We hauled our gear to Lake Okeechobee for a two day event March 22-23 that launched out of the Harney Pond Canal. The weights from our club were down from recent years in general. However, as usual, some competitors figured out the secret to catching bigger fish. BJ Biles of Palm Bay and Jackie Barber of Cocoa caught the two biggest five fish limits of the tournament at 17.67 pounds on the first day and 22.09 pounds the second day to win the event by over 9 pounds with a total of 39.76. Jackie Barber anchored their Sunday catch with a 9.4 pound lunker that was the tournament's biggest fish and is the biggest fish caught at any SCBF tournament this season.
Tim Iler of Port St. John and Larry Cruce of Titusville earned second place with a two day total of 30.54 pounds. Mike Calloway of Titusville and Bill Rucker of Okeechobee sacked a two day total of 28.25 pounds to take 3rd. Calloway's 7.04 pounder was the biggest fish on the first day of the event.
Building Management Systems, Inc generously provided scratch off lottery tickets this time as the small creel award. Mike Hubbard and I were unlucky enough to win them the first day and Alan Elder earned them on day 2. If you need something designed, built, or such get a bid from BMS.
Air Temperature: Upper 60s to mid 80s
Water Temperature: upper 60s to mid 70s
Conditions:
Day 1: breezy and overcast
Day 2: calm, hot, and clear to stupid windy and mostly cloudy near weigh in time
The winners reported catching their fish using the following tricks:
- 1st Place & Day 2 Big Bass: unspecified top water (including the 9.4 monster), and unspecified watermelon red swimbaits
- 2nd Place: Zoom Speed Worms
- 3rd Place & Day 1 Big Bass: mostly flipping something but also top water something else and spinnerbaits
