I’ve recently returned from a windy day of tournament fishing on Lake Okeechobee. Unfortunately a member of our club submitted incorrect dates on the required Lake Okeechobee size exemption permit. This permit allows tournament anglers to keep 12″ bass for weigh ins. Standard length requirement for Largemouth bass on Lake Okeechobee is 18″.  Needless to say this made it an extremely tough tournament with very poor fishing conditions.

Here is a link to the required Lake Okeechobee size exemption permit: http://myfwc.com/license/freshwater/bass-tournament/

We launched out of Belle Glade and started looking for some non blown out areas near Pelican Bay. My boater Walt and I thoroughly fished here for most of the day and wouldn’t you know it, we caught about 40 fish, but none were over 18″. This was very unfortunate, because we each would have had 13-14lb bags had there been the permitted 12″ limit. Walt lost a 5lber that he said had a bad hook set. I was so excited when he got the blow up I quickly grabbed the net and step on one of his rods laying on the deck. Thank God it didn’t break and Walt was kind!