LERA Bass Club's January 30, 2011 tournament at Lake Cypress started amidst an eerie dense fog that slowly dissipated from east to west until after 10 am. The team of Bob Barnette of Port St. John and Dwayne Haga of Titusville slipped through the fog to their fishing hole to catch the event's only 5 fish limit totaling 17.28 pounds and win the tournament. Their catch included a massive 9.04 pound bucket mouth Dwayne caught on a carolina rig that took big bass honors for the tournament and raised the bar he set earlier in the season for Big Bass of the Year. Dwayne's fish is the largest ever weighed at any LERA Bass Club event launching from Lake Cypress in the history of the club. Second place was earned by the team of Alan Elder of Melbourne and Wayne Smith of Palm Bay who brought 3 fish to the scales weighing a total of 10.59 pounds. Larry Cruce of Titusville and Tim Iler of Port St. John finished 3rd with 2 fish weighing 4.34 pounds.
A majority vote of club members decided that both days of March's Okeechobee event will launch from the Harney Pond Canal.
The winners reported catching their fish using the following tricks:
- 1st place: carolina rig and weighted trick worms in Lake Cypress
- 2nd place: skinny dippers in Lake Kissimmee
- 3rd place: flukes
- big bass: carolina rig
This photograph shows the foggy scene at the ramp as the January 30, 2011 tournament at Lake Cypress started. The whole lake was covered in dense fog. The tournament started slowly as visibility was reduced to about 100 feet on the water. Teams idled to their fishing holes not far from the ramp. The fog slowly lifted from east to west across the lake. It took until after 10 am for the fog to completely dissipate. (Photo by Aaron Wiginton)
This was the view about 50 yards from the boat ramp after the start of the tournament. It wasn't a good time to run across the lake at wide open throttle. Why are you noticing the dirtiness of my boat? You're supposed to be looking at the fog. (Photo by Aaron Wiginton)