Space Coast Bass Finatics

The club discussed our upcoming Lake Okeechobee two day event on March 19-20 which we will be launching both days out of the Harney Pond Canal ramp. If anyone needs info on accomodations, call or e-mail and we can give you some local numbers for rooms that are good for boat parking.

Whaley's Landing was a crowded place Sunday morning as approximately twenty-five boats from two bass clubs where there to find Toho's biggest and best bass. The conditions were not ideal, but the morning sunrise and cloud pattern were spectacular as the two photos from Tim Kopf proves. The thirteen teams from SCBF were eager to get started in the cool morning weather but they would be soon be enjoying the feel of the warm Florida sun as the day progressed.

On February 11,2016 the FWC approved the revision to the black bass length that can be possessed. Starting on July 1, 2016 you can only possess one bass over 16" long in a five bass limit. This will eliminate the one bass over 22" long. This will also make it almost mandatory that a permit will need to be acquired prior to each tournament. We will need to revise our by-laws to reflect this new requlation. All new regulations including this one can be reviewed on the FWC web site under new regulations.

Club Member News

It was 15 years ago the other day, January 17, 2001 in fact, that Dean Rojas had a magical life altering day during a Top 150 Bassmaster event at Lake Toho where he laid an epic 45 pound 2 ounce 5 fish limit on the scales of history. After all this time, I still look upon that photo with a giant smile and childlike awe. Mr Rojas still remembers that day with vivid detail and you can read all about it in a wonderful two part article by Todd Ceisner on BassFan. part 1 part 2

The club visited beautiful Blue Cypress Lake on Sunday the 13th of December and were met by almost every condition possible. Starting the mourning off with a star filled night sky accented with some very bright meteors and a lot of very hunger mosquitoes. Miss Middleton provided lake information drinks, coffee, and all the plastic baits you could need or use. Sunrise arrived with wind out of the northeast at 10 mph and continued to increase all day until it started to rain about two pm and during the weigh-in right up until we were leaving Middleton's parking lot. Then a beautiful double rainbow over the lake wished us fair well good bye. How nice it was and what a day for the thirteen teams who made the long trip down to highway 60.

Past LERA member and Strike Zone connection Jim Folks caps off the nine tournament series by winning four Toho tournaments and the division championship on Lake Okeechobee with a two day total of 53.24 pounds including a 9.18 big bass honors. Congratulations from SCBF. Read more on the Florida Today sports news by Bill Sargent

The only thing that was easy on Sunday November 15th was the drive over to East Lake Toho as the lake lived up to its past history of bad weather conditions and small creel limits. This did not stop the SCBF as every one of the fourteen teams returned across a wind blown lake threw the pepper grass to the weigh-in with a limit of bass. We were happy to see Jimmy Blount back in competition but his partner Jack Berry could not get the engine to fire up at the ramp and they made the best of the day as they used up the trolling motor batteries and the starting battery as well.

Congratulations to Jack Berry for winning the Cocoa Bassmaster AOY points race which ended up on Lake Poinsett this year. The tournament was won by one of our own, Rick Jenkins, who posted a impressive total to best the field.

It was a very good day for bass fishing, light winds from the northeast, air temperature in the low 70's, cloud cover, no bugs, water temperature in the 80's, hydrilla and pads growing all over the lake. What more could you ask for on a Sunday morning in central Florida. We even came up with a nice double rainbow on the north end of the lake captured in a nice photo by Mike Calloway. So what if there was a small quick shower crossing the lake just to cool things off and keep the bugs down.

The fourteen teams left the ramp at 7 am with high hopes and eight of them returned with a limit of Lake Kissimmee bass. The team of Rick Jenkins and Adam Brandes (alternate) racked up an impressive bag weighing 17.12 pounds to take first place with ease. Their bag was anchored by a 6.17 pound lunker that easily took big bass honors.

Jack Berry captured second place fishing by himself due to a sudden medical problem which sidelined his partner Jimmy Blount came in with 14.34 pounds capped with a nice 5.39 pounder. Jack caught most of his fish near the Overstreet ramp and in North Cove. I'll bet Jimmy would have been happy to see those bass and probably would have improved Jack's total catch.

Third place was taken by the perennial team of Cliff Semonski and Mike Calloway who weighed in 12.66 pounds topped with a 4.06 pounder to keep them placing in the top three for the year.