The day was one of right and wrong decisions for the thirteen teams that came out to the boat ramp in the coolness of daybreak at Lake Poinsett. Should we stay in the lake, go to the north river, go to Lake Winder, go to south river or maybe we should go all the way to the dam at Lake Washington? The weather was not going to help, as the sun was relentless and the wind changed direction, when there was any, and the rain swept across the area quickly but did drop the temperature just when it got to hot to continue for some people. Some teams made the right decisions and capitalized on it while others searched all day in frustration to find the fish.
Mr. President Dwayne Haga of Sanford and his partner Dave Metzler of Debary made the right decision and went to the north river where they flipped a sweet beaver at the bank of the river to record an impressive 21.91 pound first place victory. Their catch included the big bass of the tournament weighing 6.17 pounds which Dwayne Haga landed besting all other big bass by a pound and a half.
Past president Rick Jenkins and his partner Joe Jenkins use the entire lake including south river and Lake Winder to limit out with a total of 19.23 pounds for second place. Their solid bag of three and a half to four pounders came on mostly flippin baits with the biggest weighing in at 4.61 pounds. Rick promises at the next tournament not to be the last boat in the water, turn on his running lights and make sure the fish stay alive.
Tim Iler and Larry Cruce made the decision to run to the south end of Lake Winder and fish their way back in the south river to claim third place with 16.80 pounds. They reported using everything they had in the boat including swim baits, sinkos, worms, top water and cast nets to catch a limit of nice 3 to 4 pounders, sorry no cast nets.
The small creel award went to Jeff Merritt and Brian Chapman who fished hard all day in the oppressive heat and sometimes rain to collect a nice prize from Bitters Bait and Tackle. We would like to express a big thank you to Bitters Bait and Tackle for their continued support to the club.
We were sorry to hear of the early departure of Don Hinman's partner, alt. Jason Hendren who experienced back problems which prevented him from participating the entire day. We hope he is feeling better and can come back and fish with us again.
There were no reported mechanical problems from any of the boaters which we are always glad to hear, but there were some lake sightings that were disturbing. Jimmy Blount's boat was attacked by a Lake Winder beast during the rain storm that pasted through the area. Jimmy, who's heart cannot take too much excitement, was waiting out the rain when a large animal, mermaid, alligator or something came up behind the boat and startled him and his partner Jack Berry. The mysterious animal continued to follow the boat even as Jack tried to troll out of the reeds they were in and into the lake, finally giving up after ten minutes. Then disappearing just as quickly as it appeared. Jimmy says it was about eight feet long and looked to weight about 400 pounds so be careful out there because you never know what will sneak up on you when you are sleeping in the back of the boat.
Tournament conditions:
air temp. 77' to 92'
water temp. 87.5' to 90.2'
wind variable 5 to 10 changing directions all day
very hot day, clear then cloudy then rain then cloudy
