The club almost fielded their first full member roster on Sunday January 23rd, as 29 teams arrived with no alternates at Blue Cypress Recreational Area otherwise known as Miami-Garcia Lake. This has been one of our best lakes to fish over the past years but this was not one of its best days as the 45' degree air temperature and the 58' water temperature had the big fish taking a break from biting. The catch weights and big bass were down by almost two pounds on average. The ramp was crowded as usual but the high water help with boat parking, Lloyd and Jennifer arrived just before sunrise, Jack woke Jimmy up, and Charlie Rigby finally found his other glove which somehow ended up on his other hand. Weird! President Karl called the pre-launch meeting to order and set the time and weigh-in procedure, then Roger Marek called out the starting order of boats.
Raymond Taylor and Zack Taylor lead the way and claimed first place with a nice limit weighing 15.40 pounds. Their five fish bag was capped off by a 5.38 pound big bass which was nearly the largest of the day which Zack would have caught but Raymond kept front ending him. Using a Senko and pitching the reeds and pads proved to be their winning strategy.
Second place goes to Fred Reid and Jimmy Haggerty, who used a lipless crank bait or rattle trap to catch a 14.16 pound limit. Ripping the bait out of the hydrilla was key to their success and accounted for a 5.23 pound big bass as well. They increased their lead in the AOY points race to 16 with this finish.
Roger and Aaron Marek took third place with 13.72 pound limit, and in the process moved into third place in the AOY points race. Their bag was anchored by a 5.79 pound Big Bass, which was caught by Aaron on a rattle trap. They reported that the lipless crankbait accounted for all their bass.
Fourth place to VP Buddy Perry and Preston Humphrey, who landed 12.65 pounds of bass also on a lipless crank bait (rattle trap) silver and blue color. They claimed the 50 dollar gift certificate from Strike Zone of Melbourne which will probably but some more rattle traps. The small creel prize of 2- $10.00 dollar gift certificates from Strike Zone of Melbourne and Shawn Mecchella was won by Alan Hough Justin Koether, whose four fish narrowly beat out Charlie Rigby and Al Wells two fish.
President Karl announced our next tournament will be on West Lake Toho on February 23rd and after some discussion the club decided we would launch out of Big Toho Marina ( City Ramp). He also announced that out own Jimmy Blount recently had his 81syt birthday and he is still going strong. He also commented that there was no dead fish weighed-in today which is great and the first time that has happened in a regular tournament in a long time.
On a sad note, Cliff Semonski lost his father recently but said he lived a long and happy life and was a peace. Condolences to Cliff and his family.
