The American Fishing Series on Lake Okeechobee

 

Gary Mortensen FLW Outdoors

I just got back a couple hours ago from fishing the American Fishing Series event on the Big O, it's nice to live so close to the lake.  I finished in 70th out of 147 anglers so I can't complain too much.  It was a very tough event for me and I fished hard to catch those seven little bass I weighed in.  

Day 1 I drew my buddy, roommate and travel partner which was pretty crazy.  Since we were staying together at the hotel it made it really easy in the morning.  We just got our stuff and left.  I didn't have to wait around for my partner to show up at the ramp.  We ran around the lake and both had zero fish at 2 o'clock.  It was really windy so we decided to duck into a canal we know about.  I was getting worried, but we didn't have to weigh-in until 4:45 so we had plenty of time.  I picked up my shakyhead rod to try to salvage the day.  I caught a short fish, two keepers and lost one in the last two hours.  My two fish weighed a whopping 2lbs 6oz and I was in 103rd place.

Day 2, I was paired with a local who had two fish for over seven pounds yesterday.  It made me feel confident in that at least he was around good quality fish.  Man was it cold this morning.  I got in my truck and the temp said freeze and flashed 36 degrees.  This isn't supposed to happen in Florida!  I didn't let the conditions get to me and ended up catching around eight fish today and weighed in 6lbs 4oz.  All of them came on Junebug Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worms, one of my confidence baits.  My partner for the day struggled and didn't weigh a keeper fish.  I ended up in 70th place, which at least was in the top half of the field.  Although I didn't get a check, it gave me some good points to work with for the next two events.