It seems that the best thing to do at Lake Cypress on Sunday the 15th was to leave the lake in search of better places. It was a clear and cool morning as the twenty-five teams arrived at the launch ramp to find out that we would be joined by twenty-five High School bass teams from the surrounding counties for a day on the lake. This made for some tight parking and boat docking challenges. We met some very nice bass fishing fans and some dedicated boat drives and working volunteers. The President, Karl Kearcher, worked out the details of the start times and weigh-in schedules with our friends and all proceeded in the usual orderly manner. The morning started off with a lot of deer sightings and a few meteors streaking across the clear night sky. Jack Berry collected the tournament fees and asked everyone if they wanted to buy a SCBF hat at $15.00 each in four different colors. He also pasted out the permits and had the teams draw for their starting boat position chips. The chips are important for safety reasons upon your return and for the orderly weigh-in process so when you loose one and drop you permit on the ground (Bill Groseclose) it is not good and will cost you 5 points. President Karl and V-P Buddy were busy doing their respective duties of meeting and greeting and boat checking which was difficult with the shear number of boats present. Karl called the meeting to order and explained some safety concerns regarding the lake and canals along with a time check and weigh-in procedure before starting the tournament in his usual orderly manner. West Lake Toho seemed to be the place to go as the top four finishers all reported that they locked thru and found clean water and hydrilla to fish in.
Buddy Byrd and Matt Byrd captured first palace with a nice limit weighing 15.90 pounds. After a chilly ride up the canal and thru the locks, they fished out in the hydrilla using mostly skinny dippers mixed in with the occasional senko to claim the top prize. Their largest bass , a 5.46 pounder, anchored a solid limit averaging over three pounds. This win moves them into fifty place in the AOY points standing.
Second place goes to Brian Cole and Dan Keyes with 13.25 pounds. Their limit was anchored by a huge 6.45 pound West Lake Toho female which was the second largest bass of the day. Their limit came mostly on swimbaits but a rattle trap was also pretty good. This was their second top ten finish and good for some valuable AOY points.
Third place with 12.99 pounds was Brian Wical and Junior Solis, who used mostly a Carolina Rigg to take their limit. The limit was anchored by a 7.07 pounder which Junior caught using a fluke. This was the Big Bass of the tournament and the second largest of the year.
The small creel award goes to Dwayne Haga and Dave Metzler whose 0.95 pound bass was still not the smallest of the year as Buddy Perry and Preston Humphrey still hold that record.
Just out of the money was Karl Kearcher and Brian Davidson who took fourth place with 12.35 pounds. They reported that flippin the grass and hydrilla mats and throwing a trick worm proved the best for them. The tournament sponsor, Shawn Mecchella of Strike Zone of Melbourne, as usual donated both the prizes for small creel and fourth place. He also donated a door prize of fifty dollar gift certificate just for the Christmas season to be drawn for as soon as the weigh-in and awards ceremony was complete. Winner must be present to win! The President proceeded to draw boat numbers out of a hat and announce the winners. After several numbers were drawn but they had already left, too bad, the winning boat #19 was called out and Buddy and Matt Byrd the tournament winners came forward only to give back the prize and told Karl to draw again. True Christmas spirit and men of character. Then boat number 18 was drawn giving Truman Patterson and Bryan Rhoades the gift certificate.
Our next tournament will be on the Miami-Garcia Impoundment in Fellsmere on the 26th of January. See you there.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !
