“The water is pretty hot,” Villegas said. “We are getting 90-degree weather and the water temperature is 86 degrees up to even 91 degrees in some areas. For the past two weeks, at least for me, after 11 o’clock in the morning it is a grind. I can barely get anything to bite then.”

Villegas, of Virginia Gardens, Fla., practiced two days last week, boating about 17 pounds on Friday and 15 on Saturday.

“I know a lot of people who can’t get past 10 pounds,” he noted.

But some do. Two weekends ago the winning string in a tournament on the Big-O weighed 27 pounds and last weekend the winner in a tournament weighed in 25 pounds, he said.

“I know one guy who got second in that tournament two weeks ago and he had 25 pounds.”

Villegas said he was told the winner of that tournament caught his fish in open water. But most anglers are catching their fish flipping the outer edges of the grass lines.

“The fish are there, but they are in little packs. If you move a hundred yards you might get into a bunch of them. Move again and you might have nothing,” he said. “A lot of bluegill beds are setting up, but there are bluegill beds all over the lake so it’s a matter of finding the ones they are feeding on.”

Friday and Saturday promise to be more of the same hot summer weather, but there is an element that bears watching, Villegas said – Tropical Storm Erika which threatens to grow into a hurricane and bear down on Florida. Although high winds could pose a danger to boaters, a drop in pressure could actually spur the fish to get active, he said.

However, the National Weather Service has reported that if Erika does make landfall on Florida, it will probably be late Sunday, 24 hours after the final weigh-in of the two-day tournament.

Villegas, who led the points earlier this year, is currently ranked 9^th in the Gator Division points standings, but has hopes of improving that status, perhaps even winning the title with a strong finish in the tournament this weekend.

“I’ve got a good feeling with what I have figured out so far,” he said. “If I come in with 17 pounds on Friday I should easily make the second day of the tournament and then it’s anybody’s game.”

He definitely will have a strong cheering section. Villegas grew up in New York and his first taste of bass fishing came when he was stationed in Texas in the Air Force. He’s had plenty of opportunity to cast for bass since moving to Florida in 1985 and he made sure his five daughters were exposed to fishing from an early age.

“I love my girls and all my girls fish,” said the proud father.

 

Walmart BFL – Gator Division Super

August 29 – 30, 2015

Lake Okeechobee

C. Scott Driver Park

www.flwfishing.com