West Lake Toho was heating up in more ways than one on Sunday May 31st. Twenty-nine teams finally arrived to try to figure out the pattern on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. The club points lead and the top ten classic qualifiers are on the line with only three tournaments left in the season. President Karl made the decision to give the club members all the fishing time that he could by moving the weigh-in to three thirty to accommodate another bass club tournament, but most of us were WELL DONE by the end of a 98 degree tournament day. Some of us were done a lot sooner! The start of the day was up to Keith Braun and Cliff Semonski, who trolled out to the no wake marked to call out boat numbers, sorry about your boat Keith. Jennifer and Lloyd Hamilton arrived just in time and Rick and Joe Jenkins rolled in a little late because of tire and lug nut problems. A few boats traveled down to Lake Kissimmee but most decided to stay in West Lake Toho. The green water and hydrilla in the south east section of the lake attracted a lot of boats, which turned out to be good and bad. The club record for most weight in a single day will have to be changed as there were 121 fish brought to the scales for 327.25 pounds, which topped the record by three pounds. This included three fish over 8 pounds and three fish over 7 pounds to go along with many four and five pound fish that the club members worked had for all day.
Fred Reid and Jimmy Haggerty reclaimed in the AOY lead with a strong performance. Their 22.08 pound limit was slightly reduced by a dead fish penalty to 21.58 pounds, but still kept them in first place. The 8.24 pound big fish, caught by Jimmy, narrowly missed the tournament big bass by only 0.11 pounds. They reported that switching between a Senko and a top water Zara Spook was the winning pattern for the day.
Second place goes to Greg Clark and (alt.) Rob Branaugh who weighed in a five fish limit of 20.74 pounds. Their big bass was 7.54 pounds, which Rob hooked using a Netbait Dagger. They reported that working the hydrilla mats proved to be the most productive pattern for them.
Third place goes to Brian Wical and Santos Jr. Solis who reported moving from West Lake Toho to Lake Kissimmee proved to be a good choice. They used flippin jigs in the grass and hydrilla to land 19.82 pounds and remained in second place in the AOY points race by only two points. Their bag was topped of with a 5.63 pounder. They also reported that there was no one in sight on the lake all day where they fished.
Bill Groseclose and Zac Malone took fourth place with a 17.70 limit of West Lake Toho bass, but was capped of with a giant 8.35 pounder to also take Big Bass of the tournament honors. They fished out in the open water with the other 42 boats and used a Senko to take most of their limit including the giant big bass. Notable mention goes to Matt and Gary Hinman whose 17.52 pound limit came in fifth, and also Mike Neal and Justin Sonnier whose 8.15 pounder was the third eight pounder of the day. Alan Elder and Wayne Smith fished hard all day but came back with the small creel of the tournament at 4.51 pounds. Both the fourth p[lace and small creel prizes were again donated by Shawn Mecchella of Strike Zone of Melbourne and is greatly appreciated by all the club members.
The next tournament will be at Miami-Garcia Impoundment on June 28th.
