Opener to be a Shootout on the Big O – FLW

January 13, 2016  by Kyle Wood

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Excitement is in the air as the first Costa FLW Series event of 2016 prepares to kick off on Thursday morning. The playing field for the first Southeast Division tournament, which is presented by Power-Pole and hosted by Okeechobee County Tourism, will once again be famed Lake Okeechobee, and a full roster of 250 pros and co-anglers is ready to get the season rolling.

This past weekend the first FLW Bass Fishing League event of the season took place on Okeechobee, and the lake definitely showed out. George Kapiton took home the hardware with a massive 31-pound limit, while Okeechobee veteran Mike Surman came in second with just shy of 29 pounds. Five other limits topped 20 pounds. Not bad for a Saturday on the Big O.

This weekend, anglers will have a slightly different challenge. Okeechobee is always susceptible to weather changes, and a recent cold front threatens to make things a little interesting.

“The weather has really cooled off since the BFL,” says Kapiton. “It will definitely make the flipping bite strong for the first day or two of the tournament. It’s supposed to warm up by Saturday, and if it does then I could see a topwater bite or winding bite be the deal.”

All anglers in the field will fish the first two days on Thursday and Friday, with the top 10 pros and co-anglers advancing to Saturday’s final round. Heaviest cumulative three-day weight wins.

“The lake in general right now is amazing,” Kapiton adds. “It’s beautiful. Because of the high water, grass is dying off in the right places, and the water is pretty clear. From one side of the lake to the other there is fishable water. I have never seen it look so good in all my years of fishing here.”

With cold-front conditions and a full moon next week, being able to adapt with the changing conditions will be the key to staying on the right caliber of fish. Kapiton notes that there has already been a decent push of fish up spawning, as evident by empty beds and fry swimming around. However, there are some fish staging to pull up to spawn too. Kapiton weighed both prespawn and postspawn bass during the BFL.

“I saw a lot of guys catching 13-inchers around me last week,” he says. “There are pods of fish all over, but the biggest key is figuring out how to get those bigger bites. I basically figured that out while I fished last week, and I’ll probably have to do it again for this tournament.”

Though Lake Okeechobee is a massive body of water at more than 450,000 acres, it tends to fish small during tournaments – especially when the wind blows. Due to the higher water, however, Kapiton believes that the field will be more spread out than usual, and the lake should fish a little bigger.

“I think that with the south wind that is forecast for the first few days it could help the hayfields on that end of the lake play more,” says Kapiton. Northern grass beds and bays will bear the brunt of the wind, which typically shuts down the bite on Okeechobee. “Otherwise I think hydrilla and dying lily pads will be the biggest focus. If I had to guess I’d say that the winner will be flipping a Texas rig and using a jig.”

Early predictions say that it will take at least 30 pounds over two days to make the final-day cut, and somewhere around 65 pounds will win the tournament. With such a stacked field, nothing is out of the question, especially on Okeechobee – land of the giants.

Tournament Details

The Costa FLW Series Southeast Division event on Lake Okeechobee is a three-day tournament held Jan. 14-16. All pros and co-anglers fish the first two days, and the top 10 anglers in each division based on cumulative two-day weight qualify to fish on day three. The heaviest three-day cumulative weight wins.

Anglers will take off from C. Scott Driver Park, 10100 West Highway 78, Okeechobee, FL at 7:30 a.m. ET each morning. Daily weigh-ins are at the park at 3 p.m.

Fans at home can tune in to the weigh-ins via FLW Live at FLWFishing.com.

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