The final regular season tournament of the year for Space Coast Bass Finatics began in the early morning hours at Lake Washington with windy conditions, thick cloud cover, rising water and a good chance of getting rained on during the day. Luckily the wind kept the mosquitoes and bugs down and the rain did not come until after the weigh-in was concluded. There would be a lot of things decided at this tournament not just the winners but club officers for the next year, what lakes we fish, suggested changes to the by-laws, Bassmaster of the Year team, the wild card team and who will be fishing in the Classic and where will the Classic be held. Will Bill and Fred complete another year of twelve straight limits?
The Bassmaster of the Year points leader only had a slim eighteen point lead but Mike Calloway and William Flood finished with 317 total points and claimed the 2016-17 Bassmasters of the Year award. The top ten teams for the classic this year will be posted on the web site as soon as all the numbers have been checked and verified along with the wild card finisher. Bill Groseclose and Fred Reid did it again by bringing in a 15.42 pound limit to complete twelve straight five bass limits for the second time in two years. Good job !
First place belonged to Mike Hampton and Tim Kopf who returned with a five bass limit weighing 22.98 pounds . Their limit included a nice 5.61 pound big bass backed up by a 4.65 pound average to claim the win which was their first for the year. They reported using junebug trickworms, sinkos and speed worms around the mouth of a canal which accounted for their days catch of over 35 bass.
A very close second place was taken Bob Barnette and Tom Southwick who boated 22.20 pounds of Lake Washington bass including a nice 5.74 pound big momma that narrowly missed big bass honors. U sing the entire lake they reported moving from canal mouth to canal mouth using their old reliable junebug trick worms which accounted for most of their catch.
Third place finisher, Jay Stein and his alternate partner Raymond ( big bass ) Taylor had 20.56 pounds and was anchored by a nice 5.18 pounder. Using their Monday night tournament know how they flipped their way around the lake in the windy conditions to bring back the third limit over twenty pounds.
Big Bass honors was taken by Matt Byrd who landed a 5.97 pound Lake Washington bucket mouth to beat out seven other anglers who landed five plus pound bass.
The small creel race was very close as Buddy Perry and Preston Humphries beat out Lloyd and Jennifer Hamilton by a miniscule 0.05 pounds to claim the prize with a nice 0.99 pound monster.
The food provided by Mr. Kevin Small (aka) K's BBQ with Soul, was a great end to the tournament and the year. If you did not get filled up it was your own fault because he had plenty and it was GOOD especially the ribs. Just perfect! President Dwayne supplied the cold drinks and end of year comments so everyone should have left satisfied.
Thanks to everyone for making the year a success.
The voting for officers for 2017-2018 was completed and the following is the results.
President -------Bill Groseclose
Vice-President--William Flood
Treasurer-------Jack Berry
Secretary-------Mike Hampton
Good luck next year!
