Fish With a Pro – Lake Okeechobee

Fish With a Pro is the guide business of Captain William Wood, a competitive bass angler who has spent close to three decades fishing Lake Okeechobee both for a living and for tournament trophies. His resume includes recognition as a four-time Florida B.A.S.S. Nation Angler of the Year, and he has fished national-level events with both B.A.S.S. and FLW over a career he describes as roughly 24 years on the tournament trail layered on top of 20-plus years of guiding. That combination is the actual selling point: clients are not just getting a boat and a captain, they are getting someone who reads Okeechobee’s grass lines, hydrilla mats, and shifting water levels the way a tournament competitor has to, because a wrong read used to cost him a paycheck.

Trips launch from Belle Glade, meeting at the docks on Marina Drive on Torry Island, the same stretch of water that has served as the town’s gateway to Lake Okeechobee for generations. Captain Wood runs a 20-foot Triton bass boat rigged for the lake’s signature style of fishing, and he tailors each outing to the client rather than running a fixed script. Anglers can choose artificial lures, live wild shiners, or fly tackle, and Wood is known for working with total beginners as comfortably as he works with serious tournament-minded clients chasing a personal best. Trip lengths run four or six hours, generally departing in the cooler early morning hours when Okeechobee bass are most active, with all rods, reels, and tackle supplied so visitors do not need to travel with gear.

The target species is overwhelmingly largemouth bass, the fish Lake Okeechobee is nationally known for, and the lake’s shallow, grass-choked structure means a guide’s local knowledge matters more here than on most Florida fisheries; the same spot that produced fish last week can be empty a week later as water levels and vegetation shift. Wood’s long tenure on the water is what online reviewers consistently point to, describing patient instruction for newcomers and efficient, no-wasted-time fishing for experienced anglers who already know what they want out of a trip.

As an independent, one-captain operation without a storefront, Fish With a Pro is best reached through its website or its YouTube channel, where Wood posts fishing reports and trip footage from the lake. It represents the kind of small, personally-run guide business that has long defined Lake Okeechobee’s fishing culture out of Belle Glade: no corporate branding, no call center, just one experienced captain and his boat.