The Space Coast Bass Finatics were greeted by swarms of hungry mosquitoes at the Miami-Garcia Impoundment west of Fellsmere at the start of their June 30th two person team bass tournament. The mosquitoes weren't the only thing biting as a few all time club records fell amongst the rain and lightning. The top three finishers weighed the heaviest 5 fish limits at Garcia in the history of the club and finished within a pound of one another.
Mike Calloway, of Titusville and fishing without a partner, sacked a whopping 5 fish limit for 20.98 pounds to win the tournament. His weight included a magnificent 7.77 pound giant that was the tournament's biggest fish and a new club record for the biggest fish at Garcia. In addition to winning the tournament, he set the all time club record for the heaviest weight ever weighed by anyone fishing without a partner at any tournament. His catch is also the heaviest 5 fish limit ever weighed in at Garcia in the history of the club.
Finishing a close second with 5 fish for 20.39 pounds were Tony Ciavarella of Melbourne and Daville Williams of Palm Bay. Their catch included a 7.21 pounder. Mike Hampton of Malabar and Tim Kopf of Melbourne weighed 5 fish for 20.16 pounds to take third place. They actually had the weight to finish second but a fish care penalty knocked them back to third.
It was an interesting day at Garcia. We were eaten alive by mosquitoes prior to launch, and then rudely greeted by a vegetation plug in the south E/W ditch out to the lake. Our first boat out plowed straight into it knocking a whole in it that the rest of us went through, but wound up doing damage to his lower unit and plugging up his water intake. As a result of this madness, we had two of our nine boats unable to return to the ramp under engine power. That is not good in a financial and fun sense, but with thunderstorms in the area, it's also completely unsafe.
There was a big hole out to the lake via the south E/W ditch through which to run the weekend before our tournament. The E/W ditch on the north end of the lake was known to be completely blocked to bass boats. If we had known there was no viable way out to the lake, we would have gone somewhere else and rescheduled due to unsafe conditions. As it turned out, we weighed some big weights and fish, but we all sucked up lots of muck with our motors and at least two of us have to fix things on our motors. Was it worth it? Probably not... Hampton would probably argue otherwise...
Air Temperature: lower 80s to lower 90s
Water Temperature: mid 80s
Wind: SW 5-20
Conditions: mostly cloudy with a 1pm thunderstorm
The winners reported catching their fish using the following tricks:
- 1st Place & Big Bass: flipping Yamamoto Senkos (first fish) and Reaction Innovations Sweet Beavers (rest of 'em)
- 2rd Place: fishing lily pads, reed lines, and open water hydrilla in the south central part of the lake with watermelon red pearl colored Lake Fork Frog (7.21lb + others), 5" Hitch #2 colored Basstrix Paddle Tail Swimbait (4lb/3lb), junebug colored Zoom Horny Toads (4lb)
- 3rd Place: a black and yellow spro style top water frog, Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers, and flipping junebug colored Yum Dingers
