THARP DOMINATES OKEECHOBEE

Story by Matt Pangrac - Photos courtesy of FLW Outdoors Communications

Clewiston, FL – Heading into the first FLW Tour Open of the 2012 season on Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, the general consensus was that the FLW Tour heavyweight record, set by Brandon McMillan in 2011 on Okeechobee, was in serious jeopardy.  With a mild winter and Okeechobee’s giant largemouth primed for the spawn, giant limits were bound to cross the FLW Tour stage.

Despite a weather system that entered the area during practice, the first two days of competition saw three limits over 30-pounds hit the scales, although the overall weights were lower than expected. 

With limits of 33-9 and 30-4, Randall Tharp took a lead of nearly 11-pounds over John Cox heading into the weekend.   Despite bringing just 14-13 to the scales on Saturday, Tharp maintained his lead, entering the final round of competition with a lead of nearly 9-pounds over Cox.

Sunday’s finale brought with it strong winds and temperatures in the 40s.  As a result, the majority of the anglers struggled, with just four anglers weighing-in a five bass limit.  The conditions didn’t hamper Tharp, who added another 23-2 to bring his total winning weight to an impressive 101-12.

Finishing in 2nd, over 23-pounds behind Tharp, was Florida’s John Cox.  With limits of 27-10, 25-4, 16-15, and 8-6, Cox held steady in 2nd for the final three days of the tournament to finish with 78-3.

Georgia’s Jeremy York finished in 3rd with 74-2, and Art Ferguson III finished in 4th with 71-5.  Rounding out the Top 5 was last year’s FLW Tour Open champion at Okeechobee, Brandon McMillan.  After opening the tournament with a limit weighing 33-7, McMillan struggled, bringing in a total weight of 64-6. 

Here’s what some of the top finishers had to say about the FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee:

1st Place: Randall Tharp
“The wind was blowing over 20-miles-per-hour today with a wind chill in the 40’s.  I knew that it would probably be the most challenging day of the event, so I was really thankful that I had a big lead over John (Cox) coming into the day. 

“I caught a 12-incher in the first hour, and it settled me down quite a bit.  The water in one my areas was pretty messed up, so I made a move and started getting a few bites around 10:30.  I lost one fish that was around 7-pounds, and five flips later I lost a 3-pounder.   I caught a few more small ones within 30-minutes.

“I went back to the place where I caught them on Day Two and caught three good ones.  After I caught the first good one, I knew that John would really have to catch them.  After the second good one, I knew that I had pretty much won.  The third good one was just icing on the cake. 

“With an hour-and-a-half left, I knew that I had a shot at breaking the heavyweight record, so I fished as hard as I could but only managed one more cull that didn’t help much.  I was really blessed to have those bites on a day like today. I would have won if I hadn’t even weighed-in, and that was pretty shocking to me.  I knew what I needed to do, and I was able to do that.  Going into today, I knew that 15-pounds would probably get the job done, and I knew that 20-pounds would definitely get it done. 

“What really hurt was the pressure of 160 boats.  I won the tournament with the weight that I had on the first two days of the tournament, because there was a lot of people sitting right on the good stuff.  I flipped all four days and used an ounce-and-a-half weight, 70-pound-test braid, and I flipped a Bitter’s B.F.M. beaver-style bait.  Today, I actually used a 2-ounce weight because the wind was blowing so hard.

“I keyed primarily on hyacinth mats, hydrilla, and some lily pads.  On the first day, I had seven big bites and 20 total bites.  On Day Two, I had seven big bites with about the same number of bites and I caught all seven big bites each day that I had.  On Day Three, I only had around 10 keepers and caught two of my four big bites.  Today, I had four big bites and caught three of them. 
 
“I’ve said for a long time that if I could just pick one lake where I could win, Okeechobee would be that lake.  To me, it’s the bass capitol of the world.  It’s probably one of the most famous bass fishing lakes in the country.  I’ve won some big tournaments on Guntersville, Santee Cooper, and Eufaula.  Now I’ve got Okeechobee on my resume and that’s something that I definitely wanted to accomplish in my career.”

2nd Place: John Cox
“Today was really windy.  I ended up running to the north shore trying to flip some stuff, and it really just didn’t work out.  I tied a crankbait on one of my lighter flipping rods just to try and put a few keepers in the boat. 

“The cold and the wind made for a really small window of time for when the fish were catchable.  It definitely got tougher than it was on Saturday.  Yesterday, it was still tough because of the wind but the fish were still biting. 

“I fished the south end of the lake on the first three days.  I flipped a Rattle Head Baits jig and I was also throwing a half-ounce Rattle Head Baits willow leaf spinnerbait.  I was pretty much pitching the jig to anything that I came across from clumps of Kissimmee grass to pencil reeds while I drifted down a big flat.

“Without sight fishing at all, I was pretty happy with my finish.  When I fish Okeechobee, it seems like every time I go down there I sight fish.  It was nice to figure out something else.  The guys who live around the lake and fish it a lot have a huge advantage because they know where the fish live.  

3rd Place: Jeremy York
“It was borderline miserable today.  When we took off, I think that it was blowing around 30-miles-per-hour.  The fish bit really funny today. Yesterday, the bass repositioned themselves from where I had been catching them.  I was able to figure it out in the last hour and catch a few good fish to put myself in position to possibly win the tournament.

“On Thursday and Friday, the fish were really in an eating mode where they’d have the bait down in the back of their throats.  Yesterday and today they weren’t near as aggressive and wouldn’t chase the bait at all.    

“I fished Uncle Joe’s Cut the entire time.  I told 15 or 20 people that and all the locals looked at me like I was crazy.  It’s a little canal that’s about four or five miles long.  There’s no specific grass along the edges, and it’s just a mixture of a bunch of stuff.  There were cattails, reeds, and just a bunch of stuff.  The biggest thing that the fish were holding in was gator grass.  It’s some gnarly stuff.

“Well over half of the fish that I caught this week, I had to go get.  Half of them I had to dig out of the grass.  I used 25-pound-test Berkley 100% fluorocarbon and I flipped a 4-inch Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog in Okeechobee Craw color. 

“I fished that area the entire tournament and one other boat stopped in there.  Other than that, I was totally by myself.  I thought that I could catch a maximum weight of 15-pounds out of that area on the first day.  I ended up just staying and culling up.  On the second day, I really thought that I’d milked the canal pretty good, but I ended up catching an 8-pounder.  The fish just kept reloading in there and that’s why I stayed.”

6th Place: Bryan Thrift
“Today pretty much went just about how I thought it would go.  It was cold and windy and I’d been catching all my fish down south and it got trashed by the wind.  I hadn’t practiced up north any, so I just went up there and basically had a practice day.  I had one bite and that was it.

“The first three days I was pretty much just flipping.  I flipped a jig and a Damiki Air Craw.  I think that it’s been so warm in Florida that the fish have been spawning randomly.  When it’s a really cold winter, the fish tend to move up in big groups.  Most of my fish were post-spawn bass. 

“Overall, I’m very pleased to get the year started off right and cash a good check.  Anytime you can get some momentum rolling early the year, it’s always a bonus.” 

Final Standings:

1st: Randall Tharp, 101-12, $100,000 + $25,000
2nd: John Cox, 78-3, $35,000
3rd: Jeremy York,74-2, $30,000
4th: Art Ferguson III, 71-5, $25,000
5th: Brandon McMillan, 64-6, $20,000
6th: Chevy pro Bryan Thrift,61-12, $17,000
7th: Roland Martin,59-6, $16,000
8th: Scott Martin, 56-3, $15,000
9th: Steve Kennedy,55-8, $14,000
10th: Nick Gainey, 54-5, $13,000

For complete standings, visit www.flwoutdoors.com