Space Coast Bass Finatics gathered in Fellsmere for their eight tournament of the year on our favorite lake. The weather was perfect and the twenty-four teams who made the long trip south were met by the usual hoards of mosquitoes, low water conditions, fast growing hydrilla and another bass club from Jacksonville who decided to have their end of year Classic on the same lake. The club acted with our usual sportsmanship and let them leave first and choose the time of their weigh-in so as not to conflict with ours. Too bad they did not return the sportsmanship or etiquette on the water but the tournament must go on.
President Bill has decided to take a break for a little while so that he can heal up a recent surgery and take care of some medical problems he is dealing with so give him some good wishes and strong prayers for a speedy recovery. It seems the club has been beseeched with medical and injury problems, V-P William Flood and Mike Calloway are both having difficulties, Tim Kopf is getting over an unfortunate work injury, Jack Berry's neck hurts, Jimmy Blount is getting grouchy, Lloyd and Jennifer had to deal with unfortunate and untimely passing of a friend, I forget who told me they were dealing with Vertigo, and I have had two family deaths in the past ten days. The return of Larry Cruce and Tim Iler was a welcome sight after three months off for medical problems.
I hope to see all the club members back for our next tournament at Blue Cypress Lake on the 19th of May. A special thanks goes out to the club members who have stepped up in the absence the two club officers, Wayne Smith and Alan Elder for checking boat live wells and lights, Dwayne Haga at the weigh-in and Erick Pickton for all the great photo's. Even with the thirty-eight boats at the launch ramp things went off pretty smoothly as everyone made their way onto the lake. All except President Bill, who miss judged the location of one of the many sandbars and severely damaged his lower unit and the Taylor brothers who found a cypress log somewhere on the north end of the lake and damaged their skag and prop. Not to mention the many hydrilla clogged intakes, airboat silt trails and hard bottom take offs and aerator malfunctions that happen to some of the participants. This was still one of our best tournaments of the year with over 300 hundred pounds of bass weighed in along with six fish over twenty-two inches long being brought to the scales and all but three teams recording a limit.
The last team to check in was the first place team in an impressive win, Rick and Joe Jenkins landed three fish over six pounds and two over two and a half pounds to round out a huge 23.33 pound limit. Throwing swimbaits and some top water in the lilly fields on the north end of the lake was their path to success. All three of their big fish were over the 22" mark and the largest weighed in at 6.88 pounds. The win has pushed them into the lead in the "AOY" points race with only three more tournaments to go.
Returning from his long stay in the middle east, Alan Elder and his partner Wayne Smith (recently married) came on in a big way to take second place with a really nice limit just over the twenty pound mark at 20.05 pounds. Using their trusty watermelon red flukes and some top water chug bug baits, they hammered the bass on the open clear water south end of the lake. Working their lures over the hydrilla mats they averaged just over four pounds a fish and capped off their day with a nice 5.66 pound big bass.
Third place goes to Mike Hampton and Tim Kopf who used top water chug bugs, poppin frogs and good old home made flukes to record a 19.00 pound limit. Moving around the lake and in the north and south canals made for a good day of bass fishing as they reported catching fish almost everywhere they stopped.
The big bass for the day was caught by Mike Daugherty (alternate)and was netted by Buddy Byrd, see what you missed out on Matt. The giant 7.27 pounder hit a swim bait and capped off their five fish limit of 15.08 pounds. Honorable mention goes to Thomas Gates who hooked a 6.93 pound bucket mouth, second largest of the tournament, to capped off their limit and beat his dad.
Fourth place goes to Cliff Semonski and Keith Braun who weighed in 17.92 pounds anchored by a nice 5.20 pound big bass.
Small creel goes to Alan Hough and Jack Spradlin with three fish for 4.52 pounds and was still a good day of fishing.
Best wishes for a quick recovery to President Bill who has done a stand out job all year long.
