Central Florida Bass Anglers

East Lake once again proved a tough nut to crack when we visited the Orange County water way September 16th. Reports of low, clear water made our anglers go deep into their bag of tricks in order to fool 5 largemouths. I spoke with several teams who had great practices. Reid Watkins and Hans Forsell did well as did Dave Gadzak and Greg Biesecker. Rich and Jim Craig had a solid pattern, also. The fickle weather proved these teams’ undoing on tournament day. The day dawned clear with east winds and high pressure and the patterns that had been established a week earlier were worthless for most teams. The exception was the team of Fay Rowles and Paul Frauenhoffer. Boasting a combined age of 137 years young, they proved that their experience far overshadowed their elder spokesman appearance as they brought in the days biggest sack and recorded their 1st win this season. Practice for Fay and Paul was spotty until Fay found a group of fish that were willing to feed on soft plastic and topwater baits near the boat ramp across from East Lake Fish Camp. The duo made a bee-line to the spot Saturday morning and they began catching fish early. They were scoring on an unweighted trick worm and topwater toads. Paul lost a nice spinnerbait fish and Fay nailed a 5+ bass as the temperature began to climb. Their action was over by 11am but with 7 keepers culled to 12.57 lb it was enough for the victory. I told Fay at the ramp, while he was smiling & holding the trophy, “It’s about damn time” Second place went to Chip Dover and John Ricketson. Their day started out like everybody would like to start an event. John caught a keeper on the 1st cast and they had 5 by 7:16 am. Then the action ceased. It took several hours to cull up to their eventual weight of 9.46 but a ½ lb penalty for deceased fish reduced the official weight to 8.96. They caught keepers on 2 baits, a Devils Horse and a Flappin’ Shad and targeted boat lanes on the western shore. Matt Gurgacz is a fortunate man. He tossed out a fluke on the west side of the lake and had a big fish whack it . The fish missed. So Matt tried again, same fluke, same cast, same result. Whack!......No fish. Undeterred, Matt tried a third time and this time the fish stayed buttoned up. Walt was happy to finally get to use the net. That fish was big fish, 7.34. And along with another keeper, the Family Gurgacz notched a 3rdh place finish at 8.71 The last money place, 4th, went to another father/son team. Bill and Jimmy Anderson combined to bring in a stringer weighing 6.52 lb. Well, I say stringer but there was only 1 fish on the stringer. Nice Bass! The pair could not be reached for comment on whom, where and on what. Actually, I forgot to ask them, but I’ll find out at Toho. The Angler of the Year race has tightened. The 135 point lead that Nate Bloom/Tom Burk had enjoyed after Clermont has dwindled to 40 points. They have 1200 points. Reid Watkins/Hans Forsell are tied with Chip Dover/John Ricketson with 1160 points. With their win, Fay Rowles/Paul Frauenhoffer have moved into 4th place with 1150 and 5th place is occupied by John Brazzell/Mike Bruton with 1100. Notes: The points totals for Shawn Kelch and Ted Olsen is incorrect. They had 2 bass that weighed 2.76 at East Lake. Since their finish would be the last place with fish , their point total will remain the same, 125, and all teams that caught 0 fish will receive 120 points….Very few fish at this venue…again. Only 2 limits…….Low water at Winter Haven…. there is a big rock on the right side of the Shipp to Lulu canal at the bridge, stay LEFT when traveling into Lulu….Since this is an 8 tournament year and we bought new scales, the club SunTrust account is much smaller than last year. The Angler of the Year and Classic prizes will be considerably less. We should consider an entry fee at the 2 day at Toho, especially since we are staying in town and since there will be no tournament in December…..I plan on having a side pot for those who are interested….$20….70% / 30% …same as years past. See Ya ‘ at the Haven!!