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.

Perennial SCBF big stick, Mr. Mike Calloway, won the American Bass Anglers American Fishing Tour division 21 event out of Southport on Toho on April 18, 2015. He weighed 5 fish for 19.85 pounds. His catch included the big bass of the tournament at 7.32 pounds. Full results might be posted here some day. Way to go Mr. Calloway!

Wouldn't you know it. It looked like Florida's 2 days of winter were over for the season until our two day Okeechobee extravaganza came up on the schedule. The wind and cold showed up once more. Not that I would know anything about it, since I didn't even bother getting out of bed to go to the tournament.

Mike Hampton has informed me that Dwayne Haga and Dave Metzler continued kicking our butts with a two day total of 24.27 to win the event. They were in 6th place after day 1 but catapulted to the win with a relatively big bag on day 2 flipping the Harney Pond Canal area. Alan Elder and Wayne Smith earned a close second with a two day total of 24.12, as they so often do, they used watermelon red flukes in the Monkey Box to catch their weight. Mike Calloway and Cliff Semonski took 3rd by flipping sweet beavers at hard edges of the North Shore and Harney Pond Canal. Calloway's 5.00 pounder took Big Bass on day 1 and Joe Jenkins weighed a 5.10 pounder for Big Bass on day 2.

This month's small creel prize went to DJ & Kiera Eidem. I didn't see it myself, so I don't know anything about this, but rumor has it that it was some kind of noxious malodorous liquid that may or may not have been fit for human consumption. Said mysterious liquid which may or may not have been an actual beverage was of completely unknown origin. We hope it was enjoyed responsibly and nobody suffered permanent mental or physical injury as a result of imbibing it.

You club president's brother-in-law is selling his 15.5 foot welded aluminum boat pictured here. It has a 25 ETEC still under warranty, carpeted, front seat steer and throttle, on board charger, live well, lockable storage compartment, 55lb trolling motor foot control, galvanized trailer, very few hours used. Around $6000.00. If you're interested, call Eddie at 407-709-1211.

Okay, so this has absolutely nothing to do with our club. Get over it. You ever wonder what a 15 pound 8 ounce bass looks like? Greg Smock of Zanesville Ohio is no longer wondering. He held one in his hands. He was fishing a shiner with a guide on Lake Weohyakapka on February 8, 2015 when the giant struck. In case you were wondering, the official state record is 17.27 pounds set by Bill O'Berry on July 6, 1986. More pictures of Smock's fish are available using the search thing at TrophyCatch.

We went to Lake Cypress on February 22 under the impression that the time might be right the catch some big females busy with spawning activities. For most of us, finding big fish was difficult and for some of us, finding any fish at all was difficult. The team of Matt Hinman of St. Cloud and Andrew Lee of Cocoa used plastic worms to amass a limit of 5 fish totaling 17.94 pounds to win the event. Hinman's 7.67 pound lunker was the tournament's biggest fish. Santos "Junior" Solis of Vero Beach and Jim Folks of Melbourne used lipless crankbaits over submerged vegetation in Lake Toho to catch the majority of their 5 fish for 15.03 pounds to finish second. Mike Calloway of Titusville and Cliff Semonski of Oak Hill used swimbaits in Lake Kissimmee to catch 5 fish for 12.92 pounds to take 3rd place.

This month's small creel award was several bags of soft plastics including some custom made baits by Mike Hampton. Alan Elder and Wayne Smith earned it with 1 fish for 1.66 pounds. It was donated by Stump Knocker Baits of West Melbourne. They make baits, nets, and custom leather goods. For more info on that call Hampton because he didn't provide me any details.

Jim Waymer, Environment Reporter at the Florida Today, wrote an extensive story on the state's struggle with hydrilla in the March 3, 2015 edition of the paper. Among other interesting notes, it costs $1100/acre to treat hydrilla with herbacide and the state spends over $15 million annually combatting hydrilla alone. If you missed it, you can read the full story online at the above link.

Strike-Zone Fishing kicked off their 3rd season at Garcia on February 7, 2015. SCBF veterans Tim Iler and Larry Cruce bested the 41 boat field with 23 pounds and 7 ounces to take home the lions share of the $3000 in prize money. Many SCBF members competed and several others including Alan Elder & Wayne Smith, two of the Hinman's, Bob Barnette & Dwayne Haga, and Santos Solis & Jason Gonzalez finished in the top 10. The full results and more pictures are posted on Strike-Zone's Facebook page. Way to go Tim & Larry!

We headed out to Whaley's Landing on West Lake Toho on January 25th, the day after a big cold front blew through town. The post cold frontal weather conditions made fishing difficult, but resilient anglers figure out how to catch them in any conditions.

Dwayne Haga of Sanford and Dave Metzler of Debary have been on a hot streak of late finishing in the top 3 at each of the last 3 events. This time, they Carolina rigged junebug colored soft plastic stick baits in Lake Cypress to amass a 5 fish limit totaling 18.24 pounds to win the tournament. Their creel included an 8.92 pounder by Haga that was the tournament's biggest fish and the biggest fish weighed at any of the 5 events held so far this season.

The team of Matt Hinman and Yogi Norris of St Cloud, fishing their first event with the club flipped to catch 5 fish for 13.39 pounds and earn second place. Bob Barnette of Port St. John and Tom Southwick of Cocoa Beach took 3rd with 5 fish for 10.89 pounds.

Iler/Cruce earned this month's Small Creel Award for their impressive 1 fish for 1.49 pounds beating out 3 other teams within a half pound. The prize was a couple of bags of Hampton Farms brand peanuts and it was graciously donated by Ponderosa Pyrography & Leatherworks that makes one of a kind personalized engraved gourds, leather purses, and other items. You can reach them at 321-724-8075 or e-mail mhampton20 at cfl.rr.com.

Twenty boats launched onto Blue Cypress Lake to compete in the Space Coast Bass Finatics tournament on December 14. Despite our best efforts, only two of the teams would bring a five fish limit to the scales. While anglers found it difficult to catch numbers of fish, quality fish were found with three fish over six pounds weighed. The team of Jimmy Blount and Jack Berry, both of Rockledge, used texas rigged big plastic worms to catch 5 fish for 13.94 pounds to win the tournament. Their bag was punctuated by Berry's 7.98 pound lunker that was the tournament's biggest fish. Dwayne Haga of Sanford and Dave Metzler of Debary flipped soft plastics to catch 3 fish for 11.11 pounds to finish second. Santos "Junior" Solis and Jason Gonzales, both of Vero Beach, also flipped soft plastics to take third place with 3 fish for 10.82 pounds.

The month's small creel award, a $50 gift card to Strike-Zone, was earned by Alan Elder and Wayne Smith with 1 fish for 1.00 pounds. Strike-Zone's local buddy tournament series is coming back in 2015. For more information on that, drop by the store. Thanks to Strike-Zone for donating that generous and useful prize!