2017 FLBRC Classic Lake Kissimmee

[West6550]

Y'all will be chasing skunks all right but they'll be on the water.

[SFL BassHunter]

Talkin' bout skunks, no one at the classic skunked!   Cheers!

[Lipripper]

Talkin' bout skunks, no one at the classic skunked!   Cheers!

That's a good thing 

[BarryFL]

Talkin' bout skunks, no one at the classic skunked!   Cheers!

I was pretty worried with 2 1/2 hours to go on Saturday! Ask Cport. With the wind blowing like it was, I was quickly running out of places to fish. Then I thankfully caught lightning in a bottle.

[BarryFL]

Well that goes to show ya.  Barry won the event and his drinking prowes qualifies him for the Guntersville Rally.  Some believe Beer is the elixer of life especially when followed by some high end girl friend juice.  I don't even know why I mention it since I don't drink at all but that is because I am the designated watcher for those guys who get lost in the woods chasing skunks.

Speaking of juice, I mentioned to the group at Saturday night's dinner that I left a freshly distilled mason jar of NC mountains moonshine in my lanai frig that I meant to bring. Next time I'll remember.

[Capt. BassinLou]

One thing I really noticed as Cport, and I think Rick mentioned, was how aggressive these bass were. These bass refused to stay still on the rulers. They seemed upset that they were caught.. Lol!! You can feel them trembling and flexing their tails while trying to snap a pic. Crazy!! 

[West6550]

One thing I really noticed as Cport, and I think Rick mentioned, was how aggressive these bass were. These bass refused to stay still on the rulers. They seemed upset that they were caught.. Lol!! You can feel them trembling and flexing their tails while trying to snap a pic. Crazy!! 

Some of your product.. spill while enroute up the river? Lol

[Capt. BassinLou]

Some of your product.. spill while enroute up the river? Lol

... I think so.. 

[SFL BassHunter]

One thing I really noticed as Cport, and I think Rick mentioned, was how aggressive these bass were. These bass refused to stay still on the rulers. They seemed upset that they were caught.. Lol!! You can feel them trembling and flexing their tails while trying to snap a pic. Crazy!! 

There were a few that were trembling on the ruler. It was crazy, never felt that before on a fish. Almost like they were nervous.

[West6550]

I figured I might as well give my report as well.

Friday:
Barry and I tried Jack's Slough with not much to show. We tried the canal on the south side of Brahma Island. I picked up a 17" on a toho color bitters mega vibe.

We fished down into the canal as we seen a few hitting around. We picked up a few and missed a few as well. All the bites were hard hitting for sure. I noticed we found a little pocket of fish just off a cow pasture where there was a few open spots. We fished back out and Barry lost something decent on the inside (island side) of the pad field just outside the canal but near a few feet from the outside line. I saw airboats coming and unfortunately they were heading towards our direction from the west wall spraying. We moved again to Otter and searched a bit before calling it a day. I noticed quite a few of the fish we picked up were near a piece of cover that was blocking wind and were hitting moving baits. So that was my goal for Saturday

Saturday:
Fred let me borrow his back seat, thanks again by the way. I have to say after being on nights for quite a while it was hard to wake up early I honestly can't remember where we went first but I noticed the wind was different than the day before. We fished some outside lines for a while with not much to show. I tried several different search baits. The wind was moving us a little too fast for me to flip the line and it wasn't sparse enough in most places to really work a moving bait inside the line. Since I was in the back I did manage a parallel cast here and there behind the boat. I felt that with no wind break they weren't really stacking on the outside line? I tried a rattle trap and lost one at the boat on the first cast. I tried that for a while as Fred fished the line but no more takers. Fred picked up a few fish slow rolling a black & blue uvibe worm or swimbait but they weren't consistent or from any one spot from what I noticed anyway. I picked up my first fish just past 11am then another 30 mins later then nada.

We moved up to Tiger Creek and there was a boat just in the channel. I pointed out some reeds and mentioned we should try just behind it as they were a wind block. We fished the south of the creek working towards the reeds. Near some shallow area a few lines in Fred caught another one in about 2ft of water. The other boat left so we moved over and tried the creek. We used the reeds to hold us and cast into the wind hoping for some action. Fred nailed a mudfish lol but that was it. While we were up against the reeds I cast over behind it into the slack spot and lost as fish on the reeds. We went into the creek 100 ft or so and came back out. Fred took us around the corner into the slack water and we had a few hits and I think Fred grabbed one or two. We ran back down to a spot I told Fred about (all the biggest fish I have caught on there have been near it). We got there and it looked completely different and with the wind blowing the opposite way of the current it didn't look great. We moved out of the wind and down by the bridge. We saw Lou and Rick leaving a little cut. Normally the pads are very defined along one side and I have caught a lot of fish on the south side. We went against the current but with the wind for a few with nothing to show and I noticed the water wasn't as clear. Fred mentioned trying some cuts just north of Grape Hammock so we moved there. The water was much clearer and I mentioned the water could be coming in off the cow pastures. Since I knew they held water in heavy rains and by this point Bary and I had some near one, Fred caught one near the creek up by the cow pastures.. at least that was my thinking Right near the end I realized Fred had a very sparkly black and blue worm and I had been using a blueberry style aka light flake bait. I swapped to a watermelon with heavy red flake, pow changed my luck.

We managed to find quite a few in the last hour in a cut right up along the cow pasture. I lost one and I landed 2 fish between 230 and 245 when we headed in. It was sunny and beautiful out.

Sunday:
Fred and I headed back to the cow pasture cut and it was foggy and the sun wasn't out.. ugh. Fred picked one up on a white fluke with sparkle. I had a one tied on already as well and started tossing it. I cast it right on the edge of some pads and worked it slow along the edge.. Bam, first fish of the day for me, 8am & a 16"er. We had nothing for a while on the flukes. I swapped to a toho mega vibe (last one actually) and caught another along a pad wall swimming it slow. She went just shy of 17" I think.

After a while of neither one of those working I decided to flip a few sweet looking spots near the edge of the wind current. Nailed a good one that went 17.5 on a bitters craw in toho with a heavy flake.
Flipped some more and grabbed a 13.25. I retied my snell hastily since the hook keeper was falling off. It went dead for a while and we moved up to Jack's Slough and tried some sparse pads and Kissimmee grass with no landed fish. Fred had a bite or two I think and I had one hammer my spinnerbait but didn't hook it. We moved back south just south of the fish camp and tried another cut. It is normally much narrower but we gave it a go any way. I ended up loosing a small one on a pad while flippin. I then lost a nice chunk when I heard a "ping".. yep I was in a hurry on the snell retie and made a mistake that more than likely cost me 3rd place.      We fished till the end but didn't have much to show.

All in all I had a great weekend and landed some quality fish. I think I landed 12 or 13 fish (only photoed two decent ones Friday) and lost 5 to 8 fish, so I didn't have a quantity of fish in the boat.

Best 5 over the weekend went 84" @ 5 fish is a 16.8 average. Not bad but I wish I would of landed all  fish both days and found a kicker. But that is fishing! 

Video preview... drone shot from Saturday AM

[FD]

I launched Friday around 10 am for a little practice. Did a lot of riding and looking at what vegetation was left and how much water was still running.    Finally pulled some rods out of the locker around noon on the north end when I found the mix of grass and pads I was looking for. 5 min later I boated the 8. Left that spot and moved into Tiger Cove. Put the poles down and caught 2 14" fish and a dozen 12" fish. Moved into the mouth of north Cove and boated 2 15" fish. Headed south stopping at 27 palms, some deep water grass on the East wall and the outside lines at Jacks Slough. Every spot I stopped and made a cast produced several fish. Between 12 and 330 I boated 30 fish, mostly dinks but I felt good about my plan.
Saturday morning started at 430. When I walked outside with my coffee I immediately noticed a wind switch and it was already blowing.  The howling south wind blew out most of my spots and with my back not great I only boated 2 bass all day. 
Sunday the wind switches back more East and I stayed on the southeast side of the lake south of Jacks Slough, put the weed eater on high and went in the thick stuff. When I found the thinner mix of grass and pads I got bit. 6 fish between 8 and 830.   I kept working my way south occasionally picking up a fish. At 11 I moved down to Turkey Hammock and started picking up fish in the main river current along the hard bank.   By 1 I was beat and decided to call it a day. 12 fish total with another 6 or so lost in the thick stuff before I could dig them out.

The only bait I needed for a 45 fish weekend was the bitters naked swimmer.

This was my third classic and I can't wait for next year.


Sent from the end of the paved road.....

[Lipripper]

West and FD thanks for the great reports and looks like everyone had a great fun time and caught some nice fish too.

[big g]

Great reports by everyone.  Although I was not there, I feel like one of the group after reading all these details.  I'm super glad the weather decided to cooperate.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Great reports by everyone.  Although I was not there, I feel like one of the group after reading all these details.  I'm super glad the weather decided to cooperate.

Thanks George!!
As far as the weather, I'm glad they got it wrong in our favor this time!!   

[Capt. BassinLou]

 

.... ITS OFFICIAL....

To all who attend next year's Classic, you will now earn AOY points!! How you say? Well... let's just say you will have to wait til the end of this season to learn those details along with a couple more NEW features for next season.   

[SFL BassHunter]

.... ITS OFFICIAL....

To all who attend next year's Classic, you will now earn AOY points!! How you say? Well... let's just say you will have to wait til the end of this season to learn those details along with a couple more NEW features for next season.   

Sounds great! 

[West6550]

Sounds good Lou!

[cport]

Cool, sounds like good incentive for a larger attendance

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

[Deadeye]

Geeze you guys Reports are excellent!

I planned to be there by early Friday but then found out the night before that I needed to take Dad to a Drs apt at 11:00 am. That put a bump in that road.

Got there about 2:00 pm and checked in and got unloaded. Fired up the boat and headed to the cut below Brahma Island, figuring the Current would be pushing me south. WRONG. The south wind was so strong it was overriding the current pushing me north.

I noticed the wind was making the current flow into the South Edge so I moved over there and found a spot where it hit a bank and slowed it some. At first I dropped an anchor, no PP or Talons, and tried fishing with a worm on the bottom-- something I seen in a recent video made on Kissimmee. Didn't work for me but I did see some fish busting, so  moved that way and threw a Speedworm in Black Saffire and got bit right away. Started drifting with the flow and working the edge of the pads and got 3 in two hrs.

Headed back to camp with a plan to try the same the next day.

Thomas suggested we try the canal that leads into Brahma, as he and Barry had got into some there the day before so we headed there first. No hits on the way in but I picked up one on the way out. We then went to just north of where I ended the night before and started working the Pad Line. I picked up another and then another, but West was not getting hits. Later he would say this is not a type of fishing he is used to and wasn't comfortable with it.

I had enough of the line not producing anymore so we made the run to Tiger Creek. Never been there before just seen it on the map. As soon as we got there we seen boats working the area. I picked up two more for my limit and West got his first. We then headed south to near the Bridge to a spot West knew of but once we got there it had all changed and was no longer there.

Made a run back to the pad fields near the Monitor Station but nothing was hitting. Moved to the pasture edge and started getting into fish again. I ended up with 11 and West got 3 more to get him to 4. Ended the day.

Day 2
We started back at the Pasture and within 10 minutes I had fish #1 on. Another 10 fish #2. Sadly that was it until late in the day when the big girl took the Fluke, which caught all my fish day 2. No big hit or anything just weight and pressure that felt like the hook grabbed a pad stem. Figured I had nothing to loose (I've been through this play before) so set the hook and there she was. Got her in the net and took her pic. Thomas offered to take a few with me and they came out great.

Thomas was doing much better this day and kept adding one here and one there. Ended up with a decent total.

We got back to the ramp early, but there must of been some mis-communication as to what was to happen at that point. I thought Lou had said to load and take care of your boat, then do the awards , then pack to leave. Evidently we were to just load, then do awards, then do everything else as I unfortunately missed the naming of the Winner and handing out of the awards. Hopefully we can get a better closing figured out for future events so that doesn't happen to anyone again, and I'm sure we will.


This was our 4th Year as a Club and the 4th Annual Classic. The 1st & 2nd were held at Grape Hammock fishing Kissimmee, the 3rd at Henderson's fishing 'Poga, and the 4th back to Grape Hammock and Kissimmee.

There are only THREE Members that have attended all 4 Classics. They are:

BassinLou (Lou)

West6550 (Thomas)

Deadeye (Fred)

A few Group Pics from the other three Classics:

2014

Gang


2015

Gang Day 1



Gang Day 2


Winner of BOTH Contest & Big Fish


Winner of Custom Rod for New Personal Best


2016

Day 2 Gang



Pic

2018

?? TBD



Hopefully there will be many more at the 5th. Come out once and you'll be back for more!

[West6550]

  I know the video should be else where.. But I wanted to let you know it was up. 

Going to start a thread in the video area for it.

[Lipripper]

I know the video should be else where.. But I wanted to let you know it was up. 

Going to start a thread in the video area for it.

Thanks for the video West and looks like a great place to fish and everyone had a great time.   and Stacy's banana pudding sounds yummy.

[Capt. BassinLou]

That was an awesome video Thomas!! Thank you for that.  

[big g]

West what a great video of the weekend.  Nice volume and selection of the music used.  The use of the drone just set off the whole thing.  Thank you for taking the time to put it together for the entire Florida Family.

[West6550]

West what a great video of the weekend.  Nice volume and selection of the music used.  The use of the drone just set off the whole thing.  Thank you for taking the time to put it together for the entire Florida Family.

This forum is exactly why I did. Just a great group of people. Glad everyone is liking it! Thanks!

[SFL BassHunter]

Like I mentioned on the other threat, fantastic video! Well done. The drone really made even better.
My favorite part was me holding up those two 23"ers though...lol