The 2018-2019 season is nearly drawing to an end for SCBF's and that makes Lake Kissimmee an important stop for the AOY points race. It was the best of times for some and the worst of times for others but the lake held surprises for everyone. The June heat wave had slacked off a little from the high 90's of the past week and there was a few welcome clouds to block the intense sun to make the day a little more bare able. The lake was a few shades of green which means that SJRWM was doing a good job of spraying anything that was green in the lake. This coupled with the high temperatures and the low water conditions and lack of current flow made the lake a little on the hard side to find fish.
President Karl Kearcher welcomed everyone of the twenty-two teams at the ramp and V-P Buddy Perry did a fine job of checking each of the boats prior to launch. Once all boats were in the water, President Karl proceeded to announce the time and the safety concerns for the lake. He also reminded the members that our next tournament will be the time for looking ahead to next years club business, that is, voting for the club officers and lakes we would like to fish, along with bringing up any changes to the By-Laws for the members to discuss. He also announced that a BBQ would be made available after the next tournament weigh-in for those who would like to donate ten dollars which would be collected by the Treasure Jack Berry anytime before the end of the Lake Washington tournament. There were some surprises at the weigh-in: such as the largest bag of the year to weigh-in along with the largest bass of the year to come across the scales, besting the old mark by almost two pounds. Some teams traveled a long way while others never got out of site of the launch ramp.
Dave Tripp and Robert Kimbrough, both from Vero, racked up the heaviest bag of the year, to take first place honors. Their limit of 25.81 pounds bested the rest of the club by five pounds and beat their old record of five fish weighing 24.85 pounds, back in February, by a pound. This was their third win of the year and was anchored by the biggest bass of the day weighing 9.65 pounds which raised the bar by almost two pounds for the Biggest Bass of the Year. (sorry Cliff) Their bag contained another bucket mouth big mama weighing 7.03 pounds and another fish in the five plus range, just to make thing even better. They used flippin jigs on the outside grass lines in Lake Kissimmee to make this a record breaking day. These guys like fishing in this lake!
Dwayne Haga of DeBary and Dave Metzler also of DeBary, recorded a nice limit weighing 20.41 pounds to claim second place. Their bag was capped off by a 6.47 pound Lake Kissimmee girl along with four others in the four pound range. They reported that they flipped the outside grass lines on some island in Lake Kissimmee. Their main baits were a watermelon red crawfish by Stump Knocker baits with a punch skirt from Last Cast and some chatter baits which made all the difference in the dirty water.
Third place goes to Gary Hinman of Palm Bay and Matt Hinman of St. Cloud with 18.98 pounds. Their bag was anchored by a huge 7.49 pound big one which was the second largest of the day. They casted swimbaits all day around the Kissimmee grass to fill out their limit.
Fourth place went to Clayton Clark and Greg Clark of Eau Gallie, who landed 17.56 pounds on swimbaits in Lake Kissimmee to retain their lead in the AOY points race and claim the Strike Zone of Melbourne sponsored prize from Shawn Mecchella. Way to hang in there boys but everyone is gunning for you now.
The small creel award goes to Cliff Semonski and Keith Braun for their good effort. Keith's new boat has now been broken in and I hope this will help Cliff get over his motor break down problem.
Thanks to everyone for their help especially to Erick Pickton for the wonderful photos which all can see on our website. This make the club what it is today and what it can be next year. I hope to see every one of the thirty teams at our next tournament on Lake Washington on July 28th for good times and BBQ.
