The club visited beautiful Blue Cypress Lake on Sunday the 13th of December and were met by almost every condition possible. Starting the mourning off with a star filled night sky accented with some very bright meteors and a lot of very hunger mosquitoes. Miss Middleton provided lake information drinks, coffee, and all the plastic baits you could need or use. Sunrise arrived with wind out of the northeast at 10 mph and continued to increase all day until it started to rain about two pm and during the weigh-in right up until we were leaving Middleton's parking lot. Then a beautiful double rainbow over the lake wished us fair well good bye. How nice it was and what a day for the thirteen teams who made the long trip down to highway 60.
The day belonged to the team of Mike Calloway and Cliff Semonski who amassed a limit of bass weighing 14.64 pounds with a nice 5.30 pound kicker bass. Their go to bait was a sweet beaver with a punch skirt [Last Cast Special] and a three quarter ounce weight on the east side of the lake and up the north canal. Mike promised that this really is his last tournament as his move to Texas is very near now. Sure it is we believe you.
Bill Groseclose and Fred Reid came in a close second [ .31 pounds] . Their limit of bass weighing 14.33 came on dark colored plastic baits and paddle tailed worms. They really do like this lake and it shows as their big bass was 3.91 pounds and the other four average just under three pounds each.
President Dwayne Haga and his partner Dave Metzler rounded out the top three with a hefty limit weighing 13.72 pounds. Their big bass was 5.86 pounds and was the second largest of the day narrowly beating out Justin Neal's 5.55 pounder. They reported catching most of their fish flipping a sweet beaver all over the lake.
The big bass of the tournament was claimed by Rick Jenkins who nailed a 7.50 pound giant flipping a sweet beaver to cover on the south end of the lake. This big mama is now takes over the biggest bass of the year spot from Mike Calloway's 6.72 pounder at Miami Garcia Impoundment.
Best wishes for a quick recovery for Tim Iler who has undergone significant neck surgery and will be sidelined for a couple of months. The only good thing is that his partner Larry Cruce says he should be taller when he gets to return to fishing the club. Along the same lines as Tim the club Treasury Jack Berry will be going in for his neck surgery on the 21st but he expects to be able to fish the next tournament at Lake Cypress on the 31st of January.
It always pays to hang around for the end of the tournament because this months small creel award goes to the team of Jeff Merritt and Brian Chapman who could have taken home a very nice prize donated by Bitters Bait and Tackle. President Dwayne picked up the generous prize from Bitters Bait and Tackle in Orlando who has agreed to sponsor the small creel for the next several tournaments. This is our first tournament sponsor and so please go by their place of business if possible and thank them for their wonderful donation and be sure you use their baits often. President Dwayne did award a belated small creel prize to Jay Stein and Raymond Taylor for the Lake Kissimmee tournament and will get caught up at the next tournament to the other winners. It pays to stay and get to know the members at each tournament.
