Notably Missing: Lake Okeechobee

[Blackdfl]

[font "Times New Roman"][size 3]March 2008 – The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released their list of recommended destinations for anglers looking for the thrill of catching freshwater bass. According to the latest national statistics, there are more than 30 million anglers,10 million of whom specifically pursue freshwater bass. Florida has four species of freshwater or black bass: largemouth, spotted, Suwannee and shoal. Of the four, largemouth bass are by and large the most common bass in Florida, since they can be found in abundance in most of Florida’s 10,550 miles or rivers, streams and creeks or in its 7,000-plus lakes.[/size][/font]
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sailfishcity.com/...sing-lake-okeechobee

[#ff0000][/#ff0000][#ff0000]****Invalid Link to another site with a forum****
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[gdn443]

Welcome Blackdfl to BFT. Maybe you could tell us what the lake is like at this point. WE hear rumors up here that the lake has been lost to bass fishing for years to come. Whats the skinny.[]
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[Blackdfl]

Well, the info you ask for was in that post you deleted the link to. [cool]

FYI, that's a blog, not a forum. But anyway, the lake is suffering from a loss of vegetation. The lake may be 450,000 acres, but honestly only about 75,000 acres is really good fishing due to that being where the vegetation is. When the lake is at elevated levels, the water encroaches on even more vegetation, making it great for bass fishing.

Unfortunately right now, the lake is at about 4 feet below the average. So we are well below the median water line, meaning much less vegetation than even the average, and the vegetation that would normally be there is dying off largely in part due to the phospherous in the lake sediment from runoff. The water management districts are working to get the pollution under control, but we'd still need a few good years of weather conditions for the vegetation to really make a positive comeback.

More later...
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[tlspyder13]

Thats too bad about Okeechobee. The up side of your drought years is that people build their houses next to the new water line as if the lake will never come back up. When the water does come back lots of new expensive protection for the bass.

When I lived if Florida I had a good friend who would walk by new houses and tell people "Hope it floats". When they would ask why he would laugh and say "Because that land is part of the lake there".
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