So we decided to head up to Lake Istokpoga which is about an hour away from Moore Haven.
We arrived to the sight of big sand hill cranes gliding in to the boat ramp area.
We fished hard for a few hours and started realizing it was different from Okeechobee as the bottom tapered to the shore line. So, unlike the Big O, when you cast to the reeds the water was inches deep instead of feet deep.
We finally found an area that was promising and consisted of boat docks, weeds and bull rush.
My first bite on my birthday was the biggest bass for us for the day.
We fished back and forth in this area and landed a few more buck bass and lost a couple of nice fish when one of the members of our outing thought that he could catch them with a spinning rod. Much to his surprise the sissy stick wasn't a match for the large bass he had hooked up on (Doug).
We headed back to the house and I received a text from Nick. He had landed this nice bass on his Spro frog.
On Thursday, Hunter arrived from Charleston. The fishing was a lot of casting for the guys on Thursday, with a few fish coming aboard.
On Friday, we were able to fish three boats and scout more areas of the Big O.
We fished near the ramp in the hayfield, the spawners were leaving but a few fish were still there.
Hunter scored his first Big O bass on his new rod and reel with a Big Dipper swim bait.
Hunter decide to show off his Charleston tan with this nice fish.
I managed a few fish too.
While we were satisfied with the numbers of bass on Friday, the quality we were looking for wasn't there.
On Nick's boat, his Dad Larry caught the big fish of the trip though. I beautiful 8 lb. largemouth ate his Big Dipper in Pelican Bay.
Pictured with Larry is Nick 1, who also caught a fish that day. Not bad for a knife maker from Oklahoma.
We bid farewell to Nick 1, Nick 2 and Larry Saturday morning as they headed back to Atlanta, Utah and Oklahoma knowing we wouldn't have Nick's big bass pictures coming across our phones to keep us pumped up.
On Saturday we headed back into the hayfield near the dock due to the fog.
Nick had given us a tip on the Spro frog and I had bought one for everyone when I picked up Hunter at the airport in Ft. Myers. A Bass Pro Shop is at the same exit, good for them, bad for the bass as the frog sure played a big role in banging some nice fish as the next wave of fish came to spawn.
The fog and frog gave up this bass Saturday morning.
The fishing again was slower than we wished, but the Spro frog kept our confidence up.
Hunter scored with this fish on the frog and you can see how they really eat this frog up as the frog is way down it's throat.
We got off the pond a little early because the fish just weren't biting like we wanted. We hoped Sunday would be better, but we were greeted by a parking lot full of tournament anglers and many areas were covered with anglers.
Hunter and I headed down towards Little Joes Cut to try some water we had caught some fish on a few years ago.
We caught a few fish but missed plenty. The fish weren't quite committing to the bait, but I did flip up a couple of nice ones on a Goo Bug.
We managed a few more buck bass throughout the day and decided to get off the water before the tournament weigh in and we didn't get stuck in the traffic the weigh in would present.
Monday was Hunter's last day to fish. We felt good about the area we were fishing and knew we had missed some nice fish the day before. I was hoping for better results for Hunter on his last day of fishing, but I never thought it would be a day to remember.
Monday was the first day that we weren't greeted by a fog bank. We were able to go straight to our spot near Joes Cut and start fishing there immediately.
The water temp had climbed to the low 70's from the mid sixties when we first arrived. Maybe this is what brought the wave of fish that moved in over night.
Hunter started throwing the spro frog and a I started flipping, but it was soon evident that the topwater would be the trick that morning.
Hunter started crushing the fish as soon as we got the trolling motor moving and they were grown ones.
This fish had gotten much bigger overnight as the females were coming in to spawn. All were fat with white bellies which indicated they were fish just coming ashore to have babies.
The bite was as an exciting bite as the morning tranquility was punctuated with huge slurps of bass inhaling the frog and Hunter saying "there's another one!" and grunting to keep their heads up out of the grass to get them boat side.
I put down my flipping stick and joined the fun.
Hunter just kept bringing them in.
This morning bite finally started to die. We figured since the water was navigable in Doug's flats boat we would take a ride down to the hayfields in south bay.
There were fish in the fields but all we could land were the small buck bass guarding fry. We motored to the outside of the weeds and decided to make a few casts out front.
Hunter managed to catch this toothy fellow on a chatter bait.
As you can see in the background of this picture a little line of clouds were forming and we decided to head back to the ramp area, not wanting to get wet or blown about.
On our way back the clouds thickened and rain fell for a little bit, but it noticeably cooled off.
Since it was Hunter's last day of fishing and it didn't look like the clouds were going to turn into anything menacing, we decided to give our morning spot one more go.
Hunter mentioned that the cloud cover would help. Damn, he is a prophet as the bite for the next couple of hours was tremendous.
The fish were all over topwater frogs and devouring them.
I managed to get my casts in, between taking Hunter's pictures. I had lost my Spro Frog the day before due to operator error in the knot tying department and had purchased a Live Target Frog the night before from Roland's bait store at the ramp.
While it didn't work as well as the Spro, some nice fish liked the change in diet.
The bite finally slowed as the sun reappeared and I got to thinking that I just had my best day of bass fishing ever, and it was with my son! How awesome is that!
We figured our five best fish each would be a tad over 20 lbs. with Hunter leading the way.
Wow!
The Big O blew us away Monday!
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