Meyer looks for redemption on Big O
Category: article
Feb 4th, 2014 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Feb 4th, 2014 at 12:00 AM
The Big O has not been kind to Cody Meyer. So far.
The California-based Shimano pro plans to change that this week, though, as the 2014 FLW Tour kicks off Feb. 6-9 out of Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston, FL.
”I need to get a little revenge on the Big O,” Meyer jokes.
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Jackall pro Cody Meyer bundled up last week to catch these largies during January’s Southern deep freeze, but warming trends on Okeechobee should bring fish shallow. (Joel Shangle)
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Meyer suffered through a frustrating two days at least year’s Tour kickoff on Lake Okeechobee, finishing in 118th place (his worst as a professional) and putting himself in immediate jeopardy of missing the Forrest Wood Cup for the first time in his career. He recovered quickly, finishing with two top 20s in the next two tournaments on Lewis Smith and Beaver lakes and eventually rising to 11th, but it’s a start that Meyer doesn’t want to repeat.
”That 118th place finish really put me in the hole for making the Forrest Wood Cup,” Meyer says. ”I ended up recovering and finishing 11th (in Angler of the Year points), but it would’ve been a heck of a lot better season if I didn’t have that terrible finish on Okeechobee. I’m not going to let that happen again.”
It wasn’t as though Meyer couldn’t find fish last year at Okeechobee – he was on them virtually from the minute he started fishing on Day 1 – but, in his words, he ”got caught up in the numbers game.” Meyer weighed in 7 pounds, 15 ounces on Day 1 and slightly upgraded to 11-03 on the second day. But for a tournament where the Day l leader (Scott Martin) weighed in 26-12 and big-fish honors were slightly over 9 pounds (Dion Hibdon at 9-10), Meyer’s 19-02 put him more than 2 pounds out of the money.
”I caught a ton of fish,” Meyer admits. “I mean, lots and lots of them. But I never really found anything with any size. I totally got caught up in the numbers.”
Changing approaches
Meyer’s gameplan for the week will include flipping a 4-inch Jackall Sasuteki Craw or similar bait into the Big O’s cover, running 1 1/4- to 2-ounce weights and 65-pound PowerPro on a Shimano Camura punching rod and Metanium reel. He’ll be working lighter grass to heavy mats, searching for fish moving to beds following a recent warming trend that bumped the daytime temperatures in central Florida by 25 to 30 degrees.
“I’m going to get to work with the flippin’ stick and look for bigger bites,” he says. ”I hope what we see is a bunch of fish starting to move (to beds). If that happens, it could be a slugfest.”