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Classic at Blue Cypress
Additional Information
The "Classic" was held on Lake Blue Cypress on March 16 and 17. Here is my take on the site and the events that happened that weekend!
I want to thank our president and tournament director for this competition. Norn Whitten, you outdid yourself for this one The tournament, lodging, and weather were wonderful! The only sad thing we had to acknowledge was the mysterious missing three pounder you didn't bring to the scale, but more on that later on.
We met Friday at 9AM in Lake Wales for our customary breakfast before the tournament. Norm was smart enough to plan it there so we would be more than halfway to our destination which happened to be 111 miles east of Tampa. It's a long trip and the breakfast was a welcome interruption on our way.
Everybody got there at about the same time and we had good vittles and coffee and chatted up a storm. We drew boaters and non-boaters for both Saturday and Sunday. We had four boaters and two non-boaters so two boaters were solo each day and different boaters were solo each day as was the wishes of our club.
After breakfast we completed our journey past Yee Haw Junction (love that name) 6.7 miles east and then four miles down a bumpy road to Middleton's Fish Camp where we had three cabins reserved for us by Rod Martin. The cabins were on a canal and was reachable by both land and by sea. Rod unhooked his van and it was parked by the back door to the cabins for convenient trips to the local grocery and tackle stores.
We all agreed to prefish and the paired boater/non-boaters and solo fishermen spent the afternoon looking for fish. I was ready to call it a weekend after not finding any fish except grennels and gar, but chose to stay because I was having so much fun socializing with the gang. Good thing I did!
Friday evening we had sausages and peppers for supper and that was some good. We had all the condiments and potato salad and other stuff (I have CRS). We sat out on the veranda and talked seems like forever, but bedtime soon approached.
I roomed with John Fugate and was very tired so I tried to sleep, but to no avail. We had a long conversation our hunting days in Georgia (he still does) and all of the deer we saw and killed. I still miss hunting but my knees won't tolerate the long walks to deer stands any more so it was good to hear what John was doing in Georgia.
Got up at 5:30 AM and had sausage and egg biscuits and got ready for the days fishing.
I was solo Saturday and I am glad of that because it became a practice day for me as I had not done much on Friday. I began fishing where I had the previous year when we were last on this lake.
Let me stop right here and explain the absolutely beautiful weather we had all weekend. It was supposed to rain both days but all I got was a couple of spritzers of water. The weather was overcast and very pleasant. The best two days on a lake that I think I had ever experienced.
The added beauty of the lake itself was unreal. There are cypress trees everywhere and each on had an osprey nest in it with mated for life pairs of ospreys building nests and catching fish (better than I) and bringing twigs and sprigs of nesting material to the nests.
They would both talk to me as I went by there nests just to let me know that I was an unwanted guest too close to them. Some of the nests were only a few feet higher that I was in my boat. This went on all day long.
I had reports of 10, 12, and 14 foot alligators that the guys had seen all weekend. I wanted to film a gator close to my boat, but I thought I'd save that filming until Sunday. The old saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" certainly held true as I had no opportunity to film gators Sunday. My bad.
The weigh-in slip for Saturday told the tale of who did and who didn't. Rod Martin, our AOY was again first AND had big fish for the day. His partner, Rich Rybka, was second out of the same boat. Third was John Fugate. Fourth was Bill Poirier, Fifth was Norm Whitten. Sixth was George Close.
Norm would probably have been second if a three pounder he had caught earlier hadn't disappeared. His only thought was that, while he was culling a fish, the three decided to leave the live well without even saying goodbye. Sorry to hear that, Norm, but that has happened before, and should be a lesson to all to keep the live well lids cracked only as needed to add, cull, or check fish in them.
Saturday evening we had hamburgers, or more aptly, venison burgers that John Fugate brought from his recently killed deer. I'm telling you they were, in my humble opinion, the best burgers I had ever eaten. I don't know if it was the electric grill that Rod brought or the skillful way they were cooked,but ummmm ummmm good! Thank you John, for bringing those burgers.
I tried to stay awake Saturday evening but that didn't happen. I know John had the TV on for a while, but I didn't hear it at all. Good sleep!
Sunday I had Rich Rybka in the back of my boat, and I was worried that I couldn't him five fish to compliment his second place standing from day one.
We went back to the same place I had fished Saturday and began throwing baits to try and fill our creels. Again, the ospreys were talking and the gar and grennels were biting. To keep this short we did latch onto a pattern and did put five fish in each of our live wells. We also culled some of our fish as we caught eight bass each.
Dat two had Bill poirier catching the most weight, followed by Rich Rybka, Rod Martin, Norm Whitten, John Fugate, and George Close. Rich Rybka had big fish for Sunday.
When Norm combined weights for both days, the results were as follows:
first place and big fish for the "classic" was Rod Martin. Second place was Rich Rybka. Third place went to Bill Poirier. fourth place was Norm Whitten, Fifth place was John Fugate, and sixth was George Close.
We decided to eat supper where we ate breakfast on the way up to break the monotony of the drive home. I was happy with that as I was beginning to "drive by braille" drifting both off the road and into the bumpers in the middle of the road.
Had a good supper and was surprised to learn that Rod had generously paid for all of our food. Thank you, my friend, for that gesture.
Rod and Rich were concerned that I might fall asleep after leaving the restaurant so I assured them that I would pull over and nap if needed! I was fine the rest of the way home.
What a year it has been and oh so much fun with the bantering back and fourth. I think we are all blessed to be in this club and have so much fun in our travels.
The April meeting is dues time as well as the April tournament fees. If you are fishing in April It will cost you $65.00. Dues are $30.00 if you are not fishing.
The banquet in April 6th at Lake Seminole Park and begins at 12:30 PM, so bring your appetites and we will have some fun. Looking forward to seeing Bill and Sandy and Ken and Sue if you can make. Love to see you there.
God loves you and so do I,
Billy Basser
SWH April 2019
Dear anglers of the Clearwater Senior Bass Club,
I told Rod Martin I would be writing the April newsletter for SWH Chain of Lakes, but I did not mean for it to go into May. Here goes it anyway.
When I first heard about the weather for Friday and Saturday of the April tournament I was sure apprehensive about not getting to prefish even though I knew where I would be fishing.
I came over on Friday afternoon and got in about 1PM. I called John Fugate and told him I was in the room and that I saw his boat outside. I got comfortable and was resting about 2PM when the rains began to clean the boats, trucks, and the neighborhood.
It rained from 2PM to about 10PM or so. Not only was there rain, but very high winds. I do not like lightning, winds, or anything that would make it perilous for our fishing outing. I heard tell that Saturday would be better. Hah!
The six of us went to dinner at the San Diego restaurant in the front of Howard Johnson’s Motel. We usually go there Friday evening because it is close and there was good food and camaraderie to be had by all six of us.
Rich Rybka had been walking after dinner and ran into several anglers from the local Extreme Series Fishing Club. He said that there were seven boats in their tournament out of the same ramp that we were using. More anxiety!
We also heart that there was a sixty or seventy boat tournament out of the old Lake Shipp ramp and that they were the Lakeland Bassmasters fishing club. I know a few anglers in that club and know that they are great fishermen as a whole. They also compete in the regional national amateur tournament that sends a team of twelve to compete in the national tournaments. More anxiety!
I figured that there would be no chance of getting to fish my waters. What a relief when I went to my first spot and it wasn’t covered in boats.
We had breakfast at 5:30AM in the Howard Johnson’s continental breakfast bar. It was enough to get something in our bellies to at least get the morning off to a good start.
I went to Lake May, canal three and proceeded to catch two fish right off the beginning of a good day of fishing. My next three bites however were not so productive.
I can only tell you, as a result of my oversight that I lost three fish! I did not notice that the split ring on my Pop-R (middle of the bait) had loosed my treble hook and I was without it for the next two bites. I finally looked because the strikes were aggressive and I should not have lost the fish,
I changed to a different Pop-R after carefully checking for defects and caught the next bite I had. Please listen and learn! Check your line, knots, and the hooks on your top water and single hooks on your worm rigs. I know I’m preaching to the choir when I say this but it may help you catch a few more fish someday! Point Made!
Weather was better on Saturday. No rain, but cold and windy all day. I had my rain jacket on until about 2PM. That’s how hard it was to get my hands and torso warm during the day.
I came in and put by boat on the trailer and waited for all to arrive back at the ramp ON TIME! Rod Martin was 30 seconds from being late. Saturdays are busier and more boats are in the canals and people are out in their pleasure crafts and pontoon boats and they don’t much care if they impede our getting back to the ramp on time. Plan accordingly is all I’m saying.
I caught eight fish all day and missed the three in the above reference. I feel good about the fish I put in the boat and mourn the loss of the three I missed. It was a close tournament anyway.
I got back to the ramp and met up with Norm Whitten. It appeared to Norm that I was doing well and he couldn’t figure out why he was the only one who was tired. Believe me when I say I was tired as well. Just look where I put Rich Rybka‘s total weight on my fabricated sheet. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized what I had done and it changed the standings a bit.
Rod Martin began the year as he left off last year. First place AGAIN! He had five fish that weighed 8.10 pounds and led us again. Way to go my friend.
After the dust settled and I corrected my mistake it was Rich Rybka who finished second out of Rod’s boat with five fish weighing 7.96 pounds. Very impressive!
Third went to John Fugate who had three fish that weighed 7.90 pounds. He also had big fish of the day with a fish that weighed just under 5 pounds. Good catch, John.
I finished fourth, Norm Whitten finished fifth, and George Close finished sixth. Everybody caught and there were ZERO dead fish.
Speaking of George Close, he called me when he got to Georgia during his trip back to New York. They will be back down in October and I asked Marcia if George could get down here before the October Tournament so he could come out and play with his fishing friends.
We had a great banquet at Lake Seminole and we were surprised when Bob Stojanovic show up and had lunch with us. Good to see him there. It was also good to see Phyllis, Linda, Marcia, and Sharon at the banquet. We all had a good time and vowed to be seen next year at the same place and time. Norm and Linda always put on a great feast with some extra goodies from the rest of the team.
May is on the Hernando Chain of Lakes. We are staying at The Florida Motel in Inverness in, I hope, rooms 7 and 8. That is what I asked for.
A friend from Hudson has agreed to fish with me on Friday and he should be meeting us at Robin’s Country Kitchen at 7:30AM. Rich will fish with Norm if that’s ok with Norm. I had promised my friend that I would take him fishing and this is close to where he lives. Let me know if there are any problems with this arrangement.
Rod, the ramp is on US 41 in Hernando. When you come into Hernando stay in the right lane, It will dead end onto Orange Ave and you can call if you are having difficulty getting to us. I am sorry you won’t be there on Friday, but I understand fully, and God bless you on your upcoming surgery.
If you are feeling weak Saturday afternoon then we can probably have Rich drive you home, if he is willing, and then Norm can pick Rich at your place after dropping off your boat. I am assuming a lot here so if I need to follow you home and take Rich home after that then it will be done.
That is basically all I have to say at this time so I will see most of you at Robin’s on Friday. Be there or be square!
Billy Basser
September 2019 on Lake walk in water
Clearwater Senior Bass Club
September 21, 2019
Lake Walk-in-Water
This was a tournament and the days leading up to it that I will remember for a long time. Remember what? Just kidding! Wind is NOT my friend, more so today after the four windy days we had on this lake.
I went to this lake a week ago this past Thursday with Rod Martin because I had not been to the lake in many years and Rod had not been there as many times as he wanted to. Guess what? It was windy that day too!
We entered the north side canals and began in canal three as I had remembered it was one of my favorites. It is now John Fugate’s favorite canals! More about that later!
We saw 14 turkeys in three various sized flocks as we traversed the canals. I had to be reminded that we were fishing and not bird watching. I am multi-faceted and can do both! The turkeys were enjoyable and we watched the flocks pecking the ground and making their way away from us once they sensed our presence! Actually turkeys have very keen eyesight and can sense movement from a long ways away. I have even been called a turkey before. Not going back to that later!
We had a good day on the lake and I knew that I would be fishing the tournament in some of the canals on the lake. Rod said that he would probably be on the main lake if he could, but I was skeptical at best that he would be able to do that.
This past Thursday morning Rod and Rich met me at the Egg House for breakfast over in Lake Wales where we had our vittles (yummy)! They, Rod and Rich, were late due to traffic and that is worth mentioning because Rod is usually a half hour early to any of our meetings!
Rod then went to Lake Walk-in-Water to begin prefishing in earnest for the tournament on Saturday. Rich and I went on another quest!
I had told Norm Whitten that I would scout Lake Marion on Thursday and he asked if we could reserve three rooms for the “classic” in March of next year. I said I would and we would fish Marion and report back to him afterwards. Alas and alack! The fish camps were closed and the folks could not be reached so we won’t be going there in March of next year! Sorry Norm!
We did get to see one hog (about 40 pounds) and a hen turkey while we on our scouting trip so it was a success after a fashion!
We came back to Walk-in-Water and proceeded to the South canals for some prefishing of our own. It was then that I had another brilliant idea about canal fishing!
I decided to liken it to N.C.I.S. which is one of my favorite shows. If you haven’t seen it then you won’t even fathom what I am about to say about Rich as we plied the waters in the canals.
I called him a “probie” as we began fishing and he had to go from probie agent canal fisherman to agent canal fisherman to special agent canal fisherman to VERY special agent canal fisherman. I told him that very few get to be VERY special agent canal fishermen. I only know one person who fits that description and I am not a name dropper so I’ll leave that to your imagination. I will say that Rich got to special agent canal fisherman because he beat me that Thursday in the canals! Way to go Rich!
Friday I spent in the South canals and caught eight or nine fish and had a blast with my top water baits. I used both the devil’s horse and pop-r and had success with both. I also went to the North canals and fished canal one and four and did well there too. My tournament day was etched firmly in concrete! I would throw top water all day!
Our meals both Thursday and Friday were provided by Rod Martin who cooked burgers Thursday and dogs on Friday along with beans, macaroni salad and potato salad and condiments for both meals. He also provided snacks for our enjoyment! Thank you, Rod, for all that you provide for our tournaments.
Saturday morning came early (five AM) and we got up and prepared to take on the mighty black bass on Lake Walk-in-Water. John Fugate met us at the ramp and we took off across the lake to our favorite canals as the wind was still up and the water was bumpy on the way across the lake.
I visited my first canal and thought I had made a mistake choosing top water as I didn’t get bit until about a half hour later. Finally got one in the boat! I heard “another one bites the dust” song in my head and would hear that another 18 time during the rest of the day. I had 27 bites on the day and put 19 in the boat. I culled seven or eight times and got my limit to over eight pounds. The first five I put in the boat would have rivaled Rod martins smallest limit weighed in at 1.68 pounds. I don’t think I had that much early on!
It was a glorious day to say the least until I returned across the lake to even bigger waves then I remembered the other days I returned to the launch site. Anyway I got back about an hour early (as I usually do) and arrived at a nightmare situation. I took on water to the tune of six-eight inches on my floorboard as I searched for a way to tie up to the launch ramp in order to get my truck to retrieve my boat.
I had all three bilge pumps (two auto and one manual) working overtime to pump out the water around my feet while biding my time waiting for Rod and Rich and John to get back. When they finally got there John was able to drop Rich at the dock and he began to get us safely out of the water and ready for weigh-in.
It is getting to be a broken record, but John won AGAIN and took big fish pot AGAIN! Big fish was 5.89 pounds and Rod finally got to give up the travelling fish plaque because someone finally got a fish over five pounds! John your total weight was 10.27 pounds, but I forgot to adjust your weight down by ½ pound for the two dead fish you had, so you adjusted total weight is 9.77 which is still a great tournament. You da man!
Second place was taken by Bill Poirier who also had five fish but weighed only 8.44 pounds.
Third place went to Rod Martin who also had five fish weighing 6.48 pounds. Good job my friend!
Last, but not least by any means was Rich Rybka who had two fish that weighed 2.29 pounds and another fish which bounced in the boat as he retrieved him and bounced back into the drink. Rich said he had about ten other bites that managed to not get into the boat.
I want to apologize to the team as we should have gone elsewhere after the wind and wave problems we had on this lake. It is better to be safe than sorry and it could have been disastrous out there at least for me as I thought what would have happened if my big motor had shut off and I was at the mercy of the elements. God was watching us and took good care of us!
John is way out in front of us and does not look catchable for the remainder of the year, but stranger things have happened. Think about this fact! John is winning without prefishing! Of course he is not witnessing the lies and fun we have prefishing, but his job comes first!
I think George will be back in time for the October tournament on Lake Pierce. George, please let us know your status so we can plan who gets to fish with you then!
See you at the October meeting on the first Thursday of the month at Betts’ Tackle in Largo.
God loves you and so do I!
Billy Basser
Lake pierce, October 2019
The optimum word here is NESTOR! This is a time I will neither forget nor figure out. I want to begin this with my feelings about this and last month’s decisions to go with the tournaments on the lakes chosen or the choice of cancellation.
I think in the future that the decision to go or not to go should be a democratic decision and not just the TD’s. I think I should have moved last month’s tournament to either Reedy or Arbuckle and maybe cancelled this month’s altogether based on hindsight.
Last month the waves were big on all four days I was on Walk in the Water and maybe with input from all we could have made it a safer tournament by moving it to Lake Reedy or Lake Arbuckle. I would like to hear from all of you!
This month it could have been a disaster if we had been hit by a tornado while on the lake on Saturday. We did good to wait until eight AM to go, but that was in between wind and rain cells. I had some more doubts after I got to my fishing sites and some rainy and windy weather came up. It all worked out as we even got some sunshine in the afternoon before weigh-in!
I have been seeing some pictures of Kathleen Middle School and the tornado destruction as well as viewing Rich and Evelyn’s pictures of their neighbor hood and the 20 hours of power outage they endured. Scary stuff to be sure!
On the other hand if we had cancelled on Saturday morning we just might have been in the path of the tornado that hit Kathleen Middle School. I think God must have been watching out for us!
We got over to Jennings’s Fish Camp after having breakfast at the City Café in Lake Wales and went fishing. Just Rod and I were at breakfast! Had a good day on the lake and caught enough fish to give me a starting point for Saturday.
Norm Whitten came over Thursday afternoon and he and Rod went out for a short time and caught fish too! Norm brought shells and spaghetti sauce for dinner and we ate that late in the afternoon and them we sat and chewed the fat for some time. It was a delicious meal and we are glad that Norm is back with us on the tournament trail.
Woke up Friday morning and had breakfast croissants and sausage egg and cheese sandwiches and then decided to go out on the lake and pursue the wily bass once again. That’s when one of the horror stories took place.
Let me first put this in perspective! Last year we were on Lake Pierce in August and all went well on that month. This year we had to move it to October due to a “cornhole” tournament in August.
This month the “buzzards” came south for their migration! These are not the swallows of Capistrano and they are not pretty as the swallows are! Buzzards are ugly in every aspect. I know that God made them and they are to be loved as all of his other creatures, but this is not an easy task!
Anyway, I went down to my boat to go out fishing and found 40 or 50 buzzards on all of our boats and they were very Hungry. They did little to Norm or my boats, but they had a field day on Rods! I think it had to do with the red and black colors on his boat. They chewed up his seats and ate rubber around his instruments. They also pooped all over his boat! yuck! It was a mess I’m telling you! Rod took it in style and did mention it to the owners of the fish camp. I believe the owner should have alerted us to the fact that the buzzards were back in town!!!
I remember when I worked for GTE/Verizon that we had the same problem on the downtown buildings of Tampa! The city tried several ways to keep the buzzards off the buildings and making a mess of that. They tried stunning one, but it fell 37 floors to its death which brought out PETA to complain about the poor buzzard. They are protected and we are not able to just kill them!
Norm noticed an oil slick on the water behind his boat as he went fishing. He checked it out after returning to bas camp and found the oil reservoir cap on is engine was cracked and asked if he could fish with Rod instead of oiling the lake with leakage from the reservoir! No problem there on my part!
Friday we were watching weather reports and the location of Nestor and how that would affect our tournament day!
We went to Cherry Pocket Fish Camp for dinner/supper Friday evening and had some good vittles. Yum! Yum! It was good to get away from washing dishes and that sort of thing.
I decided to wait until Saturday morning to decide the go/no go on the tournament so John Fugate and George Close had to drive over in the AM and got to the ramp at 6:45 AM. They came to our room as we decided to wait until 8 AM to make the final decision.
At 8:00 AM there was a break (so I thought) in the weather and the wind died down and the rain abated. I decided we should go and fish! I’m still not sure that was the right thing to do, but I made my choice and have to live with that!
Rich decided not to come over as there were tornado warnings in his neck of the woods and he decided on the cautious way to go! It was a good thing as he lost power for 20 hours and sent pictures of downed trees and fences in his neighborhood.
I went to the area I was going to fish and felt good at first for having given us the “go” sign. I caught five fish in the first 45 minutes and missed two others! It was a top water bite.
The rain and winds came up two or three times during the next two hours and I said a prayer that everybody would be safe where they were fishing. I know it worked out well, but it could have been different!
I caught 16 fish and had 27 offerings from bass between my devils horse and pop-r. It was a great tournament for me in spite of my reservations! I think I culled six or seven times during the day.
God loves you and so do I
Billy Basser
