Written by Jim Ternary, FoM Central Florida Tournament Director
I must say it was an eventful weekend as we held our first tournament of 2015. We started off with our Friday night dinner meeting. We had some great merchandise prizes from our local sponsors; such as, 2 Deka Deep Cycle Batteries, 7’ Duckett Fishing Rod, various items from Bass Pro Shops along with a $25.00 Gift Card, Gatorland tickets, and some Soft Baits from Producto Lures. After the weigh in we also gave away another $25.00 Gift Card from Bitter’s Bait & Tackle. Most importantly, we experienced a DVD from Dr. James Merritt on doing the will of God. We must trust God as our Mentor and obey Him as our Master.
Saturday we woke up to high winds out of the SW along with rain, but that did not stop us; in fact, God was gracious and gave us a break in the weather allowing us to launch the 27 teams with no rain. Thank you Lord.
Keith Carson and Billy Taylor hold up their 2nd place limit
No question the wind played its toll on all competitors, but it was especially brutal to our defending 2014 point champions Don Fisher and Neil Davis who came close to swimming back but, amazingly enough they made it to the ramp and weighed in 25.67 pounds which included one hog they weighed 8.05 pounds. This catch earned them first place for the day, cashing in $1,670.50 for their accomplishments. Nice job Neil and Don for your big win.
2nd place, to no surprise, was Billy Taylor and Keith Carson who also fought the wind flipping the heavy cover to find the catch of 22.98 lbs.
3rd place went to the father and son team of Dan and Jeremy Smith who certainly are familiar with bringing in heavy weights to the scales. They weighed in 18.80 lbs.
4th place was earned by Ken Lucas and Danny Lanier who are also familiar with bringing heavy weights to the scale. Their total weight for the day was 14.76 lbs.
5th went to the team of Matt Fair and Mark Gunter who weighed in a nice catch of 13.17 lbs.
We thank all our Florida Central Division Sponsor’s; Wincore Window & Doors, Deka Batteries, Bass Pro Shops, Gatorland, Better’s Bait and Tackle, and Producto Lures. We also thank our National sponsors; Skeeter Boats, Yamaha, Stren, Pflueger, Strike King Lure Company, Nester Hosiery, Marshall’s Marine, Kings Home, New Tech Global, Power-Pole, Lowrance, Duckett Fishing, Buckeye Lures, Keelshield, Solar Bat, Kistler Rods, Jacobs Glass, HydroWave, Rejuvenade, Berkley, and Rayjus Sportswear.
The Fishers of Men Central Florida Division is registered for the 2016 Florida State Team Championship, where the top 4 teams will be invited to compete for a brand new Blazer 595 Pro Elite powered by a 200 HP outboard. The next event for the division is scheduled for February 28th on the Winter Haven Chain of Lakes. More information can be found on the Event Calendar.
