We went to Lake Cypress on February 22 under the impression that the time might be right the catch some big females busy with spawning activities. For most of us, finding big fish was difficult and for some of us, finding any fish at all was difficult. The team of Matt Hinman of St. Cloud and Andrew Lee of Cocoa used plastic worms to amass a limit of 5 fish totaling 17.94 pounds to win the event. Hinman's 7.67 pound lunker was the tournament's biggest fish. Santos "Junior" Solis of Vero Beach and Jim Folks of Melbourne used lipless crankbaits over submerged vegetation in Lake Toho to catch the majority of their 5 fish for 15.03 pounds to finish second. Mike Calloway of Titusville and Cliff Semonski of Oak Hill used swimbaits in Lake Kissimmee to catch 5 fish for 12.92 pounds to take 3rd place.
This month's small creel award was several bags of soft plastics including some custom made baits by Mike Hampton. Alan Elder and Wayne Smith earned it with 1 fish for 1.66 pounds. It was donated by Stump Knocker Baits of West Melbourne. They make baits, nets, and custom leather goods. For more info on that call Hampton because he didn't provide me any details.
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: some colored Zoom Speed Worms somewhere out there
- 2nd Place: Bill Lewis Lures rat-l-traps over submerged vegetation and flipping in Lake Toho
- 3rd Place: Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers in Lake Kissimmee
