Sunday August 25, 2024 saw the top 10 teams and a Wild Card travel to their favorite “Mud Hole”, the Miami-Garcia impoundment for the 2024 SCBF Classic. On arrival they were met with the customary hoards of hungry mosquitoes. At safe light the teams took off in their order of finish for the year with Fred Reid and John Kinchen leading the pack. The Wild Card team of Raymond Taylor fishing alone did the honors of calling boat numbers.

On Sunday 7-28-24, Space Coast Bass Finatics held their final tournament of the regular season on Lake Washington with 13 teams coming out to finish their season strong battling Mother Nature’s July heat wave. The rain and wind cooperated most of the day but the heat was definitely a force to contend with as the temperature went well above 90 by mid morning with high humidity and very little breeze to offer relief.

The tenth tournament of the season occurred on June 30th on Lake Blue Cypress. The event forecast was for hot and cloudy conditions with a high chance for rain mid-day.  The likelihood for thunderstorms was high as well.  This forecast proved to be accurate.  The rains came in droves shortly after take-off accompanied by close proximity lightning strikes sending many teams back to the ramp early.  Those who decided to weather the storm soon realized they may have made a mistake.  The author was one of those only securing the fourth keeper at the time. Water temperatures were in the mid to high 80s with stained water conditions.

The Space Coast Bass Finatics 9th Tournament was held May 19th at Lake Eustis, Tavares Fl. Buzzard Beach ramp seemed like the place to be as 5 different clubs were at the ramp. Thankfully everything went smoothly, and we were able to take-off right at safe light. The Club Officers held a vote prior to launch to change the weigh-in time to 3:30 instead of the usual 3pm. This helped cut out some congestion in the afternoon, a great decision! The water temperature ranged from 81 in the morning to 85 in the afternoon.

The eighth tournament of the season occurred on April 28th on the Miami-Garcia Impoundment.  This was the second time this season we fished at Garcia.  The weather was windy at 15 to 20 MPH mostly out of the east, but temperature was in the high seventies.  Water temperatures were in the mid-70s and stained water conditions.

Third place went to Gary Hinman and Bob Hall with a two-day total of 21.73 lbs. Gary and Bob are new members in the club … welcome aboard and congrats.  Second place went to Mike Calloway and Mike Morrison with a two-day total of 26.63 lbs. First place went to Roger Averill and Dustin Beard with a two-day total of 32.7 lbs.  Congratulations to all top finishers!  Many challenges were met and overcome, and lessons were learned.  We all need to stay safe so we can fish another day.

Are you fed up with the state of the St. John's River?  It's time to take action.  No, I don't mean yelling at Mike Calloway for making the club fish tournaments out of Mullet Lake Park the last two years.  Fishing media writer and central Florida resident, Joe Balog, has formed a non-profit organization called Mighty River Recovery dedicated to improving fish and wildlife habitat on the Saint John's River.  He needs help from people interested in the health of the river, like us, to make it happen.

The sixth SCBF tournament was held on February 25th from Mullet Lake Park on the St. Johns River.  Weather was cooler in the morning, 47 degrees, followed by awesome conditions for enjoying the day on the water attempting to find the very elusive bass.  There was a total of 13 teams participating this year at Mullet Lake Park. Fred Reid and John Kinchen won with a total of 17.39 lbs. Fred also caught the big bass (6.22 lbs.) for the day with a June-bug finesse worm.  Second place went to Mike Calloway and Mike Morrison.  Their bag was a total of 7.69 lbs.  Third place went to Don Hinman and Ken Winter who landed a bag total of 7.54 lbs.  The first place team was the only boat to have a full five fish limit. Congratulations to those teams who managed to place in this tough tournament and a big congratulations to entire club for ZERO dead fish.

The fifth tournament of the season occurred on January 28th on the Miami-Garcia impoundment. The weather was windy at 15 to 20 MPH mostly out of the west, but temperature was a comfortable 70 degrees. Water temperatures were in the low 70s and stained water conditions.

The fourth tournament of the season occurred on January 14th on Lake Kissimmee. The tournament was originally scheduled for late last year, but weather got in the way forcing the club to reschedule for safety reasons. Unfortunately, the weather was quite different from the forecast for this event. The good news is the bass did not mind, but tournament members were faced with cold, rainy, and windy conditions. The weather had winds out of the north at 10+ mph. The water temperature was in the low sixties, and the air temp never got above 55.