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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

                               CLEARWATER SENIOR BASS CLUB

                                                           MAY 18TH 2019

                                                  HERNANDO CHAIN OF LAKES

My fellow anglers and other liars,

               I really love fishing on the three pools of lakes around Floral City, Inverness, and Hernando. I’ve had some good tournaments and some less than stellar outings, but the beauty of the area is enough in itself to bring me back to this neck of the woods.

               Not sure where to start! Maybe at the Friday morning meeting for breakfast at Robin’s Country Kitchen which is 8/10s of a mile north of the Floral City light and located at 6689 S Florida Av. This is one of the highlights of my trips to this part of heaven.

               Robin and Robert and Kim have always been so good to us even though we deem ourselves as outsiders. We have always been treated as family and there are no bad meals there. 

One family member that I met several years ago is “Miss Dot”. She is a fixture at Robin’s and has her special seat when she comes in for breakfast. I am sorry I missed her this time as she came in at 6:30 AM Saturday. We fishermen were already on Lake Hernando as “the early fisherman gets the fish” or so it is said. It didn’t work out so well this trip for most, but more on that later.

One of the husbands of one of our line dancers at Heritage Pines was invited by me to join us on our Friday practice day. Jerry and Edna Shea are the good folks at Heritage pines I just mentioned and Jerry met us for breakfast Friday at 7:30 AM. We were all on time as a matter of fact. Breakfast was excellent and the guys got to meet and talk with Jerry before we left for Hernando and the launch ramp there.

Jerry had seldom been fishing and was used to hand lining the fish he sought in his youth. I had to introduce him to spinning rods and reels and some of the baits I use every day. Let me tell you he adapted so well to this that it deserves mentioning here.

I gave him two rods with a Pop-R and a worm on them. He was a trooper and for six hours he was casting, mostly the worm, with the reel upside down and backwards.  He was comfortable that way so I didn’t try and change him. I mention this because he had seven bites all day and enjoyed catching two bass on the worm. Setting the hook on a fish where the hook tip is buried back into the worm (Texas rigged) is more difficult than most would surmise, but Jerry did it with ease.

I had a pretty good day as well and I had 26 bites and only six fish in the boat to show for it. The top water bite was not ferocious as it sometimes has been, and I struggled to get those bites in the boat. I caught three bass, a pickerel, and two sunfish.

Now is the time to tell you that Jerry and I were both very competitive while we were fishing. Jerry was two for seven (.2857142857%) or a 285 batting average whereas I was six for 26 or a (.2307692308%) or a 230 batting average. Winner was Jerry. We had fun with all of the ribbing we gave each other.

Jerry went back to Heritage Pines at about four PM and I sure hope he had a safe ride back there!  One more thing! Thank you Jerry for taking the time to put on sunscreen several time during the day!  Smart man!

We didn’t have but two choices of lodging in the area and both have proven to be disappointments. Central Motel had Nurse Cratchett at the front desk and was a pain to work with, and the Florida Motel didn’t have any microwave oven in the rooms we were in and that caused us a bit of a delay.

Friday when we were at Robin’s Country Kitchen I asked if we could come in for an early breakfast and Robin and Kim were kind enough to open early for us. Too early to see “Miss Dot” but early enough to get us good eating’s and satisfied for a day on the lake.

We got information from Kim about Sunrise Resort because the lake we had planned to visit in July we weren’t able to reach them even though we had a good number (I think) to reach them. Kim said that there had been a lot of upgrades to Sunrise and that we should give them a shout. One concern was the parking for four tow vehicles and trailers so, when I call, we will see what happens.

Rod Martin met us for breakfast Saturday as he had a doctor’s appointment Friday and couldn’t join us for practice day. We all left Robin’s and launched on Lake Hernando and began our tournament. We had decided that two PM would have us on the lake for a sufficient time to get us dehydrated and/or sunburned.

I had Rich Rybka with me and we took off to find our quarry at the other end of the chain of lakes. We did well, but it could have been better for Rich. I don’t know how many bites Rich had but I ended up with 11 fish out of another 26 bites (.4230769231%) or a batting average of 423. I caught seven bass, two pickerel, one mudfish, and one blue gill. I can’t describe the size of the mudfish that Rich caught, but it was HUGE! Over ten pounds for sure!

Now you all know that Rod (bless his heart) kept telling me that HE had had Rich get his five fish limits with HIM and that if I didn’t get a five fish limit for Rich that I would fail in my obligation to Rich. That stuck to me all day and I was disappointed for Rich when we did finally did get back to the ramp for weigh-in.

I was some relieved to find that the club did not all have five fish limits. It’s funny what you worry about when fishing and those worries either are realized or for naught! This was the most unusual tournament that I have fished in a long time. Usually I throw top water baits too much for my own good as worms are the usual fish getters and my baits are left by the wayside.

The weigh-in went as follows:

Norm Whitten 2 fish .97 pounds and fifth place.

John Fugate     2 fish 1.12 pounds and fourth place

Rich Rybka      3 fish 1.61 pounds and third place.

Rod Martin     3 fish 1.72 pounds and second place.

Bill Poirier      5 fish 6.78 pounds and first place with big fish of 2.69 pounds.

Thanks go out to all who assisted the weigh-in and the launching of boats and the subsequent retrieval of the same boats. Rich Rybka was instrumental in getting all of that done.

Next month is Crooked Lake. Norm, are we all set with the rental at that ramp for June? Let me know if there is something I might need to do to assist you there. Remember we are far from civilization and may need a meal there on the “Barbie”. I will again bring 12 breakfast sandwiches for Saturday morning.

That is all for now and remember that “God loves you and so do I”

See you at the June meeting at 5:45 PM at Betts,

Billy Basser

Aka Bill Poirier

813-758-2405

                       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