2017 Costa FLW Series Southeastern Lake Okeechobee Day 1: Gary Milicevic Grabs Lead with 25lbs!

Spawner is key to bigger weights
by Rob Newell 
FLW PRESS RELESE 
 
This time of year, 10- to 12-pound limits are a dime a dozen on Lake Okeechobee. If you don’t believe it, just take a look at the day one stats of the Costa FLW Series event presented by Power-Pole where 211 limits were weighed in out of 250 pros fishing.
Most of those limits were comprised of aggressive buck bass that make beds by the thousands in the shallows while the more wary – and much larger – females lurk around on the outsides of the bedding zones in deeper water or thicker cover.

Two brutes for Milicevic. (Photo: FLW) 

Essentially the difference between a par 10-pound limit and a 24-pound limit on Okeechobee right now is one is a bag full of males and the other is a bag full of females. But targeting just female bass all day is a much riskier proposition that requires being in close tune with staging areas, moon phases, wind directions, water clarities and fishing pressure to know exactly when and where a new bevy of big girls is going to roll up.