EQ Notes and Quotes: Lake Okeechobee Day 2

Old School

From the old school, Chet Douthit was one of the spectators for Day 2 of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open presented by SEVIIN. Douthit, has been a mainstay in the Florida fishing scene for the last four decades. Before that he was a top Bassmaster angler.

In an almost 20-year career, Douthit qualified for eight Bassmaster Classics, coming close to winning the 1992 Classic on Logan Martin. He finished third behind Robert Hamilton Jr. and Denny Brauer.

All total, he fished 172 events, winning on the Louisiana Delta in 2000 and on the St. Lawrence River in 1987. In the early 2000s, he also spent some time with Tommy Sanders in front of the camera as a color analyst for Bassmaster events.
His prowess at fishing was a product of football. When he was fishing he was constantly remembered as a former NFL wide receiver. In the late 1960s, he was a successful receiver at Arkansas State University. Drafted by the Miami Dolphins, he played a single season in 1971 before an ankle injury shortened his career. Unfortunately for Douthit, it was one year too soon. His teammates from the Dolphins would go undefeated the next year. That team still holds the record as only unbeaten NFL team in history.

Douthit, though, made the best of it. After a short stint in his childhood home of Kansas, he moved back to Florida and started guiding on Lake Okeechobee. Ironically, the travel trailer where he lived sat right where the Roland Martin Marina weigh-in stage sits now.

Consistency

Randall Tharp has been consistent. That’s worth noting. After Day 1, Tharp held the lead for big bass honors with a 10 pound, 3 ounce lunker that helped him reach 22 pounds, 5 ounces for the day.

On Day 2, the giants alluded him but the quality showed up. He posted a limit of 22-9, a full 4 ounces more than the day before and without a double-digit bass.

Tharp said he continues to have an area to himself and spent a portion of the day practicing in hopes he will make Saturday’s 10-man cut.

The most interesting part of that, is Day 2 was the first day in more than a decade where he fished with another angler in the boat. In the Elite Series they had Marshals and on Day 1, he was one of the anglers without a co-angler.

“I forgot what that was like,’’ Tharp said. “Remembering a lot of things, like what it’s like standing in the weigh-in line and meeting new people.”

Note that Tharp’s first co-angler was Eric Camarote. He had one keeper on the day, 3-10. Which surpassed his two keepers on Day 2 for 3-2.

Playing the Game

Rick Pierce, owner of Bass Cat Boats, is making a re-entry into Bassmaster competition.

Pierce and his father, Ron, were mainstays on the Bassmaster trail in the 1980s and 1990s.

It’s been 25 years since Pierce has had the time to come and play the game.

“Obviously I didn’t fare as well as I hoped I would,’’ Pierce said. “This has been a great way for me to blow out all the cobwebs.”

Pierce fished his last Bassmaster event in 1998.

Suprise!

Many of the anglers reported surprise that the catch seemed much better on Day 2 than Day 1. Obviously those were the ones whose weights didn’t match up with that contention.

The numbers, though, back it up.

On Day 1, there were 868 keepers weighed, while on Day 2 there were 913. Those fish weighed 2,232 pounds on Day 1 and 2,522 pounds on Day 2. As for limits there were 132, followed by 151 on Day 2.

BassTrakk Catches/Hour Day 1

BassTrakk Catches Over 3-pounds by hour Day 1

BassTrakk Catches/Hour Day 2

BassTrakk Catches Over 3-pounds by hour Day 2

Sneaky Enough

Scott Martin is sneaky. Not sneaky like a ninja, but sneaky enough to help him take the Day 2 lead in this event.
If you take a look at the Scott Martin photo galleries from the last two days, you will see Martin standing on the bow of a silver/grayish Skeeter and wacking them with boats scattered around the background.

Martin purposely picked the non-descript boat for a reason. His standard Skeeter wrapped with Trokar logos etc., is one you can see for miles on a lake like Okeechobee. The son of bass fishing Hall of Famer, Roland Martin is well know around the world, even more so in these parts. Attracting attention while practicing and then competing in a bright boat could be detrimental. Hence Martin’s sneaky boat.

“I was like a ninja,” Martin said. “I had my face cover on, pulled up to my eyes. When I got to my place on Day 1, there were already 60 boats there. I looked out and none of them were on the spot I wanted to go to. I put my trolling motor down and weaved my way through them and got there. It worked.”

It worked so well that on Day 1, Dalton Tumblin, Bassmaster photographer, shot photos of Martin catching them for about 10 minutes before he realized who was in front of him.

Tumblin captured Martin catching one of his biggest fish of the day and motioned for the Florida pro to hold the fish up for a photo. Instead, Martin crouched behind the driver’s console of the boat with a smirk. It was at this moment that Tumblin realized who it was.

The big question is which boat will Martin fish out of on Day 3. Does he pick the flashy ride for his appearance on Fox Sports FS1 network or stick with the ebb and flow and stay with gray.

Superstition is the Way

Fishermen are notorious for superstitions, ranking right up there with Major League pitchers. Changing the game plan or even your underwear is scrutinized in times like this.

Mike McClelland feels like a rookie. After a hiatus from Bassmaster events McClelland fished his first event in several years with a co-angler, and a weigh-in line with other anglers and five fish in a bag.

“I got through this, that’s the main thing,” McClelland said. “Hopefully I got out all my tournament jitters. It was like I was starting all over.”

Of course, McClelland started in the 1990s on a tear, winning his first two events one on the Arkansas River and the other on Ross Barnett. For this event, not so much of a tear: He weighed in a two-day total of 18-12.

With eight Bassmaster wins and 87 career finishes in the top 30, there’s little doubt that he knows how to rebound.

There’s a bass fishing adage that very rarely goes unheeded. It goes something like; don’t fish history or you are bound to lose.

You Can’t Go Back

Basically, that means things have changed since the last time you were here. Tyler Rivet sort of fell in that trap.
The young Louisiana angler won an Elite Series event here last year with basically 87 pounds. It’s hard to stay away from that type of productivity and Rivet fell for the temptation. Oddly enough he won that event last season on forward-facing sonar in the river.

He had to go back. But he also had company and only managed 12 pounds, 15 ounces on Day 1. Day 2 was another story.
He scrapped the history and fished the way we’ve seen him produce in the past.

“I tied on a swim jig and went fishing, the way I should have,’’ Rivet said.

That shift in gears produced one of the heaviest bags of the day with 23-5.

It was good enough to move him way up the standings. He finished in 13th, just 2 pounds, 2 ounces from making the Top 10.

Impressive

The Top 10 is impressive in its own right.

With a ton of young anglers and a smattering of veterans, the field sports at least 9 Bassmaster Classic qualifications.
Five of those belong to Randall Tharp. One of those belongs to Easton Fothergill.

To refresh your memory, Fothergill is the Strike King Bassmaster College Bracket Champion from late in the 2023 season. He will fish on Grand Lake in March for his first Classic in his young career.

It should be noted that he qualified just a few days after having brain surgery from a life-threatening ailment. He quickly recovered, well enough to out-fish Tucker Smith for the collegiate championship and make the Classic. Smith is in second in this event, while Fothergill, who is fishing his first Bassmaster Open, is in 10th place.

Family Affair

They are joined by fellow college angler Beau Browning in 9th place. Browning is the son of pro angler Stephen Browning, who has won at least two Opens on the final day from the same position. That sets up a “like father, like son” scenario that is very compelling.

More

In more meaningless stats, today’s weigh in lasted for 3 hours, 35 minutes, beating yesterday’s potential record of 3 hours and 22 minutes.

One of the final anglers to weigh was Guy Eaker, at 84 and the oldest angler in the field. There was some concern that we may be going past his bedtime. Just kidding.