Ten teams made the pilgrimage to Lake Okeechobee to compete in LERA Bass Club's 2 day tournament held March 27-28 out of Harney Pond Canal. Seven of the ten teams managed to bring a tournament limit of 10 bass to the scales. The field was outclassed by Ralph Litton of Vero Beach and Steve Bistarkey of Palm Bay with help from Dan Walker of Vero Beach, who substituted for Litton on day 1. They sacked a hefty two day total of 32.02 pounds to win their 2nd tournament in a row and their 4th tournament of the season. Second place was earned by the team of Mike Hampton of Malabar and Tim Kopf of Melbourne who weighed a total of 26.63 pounds of bass. The team of Larry Cruce of Titusville and Tim Iler of Port St. John took 3rd with 24.36 pounds. Bistarkey caught the biggest fish of the tournament, an 8.01 pound lunker, to earn big bass honors for day 1 while Lloyd Griffin of Titusville captured big bass honors on day 2 with a 5.69 pound fish.
Three rule changes were voted on and enacted by club members at this tournament. Please familiarize yourself with these changes as they will be in effect at the next tournament.In a remarkable display of fishing skills and complete lack of coordination all at the same time, Tim Kopf set the hook on a fish on day 2 of the event and through an unfortunate series of events only Tim can recount in a manner that makes any sense, he proceeded to fall head first into Lake Okeechobee. After climbing back into the boat and with complete disregard for the fact that he was now soaked from head to toe, Tim reeled down the slack and landed the fish. Upon thorough review of club rules (see section V.B.3-5), it was determined that Tim didn't violate any rules and thus the fish was legal. For those wondering, the fish wasn't very big. For those concerned about Tim's well-being, he didn't sustain any bodily injury, he just had to suffer with wet socks the rest of the day. For the record, Tim says he did not consume any alcohol prior to going for an inadvertent swim in the lake.
Rumor has it that the biggest bag of the tournament and the biggest fish of the tournament were caught fishing beds.
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