BASS BUSTERS HAD A GREAT WEEKEND

SILVER DIVISION:

67 Teams Fished, 11 Teams over 20 pounds with 5 fish.

A total of 257 Bass weighed in for a total of 815.51 Pounds

so the average bass weighed in was over 3.1 pounds.

First Place & Second Place Big Bass: Durand Locke & Ryan Kroeger of Clewiston, FL

Total Weight 26.58 lbs.  2^nd Big Bass 7.54 lbs.

Second Place: Aymon Wilcox & Kevin Thomas of Ft. Lauderdale & Miami

Total Weight 26.36 lbs.

Third Place:    Tony Bennett of Boca Raton, FL

Total Weight 24.67 lbs.

Fourth Place & First Place Big Bass:            Andy Matusevich of Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Total Weight 23.94 lbs. & 1^st Big Bass 9.94 lbs

Fifth Place & Sixth Place was a TIE:             JP McKay & Paul Wormser

Mike & Matt Surman

Total Weight for each Team was 22.70 lbs.

Seventh Place:            Skip Reed and Gary Dew

Total Weight 21.08 lbs

Eighth Place:              Bryan Carter & Kenny Diggs

Total Weight 20.86 lbs

Ninth Place:                Dustin & Ron Royer

Total Weight 20.78 lbs.

Tenth Place:               John & Jimmy Burke

Total Weight 20.40 lbs.

Eleventh Place            Jonathon Farmer & Joe Holland

Total Weight 20.29 lbs. (more…)

On Jan. 17, 2001, Dean Rojas pulled 45 pounds and 2 ounces of bass from Lake Tohopekaliga to set the Bassmaster tournament record for heaviest one-day catch. The record still stands.

Now, almost exactly 10 years later, the ideal fishing conditions Rojas tapped into are brewing again on Toho. Coincidentally, the “perfect storm” is happening just in time for the Jan. 20-22 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Southern Open out of Kissimmee, Fla., the event that kicks off the 2011 Bassmaster season.

Trevor Fitzgerald of Belleview, Fla., champ of last season’s Southern Open finale, is among those who contend that the Toho tournament could reset the 45-2 record. He has more grounds than most to make the prediction. For one, he was at the Toho tournament in 2001 as an 18-year-old co-angler.

“I was paired with Alton Jones, and we fished within eyesight of Dean Rojas,” Fitzgerald said. “It was an experience — I’d never seen so many big fish in my life. For that matter, I haven’t seen so many big fish in one tournament since. It was just amazing.” (more…)

(Jan. 09, 2011 – Okeechobee, FL)… Pro Brandon Medlock of Lake Placid, Fla., caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 2 ounces Saturday to win the EverStart SeriesSoutheast Division tournament on Lake Okeechobee with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 63 pounds, 8 ounces. For his victory, Medlock earned $35,000.

“I am so happy, this is unbelievable,” Medlock said.”What a day – believe it or not I lost a big one and I am just glad I was able to catch what I did.”I was flipping a jig all week, Medlock went on to say.”Black and blue one ounce with 65 pound braid. I caught the big one today under a mat with a mini cricket. I caught about 50 keepers this week. The first day the fishing was incredible. Then the cold front came through and things got a little tougher, this has just been an unbelievable experience.” (more…)

(Jan. 09, 2011 – Okeechoebee, FL)… OKEECHOBEE, Fla. (Jan. 8, 2011) – The University of Tennessee, Chattanooga team of Nicholas Pratt and James Childers, won the National Guard FLW College Fishing Southeast Division on Lake Okeechobee Saturday with five bass weighing 13 pound, 13 ounces. The victory earned the team $10,000 to be split between the university and the university’s bass-fishing club; $7,500 for the bass club and $2,500 for their school. The win also helped them advance to the Southeast Division Regional Championship.

“I’m so pumped right now,” said James Childers, a sophomore in Finance. “We were fishing a lot differently than anyone else; we went to the deeper water in the canals near the dam and the Kissimmee River and used DD 22s and spinnerbaits. We found a pattern that worked for us last week during a practice we came down for and it held up today. We stuck with what we knew and it paid off.

“We knew that with the cold front that came through the shallow grassy areas that Lake Okeechobee is known for probably wouldn’t be productive so we headed for deeper water,” added Nicholas Pratt a senior in business finance. (more…)