Central Florida Bass Anglers

Most club members were lamenting our annual trip to East Lake, August 9th. The general consensus 1 ) it was going to be hot, 2) low water and 3) difficult to catch keepers. Guess what? It was so hot that we voted to end the event at 2 pm instead of our usual 3:30. The water was low, but not the lowest that we have seen, and it was, in fact difficult to catch keepers. 8 out of 22 boats failed to land a keeper and 4 boats only netted 1 bass. Throw in some lovely lightning/rain and a wonderful day was had by all.

First Place- 10.06

Well, it was a wonderful day for Rob and Mario. They fished the western reeds down from the East Lake Fish Camp. They threw a variety of baits and caught fish on several. Worms, spinnerbaits and even a hard jerkbait scored. Mario said that they caught 8 keepers and almost didn’t have a limit. What? As he was culling a fish, the float broke and the fish flopped on the deck and Mario flopped after it, but the fish won. At the same moment, the fish that was about to be released flopped back into the lake. Mario followed the escaping bass and forgot about fish #1. Of course, it went in to the lake also. So now they were down to 4 fish, but there is a happy ending….no, not that kind of happy ending…one of the fish swam off with the float still in his mouth and after 30 minutes of tracking down the finny foe, Number 5 was returned to the live well and the limit was complete. 10.06 pounds and a well earned victory.

Second Place- 9.99

Almost double digit. Paul Guimarin Sr & Jr. had boat trouble. Their cranking battery was weak and failed to start the Suzuki. No problem. Paul piloted the craft toward the nearest grass bed and the pair had the event’s largest bass, a 3.09 monster, in the live well before boat 22 had their number called. They stayed around the entrance to the fish Camp canal and had a limit early. Good thing, the fishing slowed and they only caught 1 more keeper the rest of the day. They deviated from their trusty watermelon fluke and concentrated on junebug trick worms for their bag. Nice finish

Third Place- 9.84

Chip Dover and John Ricketson ran to Fells Cove and started in the canal entrance. After an hour of casting, they moved to the canal going into Ajay. This canal produced 2 keepers and it was 1 o’clock before they landed more keepers. Late in the day they came across a nice flipping spot and Chip caught 2 keepers on Zoom Speed Craws and 1 on a Gitem toad to finish off their limit

Fourth Place- 7.27

Matt Gurgacz & Jesse Rudolph found their fish on the southwest bank. Matt said they threw soft plastics and caught a ton of fish but never could get that 5th fish in the boat

In the Angler of the Year race, Mario and Rob extended their lead with 1425 points. Chip/John have 1385 for 2nd place. 3rd place goes to Team Power Pole, Mike & Steve Warner with 1295. Steve & Neal Combs are in 4th with 1285. Joe Ventrello and Jerry Heidgerken have 1275 to tie Paul Guimarin Sr & Jr. for 5th

NOTES: East Lake proved tough with 55% of the boats with 1 fish or less……..the early weigh in probably did not keep us from weighing in more fish…….only 2 deceased bass, pretty good………Courtesy Anglers fished last Saturday night, 15 lb won, 5.71 big fish….34 boats, only 4 with over 10 lb, we fished 9 hours………hopefully this tropical storm will dump a ton of rain on the area, as of this writing almost 10 “ in Brevard county…….I’ll bet the Rivers up…….See you at Overstreets….if it ain’t too dusty!

I was really surprised at the fish that came in at our St. Johns River, July event, out of Astor. Usually summertime on the river is slow fishing but our 22 boats disproved that notion. I talked with several teams and a few were catching scattered fish. Last year 12 lb won (with a 6 pounder). That was when Dexter had a ton of hydrilla. This time the ‘drilla was nowhere to be found. I practiced in Dexter and found no fish, but a few team found keepers at the confluence of the river channel and the island in front of the lake. Two of the top finishers went 20 miles south near Lake Beresford. Our winners went north for their winning catch. So we were spread out, and we were catching bass.

1st PLACE 19.84

Tyler ”damn, you got a haircut” Lovelace and Mike Tucker practiced north of the Astor launch and were looking for shell beds along the River channel. They tried several spot, primarily where tributary creeks flowed into the River. The caught a nice one at one location and decided to camp out on the spot during the tournament. The duo, who have placed best on the Harris Chain in the past, threw trick worms on Carolina rigs all day and only landed 4 keepers. However, they caught the correct 4 fish. Their bag had 3 5+ fish and their total of 19.84 was good enough for a nice River win.

2nd PLACE 17.68

Travis Kremer was without his primary team member, Brian Miller, for the River event. So he asked a guy who knows the River pretty well…his Dad, John. John has a long history of high places in tournaments on the river and the team did it again. They started out near Dexter, on the west bank of the channel and traveled all the way to Beresford. They scored on firetiger crankbaits and flipped a few fish for their finish. Most of their fish came in the River itself. Good job!

3rd PLACE 16.73

Steve & Neal Combs had found a few fish in Woodruff and also near the mouth of Dexter. They got 1 good keeper in Woodruff but the bite ceased and they went to their Dexter fish. They caught their best fish by buzzing a Zoom Speed worm near the small pad patches, which provided the only cover in Dexter since the eradication of the Hydrilla. Neal said the 2 biggest ones hit right at the boat.

4th PLACE 16.28

Chip Dover & John Ricketson ventured South into Beresford. They notched a 3rd place finish in a recent Courtesy Trail event from the lake but this trip did not yield a single fish. They had 4 nice fish early and struggled into the afternoon. At about 2 Chip hooked and lost a nice 5 ½ on a crankbait and the team figured that would be their big break. However, about 5 minutes later John nailed an 8.55, which proved to be the big fish, on the same type crankbait to finish off a nice limit.

Mario Mazzonetto and Rob Wilson remain in 1st place for Angler of the Year, they had 15.96 lb and came in 5th. Dover/Ricketson are still in 2nd with the Combs’ moving into 3rd. Team Power Pole ( the Warners) are in 4th with Joe Ventrello /Jerry Heidgerken holding the 5th place

NOTES: 6 teams had over 14 pounds, what a great bunch of limits for July……….evidentially, the bass were hitting all over the River, we caught ‘em from Lake George to Lake Beresford………what happened to all the hydrilla, it has always amazed me that other government efforts are so inefficient but when they want to get rid of hydrilla, they are masters!......30 mph saved a bunch of gas, but a few boats risked tickets……….see ya’ at ….oh boy…East Lake. …It took 7 lb to win there last week.

For all who read this and aren’t a member of Central Florida Bass Anglers, you should be envious. We traveled to Webber International University, just outside of Lake Wales, in Babson Park, May 31& June 1st. Webber is a small college on the banks of Crooked Lake and was virtually vacant for the summer vacation. Our club member, Steve Warner, is an executive at the universityl and, for the 2nd straight year, had arranged for our club to stay in the dorm rooms and to eat in the school cafeteria. We had a blast. Dinner after the fishing day, breakfast in the morning and each participant had a bag lunch. We had 21 boats pulled up on the beach ready to go in the mornings and the fish cooperated. No other group of fishermen, and fisherwomen, had ever had it so good in a club event.

Most teams tried to check out the lake on Friday or the previous weekend. Everybody that I spoke with was catching a bunch of fish. Several teams reported catches of big ones. We all know the reputation of Crooked as being a “numbers” lake and knew that a few bigger bites could move you up in the standing very quickly. There would be a lot of 10-11 lb bags. Joe Ventrello had been doing well on large plastics and was very optimistic about his tournament. Paul Guimarin had been wearing them out on flukes and had 6 bags in reserve. The Craigs were catching them flipping small craws. Dave Gazdak and Greg Biesecker had a run & gun pattern of several of the grass patches. Robert Jones and Don Infinger tore them up the weekend before the event and had their game plan ready. So did the pre-fishing help?

It sure did for Dave & Greg. Their first stop on Saturday yielded the biggest fish of the tournament. The 6.10 lber fell victim to a 10 in worm. Dave said them jumped from one patch to another all day. They favored the Kissimmee grass and had selected several spots all over the lake. Each location was fished for about 30 minutes, then instead of circling around and hitting every blade of grass around each productive patch, the guys buckled up and ran to the next one. This strategy had them firmly in the lead Saturday with over 18 lb. They caught a few on frogs but primarily scored on the worms. Sunday started out similarly to Day 1. Dave nailed a 4 ½ on a frog and then the milk run commenced. At the end of the day, they had another 17 + and won their first club event with a 2 day total of 34.86. And they got big fish. After being so close, so often…..it’s about damn time you guys won!

Chip Dover and John Ricketson only had a few hours to find fish in practice on Friday and really didn’t find anything of note. They had about 6 keepers Friday evening but all were 14 inchers. They decided to try across from Webber on Saturday, and doubled up on their first casts! The pair went through 35 fish during the day and caught all of their weigh fish on 10” worms in the grass patches. They would go an hour with only little ones, then, they would catch a 3 lber. The first days tally left the team in 3rd with 14.35. Sunday was worse than Saturday for good keepers. Again, they went through 35 fish and they were culling ounces. At 2:30 with a limit weighing 8 lb., they moved one last time to their original starting spot for 1 more hour …and hopefully a few more ounces. Evidently, the afternoon bite is better at Crooked. Their first patch yielded a 4 pound fish for Chip. The second held a 4¼. The third had a 3. The next held a 2. And the 5th had another 2. In 20 minutes and 5 patches, they culled all 5 fish out and came in with 15.02 (a dead fish cost them .25) for a 2 day total of 29.12 lb. Good enough for a second place finish.

Four pounds separated 3rd from 10th. It only took ounces to move up. Paul Gumarin, Jr. said he had 6 bags of flukes and Paul,Jr. said they almost used them all. The pair went through 60 fish to cull up to 23.75 lb and grab 3rd place. They employed 2 techniques for they finish. First that would skitter the flukes from very shallow water over the emergent grass and then kill the bait as it cleared the vegetation. Their second method was to almost dead stick the baits on very long casts. This seemed to work better for the larger fish. They had a 4.53 that won a tie for big fish on Sunday, also. You could tell that they had a great time, their boat was covered with used baits, all of them with teeth marks. Good job!

The brothers Galassi came in 4th with 21.53. They, too, caught tons of bass and had to cull up ounces. Their Sunday bag included the largest fish of the day. However, since the fish has expired, the official weight dropped .25 and that put them in a tie and they split big fish money with the Guimarin’s. They covered a lot of ground en route to their finish and scored mostly on the west end of the lake. They did their damage with, you guessed it, soft plastics in the outside grass. Nice finish!

I think everybody had a great time. The camaraderie around the picnic tables after dinner went well into the night and a lot of us had sore sides from laughter. This was a great fishing trip. Thanks again to Steve Warner and the entire Webber staff!!

NOTES: Not as many of the fish had the grey ick, like last year……..tons of fish even though we had hot, still weather and the water was down…….no really big ones like we usually get, 6+ was big fish………the Big Dog birthday cake was a success, as was the 50/50 drawing, which I particularly enjoyed……….Steve, start working on our June 2009 tournament…oh, and Steve, make sure the women’s volleyball team has practice when we’re there…..See ya’ at the River!!