It is far from uncommon to see competitors fishing around one another on Lake Okeechobee. As a matter of fact, over the rich history of bass tournaments at this famed lake, it’s often been said that if you’re not around other boats, you’re not around the bass.
On Day 1 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Okeechobee presented by SEVIIN, that theory held true for a large portion of the field. Several reports from anglers stated that certain areas of the lake housed upwards of 80 boats within sight of each other.
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Bryan New, who sits in 13th place after Day 1, was one of the anglers that decided to fish in a crowded area in hopes of out fishing his competition.
“It seems like you’re going to be fishing around a crowd more times than not when fishing in Florida,” said New. “I knew from fishing the Elite here last season that there was only going to be so many places that had the right ingredients for fish to be living in.”
Rather than being upset with the number of boats in an area, the South Carolina pro tries to focus on the task at hand, and uses the information that the competitor boats give him.
“When I’m fishing around a crowd, I just try to do my own thing but I always pay attention to the specific areas that haven’t fished recently,” New said. “The main thing about fishing in a crowd is understanding how the fish will react to all the boats in the area and figuring out a way to catch them.”
Another angler that had success around a crowd on Day 1 was first year Elite Qualifier Beau Browning of Hot Springs, Ark., who sits in 16th place.
“To be honest, I don’t really mind fishing around a crowd like this as much as I thought I would because it’s allowing me to pick up on a lot of things,” said Browning. “It’s a big area that I’m fishing, but I was always paying attention to the high percentage areas and how recently they had been fished.
“The biggest thing for me was fishing everything like there was an abundance of fish around. That mindset helped me to slow down and really pick everything apart thoroughly.”
Other anglers like Alabama’s Tucker Smith, who sits in second-place after Day 1, decided early in practice that he felt most comfortable getting away from the crowd.
“I had some success in practice in some of the really popular areas of the lake, but I really tried to focus on stuff that was further away from the crowds,” said the former Bassmaster College National Champion.
On Day 2 the question will be if the popular areas of the lake that are getting a lot of pressure will hold up, or if the areas that less anglers are fishing have the population of fish to last for two days.
Follow along all tournament long on Bassmaster.com, and Saturday’s broadcast of Bassmaster LIVE on FS1.
