The conditions were perfect on Sunday morning for a great day of fishing; full moon, high clouds, light winds out of the northwest, 61 degree air temperature and a beautiful red sunrise. This is how bass fishing tournaments should always start, right. The Overstreet Launch Ramp was unusually crowded with the remainders of the King of the River air boat fest, held on Friday and Saturday, which I'm sure we made enough noise to wake them up way before they wanted too.

Many of the club members traveled south to Lake Okeechobee earlier in the week to see what was in store for the weekend. What most found was that their old areas were either entirely gone or changed to the point of being unrecognizable. Old boat trails were now open areas with scattered reeds and most reed lines were far from their old positions. The lake water was very dirty if you were in the open, but clean water could be found inside the reeds which is what most people were looking for.

The day of fishing turned out to be a mixed bag of success and frustration for the twenty-two teams that arrived at the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp on US Highway 520 on February 25th. It turned out to be a big difference between last months really tough fishing as every team did weigh-in a fish this time. The Club marked its halfway point in the season with a great turn out on a very nice day with temperatures in the mid-80's and wind that came and went but never posed much of a problem.

Mike Calloway takes the Big Bass honors at the first Strike Zone of Melbourne tournament on Miami-Garcia Impoundment Saturday, January 4, 2018. Using his own Last Cast punch skirt with a Reaction Innovation kinky beaver, he reported that the big girl came from a reed island with floating lettuce and hyacinths. As usual, he landed the 6.75 pounder with only one hour left in the tournament. The Club was well represented at the 35 boat tournament with most of the top teams being from our Club.

Blue Cypress Lake is without a doubt the most beautiful lake that SCBF's fish all season long, no matter what the time of the year we go there. The morning sunrise was just glorious and the lake was as smooth as glass for the first two hours. The air was dry and the temperature was hovering around 69 or 70 degrees and it felt just like air conditioning. The changes around the launch ramp, parking lot and store were very evident and are due to the new management who were very happy to welcome the club and offered all the help and advice they could.

The pre-Christmas jitters were in full force on Sunday the 17th as twenty-two teams arrived at Ralph Chisholm Regional Park on beautiful East Lake Toho to hopefully fulfill their Christmas wishes to catch a lot of nice Florida bass. Unfortunately, the bass Grinch had a lot to say about what happened on the lake that day as the catches were not exactly what we wished for. The fish were small, hard to find and some were hard to hold on to even when you did hook them get them out of the grass and get a net on them.

The early morning temperature was lower than normal but the twenty teams that arrived at Lake Cypress ramp on November 19th did not seem to care about that to much. The ramp was not much of a problem except for the slightly higher water level, the occasional gun shot and several air boats heading out to do some duck hunting. The check in of the club members was completed as soon as Larry Cruce arrived from the Overstreet Landing where he had been waiting for the rest of the club to arrive including his partner BJ Biles.

The weather man said it was going to be windy with rain showers up to around 11 am but he under estimated the wind and just plain missed the rain on Sunday October 29th. The twenty-four teams that arrived at the ramp were happy that the mosquitoes were blown away but that pesky ramp light that SJRWM promised would be working just cannot get fixed. I know that they are working on that hard and it will get fixed they promised. Another great turnout for SCBF's as all but one team made the trip to Fellsmere down 512 to fish our best lake over the last few years.

The flood waters had receeded enough and you could walk out on the dock without getting you feet wet but the rain made sure everyone started out the day a little wet. The new year for the club began early in the morning as the past team members checked in along with teams that changed partners to make up new teams and fill the roster. Then five new teams were added to fill out the years roster making twenty-five total participating teams to start the 2017-2018 year which is the first time that we have ever started out the year with a full field.

photos courtesy of Alan Elder