FLW Tour - Lake Okeechobee Baits

The opening tournament of the 2016 FLW Tour took place from 2/4 - 2/7 on Lake Okeechobee in Florida. Poor conditions kept any real big weights from reaching the scales, but nonetheless, the event was won by Bradley Hallman of Oklahoma who finished with a total weight of 71lbs and 2oz during the course of the four day event. Below, we've relayed the top-10 anglers bait choices.

1st Place - Bradley Hallman

Hallman used a Backwater Blue Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver to catch the majority of his weight combined with a matching punch skirt and a 1.5oz Tungsten Punch Weight. He also used a Gambler BB Cricket on the final day of the tournament.

2nd Place - Alex Davis

Runner up Alex "Spinnerbait Kid" Davis flipped, pitched and cast a 6-inch junebug stick bait rigged with a variety of bullet weights and paired with 80-pound-test PowerPro MaxCuatro spooled on Shimano Metanium with 8.5:1 gear ratio. When the vegetation was thick, Davis went with a heavy flippin stick, the 7'6" G. Loomis E6X 904C Flippin Stick.

3rd Place - Chris Johnston

Johnston primarily relied upon a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver on a 7-11, heavy-power G. Loomis IMX flipping stick and a Shimano Metanium Reel with 8.5:1 gear ratio and 65-pound-test PowerPro Braid.

5th Place - Shin Fukae

Shin Fukae caught fish all sorts of ways including punching a black/blue Yamamoto Flappin Hog on a 1.5oz - 2oz Tungsten Punch Weight with a protoype Shimano Zodias Rod and a Shimano Metanium Reel.

6th Place - Brandon McMillan

Florida stick Brandon McMillan caught his bass using a black/blue Zoom Speed Craw with a 3/4oz - 2oz tungsten punch weight. He utilized this presentation with a 7-11 G. Loomis IMX flipping stick and a Shimano Metanium Casting Reel in 8.5:1 gear ratio.

7th Place - Joshua Weaver

Joshua Weaver's primary bait with a secret-colored 4x4 Brandon McMillan Signature Series Swim Jig paired with a sungill-colored Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper Weaver also caught fish on a Zoom UV Speed Craw.

8th Place - Clark Reehm

Clark Reehm fished a Megabass Ito Vision 110 with a 704CB Dobyns Champion crankbait rod strung with 17-pound-test Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon. He also used a black sapphire-colored Zoom UV Speed Craw with a ¼-ounce weight fished on a 7-4, heavy-power Dobyns Champion Extreme Rod and 25-pound test Seaguar AbrazX.

9th Place - Charlie Weyer

9th place finisher Charlie Weyer used a 6 inch Yamamoto Senko in black/blue and watermelon red.

10th Place - Billy Shelton

Billy Shelton caught his fish in a number of ways including a Zoom Magnum Fluke and a Zoom UV Magnum Speed Worm, but his primary bait was a black-and-blue Sweet Beaver with a 1 ½-ounce weight.

Bradley Hallman FLW Tour Lake Okeechobee

Hallman Wins FLW Tour Okeechobee

Photo via FLW Outdoors

Despite this tournament marking his first on the FLW Tour, Bradley Hallman of Norman, Oklahoma is a pretty familiar name withing bass fishing circles after he spent 6 seasons on the Bassmaster Elite Series from 2006 to 2011. After stepping away from the sport for a few years, Hallman returned to professional competition with a bang taking down the FLW Tour season opened on Lake Okeechobee. While the weights never did reach the typical early season Florida bass smackdown numbers we are used to seeing, Hallman started the event with back to back bags of 25lbs - he was the only pro to eclipse that mark during the entire event - which propelled him well in front of the field and allowed him to coast into the finish line with a total weight of 71lbs 2oz despite not catching a limit on either the 3rd or 4th tournament day. Strong north winds brought colder weather to the finicky Florida bass:

One thing is for sure, Hallman’s commitment was certainly tested by wicked high north winds on Lake Okeechobee and wicked extreme frontal conditions that pestered the lake’s Florida-strain bass. Day two dealt out high north winds of some 25 mph. On day three the wind subsided, but the post-frontal conditions shut the bite down considerably. Day four, however, ravaged the top 10 pros with a brutal triple whammy: high northwest winds to 30 mph, dropping water temps and complete post-frontal lockdown of Okeechobee bass.

To catch his weight during the tournament, Hallman pitched and flipped hard vegetation - reeds in the South Bay area of the lake. As he says, he knew this is how he needed to fish to give himself an opportunity for success:

“I was committed to that even before I got here,” Hallman says. “I knew one way or another I was going to be flipping, pitching and punching something.”

Hallman caught his fish this week using a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver rigged on a 4/0 Strike King Hack Attack Flipping Hook and a 1.5oz Tungsten Flipping Weight.

While it didn't seem to make much difference, the final day of the event Hallman opted for the Florida cult favorite, the Gambler BB Cricket, a smaller soft plastic bait that is often the go-to in tough conditions for Florida bass fishermen.