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Florida Regional

Monday, September 16, 2013

The Florida state regional was held on September 14th and 15th out of Lake Toho in central Florida. Tournament Director David Weber described the weather as typical Summer in Florida. "It was scorching hot out there with no breeze for most of the tournament. It was a hot Florida weekend," said Weber. Even with the extreme heat, the field brought in some of the big bags that have made Florida famous among bass anglers. The teams were also able to weigh-in at the location where the movie "Bait Shop" was filmed.

Taking first place was the team of Rich Patterson and David Smith with a two day total of 43.48lbs. On Day 1 they weighed 24.85 and backed it up with a 19.13lb bag on Day 2 despite of having the weigh-in held two hours earlier. Patterson said the team focused on hydrilla with a 10" worm. "We got lucky and got into the right fish. We look for hydrilla on our electronics that is offshore and key on that, the fish really like it because it keeps them cool during the summer," added Patterson. The team fished Lake Toho early in the day to get a limit and moved to the connected Cypress Lake as the day wore on. Each day that were able to catch between 15-20 keeper bass.

2nd Place was Don Eady and Kenny Bevins who had a two day total of 38.54lbs. The duo also fished large worms in hydrilla and focused on both shallow and deep grass beds. "We had 15-25 bites each day and had a 6lber each day. We fished both Toho and Cypress Lake," added Eady. The team was consistent over the tournament with similar bags each day.

3rd Place was Theron Houston and Ed White with a two day total of 24.08lbs.

The big bass of each day was caught by the same team, David Brown and Steve Newman. On Day 1 they weighed a 7.66lb bass and on Day 2 they had the biggest bass of the tournament a 9.04 largemouth. They reportedly caught their big bass fishing a 1oz jig in coontails. The team also finished the event in 4th Place.

By: Tyler Brinks