Lake Okeechobee News

Wilcox wins co-angler title, $20,000

CLEWISTON, Fla. (Feb. 12, 2012) – EverStart pro Randall Tharp of Gardendale, Ala., had endured three days of tough weather and wind and managed to lead the first three days of competition at the Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Okeechobee presented by Evinrude. All he needed was one more solid day’s weight to claim his first FLW Tour title.

Tharp caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 2 ounces Sunday to win $125,000 with a four-day catch of 20 bass weighing 101-12. The catch gave him the win by a massive 23-pound, 9-ounce margin over John Cox of Debary, Fla., who caught a total of 20 bass weighing 78-3 and earned $35,000. Tharp’s margin of victory broke the FLW Tour record set by National Guard pro Brett Hite (20-4, Lake Toho, 2008).

“I felt like I could catch 30 pounds a day if I fished perfect,” said Tharp, who adds an FLW title to his four BFL wins and one EverStart Series victory. “I would have liked to have caught more, but I’m pretty tickled with the way things turned out.

“When I caught the first big one today and it put me at 19 (pounds) and I caught the second big one I didn’t say anything, but when I caught the third one I knew it was over,” Tharp added.

Tharp said the one constant during the tournament was the wind. High winds wreaked havoc on anglers’ plans as water clarity went south. Many anglers struggled to adapt and catch fish.

“It was not what you want in south Florida,” Tharp said. “We had a wind chill of 27 degrees this morning. The winds were sustained 20 (miles per hour) with gusts to 40. The style I was fishing is what you need to do under those conditions.”

And Tharp’s style of fishing just happened to be what he loves to do – use a big rod, heavy line and big weights to flip grass. Tharp fished the north end of the lake and threw a black with blue flake Bitters Baits B.F.M. paired with a 1 ½-ounce pegged sinker. Tharp said he boated eight keepers during the course of the day.

“I’ve done pretty good on just about every type of body of water, but I prefer to fish a grass lake,” Tharp said. “Any grass lake is different when you go back. You never catch them in the same places because the grass is different. Okeechobee is a prime example of that.

“I’ve known for a long time that if I could win just one Tour-level event this is the lake I’d want it to happen on,” Tharp added. “So now I’ve got that out of the way and I can set my sights on other places.”

The remaining top 10 pros finished the tournament in:

3rd: Jeremy York, Monroe, Ga., 20 bass, 74-2, $30,000

4th: Art Ferguson III, St. Clair Shores, Mich., 20 bass, 71-5, $25,000

5th: Brandon McMillan, Clewiston, Fla., 16 bass, 64-6, $20,000

A complete list of results can be found at FLWOutdoors.com.

Overall there were 27 bass weighing 77 pounds, 12 ounces caught by pros Sunday. The catch included four five-bass limits.

Aymon Wilcox of Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., won the co-angler division and $20,000 Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 44 pounds, 4 ounces followed by Spiro Agouros of Peterborough, Ontario, in second place with 13 bass weighing 38-0 worth $7,625.

In FLW Tour Open tournaments, pros and co-anglers are competing for valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup presented by Walmart, the world championship of bass fishing. The top five pro and co-anglers in the point standings from the four FLW Tour Open tournaments will qualify.

The Tour stop on Lake Okeechobee presented by Evinrude was the first of 10 Walmart FLW Tour tournaments of the 2011 season. The Walmart FLW Tour on Lake Hartwell presented by Folgers will be the next tournament and will be held March 8-11 in Greenville/Anderson, S.C. The event will be hosted by the Greenville Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Anderson Convention & Visitors Bureau and boats will launch from Portman Shoals Marina in Anderson, S.C. For a complete schedule, visit FLWOutdoors.com.

Coverage of the Lake Okeechobee tournament will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on NBC Sports Network when “FLW” airs March 18 from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. “FLW” is hosted by Jason Harper and is broadcast to more than 559 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.

CLEWISTON, Fla. (Feb. 9, 2012) – Does home-lake advantage play a role when 320 of the world’s best anglers gather to see who can find the heaviest four-day stringer of bass for a first-place cash prize of up to $125,000? Just look at the leaderboard of the season-opening FLW Tour bass fishing tournament on Lake Okeechobee.

Randall Tharp of Gardendale, Ala., crossed the stage Thursday with a five-bass limit weighing 33 pounds, 9 ounces to lead day one of the event. Tharp now holds a slim 2-ounce lead over Brandon McMillan of Clewiston, Fla., who caught five bass weighing 33-7. Add to the top-five anglers John Cox (third) of Debary, Fla., and freshly-out-of-retirement Roland Martin (fifth) of Naples, Fla., and you have a handful of anglers with intimate knowledge of Okeechobee leading the tournament’s full field of anglers from all across the United States, Canada, Spain and Japan.

“The wind blew 15 to 20 (miles per hour),” Tharp said. “So I adjusted. And that’s just something you know how to do from fishing here. A lot of the guys here have put all their eggs in one basket.”

Even though he’s not a Floridian, Tharp said his familiarity with the lake gave him an edge on the first day of competition.

“I was going out there to catch a 40-pound sack, to be honest,” Tharp said. “I probably had 20 bites today. Ten of them were big ones. And by big ones I mean 5 pounds or better.”

Tharp said his first bite didn’t come until about 9 a.m. but was well worth the wait. That bite came from a bass weighing almost 10 pounds. By 10 a.m. Tharp was culling his small fish.

Tharp said the wind would dictate where anglers would be able to fish on the second day of competition and it would continue to be a “game of adjustments” for the anglers.

“The weather made it horrible on me,” McMillan said. “It made it tough to flip through the mat and make the bait fall the way you need to make it fall.

“It wasn’t like the Okeechobee that I was used to fishing,” McMillan added. “I figured 20 or 24 pounds would be a good sack. I figured someone would bust 30, but I didn’t figure I would do it.”

Rounding out the top 10 pros after day one on Lake Okeechobee are:
            3rd:            John Cox, Debary, Fla., five bass, 27-10
            4th:            Art Ferguson III, St. Clair Shores, Mich., five bass, 26-12
            5th:            Roland Martin, Naples, Fla., five bass, 26-4
            6th:            Steve Kennedy, Auburn, Ala., five bass, 26-1
            7th:            Todd Auten, Lake Wylie, S.C., five bass, 24-4
            8th:            Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla., five bass, 21-11
            9th:            Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., five bass, 21-9
           10th:            Matt Peters, Cotter, Ark., five bass, 21-6

Tharp caught Thursday’s big bass weighing 9-8 on the pro side to win $500.

Overall there were 724 bass weighing 1,813 pounds, 12 ounces caught by pros Thursday. The catch included 121 five-bass limits.

Pros are competing for a top award of up to $125,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup. The top five anglers in the point standings from the four Walmart FLW Tour Open tournaments will qualify.

Spiro Agouros of Peterborough, Ontario, leads the Co-angler Division with five bass weighing 20-2 followed by Ralph Myhlhousen of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in second place with five bass weighing 18-1.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are:
            3rd:            Mike Daley, Springfield, Ill., five bass, 17-6
            4th:            Robert Gulley, Tupelo, Miss., five bass, 16-12
            5th:            Derek Savage, Port St. Lucie, Fla., five bass, 16-8
            6th:            Aymon Wilcox, Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., five bass, 16-5
            7th:            Wayne Lloyd, Lake Worth, Fla., five bass, 15-14
            8th:            John Hendry, Lakeland, Fla., five bass, 15-2
            9th:            Jeffrey Cummins, Marion, Ohio, five bass, 14-13
           10th:            Marlon Crowder, Tampa, Fla., five bass, 14-5

Daley and Agouros tied for Thursday’s big bass with fish weighing 8-1 in the co-angler division. They each received $125.

Overall there were 477 bass weighing 925 pounds, 7 ounces caught by co-anglers Thursday. The catch included 49 five-bass limits.

Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $25,000 this week plus valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup. The top five co-anglers in the point standings from the four Walmart FLW Tour Open tournaments will qualify.

News Release

Look for this segment of the series to air on ESPN2, 9am EST Saturday, October 21st “Rods & Wheels Show.”

ESPN2 films in conjunction with Bass Online, the all new “Rods & Wheels Show.”
The Lake Okeechobee episode of the new series started at world famous “Slims Fish Camp” located on Lake Okeechobee. This segment they were guided by one of Lake Okeechobee’s best guides. The episode started out with a 15 minute ride around Okeechobee where Brad and Joe got to experience some of what Okeechobee is so famous for.

 Joe & Brad elected to try world renowned Lake Okeechobee wild shiner fishing, it’s a great way to relax and catch big fish. They started fishing in one of many grass bays Okeechobee has to offer, locally  known as grass flats. Shortly after setting up, they found the fish to be very active. Pictured below is Brad releasing a 7 lb trophy that was caught on film.

The both of them had almost none stop action, Brad ended up catching the two biggest fish. But Joe gave him a run for his money on the numbers of fish caught. The two caught uppers of 70 fish in two days of filming.

Pictured below is one of the many fish Joe landed. As you can see, he was cool as can be with the film crews right on top of the action.

Although Joe was in control, it did not always appear that way by this video clip below.

Works best with Internet Explorer – Look for this segment of the series to air on ESPN2, “Rods & Wheels Show.”