We've had some really nice weather this April in central Florida. When our tournament came up on April 26, it was time for the wind to blow. It blew 10-20 gusting to 30+ out of the WSW all day. At least that's what Mike Hampton tells me because I was too damn lazy to even show up. As usual, he didn't stop complaining there. He went on to moan about the "extremely over crowded" boat ramp at Overstreet due to two other tournaments. He event went so far as to itemize some Rules of Ramp Etiquette I've included below.

After he was done complaining and 2 days passed, he actually had some nice things to say: "I forgot to say thanks to the people who helped with the tournament. Thanks to everyone who jumped in to help especially Cliff for collecting moneys at the beginning and Alan and Wayne for boat checking, Tim Iler for setting up the scales, Alan for checking short fish and Mike for the pictures. This is what makes the club more fun to fish."

Right, we held a fishing tournament. Jake and Gary Hinman fished bubble gum colored flukes and flipped soft plastics in Kissimmee to amass a 5 fish limit weighing in at 21.35 pounds to win the tournament. Mike Calloway and Cliff Semonski used blind luck and flipping Reaction Innovations sweet beavers in Lake Kissimmee to total 5 fish for 18.41 pounds and earn 2nd place. Their bag included a 7.16 pound big bass that Calloway lucked into and was netted extremely well by Semonski. Bob Barnette and Tom Southwick used Skinny Dippers and their world famous Trick Worm technique to land 5 fish for 15.04 pounds earning a 3rd place finish.

The small creel award would have gone to Buddy Perry and Preston Humphrey, but they left too early and missed out on what Mike Hampton described as "some really great prizes". Maybe someone will earn them and actually receive them next month.

All previous chip theives returned their stolen wares and thus have had their missing 5 points returned to them. The current Bassmasters page reflects the refunded points.

Unfortunately, Stein/Nielsen had a major boat problem. Their hull cracked and let water in faster than the bilge pump could keep up with. They had to retire early and put the boat on the trailer to avoid sinking. Thankfully they made it back safe and even managed to return their chip. The airboat tour guy out of Kissimmee unfortunately did not avoid such a disaster on Sunday. His boat overturned in the high winds with tour riders on board. The FWC was on the scene and investigating the accident. They also observed our weigh-in. Good thing nobody brought in any short fish.

Mike Hampton's Rules of Ramp Etiquette

  1. Be ready when you pull up to launch your boat.
  2. Have someone help you with your vehicle.
  3. Be careful with the other boats.
  4. Don't be a non-boat driving M.F. who don't know shit.

Air Temperature: mid 70s to lower 90s
Conditions: partly cloudy with 10-25 WSW wind that gusted to 30+

The winners reported catching their fish using the following tricks:

Attached Media
Submitted by Tony Ciavarella on