Larry Barker - Fishing Floridas Top 12 Bass Lakes--Volume 2: Lake Okeechobee

Photo Descriptions

Front Cover Photos

Left: Capt. Brenda Fann with a pair of Lake Okeechobee trophy bass

Upper right: Larry Barker with a ten pounder!

Lower right: Capt. Mark Fann releases a Big O beauty

Photos in Text

Introduction:

Jessica out-fishing the rest of the family on the Big O

Chapter 1 cover page:

Tim Welznet and Capt. Mark with a nine pound beauty

Chapter 2 cover page:

Marje Monach with her largest bass yet

Chapter 3 cover page:

Hey Mom Look what we caught!

Chapter 4 cover page:

Larry Barker shows off a nice winter bass on Lake Okeechobee

Chapter 5 cover page: Sarah Jones, age 9, showing off her first bass ever

Chapter 6 cover page:

David Geraci with a Lake Okeechobee 10+ trophy bass

Appendices cover page:

Sandy Roller out of the classroom and onto the Lake

Fishing Floridas Top 12 Bass Lakes
Volume II : Lake Okeechobee

Larry Barker, Ph.D.

and

Capt. Mark Fann

Capt. Brenda Fann, Capt. Lenny Crispino

& Dan Richardson

Contributing Editors

BEI Outdoor Publishing

Copyright 2004, BEI Outdoor Publishing.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

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Note for Librarians: a cataloguing record for this book that includes Dewey Decimal Classification and US Library of Congress numbersis available from the National Library of Canada. The completecataloguing record can be obtained from the National Librarys onlinedatabase at:

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ISBN 1-4120-3154-0

ISBN 978-1-4122-2500-7 (ebook)

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Contents

We want to thank several folks for helping make this book possible.

Thanks to Capt. Brenda Fann, wife and best fishing buddy of Capt. Mark Fann; and to Melissa Barker, fishing buddy and wife of Larry Barker. Thanks also to Lenny Crispino, Larrys fishing partner and co-author, and to Dan Richardson, a good friend and professional tournament fisherman, for their significant contributions to the book and for serving in the role of contributing editors.

The clich Its a small world is especially accurate in the fishing community. Larry Barker was pre-fishing a BFL tournament on Lake Okeechobee and had hired one of the top local guides to show him some hot spots. The guide was Capt. Mark Fann, one of Okeechobees most experienced and successful guides. During their conversation, including swapping some fishing stories, they discovered that they had been on competing boats in a Blue Marlin Tournament on Walkers Key, Bahamas some 2o years earlier. As they named boats and anglers, they couldnt believe that they met once againthis time on freshwater.

Larry had just completed the first book in the Fishing Floridas Top 10 Bass series with Capt. Lenny Crispinoand was about to begin Volume II: Lake Okeechobee. One thing led to another, including getting acquainted with Capt. Brenda Fann, Marks wife, and Larry and Mark decided to coauthor Vol. II together, with Brendas help.

The present work is the end result of over a years research and writing, and a developing friendship between the Fanns and the Barkers. Oh yes, Larrys wife Melissa is also an angler, and on one trip to Ft. Lauderdale to fish for Peacock Bass, both Mark and Brenda took separate boats and helped Larry, Melissa and their friend Melita Auclair catch 3 world record Peacocks. What a weekend!

This book is designed to help local and visiting anglers catch more and bigger bass on the Big O-one of Floridas Top 1o Bass Lakes.

Tight lines!

Larry and Mark

The Florida Fish and Game Commission has compiled a list of the top 12 lakes in the state for catching bass and panfish, and the top 10 for catching crappie. (The Commission has also named the top 10 catfish holes some of which are in rivers). The lists are created on the basis of creel surveys, angler interviews and reports from fisheries experts. Some lakes are noted for producing record numbers and/or sizes of only one species others are noted for exceptional fishing for multiple species. Given that Florida boasts over 750 lakes (not to mention about 12,000 miles of rivers and streams), it can be tough to decide which of the states lakes to fish. The books in this series are designed to help anglers make educated choices about where to fishin order to catch the most and biggest fish in a limited period of fishing time. The state has done the tough job of picking the best lakes; we now want to add to that effort by giving anglers high quality information about each of the top lakes.

The twelve books in the series will focus on the Fish and Game Commissions list of top twelve Black Bass lakes in Florida. The lakes are not rank ordered, so their volume number does not indicate any relative place within the top twelve. Our books also include information about the other fish available in each of the top lakes. As noted above, several of the lakes are listed in the top ten/twelve for more than one species, including Lake Okeechobee!

Floridas Top Fishing Lakes as Compiled by the Florida Fish and Game Commission

The following lists of Top 12 Bass and Panfish Lakes and Top 10 Black Crappie Lakes are presented in random order. The lists below reflect selections for 2004. However, the lists can change from year to year, so interested anglers should consult the Florida Fish and Game Commission annually for updated lists.

Top 12 Black Bass Lakes