Central Florida Bass Anglers

Our John’s Lake tournament took place Saturday April 14th. Dock talk was of lots of fish and some nice one, too. Nate Bloom had an 8 and lost a bigger one. Fay Rowles had fish up to 7 and I had a 5 in practice. There were some bedding fish and also a few schoolers. We had a nice turnout, 24 boats, and had 17 limits. We had 5 over 7, so overall , a pretty good event. For the 2nd time in as many tournaments John Ricketson landed the Big Bass in one of our tournaments. This time he caught 2 big ones. John caught an 8.01 at about 9:00 and added a 9.07 at about 1:00. To go with those 2 hawgs, he and Chip Dover put together an amazing bag that weighed over 31 pounds. The only glitch in the day occurred on the way to the weigh-in. After leaving their last fishing spot they traveled about ½ mile to the no-wake zone and slowed to an idle. It was then that Chip noticed an open live well and a missing fish. The “one that got away” was a 6 ½ pound fish. So, instead of bringing in a monsterous 31+ bag , they had 4 fish , weighing 25.37lb. That was good enough for the win and also big fish. They mostly scored using Texas rigged worms around the numerous grass patches. Fay Rowles and Paul Frauenhoffer took second place with a very nice catch of 21.51. Included in their bag was a 7 ½ . They too scored using Texas rigged worms around the grass patches. Fay said it was important to find deeper patches and isolated ones. The grass is everywhere, finding the patches that held the bigger fish was the key. They fished in both lakes and kept moving. Mike Tucker and Tyler Lovelace placed 3rd with a limit weighing 14.84. The caught their fish casting frogs and Senkos. Mike said he had several large bass follow the frogs but they would not commit. They felt that they were on good fish but a big bite was the difference. The last money place went to Steve Horney and his guest Ashley Stone. They tallied 14.66 and caught their fish flipping and casting to the grass patches. They started out trying to get the schooling fish near the no-wake area but these bass never really showed themselves. In the Angler of the Year standings, Chip Dover/John Ricketson are in 1st with 750, 2nd place is Mike Tucker/Tyler Lovelace with 715, Dennis & Steve Galassi are in 3rd with 690 and Paul Guimarin holds 4th with 650. NOTES: Great percentage of limits 17/24, 71%......it will be interesting to see how CFBA weights will compare with the Courtesy Tournament next Saturday………we have 2 teams fishing both trails…….5 dead fish, I think they were just swallowing the baits, it wasn’t that hot……….parking was no problem………See ya’ at Clermont!