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Lake Toho, Florida
Lake Toho Top 150 Pro-Am Summary
2001 Bassmaster Florida Top 150, Jan.17-20, 2001
01/27/2001 - This event turned out to be the best tournament ever in the 30 year history of the Bassmaster Tournament Trail. The all-time records were smashed in several catagories. What a fun week! This was just what our sport needed after a string of tournaments with poor catches last summer and fall. I know it sure put the fun back in tournament fishing for me!
Record cold temperatures in Central Florida during the month of December had "frozen" the spawn prior to our arrival. Our tournament dates just happened to coincide with 5 straight days of 80 degree temps and calm winds. The water temps skyrocketed from the mid 50s in practice to the mid 70s in the tournament, setting off the spawn. I struggled through the first 2 days of practice, catching small limits on Berkley Jerk Shads. Thank God I woke up the third day of practice and started looking for beds around noon. I started seeing big bass all over the beds that afternoon. I only had a couple hours to look, so I couldn't find too many areas, but it keyed me in to what the fish were doing.
I started the first day of competition in the area I had seen them the afternoon before, and caught 15 pounds which put me in about 34th place after day 1. There were about 20 boats fishing this area, which I didn't like. Dean Rojas of Arizona smashed the all-time 5 bass limit record the first day with a whopping 45 pound limit. (the previous record was 34# 7 oz.)
I started the second day in the same area I fished on day 1, and had one 2 pounder at 9 am. There were so many boats in there that I chose to move on and look for new water, always a risky proposition in a tournament. With 150 of the worlds top pros on the water, it is rare to find an area that nobody else has found by day 2. I pulled into an area that I'd been bit in during practice, and no one was fishing it. The bass were bedding all over the place!! I proceeded to enjoy the finest hour of tournament bass fishing in my life as I boated a 9.5, a 9.7 and a 11.11 in the next hour! The 11 pound 11 ounce bass was my biggest ever. When I got her in the boat, I started laughing, and couldn't stop for the next 10 minutes!! I just sat down in the bottom of the boat and laughed uncontrolably for the next 10 minutes! This was too good to be true! Until the last hour, my biggest tournament caught bass ever was an 8.12.
Then it hit me that I still had 3 hours to fish and need just two more big ones to break Rojas' mark set the day before. I looked for 20 minutes, and found another 8-9 pound bass sitting on a bed. I worked for an hour, but couldn't get her to go! I caught some bucks weighing 3 pounds or so, but no more females that day. I weighed 36 pounds 9 ounces that day, which was my personal best for 5 in a tourney. My previous best was a 29 pound 8 ounce stringer from Sam Rayburn in Feb, 1996. That ended up being the third biggest stringer of the tournament as my good friend Mark Davis weighed in a 41 pound limit that same day. My 36 pound string jumped me up to 6th place after day 2.
On day 3, the weather finally started to sour, as an approaching front brought cloudy skys and a 10-15 mph wind, toughening the sightfishing pattern. Worse, I had caught my bass on day 2 from a mainlake point, and the wind was stirring that water up badly. In fact, I never had a bite the rest of the tournament off the area where I caught the 36 pound load! So on day 3, I had to move again and find more new water. God blessed me again, as I weighed 4 bass for 18 pounds on day 3, including another 9 pounder. All fish were off beds yet again. The bite was considerably tougher on day 3, as the weights dropped off dramaticly due to the souring sightfishing conditions. I moved up to 5th place after day 3, but was 27 pounds behind Rojas who was sporting a score of 15 bass for 97 pounds after 3 days.
We all knew we were fishing for second place on the 4th and final day. Day 4 dawned rainy, cold and windy with gusts to 30 mph, marking the end of the spawn for a while. I managed 2 bucks off beds that last day but had to go to a jerkbait to fill my 9 pound limit. Nobody caught much on beds this last day. Mark Davis caught 18 pounds on a crankbait, the biggest string of the final day. I moved up to 4th with my 9 pound effort the last day.
What a great week! My hats off to Dean for breaking the all-time winning weight record with 108 pounds! What a tremendous boost for the state of Florida as well. This event reestablished Florida as a big bass capital. Florida has been completely overshadowed by Texas and California the last few years as far as big bass are concerned. We hit Toho just right, and we showed what swims in Florida waters. There were 2 bass over 12 caught during the week, and 15 or so caught over 10 pounds. Lake Toho produced virtually all the big stringers, as the other lakes on the chain were low and muddy. All of the top 10 finishers fished Toho.
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