Going to Lake Okeechobee? Check the wind direction.

[Wormweight]

We picked a day to go to Lake Okeechobee. Only one day and we did not think about driving around the lake if needed. The weather report at home showed East winds so the East side should have been good. We put in at Belle Glade. There were 8 - 10 boats ahead of us so we were not the only ones. We started at South Bottom Bay and we quickly found out the wind was from the N-NW so all the dirty water was pushed to the South. The dirty water make it difficult to find fish. The choices were to either 1) run up to the North end which is 30+ miles one way; 2) go back to the ramp, load onto the trailer, and drive around to Okeechobee on the North end; or 3) make the best of it. We decided on #3 to make the best of it for various reasons. It still was a nice day and we may get lucky.

No bites here so we ran up near Kreamer Island and trolled towards Ritta Island casting and flipping to the grass and pads as we passed. Most of the water depth was 2' - 3' in this area. No fish in this area either. I saw one person in the distance catch a fish but most everyone were in the same situation as us. They would run, stop, fish, and run someplace else. We decided to move to the West side of Ritta Island. Getting up on plane was difficult but worked when one of us moved up front to add weight on the bow. We do not have a hydraulic jackplate to raise the motor. Note, do not trim all the way down or the motor will drag in the dead vegetation. If you are by yourself, you will probably need to make circles to try to get on plane. Speaking of dead vegetation, if anyone from goverment is reading this... STOP SPRAYING LAKE OKEECHOBEE!!! There are so many areas which will ground your boat. The depth gage could show 3' but there is 2.5' of dead vegetation. 6" is not enough water if you get off plane to avoid something worse. So after 30 minutes of pushing with poles to get to deeper water, I checked the screens on the lower unit and cleaned the pee hole.

We ran around Ritta Island. So much of the vegetation is gone from what I remember. We caught nothing West of Ritta Island so we went to the rim canal to fish the drop offs. We started getting hits and finally got one fish on a worm in the rim canal. Was it worth it? Hard to say. Things could have been better, but things could have been a lot worse. It was a nice day.

Please check the wind direction to have a better chance to find clean water. And please be careful everyone.

[Arethaz]

Most of the East side is unfishable in a stiff East wind as well due to lack of vegetation in that area of the lake. I have seen it where it gets all stirred up quick in a stiff North to East wind on that fishable North East corner of the lake.

None the less, it is great that the water is coming down so some of those areas with dead vegetation can get exposed and dry out. The lake drops every summer as it should. Be careful out there the water is lower than it's been for a year. Just make sure you don't stop where it is too shallow and/or hard bottom. Don't go off of previous knowledge when the lake was at 14-16'.