How do you complete a great year of bass fishing? Yes that's right , you have a Classic tournament on your best lake with the best anglers in the club for all the marbles or bragging rights for the next year. That's how its been for the past 28 years since August 1,1988 for the old LERA club and new SCBF club with only a few minor changes. The last eleven months have seen a lot of highs and lows for the twenty-five teams who participated in this years record breaking club events. This year the members have had to deal with sickness, family emergencies, surgery, losing family members and friends, passing of past members, old age, broken bones, broken equipment, bad weather, mosquitoes, hydrilla nats, ramp altercations, poor judgement, bad plans, poor execution and a lot of second guessing our decisions.
JUST REMEMBER NEXT YEAR WILL BE MUCH BETTER.
Miami-Garcia Impoundment was just like we thought it would be, lots of mosquitoes at dawn, choked with hydrilla, areas you should avoid, such as sand bars as Karl and John found out but luckily a fellow team (Mike and William) saved the day with a pull. Too bad it was after they went for a little dip in the lake to try to push the boat of the sand bar. Just to make the day a little better Mother Nature decided to turn up the wind machine and drop in a little rain. The worst thing that happened, other than the occasional loss of a big fish, was that Justin Neal's almost new boat motor had some trouble starting, Mike Calloway fell out of his boat after the tournament and injured his ankle and Jack Berry didn't have to yell at anybody.
Just as the year produced the top three teams in points, so was the Classic dominated by the same three teams.
First place finishers, Larry Cruce and Tim Iler, found the winning bass using their signature top water baits mixed with some jerkbaits and worms to claim the largest cash prize in club history. They concentrated on one portion of the lake and worked it to perfection to weigh-in 19.13 pounds including a very nice 5.33 pound kicker bass. This caps off a great year including one win, two big bass pots and four top three finishes plus Tim Iler captured the Big Bass for the Year with a 8.80 pound beauty from West Lake Toho.
Justin Neal and Brian Wical had to deal with all the problems the lake had to offer plus a temperamental boat motor. This proved to be no challenge, as they weighed in 18.15 pounds and claimed the second place prize money. Their secret weapon was a Zara Spook top water bait and slow fishing a big plastic worm (8" to 10") long in the matted hydrilla. This will go nicely with their one win and three top three finishes this year.
Bassmaster of the Year team, Mike Calloway and William Flood, rounded out the top three finishers with 17.70 pounds and a third place finish.Fishing in the pit and dead sticking a fluke was their first plan until Mother Nature's wind proved too much for them and they moved to their flippin attack using a sweet beaver with a Last Cast punch skirt. This was a fitting end to a year the produced two wins, six top three's and two big bass pots for a total of 317 points.
Classic Big Bass honors was snatched away from Mike Hampton, who posted a nice 6.87 pound big mama early at the weigh-in, by the Big Bass specialist , Jimmy Blount , who brought in a 6.91 pound monster besting him by a mear 0.04 pounds. He claims that he was using a sinko around lily pads when the giant decide to show up.
The four thru ten finishing teams all recieved a fifty dollar prize for their efforts. The team of Bob Barnette and Tom Southwick claimed the small creel prize consisting of a gift certificate to Bass Pro Shop and some good natured ribbing for the club members.
The schedule for next year will be on the club web site by Tuesday so keep in touch and plan to be at the first tournament of the 2017-2018 year at Overstreet Landing on Lake Kissimmee on September 24, 2017. GOOD LUCK NEXT YEAR.
