It's a new season for SCBF and that means we get to start all over with a clean slate. The returning past members and several new teams were greeted at the launch ramp at Lake Poinsett by this years President, Bill Groseclose. He welcomed everyone with his usual smile and handshake, giving each new and old member information and directing them to the registration table. The club now has twenty-five teams signed up which only leaves five more spaces open for any prospective team to join us.

The best eleven teams of the club arrived at Lake Kissimmee's Overstreet Landing on Sunday the 26th to find out who would take the 2017-2018 best of the best crown along with bragging rights for the next season. Expectations were high and the lake and weather seemed to be cooperating to make this another fantastic ending to the season that had seen so many club records set or exceeded. It was a great looking morning with the nearly full moon over head and not many clouds to block the sunrise.

The last tournament of the season for SCBF, was held Sunday on Lake Washington, with a a lot on the line for the twenty-one teams who put up with the mosquitoes, high water, little to no wind, heavy rain showers and a lack of vegetation offered by the lake. The question of who would be in the top ten in points and who would make the eleventh place wild card for the "Classic" , along with the Angler's of the Year, was up for grabs. The full moon and days of practice would not be much help as the weather and lake levels were rapidly changing.

The end of the year is nearing and with only one tournament left to fish the "Classic" line up is starting to shape up. The points race for "AOY" has become very close, with this months results, as there is now only five points separating the top two teams. The day started out like any other day at Garcia with a lot of mosquitoes, crowded boat parking and a lot of floating weeds but nineteen teams who traveled to Fellsmere would be ready to go as soon as they finished the Entenmann breakfast supplied by Lloyd and Jennifer.

The old saying was true on Sunday the 20th of May for the twenty teams who arrived at Lakefront Park Ramp on West Lake Toho. Neither rain or clouds or wind or low water could keep us off the lake and the club responded with one of its better days. For the first time this year, every team returned to the scales with a limit of bass and there were a lot of big bass caught this day. This included six fish over six and a half pounds, three limits over twenty pounds and five limits over eighteen pounds. The day started out wet and continued that way until the weigh-in was over at three thirty pm.

The conditions were perfect on Sunday morning for a great day of fishing; full moon, high clouds, light winds out of the northwest, 61 degree air temperature and a beautiful red sunrise. This is how bass fishing tournaments should always start, right. The Overstreet Launch Ramp was unusually crowded with the remainders of the King of the River air boat fest, held on Friday and Saturday, which I'm sure we made enough noise to wake them up way before they wanted too.

Many of the club members traveled south to Lake Okeechobee earlier in the week to see what was in store for the weekend. What most found was that their old areas were either entirely gone or changed to the point of being unrecognizable. Old boat trails were now open areas with scattered reeds and most reed lines were far from their old positions. The lake water was very dirty if you were in the open, but clean water could be found inside the reeds which is what most people were looking for.

The day of fishing turned out to be a mixed bag of success and frustration for the twenty-two teams that arrived at the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp on US Highway 520 on February 25th. It turned out to be a big difference between last months really tough fishing as every team did weigh-in a fish this time. The Club marked its halfway point in the season with a great turn out on a very nice day with temperatures in the mid-80's and wind that came and went but never posed much of a problem.

Mike Calloway takes the Big Bass honors at the first Strike Zone of Melbourne tournament on Miami-Garcia Impoundment Saturday, January 4, 2018. Using his own Last Cast punch skirt with a Reaction Innovation kinky beaver, he reported that the big girl came from a reed island with floating lettuce and hyacinths. As usual, he landed the 6.75 pounder with only one hour left in the tournament. The Club was well represented at the 35 boat tournament with most of the top teams being from our Club.

Blue Cypress Lake is without a doubt the most beautiful lake that SCBF's fish all season long, no matter what the time of the year we go there. The morning sunrise was just glorious and the lake was as smooth as glass for the first two hours. The air was dry and the temperature was hovering around 69 or 70 degrees and it felt just like air conditioning. The changes around the launch ramp, parking lot and store were very evident and are due to the new management who were very happy to welcome the club and offered all the help and advice they could.