Central Florida Bass Anglers

Congratulations to Matt Gurgaez, Central Florida Bass Anglers member and weighmaster, who finished in second place at the 2006 Florida State Federation Championship held on Lake Okeechobee October 21 & 22, 2006. Matt limited out both days with a total weight of 24.01 lbs. Matt will be one of 12 members representing the state of Florida at the Southern Divisional Federation Tournament (Alabama, site to be Announced)in June of 2007.

The last Points Tournament of the year for Central Florida turned out to be a good one. The lovely pleasure boaters enjoying a ride, ski, or jet ski around the beautiful Chain of Lakes, and my favorite, when they wave at you. All the Bass boats rocking up and down all day long. During practice I saw a few angles on the water and heard good fish tales of nice ones being caught. I had two great practices and for the first time in my life I had to use the pliers to remove a hook out of my finger that was buried. I didn’t see the Wood Brothers, Guy and Dale while I was out there. Turn out for this one was at an all time low with just 16 boats, we need some new teams that want some good competition, so let people know. Well, Are you ready for some Fishing!! First place went the Brothers, Guy and Dale Woods. The duo caught their fish on Texas Rig worms and Spinner baits in Lake LuLu. They had several keepers through out the day, two of which weighed 4.70lbs and a 4.85lber which helped put together their winning weight of 15.26lbs. They also caught 10 bass out from under 1 boat dock which 2 of those fish were weighed in. These two have been improving their skills for the last few years and this win goes to show how strong a team they really are. They are having a great year. Nice Win Wood bros. Second Place went to the Team of Chip Dover and John (papa smurf) Ricketson. These two are truly great competitors and don’t stumble often. They have caught a 5 fish limit in every Tournament this year but they couldn’t weigh their 5 in on Clermont due to a DQ by getting a ticket on the water. The team started their morning fishing a canal in Lake May catching a couple keepers flipping. Then they moved to Lake Shipp catching a few more keepers on a crank bait and a chatter bait. The teams experience sure did pay off again by weighing in 5 bass for 14.71lbs. This gave them sole place of 2nd for the Anglers of the Year race. Great finish and better come back. Third Place went to Local Talent, Steve and Mike Warner. Mike wasn’t able to fish this one so Steve had to find a replacement which seemed help him out. The two flipped all day throwing Brush hogs to bag 5 weighing 14.68lbs. This finish moved the team up good in points for the year. Nice job. Fourth Place went to Nate Bloom and Ronnie Hicks. Ronnie was filling in for Tom Burk who was fishing the BFL Regional and came in 43rd out of 147. Good job Tom. We started are day fishing Lake May and caught a 4 lber first thing on a fluke. Then we moved North to Lake Cannon catching 2 more keepers on crank baits. We then ran south to Lake Eloise landing are last keepers and weighing in at 13.86 lbs. This finish secured us Anglers of the Year for the points race as Chip and John did all they could do to make it fun. Way to stay consistent boys. ReCap: Reed Watkins and Hans gave it their all racing for the top spot but fell short for the points race by locking up 3rd place for the year. Big Bass was caught by Mark Corns weighing 6.62 lbs nice fish and nice job. Big thanks to the staff for all the hard work. Don’t forget, try and get anglers for next year. Lots of teams didn’t make the trip for Winter Haven -- What’s up with that? Good Luck at the Classic and Dress warm Cold Fronts are already here. Don’t forget entry fees and side pot at Classic. Chip will not be making the classic at all due to family, Sorry about that John(papa smurf) will have to take all the money for him self. Last, All of the members need to login to the new CFBA web site at: http://www.eteams.com/cfba/ Get on the message board and start having some fun.

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!!

Another tournament in the books for the Best Bass Anglers in Central Florida. Lake Kissimmee, one of many, of the states finest bass fishing lakes had some low water conditions due to the lack of rain yet to arrive from the summer storms. Lots of anglers spent time in the water, not wading for fish but pushing their boats off sandbars during practice. Talks of fish being hard to locate seemed to be the same for most. I did hear from Chip that his practice went well and that he was expecting John and him to have a decent day, go figure. Josh Rowsky came up Friday for practice from Ft. Lauderdale and couldn't find anything but dry land where he wanted to fish and he also had to get wet pushing his boat off the beaches getting stuck, so he didn't bother making the long trip back. It was another successful launch with HOT 90+ weather and a nice 15-20mph West wind. 1st place went to the team of Chip Dover and John Ricketson with a FAT Sack of 19.24lbs. The practice payed off for the duo as the two found fish in Lake Kissimmee. They started off on the North West side flipping cover to get their limit by 10am. The two caught 8 fish there before moving to the South end and finding a top water and a flipping bite. They caught two 4+lb fish here to cull two 1.6lb bass in the last couple of hours. This gave the team 4 fish over 4lbs that they weighed in. They caught their fish on Craws, (Shadow/Bluesilver) and Gitem Toads, (Black/Red) which were supplied by a member of the Gitem Pro Team Staff that morning. I'm just glad I've convinced Chip that those Toads are great Baits. This is the Teams second win this year on the Chain. Chip said they never missed a bite, they were 18 for 18 all day. With stats like that it’s a wonder why their in the money 80% of the time. I personally think it’s all John Ricketson. (LOL) Well done again guys and nice Fat Sack. 2nd place went to Team Solo, Tim Fey. I guess fishing alone Tim doesn't argue much with himself on locations to go to. He just rides around until BAM!! I'm here! He runs into something that stops him dead in his tracks. That was the case on Saturday as it payed off for him by bottoming out in Hatchinha and instead of idling a mile or so he just started throwing a Gitem Shad, (Watermelon/Red) in the grass to nail his 3 fish that he weighed in for a nice weight of 12.95lbs. Not bad considering,.. maybe others will start using that pattern. Nice Job and at least you don't have to share the money. 3rd place went to the Father and Son Team of Walter and Matt Gurgacz. This team has been in some what of an extended slump for the last year, with this finish hopefully they can get some momentum going for the next tournaments. The duo fished Philly Point on the West side of Kissimmee using Texas rigs around the grass to bag 4 fish weighing 12.85lbs. The team had two nice 5 pounders in that sack and Matt also said they lost two just as big. That’s fishin! It looked like they were on some quality fish be just couldn't make it happen. I'm glad to see these guys on top making a check they deserve it. Way to go guys, keep it up. Also, Matts handling skills improved this tournament, I didn't see a fish dropped at the scales. NICE! 4th place and last pay out went to the Team of Jeff Holland and Brent Wysong. These guys made the run through the shallow waters up to Lake Cypress to catch the 3 fish they weighed-in. They threw Texas rig 10inch (Junebug) Charlie worms all day and also had the Big Bass for the day a 7.52 pound Toad. Brent said they had the bites but they couldn't get them in the boat. The bass were biting very strange so this made the hook set difficult. Great job and Beautiful Big Bass guys. Recap: Small turn out this time with only 22 boats, 5 dead fish, 4 of the 5 were out of Reids Watkins boat. He said he put some Rejuvenate fish formula in his live wells and the fish just died. That Sucks! Only 2 limits of fish weighed-in. Most fish were caught in 2 foot or less of water. 4 of the 22 boats ran in to Toho and all had a tough time locating fish, that cost a lot. Anglers of the year race is still out there for those in the top 6 spots.