....

I give up...what are the steps to post an image?? thanks...

Interesting article in latest BassMasters about using the ice fishing Jigging Rap in CA. Wonder if it could give the Silver Buddy some competition on early season Erie SMs....anybody use it?? thanks

CONGRATS....great catch....save some for our 2011 trip...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Privately-held construction giant Bechtel is among three firms signed up to develop the first offshore wind farm in the Great Lakes, the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. said Tuesday. Bechtel, Cavallo Great Lakes Ohio Wind LLC, and Great Lakes Wind Energy LLC are teaming up on a joint venture called Great Lakes Ohio Wind, the firm that will own and develop the wind farm. The group plans to build a five-turbine, 20 megawatt pilot wind farm five to ten miles offshore of Cleveland, with construction tentatively set to start in late 2012.