caloosa bug

Capt. sounds to me like your clients were left with a great story of their Glades adventure in the backcountry. The boat ride, weaving through the maze of mangroves with wildlife all around is a memorable experience for anyone fortunate enough to experience it. Good thing pride was the only scuff of the day…it’s easily repairable. It’s good to see you getting some clients. It’s been a few weeks since I was out on the lake and noticed the drop in water levels. I launched at fisheating creek Sunday morning before daylight. I planned on jigging a crappie jig and possibly begin scouting for bass. I stayed in the creek fishing trees in 4-7 ft of water and picked up a few specks. Once the sun came up, I headed north to dyess ditch and went to an area me and dad caught some at a month ago. I put the trolling motor down and eased up the vegetation and my trolling started kicking up silt and sediment. When you fish an area that averages 2.5-3.5 ft. deep, a foot and half difference changes things. I quickly left and headed east to bird island for a little deeper water and a stretch that always produces something. I knew the wind would start to pick up and my time would be limited before retreating back to the creek. Landed a dozen or more speck. By 9:30 it was blowing noticeably more and I needed to get off the open water while I could still run on plane without beating my bass tracker. Went back to the creek and fished till 1. By then it was blowing 20-30 and I had a decent mess of fish for dinner. We have our annual one fish bass tournament me and dad fish in about a month. I don’t think either one of us has even been bass fishing on the lake since snook season opened in October. Time to start bass fishing..but jigging these big specks has been too much fun.

Good work captain! That’s a beautiful trout. I’ve been doing half days on the last few Sundays on Lake o. Carrying only a couple jig poles and a some of my jigs. I’ve been averaging around a dozen big keepers every trip. The weather and fishing has been great!

This Green Heron looked beautiful in the morning sunlight. I thought for sure he’d fly off as I crept closer with a jig pole in one hand and my phone in the other. But he just sat there and let me take his picture and fish around his perch.

thanks Mark! Fished an area of the caloosahatchee right near the boat ramp that I pass all the time . I had a hunch it may hold a few specks. My hunch was right, and in a couple hours I brought home 7 big ones and lost 3 more slabs lifting them in the boat.

Beautiful day on the Big O today. Found a few nice speck. Then did a lot of scouting. I was able to run my little bass tracker anywhere I wanted to go without fear of beating my hull to death in open water.

Vic, after reading your post again, it sounds like you have a good grasp on the facts. I quoted your first sentence as an example. Someone less educated would read that as..the Big o is causing pollution to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. Causing algae blooms by the release of water. This would be the same way the local news stations…Ft. Myers and West Palm..would report the story every time the Army corps of Engineers mention possible water releases. we don’t have any news stations here in the sticks in the middle of the state.. they mention toxic lake o releases, and show a video clip of green algae in Cape Coral, then a clip of dead fish on the beach from red tide. Can algae be toxic? Yes. Is the water toxic and polluted? No! Do they get nasty algae in Cape Coral when no releases happen? You bet! Are the dead fish on beaches a result of lake o releases? No way, totally separate. There is a lot of misinformation out there that gets construed behind political agendas and the media. They fail to mention all the massive algae blooms that happened the last couple years when there was no water being released for months. Yes, the lake has algae blooms, and yes it gets distributed into the rivers. But I’ll be willing to bet that the water coming directly out of the lake, is cleaner than coastal river water. My useless, uneducated observation of Lake O and the Caloosahatchee is this. Since the dike was built and the rivers were dug into canals, there will always have to be water releases somewhere sometime. We need more grass to come back and the use of herbicides to stop. I counted 4 airboats spraying a couple areas today. This contributes to the amount of dead plant matter that piles up on the bottom. Not to mention the loss of filtration. When releases are planned, I would like them to be more gradual. Opening the flood gates and having class 5 rapids gushing out of the lake can stir all that matter on certain areas of the lake, and flush it right towards the coast. Then they close the gates after a week. I’d rather have them open at half speed and stay open longer. The lake and river wouldn’t get as stirred up and those helicopter views of tea colored water in the harbor, may not be as bad. The releases have actually been pretty reasonable lately and the lake and river have remained relatively clear other than what the wind does. the lake and river are both beautiful and clean. I encourage anyone thinking about fishing lake o to do so if they can. The elusive 10lbers are out there, but are getting fewer and farther between. I have a buddy who guided a shiner trip last week and they got a 10 and an 11 pound bass. Then again he had years of guiding experience and had never landed a 10+for a client until now. ps. Did you notice the log in the middle of the 7 pic I posted? Hint, it’s not a log.

Spending a day on Lake O was so much better than being at work today. 😁. It was unusually calm and the temperature was perfect.

Welp, that’s a wrap on snook season. It was pretty productive fall season. Here’s a pic of dad with one just under slot on the final day. Now we can focus on Lake Okeechobee speck and bass fishing. This latest cold front is already producing better crappie fishing reports, with bigger females starting to move into the shallows.

lol. I said oh boy, out loud when I read the question yesterday. Lake O can become a heated discussion with many south Floridians because it has an impact on all of us. I’m almost 41 now, and have lived and fished on lake O and the caloosahatchee my entire life. I’ll probably comment more when I have time to type…but I agree with previous statements. Adding to the list of issues is the amount of spraying herbicides FWC has been doing. I’ve seen them countless times spaying areas that have no bearing on navigation or invasive species. Huge area’s of grass have disappeared the last few years from spraying alone. It just makes me mad when I hear on the afternoon local news that when water releases may happen, they use the words like “toxic”, and harmful in the same sentence with Lake O. Lake O is still a great fishery…it just fishes smaller and smaller every year. 730 square miles, and only a handful of areas consistently produce big bass. And this time of year through February, they are getting hammered by multiple big bass tournaments every weekend. A few more points and observations to come.

Nice work Capt. I’ve been tying up some crappie jigs. Will post pics later. Got 4 of these this morning. Got to take advantage before season closes.

I agree. It’s been really nice out. Ya, the creek is still high for fishing near Hwy 27, but from State rd. 78 to the mouth in fisheating bay, there is some fish coming into the creek in 5-10 foot of water. The crappie bite will only get better from now till mid January.

Good points captain. That’s what is great about our state, “the fishing capital of the world”. There’s always somewhere to go and catch fish. I trailered the boat back to ortona this morning. I only landed 2 snook but both were close to 30 inches. At 9:00 am I loaded up the boat and headed back to fisheating bay. The crappie bite was slow at times, but still managed a dozen. Then around 1:00 I headed out across the lake to do some exploring while water levels are still up, and the waves were manageable. I was able to cross the monkey box, zigzag through moonshine bay, and make it to cochran’s pass. I bass fished for a little while, then came back to fisheating bay for a few more crappie. I don’t think I could ever leave South Florida. I like to fish too much to live anywhere else.😁