2-25-2023 Winter Haven Chain South
With two other tournaments launching from same ramp and all the weekend locals it is a good thing the ramp and park are as big as it is. What a crazy place it was at the end of the day. Lots of small bass were caught and it turned out to be tough to get the big bite. Then a few teams had mechanical issues. Gary and Richard could not get their live wells to work and called me to let me know and ask if needed to use another teams live well. They still had 3 bass that didn’t make it. Then Charles motor was acting up and would not run on plain. And last but not least Steve was suing his new boat for first time in a tournament had a battery blow up while we were fishing Scared the crap out of us when it blew up. This left us without a trolling motor. Fun Times!
First Place with 5 bass weighing 15.09 pounds goes to Paul and Sean.
Second Place with 5 bass weighing 9.56 pounds goes to Mike and Stev
Third Place with 5 bass weighing 9.51 pounds goes to Gary and Richard
Big Bass weighing 4.63 goes to Mike and Steve
50/50 winner goes to Charles
2022 Classic on Lake Okeechobee
Out of the 9 teams that qualified only 5 were able to make the Classic. Not sure if I have seen the lake as high as it was but found lots of stained dirty muddy water and a few areas that had clean / cleaner water we were all trying to find along with all the other locals and clubs. And as always we had a great time on the Big O even though the big bites were tough to get. Lots of small bass were being caught, just had to make long runs to get to cleaner water areas. And with the water up so much all the skinny trails were deep enough to run. But scary as some are one lane / boat only and Darrell and Jason had a close encounter and luckily no damages. After the second day heading back out of Cochran’s pass there was a bass boat that did not do so well as the whole port side was damaged. Again crazy scary when running the skinny trails.
First Place with 18.69 pounds goes to Paul and Sean
Second Place with 18.05 pounds goes to Darrell and Jason
Third Place with 17.45 pounds goes to Chuck and Justin
Big Bass Day 1 weighing 3.84 pounds goes to Paul and Sean
Big Bass Day 2 weighing 2.71 goes to Darrell and Jason
Usually the total weights we had for two days are 1 day weights at least, and big bass are way more than what we caught. But that’s fishing!
And on top of all the fun we had I forgot ( will never forget ) about Steve and I having a trailer tire blow on the Skyway heading to Clewiston. Then heading back just out of Clewiston we had a hub go out. Guess that is a good thing about tandem trailer. Chuck and Justin were behind us and followed us as we drove slow and steady back home at 55 MPH. Then in Sarasota Justin called and said smoke was coming out of the wheel on the same side as the other hub went. WTF !!! We were officially stranded on I-75. This was around 4:00PM. Chuck was gracious to take Jason and Justin home. Thank You Chuck! Now thinking I have AAA with Plus RV we would call and arrange flatbed towing. After numerous calls to AAA and them submitting service request after an hour I called back and was informed they could not find anyone in there network to help us. Now it is dark and we are out of beer….lol. We must have called 15 different towing companies with no luck. Jason found Lucas Towing so we called and they agreed to help but would be an hour and a half before they could get to us. We finally made it home around 2:00am. And Darrell’s phone crapped out and after Chuck got home he noticed a nice scratch and chunk missing out of his gelcoat. Again Fun Times!!!
