I hope everyone had a great weekend of fishing, we certainly did. It was our Classic Weekend for our Tournament trail, everyone gets a paycheck, how much depends on which bracket you end up in on day one and on day two where you place in that bracket. You fish against another angler to determine brackets, since we were first we fished against the team that qualified (8 tournaments minimum) with the least points and so on. (If we didn't have that kicker, we would have been in bracket 2, the other team did very well) We drew the lakes Saturday morning and it was Lake Gentry and day two lake was Lake Marion. (Day two lake is immediately off limits until day two). Being Anglers of the year, we were first boat out and we decided to hit the canal from Alligator Lake, since they had the locks open and there was some current. We usually don't fish that spot. I started throwing a crank bait and caught a couple keepers (14" min) but they were certainly skinny. Kevin caught two more throwing a Fat Ace stick bait. After catching more shorts, we decided to go to the other end of the lake where the canal runs into Cypress. We caught #5 and #6 culling a skinny bass. These were fatter here.
We decided to take a breather for a quick drink and some crackers, and it was about 8:30. I sat there with my cracker and told Kevin, "I'll throw this Fat Ace out and let it sit while I eat". I hand my finger under the braid and he was saying he didn't feel any hit his bait, they were just there when he picked it up. About that time I had a cracker in my mouth and felt this little "TIC" on my line. I said "Oh. a fish" and did what he describes as my "ejection seat" move, jumped up and could see the grass start to lay down. I set the hook and told him this is a "better one". Then I could really feel it pulling drag and I keep it set tight. He was grabbing net and after a few seconds which felt like forever, I hauled in a 6.54 lb bass. Then I was looking around for my cracker and realized I'd swallowed it nearly whole. The lump I felt down in my throat didn't go away until that night. He had stepped all over his crackers getting the net. (Bacon cheddar crackers are pretty good snacks) But what a cull!
We had a Big Bass pot for each day and on that lake, we felt pretty good about our chances.
At weight in, we met another Team, good friends and they came in second in the year end points race, and we call them Freaks of Nature when it comes to fishing, they said they had one that would go about 6 lbs too.
Their story was just as good. About 5 minutes before weigh in, One pitches in to a mat and breaks the line setting the hook. They see the line still on the water but slowly moving. One grabs the line and fights the fish, hand lining it in. The whole time praying it isn't a mudfish (Bowfin) as they pull the weeds and grass off, saying watch the teeth. It was a nice bass. Their Bass weighed 6.58 lbs. They won Big Bass and well deserved. But what good fish catching stories.
Day two lake was moved to Lake Kissimmee as the back up lake, since 20-30 MPH winds were predicted out of the west and Lake Marion was an West to East lake. The issue was safety as there wasn't anywhere to get out of the wind and the waves on a small Florida lake could easily sink some of the smaller boats. We were last boat out this time and two other tournaments were also out of the same ramp, so we got a very late start, mostly because trying to get launched and parked. We went to our one island where we could deal with a little less wave action and all such areas were very crowded with other boats having the same idea. We managed a decent bag for the conditions, with a couple of 3+ lbers and solid 2 lbers. He even told me to "sit down and eat some crackers more than once, LOL" We managed a 3rd place finish in our bracket and received our Angler of the year awards. Again what a great year and fun way to finish it out, with some many great anglers and friends.
