We headed out to Whaley's Landing on West Lake Toho on January 25th, the day after a big cold front blew through town. The post cold frontal weather conditions made fishing difficult, but resilient anglers figure out how to catch them in any conditions.
Dwayne Haga of Sanford and Dave Metzler of Debary have been on a hot streak of late finishing in the top 3 at each of the last 3 events. This time, they Carolina rigged junebug colored soft plastic stick baits in Lake Cypress to amass a 5 fish limit totaling 18.24 pounds to win the tournament. Their creel included an 8.92 pounder by Haga that was the tournament's biggest fish and the biggest fish weighed at any of the 5 events held so far this season.
The team of Matt Hinman and Yogi Norris of St Cloud, fishing their first event with the club flipped to catch 5 fish for 13.39 pounds and earn second place. Bob Barnette of Port St. John and Tom Southwick of Cocoa Beach took 3rd with 5 fish for 10.89 pounds.
Iler/Cruce earned this month's Small Creel Award for their impressive 1 fish for 1.49 pounds beating out 3 other teams within a half pound. The prize was a couple of bags of Hampton Farms brand peanuts and it was graciously donated by Ponderosa Pyrography & Leatherworks that makes one of a kind personalized engraved gourds, leather purses, and other items. You can reach them at 321-724-8075 or e-mail mhampton20 at cfl.rr.com.
Most of us found the fishing difficult at this event. At the weigh-in things got even more difficult for some of our club members and yet more had difficulty on the way home.
The team of Taylor and Casey returned to the launch site at 3:23pm as they were down near Hatchineha when they were unable to get their boat back on plane for the return trip to the weigh-in. Thankfully, they were able to make it back under their own power. We would have had to disqualify their catch by rule, but they didn't have any fish. By another rule they were able to retain their 15 show up points so a bad day didn't turn completely useless.
The team of Blount/Berry had a good day under the circumstances with a 5 pounder filling out a limit. Unfortunately, they presented a fish that didn't touch the 14" line on the official club rule no matter how hard the club VP tried. By rule, they lost the short fish and their biggest fish. Even after the penalty, they managed a 9th place finish for the day, but had the short fish measured, they would have finished 3rd. I commend Jack and Jimmy for handling the bad situation like men and having some fun with it no matter how disappointed they were. Ask for a courtesy measurement with the official club rule before presenting your fish for weigh-in should you find yourself with a close fish. All golden rules are slightly different.
The team of Milks/Milks found themselves with a flat tire car tire at the boat ramp. Thanks to a club member that supplied a portable inflater, they were able to pump it back up enough to get home safely. I don't know who supplied this act of kindness, but thank you whomever you are!
After stopping for some dinner with Wayne Smith, Alan Elder's truck starter refused to function. Mr Hampton ended up towing Alan's boat back to Alan's house with Wayne. Alan went with the truck to the shop and then finally made it home late.
On the way past, Mike Hampton said he saw what looked like Clyde Taylor's truck on the side of the road near Bull Creek. He said the boat and the Taylors were gone when he went by but the truck was still there.
It was a long tough day for some. Oh right... you read this for the details on how people won, not who's equipment broke down. Okay, that's not very compassionate, but fine. Here:
Air Temperature: lower 40s to lower 60s
Water Temperature: upper 50s
Conditions: clear with an early 10-15 N wind that turned calm in the afternoon
The winners reported catching their fish using the following tricks:
- 1st Place & Big Bass: Carolina rigged junebug senkos in Lake Cypress
- 2nd Place: flipping some kind of soft plastics somewhere
- 3rd Place: I have no idea. Hampton didn't ask.
