2011 - Monthly Tournament - 2012

TSALA APOPKA (FLORAL CITY)

MAY 21, 2011

othing like spending a Florida "spring" day, or two, fishing ! The May Tournament was held, once again, on the Tsala Apopka chain of lakes. This time we were at the Floral City pool. Beautiful set of lakes and an OK ramp considering it was one lane and had a parking/launch area about the size of a postage stamp !

As usual, I met Buddy Doyle at his house about 6:00 AM on Friday and we met up with Hugh Palmer and Bill Covert along US 19 and had a bite of breakfast at Denny’s. After some serious carb and caffeine loading, we headed to the lake, arriving about 9:30 or so.

Buddy and I spent the day exploring as neither of us had been on this lake and it is well known that I know nothing about bass fishing anyway ! I proved that last month was an aberration and did not land a single fish on Friday.

Friday evening we met up with about 10-12 club members and enjoyed some good Tex-Mex food and beer (Shiner Bock in my case) at the restaurant across from the Central Motel in Inverness. The motel has been recently remodeled and the rooms were large and clean.

They were opening their new restaurant but were closing at 8:00 PM and weren’t opening early enough for the fisher type folks. Anyway, we had some great Tex-Mex food across the street. I found out that most club member’s idea of "spicy" salsa is right up there with Hunt’s catsup. A couple of tablespoons of Tabasco Green and original hot sauces got it up to a reasonable level of heat ! My "stuffed peppers," also known as Chili Rellnos, were fantastic !

Saturday morning had everyone lined up on the road (on a curve, mind you) waiting to get into the launch area. In fairness I will reveal that there is nice parking about a quarter mile away ! Everyone launched safely and no one hit the cypress tree in the middle of the launch area. I’m thinking this would be a great ramp to bring a lawn chair and video camera to: Boat Ramp Follies !

The weather was beautiful if HOT. Damn HOT would be the temperature Friday and Saturday afternoons. I had the honor of fishing with the one and only Bill Coker on Saturday. We had a great day even though I only landed one fish. I am improving though. Each of my fish at each tournament are increasing in size. I am now up to 1.22 pounds !!

Bill landed and weighed three fish and missed a bunch, especially in the afternoon. He did not, as suspected, attempt to throw me overboard as an offering to the fishing gods ! I will fish with Bill anytime, even a classic where I’ve heard he doesn’t want a co-angler ! He was a gentleman and fine angler. I’m sure I’ll pay dearly for this paragraph !!

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Results were as follows:

For those keeping stats, we had 21 anglers, weight 53 fish for 80.70 pounds with two dead fish penalties.

As always, there is a story within a story at this tournament. This one, unfortunately for Chuck Bearce, had a witness: our very own President, Darrell Paquin. It seems Chuck had a rough day. He had, he thought, a few fish in the well and kept trying to cull out his "courtesy measurement" dink.

According to what I learned, he weighed two fish for a total of 2.34 pounds and dinkiest dink went back to mama. Disappointing day, but wait, it gets better. As he pulls the plug from the live well, imagine his surprise at find another fish that would have weighed !! According to Chuck’s estimate, this fish would have moved him from about 14th to 11th and resulted in an additional 3 points in the Angler of the Year standings.

We all remember how close the points were last year (Darrell Paquin begging for the 2 points from the meeting he was re-elected President while on a deer stand is not a pleasant memory !). Anyway, we’ll just keep this story very private. I am sure no one will ever bring it up again !!

Just to let everyone know: We MUST fish Toho in June. I’m on ending a week of family vacation on Friday, June 17, and my spouse can drop me at the ramp so I can catch up with my angler or perhaps Buddy !

I’m just sayin’ that it would be really NICE to not miss a tournament. I’ve committed to cooking for a wedding reception in July (I know, stupid mistake on my part) and my son is getting married on the third Saturday of September. For some reason the kids didn’t buy off on changing their date !!

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Anyway, remember to vote for Toho for the June tournament !!