January 17, 2016 by Chris Burgan and Matt Pace
While it was a slow week by Lake Okeechobee standards, anglers in the Costa FLW Series event presented by Power-Pole still managed to catch them. If you find yourself in Florida facing cold-front conditions, consider throwing these baits.
Jason Lambert’s winning pattern
1. Jason Lambert casted a 1/2-ounce War Eagle Spinnerbait in Sexy Mouse color as well as an Original ChatterBait with a V & M Thunder Shad trailer around the Big O’s vegetation.
2. A Warrior Baits Quiver Bug below a 1 1/2-ounce Reins Punch Shot weight was Glenn Browne’s bait of choice for punching mats.
3. Joseph Kremer’s punching setup was a Bitter’s Muskrat in Junebug Blue Silver with a 1 1/2-ounce weight.
4. Bryan Honnerlaw kept with the punching trend by using a Reaction Innovations black and Blue Beaver with a 1 1/2-ounce weight on a 5/0 Strike King flipping hook.
5. Switching between shad and bluegill colored Spro Poppin’ frogs with a Lake Fork trailer hook produced fish for young local Justin Morgan.
6. Day-one leader Peter Cherkas both slowly retrieved and jigged a Sebile Flatt Shad 77SK.
7. Jimmy Brewer kept it simple by throwing a weightless Junebug Yamamoto Senko around weedline cuts.
8. Steve “Boogie” Brown used a 3/8-ounce Strike King Swinging Swim Jig in bluegill with a Rage Menace trailer.
9. A Junebug Zoom Speed Worm caught Pat Fischer his limit but it was black and blue Reaction Innovations Beaver that had him upgrading his bag.
10. Cole Bailey, who had the largest one-day catch, threw a Backatya-coloerd Gambler BB Cricket along with a 1 1/2-ounce Ultra Tungsten weight on a 4/0 flipping hook.
