The lake was full of obstacles for the club to over come on Sunday December 16th and not all were on the water. It seems that even pre-fishing the lake was full of unforeseen dangers as the parking lot was not secure and some unsavory characters ( low life's ) took advantage of the vehicles and their contents. The lake level was very low due to the lack of rainfall and the constant need of water to irrigate the fields and farms around Fellsmere. The club took it all in stride and hit the lake like champions by recording a limit in every boat even Bob and Tom who left early still had a five fish limit. Catching a bass with any size seemed to be the problem as well over half the teams could not find that one good fish to get them over the seven to nine pound limit. The problems even followed some club members home as Cliff Semonski had a blowout on I-95 at seventy mph but thankfully the damage was confined to the trailer tire. The constant noise of the ever present tour boats was the only thing that kept the day from being great as the weather was just perfect. The twenty-four teams that competed also sent the bar a little higher as a new club record was set for the most bass weigh-in at 115 total fish in a single day and had it not been for the three dead fish ( one by Mike and Tim and two by Jack and Jimmy ) it would have been a perfect catch and release day. President Bill again met each team and did his double duty by doing the boat check as V-P William Flood is still recovering from surgery but did show up for the weigh-in. The club sends out best wishes to Wayne Smith who suffered a ruptured appendix last week and is still trying to recover also Jack Spradlin who had a accident and suffered a hand injury. Hope to see all the teams back to full strength next month. A special thanks to Lloyd and Jennifer who provided honey buns for everyone to start the morning off and Matt Byrd (acting Vice-President) for his assistants at the weigh-in.
Matt Hinman of St. Cloud and his alternate partner Rodney Glunt took first place with a limit weighing 17.76 pounds. Their bag was anchored by a nice 5.62 pound big bass that narrowly missed being the best of the day by only 0.14 pounds and would have given them a sweep of the top prizes. Throwing a vibrating jig over the submerged hydrilla was the right choice all day.
Fishing without his partner Preston Humphrey who was missing in action, Buddy Perry of Sebastian claimed second place with a five fish limit weighing 16.45 pounds. He reported that throwing a three quarter ounce rattle trap and a top water plug over the hydrilla accounted for his limit. Rounding out his bag was a huge 5.76 pound bucket mouth which was the Big Bass for the tournament and was caught on a rattle trap.
Third place goes to Justin Neal of West Melbourne and Justin Sonnier of Melbourne who used a vibrating jig and flippin around the edges of the reed lines and pad islands to record a nice 16.39 pound limit. Their bag average four pounds per fish and was capped by a 4.59 pounder which narrowly missed second place by just 0.06 pounds.
Brian Wical of West Melbourne and Craig Cashion of Palm Bay came in fourth place with a limit weighing 14.53 pounds and claimed the Strike Zone of Melbourne gift certificate just in time for Christmas shopping. Buddy Byrd and Matt Byrd ( acting V-P) took the small creel award with a limit weighing 7.18 pounds and also will be shopping at Strike Zone thanks to the generosity of Shawn Mecchella.
This concluded the December tournament and President Bill thank everyone for a safe and fun day on the lake before reminding the club that our next tournament will be West Lake Toho out of the City Ramp on January 27, 2019. Happy next year.
