Lake Okeechobee Fl Fishing Report - Bass, crappie weekly update by Captain Mike Shellen

Drought lowered the lake in 2007 click here for photos.

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Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- July 19, 2010

The large rains that have pelted our area have raised the lake level again. The higher water level has contributed to many of the fish moving further into the marsh areas. We went as far back into the marsh this week as we could get and were shocked at the number of bass and blue gill that we found. Many of the bass were small school size fish, but there were some bigger fish back there as well. The water was crystal clear and about 18 inches to 2 feet deep, it was like looking into a fish tank.

Several of the anglers that I spoke with this week related to me that they were not catching as many bass as they had been, although they were still catching fish. Instead of catching forty or fifty fish they only caught 20 to 25. I am sure the high water temperatures are contributing to that. This time of year is what my grandfather always called the dog days of summer, if you look at the cattle in the fields they are all under the trees trying to stay cool. Being on the water during the early morning hours has been critical for us, we are still catching a few fish each day on a top water bait, and then we are switching to flipping or pitching a craw or other type of creature bait.

Cpt Mike Shellen

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Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- July 13, 2010

During my many years of fishing on Lake Okeechobee I have experienced more great moments than I could ever possibly have hoped for. Not all of them pertain to catching big bass or even catching a lot of fish, many of them relate to special times on the water with family, friends and clients. We all have memories that flood over us and bring a smile to our faces and joy to our hearts. There's nothing like a day of fishing to put a smile on your face and melt your troubles away.

The summer of 2010 has been a very memorable one in the respect that the lake has rebounded from a devastating drought and the fishery has made a miraculous recovery. For all intents and purposes the extreme low water conditions and the muck removal projects performed by the SFWMD have given the lake new life.

The numbers of bass in the one to three pound class are staggering, with so many young quickly growing bass in the system, catching has been relatively easy for anglers of all experience levels. I had the pleasure of fishing with three generations of the Etheredge family this week, Lee lll, Lee lV and seven year old Eland from New Jersey. We spent an overcast morning together catching bass, starting with shiners and progressing to artificial baits. Our four dozen shiners lasted less than two hours; we caught many small bass but also caught bigger bass that weighed six and eight pounds. After the live bait was gone we rigged up medium action spinning rod with eight-pound test line. The bait of choice for young Eland was a swimming lizard; he learned very quickly that if he cast it out and retrieved it very slowly he would get bites. The expression of pure joy and then pride on his face when he hooked and then landed his first bass on an artificial bait on his own, was priceless!

The J&S area has been a hot spot for numbers of fish and big fish for the last few months. Top water baits particularly a pop’r will draw strikes when worked tight to the cover, whether it is rocks or weeds. Eagle Bay & Grassy Island are both productive spots for anglers using skinny dippers and flukes, the fish are sometimes on the outside edges, other times the inside grassy clumps are more productive. From the Pearce canal to Indian Prairie bass are working the Kissimmee grass line eating shad and shiners during the early morning hours, skinny dippers, speed worms and horny toads worked slowly through the grass are effective. The North Shore has great eel grass fields to fish, from Horse Island all the way to Harney Pond, depending on the wind direction the water here varies from crystal clear to stained, and tons of bass live in the eel grass. The only thing left for you to do is go fishing!

Cpt Mike Shellen

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4th of July

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report

We all have a duty, as Americans, Floridians and residents of Okeechobee to be proud of our country, state and town. I have the pleasure of fishing with people from all over the United States and people are always pleasantly surprised when they visit our great city and witness all it has to offer. Being a veteran I am acutely aware of what great cost the members of our Military pay for the freedom we all take for granted. We are truly blessed to live in the United States, thank you servicemen and veterans for your sacrifice

Usually there seems as if some aspect of fishing on Lake Okeechobee draws my attention in a negative way, but this past few months has been smooth, very smooth. I realize that we are just getting started with hurricane season and that a major storm could alter things around our town and lake very quickly. There has been an influx of anglers around town that rival that of several years ago, word of mouth about the great fishing is slowly seeping out to other areas and folks that have not been to Okeechobee in a long time have come back to see for themselves.

Bass fishing is tremendous, it does not matter whether you are a novice or an expert or fall somewhere in between, fishing is just great! I have fished with numerous inexperienced anglers in the last few months and every one of them has been able to learn to cast and retrieve a lure, ultimately resulting in catching bass, and normally a lot of them. A wild shiner is still the ticket for the larger bass, although several days we have scored our largest fish on artificial baits. The sheer numbers of small bass in the Lake has everyone talking about the future, and how good it is going to be for years to come. Spinner baits, speed worms, flukes, senkos and skinny dippers are all working for us and I am sure many other lures would work as well, a great time to experiment.

Blue gill are still as prevalent as they have been for the last few months, with a little hunting around a nice bunch of big gills can be caught daily. Crickets, grass shrimp and red worms are the preferred baits.

Cpt Mike

863-357-0892

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- June 23, 2010

	OK, we know Captain Mike is a great guide, but this is really over the top!
Two bass at once. Click on the images to see larger size.

It is very hard to say anything negative about Lake Okeechobee right now, the lake level is fine and the fishing is and has been terrific for quite a while. In all honesty it has been quite a few years since the bass fishing on Lake Okeechobee has been so easy. When I say easy I am refering to everyone being able to catch bass. I have had seasoned bass fishemen on my boat this summer that have marveled at the quantity of bass we are able to catch. We have had customers this summer that have never used an artificial bait for bass prior to this summer, and the smile that lights their face when they are able to catch bass on an artificial bait is priceless. Even young kids have been able to catch bass on their own this summer, it has been so much fun!

Many days we are able to catch bass on many different kinds and styles of baits. We usually start the morning trying to catch fish on a top water bait, just because it’s such a thrill to see a bass blow up on top. Many days they will eat the top water some days they refuse, that’s just fishing. Skinny dippers, big e-z’sa and flukes are next on the agenda for catching, some days the bass are teating the moving baits up, others they will just lazily swirl or swat at the lure. Then we cahgne to a slow moving bait that we can keep in their face until they give in, a senko or a worm, or a creature bait will work in these situations. We usually start with natural colors, watermelon, green pumpkin or black usually draw strikes, sometimes colors that are a little bolder will work even better. As any savvy bass fishermen knows, when you think that you have the bass figured out they will let youy know that you don’t. Bass fishing is a constantly changing endeavor, one minute they will eat every thing you throw, the next nothing is good enough.

We have fished in all areas of the lake this summer and have found that there are huge numbers of bass everywhere we have been. The north shore and its prolific eel grass beds are yielding big numbers of bass as well as big fish, although in the summer a south wind can quickly change everything by dirtying the water. The west side of the lake from point of the reef, where there is a very hard rocky type bottom is less prone to getting dirty and has been yielding huge numbers of bass, around the Cochrans pass area.

Blue gill and shell cracker are still being taken in big numbers, many of the fish are holding around the mouths of the canals where they enter the lake. The Kissimmee River banks are still giving up a lot of big gills,although some anglers are catching blue gill and shell cracker by fishing red worms right on the bottom.

Cpt Mike Shellen

863-357-0892

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- May 24, 2010

Lake Okeechobee continues to yield good catches of bass for those anglers willing to brave the heat and put in their time. Schooling bass are showing up in many different areas, the schoolies on the whole are small but once in a while there will be some bigger fish hanging with them. In deeper water larger bass will sometimes hang out below the marauding school that is blasting bait on the top, waiting for injured or dead bait to filter down to them. A lipless crank bait will entice the feeding school fish into biting, but even the small fish will wise up to a bait after a while. Top water baits, flukes and wacky rigged plastics can draw strikes too.

Shiner fishing is still providing good action for those looking for a big fish bite. Catches of 20 to 30 bass have been the norm this week.

Blue gill are biting like crazy in every part of the lake, whether you fish the River the local canals or the lake, catching has been good. The lake is a great place to catch when the wind conditions are tame, when the wind is blowing hard, the River or the canals provide refuge and also a great bite.

Grass shrimp are abundant in the hydrilla areas of the lake and are relatively easy to catch with a dip net, there is not a fish in the lake that will not eat a grass shrimp. Crickets are great bait and are much easier to get, all you have to do is go to your local tackle store and fill your cage. They are relatively inexpensive and are a close second to a grass shrimp. For those that prefer to fish on the bottom for big blue gills or shell cracker, red worms are the hot ticket and are also available at the tackle shop.

Cpt Michael Shellen

863-357-0892

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- May 15, 2010

Big Blue Gill are being caught in the local canals as well as in the lake. This time of year the canals offer big blue gill deep water to access to escape from the summer heat as the water warms. A fly rod is a good choice for catching big gills if you like to see your fish rise up and suck in a top water offering. A chartreuse or white popper will draw strikes along the canal edges. We are still using a bream buster pole with a cricket for bait and are experiencing great success. This time of year Okeechobee’s pan fish can have a tendency to get thin across the back so in order to take a nice bunch of fish home for the frying pan it is necessary to be more selective about the fish you keep.

During the new moon phase this week we spotted blue gill on their spawning beds way back in the marsh areas, and we also saw fish spawning on the outside edge of the lake too. We are catching a nice mixture of blue gill, shell cracker and specks as we fish using crickets as bait. There is an abundance of grass shrimp to be found in the lake. Much of the hydrilla that is present on the North end of the lake is holding the tiny crustaceans. A fine mesh net passed through the hydrilla will collect the tiny creatures, at times it is hard to locate them but normally they are pretty much in all of the hydrilla. Once you have collected a bunch of the baits you can either leave them in the net in a bucket or place them in a wet towel to keep them alive. I think every species of fish that lives in Lake Okeechobee will eat a grass shrimp, the shrimp just take a good bit of time to collect as opposed to going to the tackle shop and getting a basket of crickets.

This is the time of year my grandmother would call the “Dog Days of Summer”, a time when every species that lives in Florida is looking for some shade, to find some relief from the summer sun.

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- April 22, 2010

Bass, Shell Cracker & Blue Gill are all biting; with a little patience and persistence it is possible to have a level of success each day.

Bass fishing with artificial baits is very good, with anglers reporting that they have been able to catch bass in all areas of the lake. Our efforts at fishing artificial baits have been centered on fishing top water baits early, and then switching to some sort of plastic bait as the sun reaches higher into the sky.

We have been having success using a senko, rigging it weedless or wacky style, both have produced strikes. Natural colors have been working best in the shallow clear water areas, watermelon, green pumpkin or black all perform well at times. A fluke is also a dependable fish catching bait in our arsenal, watermelon with red, gold or candy flecks all produce.

The larger bass we are catching are still falling prey to a wild shiner, most of the bass have spawned at this point and are feeding up after expending a great amount of energy spawning. We are seeing a lot of shad in some of the areas where we are fishing and the bass in these areas are stuffed full of them.

Many different techniques are working to catch bass and or pan fish at this time, go outside of your comfort level and try something totally different than your normal way of fishing. The results may surprise you.

Cpt Mike

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- March 31, 2010

The full moon prompted a huge spawn on Lake Okeechobee this week. Bass, shell cracker and blue gill could all be seen fanning beds in the shallow water this week. Artificial baits have been providing a lot of bites, flukes, worms, top water, spinner baits and senkos are all drawing strikes and catching bass. Shiner fishing provided us with several big fish in the 8 pound class range this week; although most days I think we could have caught more bass on artificial baits.

Everywhere we looked this week in the marsh areas there were bluegills and shell cracker bedding. Several days this week we caught as many shell crackers as we wanted to clean. The primary bait being either grass shrimp or red worms. Blue gill are showing up everywhere in the shallows, along the canal edges and in the river. Several different methods are being used to catch them, for live bait crickets, worms or grass shrimp are working. Another method involves using a beetle spin on light line or fishing a popping bug or sinking fly on a fly rod.

The weather is warm and so is the water, nearly every species of fish in the lake is biting, it is a great time to take your kids fishing!

Cpt Mike Shellen

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- March 1, 2010

It seems as if every week we are dealing with cold weather, which in turn means cold water. We all try to learn something from our experiences in life, and this winter has taught us one key lesson about Okeechobee’s bass. Bass still have to eat. It does not matter how cold the water gets, to survive they have to eat. The water temperatures again fell into the fifties, slowing the bass bite down considerably the first few days, but after a couple of days of sulking in the cold water the bass had to eat. Even though the water was still cold the bite picked up again with both shiners and artificial baits. Saturday the water was fifty nine degrees and we caught as many bass on artificial lures as we did on shiners.

There is good news on the horizon though. March is here and we all know that March brings us beautiful temperate weather. March is traditionally a great month for big bass and for catching numbers of bass as well. In addition shell crackers should start appearing in the shallow water to spawn, and right with them will be big blue gills. There is not better bait anywhere than a grass shrimp for these pan fish and with all of the aquatic vegetation we have in the lake at this time dip netting some grass shrimp should be quite easy. If you can’t find grass shrimp, a cricket or a red worm will serve as a substitute.

For those of you that prefer speckled catfish, there are a lot of very nice sized cats in the shallow water right now. Stink bait, or worms on the bottom will do the trick to get them to bite. A strip of dead shiner will work as well as anything to entice these tasty fish into biting.

Captain Michael Shellen

Shellen Guide Services

863-357-0892

Hook, Line and Sinker

The Captain Mike Shellen Fishing Report- February 11, 2010

Artificial baits anglers are catching good numbers of small bass with an occasional large bass being caught as well. There are many different baits that are working at this time, in fact at times it seems as if they will eat about any lure you’re throwing. Other times fishing becomes more true to form, and becomes downright tough.

One of the hotter lures around the lake has been a skinny dipper, there are many different colors of this lure and a couple of sizes too. A skinny dipper can be fished in very thick cover, so heavy line or braid is recommended, a 6/0 hook is recommended and can be fished weighted or unweighted , depending on what water depth you are trying to fish. The bait can be fished on top or under the surface, so it is versatile as well, the action is unique and subtle and can be worked many different ways. The bottom line is, a skinny dipper has been catching fish for anglers and that makes it a bait that you should be fishing. Other artificial baits that are working include a weightless fluke in watermelon red flake color, a trick worm in any number of colors as well as a white spinner bait with silver blades. There have been some decent morning bites on a rear prop spinner top water bait like a crazy shad or a Sam Griffin lil zip.

Shiner fishing has been consistently good with bass in the 7 pound or larger range coming with regularity. Catch rates vary from day to day as the water temperature and conditions change. Good trips are yielding 35 to 45 bass per trip, poorer fishing conditions are yielding 15 to 20 bass per trip. The cold weather delayed the spawn somewhat, meaning that there will be a steady influx of bass into the shallow water to spawn for the next few months.

In January the water temperatures on Lake Okeechobee were as low as 42 degrees, lower than anyone we have talked to can remember. Literally shocking the fish into a near dormant state until the water warmed once again. As the water warmed the fish went on a chew, biting with a vengeance, making every angler around Okeechobee very happy. Bass fishing on Lake Okeechobee has become better with each passing month, the low water periods we had for several years allowed bass to spawn and grow unmolested and we are just starting to see the results of great spawns. The next few years should provide some of the best bass fishing that has been seen in quite some time on Lake Okeechobee.

Speck fishing remains steady in the Kissimmee River, with nighttime anglers leading the way when it comes to numbers of keeper size specks. There has been a good bite of specks in the shallow grass that rims the lake, with the north shore area being a consistent provided of quality size specks. Soon there will be waves of specks moving into the shallow grass and hydrilla areas to spawn, which will provide jig fishing anglers many hours of fun.

Captain Michael Shellen

Shellen Guide Services

863-357-0892